SOME THINGS I WON'T BE DOING DURING THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION

I have very serious doubts about Barack Obama's abilities, experience and agenda . I don't think he has any real love or respect for the United States of America. However, he was elected President and I will not behave like so many folks have over the past eight years of the Bush administrations.

Firstly I will not purchase an inflatable version of President Obama with a long Pinocchio style nose and keep it in my home and think my self so very clever. I didn't have any Clinton items like that despite him being a proven liar who had to surrender his law license for committing perjury. I also have no plans to wallpaper my refrigerator with cartoons that belittle President Obama and leave them there for months.

I've had eight years of seeing some nasty comment about Bush nearly every time I drive anywhere in Palm Beach County (nicknamed pea brain county after the 2000 election). Consequently, I won't buy and display an anti-Obama bumper sticker although I bet there will be some funny ones available. One caveat, if there is a specific issue that I feel I must display comment about I will do so. This would require a serious misstep or some malfeasance by Obama. Also, prior to January 20th I will remove my small, unobtrusive "W the President" sticker just as I removed my McCain stickers the day of the election. If only everyone would do so imagine how tidy the car cabooses of America would be.

I will not compare Obama to Hitler, unless of course he annexes Austria and invades Czechoslovakia, at which point it would be a fair comment to make. I won't criticize every step President Obama makes even when he embraces a policy I was for when Bush was President as Democrats have done. For example when Bush provided the Medicare prescription benefit that had been a Democrat campaign promise for two decades many Democrats were against it just because it was now a Bush policy. Here is South Florida many of those same complaining liberal seniors are making use of that program without ever thinking they should thank Bush for the benefit.

I will criticize actions that I feel are bad for the country, but will do so in a, mostly, respectful manner. I won't say Obama is stupid, he is not, but then neither is Bush. I may comment on his endless hemming and hawing when ever he is speaking without a teleprompter. I may not always be able to refrain from comment on his ears or his overall scrawny physique. I'll try but there will probably be the occasional odd mention of his scary wife.

In short I will not, as the left has done with George W Bush, go berserk, foam at the mouth, or buy into convoluted conspiracy schemes. I won't put opposing President Obama ahead of supporting America's best interests. I won't treat family members who disagree with me in the same hurtful hateful manner they have treated me for the past eight years. In short, I doubt I'll love President Obama but I won't hate him, no mater how much I disagree with him.

THE TRUE STORY OF THE 2000 ELECTION

In 1998 I learned a few things about George W Bush. He had been a successful Governor of Texas and seemed to have plans for America that I could support. As soon as he announced his intention to run for President the attacks started. There was at least six weeks of newspaper stories speculating on whether or not W had ever used cocaine. This seemed excessive to me as there was zero interest in the media about Bill Clinton's cocaine use. Unlike Bush there were five different people who claimed they had seen Clinton use cocaine while he was attorney general of Arkansas. Also, there was a police surveillance tape of Bill Clinton's brother conducting a drug deal and joking about the prodigious amounts of cocaine our President had been known to consume.

Throughout the campaign I felt my candidate was treated unfairly. Although Bush served for a couple of years in the prestigious Texas Air National Guard, long enough to learn to fly jets he was treated like a draft dodger. Again, something that was not considered important when it came to Bill Clinton who was an actual draft dodger. Gore's short stint in Viet Nam as an army "journalist" was treated like superior service to his country.

Bush was called a stupid frat boy while Gore was lauded as a genius and a statesman. All this despite the fact that Bush and Gore graduated from Yale and Harvard, both "C" students. While Bush went on to get an MBA from Harvard Gore never got a post-graduate degree instead he dropped out of law school and later divinity school. Bush had been the chief executive of one of the largest states in our union. Gore had been an ineffective congressman followed by two terms as Vice-President and you know what they say that position is worth.

The Bush bashing went on unabated and just a few days prior to the election Fox News broke a story that Bush had a DUI from twenty years ago. Bush didn't try to deny that this had happened and had always admitted that when he was young and foolish he had behave like a young fool. Also, it was common knowledge that at age 40 George W. Bush had made the decision to quit drinking and by all reports had done just that. Still, this was big news and the media reported all they could about it in the last days of the campaign.

On election day Fox News was the first to erroneously call the state of Florida for Gore. They did so before the polls were closed in the panhandle and all networks followed with the same wrong call for Florida. This allowed the media to create the impression that Gore was winning in a landslide. Folks on their way to the polls in the panhandle heard the news on the radio and went home without voting. People in line to vote heard the news and gave up and went home with out voting.

These incorrect early reports dampened Republican turnout nationwide. It is estimated that the early call in Florida cost Bush 5,000 to 15,000 votes in the panhandle. It is obvious this illusion of a Gore juggernaut cost Bush the popular vote nationwide. The networks had to take the "Gore wins Florida" call back but the damage was already done. Once enough precincts had reported in to make it obvious Bush had won things really started to happen.

I was so relieved, my candidate had managed to win despite the unfair media treatment. Since the final count had Bush winning Florida by less than 1% a machine recount was required but he won that count too. Then Gore and the Democrats launched their attempt to steal the Presidential election. Manual recounts have long been an election stealing tool used by the Democrats when the margin of victory is small. hanks to the voter suppression in the panhandle and some ballot tampering in Palm Beach County the margin was small enough to be overcome if Democrats could control the recount.

I was sick. Every night I would lay in bed thinking "They're going to steal it". Democrats usually demand recount after recount until one results in their win than claim victory and demand all challenges to the results be put aside in the spirit of good sportsmanship. Gambits the Democrats tried included disqualifying as many of the Florida absentee ballots from our service men and women as possible. A memo went our with suggestions for all the possible technicalities that could be used to disenfranchise members of our military. In addition a court case was filed to disqualify all the Republican absentee ballots from one county on a technicalities. If that case has succeeded Gore would have successfully stolen the election.

If the shoe had been on the other foot and Bush was requesting recounts of the three most Republican counties in Florida he would have been crucified in every newscast and news paper in America. Gore was given a complete pass. I can see him now on TV saying "when people vote we should count those votes", right Al how many times should we count them? What a crock!

The Florida Supreme Court got into the act and did everything in their power to help Gore overturn the election results. Everyone focuses on the rulings from the United States Supreme Court which decided 7 to 2 that what the Florida court had done was unconstitutional and then decided 5 to 4 to finally put a stop to this farce of a "recount."

The Democrats spent the next 8 years claiming Bush was "Selected not elected". In the 2004 election they tried again to make the nation believe that Bush was losing big. In Florida AGAIN Democrats flooded certain poll locations when they knew pollsters would be there. Unfortunately for the Democrats the Republicans were ignoring any media reports of early results but John Kerry fell for the ruse. Overconfident that he was on his way to a big win Kerry said that whoever wins they should concede promptly for the good of the country. This made it difficult for Kerry to hold out when it became clear Bush had been re-elected.

The first Bush administration was put at a terrible disadvantage by having their transition time stolen by this bogus recount nonsense. Perhaps if the Bush team could have transitioned in the usual time frame they would have uncovered and prevented the attacks on September 11th, 2001.

For the First Time in My Adult Life

To re-phrase Michelle Obama for the first time in my adult life I truly fear for my country. We have elected an unqualified unknown individual. No one really knows what Barack Obama will do in office. The only thing he is passionate about is his daily workouts.

Obama ran on promises of "hope" and "change" with very little detail as to what changes would be made and for what exactly we could hope. Obama has been carried on the shoulders of affirmative action his entire life. He has personally accomplished nothing but electoral success.

Obama was the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review but apparently wrote nothing of merit during that time. Perhaps his writings from that time are sequestered like Hillary's thesis (about her mentor Saul Alinsky) which is under lock and key at Wellsley. Obama has published two memoirs but those tomes were probably written by former domestic terrorists Bill Ayres.

Obama's time in the Illinois legislature was unremarkable. He was the only member to stand and oppose a law which would require babies born after botched abortions be provided medical care rather then simply setting them aside and allowing them to die. I was living in Illinois in 2004 and we came quite close to electing some reformers to stop the time honored Chicago policy of "pay to play". Unfortunately Obama put his support behind the status quo and Mayor Daly and Governor Blagojevich were both re-elected. I think Obama promised change in Washington D.C. but in Chicago he supported business as usual.

Obama is extremely sensitive to criticism. Not a good quality in a President when nearly half of the nation is going to disagree with whatever he chooses to do on any issue. Luckily for Obama the media is on his side for the time being at least. Imagine the noise they would have made if President elect George W Bush had spent two weeks in a 30 million dollar property in Hawaii when he should have been preparing for his Presidency. Instead the media is swooning at the sight of our President-elect rising bare chested from the surf like Venus on a clam shell.

Oh well, I am basically an optimist and all his life Obama has done whatever made him look good. As President he will have to make good choices for the country is he wants to "look good".

ENOUGH WITH THE BUSH BASHING

When I learned that George W Bush planned to run for President I was pleased. His dad had been an okay President but I thought he could be better. Bush 41 was too much of a gentleman I hoped that Bush 43 would be tougher and more effective. He had been a successful Governor of Texas despite having a Democrat majority in the state legislature when he was elected there. I hoped that this Bush had more of his mom in him than his dad.

As soon as Bush announced his intention to run for President the attacks started. Throughout the campaign I felt my candidate was treated unfairly. Just a few days prior to the election Fox News broke a story that Bush had a DUI from twenty years ago. This and some ballot tampering in Florida kept the election close enough for Gore to mount an attempt to steal it. If Gore could, by hook or crook, reverse the Bush win in Florida he would be declared the winner of the 2000 Presidential election. The media supported Gore in every way they possibly could but through divine providence Bush prevailed and was inaugurated in January 2001.

The election was over but the anti-Bush campaign went on. Bush had naively promised a "new tone" so time and time again he reached out to the democrats. No matter what Bush did he was endlessly and almost universally criticized. National disgrace Ted Kennedy would accept an invitation to the White House to see a movie about the Cuban missile crisis and resume denigrating the President the following Monday morning in the Senate. President Bush would give an over the top complimentary speech while unveiling the Presidential portraits of Bill & Hillary Clinton, but Senator Clinton would never say anything complimentary about President Bush. When the country was attacked everyone came together for about 2 weeks. After that it was Bush Bashing business as usual. Hillary Clinton stood on the floor of the Senate holding the New York Times with a two inch headline screaming WHAT DID BUSH KNOW WHEN!

Throughout all these attacks President Bush never stooped to the level of his detractors. An organization named MoveOn.org ironically created to ask the country to move past the Clinton scandals was instrumental in keeping the "Bush was selected not elected" fallacy alive. George Soros spent 24 million dollars of his own money to help defeat Bush in 2004, but Bush prevailed once again. The term BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) was born. The President was attacked in movies, books (some portraying his assassination) and especially in print.
Bush supporters have suffered terribly. I have been personally slandered in emails from family members. I have been ordered out of my brother's home at night in the snow when I didn't have a car with me. In the past 8 years I have rarely had a moments peace from the relentless Bush Bashing. Anti-Bush comments can come from anywhere. The movie or TV show I am watching, my hairdresser, the radio host, the idiot making my sandwich at subway. I hadn't previously know how liberal sports writers were but I quickly found out. No matter the subject you were reading about there could always be an anti Bush zinger waiting to jump out at you. Once I encountered one in the food section of the Sun Sentinel. Anyone with anything negative to say about our President felt it was their civic duty to spout off at any time. Even shopping for Christmas cards I have to be subjected to cards coupling Bush's face in different expressions next to the faces of chimps.

If you dare to make your support for the President known (tee shirt, bumper sticker whatever) perfect strangers feel it is within their rights to challenge your opinion. They have managed to make it "controversial" for me to dare to support the President of the United States of America in my own country. I have been laughed at, given a thumbs down, confronted and insulted. My own and only sister has in my presence spit the word Republican as tho it were an expletive. My mother sent an email to me and other family members addressing the general infamy of Republicans and when I replied, sent a second email essentially apologizing for my existence. I try not to think about that one.

Enough Bush Bashers, for eight years I have cried, I have screamed I have lain awake with clenched fists. You have your skinny liberal messiah as President elect so get off my President George W Bush. Oh, and by the way between the two of them with worse hair and bigger ears Obama looks more like a chimp than W ever did.

Obama's First Broken Campaign Promise

It is not unusual for politicians to break their campaign promises but they generally wait until after the election. Barack Obama broke his promise to accept public funding for his Presidential campaign before the election. This promise, made during the primaries was put in writing which should mean it is a promise the candidate intended to keep. Obama's excuse for changing his mind is that the public funding system "is broken". There has been no change to the rules of public funding since Obama's made the promise. I would say that he reneged but that would leave me open to accusations of "racisim".

Democrats Love Legal Loopholes!

American citizens are allowed to contribute a maximum of $2,300 to a candidate for the Primary and again for the general election. This limits an individuals legal donation to a candidate to $4,600 a law with which I disagree. However, when one candidate is following the law and another is side stepping it something should be done.

The law, stupidly, does not require a candidate to identify a donor who gives less than $200. Consequently, dishonest Obama supporters are flooding the donation web site with multiple small donations given under false names. These contributors could be identified easily by the Obama campaign (the McCain campaign identifies all of it's donors) but to do so would make the fraud obvious. A donor listing himself as "Will Good" made 1,000 donations for a total of $17,375. Even after a number of the donations were returned the amount contributed of $8,950 is well above the legal amount one person may contribute. Since Mr. Will Good listed his employer as "Loving" and his job as "You" it is possible he isn't who he says he is.

Another contributor, Doodad Pro gave $19,500 in 786 separate donations. Remarkably he had the same employer and job as Will Good (Loving & You). In addition to these questionable practices the Obama campaign has been running a "Matching Donation Drive" Here is how that works, If you donate say $100 some rich Obama supporter who has already met or exceeded their donation limit will donate an additional amount in your name. That way they are exceeding the legal amount they may donate but it is no longer illegal since the excessive amount is said to have come from you.

Barry Obama learned well in the Chicago School of dishonest politics. This shocking fund raising situation has been known since late September but it is yet another "story" in which the main stream media has no interest.

Illegal Foreign Donations AGAIN?

How do the Democrat presidential candidates always attract foreign donations and get away with accepting most of them? Bill Clinton sold technology to the Chinese which may well come back to bite us on the butt one day. Why would he do such a thing? To generate illegal foreign contributions, oh and contributions from the corporations who would profit from their new Chinese customers.

Barack Obama has used a legal loophole in the campaign finance rules to accept millions from foreign supporters. Using the Internet foreign citizens can make multiple small donations which are illegal and add up to millions. Since the Internet is an excellent tool for tracking information it is well within the ability for the Obama campaign to identify these donors and refuse the illegal contributions. However, if they did that they wouldn't hove those millions to use out-spending McCain 4 to 1 in the battleground states. The Federal Election Commission has identified 11,500 foreign donors who gave a total of $33.8 million to the Obama campaign.

The Hillary Clinton campaign required out of the country donors to fax their proof of citizenship prior to accepting donations. Did you ever expect to see the day when the Democrat Presidential candidates fund raising policies would be less scrupulous than those of a Clinton campaign? Over 1,400 of the foreign donations were from American service people and diplomats who contributed a little over $200,000. That leaves 33.6 million from unknown and undoubtedly foreign donors. Over 500 listed their "state" as "IR" which probably means Iran. Other contributions came from Iraq, France the middle east, Beijing and Italy. Dividing the number of donors by the dollar amount reflects an average donation of nearly $3,000.

Donations to American political campaigns from foreigners are illegal. The Obama has taken some too little too late steps to discontinue accepting foreign donations but has not addressed the vast sums already received. As John Fund of the Wall Street Journal recently said "Oh, there will be an investigation, after the election and someone will probably have to pay a fine." By then the damage will have been done and America will be the one to pay the price.

From the Tiny A.C.O.R.N. a Mighty Scandal Grows

Yet another Obama connection that is of not interest to the MSM (Main Stream Media) is A.C.O.R.N. This is a group with fingers in many pies and a hand in the taxpayers pocket.


One of the things A.C.O.R.N. does is register new voters, generally Democrat voters. The organization claims to be non-partisan but they do have a PAC (political action committee) which has endorsed Obama. Several A.C.O.R.N. employees have been convicted of voter fraud. In Washington state 1800 voters were registered but only 6 of them were legitimate. In Ohio employees of A.C.O.R.N. admitted to making up names of registrants, using names like Mary Poppins, Dick Tracy and Jive Turkey. Statistically speaking 15 to 30 percent of the voters registered by A.C.O.R.N. are felons, do not reside in the state in which they are being registered or are dead. I suppose a few might have died after being registered by A.C.O.R.N. but that would be a small percentage.


Barack Obama was the attorney for A.C.O.R.N. for several years and involved with one of their groups in Chicago. They're motto was "It's a power thing". As an attorney for A.C.O.R.N. Obama sued banks to force them to make sub-prime loans to low income borrowers. A.C.O.R.N. is one of the organizations pushing the lending policies that resulted in the failure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

All of Obama's associations are with groups promoting the same old liberal ideas that sound good but eventually blow up in our face. Heaven help us if he becomes President with Democrats still in control of both houses. The troika of Obama, Reid & Pelosi would be disastrous for our country.

Charlie Rangel, A Man of Means AND Ways!

Well, our tax laws must be too complex if even the Congressmen who write them can't abide by them. Charlie Rangle, congressman and chair of the powerful Ways & Means committee didn't know he had to claim the rental income he received from his condominium in the islands.

Gee Charlie, most of us know that we have to claim all of our income.

Obama's Early October Suprise

The term "October Surprise" refers to a bogus claim that then Vice President candidate George H W Bush went to Iran to request that they hold our hostages until after the election. There was no evidence that Bush had ever left the country much less visited Iran but Democrats still pushed this conspiracy theory.

We now have evidence that Barack Obama has attempted to undermine our efforts to negotiate a withdrawal of our troops from Iraq. We know that Obama met with Iraqi leaders in July. One of the men he met with, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari disclosed some details of that meeting in an interview with Amir Taheri of the New York Post. According to Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July. Zebari said "He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington." Obama's advice was that, rather than reach an accord with the "weakened Bush administration," Iraq should seek an extension of the UN mandate. While in Iraq, Obama also tried to persuade the US commanders, including Gen. David Petraeus, to suggest a "realistic withdrawal date." They declined.

At present we are on track to remove all American combat troops by 2011 or 2012. There is no way to responsibly accelerate that date. Delaying an agreement for political reasons like allowing President Obama to claim the credit is toying with our troops and is certainly not putting the country first.

IS OBAMA STUMPED ON THE STUMP.

According to recent reports Obama is taking his teleprompter on the road. Obama addressed supporters at a rodeo of all places with his trusty teleprompter front and center. Apparently all that soaring oratory goes out the window when the Senator is off script. Obama came to national prominence by giving a speech at the Democratic convention in 2003. The highly praised speech was presented using a teleprompter. Nothing wrong with that, most candidates and elected leaders all use teleprompters for major speeches.

There may be something wrong with a candidate for President who can barely string two sentences together without a teleprompter. Obama has consistently refused to join John McCain in a series of "townhall meetings" which would allow the American people to get to know the candidates. When Obama was finally shamed into visiting Iraq he gave a forty minute press conference. During which he hemmed and hawed so many times that Rush Limbaugh had all the stops and stutters strung together to make a seven and a half minute "Obama Uh Montage". Now before you do the math and say, "well seven minutes out of 40 isn't so bad" remember to allow time for the questions from the press which had to take up 1/3 of the 40 minutes.

Obama has been hailed as a brilliant speaker, but take away the teleprompter, which holds a speech written by David Axelrod, and he is more tongue tied than George W Bush.

Did Trial Lawyers Bring Down the World Trade Center Towers?

Mesothelioma, a dreadful disease brought on by exposure to asbestos. That is what the ads say and there is even a new ad featuring Erin Brokivich, yammering on about greedy corporations who value profits above human lives. Trial lawyers have made untold millions suing corporations that had some connection, however tenous to some human exposure to asbestos.

It didn't matter that those corporations may have had no idea that asbestos was dangerous to humans. It didn't matter is the company being sued had purchased a now defunct company that had some asbestos in their history. The only thing that mattered was could a "victim" be found and did the corporation have sufficiently deep pockets to make the suit worth the while of an attorney.

This litigious feeding frenzy made any type of asbestos radioactive. Once the health problems associated with asbestos were fully identified safe formulas were created but treated with suspicion. Builders were so concerned of some future harm being caused by the new asbestos they avoided using it whenever possible.

Consequently, the steel girders holding up the World Trade Center were not coated with this flame retardant product above, well, I forget above exactly which floor but clearly not high up enough. Now, Rosie and other assorted nut cases may choose to believe that fire cannot melt steel and indulge in the conspiracy du jour. They must have missed the explanation of the process detailed in Popular Mechanics.

The Twin Towers fell because the fire weakened the steel girders enough that they could no longer support the floors above the fire. When the weight of those floors struck they took the rest of the towers down and vaporized most of the people and things inside. Perhaps, if those girders had been coated in asbestos as had been the policy of the past they may have survived.

Obama Campaign Takes Yet Another Phrase Off the Table

Throughout this campaign and during the primary campaign Barack Obama has issued edicts regarding what can and cannot be said. He has chided opponents for saying that he is a liberal or for daring to use his middle name. I don't know where Obama ever got the idea that he is the boss of what anyone is allowed to say.

In his time as a candidate Obama has instructed the media that he should not be called "liberal" There should be no mention of his middle name, Hussain. No one should comment on his ears. It is unacceptable fir anyone to criticize his wife. He should not be held responsible for the statements of his former pastor, Reverend Wright.

Now the term "community organizer" has been added to the list of things that must not be said. Former Mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown recently introduced the idea that when Republicans say "community organizer" it is a code word for "black man".

Well, Obama's biggest liability isn't the color of his skin. In my opinion it is the thinness of that skin that is his weakness. That and the arrogance that he should be able to set the rules for everyone else to follow.

Was Obama a Teenage Muslim?

No, Barack Obama is not a Muslim nor was he one during his teenage years. The Obama campaign is claiming that Republicans are using Obama's ties to Islam as a smear. Here are the facts.

Barack Obama was born a Muslim because his father was a Muslim. His mother was an anthropologist and although his grandparents were Christians his mother was more of a secular humanists. Barack's father took off pretty quick and since he had never divorced his first wife in Kenya it is hard to say if their marriage was valid anyway.

Obama's mother then married an Indonesian man who was also a Muslim. When Barack was six years-old he moved to Indonesia and lived there for four years. In Indonesia Barack attended a Catholic school but was enrolled by his mother as a a Muslim. Consequently he did pray with the other Muslim children and received weekly instruction on the Koran. In the third grade Obama was enrolled in a public school again identified as a Muslim, but he never attended a "madrassa" or any radical Muslim school as some have claimed.

Still, the Obama campaign is being untruthful when they claim that he was "never" a Muslim or that he has never prayed in a mosque. He was the son of one Muslim man and the stepson of another. As a child he occasionally attended a mosque and had some training in Islam. When the Obama campaign wants to be scrupulously accurate they say he has never been "a practicing Muslim". They know that admitting to having any Muslim background could cost the Senator votes.

It is true that some Americans would not vote for a Muslim just as some might have not voted for Mitt Romney because he is a Mormon. It is also true that Barack Obama became a practicing Christian in the 1990's when he joined the Trinity United Church in Chicago.

Considering the type of sermons delivered by the Reverend Wright in that church I think the country might be better off with a Muslim.

More Man Than You'll Ever Be, More Woman Than You'll Ever Get

I have always liked that silly saying despite having first heard it in a movie, spoken by a man in drag. I've long forgotten what movie it was.

Wow! Governor Sarah Palin is really something. You can judge her greatness by the degree of hysteria occurring on the left. Here are some of the outrageous statements that have been made so far regarding Mrs. Palin


"The only qualification vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has is that she didn't have an abortion". - Carol Fowler, Chairwoman of the South Carolina Democrat Party. WOW! Don't that just put the "rat" in Democrat! Oh, this is the wife of the guy who was chuckling about hurricane Gustav hitting New Orleans during the GOP Convention. Just a couple of liberals who "care".


"Jesus Christ was a communnity organizer Pontius Pilate was a governor" - Donna Brazil - Democrat operative and former advisor to AlGore and then this statement was repeated on the floor of the House of Representatives by Democrat Congressman Steve Cohen Tennessee. WOW, usually only the Jewish Republicans are called "Christ Killers".

Do You Know How Obama Won his Seate Seat?

The political corruption of the city of Chicago in a time honored tradition that has been well documented through the years. As the state of Illinois turned "blue" through and through in the late 90's and early 2000's the corruption spread statewide creating something called the "Illinois Combine". The "Illinois Combine" is described by author David Freddoso as "a bipartisan group of public officials who ran a statewide operation resembling Chicago in it's disregard for good government.

Illinois Democrats and Republicans who wanted to stay in office knew they had to "go along to get along". Exceptions to this rule were generally rare and dealt with promptly. One exception was Republican Senator Peter Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was elected in 1998 by narrowly defeating Carol Mosley Braun after using over 13 million of his own money to fund his campaign.

Senator Fitzgerald had no intention of "going along to get along". Senator Fitzgerald requested the appointment of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate the "Illinois Combine". Thanks to the efforts of these two Fitzgerald's some "bad actors" were prosecuted and several, from both parties, were sent to jail. Sadly Senator Fitzgerald efforts were not appreciated and without the support of his own party he chose not to run for reelection.

This provided an opportunity for the Democrats and specifically for Barack Obama. However he had to win the primary first. There were several candidates and the early favorite was state comptroller Dan Hynes. Hynes would probably have won except for another candidate, Blair Hull. Hull, an eccentric multi-millionaire spent nearly 29 million dollars attacking Hynes. Hynes lead was beaten down and with a 10 point lead over Hynes and Obama Hull was poised to win the Senate seat.

Thirty days prior to the primary election sordid details of Hulls divorce appeared in the Chicago Tribune and Senator Barack Obama was born. Obama, of course, had nothing to do with the release of this information, or did he. One of Obama's advisors had known about this skeleton in Hulls closet for over two years. That advisor, David Axelrod is still working with and for Barack Obama as his chief strategist and speech writer. This could all be coincidence but Axelrod had known for two years about Hulls marital disgrace. Information which didn't become public knowledge until after Hull had destroyed Obama's other competition, Dan Hynes. Oh, and the story was run by Axelrod's former employer, the Chicago Tribune.

Obama had won the Democrat primary and now faced Republican, Jack Ryan. Ryan was an attractive candidate who had a chance of beating Obama. Unfortunately he also was divorced. The Chicago Tribune sued to have Jack Ryan's divorce documents released and the details of the couples sex life completely derailed his campaign. Ryan withdrew from the campaign and Republicans tried to replace him with a good candidate in the short time they had left but could not do so. So, if Obama becomes President and destroys this country you can blame Mike Ditka. Ditka was approached but chose not to run and he was the only Illinois Republican who had a chance at that time.

Do You Know Who Obama's Godfather Is?

Illinois State Senate President, Emil Jones, has been called Obama's "political Godfather". I think that "Fairy Godmother" would be more accurate. Obama was a brand spanking new state senator. Obama had managed to get elected but it would take years of hard work to build credibility. However, Obama had no intention of spending years building a record that might be an asset in the distant future but could just as easily be a detriment in a race for national office.

Emil Jones gave Obama high-profile legislation which had already cleared most hurdles and was near passage. Also, Jones placed Obama in the chairmanship of the senate's health committee. This allowed Obama to advance legislation that would make him the darling of the Service Employees International Union which has over 100,000 members in Illinois.

Normally, the state Senate President would be twisting arms to get the legislation he wants passed but Barack Obama had a special deal with Jones. If a piece of legislation was controversial and support for it could come back to haunt Obama he was allowed to vote "present". Obama voted that way approximately 130 times in the Illinois State Senate and if the legislation was really something that could come back and bite him he would just duck out until the votes had passed or failed.

Do You Know How Obama Got Elected in the First Place?

We all know that Barack Obama was a "community organizer" in Chicago before he was elected to the Illinois State legislature. How exactly did Obama manage to get elected to office in the first place. In his second book Obama credits the message he brought but how important is your message when you don't have an opponent?

In Illinois candidate collect voters signatures on petitions to qualify to appear on the ballot. Obama's main opponent in the 1996 election was Alice Palmer, the incumbent and a state senator since 1991. Ms Palmer had collected 1,580 signatures, more than twice the 757 needed to qualify to be on the ballot. However Ms Palmer in the end was not on the ballot. A paid consultant for Obama went over the list of signatures with a fine-tooth comb and managed to disqualify enough of those signatures to get Ms Palmer disqualified. Just a little bit of hard-ball politics Chicago style. Some of the signatures were truly not valid but many were eliminated on technicalities, some as small a thing as printing ones name instead of writing it.

Obama's consultant, Ronald Davis was so good at this that they went ahead and got the other three candidates disqualified as well. So, whatever Obama's message to the people of the 13th district was and however well he delivered that message or how well it was received there is something we will never know. When those voters entered the booths to cast their ballots would they have elected Barack Obama if they had had more than one candidate to choose from.

Obama was asked years later about the apparent unfairness of these tactics and this was his response. "If you can win you should win and get to work doing the people's business." By all means Senator, these are important decisions, why would you let the people whose business you plan to do have any say in the selection of their representative?

Do You Know Who the FOO's (Friends of Obama) Are?

During the Clinton Administration there was a group of folks referred to as FOB's or "Friends of Bill". I do believe that the people you choose to associate with is a good measure of the type of person you are. All politicians say "I'm this, I'm that I'm brand new". The only way we can effectively judge who they really are is by looking at what they have done and with whom they have surrounded themselves.

Here is a short list of the FOO's (Friends of Obama).

William Ayers - Obama began his political career in this man's living room. Ayers is a professor at the University of Chicago and a neighbor of Obama. They have worked together on the board of the Woods Foundation and on a school reform group called the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Ayres is an unrepentant terrorist. He was a member of the left-wing group "the Wetherman". This group bombed police departments, the Capital and the Pentagon. Those acts were forty years ago but as recently as 2001 Ayere said he didn't regret setting bombs and felt that they hadn't done enough. Here is a quote from Ayers book Fugitive Days - "Everything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon. The sky was blue. The birds were singing. And the bastards were finally going to get what was coming to them."

David Axelrod - Chief Strategist and speech writer for the Obama campaign. Formerly the main mouthpiece and "spin-doctor" for Mayor Daley of Chicago. Axelrod has kept Daley from being indicted despite multiple investigations of corruption, bribery, and pay-to-play schemes which have resulted in the indictments and imprisonment of dozens of Daley staff members, contributors and supporters.

Saul Alinsky - The author of "Rules for Radicals" and a hero of Hillary Clinton. Obama studied and implemented Alinsky's "techniques" during his stint as a "community organizer" when he was working for and with some of Alinsky's disciples. Here is a quote from Saul Alinsky. "Life is a corrupting process from the time a child learns to play his mother off against his father in the politics of when to go to bed; he who fears corruption fears life." Note to Saul Alinsky, some of us outgrow this and develop character and integrity.

Antoin "Tony" Rezko - Tony Rezko is the most obviously guilty of a group of developers with ties to Obama, he is currently in prison. Obama wrote letters to state and city officials promoting Rezko's bid to get $14 million in tax dollars to build senior citizen housing. Obama supported and co-sponsored legislation that benefited developers of "low cost" housing projects. Remarkably most developers involved were FOO's and most of the projects turned out to be poorly built, ill maintained and are now vacant eyesores. Rezko raised and contributed a total of $250,000 to Obama throughout his political career.

Robert Blackwell Jr - Ping-pong patronage. Blackwell owned EKI a company that put Obama on an $8,000 a month retainer and paid him a total of $112,000 in 2001 and 2002. Obama wrote a request to Illinois state officials for a $50,000 tourism grant paid to a company called Killerspin, also owned by Blackwell. Killerspin organized ping pong tournaments and sold ping-pong gear. Killerspin received $20,000 in 2002, $200,000 in 2003 and $100,000 in 2004. Blackwell was a regular contributor to Obamas campaigns and has 'bundled" contributions from employees of his companies.

Rev Jeremiah Wright - Obama attended Rev. Wright's church for twenty years. Wright married the Obama's and baptized both their daughters. Obama had previously called Wright a "mentor" and claims it was Wright who "brought him to Christ". The Rev. Wright is a man who thinks it appropriate to say that God should "damn" America in his Sunday service. Wright told his congregation that their government invented A.I.D.S. to eradicate them and supplied their youths with drugs so that they would end up in jail. Here is a quote of Wright explaining the September 11 attacks. - "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and the black South Africans, and now we are indignant-because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back into our own front yards! America's chickens are coming home to roost." How many Sunday's would you sit with your elementary school age children listening to sermons like that?

Yet Another Wandering Husband Cheats Hillary

Alas, Poor Hillary. The humiliation Mrs Clinton suffered during her husband's presidency gained her national sympathy and helped her win a New York Senate seat. Unfortunately, another more recent extramarital affair may have cheated Senator Clinton out of her shot at the U.S. Presidency.

If John Edwards hadn't managed to hide his "bit of stuff on the side" long enough to cause Hillary to come in third in Iowa she might be making an acceptance speech tomorrow instead of the speech she made yesterday.

Oh, the irony!