Obama-Messiah? - The New American Magazine - 10-13-08.pdf
1. Biden as Backup • Fanning the Flames in Georgia • Must Our Fate Be Tied to NATO?
October 13, 2008
www.TheNewAmerican.com
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Obama:
Messiah?
2. Featured ProdUctS
The Shadows of Power The Founders’ Second Amendment
Author James Perloff exposes the subversive The first book-length account of the origins of the
roots and global designs of the Council on Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights, based
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the throne,” with hundreds of top govern- resolutions. A comprehensive analysis of the
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book traces CFR activity from the Wilson of the Second Amendment and the intentions
to Reagan administrations. (2008 ed, of the men who created it. (2008, 448pp, hb,
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Take Your Money Back
How would repealing the federal income tax affect you? This powerful video answers that
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Age of Inflation Age of Inflation Continued
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4.
5. 10
Vol. 24, No. 21 October 13, 2008
Cover Story
ElEctiONs
10 Obama: Messiah?
by Gregory A. Hession, J.D. — Obama sells himself as being the
one who will improve our lives. But does reality match rhetoric?
Reuters Pictures
FeatureS
ElEctiONs 17 25
17 Biden as Backup
by Jack Kenny — Although Joe Biden seems like a “safe” choice as
Obama’s running mate, he may prove controversial on many fronts.
AP Images
AP Images
WORld
21 Fanning the Flames in Georgia
by Charles Scaliger — The Bush administration seems determined to
turn the Georgia brush fire into a Cuban Missile Crisis-like stare-down. 21
25 Must Our Fate Be tied to NAtO?
by Gary Benoit — The NATO Charter still binds all NATO members
to wage war if any member is attacked.
MEdiA
27 Media darlings
by John Fisher — The media can make or break a political campaign.
AP Images
BOOk REViEW
31 Politics and Personality
by Gregory A. Hession, J.D. — A review of The Obama Nation.
27 31
HistORy — PAst ANd PERsPEctiVE
34 Hazards for Habeas corpus
by Edwin Vieira, Jr. — Justice demands that an accused criminal
be given the right to challenge the legality of his detention.
AP Images
tHE lAst WORd
44 the Bailout & the Average American
by John F. McManus
34
DepartmentS
AP Images
5 letters to the Editor 33 the Goodness of America
6 inside track 41 Exercising the Right
9 QuickQuotes 42 correction, Please! cOVER Reuters Photo
6. Mix
ch
or Mat al
eci
for Sp Gun Rights on Trial
ity
Quant s
nt
Discou
It may seem strange that both some pro-gun
and some anti-gun groups are viewing favorably
the Supreme Court’s gun-rights decision in
District of Columbia v. Heller. Our legal expert
will tell you who should be happy, who should
not be, and why. (September 1, 2008, 48pp)
TNA080901
Examining Healthcare
National healthcare — socialized
medicine — has been tried repeatedly
around the world. Americans who
want to try it here should examine the
results where it has already been tried.
(September 15, 2008, 48pp) TNA080915
Government Bailout
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac enabled
millions of people who could not
Obama: Messiah? afford costly mortgage loans to get
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama sells loans anyway. Now, with hundreds of
himself as being the one who will “change” the country’s thousands of these people defaulting
direction and improve our lives. But does reality match on their payments, is a government
rhetoric? (October 13, 2008, 48pp) TNA081013 bailout the answer? (September 29,
2008, 48pp) TNA080929
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8. Inside Track
Henry Paulson to Become Overseer of American Economy?
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is on the verge of becoming Bernanke over the past few months. With the growing financial
the most influential man to hold that post since Alexander Ham- turbulence, both the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Depart-
ilton, and the most powerful Secretary of the Treasury in U.S. ment have been exercising unconstitutional, quasi-dictatorial
history, if the massive $700 billion bailout legislation being con- powers, including the bailouts of AIG and Bear Stearns and
templated in Congress is passed. the nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — all this
In the words of the Christian Science Monitor, the legisla- in addition to the
tion “would transform Paulson’s office into that of temporary Fed’s arrogation of
overseer of America’s entire financial system” with “the power authority to issue
to buy virtually any financial instrument from any institution, as credit lines to in-
a means to relieve it of bad assets and pump credit back into the vestment banks Henry
Paulson
economy.” It is hard to imagine that even Alexander Hamilton, and a whole range
who was something of a supporter of big government relative to of new “tools” to
most of the other Founding Fathers, would support such a revo- pump money into
lutionary change. the economy (read:
In truth, the impending legislation merely formalizes powers inflate and devalue
already usurped by Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben the U.S. dollar).
AP Images
Mccain Wants New Federal Agency to deal With Financial crisis
Speaking in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on September 19, Republican With regard to Congress and Obama, he said, “The crisis on Wall
presidential candidate John McCain said he would create a new Street started in the Washington culture of lobbying and influence
federal agency, called the Mortgage and Financial Institutions peddling, and he [Obama] was square in the middle of it.”
Trust (MFI), which would work to head off the financial crisis. Lobbying and mismanagement may have played a supporting
“The underlying principle of the MFI or any approach considered role in creating the crisis, but others see the Fed as being a much
by Congress should be to keep people in their homes and safe- bigger culprit. “Our problems start with the Federal Reserve,”
guard the life savings of all Americans by protecting our financial Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) said in a statement. “The Fed-
system and capital markets,” McCain said according to CNN. eral Reserve is a monopoly and it controls interest rates artificially
CNN also reported that during his low, causing people to make mistakes.
speech, McCain blamed the financial That’s the basic source. But then on
crisis on “the corruption and manipu- top of that in the housing market we
lation of our home mortgage system,” had the Community Reinvestment Act
claiming the culprits were Fannie which told investors that they had to
Mae, Freddie Mac, Congress, and loan to risky borrowers, and that was
Senator Barack Obama. Freddie and the complication.” In Paul’s view,
Fannie, said McCain, “led our housing government intervention into the mar-
system down a path where quick prof- ketplace, not the marketplace itself, is
AP Images
it was placed before sound finance.” to blame.
John Mccain and sarah Palin in Wisconsin
Global Financial Ministry on the Way?
In the midst of the hubbub in Washington over the proposed $700 Brown independently confirmed his commitment to a new global
billion congressional bailout, British Prime Minister Gordon regime, telling Labor Party members in Manchester that “global
Brown and Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling are pro- standards and supervision” are now urgently needed. “Because
moting a long-term international solution: a new global regime the flows of capital are global, then supervision can no longer just
for managing the world’s finances. be national but has to be global.”
In a speech to Labor Party members on September 22, Darling Before Brown and Darling arrived in the United States in
drew the tedious and inevitable parallels between the financial late September to promote the plan, the British newspaper The
crisis and other global problems: “Just as one government alone Guardian said that they are calling for “a stronger international
cannot combat global terrorism, just as one government alone regulatory system, based around an early-warning system run by
cannot combat climate change, so one government alone cannot the IMF” and that they want to “create an international consensus
deal with the consequences of globalisation.” The following day, for a tougher global system of regulation.”
6 THE NEW AMERICAN • OCTObER 13, 2008
9. AiG, the Fed, and Accelerating socialism
America’s headlong rush into full- play its part, and will be selling $40
blown socialism accelerated on billion in 35-day bonds to help fund
September 16 with the Federal Re- the takeover.
serve’s takeover of American Inter- The direct seizure of AIG by the
national Group, Inc. (AIG), one of Federal Reserve marks a dangerous
the world’s largest insurance compa- new move towards autocracy. Federal
nies. Following on the heels of the bailouts are hardly new, but until re-
nationalization of Freddie Mac and cently, were generally not undertaken
Fannie Mae, the seizure of AIG sent without congressional approval. Con-
markets reeling the following day, sider, for example, the federal govern-
and with good cause: despite the ment’s celebrated bailout of Chrysler
AP Images
$85 billion loan the Fed extended to Corporation in the early 1980s. In
AIG, the recovery of the insurance December of 1979, Congress, under
behemoth is far from certain. To ser- intense pressure from President Cart-
vice its debts, AIG will have to find buyers for large asset chunks. er and irate constituents, passed the Chrysler Corporation Loan
If it fails to do so, American taxpayers will foot the bill. Guarantee Act (which only guaranteed a loan if needed). The U.S.
In exchange for its largesse, the Fed received an 80 percent Military then bought thousands of Chrysler pickup trucks, helping
stake in AIG and the authority to replace senior management. the storied firm to avoid bankruptcy. Nowadays, apparently, the
The unprecedented deal has put the Federal Reserve and the fed- say-so of a president, Treasury secretary, or Federal Reserve chair-
eral government in the insurance business without so much as a man is regarded as sufficient authority to commit billions of dollars
by-your-leave from Congress. “The move represents the largest of federal funds to feckless bailouts — this despite the fact that the
lurch toward socialism that this country has ever seen, and signals U.S. Constitution requires that all spending bills originate in the
the end of the vibrancy of America’s once-vaunted free market House of Representatives, thereby committing the government’s
economy,” Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital, told the purse strings to Congress, not the executive branch.
news agency Agence France-Presse. “Since there is no limit to The Federal Reserve has, since last December, usurped enor-
the amount of money the Fed can create, there is no limit to the mous new powers over the economy, and is poised to assume still
number of assets they can acquire.” more if Treasury Secretary Paulson’s plan for a new financial
In point of fact, the hard laws of economics will impose limits regulatory regime is put into effect. The plan, made public last
on the Fed’s powers — eventually. This bailout, like a whole spring, envisions a revamped Federal Reserve with vast regula-
series of Federal Reserve actions since last December, was car- tory and surveillance authority over every facet of American fi-
ried out in concert with the Department of the Treasury. The Fed nancial activity. It would in effect create a financial counterpart to
usually creates money by purchasing government debt, meaning the Department of Homeland Security, with the Federal Reserve
that the Treasury must issue new debt against which the Fed can as its linchpin. With the seizure of AIG, the Federal Reserve has
then create new money in the form of loans like the $85 billion begun assuming the very powers envisioned by Paulson and the
extended to AIG. In this instance, the U.S. Treasury has agreed to Bush administration, without even a congressional debate.
Mary Jane looks to Prop Up the 10th Amendment
In California on August 20, U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy the Constitution is permission given to the government to regulate
Fogel denied a request by the federal government in Santa Cruz states’ drug laws.
v. Mukasey to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Santa Cruz city and Ironically, if the ruling survives appeal, it may have the effect
the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana that accuses the of really strengthening the 10th Amendment and shooting holes
federal government of unconstitutionally trying to nullify Cali- in other arguments of the ACLU. Positions the ACLU favors that
fornia’s medical marijuana laws. The suit against the federal may be endangered are prohibitions against state anti-sodomy
government alleges that federal authorities have been targeting, laws and prohibitions against child pornography, along with a
threatening, and arresting people — doctors, government offi- host of other positions. The ACLU regularly ignores the con-
cials, and distributors of medical marijuana — to force California straints of the 10th Amendment. It has backed a federal require-
to re-criminalize marijuana for medical use. ment forcing entities that provide prescription coverage to cover
The ACLU filed the lawsuit against the federal government, women’s contraception, and it has challenged in federal court
claiming correctly that the government was violating the 10th state laws that require voters to present a valid ID (so that illegal
Amendment, which states: “The powers not delegated to the immigrants could vote).
United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the It remains only to be seen if this ruling is affirmed or goes up
States, are reserved to the States, or to the people.” Nowhere in in smoke.
www.TheNewAmerican.com 7
10. Inside Track
Gorbachev Honored With liberty Medal
Mikhail Gorbachev, former General Secretary of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union, was welcomed Mikhail Gorbachev, left,
with George H.W. Bush
to Philadelphia as the conquering hero on September 18
to receive America’s Liberty Medal. Former President
George H.W. Bush presented the medal to Gorbachev
at a star-studded ceremony at the National Constitution
Center on Independence Mall in Historic Philadelphia,
next to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.
The event, broadcast live by CBS TV’s Philadel-
phia affiliate, CBS3, opened with big-screen photo
montages of Gorbachev, as CBS narrators enthused
over the man who, they said, “changed history, free-
ing millions from oppression,” and “ended the Cold
War.” Joseph M. Torsella, president and CEO of the
Constitution Center; Philadelphia Mayor Michael
Nutter; Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell; and Bush
all lavished superlatives on the former Soviet leader
and praised Gorbachev’s commitment to liberty. “He
AP Images
grew up under the brutal rule of Stalin, a dictator
who introduced the words ‘purge’ and ‘gulag’ into
the beautiful language of Pushkin and Chekhov,” said
Torsella. “But when he came to occupy the same office that Gorbachev’s curriculum vitae that would conflict with the media-
Stalin held, 63 years later,... he introduced very different words. created hallowed aura that has been spun about him for the past
‘Glasnost,’ openness. And ‘perestroika,’ change.” two decades, such as his brutal suppression of liberty in Poland,
“It is a true honor for me to participate in this year’s Liber- Lithuania, Afghanistan, East Germany, and throughout the So-
ty Medal ceremony to celebrate the achievements of someone viet bloc; his aid to terror-sponsoring regimes; his involvement
whom I consider a great world leader and a dear friend,” said in the assassination plot against Pope John Paul II; and his vocal
Bush. “When Eastern Europeans were living in the dark shadow support for Vladimir Putin’s increasingly totalitarian regime in
of the Cold War, he provided a beacon of light.... President Gor- Russia. Since retirement from office, Gorbachev has been active
bachev is always looking ahead at a better future and helping all promoting world socialism and world government through the
of us work to get there.” United Nations, Green Cross International, the Earth Charter, and
Everyone politely ignored the numerous embarrassing items of his own Gorbachev Foundation.
Globalists Push climate-change controls, Open Borders
“John McCain has shown far more commitment to confronting The council, which has been one of the leading think tanks
climate change than Bush has, but his teaming up with Alaska promoting climate-change alarmism, is also continuing its push
Gov. Sarah Palin, who doubts that climate change is man-made, for open borders. In September, the CFR issued a new report, The
should raise worries,” say Michael A. Levi and Scott G. Borger- Closing of the American Border: Terrorism, Immigration, and
son of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), who teamed up in Security Since 9/11, by its Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow
a September 24 op-ed for USA Today. Levi is the council’s David Edward Alden. While polls show most Americans are upset that
M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment the Bush administration has refused to secure our borders since
and Director of the Program on Energy Security and Climate 9/11, the CFR believes we have gone too far.
Change, while Borgerson is the CFR’s Visiting Fellow for Ocean According to Alden, instead of building “new lines of defense
Governance, one of his major remits being to promote the UN’s that could keep out terrorists without stifling the flow of people
Law of the Sea Treaty. and ideas from abroad,” the government “created an obstacle
The CFR duo write: “McCain, who conspicuously avoided the course that has made it vastly harder for people from across the
words ‘climate change’ and ‘global warming’ when he accepted world to come to the United States, hurting America’s image
the Republican nomination, needs to reaffirm in no uncertain terms abroad and damaging its economic prospects at home.”
his commitment to vigorously combat climate change — and he The council calls Alden’s book “a striking and persuasive as-
needs to make his running mate do the same.” According to Levi sessment of the dangers faced by a United States that cuts itself
and Borgerson, “Palin should immediately and explicitly embrace off from the rest of the world, making it increasingly difficult for
McCain’s support for a mandatory cap-and-trade system.” others to come here.” n
8 THE NEW AMERICAN • OCTObER 13, 2008
11. QuickQuotes
Problems Related to Fannie and Freddie
impact Average American
“If you already have a fixed-rate mortgage, nothing will change,
except for a rising feeling of righteous indignation that you as a
taxpayer are footing the bill for the mistakes of borrowers who
got in over their heads and lenders who let them.”
AP Images
The New York Times reporter got it right, at least in this one
aspect of the scandal.
the truth Hurts this columnist
“I wish that people wouldn’t say that Fannie and Freddie have been nationalized. I mean, it’s basically
accurate, but it conveys the wrong impression.”
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman doesn’t want to admit that socialism is what the takeover
of the two mortgage giants constitutes.
canadian “Human Rights Group” terrorizing traditionalists
“The process is the punishment.”
Canadian journalist David Warren pointed to the charges placed against a Catholic priest for defend-
ing marriage as an exclusive union between one man and one woman. Even though the charges of “hate
speech” were dropped, the priest incurred $20,000 in legal expenses.
constitutional scholar Offers His definition of constitution day
“Constitution Day: Observed on September 17, the day on which federally funded American edu-
cational institutions, themselves unconstitutional, are unconstitutionally required to teach about the
Constitution.”
Best-selling author Thomas Woods offered his pithy but accurate assessment of one feature of Con-
stitution Day.
lehman Brothers Employees in shock
“Everyone is walking around like they have just been tasered. We
were all hoping that we would pull through. Now that is not really
an option.”
When the firm they never thought would fail collapsed into bank-
AP Images
ruptcy, a Lehman employee spoke for colleagues who now face
unemployment with a portfolio of near-worthless Lehman stock.
Federal Employees Regularly cavorted With Energy Executives
“Employees frequently consumed alcohol at industry functions, had used cocaine and marijuana, and had
sexual relationships with oil and natural gas company representatives.”
The Interior Department’s Inspector General reported that employees of the federal Minerals Man-
agement Service based in Denver were also repeatedly accepting a variety of gifts from the firms they
were supposed to monitor.
convicted Espionage Agent indicts the Rosenbergs
“Ethel Rosenberg was aware of her husband’s espionage, but did not
actively participate.”
After spending 19 years behind bars for his own role as a spy for the
USSR, Morton Sobell put to rest the claims that Julius Rosenberg was
innocent of the crime for which he was executed.
Biden Would Have Picked Hillary Joe
Biden
“Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice
president of the United States of America. Quite frankly, it might have
been a better pick than me.”
While campaigning in New Hampshire, Joe Biden gave a surprising
AP Images
response to a question about his qualifications to be vice president. n
— compiLeD by John F. mcmanuS
www.TheNewAmerican.com 9
12. ElEctions
Obama:
Messiah?
AP Images
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama sells himself as being the one who will
“change” the country’s direction and improve our lives. But does reality match rhetoric?
by Gregory A. Hession, J.D. called him “a politician who has an ear for around the candidate is not an accident. It is
eloquence and a tongue dipped in unvar- a deliberate decision by his campaign strat-
B
arack Obama aspires to run the nished truth.” MSNBC commentator Chris egist, David Axelrod, to make the campaign
largest enterprise on the face of Matthews, reacting like a fainting teenage about image and not issues. He knew that
the Earth — the U.S. government. girl seeing the Beatles for the first time, historically candidates who openly advo-
From the beginning of his campaign for told his audience: “This is bigger than cated high taxes and big government did not
president, he deliberately positioned him- Kennedy.... This is the New Testament. I do well. Instead, an image was projected,
self as a messianic figure, transcending felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I and the “image,” it was hoped, would take
race, and above petty partisanship on is- don’t have that too often. No, seriously. hold in people’s minds as reality. Hence,
sues. The Obama campaign adopted the It’s a dramatic event.” Magazines from photographs are shown with light swirl-
same mass-manipulation technique — Time and Newsweek to Wired to Der Spie- ing around the Great Man, and Obama’s
swooning crowds chanting “yes we can” gel have featured worshipful cover stories speeches attempt to sidestep taking posi-
— that worked so well for his friend Mas- full of similar encomiums. There’s even a tions on controversial matters. Recall his
sachusetts Governor Deval Patrick during website — http://obamamessiah.blogspot. response to the question by Rick Warren at
Patrick’s 2006 gubernatorial campaign. com/ — proposing the possibility that the Saddleback Church forum about when
The strategy has largely been success- Obama is a divinity. No kidding! life begins: “That’s above my pay grade.” If
ful. TV personality Oprah Winfrey has This attempt to foster a transcendent aura he had expressed his true belief advocating
10 THE NEW AMERICAN • OCTObER 13, 2008
13. abortion and infanticide, the mostly Chris- Senate. His running mate
tian audience would have recoiled. Joseph Biden is rated as the
Nothing has popped the pretension third most liberal Senator
The attempt to foster a transcendent aura
around the Obama campaign rhetoric for 2007. Neither Obama around Obama is a deliberate decision by
more effectively than a satirical YouTube nor Biden have disputed that
his campaign strategist, David axelrod,
ad called “The One,” produced by the Mc- analysis.
Cain campaign, which is quite possibly What does it mean to be to make the campaign about image and
the best political spot of our era. It links “liberal”? Obama is on record not issues. axelrod knew that historically
together snippets of Obama’s self-aggran- as supporting high progres-
dizing speeches, leaving no doubt about sive taxation, re-institution candidates who openly advocated high
his unconstrained ego and ambition. of the confiscatory death tax taxes and big government did not do well.
The ad starts with a deep-voiced an- and capital gains taxes, and
nouncer saying: “In 2008, it should be growth of government into
known that the world will be blessed. They virtually every area of family and commu- rating, meaning that he voted against tax-
shall call him … ‘The One.’” Then follows nity life. He favors government housing, payers almost all of the time according to
a series of film clips of Obama speechify- government schools, government control this group. He has also promised to raise
ing about his miraculous abilities, starting of the money supply and credit, and ex- Social Security taxes on those earning over
with his brag that he will bring about “a pansion of government-sponsored trade $102,000, and to raise the capital gains tax
nation healed, a world repaired.” His oft- unions. from 15 percent to 20 percent. Along with
repeated mantra appears: “We are the ones On the issue of taxation, Obama has that, the National Taxpayers Union cal-
we have been waiting for,” delivered in the asserted that he wants a middle-class tax culates that Obama has proposed federal
“imperial we.” Obama himself actually cut, and will only raise taxes on “the rich.” spending increases of over $300 billion.
says: “A light will shine down from some- However, on June 12, 2008, Obama voted Regarding his adherence to constitu-
where. It will light upon you. You will ex- to raise income taxes from 25 percent to tional principles in general, Obama has
perience an epiphany, and you will say to 28 percent for individuals with gross in- scored a dismal 13 percent for the cur-
yourself: I have to vote for Barack.” Then comes over $32,000. I guess that is the rent Congress (to date) in this magazine’s
we see him in front of a maniacally cheer- new definition of “rich.” The National “Freedom Index,” a congressional score-
ing crowd, modestly saying: “This was the Taxpayers Union gave him a six-percent card based on the Constitution. Biden’s
moment when the rise of the oceans began
to slow and the planet began to heal.” Sud-
denly, in a clip from The Ten Command-
ments, Charlton Heston as Moses appears,
holding his staff aloft, crying, “Behold his
mighty hand,” as the Red Sea miraculously
parts. The implication is that, yes, Barack
does control the wind, the waves, and the
sea. Devastating is too mild a word for it.
His Uncontested Positions
Obama uses “change” and “hope” liberally
in his speeches, without any real specifics
or context. One may reasonably ask: “Yes,
we can — what? Change what? Hope in
what?” He has not been forthcoming so far
with answers to those questions, but where
he sits on the issues is abundantly clear.
National Journal, a Washington-based
non-partisan political magazine, rates leg-
islators on their voting records. Their rat-
ing for 2007 places Obama as the single
most liberal U.S. senator, as compared to
his previous positions at 16th and 10th
most liberal in his first two years in the
Obama’s running mate: Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.)
speaks to supporters at a town hall meeting in
Green Bay, Wisconsin.
AP Images
www.TheNewAmerican.com
14. ElEctions
he is going to create jobs in Obama’s actions often don’t live up to
this country through revamp- the rhetoric, even in areas that are politi-
Obama’s actions often don’t live up to his ing and revitalizing the en- cally correct. While decrying “pay ineq-
rhetoric. While decrying “pay inequity” ergy industry. But his focus uity” between the sexes, the women on his
on “green energy” will likely campaign staff earn just 83 cents for every
between the sexes, the women on his
instead drive companies over- dollar the men make. His children go to
campaign staff earn just 83 cents for seas, owing to the high cost private schools, rather than to the govern-
every dollar the men make. His children of green energy. With wind ment schools he advocates for the rest of
power, the energy input re- us. “We” cannot be cynical about America,
go to private schools, rather than to the quired to create a ton of steel, but his longtime pastor, the Reverend Jer-
government schools he advocates. according to the American emiah Wright, can curse America. Even on
Wind Energy Association, the politically correct issue of loathing big
costs $29.52 (without the gov- tobacco: he smokes, mostly secretly.
“Freedom Index” score for the current ernment subsidy), and with solar power, On other issues, however, his stance
Congress (to date) is a mere 19 percent. per Scientific American, $36.00. With is firm. On abortion, Obama has stood
Obama favors radical environmental nuclear power — which apparently isn’t strongly, not just for abortion through time
policies that intrude on property rights, considered sufficiently green — the cost is of birth, but for infanticide after birth when
government funding for many facets of $7.74, including fuel, depreciation, waste abortion fails to kill the baby. He invoked
the economy such as trendy “green” in- fuel storage, and eventual decommission- his own little girls by saying, “If they make
dustries, and complete control of trade. He ing. Moreover, the high taxes he seeks will a mistake [and get pregnant], I don’t want
wants to outright nationalize key segments surely send companies and jobs fleeing, them punished with a baby.” This smacks
of the economy, such as healthcare, and and his projected large amounts of gov- not only of advocating “choice,” but of
regulate most others with stultifying con- ernment growth in spending will require fanaticism.
trols, according to a multitude of “plans” that the country borrow or print money to His running mate’s position on abor-
set out on his campaign website. pay for the outlays, meaning a lessening of tion is equally immovable. Senator Biden
Obama’s promises often contradict the worth of the dollar and more burdens recently told Tom Brokaw that it is his
each other. For instance, he claims that for the poor and middle class. “religiously based view” that human life
begins at conception, yet he will
not “impose that judgment on
everyone else” because it would
be “inappropriate in a pluralistic
society.” Yet, when have either
Biden or Obama ever been re-
luctant to impose their judgment
on everyone else via legislation,
except for this one issue?
Obama does not want to
protect the right of everyday
Americans to bear arms, even
in light of the recent Supreme
Court case upholding that right.
While in the Illinois Senate,
he voted against a bill to allow
homeowners the right to use a
gun in self-defense in the case
of home invasion, and voted to
uphold the governor’s veto of
that bill. He even wants to ban
the manufacture and sale of
handguns. Wayne LaPierre of
the National Rifle Association
was not engaging in hyperbole
AP Images
when he commented that “Ba-
rack Obama is not for the right
convicted felon and Obama fundraiser, Chicago real estate developer Antoin “Tony” Rezko, leaves the to keep and bear arms. He is out
Chicago federal building on October 19, 2006, where he was later convicted of multiple felonies in a housing to destroy it.”
rehab corruption scandal. Obama knows how he wants
12 THE NEW AMERICAN • OCTObER 13, 2008
15. you to live your life, and he is going to
make sure that you listen. His wife, Mi-
chelle, summed up his view of government
with astonishing candor: “Barack Obama
will require you to work. He is going to
demand that you shed your cynicism. That
you put down your division. That you
come out of isolation. That you move out
of your comfort zone. Barack will never
allow you to go back to your lives as usual
— uninvolved, uninformed.” She believes
that “our souls are broken in this nation.”
And frankly, Obama looks with dis-
dain at anyone who disagrees with him.
What he actually believes about ordinary
citizens was revealed in a candid moment
before a group of San Francisco partisans,
when he said: “So it’s not surprising then
that they get bitter, they cling to guns or
religion or antipathy to people who aren’t
like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or
anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain
Jeff Sciortino Photography
their frustrations.”
This conceit and condescension was re-
inforced recently when he said, “The one
thing that I want to insist on is that, as I
travel around the country, the American
people are a decent people. Now they get
confused sometimes. You know, they listen still hates America: Unrepentant terrorist bomber William Ayers, still showing contempt for
to the wrong talk radio shows or watch the America in this 2001 photo, helped Obama launch his illinois State Senate career and served on
wrong TV network, but they’re basically nonprofit boards with him in Chicago.
decent, they’re basically sound.”
The implication of these statements is tial campaign, called Unfit for Command: Barack’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, in
unsettling: we may be decent folk, but we Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against Hawaii, where they conceived Barack, Jr.
aren’t very bright and are confused be- John Kerry.) The rebuttal, however, failed and then married before his birth. Barack,
cause we listen to talk radio, and are thus to disprove the key information in Corsi’s Sr. left the family when the child was two
reduced to bitterly clinging to our guns book (see our review on page 31). years old, and only returned for one visit
and religion. Although, with Obama’s Obama has also written about himself. before he died in an alcohol-related car ac-
guiding light, we can (and verily must at It is clear from Obama’s autobiographical cident in Kenya.
his unyielding command) move out of our tome Dreams From My Father that he has When Barack, Jr. was six, his mother,
uninvolved, uninformed comfortable lives, struggled from his youth to come to grips Stanley (named after her disappointed fa-
heal our broken souls, and become bright with his racial identity, and with being ther, Stanley, who wanted a boy), met and
hopeful creatures once again. abandoned by his mother, his father, and married an Indonesian national named
his stepfather. Dreams, as we will call the Lolo Soetoro and moved with him to In-
Past Projecting Future book, is dedicated to his finding meaning donesia for four years, after which she di-
Several books have been published recent- in government service, but even more to vorced Lolo. Barack returned to live with
ly which purport to investigate Obama’s the search and eventual acceptance of his his white grandparents in Hawaii, Madelyn
past, his legislative record, his associa- African heritage as his primary identity. and Stanley Dunham, who expended much
tions, and his core convictions. They have His father, Barack Obama, Sr., was of their earnings to send him to an elite
uncovered many alarming facts. One such the son of a reasonably well-off Kenyan private academy there for his high school
book, Jerome Corsi’s The Obama Nation: tribesman of Kenya’s second largest tribal years. Despite their kindness, Barack none-
Leftist Policies and the Cult of Personality, group, the Luo. Owing to some help from theless insulted his grandmother during the
was so devastating that the Obama cam- an influential politician, Barack, Sr. was campaign as “a typical white person.”
paign felt compelled to issue a 40-page able to go to Harvard University and then After a stint at Occidental College, he
rebuttal entitled Unfit for Publication. obtain a substantial position with the Ken- was able to get into Columbia University
(That title is a play on Corsi’s previous yan government, where he worked as a so- in New York on an exchange program.
book published during the last presiden- cialist economist. Barack, Sr. met young Subsequently, after three years in the south
www.TheNewAmerican.com 13
16. ElEctions
of which is now scrubbed from its and black leader in Harlem (who also is
website. Wright also visited Liby- avidly pro-Obama) stated in a TV inter-
americans like their heroes and an strongman Muammar Qaddafi view that al-Mansour had come to him in
messiahs on pedestals, but they with Farrakhan in 1984. When 1988 to ask that he write a letter to help
Wright’s racial and anti-American Obama gain admittance to Harvard Law
better be strong and true. When one is
sentiments were exposed, Obama School. Sutton also said that al-Mansour
exposed as a phony, he falls hard and defended Wright, and said he was “raising money” for Obama. Sutton
fast (case in point: John Edwards). as could no more dissociate with him says he wrote the letter to Harvard.
than with his own family. How- Spokesmen for the Obama campaign
the truth emerges about Obama, he ever, when the political pressure have denied that Obama knows al-Man-
may be heading for such a fall. intensified, he angrily denounced sour or has had any contact with him,
Wright and left the church. but Obama himself has not addressed the
However, potentially far more issue. In an interview with Newsmax re-
side of Chicago doing community orga- telling than Obama’s ties to the radical porter Kenneth Timmerman, al-Mansour
nizing, he went to Harvard Law School, Rev. Wright are his apparent longstand- indicated he had spoken to Obama and
where he was president of the prestigious ing ties to the even more radical Khalid told him he would be keeping a low pro-
Law Review there. al-Mansour, who can be seen on YouTube file to avoid embarrassing Obama. Did
Much publicity has surrounded his as- videos spewing incredibly venomous anti- al-Mansour help him get into Harvard?
sociation with his pastor of 20 years at white, anti-Christian, anti-American dia- Did he help pay for the hefty tuition at
Trinity United Church of Christ, the Rev- tribes. Al-Mansour started out as Donald Obama’s pricey alma maters (Occidental,
erend Jeremiah Wright. Wright has ser- Warden, a radical black attorney in the Columbia, and Harvard). Obama claims
monized on how whites invented and in- far-left Oakland-San Francisco politics of he financed his education through student
troduced AIDS to the black community to the early 1960s, working closely with the loans, but the loan amounts he cites fall
kill them, that the CIA purposely injected Communist Party, Socialist Workers Party, far short. The voting public and the media
drugs into black neighborhoods, that the the Nation of Islam, and the Black Pan- should be demanding that Obama fully ex-
9/11 terrorist attack was a “wake up” for thers. After converting to Islam, he devel- plain his relationship to al-Mansour.
the white community, and how he believes oped close ties to Arab and Muslim leaders Obama is so intent on proving his race-
we should say “God d*** America” be- throughout the world, including Saudi bil- based credentials that he told a crowd in
cause its “government has given them lionaire Prince Alwaleed. Earlier this year, Selma, Alabama, that he was born because
the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a Percy Sutton, a legendary business mogul his parents had gotten together in the con-
three-strike law and then wants
us to sing God Bless America.”
Wright’s racial and anti-Amer- Michelle Obama, the candidate’s wife, delivers campaign speeches
ican rants have been widely ex- laying out Barack Obama’s vision for a more government-controlled,
posed on YouTube and in print, and politically correct america.
the tone and angry delivery while
dressed in African garb communi-
cate an overtone of racial animus
that the words alone don’t convey.
Wright is also a close associate of
Nation of Islam hyper-racist and
anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan,
whom even Time magazine has
stated “spews racist venom at
Jews and all of white America.”
Farrakhan has preached such bile
as: “White people are potential
humans — they haven’t evolved
yet”; “Murder and lying comes
easy for white people”; and “The
Jews don’t like Farrakhan, so they
call me Hitler. Well, that’s a good
name. Hitler was a very great
AP Images
man.”
Accordingly, Wright’s church
presented Farrakhan with an
“Empowerment Award,” evidence
14
17. AP Images
fluence of the historical civil rights march- Residents of Chicago have been treated Religious focus: Barack Obama speaks at St.
es in Selma in 1965. One problem: Obama to extensive investigative newspaper cov- Mark Cathedral in Harvey, illinois, in January
was born in 1961. He also anguishes in erage of Tony Rezko, Chicago slumlord, 2007. The Obama campaign has focused
Dreams about the profound effect on him corporate welfare recipient, convicted on religion, but has been sidetracked by the
racist rantings of his longtime pastor, Rev.
of a Life magazine article concerning felon, and Obama fundraiser for many
Jeremiah Wright.
black persons who were tragically marred years. Rezko had obtained a total of $100
in appearance when they used a chemical million from federal, state, and local
to turn them white, which they had used governments to rehab 30 Chicago slum lution home, kill your parents, that’s where
out of desperation because of their mis- buildings, most of which are now either it’s really at.” His wife, Dohrn, speaking
treatment in society due to their color. No boarded up or foreclosed upon. Although of the murders committed by the Charles
such article existed. Rezko always got paid, his tenants were Manson family at the time, stated: “Dig it.
However, Obama is willing to play left in cheaply repaired, vermin-infested First they killed those pigs, then they ate
hardball against other black politicians apartments, often without heat in the bit- dinner in the same room with them, then
when it benefits him. His mentor, Marxist ter Chicago winter. they even shoved a fork into a victim’s
black Illinois state senator Alice Palmer, Rezko assisted Obama to obtain his stomach. Wild.”
named him to be her successor in 1995, $1.6 million Chicago mansion through a They remain unrepentant. In an August
and even helped launch his campaign, complex financing deal. Called Obama’s 2001 Chicago Magazine article entitled
when she resigned to run in a special elec- “political godfather” by local media, he “No Regrets,” Ayers expresses, well, no re-
tion for the U.S. Congress. When Palmer raised over $250,000 for Obama’s first grets. In fact, he says he didn’t do enough.
lost the special election, Obama not only four political campaigns in Illinois. Rezko The article is accompanied by a photograph
stayed in the state senate race but even is now in prison, the result of 16 felony of him stomping on an American flag.
challenged the signatures that Palmer had convictions related to his property deals. William Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn
gathered on ballot petitions, knocking her William Ayers and his wife, Bernadette hosted Obama’s campaign kick-off party
off the ballot. He then used the same tac- Dohrn, were also instrumental in launch- for his first state senate race in their home,
tic to remove his other three Democratic ing and maintaining Obama’s political and Obama has remained close to them
rivals and won the race. career. They are former radical “Weather ever since. Obama served on the board of
Underground” members who carried out two large non-profit foundations for many
the company He keeps 30 bombings of the U.S. Capitol, the Pen- years with Ayers, the Woods Foundation
Obama’s political life may have been ac- tagon, and police stations in the 1960s and and the Annenberg Chicago Challenge,
ceptable in Illinois, where they play by so- ’70s, who have now secured university among many other connections. So des-
called “Chicago Rules,” but the relation- professorships and a place in polite Chi- perate was Obama’s campaign manager to
ships that he has fostered and relied upon cago society. Ayers explained his goal in dissociate him from these unrepentant rad-
to propel him forward in the political arena the 1970s as “Kill all rich people. Break up icals that he falsely stated that their con-
can gently be deemed reckless. their cars and apartments. Bring the revo- nection only involved their school-aged
www.TheNewAmerican.com 15
18. ElEctions
Whither Obama?
In his book Obama Nation,
Jerome Corsi quotes former
Clinton advisor Paul Begala:
“We cannot win with egg-
heads and African-Americans.
OK, that is the Dukakis Coali-
tion, which carried ten states
and gave us four years of the
first George Bush.” By that,
Begala meant that Obama is
finding his strongest support
in the black community and
among lefty academic and
media types.
Obama has carefully posi-
tioned himself as a candidate
AP Images
above the confines of past
racial categorization, as one
who is able to reach out to
Energy plan: Barack Obama intends to institute a “windfall-profits tax” on American oil companies. Because all segments of society, tran-
developing new oil resources is very costly, such an action will have the effect of reducing U.S. oil production. scending all that divides us.
However, his actions have
children, even though the Ayers-Dohrn he at least won his own kingdom — Luci- shown him to be rigid, and intolerant of
children are adults. fer.” Apropos to a handbook dedicated to any dissent from his radical social and
Obama’s campaign has funneled over Satan and his kingdom of Hell, Alinsky’s economic views, leaving no possibility of
$800,000 to a radical leftist group called manual says that the community organizer compromise or “reaching across the aisle,”
the Association of Community Organiza- is primarily an agitator, who must: “Fan as McCain routinely does.
tions for Reform Now, or ACORN. Its de the resentments of the people of a com- Americans like their heroes and messi-
facto goal is to promote the welfare state, munity; fan the latent hostilities of many ahs on pedestals, but they better be strong
finance illegal-immigrant activities, un- of the people to the point of overt expres- and true. When one is exposed as a phony,
dermine capitalism, and elect politicians sion — he must search out controversy he falls hard and fast (case in point: John
such as Obama, using government grants and issues.... An organizer must stir up Edwards). As the truth emerges about
to do so. Although the Obama money dissatisfaction and discontentment [sic].... Obama, he may be heading for such a
was allegedly slated for providing “stage, He knows that values are relative.... Truth fall.
lighting and sound” to the campaign, its to him is relative and changing.” As David Freddoso says in his book,
subsidiary, Citizen Services Inc., has been Alinsky was the admired subject of Hil- The Case Against Barack Obama: The
doing get-out-the-vote work for Obama. lary Clinton’s senior thesis at Wellesley Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda
The group has been implicated in multiple College, and the guiding light (or, as the of the Media’s Favorite Candidate, “It’s
voter-fraud schemes in at least 14 states, Washington Post puts it, “the ideological not that Obama is a bad person. It’s just
for which several of its members have touchstone”) of all Obama’s organizing that he’s like all the rest of them. Not a
been criminally convicted. efforts. Those efforts did little to make reformer. Not a Messiah. Just like all the
Obama spent three years in the 1980s in a difference, based on his own telling in rest of them in Washington. And just like
the south side of Chicago, primarily orga- Dreams. The housing project continued to all the other liberals too.” n
nizing churches near a crumbling housing decay, the jobs continued to leave the city,
project called Altgeld Gardens. He was and the corruption continued unabated. In the next issue of TNA, we will take a hard look at
hired for the task by a group called the De- The lesson was apparently lost on John McCain’s record.
veloping Communities Project, headed by y o u n g O b a m a ,
Jerry Kellman, a disciple of Saul Alinsky, who continues to
the now-deceased socialist Chicago com- believe, against all
munity organizer who literally wrote the that he saw and EXTRA COPIES AVAILABLE
book on radical community organizing. experienced for ➧ Additional copies of this issue of The
Alinsky’s 1971 book, entitled Rules for three years, that neW american are available at quantity-
Radicals, was dedicated to “the first radi- government can fix discount prices. To place your order, visit
cal known to man who rebelled against the what is wrong in www.shopjbs.org or see the card between
establishment and did it so effectively that society. pages 38-39.
16 THE NEW AMERICAN • OCTObER 13, 2008
19. ElEctions
Biden as Backup
Although U.S. Senator Joe
Biden appears to be a “safe”
choice as a running mate
for presidential candidate
Barack Obama, he may
prove to be controversial
on many fronts.
by Jack Kenny
T
he cliché might be that U.S. Sena-
tor Joe Biden “needs no introduc-
tion” to the American voting pub-
lic, since he has run for president twice.
But many Americans may have only the
sketchiest knowledge of the Delaware
senator’s checkered career and why he
has been widely hailed as both a wise
and “safe” choice as a running mate for
Democratic presidential candidate Barack
Obama, yet may prove to be controversial
on many fronts.
AP Images
Loose Tongue
For one thing, Biden has demonstrated
throughout his career a notoriously loose
and careless tongue. His biggest blunder
known to the public was his appropriating
as his own the biography of British Labor
Party leader Neil Kinnock during a speech trouble again. As the Obama phenomenon along racial lines when he responded to a
in Biden’s abortive campaign for the 1988 came to dominate the Democratic primary question about his viability in conservative
presidential nomination. It was a peculiar campaigns, Biden told an interviewer that Southern states by claiming, inaccurately,
kind of theft, commonly referred to as pla- “for the first time” the nation had a “main- that his home state, Delaware, “was a slave
giarism, since Biden used without attribu- stream” African-American candidate who state” in the early days of the republic. He
tion a large portion of a Kinnock speech in “is clean, articulate” and appealing to was also overheard and recorded when he
which the British politician recounted life a wide range of American voters. That offered the observation that in Delaware,
in the coal mines and other aspects of his created a furor nationally, particularly one can’t go into a Dunkin’ Donuts or 7-11
own biography that had nothing to do with among Democrats and especially among without an Indian accent.
Biden. Once a videotape of Biden’s speech African-Americans, many of whom had
was widely circulated and the source of voted for and otherwise supported candi- Balancing the Ticket?
the plagiarism documented, Biden with- dates like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, Biden never did get any traction in his
drew his candidacy and waited for another both of whom were considered “clean and presidential campaign and dropped out
opportunity to seek the nation’s highest articulate,” and perhaps even (in the eyes before the first primary. But his experience
executive office. of many Jackson or Sharpton supporters) and alleged expertise in foreign policy ap-
Twenty years later, Biden was running “mainstream.” parently appealed to the Obama campaign,
again and his loose talk was getting him in Biden stepped into further controversy which was dealing with the suspicion that
www.TheNewAmerican.com 17
20. ElEctions
desire for judges who see president, be he Republican or Democrat.
their role as agents of so- He was against the first Gulf War under
The mindset expressed by Obama is very cial “progress” rather than the first President Bush, a war ostensibly
different from the mindset of the senior impartial referees. to turn back aggression and liberate Ku-
But on foreign policy, wait from Iraqi conquest, but which has
senator from Delaware, since Biden,
there appears to be a slight had the effect of leaving the United States
in his 36 years in the U.S. Senate, has disconnect between the top more deeply and permanently immersed
seldom seen a war he did not support of the ticket and the running militarily in the international, ethnic, and
mate. Obama is no pacifist, sectarian warfare of the Middle East. But
from the first saber rattling of an American despite Republican-inspired he supported the Clinton administration
president, be he Republican or Democrat. fears that he is not tough and NATO’s war in Serbia over Kosovo.
enough to defend the coun- And he supported the current Bush admin-
try. He wants to increase our istration in the run-up to the war with Iraq,
the presidential candidate, in only his war efforts in Afghanistan, though he ap- in marked contrast to Obama, who spoke
fourth year in national politics, lacked the pears to have no more of an “exit plan” for out against the “dumb war” while still a
maturity and experience to be a serious the war there than either Bush or McCain state senator in Illinois. Moreover, Biden
candidate for president. Adding Biden, it has for the Iraq War. But for non-interven- has supported the expansion of NATO
was thought, would lend added stature to tionists, he has said some hopeful rhetoric, right up to the Russian border, advocat-
the top of the ticket to offset the perception expressing a desire not only to end the Iraq ing the inclusion of Georgia, which would
that Obama was getting by on oratorical War, but “to end the mindset that gets us have required the United States and other
skills and his personal charisma. into wars.” allies to come to the aid militarily of that
But critics contended that by putting The mindset expressed by Obama is former Soviet state when it was invaded
Biden on the ticket, the Democrats were very different from the mindset of the se- earlier this year after Georgia invaded the
undercutting the appeal of Obama as the nior senator from Delaware, since Biden, breakaway state of South Ossetia.
outsider, even as John McCain’s later in his 36 years in the U.S. Senate, has sel- It seems, in some ways, a strange bal-
choice of first-term Alaska Governor dom seen a war he did not support from ance, but only if Obama’s anti-war rhetoric
Sarah Palin, at 44 three years younger the first saber rattling of an American is viewed as genuine. Obama, recall, in a
than Obama, undermined the Republi-
can’s argument that the GOP ticket of-
fered an experienced and seasoned alter-
native to the Democrats’ “Boy Wonder.”
Biden, after all, has been in the Senate
for 36 years, starting at the beginning of
Richard Nixon’s second term as presi-
dent. He has served as chairman of the
Judiciary as well as the Foreign Relations
Committee. On the Judiciary, he spear-
headed the successful opposition to the
nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the
U.S. Supreme Court in 1987, the same
year Biden’s first presidential campaign
collapsed under the burden of plagia-
rism. He also permitted the pillorying of
Supreme Court nominee Judge Clarence
Thomas, leading to an historically close
vote confirming Thomas in 1991. While
Biden has been perhaps more confronta-
tional than Obama seems to be, his bent
on judicial nominations appears to be
more or less in harmony with the presi-
dential hopeful, whose public statements
on judicial philosophy have indicated a
Two of a kind? Barack Obama, the candidate
for “change,” picked as his running mate
an old-school politician, Senator Joe Biden,
shown here with his wife, Jill.
AP Images
18
