Hall of Shame: 2008 Archives

Massachusetts sends an all-Democratic team to Congress and they are powerful. Some even revel in their power. As in 2008.

For example, Cape Cod's own Congressman Willam Delahunt took pleasure in outing a government security official so al-Qaeda could get a good look at him. We can be sure his family didn't enjoy the Congressman's joke. He earned a place in our Hall of Shame.

Then there is the powerful and shameless rolled into one. Congressman Barney Frank did more than any other U.S. public official in bringing about the worldwide financial crisis. He was among those who pressed the Clinton Administration to loosen up mortgage lending standards so that mortgage lenders would be required to make loans to uncreditworthy borrowers. Then, to give nervous banks and other mortgage lenders somewhere to offload those risky loans, he (along with Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut) badgered the Democrats running Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the latter run by another Massachusetts boy) to buy those risky loans, package them up and sell them around the world as securities backed by the U.S. government. A concerned Bush Administration and Senate Republicans tried to bring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under control, but Barney Frank was there, 2003-2006, blocking those efforts, saying everything was fine and no changes were neeeded. When the subprime mortgage defaults started and exploded into an unraveling of the world financial system, there was Barney Frank blaming Wall Street. Shameless.

Chicago Democrats are also powerful, but their speciality is racial politics, payoffs and corruption. The Chicago Democratic machine put its candidate for president forward, hid his problematic past with a fictionalized biography, counted (correctly) on reverse racism to elect him and raised hundreds of millions of dollars illegally online to propel him into the White House. All of those unsavory buddies, Wright, Pfleger, Rezko, Ayers, Dohrn, Khalidi, Farrakhan, were shoved offstage with the media's acquiesence. Then the Mayor Daley spinmaster and Obama campaign orchestrator David Axelrod and Chicago Congressman and Obama's choice for White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel thought Democratic governor Blagojevich should name an Obama pick to Obama's Senate seat, all of which has now blown up into the "Senate Seat for Sale" scandal caught on tape by federal agents. The Chicago Three will now run the country from the White House, no doubt drawing on all the expertise accumulated by the Chicago Democratic machine over decades.

The biggest story of 2008 really was the turnaround in Iraq, which, as soon as it became obvious it was to be a success, disappeared from media top news. Replacing a terrrorist-supporting tyrant in the Middle East with a democratically-elected government that is an ally in the war against violent Islam is a tremendous accomplishment for which President Bush and General Petraeus will not get credit from the Democrats who opposed and ridiculed them. Or from their collaborating media.

Victor Davis Hanson reviews the year (but without the Massachusetts side notes) and calls it "A Year Like None Other." He sees three decades rolled into 2008, the Roaring 20s, the "bleak" 1930s and the Sixties. See if you agree.

John Kerry apparently is about to become chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In a show of romantic, misty-eyed nostalgia, the Boston Globe reminisced on its front page today about how John Kerry testified before that very committee during the Vietnam War, in 1971, wearing his uniform, resplendent in his medals, calling for an end to the American battle against Communism in Southeast Asia.

The Globe neglected to mention how Kerry shockingly slandered the men fighting and dying for America. Or how he was a key factor in undermining support for America's effort to preserve democracy for the South Vietnamese, which resulted in the slaughter of millions and an ignominous retreat by the United States.

During the same period Obama's long time collaborator in Chicago William (Bill) Ayers was also acting to undermine the American war effort. He was bombing the Capitol and the Pentagon and plotting to kill hundreds of American soldiers and their dates with a nail bomb at a dance at Fort Dix. He is rightly condemned for what he did and for his refusal to express any regret. He is an unrepentant terrorist, someone who deserves to be shunned.

Has Kerry every apologized for his slanders? Is he unrepentant as well? When the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth during the 2004 presidential campaign called Kerry to be rejected as unfit to be commander-in-chief, Kerry didn't admit he was wrong, didn't apologize for his slanders. Kerry and the mainstream media led by the New York Times just screamed about "lies." There were no lies.

As Kerry takes over the chairmanship of this important committee it would be appropriate for Kerry at last to confess his sins against his former comrades and to apologize for the slanderous accusations he leveled at the servicemen defendng our country.

How bad was Kerry's demonization of American troops before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee? See for yourself.

Vote for our fine Republican candidates.
God Bless America.
We are pround to be Americans.

McCain/Palin for President/Vice President
Jeff Beatty for U.S. Senate
Be sure to blank the vote for Congress or write in an opponent to the Democrat incumbent Delahunt, the self-described "close friend" of the Venezuela enemy of America Hugo Chavez. Delahunt is in our Hall of Shame for expressing delight at a congressional hearing that an intelligence professional had been forced to testify so al Qaeda could see what he looked like.
Don Howell for State Representative in the Fourth Barnstable District
Anastasia Walsh Perrino for Barnstable Registrar of Probate, running against a retiring Democratic legislator looking for a political job closer to home.
For Barnstable County Commission, vote Barros and Crowell into the two open slots.

Professor Thomas Sowell:

Whatever the shortcomings of John McCain and Sarah Palin, they are people whose values are the values of this nation, whose loyalty and dedication to this country’s fundamental institutions are beyond question because they have not spent decades working with people who hate America.

One person who has spent decades working with people who hate America is Barack Obama.

Obama played the race card successfully against Hillary Clinton and has tried it now several times against McCain and, despite some oh-so-light crticism, is still at it. Now the media is joining him: There is no reason to vote against Obama unless you are a racist. Prove you're not a racist: Vote for Obama.

So it's come to this.

The media plays Obama's race card

America's journalists insist that anyone who doesn't favor Obama is a racist. It's not only wrong, it's the Democrats who have the racism problem.

Jonah Goldberg
Los Angeles Times
September 23, 2008

The news media have been shamefully stoking the idea that the only way Barack Obama could possibly lose the presidential election is if American racists have their way. Indeed, the fact that Obama isn't leading in polls by a wide margin “doesn’t make sense ... unless it’s race,” says CNN's Jack Cafferty.

Slate's Jacob Weisberg says Obama is losing among older white voters because of the "color of his skin," in an article subtitled "Racism is the only reason McCain might beat him."

Continue reading "MEDIA NOW JOINING OBAMA IN PLAYING THE RACE CARD"

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Rush Limbaugh made the unvarnished statement that Obama was exploiting racial tensions for political purposes. His basis for the statement was an Obama Spanish language ad aimed at Hispanic voters that took Limbaugh totally out of context, linked him to McCain on immigration policy (which is a fantasy), all with the purpose of inflaming race hatred. As Limbaugh said in his Wall Street Journal article;

The malignant aspect of this is that Mr. Obama and his advisers know exactly what they are doing. They had to listen to both monologues or read the transcripts. They then had to pick the particular excerpts they used in order to create a commercial of distortions. Their hoped-for result is to inflame racial tensions. In doing this, Mr. Obama and his advisers have demonstrated a pernicious contempt for American society.

Limbaugh concluded that Obama was "unworthy of the presidency."

This website has carried extensive commentary about Obama's playing of the race card. See the category "Hall of Shame."

On Monday (tomorrow) Limbaugh will devote a major portion of his three-hour show dissecting the Obama ad. His show runs in all 50 states, not just the four that the false Obama ad has been run in. It will feature Spanish language translations, since Obama's false charges were in Spanish.

Because of the uproar, AOL Hotseat created a poll: "Is Obama exploiting racial tensions for political benefit?" The poll is totally unscientific and appears on a conservative website, but so far more than 16,000 have voted and 66% say yes, only 32% say no. Massachusetts, the bluest of states, checks in with 67/31% and California with 64/34%.

Monday's Limbaugh show is sure to have an attentive audience.

The Financial Times reports (HT: Power Line):

SEPTEMBER 11, 2008 THE PANIC SPREADS... ...to Capitol Hill: Democratic jitters about the US presidential race have spread to Capitol Hill, where some members of Congress are worried that Barack Obama’s faltering campaign could hurt their chances of re-election. ... “There is a growing sense of doom among Democrats I have spoken to . . . People are going crazy, telling the campaign ‘you’ve got to do something’.” The generic Congressional ballot is, indeed, getting closer. Likewise, the gap in party identification is narrowing. In general, the tide is flowing in the Republicans' direction. Of course, the Republicans are starting from a very bad point. Still, it appears that by November the Republican Party will be in better shape, broadly speaking, than has been the case for the last few years.

But what does a panicky Obama himself do?

He runs an ad mocking McCain for not being able to send an email.

Outrage immediately filled the internet. Jonah Goldberg pointed out that as far back as 2000, the Boston Globe reported on McCain's well known problem:

The reason he doesn't send email is that he can't use a keyboard because of the relentless beatings he received from the Viet Cong in service to our country. From the Boston Globe (March 4, 2000):

McCain gets emotional at the mention of military families needing food stamps or veterans lacking health care. The outrage comes from inside: McCain's severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes. Friends marvel at McCain's encyclopedic knowledge of sports. He's an avid fan - Ted Williams is his hero - but he can't raise his arm above his shoulder to throw a baseball.

Instapundit has a round up of the many comments, one of which was this:

"It's extraordinary that someone who wants to be our president and our commander in chief knows how to send an e-mail ...but not how to do a five-minute Google search." Or even how to hire someone who can . . . .

And another:

"I think they spent months trying to figure out how they can position Obama as better qualified than McCain, and basically came up with the fact that Obama can type."

John Hinderaker of Power Line had the most acid comments of all:

I've always thought that Barack Obama is unqualified for the office of President--he isn't qualified to be a Senator, either--but I've never thought he was particularly mean-spirited. Until now....

"I guess now we'll find out whether Barack Obama is capable of shame."

Obama has earned his way into our Hall of Shame.

Before a gathering of San Francisco sophisticates he demeaned rural rubes who "cling" to their God and their guns.

He falsely accused John McCain of racism in his campaign rallies more than once till he was called on it. He tried to play the race card in his favor, but it backfired.

He canceled a scheduled visit to American military personnel in a hospital in Germany because he couldn't bring his campaign aide along, there couldn't be any media accompanying him or he'd rather go to the gym or all of the above.

Not only is he an extremist on partilal-birth-abortion, he even lied about his key role in blocking a bill that would have saved the lives of babies born alive after failed abortions.

Democratic speaker of the House Pelosi ran home to San Francisco rather than allow a vote to allow new drilling in America to bring down the price of gas at the pump.

She then went on a national book tour touting herself as an example of leadership for "America's daughters."

Michael Barone elevated Pelosi into the number one position of shame in this session of Congress by using procedural tricks to get around the requirements of the fast track trade law to bring signed trade treaty deals to the floor for a vote. And who did she do it to? America's foremost ally in the America's -- Colombia.

President Uribe of Columbia recently mounted a fantastically successful operation to free hostages (including three Americans) held in some cases for years by FARC terrorists Uribe is winning fight alongside the United States against communist-leaning Venezuela and drugs.

Yet Pelosi thumbed her nose at America's best ally. It's fitting that respected political analyst Michael Barone said her action was the most shameful of this Congress.

So Pelosi goes into our Hall of Shame, deservedly so.

Shame.

What do you think of a congressman who in a hearing expresses delight that al-Qaeda now knows what a U.S. government official who is working to defeat al-Qaeda looks like?

That congressman unfortunately represents the Tenth Congressional District of Massachusetts, which includes Cape Cod and Chatham.

William Delhahunt, not content with being so cozy with Venenzuela's de facto dictator Hugo Chavez that he calls him his "excellent friend," is into outing patriotic Americans fighting Islamic terrorism.

So Delahunt is the first to enter our Hall of Shame. A well-earned honor.

Oh, you missed the congressional hearing? Do note the delight in the congressman's expression as he "outed" the American official fighting terrorism.

There's been a lot said about Obama's “Catholic problem.” In polls and in the primaries he has done poorly with the Catholic vote, but also with evangelicals and other people of faith. His belittling of rural folks who cling to their God and their guns certainly didn't help.

But many feel that it's Obama extremism on abortion that really turns the religious and many who aren't so religious off. He isn't "just" pro-choice. There is no one in the U.S. Senate (perhaps in American public life) who is more pro-abortion than Obama. He has opposed all efforts to end partial birth abortions. He fiercely criticized the Supreme Court decision upholding the federal ban on partial-birth abortions passed by Congress and signed by the President. 70% of all Americans oppose partial-birth abortions, so as Linda Chavez notes, “Obama’s views put him in a distinct minority.” He has promised that, if elected President, his first act will be to seek to pass a law that will end all restrictions on abortion, including partial-birth-abortions.

If anything, Obama's problem with those who view partial-birth abortion with horror just got worse. Obama, while a state senator in Illinois, singlehandedly blocked a bill which provided that, should a baby be born alive as the result of a failed abortion, all possible steps must be taken to keep the baby alive. This week it was disclosed he has been lying about what he did.

When he was running for the U.S. Senate in 2004 Obama was criticized by his opponent for supporting infanticide. Obama at that time said he had opposed the bill to preserve the lives of babies who survive abortions because it lacked language that was in the federal bill stating the bill did not affect the status of a fetus. Now Illinois state records show that what Obama said was not true.

Some expressed astonishment when Obama intoned that "we are the ones we've been waiting for," which of course meant "I am the one you've been waiting for." Twice before we had noted the swelling arrogance of Obama.

In Germany it was "generations from now we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment," you know, "when the rise of the oceans began to slow" because those cars in Boston which were melting the Arctic ice cap were impounded by his enviropolice.

Then there was the Obama quasi-presidential seal -- he couldn't wait.

At an intimate gathering of House members last night reporting on his triumphal tour of Europe (during which he bugged out of a scheduled visit to wounded servicemen) he announced to his open-mouthed listeners, "I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions."

Well, all this deserves a whole new book, don't you think?

Even the Bush-trashing Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank is choking on this:

"Barack Obama has long been his party's presumptive nominee. Now he's becoming its presumptuous nominee."

The Republican National Committee is getting into the swing of things and has launched its Obama Audacity Watch.

Watch this space.

Barack Obama is at it again, playing the race card, which we called him on awhile back.

Jake Tapper of ABC News reports on Obama's remarks during a stop in Rolla, Missouri on July 30th:

"And so the only way they figure they’re going to win this election is if they make you scared of me. So what they’re saying is, ‘Well, we know we’re not very good but you can’t risk electing Obama. You know, he’s new, he’s... doesn’t look like the other presidents on the currency, you know, he’s got a, he’s got a funny name."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but does it not seem as if Obama just said McCain and his campaign -- presumably the "they" in this construct -- are saying that Obama shouldn't be elected because he's a risk because he's black and has a foreign-sounding name?

Tapper continued:

Then in Union, Mo., this evening [still July 30th] in Union, Missouri, Obama seemed to specifically accuse McCain and the GOP of peddling racism and xenophobia.

Tapper quoted Obama:

"But, since they don’t have any new ideas the only strategy they’ve got in this election is to try to scare you about me. They’re going to try to say that I’m a risky guy, they’re going to try to say, 'Well, you know, he’s got a funny name and he doesn’t look like all the presidents on the dollar bills and the five dollar bills and, and they’re going to send out nasty emails.

Tapper did not hide his disgust:

There's a lot of racist xenophobic crap out there. But not only has McCain not peddled any of it, he's condemned it.

It's heartening that at least one national reporter picked up on what Barack Obama is doing. But this racism ploy is not new. Obama used it against Mrs. Clinton very effectively and then switched his target to McCain as soon as Clinton was out. On July 7th we pointed this out:

What Obama says about the opposition is now about John McCain. So there he was once again, at a Democratic fundraiser in Jacksonville on June 20th, suggesting -- with no history to justify such a remark -- that his opponent will inject the issue of race into the campaign: "And did I mention that he's black?"

Such a slander against McCain is unpardonable, but it's, sadly, every day fare for Obama. Obama knows many Americans would welcome a qualified black president and fanning the flames of racism works to his advantage. It did against the Clintons.

Will others in the media report on the slimy racism game Barack is playing?

Barack Obama's campaign has put out at least three different stories on why Obama stiffed visiting the wounded at the hospital in Germany. Obama himself said he decided not to go because he couldn't bring his campaign aide(s) along. That condition had been made clear by the military for weeks. So just leave the campaign aide behind and go. But, no, it was off to the gym, leaving the soldiers wondering what happened, since no explanation was given at the time why the visit was canceled.

Michael Ramirez Investor's Business Daily

Obama, trying to explain his way out of statement that he would be willing to sit down with Iran, said he was now supporting new sanctions against Iran. He then said this (HT: Power Line):

Now, in terms of knowing my commitments, you don't have to just look at my words, you can look at my deeds. Just this past week, we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, which is my committee, a bill to call for divestment from Iran, as a way of ratcheting up the pressure to ensure that they don't obtain a nuclear weapon.

But Obama is not a member of the Senate Banking Committee. Obama just made that up so he could count the committee's action as one of "my deeds."

The so intelligent Obama doesn't know what Senate committees he's on? This statement indicates how effortlessly he can lie about what he said (Before a Jewish group he said Jerusalem must remain undivided -- until the Palestinians objected.) and even what Senate commmittees he serves on. He clearly expects his adoring press not to pick him up on his lie. So far, none have.

One astonished observer called Obama's casual falsehood "scary."

For all the talk during the Democratic primary contest about how the Clintons were injecting the issue of race into the campaign, it was really Obama who was most energetically slapping down the race card.

It was little noticed in the uproar over his elitist remarks about the rural rubes who "cling" to their guns and their God that he also implied they were racists, too. At the chardonnay and brie fundraising reception for the Democratic high rollers in the hilltop mansion in San Francisco's Pacific Heights, he intoned what "they" would be saying, "And did I mention he's black?"

Now that the general campaign has for all practical purposes begun, Obama is once again throwing down the race card, this time at John McCain.

What Obama says about the opposition is now about John McCain. So there he was once again, at a Democratic fundraiser in Jacksonville on June 20th, suggesting -- with no history to justify such a remark -- that his opponent will inject the issue of race into the campaign: "And did I mention that he's black?"

Such a slander against McCain is unpardonable, but it's, sadly, every day fare for Obama. Obama knows many Americans would welcome a qualified black president and fanning the flames of racism works to his advantage. It did against the Clintons.

Michael Barone agrees with Obama that the issue of race is an Obama plus.

By raising the specter of racial attacks from John McCain (without any justification for doing so) Obama seeks to divert attention from -- and to choke off all criticism of -- his inexperience, extremism, embrace of black power and his many troubling personal associations, hoping he can brand all such criticism of him as "racism."

Michael Barone has done some historical analysis and concludes that Americans have already passed the "race" test and have nothing to prove with Obama.

Citing polls when Colin Powell was a possible candidate for president, Barone says this:

I would submit that the vast majority of American voters have already passed the test. They've shown they're willing to vote for a black candidate, provided he has acceptable views on issues and appropriate experience for the job.

Barone concludes:

On balance I think Obama's race has been a political asset. I believe that most Americans think it would be a good thing, all other things being reasonably equal, for our country to elect a black president. I know I feel that way myself. I think that impulse has inspired many voters, ever since his speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, to give Obama a sympathetic look-over, to be readier perhaps to appreciate his strengths and to overlook his weaknesses than they might be with an otherwise similar non-black candidate. The refusal of a very small number of voters to support a black candidate does not, I think, offset this significant advantage. The Obama candidacy is indeed a test -- a test not of American voters, but of Barack Obama. (emphasis added)

As Michael Barone suggests, Amercians should look beyond the color of skin and the soaring rhetoric to evaluate Obama's experience, his extremism, his embrace of black power and those many troubling personal associations he chose for himself.

Is this the person to be commander-in-chief of the United States in a time of peril?

What American is kicking our closest ally in the Americas in the teeth?

Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The world celebrates the astonishing rescue by the Columbian army of 15 FARC hostages, some of whom had been held for six years. Three Americans were among them. Columbia is the closest ally of the U.S. in the Western Hemisphere and the rescue was aided by close cooperation with the United States under a program adopted in 1998 by a Republican Congress and President Clinton. President Uribe's popularity, which hovers around 70%, soared to over 90% following the rescue.

Yet Democratic House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has refused to allow the Columbia-U.S.Free Trade Agreement to go to a vote on the House floor. Political analyst Michael Barone had this to say about that:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's rejection of the Colombia free-trade agreement, by changing House rules in a way that may have destroyed the fast track procedure by which the United States has secured free-trade agreements for more than four decades, seems to me to be the one truly shameful act of this Congress. This rejection of an ally, the third largest country in Latin America, a nation that is threatened by authoritarian and terrorist opponents, and has nonetheless succeeded in strengthening human rights and stimulating economic growth, is as disgusting as anything I've seen Congress do. John McCain hailed Colombia's action; Barack Obama, an opponent of the Colombia trade agreement, unblushingly chimed in a bit later. I wonder how he reconciles this with his message on the Colombia trade pact, summed up aptly in the title of a Washington Post editorial, "Drop Dead, Colombia." (emphasis added)

The Free-Trade Agreement will create jobs for Americans by opening up Columbia's markets while it only makes permanent market access to American markets Columbia has enjoyed on a temporary basis for years.

This would also be a good time -- he's changing his position on everything else -- for Senator Obama to reverse his position and finally speak in favor of the Columbia free trade agreement.

Senator McCain has strongly supported the free trade agreement. He was visiting with President Uribe the day before the rescue attempt. The president briefed McCain on it beforehand. Senator Joe Lieberman, traveling with Senator McCain along with Senator Lindsey Graham, said this:

"I think it was a sign of confidence of President Uribe and the defense minister in Sen. McCain and maybe the two of us that they were prepared to share this information...which was highly classified."

Our Congressman here on the Cape is usually just known as Congress' number one champion of Hugo Chavez, the de facto dictator in Venezuela who hates America.

But he keeps his eyes on Chavez's friends such as those in al-Qaeda. At a House hearing captured on C-Span Delahunt had this exchange with the former counsel to Vice President Cheney:

Cheney chief of staff David Addington told Democratic Rep. Bill Delahunt he couldn’t discuss specific techniques being used, or even discussed for use, by CIA agents because terrorists may be watching his appearance and would gain insight into what U.S. intelligence agents are up to.
“You kind of communicate with Al Qaeda if you do. I can’t talk to you because Al Qaeda may watch C-SPAN,” Addington said.
Delahunt responded: “I’m sure they are watching. I’m glad they finally have a chance to see you, Mr. Addington, given your penchant for being unobtrusive."

Delahunt later denied he was expressing pleasure that terrorists now had had a good look at who Addington was.

What do you think?

Who's smarter and more sophisticated than we are?

Who "understands" the comfort the little people get by clinging to their God and guns and hating immigrants and free trade?

Who knows he is better than us?

Who?