The Fact-Checker, by Michael Dobbs

There is no question that CNN or MSNBC will not cover any news like this with negative picture of Obama. They have already put him into a pedestal. If all this controversial news pertains to Sen.Clinton, it is 100% that these people (Chris Matthews and others) will parade in their sanctuarial stations and spin further to damage her being.

Obama also can't remember ever hearing Pastor Wright saying hateful/racist things in the 20 years he knew him. So what else is new?

but heres what we know for sure. obama sat in a racist church for twenty years. he is going to raise everybodies taxes and he is going to go talk to a crazed muslim who has said that israel and america are both history very soon,god willing.

OBAMA LIES AGAIN AND MAINSTREAM MEDIA LIKE CNN HIDES IT!
VOTERS ARE SICK OF THE MEDIA EXCUSING OBAMA NO MATTER WHO HE OFFENDS!!!!

Sen. Obama referres to himself as 'a constitutional law professor on the campaign trail. TRUTH: He never held any such title! Obama changed website bio to reflect that he was a 'lecturer' rather than 'professor. Chicago Daily Herald

Obama gets 4 Pinocchio's for 100 Years War-Wondered why the national media won't call out Obama for his serial distortions on McCain's Iraq comments, the Globe tried to help Obama rationalize it. Michael Dobbs scolded Obama in today's Fact Checker

MSNBC-OBAMA: ANOTHER SUPER, EXAGGERATION
Washington Post caught Obama in a lie about the Kennedy family role.
The WashigntonPost Fact Check- Senator Obama CAUGHT LYING about Kennedy Role in Helping His Father Contrary to Obama's claims in speeches Kennedy family did not provide the funding for a September 1959 airlift of 81 Kenyan students to the United States that included Obama's father. According to historical records and interviews with participants, the Kennedys were approached for support for the program a year later, July 1960. family responded with a $100,000 donation, which went to pay for a second airlift in September 1960.

Judicial Watch:
By Klaus Marre-Obama 'intended to leave no paper trail' OBAMA REFUSES to cooperate in releasing 8 years of his state senate records. One main reason REZKO!

Politico reports, "During his first run for elected office, Barack Obama played a greater role than he acknowledges in crafting liberal stands on gun control, the death penalty and abortion- positions that appear at odds with the more moderate image he's projected during his presidential campaign. The evidence comes from an amended version of an Illinois voter group's detailed questionnaire, filed under his name during his bid for a state Senate. In response to a Politico story, Obama's answers he never saw questioaire?

NBC- Aswini Anburajan
OBAMA LIES IN PENNSYLVANIA AD
It's unfortunate that Senator Obama is using false advertising to explain why he can be trusted to do something about energy prices. In his ad, Obama says, I'm Barack Obama, and I don't take money from oil companies or lobbyists, and I won't let them block change any more. Obama has been the recipient of more than $220,000 from the oil and gas industry just since as of Feb/08. Two of Obama's campaign bundlers are also CEOs for oil and gas companies, per his campaign Web site? Obama needs to answer to VOTERS about his dealings with one of his largest contributors Exelon, a big nuclear power company that he cut deals behind closed doors protecting them from full disclosure in the nuclear industry. Exxon, Shell, and others are among his biggest donors

Obamas record shows he infact did support the war when he got to the senate, voted twice against bringing America's troops back home. He voted for war appropriations giving our money to Halliburton and Blackwater where Texas woman, was gang-raped by her co-workers at a Halliburton/KBR camp in Baghdad, His latest bit of posturing S 433 allows the Bush Administration to suspend any troop withdrawal, if not suspended, keeps the troops in Iraq for a long time to come

Obama said he goofed on votes angered fellow Democrats in the Senate when he voted to strip millions of dollars from a child welfare office on Chicago's West Side. But Obama had a ready explanation: He goofed! Also announced he had fumbled an election-reform vote the day before, on a measure that passed 51 to 6. The next day, he acknowledged voting "present" on a key telecommunications vote. He stood on March 11, 1999, to take back his vote against legislation to end good-behavior credits for certain felons in county jails. "I pressed the wrong button on that," he said. Obama was the lone dissenter on Feb. 24, 2000, against 57 yeas for a ban on human cloning. "I pressed the wrong button by accident," he said. But two of Obama's bumbles came on more-sensitive topics, he backed legislation to permit riverboat casinos to operate even when the boats were dockside. The measure, pushed by the gambling industry and fought by church groups whose support Obama was seeking, passed with two "yeas" to spare -- including Obama's. Moments after its passage he rose to say, explaining that he had mistakenly voted for it.

Obama would later develop a reputation as a critic of the gambling industry, and he voted against a similar measure two years later. But he was clearly confused about how to handle the issue at the time of his first vote, telling a church group that he was "undecided" about whether he backed an expansion of riverboat gambling. And, months earlier, he had voted in favor of a version of the bill.

Obama's named in Rezko trial

FEDERAL COURT | Senator Obama attended bash for Iraqi crook Nadhmi Auchi
April 15, 2008

BY NATASHA KORECKI, CHRIS FUSCO AND TIM NOVAK Staff Reporters
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama was again drawn into Tony Rezko's corruption trial on Monday, when the prosecution's star witness placed Obama at a party for an Iraqi-born billionaire who was later barred entry to the United States.
Stuart Levine testified under cross-examination that Obama and his wife, Michelle, attended the April 3, 2004, reception for Nadhmi Auchi.

The government's star witness testified Monday that Sen. Barack Obama (left) attended a party four years ago at the home of Antoin ''Tony'' Rezko (top right) that was held to honor Iraqi-born Nadhmi Auchi

RELATED STORIES
Rezko's billionaire buddy 'CI4' -- the mystery figure who helped jail Rezko Gov's fundraiser got loan from Iraqi billionaire Obama's answers about Auchi from a March 14 Sun-Times interview Eye on Rezko Updates from our blog

An Obama connection?
News reports and now court testimony have linked presidential hopeful Barack Obama with Iraqi-born billionaire Nadhmi Auchi through Tony Rezko. Here's a rundown:
March 11, 2004 -- Obama met Middle Eastern bankers at the Four Seasons hotel in Chicago at a reception hosted by Rezko, who was courting potential investors for a 62-acre South Loop development. Auchi later took control of that project but did not attend, sources say.
April 1, 2004 -- Auchi flew in to Midway Airport on a private plane and attended a Four Seasons reception hosted by Gov. Blagojevich. Rezko planned the event and was there. Obama was not.
April 3, 2004 -- Auchi attended a dinner party at Rezko's Wilmette mansion. Obama and his wife, Michelle, also were there, according to testimony Monday at Rezko's corruption trial. The Obama campaign's response: "Senator and Mrs. Obama have no recollection of attending any such event."
Oct. 11, 2006 -- Charges against Rezko announced.
Jan. 28, 2008 -- Rezko was jailed for withholding details of his finances -- including a $3.5 million payment from an Auchi company in April 2007.
Auchi -- who lives in London -- had been convicted of fraud in France in 2003. After visiting Chicago and Detroit in 2004, he wasn't allowed back into this country in 2005, according to a prosecution filing in the Rezko case.
The April 3, 2004, gathering for Auchi took place at Rezko's mansion in Wilmette, with about 100 people attending, Levine testified.
"Mr. and Mrs. Obama were there, were they not?" Rezko's lawyer, Joseph Duffy, asked.
"Yes, sir," Levine said.
Later Monday, Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said: "As he has said previously, Senator Obama does not recall meeting Nadhmi Auchi at any time or on any occasion, and this includes any event that may have been held for Mr. Auchi. Senator and Mrs. Obama have no recollection of attending any such event."
But according to two sources familiar with the gathering, the Obamas attended the Wilmette reception, which came less than a month after Obama's Democratic primary win for his U.S. Senate seat. Rezko had been a key fund-raiser for Obama, who has since given to charity nearly $160,000 in Rezko-linked contributions.
Levine testified he was invited to the reception after meeting with Rezko and his family days earlier, during a spring vacation in Puerto Vallarta.
Auchi couldn't be reached Monday. His lawyer, Alasdair Pepper, told the Sun-Times in February his client "has no recollection of meeting Senator Obama." Auchi is appealing his French conviction. His 15-month sentence is suspended as long as he commits no new crimes. He is not accused of wrongdoing involving Rezko.
Obama is not accused of any wrongdoing. But his relationship with Rezko -- who is accused of demanding kickbacks from people seeking Illinois government business -- is under a microscope as he seeks the presidency. Obama particularly has drawn fire for buying property from Rezko's wife -- a strip of land adjacent to Obama's Kenwood home -- at a time Rezko was already known to be under federal investigation.
Levine testified Rezko had to leave Mexico early to host Auchi. So Levine chartered a private jet to fly Rezko's wife and children -- as well as his own family -- back to Chicago on April 3, 2004.
That night, Levine testified, he attended the reception, which was arranged to interest Auchi in investing in Illinois.
Gov. Blagojevich hosted a separate dinner party for Auchi two days earlier, at the Four Seasons hotel in downtown Chicago, the Sun-Times has reported.
Auchi was named by prosecutors in the January court filing that led to Rezko's bail being revoked and his being jailed. Last April, an Auchi company wired Rezko $3.5 million in connection with a valuable 62-acre South Loop site, which Rezko didn't disclose to authorities. Auchi's General Mediterranean Holding now controls the land at Roosevelt and Clark.
Prosecutors said Rezko appealed to the State Department in November 2005 to allow Auchi to enter the United States, after Auchi was unable to do so.

obama hasn't always been candid or open on his relationship with antoin rezko, said to be barack's 'confidante,' but actually, a (political) financier during obama's illinois legislature stint as a state senator.

it figures.

rezko is now in the hot seat, charged with committing a criminal offense. but barack thinks he's a "big shot" now, as one of two choices for democratic prexy bet. hence, for barack, he thinks it would do more harm than good for him to even acknowledge his long relationship with the bigtime influence peddler. he has obviously severed his connection with the chicago fixer.

what's the idiomatic expression for this obama behavior? a fair-weather 'friend,' that's what obama is to rezko, to blagojevich, ex-chicago governor (also as notorious as rezko) & to others now in dire straits. wright is similarly situated, for for all intents & purposes, obama has effectively ditched the firebrand (some say he's a 'neo-fascist') of a pastor.

the same deprecatory treatment obama has accorded the iraqi-born, london-based billionaire named nadhmi auchi, now also standing accused of similar charges slapped on rezko (if memory serves me right). obama, who, with his wife michelle, was confirmed to have attended a party (hosted by rezko in his chicago residence) in honor of the billionaire auchi, has told the MEDIA/PRESS a countless times that he (barack) can't remember ever meeting him or getting introduced to the billionaire in that meeting.

oh well, an astute reader & commentator earlier observed that it was impossible for obama not to have noticed or known or met with "THE ONLY BILLIONAIRE IN THE ROOM." Absolutely right, perfectly sound conclusion, isn't it?

the point, two points, actually. firstly, it looks like it's not worth one's while to befriend a "user" like obama, who'll certain to just squeeze whatever value he can get out of such 'friendship' (punsters say it should actually be called 'friendboat' as in a person being bought to be one's friend). for barack, the adage 'a friend in need is a friend indeed' just doesn't hold true. now that rezko, blagojevich, auchi, wright & other 'friends' of his are in trouble, barack suddenly suffers an amnesia.

second, & this is a very important point. now that obama's indisputable link with these shady characters have been exposed, the MEDIA/PRESS should thoroughly vet him on this, & put him under the severest scrutiny, like a toxic amoeba being scrutinized by scientists under the glare of a microscope.

more importantly, the american voters must demand of obama to QUIT THE DEMOCRATIC RACE & HIS SENATE SEAT even if only for delicadeza, since his name has been irreparably dragged & damaged as a result of his association with rezko & similar characters. in other countries,in other mature democracies, just a slight hint of a connection with personalities with questionable characters is enough basis or reason for politician to quit his post, elective or appointive, or a presidential contest, such as obama is now entered into.

the u.s. MEDIA/PRESS should do no less.****

1). William Ayers, in the age of terrorism, is Obama's Willie Horton."
Former counterterrorism expert Larry Johnson, Huffington Post, Feb. 16, 2008.
There has been sudden information linking Obama to a former member of the radical Weathermen Underground group that claimed responsibility for a dozen bombings between 1970 and 1974. The former Weatherman, William Ayers, told the New York Times. I don't regret setting bombs...I feel we didn't do enough. Obama and Ayers were members of the board of Woods Fund of Chicago, between 1999 and 2002. In addition, Ayers contributed to Obama's election to the Senate. They lived within a few blocks of each other in the trendy Hyde Park section of Chicago, and moved in the same liberal-progressive circles. Larry Johnson, a former counterterrorism official at the CIA and the State Department, predicts Republicans would seize on the Ayers case, and raises questions about Obama's judgment.

2). Obama's Relationship with Rezko Goes Back 17 Years. Obama Kept Contributions From Accused Fixer's wife And others per ABC News. Obama Campaign still hasn't returned more than $200,000. Obama referred to in document outlines case against Rezko Obama is finding out, it's not as easy to dump politically toxic campaign donations. For the third time in less than a year, Obama's camp announced it was shedding more donations tied to indicted fundraiser Rezko.

3)Obamas record shows he supports the war, voted twice in 2006 against bringing America's troops back home. He voted for war appropriations giving our money to Halliburton and Blackwater. His latest bit of posturing S 433 allows the Bush Administration to suspend any troop withdrawal!!!!if not suspended, still keeps the troops in Iraq for a long time to come? Obama when faced with tough choices always gave in to pressure from the Bush administration or corporate lobbyists.

4) Senate Record shows when Obama is faced with tough choices he always gave in to pressure from the Bush admin and corporate lobbyists. Obama voted for Bush's energy bill, sending more than $13 billion in subsidies and tax breaks to oil, coal, and nuclear companies. Obama voted with Republicans to allow credit card companies to raise interest rates over 30 percent, INCREASING STUDENT LOANS RATES AND FEES increasing hardship for families. Obama voted for one of Bush's top priorities - expanding Nafta to South America - even as President Bush obstructed all the top Democratic priorities. Obama voted with Bush to make it harder for ordinary people to hold big corporations accountable when they do things like sell toxic toys, poisonous pet food, human food or just plain rip you off. Obama voted for "business-friendly 'tort reform' bill that rolls back working peoples' ability to obtain reasonable redress and compensation...from corporations. HE IS NOT FOR THE WORKING MAN OR WOMAN!

5) Obama voted against requiring medical care for aborted fetuses who survive. Abortion opponents call Obama's vote on medical care for aborted fetuses as a refusal to protect the helpless and accused him of supporting infanticide.

BOYCOTT CNN AND MSNBC FOR COVERING UP FOR OBAMA!!!!

DO NOT WATCH CNN OR MSNBC

"While acknowledging his friendship with Rezko, Obama has minimized their social dealings."

How absurt is that statement:

1. Obama said in CNN SC debate he hardly knew Rezko

2. Obama's kids play in Rezko's land next to their house. Rezko's sold 10' of the land to Obama so that no one, including Rezko, could not build anything on that land. Indirect bribe for Obama's family to enjoy free land next to his house

How much close can one get to social connection than buying land next to each other and donating land for free to Obama?

Michael Dobbs is a Clinton hater for years. You are not going to get much on Obama from him. I believe this issue has already been fact checked and he gave one or two pinocchios.

You won't get him to check Obama's lies about when, where, and how he knew of Wright's comments. He would water it down to maybe one or two pinocchios. You're not going to get balance from the fact checker.

I would like a fair fact checker check him.

The Chicago papers have been investigating and reporting on the Obama/Rezko connect for a decade. The reporters who have covered this have said there is nothing there. If this was an issue the Chicago papers would of brought Obama down years ago. The pettiness and desperation emanating from the Clinton campaign and their cult-like supporters is palpable.

Why is this a fact checker when you offer no facts?!?!

As you state in the fact checker, Levine is a habitual drug user, a GOP fundraiser and has his own self-serving reasons for taking the stand. Levine's credibility is at stake. Being an overabuser of drugs, Levine can't even recall things he has said only one week ago, let alone 4 years ago as reported by the media here in Illinois.

I read that Levine is a person of questionable character. Also, politicians meet people ALL the time; those parties can be HUGE. Just because two people are in the same room, it doesn't mean they share the same philosophies. It doesn't mean there's something nefarious going on.

The media are trying to suggest something sinister may be going on every time Obama and Rezko are mentioned in the same sentence by anybody. If there were something criminal going on, believe me, Obama would have been arrested by now.

Wow. Even the lawyer for Auchi says his client has no recollection of an Obama meeting. If Obama says it ain't so, and Auchi says it ain't so - then wha.......Levine is trying to cut a deal for a dramatically reduced sentence. The prsocution has the key to his reduced prison time. So he'll say whatever they want him to say.

Plus, he's on so many drugs that he's not actually seeing reality correctly. Wise people will believe Obama and Auchi rather than Levine. Levine in invested in his lie.

Wow. Even the lawyer for Auchi says his client has no recollection of an Obama meeting. If Obama says it ain't so, and Auchi says it ain't so - then wha.......Levine is trying to cut a deal for a dramatically reduced sentence. The prsocution has the key to his reduced prison time. So he'll say whatever they want him to say.

Plus, he's on so many drugs that he's not actually seeing reality correctly. Wise people will believe Obama and Auchi rather than Levine. Levine in invested in his lie.

Sounds like we have another Alberto Gonzales...I don't recall...can't find those records............we deserve the government we let the MSM pick for us.That afterall is how we got BushJr.

The reality is that ambitious legislators WILL be in the company of such folks. Rezko WAS invited to the White House during Clinton. Bush holds the Saudi prince's hand. etc etc etc. Big deal. The anti-Obama folks have to search hard for things to "fit" their beliefs and won't vote for him anyway. And so Obama is so bad, while Rice, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Tenet figured out how to lie to their people to get us to go to a war that has bankrupted this country. Or how the excesses of corp executives really began during the bubble under Clinton. Your "facts" don't mean much as at the end of the day, I will take the facts that take away from Obama's illusion over the realities of Republicans and Clinton any day.

In today's Sun-Times, Michael Sneed has an item that says sources tell her that not only was Obama at the reception, he gave the billionaire a big welcome -- and made toasts!

Here's the link. (I don't know if you'd print the item verbatim ... copyright and all that...)

http://www.suntimes.com/news/sneed/896844,CST-NWS-SNEED16.article

If this is the only contact, its still true that Senator Obama doesn't know the billionare. Even regular people don't remember everyone they meet, and for a politician, multiple the number of people by a 1000.
For this to stick to Obama, they are going to have to come up with far more than 5 second meeting.

@@@@@@@@@@@

Here they go again.

The WaPo on the warpath.

All good news about Obama
(Latest polls)

Needs to be tempered by the bad.

(Bring up Rezko anytime Obama
looks good..or the 5th day in a
row some form of 'bitter' appears
on front of the web page).

Shame on you WaPo.
Good reporting is one thing,
slamming a candidate,
any candidate, at every
turn is YELLOW.

@@@@@@@@@@@@

BTW Senator McCain said and meant that the USA may keep troops in Iraq for 100 years. While I will assume that he didn't think the current level of conflict would be sustained, he was very intentionally saying he was intending to keep USA troops there for many years even at the current level of conflict.
Since the vast majority of Iraqis and Americans want ALL USA TROOPS out of Iraq as soon they can leave without genocide occurring, Senator McCain is even more in conflict with the wishes of all involved than the Bush Adminstration.

This is oh so tiring. O.k., lets bring up white water, why did Ron Brown, the former Secretary of Commerce under William Jefferson Clinton, have a hole in his head that resembled a gun shot wound when his plane crashed in Bosnia, and all the lawsuits filed against family Clinton. We are in silly season in politics. If you going to let the Clintons slide . . . Just calling it like I see it. Remember folks, these are mere human beings, not God! Can I get an amen, and no, I am not excusing them but enough is enough. This article cannot even confirm this alleged meeting and one of the finger pointers has some major issues. Get real!

Levine, who as you say, is very questionable after frying his brain on horse tranquilizers, etc, is no longer on the stand.

Obama's name came up twice in weeks of testimony. Once when he was copied on a memo that had nothing sinister attached to Obama. And this party that he may or may not have attended and neither Obama nor the other guy remember meeting each other.

I see as much sinister here as the Clintons posing with Rezko after his donation to their campaign.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I suppose the MSM built the biggest small donor fund raising organization in the history of politics. Clinton people should be more than angry, they should be nauseous. The Clintons had eight years to create this campaign with your money and hard work posting smears here on the internet...and it is an unmitigated disaster.

Keep doing the same thing and expect a different outcome.

Compared to Charles Keating, Rezko is a Mouseketeer.

McCain is one of the Keating Five, which you will be refreshed on soon enough....

obama lied about his relationship with Rezko.

4 noses, and 4 for the fake journalist who can't take a stand.

This is enough for anyone,who is not totally brain damaged from drinking too much toxic Obama Kool Aid like all the
Obamabots,to realize that Barack Obama is
the most totally crooked,completely corrupt
biggest pathological liar and biggest sleazy loser that the dimwit Democrats and
the fawning Obama lover mainstream news
media like the WAPO ever tried to scam us
with and get to vote for in US history. Why
isn't Barack Hussein Obama in jail for his
peddling Cocaine on the Streets of Chicago
that he personally admitted to doing,just
for openers,and the fact remains Chicago
Slum Lord Tony Rezko,Nutty Nancy Pelosi,
Crazy Howard Dean,Old Lush Teddy Kennedy.
and Windsurfer John Kerry own Obama lock
stock and barrel. Just say NO to Obama!

For two years now, the media has tried bringing Obama down with this Rezko nonsense. Keep reaching folks. I'm sorry your establishment-candidate is losing to Obama, keep reaching...

How about Hillary's Peter Paul vs. Clinton Fraud Case?
Finance irregularities and have not disclosed the appeal of the case. There will be a trial date set at a hearing on April 25th, just 3 days after the key Pennsylvania Primary for the Fraud Case Paul v. Clinton in the Los Angeles Superior Court. Plaintiff says he will call PA Gov. Rendell will be a witness in the case. Rendel probably should not be raising funds for Michigan until he has answered questions about this 2000 Clinton Fundraiser. From what I understand, this case began when prior to Sen. Clinton's 2000 New York Senate campaign and also raised donations for Pres. Clinton's Library.

While the media has made much of Hillary's misspeaking about her experience in Bosnia (not a felony), they have entirely ignored her misspeaking about who her largest donor was in 2000 (a felony, according to the Justice Department, unless Hillary does it!)
http://www.peterfpaul.com/category/ed-rendell/

I'm trying to figure out what the story is here. Proof of a meeting that Obama says he can't recall would "be a blow" for Obama's campaign? I thought if I clicked on this Auchi guy's name that it would link me to coverage of some nefarious dealings this guy has had. It took me to this guy's company website.

If Obama happened to meet the guy at a party, so what? What am I not getting?? Why is this a story?

This is a non-story in which no facts have been presented. Why is it included here in what is supposed to be a "fact-checker" column? This is a fake story founded on baseless accusations by a known drugged out GOP operative. Nothing to see here, let's move on.

I would like to read something about John McCain's involvement with the Keating Five scandal from which he got off scot-free.

While Hillary's Bosnia comment seems to have brought her to her knees according to recent polls due to the press coverage that comment got. Obama's lies regarding Rezko go unchecked and are not covered by the mass media. Once again pointing to the bias in the media coverage.

Nora: Please explain how there is a media bias as far as Rezko is concerned. Last time I checked, the media has been hounding Obama for the last two years with this non-story.

What are some of you not getting? Obama has said he is a different sort of person.
Change and hope is one of his biggest campaign slogans. This guy is from Chicago and his dealings are showing he can be just as shady. Now do some of you get it?

A player.

cyberaim: the old-school politicians' philosophy was "deny, deny, deny." Obama has admitted his dealings with Rezko and has even apologized. Is this not enough for you?

Maybe the desparate Clinton supporters should read about how the ever-growing Clinton negativity is affecting her standing in the race:

"While Clinton retains a big edge over Obama on experience, public impressions of her have taken a sharply negative turn. Today, more Americans have an unfavorable view of her than at any time since The Post and ABC began asking the question, in 1992."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/15/AR2008041503586.html?hpid=topnews

and

"Lost in the Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign's aggressive attacks on Barack Obama in recent days is a deep and enduring problem that threatens to undercut any inroads Clinton has made in her struggle to overtake him in the Democratic presidential race: She has lost trust among voters, a majority of whom now view her as dishonest. "

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/15/AR2008041502883.html?hpid=topnews

Her team's negative, "let's find a molehill and try to make it a mountain" program ain't working. It didn't work with Wright; it isn't working with "bitterness"; it certainly isn't going to work with Rezko because, as rational mind among fools pointed out, this isn't exactly news in Illinois and the papers there haven't found anything even vaguely incriminating, much less damaging to Obama.

So, keep on screeching and wailing and gnashing your teeth; you're perfectly welcome to support your candidate of choice, but you'd be doing her, yourself and everyone else a big favor is you did so on what she's done and can do, rather than trying to "prove" Obama's a criminal. Isn't going to happen and just makes you look foolish.

Exactly what is the story here? That two people active in politics might have ATTENDED THE SAME PARTY? This is an extremely sad attempt at guilt by association. Shame on you. If we are going to address questionable characters that the the candidates have dealt with, why not start chonicalogically with McCain/Keating. (After all, McCain was the only Republican naive enough to fall for that piece of work). And then we can go on to the Clintons if you've got a month or two.

How is it that the Rezko trial is getting all this attention, when Barack is not a defendant, while the Paul V. Clinton campaign fraud case, where the filthy Clintons ARE the defendants, goes unreported?

There's your media bias!

Stick a fork in the Clintons, they're done.

So what? I don't really care if Obama met some sketchy people once. You have to prove that Obama gained something or granted an illegal favor, not just that he had an idiot friend and said hi to a fraudster once.

Why no mention by the Post of house Rezko got Obama his house?

Obama = Player (not a good thing)

The ( supposedly ) new boss is looking a lot like the old boss.

Same corruption different name. There is even more on the connection between Obama and these shady people but MSMedia refuses to report.

The coporate interests backing Obama ave been the reason democrats have not challenged anything the GOP has done. The old line and now the so called new wing backing Obama are really backing their own private gravy train.

"...The Washington Post discovers Tony Rezko, but neglects to note that Rezko is Obama's financier and neighbor.

Really, not mentioning the house deal and the question of where Mrs. Rezko got the money to help the Obama's purchase their home by buying the empty lot next to it at the same time the Obamas bought the home is journalistic malpractice, especially in a column titled "fact-checker" that includes this summary graph:

While acknowledging his friendship with Rezko, Obama has minimized their social dealings. Interviewed last month by the Chicago Tribune, he said that he and Rezko met for breakfast or lunch infrequently. He said that he attended a fundraising event at Rezko's home in Wilmette in 2003, but made no mention of the April 2004 party for Auchi.
Is it possible that the reporter, Michael Dobbs, doesn't know about the house deal? Or that it doesn't inform the reader about the facts of the Rezko-Obama partnership?

Which would be worse: Not knowing, or not thinking it important enough to mention?

Rezko is Obama's Abramoff, but MSM is blocking for Obama, as this "fact-checker" column demonstrates..."
http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/blog

There is no meat in these reports about Obama. There are no ethical issues. Bunch of Hillary losers posting their garbage as usual. Do you read the headlines that Obama's national delectability has risen to 2 - 1 against Hillary? Get a life and get used to being losers. You are so out of touch with the rest of America.

"There is even more on the connection between Obama and these shady people ..."

Please, fill me in with the details since you know so much. Tell me something new about Rezko that I don't already know after two years.

More evidence showing that Obama is not the saint he wants you to think he is.

The press should have been all over this guy from day one but gave him a pass. He's nothing but a fraud!

Senator Barack Obama is a fraud. He always mess up with important legislation. He had the audacity to said: "OOOps" "I pressed the wrong button" "It was distracted"
"I was confused" "I don't like the wording of the legislation".
No to Obama. He is a charlatan.
Vote for experience. Vote for the best candidate. Vote for Senator
Hillary Clinton.

CBSNEWS.COM
THE BAD COMPANY OF BARACK OBAMA
National Review Online: The Senator's "Change" Would Radically Alter This Country
Why is Barack Obama so comfortable around people who so despise America and its allies? Maybe it's because they're so comfortable around him.

He presents as the transcendent agent of "change." Sounds platitudinous, but it's really quite strategically vaporous. Sen. Obama is loath to get into the details of how we should change, and, as the media's Chosen One, he hasn't had to.

But he's not, as some hopefully dismiss him, a charismatic lightweight with a gift for sparkling the same old vapid cant. Judging from the company he chooses to keep, Obama's change would radically alter this country. He eschews detail because most Americans don't believe we're a racist, heartless, imperialist cesspool of exploitation. The details would be disqualifying.
...
Rev. Wright inspired his congregation -- of which the Obamas were 20-year members -- with "black liberation theology." The doctrine is itself the inspiration of James Hal Cone, a professor of "Systematic Theology" at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Cone is also the author of several books, which a tendentious Wright urged Sean Hannity to read during a recent interview.

It's a useful suggestion. For example, there is Cone's 1969 opus, Black Theology and Black Power, in which he helpfully explains:

Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community.... Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.

Black liberation theology, as Wright has elaborated, is closely aligned with the "liberation theology" of Nicaragua during the seventies and eighties: i.e., the doctrine that catalyzed Marxist revolutionaries. It spurred an unabashedly Leftist movement that emphasized, you guessed it, the crying need for "change" -- as George Russell aptly described it in a 2001 Time magazine analysis, "social change in the process of spiritual improvement."

It is this same drive for upheaval, for supplanting a political order which purportedly treats blacks as "less than human," that impelled Wright's plea for God to "damn America." In the oppression narrative, the murder of 3000 Americans on 9/11 isn't terrorism but social justice. America, after all, had it coming. For Wright, it was "chickens coming home to roost." Indeed, Wright sometimes prefers to call our country "the U.S. of KKK A" -- a grotesque sentiment which, we shall see, is shared by others with whom the Obamas choose to associate themselves.

For their part, the Obamas couldn't get enough of Wright. Barack and Michelle had him marry them. They chose him to baptize their children, who were routinely exposed to Wright's race-baiting bombast.
...
With this as background, is it really all that startling that Sen. Obama enjoys a friendly relationship with Bill Ayers and his wife, Bernadine Dohrn, a pair of terrorists?

I want to be clear here: Not terrorist sympathizers. Terrorists.

The mainstream media, in their zeal to elect a Democrat, are assiduously airbrushing Ayers: "an aging lefty with a foolish past," as the Chicago Sun-Times has so delicately put it. In fact, it is the press that is rife with foolish, aging lefties. Ayers, by contrast, is an unapologetic terrorist with a savage past -- one who beat the system he so reviles when, after his years of fugitivity, terrorism charges were dropped due to government surveillance violations. He's "guilty as sin," by his own concession, but "free as a bird."

Ayers didn't just carry a sign outside the Pentagon on May 19, 1972. He bombed it. As his memoir gleefully recalled, "Everything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon. The sky was blue. The birds were singing. And the *******s were finally going to get what was coming to them."

Whether Pentagon bombing day was more or less ideal than other days, when he, Dohrn and their Weathermen comrades bombed the U.S. Capitol, the State Department, and sundry banks, police stations and courthouses, Ayers does not say. But on each occasion, there was surely optimism that the *******s were finally going to get what was coming to them.

There were lots of bombs. There is no remorse. "I don't regret setting bombs," he told the New York Times in 2001, sorry only that he and the others "didn't do enough." Like what? We can't be sure, though National Review Online's Jonah Goldberg recounts Ayers's sentiments back in the day: "Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that's where it's really at."
http://tinyurl.com/46usgc

You report: He said that he attended a fundraising event at Rezko's home in Wilmette in 2003...
A fundraising event for whom? For Obama himself? Then in order to be not incomplete or misleading, shouldn't you say that "Rezko hosted a fundraiser for Obama at Rezko's home in Wilmette in 2003." Or "Obama attended a fundraiser which Rezko hosted for Obama at Rezko's home in Wilmette...." or such.

Do you realize that everybody is watching Obama trough microscope trying to discover any dirt on him. There is no man in the world that did not do something bad in his life. I like Obama message and if i am American i would vote for him, but honestly most of Americans do not deserve president like that. Bush suits you just fine.

It is high time that the media entered "Fortress Obama" to get the answers. The Obama campaign has been closed, secretive, and hostile to reporters who don't sit with fans at Obama's feet on hot days.

http://moeursalen.blogspot.com/2008/03/obama-rezko-and-one-phat-crib-pave-way.html

i am really sorry americans.SUPPORTERS of obama can not see that if you have friends and connections likerezko ,pastor, you are like them. Beaucause you run for president you are always sorry and always you apologise.OPEN YOUR EYES.I am acanadian.

LOL!!!...look at all these Obama haters, funny as hell. What's the problem folks we need a smart person in the office this time, something totally different from norm'........u clowns are scared like little girls of Change.

So Obama may have been in a room, years ago, with an Iraqi who isn't accused of any wrongdoing? Heavens. Next you'll be saying he went to a school board meeting with a former student radical. In, what, 1996?

Fred: do you realize the article you quote is an opinion piece? Did you also know the National Review Online has been completely biased against Obama from day one?

Peg: "There is no meat in these reports about Obama."

If you boil bones long enough, you can get a nice stock.

Somebody may have attended a party that he can't remember?
How suspicious!
Even I can't remember every pary I've attended, and I bet the Obamas have attended more parties in the last month than I have attended in the last five years.

The Past as Prologue
In preparation for her unchallenged role as America's Scandal Queen, Hillary navigated the shoals of Arkansas politics for 12 years as the then-governor's wife - years that included scandals of her own, among them:

▪ A $100,000 windfall from cattle futures after a $1,000 investment.

• The Castle Grande real estate scam.

• Her role as attorney for the Rose law firm in what would become the endlessly controversial-cum-criminal Whitewater affair that would follow her to the White House.

• The serial philandering of her husband, which cast her - depending on one's viewpoint - as a clench-jawed stoic, a perpetual victim, or a willing collaborator.

According to veteran journalist Richard Poe: "During Bill Clinton's tenure as attorney general and then governor of Arkansas, the state became a veritable Dixie Casablanca, a hotbed of global intrigue, in which shady operators ranging from Columbian drug lords and BCCI money launderers to Chinese intelligence agents took part." And there, in the thick of it, was Clinton's "stand by your man's" wife, Hillary.

Chicago-born Hillary - who by way of education, career, marriage and circumstance had already migrated to Wellesley, New Haven, Washington D.C., and Little Rock - had learned a lot in "The Natural State," specifically how to supernaturally evade responsibility, deny accountability, and dodge law enforcement, all the perfect preparation for her lengthy stay in White House - at the lofty address she now wants to reoccupy.

An Expert at Scandal
Unlike Brer Rabbit, Hillary wasn't born and bred in the world of political scandal - far from it. In fact her family were Republicans and young Hillary supported the1964 presidential bid of Barry Goldwater, the archconservative senator from Arizona. Unphased by his loss, she continued her conservative ways by becoming the president of the Wellesley College chapter of College Republicans.

But with her exposure at Wellesley to the radical leftist Saul Alinsky and her subsequent introduction to Yale Law School's draft-dodging leftist Bill Clinton, the die was cast for her hate-America's-military-intelligence-defense establishment. To the smartest woman in the world and her then-boyfriend, the path to changing what they hated was clear: Get power and hold onto it no matter what it takes!

What it took in Arkansas was first learning and then becoming a scandal expert. Within months of taking up residence in the White House, Hillary put her expertise to work.

In May 1993, the co-president was accused of having a central hand in firing several long-time employees of the White House Travel Office, the better to give the pricey travel business to her Hollywood pals, Linda Bloodworth Thomason and Harry Thomason. In true scandal-mode form, Hillary denied everything and when Whitewater Independent Counsel Robert Ray investigated Travelgate, he concluded that there was substantial evidence that involved Hillary but not enough to warrant an indictment.

A couple of months later, in July 1993, White House Deputy Counsel Vince Foster was said to have committed suicide, although the case for his murder has been made persuasively by, among others, Christopher Ruddy, in his 1993 book, "The Strange Death of Vincent Foster: An Investigation."

But the case didn't end there. In 1996, Hillary was accused by the Senate Special Whitewater Committee of ordering the removal of potentially damaging files related to Whitewater from Foster's office on the night of his death. Hillary denied everything, once again proving her adeptness in the scandal briar patch.

In June 1996, White House security head Craig Livingstone, a political operative and former bouncer, illegally obtained over 700 FBI files of mostly White House personnel from former Republican administrations. Hillary was accused of requesting the files and, in fact, hiring Mr. Livingstone, but she denied everything to yet another Independent Counsel, and Filegate became one more notch in her briar patch scandal belt.

Ultimately, her co-presidency brought about the fall of more elected and appointed members of her regime, as well as "friends" who met untimely deaths, were indicted, pleaded the fifth, fled the country, and were imprisoned, than in any administration in American history.

Susan: Well, since almost all media outlets have given Obama a free pass for months and months, I thought a little balance would be appropriate. I noticed that you did not dispute the truth of the article. Obama hasn't, either. We all know about his unsavory connection with his "mentor and spiritual adviser," the racist and anti-American Rev. Wright. Regarding William Ayers, when Axelrod was asked about their connection, he said they are "certainly friendly."

Hillary's...Um...Character
Throughout her scandal-contaminated eight years in the White House, Hillary - having refined her skills in deflection, dissimulation and denial - became comfortably entrenched in her self-created briar patch. With increasing audacity and a confidence borne of "beating the system," she also displayed behavior that didn't quite rise to the level of scandal but certainly occupied other, rather lowly, categories:

Megalomania: Hillary refused to acknowledge - publicly or in print - the woman who in essence wrote her 1996 book, "It Takes a Village."

Lying: Hillary gave false testimony about her co-defendant Ira Magaziner, who helped her conduct secret meetings about her failed plan to socialize U.S. medicine.

Obstruction of Justice: the "smartest woman in the world" couldn't remember where she placed the Rose law firm billing records that were subpoenaed in 1994, until they magically reappeared two years later in the White House library.

Tastelessness: In 1999, after the wife of terrorist Yasir Arafat told the co-president that Israel was deliberately poisoning Palestinians, Hillary saw fit to embrace her. And that is not to omit what Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Michael Goodwin called her "rancid race baiting" remarks at a recent Martin Luther King Jr. celebration about Republicans running "the House" like a "plantation." Significantly, she omitted mention of the holiday that Arkansans celebrated during her years in the state house that honored Dr. King while at the same time honoring Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general who fought to allow the South to keep blacks enslaved.

Selective Amnesia: In her 2004 book, "Living History," Hillary strangely omitted mention of her own and her husband's key associates, men with whom she took numerous photographs and who donated millions of dollars to her husband's campaigns, going back to their Arkansas days. These include - among dozens of other shady characters and outright criminals - Moctar Riady, the Indonesian billionaire owner of the Lippo banking company (the partner of which is the Chinese communist government and reputedly a front for Chinese espionage), and his son James, who eventually pleaded guilty to campaign violations.

Contempt for Women: The world got its first glimpse of Hillary's shabby character when she was co-running for the co-presidency in 1992 and - with what turned out to be supreme irony - told Steve Kroft on "60 Minutes" that she "wouldn't be some 'stand by your man' woman like [country-music icon] Tammy Wynette."

Her low regard for women continued through the 1990s as the White House went after many but certainly not all of the president's women - Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, and Elizabeth Ward Gracen - by auditing their tax returns, and, in 1997, leaking Paula Jones' confidential tax returns to the press.

According to Candace E. Jackson in her book, "The Women Targeted by the Clinton Machine," Hillary "was right there in the inner circle taking a lead in giving these women zero credibility, in attacking them in public and through the press and in participating in all of these scare tactics, like hiring private investigators to threaten them and follow them...[she] is either as misogynistic as her husband or she is simply willing to conspire to mistreat women if that's what it takes to preserve their political careers."

In "Hillaryland," Ryan Lizza writes in TheNewRepublicOnline, the New York senator has many Kool-Aid-drinking "crawl-across-broken-glass-for-Hillary" types [and] a "vast political empire based in Washington and New York...she has made every effort to change her image from far-left liberal by enacting legislation with Republicans...the more right-wing the co-sponsor, the better; extra points for anyone involved with her husband's impeachment."

But will her extreme makeover work? According to columnist Jonah Goldberg, Hillary's recent return of a campaign contribution from Wal-Mart, on whose board she sat from 1986 until 1992, "is a perfect illustration not merely of her hypocrisy but of the quicksand she is now in. She thinks it's a winning message to say she's too good for Wal-Mart's money but not Hollywood's. That's not exactly red-state savvy."

"The amazing thing about [Hillary]," Goldberg says, "is that she's so unappealing. Even liberals don't like what they see...at every turn, [her] Zelig-like public persona has been a fabrication - either by her fans, her enemies or herself..."

All of which may explain a recent CNN-Gallup poll in which 51 percent of respondents said they definitely would "not vote" for Hillary in a presidential race.

Indeed, according to an online conservative site, even "media liberals are starting to jump ship" on Hillary, with "one CNN veteran [Ken Bode] calling her a `certain loser,' a Newsweek scribe [Jonathan Alter] warning that she'll take Democrats on a `kamikaze' mission in 2008," and arch-leftist Maureen Dowd of the Clinton-fawning New York Times batting her away as one would an irritating gnat.

Hillary's...Um...Style
Equally difficult to overcome, however, are unfortunate personality traits that Hillary has none-too-convincingly tried to conceal from the public. While decades have passed since she was labeled "Sister Frigidaire" in her high school newspaper, her image of being cold, robotic and inaccessible continues to this day.

Some critics have called her angry, impatient, given to temper outbursts, calculating, opportunistic, and a chronic victim, but Tim Cavanaugh of www.reason.com said, "Plainly put, it's her personality... She still lacks a key quality that a politician can't achieve through hard work: likeability."

Indeed, it's difficult to like someone who constantly patronizes her audiences, speaking ever so slowly so that the stupid masses will "get" what the smartest woman in the world is saying. Or when she uses her alienating alternative oratorical style, which consists solely of the strident, the screechy and the preachy.

Expanding on the Zelig multiple-personality comparison, author and political commentator Kate O'Beirne calls Hillary a "skilled poseur," enumerating the ways in which she takes positions "entirely at odds with the words she proclaims from the housetops." Not the least being her advocacy for the little guy, when in fact Hillary is the second-biggest spender in the Senate after New Jersey's Sen. Jon Corzine.

Mrs. O'Beirne cites Hillary's "Liberal Quotient" from the Americans for Democratic Action, which was 95 last year, tied with far-left Senators Barbara Boxer and Richard Durbin, and her lifetime ADA rating of 95, which outscores both Senators Ted Kennedy (89.16) and John Kerry (88.7). NARAL scored her a perfect 100 percent since her election to the senate, and the National Rifle Association gave her the grade of "F."

Although Hillary would like the public to believe that she is a born-again hawk when it comes to the military, O'Beirne reports that the conservative American Security Council gave her "a measly 20 percent on national-security issues" and states that "her ersatz hawkishness is one of tepid gestures and hollow speechifying."

Another example of her counterfeit hawkishness was demonstrated when she denounced the recent election of the terrorist group Hamas in Palestinian parliamentary elections, which led terrorism expert Steven Emerson to remind the public that, while co-president, Hillary met repeatedly with "groups that had openly supported Hamas, Hezbollah and other foreign terrorist organizations," including, among many others, the militant Islamic Relief Association and The American Muslim Council, whose followers carried out the 1993 World Trade Center bombings."

"A review of the statements, publications and conferences of the groups Mrs. Clinton embraced," said Mr. Emerson, "shows unambiguously that they have long advocated or justified violence. By meeting with these groups, the first lady lent them legitimacy."

Today, John Spencer, the former Mayor of Yonkers, NY, and a Vietnam combat veteran who will challenge Hillary in the November senate race (www.joinspencer.com) has accused the smartest woman in the world of accepting money from wealthy businessmen Hassan Nemazee and Faraj Aalaei, who are both associated with the American Iranian Council, a pro-Iranian-regime.

"Senator Clinton voted against the very munitions necessary to avoid a nuclear confrontation with Iran," Mr. Spencer said, "while at the same time accepting money from supporters of the Iranian mullahs...she lacks the credibility to keep New York safe and she should return this tainted money."

Then there is Hillary's paranoid streak, as evidenced, O'Beirne states, by "her modus operandi [which] has always been to rally troops against the enemy - whether the Clintons' Arkansas enemies, the Gingrich forces in the House, Ken Starr and `the vast right-wing conspiracy,' George W. Bush and his band of ideologues, or whoever will bear the Republican mantle in 2008."

A Worm Under Every Rock
No matter where you look, Hillary's name is associated with scandal. For one thing, she has acknowledged accepting contributions from the influence peddling, recently indicted, uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

There is also, according to Carl Limbacher at NewsMax.com, the Clinton campaign-finance scandal of the late 1990s, where millions of dollars of illegal Chinese campaign cash found its way into Democratic Party and Clinton legal defense fund coffers. Worse, American missile- guidance technology was given to Beijing. This outrage may be blamed on the senator's husband, but that won't wash for the "two for the price of one" Scandal Queen.

That is not to omit the recently released 400-page Barrett Report. In 1995, while Independent Counsel David Barrett was investigating the president's Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros for various crimes, he discovered that the president had used the Internal Revenue Service (headed by Hillary's college friend, Margaret Milner Richardson), the Justice Department (headed by Clinton puppet Janet Reno), and the White House (headed by co-presidents Bill and Hillary) to audit political enemies, particularly the women who had accused the president of sexual harassment and even rape.

Clintonista Democrats have tried for 10 years to have the parts of the Barrett Report that dealt with these matters redacted, and they succeeded. But Republican Senators Charles Grassley, Chairman of the House Finance Committee, and James Sensenbrenner, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, have both stated publicly that they are determined to get the entire report released.

The redacted portions must be pretty explosive because as columnist Tony Snow has noted, the "report is a bombshell, capable possibly of wiping out Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential prospects."

Canadian'- i agree totally with you, I am American and i feel we are very blessed and lucky to have a candidate like this to come at this time, it is not a coincidence. Also you are correct in saying that he is being put thru' the microscope, they are trying to find any and everything to try and stick on Obama, even his own words. What some in the Media and Right Wing and even Hillary and some of her supporters don't get is that America is tired of the spin, the lies, the manipulation of ones words etc...We are no longer fooled by these tactics, the Internet has evened the game out when it comes to some of the negativety, you can simply go on the internet and find out the truth and find out fast and make your own sound judgement, no longer will we vote because of fear or racial bias or guns or religion. We need to come together and turn this country around and forget about the things that always separate us, the only ones that win this game of separation are the Media and far right Republicans.

Here is a link to an article on the "Keating Five" on Wikipedia, for those of you interested. It basically shows that McCain was involved with shady people too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_five

My question is who doesn't know someone who is sketchy? I have friends that aren't the greatest people. Does that make me a bad person because I choose talk to them or have a beer with them?

Are we really resorting to a complete judgment of guilt by association?

Until I see tangible proof that Obama has done something more than "know" the wrong people, I will withhold my judgment on the man.

Besides, isn't there something in our legal system about innocent until proven guilty...

Ellisabeth: Nothing could be farther from the truth with respect to CNN. While Anderson Cooper was on vacation, Campbell Brown admitted in the evening newscast that she supported Hillary. In addition, she allocated 50% more time to Hillary at the Compassion Forum and freguently shook her heard in agreement when talking with Hillary, but was icy with Obama.

Ellisabeth: Nothing could be farther from the truth. While Anderson Cooper was on vacation, Campbell Brown admitted in the newscast that she supported Hillary. In addition, she allocated 50% more time to Hillary at the Compassion Forum and freguently shook her heard in agreement when talking with Hillary, but was icy with Obama.

Fred: You know what, I DO appreciate the balance you are trying to bring to this conversation. As a matter of fact, I'm struck by it, thank you. However, I respectfully disagree with the insinuation you inject into Obama's friendship with Wright. And, I don't think Wright is anti-American at all. Quite the opposite; I think he epitomizes what it means to be patriotic. By the way, Obama was 8 years old when Ayers was doing his thing. Ayers is now a professor. Imagine what his department would be like if all the other professors did not talk to him.

When Powell presented his case to the UN for evidence of weapons in Iraq he held a tube in his hand that pretty much carried the weight of his case. A piece of PHYSICAL observeable evidence that made it seem highly believable - and while the UN may not have been as swayed ... the American Public was swayed - including our statesment - and they easily gave their permission to go to war. It is unfortunate that later it would eb revealed that what he held in his hand in fact had little to do with being able to transform uraneum into weapons, and in fact was benign - a prop used for effect. Vanity Fair wrote an in depth article that both questioned the legitimate nature of the tube and the document that was produced as evidence .. which was thought to be highly edited to make the case, but also innacurate. One of the UN directors who had resigned but had served on the team that searched for weapons there in the 90s wrote his own book to let people know that there was no way that that the evidence could be true ... still we went ahead. THIS reminds me of that instance. ....

I heard that he once took a taxi ride and the driver's cousin's brother-in-law was an Islamic Jiihadist. Silly season has just begun. But even more ridiculous than most.

So - this might be news - but it's not really?

---
RE: the comment: BOYCOTT CNN AND MSNBC FOR COVERING UP FOR OBAMA!!!!
DO NOT WATCH CNN OR MSNBC
---

So, I can't watch FOX, now I can't watch these too? Running out of options for news in America.

I look forward to the update here when there are actually facts to check. Gracias.

There is a connection between Rezko, Auchi Alamarrae and Obama. Auchi's General Mediterranean Holdings also has connections to the new Iraq- connections which lead right back to Rezko. Auchi's company helped finance a 250 megawatt power plant in the town of Chamchamal, Iraq, teaming up with Rezko and Iraq's former minister of electricity Alsamarrae. Alsamarrae is accused of graft involving Iraq reconstruction. In April of 2005, one month before Alsamarrae left his position , he signed a contract for $50 million the Champion security. Champion security was headed by a former Chicago policeman with a troubled history, Daniel Fawley, August 2006 Frawley started negotiations with Obama U S senate staff to complete the contract. The time line of Champion discussions in 2006 is important to note: April Frawley speaks to governor of Illinois office; August 2006 Frawley speaks to Obama office, 2006 Rezko indictment revealed; October 2006 Rezko arrested upon return from Syria; October 2006 Alsammarae convicted in Baghdad;Obama's senate office recieves an e-mail from Alsammarae son to help his father, December 2006 Alsammarae escapes and returns to Chicago.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Ahhhhh, the silly season of politics and the cynics are foaming at the mouth over what? Nothing.

I guess no news is enough news for cynics to pull out another bushel of lemons to suck on. Pucker up, and get ready for the next POTUS to be Barack Obama.

He said, she said, no facts, no recollections, no news, no impact.

That's the reality

To Beth - Illinois: "Sources in Illinois?" What sources. WHo are they. If they want to spread gossip, let them give their names. Otherwise, don't spread malicious rumors. It just makes you look stupid and Michael Sneed look dishonest, like a third-rate journalist.

To Beth - Illinois: "Sources in Illinois?" What sources. WHo are they. If they want to spread gossip, let them give their names. Otherwise, don't spread malicious rumors. It just makes you look stupid and Michael Sneed look dishonest, like a third-rate journalist.

"Rezko's Chicago home"

Anyone invited to someone's HOME for a party/fundraiser is either within THEIR social circle or just some rich guy showing off. I doubt it's the latter since Rezko is not a celebrity, just a business man.

And of course this will be brushed under the media covers. Heck I see the Obama media Goliath starting up yesterday for next week's primary. Classic media blitz campaign from a couple (i.e. Michelle O) that knows media, marketing and *advertising*.

They do not "recollect" being there. This covers you just incase someone comes up with a picture of other documentation in the near future. It's called "selective amnesia". If you weren't there you would say "I was NOT there". It was only 4 years ago, not very good memories for such young people.

Here is the part I find troubling: In the Rezko trial, why are prosecutors asking questions as to whether Obama was at an event? I fail to see how this has anything to do with the actual guilt or innocence of the defendant in this case. Am I the only one who finds this disturbing? It seems like a witch hunt to me. Are we to start asking every corrupt businessman or politician who goes to trial if they know Obama when it clearly has no bearing on the case? When Abramoff was on trial, were witnesses asked if they ever saw McCain at a random event? Of course not, and it shouldn't be. Inserting unrelated questions in trial proceedings in an attempt to tarnish someone's name is a scary breech of separation of powers if you ask me, which is what you get when you politicize the judiciary.

Ellisebeth: You comment about CNN isn't accurate. About three weeks ago Campbell Brown (CNN anchor) told her audience that she supports Hillary. In addition, at the Compassion Forum, she allowed Clinton to give long answers while cutting Obama short. Campbell gave Hillary 50% more time at the Forum. In addition, Campbell frequently nodded her head in agreement with Hillary, while giving Obama the blank look.

All these little drip drip drips that never get covered on CNN or MSNBC...Rezko, Obama's missstatements about his father and the Kennedys, his "bonehead" moves...he can't recall...and not to mention the Weathermen guy. The media may not be covering it now, but the Republicans will be ruthless with it, appealing to the Independents.

Our great legal system: You have hit upon something that I've been pondering ever since this "story" hit the blogs a few days ago. Why is Obama's name even mentioned?

Don't you understand that Obama is just the front of the Syrian mafia? What's to understand?

Do you know what Obama is called in Chicago? "Rezko's b----h."

They're part of the Community Revelopment Act organized crime operation. Obama votes for the appropriation to build public housing, which gets most of the poor out of the land developers want in cities. The many fewer public housing units put in, are substandard.

Are you really so ignorant that you don't know this?

The only question now is, will someone directly implicate Obama? If they do, he's finished, because they will indict him.

That's what we're all waiting for. But anyone who thought Obama stood for anything but more organized crime, more mafia, is simply stupid and ignorant.

If Obama is elected, Tony Rezko will run the country from his jail cell, conveying orders he gets from the Syrian mob.

It's all very nasty, but hey, America is corrupt from top to bottom. It's a collapsing country. Why should it surprise anyone that Obama is a front?

Seems poor journalism to me not to mention Rezko's wife's purchase of a strip of land to help Obama's house purchase in an artcile of Rezko-Obama ties.

HOW OBAMA HAS USED GEORGE BUSH/KARL ROVE TACTICS TO OBTAIN OVER $62,000,000 FOR HIS CAMPAIGN, SO FAR!:
The Washington Post -- April 11,2008 -- Obama gets plenty of money from big donors too: "Sen. Barack Obama credits his presidential campaign with creating a 'parallel public financing system' built on a wave of modest donations from homemakers and high school teachers. ... But those with wealth and power also have played a critical role in creating Obama's record-breaking fundraising machine, and their generosity has earned them a prominent voice in shaping his campaign. Seventy-nine 'bundlers,' five of them billionaires, have tapped their personal networks to raise at least $200,000 each. ... Donors who have given more than $200 account for about half of Obama's total haul, which stands at nearly $240 million. ... The bundler list also sheds light on those who might seek to influence an Obama White House. They have helped the campaign recruit more than 27,000 donors to write checks for $2,300, the maximum allowed. Donors who have given more than $200 account for about half of Obama's total haul, which stands at nearly $240 million. The use of bundlers was perfected by George W. Bush, who in 2000 and 2004 set some fundraising records that Obama has shattered.
http://tinyurl.com/6dtgq6

This is just the tip of the iceberg, but it does collaborate the other potential and extremely damaging accusations out there. However, you need to tune into Puerto Rico media to get that story.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ................

There is no story here. Your fact checking has done its job -- you found nothing. MOVE ON !!

Perpetuating these non-stories just riles up the frothing crazies who lurk on these WaPo boeards. Just look at the junk mail that has been posted above. Angry re-hashing of third-hand rumor and inuendo. He said/she said blather.

Jremiah Wright = former Marine then intemperate "civil rights" preacher with 35 years of service to his community and recipient of 8 honorary doctorates - now retired - not a racist - preached against racism and railed against the government in style of his Old Testament namesake the Phophet Jeremiah.

William Ayers = Violent radical antiwar Vietnam protester - 45 years ago !!! Now tenured full professor, award winning author, respected member of Chicago community -- still liberal left champion.

Rezko - on trial for influence peddling and kickback scheemes --having NOTHING to do with Obama. House purchase and land purchase badly timed deal -- but NO WRONG DOING -- not a shred of evidence to the contrary - not even a suggestion ofwrongdoing. Owner of house sold to Obama at bst price he could get (his lawyer confirmed) and sold to Rezko in separtate deal (done on same day for sellers convenience - he attests). Price paid for 10' strip of side lawn is equal in percentage to price paid by Rezko for land. That land now worth much more -- Rezko profits from its sale -- nothing wrong. Obama paid full price for land and best price for house. NOTHING THERE.

Fact Checker -- just admit it -- you are stirring up a story to sell newspapers.

Please stop aiding and abetting the attempted character assassination of our next President.

Can anyone anyone believe someone could say that they don't recall a gathering among friends to meet a person so important to them in what they are doing.....I can't believe that and I can't believe anyone else does.......I can't believe that someone would even expect me to believe that...I'm mad now thinking that someone would even think that i was so ignorant that I did.... was only two answers to that question... yes or no.....

OBAMA'S RELIGION: WHAT REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT BELIEVES
News Type: Opinion -- Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:26 PM EDT
us-news, election, obama, clinton, race, wright
dugan49
When Jeremiah Wright got into a spitting contest with right wing TV host Sean Hannity last year, he at one point refused to answer Hannity's badgering questions and kept asking Hannity "Have you read James Cone, what do you know about black theology? Have you read Cone? Have you read Cone?Have you read Cone?"
James Cone is one of he founders, some say the founder, of Black Liberation Theology. Rev. Jeremiah Wright's ministry, his beliefs about America, and about life itself are formed by his attraction to and acceptance of the writings of James Cone.
Let's look at some quotes from James Cone.
____________________
"The time has come for white America to be silent and listen to black people."
"All white men are responsible for white oppression. "
"Theologically, Malcolm X was not far wrong when he called the white man 'the devil.'"
"Any advice from whites to blacks on how to deal with white oppression is automatically under suspicion as a clever device to further enslavement."
"Black suffering is getting worse, not better. . . . White supremacy is so clever and evasive that we can hardly name it." (2004)
" Jesus Christ is black therefore not because of some cultural or psychological need of black people, but because and only because Christ really enters into our world where the poor were despised and the black are, disclosing that he is with them enduring humiliation and pain and transforming oppressed slaves into liberating servants."
"Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him."
"The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community ... Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy."
"What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal."

Why are people digging into obama's past for any petty inaccuracy they can find yet for either years has elected a leader that lies to you or uses his powers to circumvent the truth in your face and does not care what you think? Have we forgotten that the Bush family does business with the bin laden family as well as other ME business people who ties are questionable to say the least? One poster actually questions his comments regarding events nearly 40 years ago. I wonder what you think of your current leader if you have so little tolerance for Obama.

Man you guys are stupid. The reason the news sources aren't covering it is that there is NO evidence he did anything wrong. Repeating over and over what someone MIGHT have done and pretending it's new is what FOX NEWS does.

FOR LACK OF SPACE, JUST A FEW OF OBAMA'S LIES: 1. his continual reference to his "Christian" faith, which is actually "black liberation theology"; 2. his lies and omissions about his connection to his racist and anti-American "mentor and spiritual adviser"; 3. his lie that the Kennedy family provided the funding for a September 1959 airlift of 81 Kenyan students to the United States that included Obama's father; 4. his current false ad in Pennsylvania in which he lies about taking contributions from the oil companies; 5. his alleged continual opposition to the Iraq war; 6. his denial regarding playing the race card (for which he was busted by Tim Russert); 7. his denial that any meeting took place between his chief economic adviser and the Canadian official about NAFTA; 8. his changing testimony about his relationship with and monetary support from Rezko; 9. his lie about a pharmaceutical lobbyist's involvement in his campaign; 10. his statement that his parents met at the Selma march (when he was actually born 4 year before that); 11. his claim in his book that he received his racial awakening at age nine reading a Life/Ebony Magazine story about a black man who was scarred trying to dye his skin white, when both Life and Ebony say there was no such article. AND JUST A FEW OF OBAMA'S FLIP-FLOPS: 1. Special interests In January, the Obama campaign described union contributions to the campaigns of Clinton and John Edwards as "special interest" money. Obama changed his tune as he began gathering his own union endorsements. He now refers respectfully to unions as the representatives of "working people" and says he is "thrilled" by their support. 2. Public financing Obama replied "yes" in September 2007 when asked if he would agree to public financing of the presidential election if his GOP opponent did the same. Obama has now attached several conditions to such an agreement, including regulating spending by outside groups. His spokesman says the candidate never committed himself on the matter. 3. The Cuba embargo In January 2004, Obama said it was time "to end the embargo with Cuba" because it had "utterly failed in the effort to overthrow Castro." Speaking to a Cuban American audience in Miami in August 2007, he said he would not "take off the embargo" as president because it is "an important inducement for change." 4. Illegal immigration In a March 2004 questionnaire, Obama was asked if the government should "crack down on businesses that hire illegal immigrants." He replied "Oppose." In a Jan. 31, 2008, televised debate, he said that "we do have to crack down on those employers that are taking advantage of the situation." 5. Decriminalization of marijuana While running for the U.S. Senate in January 2004, Obama told Illinois college students that he supported eliminating criminal penalties for marijuana use. In the Oct. 30, 2007, presidential debate, he joined other Democratic candidates in opposing the decriminalization of marijuana.

youre kidding, right?...have you ever been to a party?...did you actually meet everyone and remember them, much less their resume?...good grief...and, worst case scenario, let's ASSUME that they did meet...are they supposed to leave the party?...are they even aware of who he is?...this is pathetic journalism...you must be absolutely desperate, bored, and journalistically amoral to run with something as idiotic as this...

So I have been thinking alot why I have such strong negative feelings about Obama, after all I like Howard Dean alot, and 90% of Obama's whole platform is taken from Dean.

What I decided is this, that Obama's media cake walk, which has been and continues to be just shockingly biased has left me feeling unsure about who this guy really is. Issues like this are coming up way way way too often for a guy who is claiming to be a reformer untouched by dirty politics. After all his whole primary has been run on slinging mud at the Clinton's because their past is an open book, warts and all.

My worry is this, when the truth comes out (and eventually it will) is Obama going to be able to wear the 'outside of normal politics' label he is so carefully cultivating.

Fred: In the words of Dick Cheney: So? Are you afraid of the fringe? I am not. They represent the limits of thought, not any trend that 99% of conservatives, liberals, and even most crazies operate from. Whether they be right-wing, left-wing, etc etc. They have NO bearing on Obama, just as Hagey has no bearing on McCain.

You clinton supporters sound desperate. Next you will be linking Obama to the KKK in hope to get the black vote for Hillary. Maybe if you dig deep enough you can tie Obama to hitler. Why not vote on the issues rather than who can do the most damage through character assassination. Based on your petty views we could do the same to any of the candidates. Do you think that Hillary or McCain have not been in the same room or shook hands with someone that has been in trouble? Hillary and Bill spent their entire time in the White House under investigation for one thing or another. Should the Obama camp start bringing up the Clinton's dirty laundry? Its quite a long list in case the 90's is too far back to remember for some of you. My advise, save all the hardball for when it counts, the general election where Democrats usually wimp out when the republicans play hard ball. I hope you have the same bitter vile ready for McCain as you do for Obama. You will need it.

jazzgrrrl: I think it is instructive to understand "political speak." I believe it was first developed by Ronald Reagan during Contragate. If you ask a politician if he was at a certain event, and he wasn't, he simply says, "No." If you ask a politician if he was at the event, and he was but his presence would be bad for his political career, he says "I don't recall ever being there." That way, if incontrovertible evidence comes up that shows you were there, you have some wiggle room. I don't know about you, but if I were at a dinner at one of my best friend's house with one of the richest men in the world, I'd remember that. Obama is either lying, or his memory is insufficient to become the next President of the United States.

...and, if you are going to run with something as idiotic as this, please, bring to light all of the fine, upstanding souls that the clintons have socialized with, not to mention accepted monies...amazing...the clintons have shown themselves to be one of the most corrupt couples to have run of the white house and you have to create a swirling vortex of distraction with this?...please, run with something that has factual backing...

fred, thank you so for the condescending explanation of political speak, but i think i've a fair understanding of said situation...would you say "no" to something of which you simply weren't sure?...and if you did meet them, so what?...i'm sure he wasn't introduced as mr. moneybags...and, on the absurd chance that he was, i'd bet the farm that obama didn't respond with "gimme some money!"...if you don't like obama, fine, you don't like him...but to manifest something as ridiculous as this is a shameful display of "journalism".

Sandy5274

So are you saying you don't like Obama? Sounds like overkill to me. I simple vote for the candidate of your choice will be sufficient enough. Trying to make him the devil only make you sound like an unstable person. You sound like if you could you would have him arrested. Would you? What would be his charge? Being Obama and daring to be competitive against Clinton?

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

It's Chicago Politics. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting some corrupt loony.

Um, hello, aren't there pictures of Hillary Clinton with Tony Rezko? Of Bill Clinton with Pastor Wright? But they don't remember, because the pictures are just one of however many thousands of pictures/events that they've been to. IF Obama was there, so what? It doesn't necessarily mean anything. Considering neither recall the meeting, that's more telling than anything else.

There is no Rezko story. Now get over it.

OBAMA WAS A DIRTY POLITICIAN FROM THE VERY BEGINNING: From the Chicago Sun-Times -- A close examination of Obama's first campaign clouds the image he has cultivated throughout his political career: The man now running for president on a message of giving a voice to the voiceless first entered public office not by leveling the playing field, but by clearing it. One of the candidates he eliminated, long-shot contender Gha-is Askia, now says that Obama's petition challenges belied his image as a champion of the little guy and crusader for voter rights. "Why say you're for a new tomorrow, then do old-style Chicago politics to remove legitimate candidates?" Askia said. "He talks about honor and democracy, but what honor is there in getting rid of every other candidate so you can run scot-free? Why not let the people decide?" In a recent interview, Obama granted that "there's a legitimate argument to be made that you shouldn't create barriers to people getting on the ballot." But the unsparing legal tactics were justified, he said, by obvious flaws in his opponents' signature sheets. "To my mind, we were just abiding by the rules that had been set up," Obama recalled. Asked whether the district's primary voters were well-served by having only one candidate, Obama smiled and said: "I think they ended up with a very good state senator." Alice Palmer, a friend and mentor to Obama, served the district in the Illinois Senate for much of the 1990s. Decades earlier, she was working as a community organizer in the area when Obama was growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia. She risked her safe seat to run for Congress and touted Obama as a suitable successor, according to news accounts and interviews. But when Palmer got clobbered in that November 1995 special congressional race, her supporters asked Obama to fold his campaign so she could easily retain her state Senate seat. Obama not only refused to step aside for the woman who was his friend and had recommended him for the seat, he filed challenges that nullified Palmer's hastily gathered nominating petitions, forcing her to withdraw. "I liked Alice Palmer a lot. I thought she was a good public servant," Obama said. "It was very awkward. That part of it I wish had played out entirely differently." Had Palmer survived the petition challenge, Obama would have faced the daunt