Focus On Obama - A SOFT Focus

The enterprising team at All The News That Fits The Narrative work hard to report on Obama's political history without actually disturbing his supporters.

Their coverage of his relationship with Bill Ayers is too incurious to be an accident:

Mr. Obama also fit in at Hyde Park’s fringes, among university faculty members like Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, unrepentant members of the radical Weather Underground that bombed the United States Capitol and the Pentagon to protest the Vietnam War. Mr. Obama was introduced to the couple in 1995 at a meet-and-greet they held for him at their home, aides said.

Now, along with Mr. Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., Mr. Ayers has become a prime exhibit in the effort by Mr. Obama’s presidential rivals to highlight what could be politically radioactive associations. In 2001, Mr. Ayers said he did not regret the Weatherman bombings. Even so, in Hyde Park, he and his wife were viewed favorably for their work in addressing city problems. Mr. Ayers was just “a guy who lives in my neighborhood,” Mr. Obama said recently.

The two men were involved in efforts to reform the city’s education system. They appeared together on academic panels, including one organized by Michelle Obama to discuss the juvenile justice system, an area of mutual concern. Mr. Ayers’s book on the subject won a rave review in The Chicago Tribune by Mr. Obama, who called it “a searing and timely account.”

"The two men were involved in efforts to reform the city’s education system"?  Bill Ayers was instrumental in writing the grant proposal that led to the formation of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, and worked closely with the group for several years after its inception; the first chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge was Barack Obama.  That seems to merit a lot more exposition than the Times delivers.  The Times might have started by asking the Obama team whether they would care to expand on their "Fact Check" on the Ayers-Obama relationship, which somehow overlooked their mutual interest in education.

Now, is it possible the Times was utterly unaware of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge connection, yet was broadly aware of their mutual interest in education reform?  Who can tell?  However, right now a Google on "Obama Ayers Chicago school reform" offers  links to four different posts on the first page (1, 2, 3, 4)that mention the relationship, including a Hot Air post helpfully titled "Did Obama Work For Bill Ayers?".  Yet somehow the Times either missed this or buried it.

Much later the Times covers the  current scuffle between McCain and Obama over Hamas - this is  pure cover-up:

But for all of Mr. Obama’s attentiveness to Jewish concerns about Israel, Republican Party officials have made it clear that they think this is an area of vulnerability. Though Mr. Obama has condemned Hamas, a militant Palestinian group, as a terrorist organization, just last week Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, suggested that the group wanted to see Mr. Obama in the White House. Mr. Obama denounced that suggestion as a “smear.”

Missing from the Times reporting is that McCain was not merely offering his opinion as to Hamas' likely view, but was simply passing along the assessment of Obama offered by a Hamas spokesperson on WABC radio.  And since Mr. Axelrod of the Obama campaign had reacted to the Hamas "endorsement", it is fair to assert that the Obama campaign is well aware that McCain is not simply offering his opinion - is McCain's statement a smear if it the truth?  [I now see that I missed this Saturday whitewash from the Times, eviscerated by Dean Barnett.  See "DOES NOT ADVOCATE", below]

FERTILE GROUND:  In a recent article with extended excerpts from Michelle Obama's stump speech she explained how Obama heroically turned down the millions of dollars available to him on a conventional corporate law career path in order to join a small law firm focusing on civil rights (1, 2).  The Times describes that as a carefully calculated political decision intended to jump start his career, which is flourishing, what with the best-sellers and the Presidential prospects.  Whatever.

Here we go:

This is a man who walked away from a career on Wall Street more than two decades ago to become a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, setting up after-school programs, and bringing jobs to the jobless. Who turned down a lucrative career as a corporate lawyer to organize 150,000 new voters, mostly black, in one of Chicago’s biggest voter registration drives – and who, by the way, has been fighting for our voting rights ever since.

THOSE DARN STAFFERS:  On two different occasions reported by the Times Obama explains a seeming flip-flip by blaming staffers for misrepresenting his views.  Ooops!  A critic might note it is the boss's job to hire and organize the staff, but again, whatever.  [Jake Tapper extends and amplifies this point.]

DOES NOT ADVOCATE:  The Saturday Times "examined" the McCain-Obama-Hamas scuffle and included this howler (emphasis added):

But important nuances appear to have been lost in the partisan salvos, particularly on Mr. McCain’s side. An examination of Mr. Obama’s numerous public statements on the subjects indicates that he has consistently condemned Hamas as a “terrorist organization,” has not sought the group’s support and does not advocate immediate, direct or unconditional negotiations with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president.

Hmm, so why does that unscrupulous John McCain think he does?  Maybe it was this story from last summer in the Times describing the You-Tube debate:

Perhaps the sharpest point of difference came when the candidates were asked if, during their first year as president, they would be willing to meet without preconditions with the presidents and dictators of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea.

''I would,'' said Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. ''And the reason is this: that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them, which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration, is ridiculous.''

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who has also criticized the Bush administration for ''not talking to our enemies,'' took a different tack, pledging robust diplomacy but refusing to make that promise of leader-to-leader talks.

Or maybe McCain was relying on this follow-up coverage:

For days, Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton have been exchanging retorts over the wisdom of sitting down for diplomatic meetings with hostile dictators. In case voters had not been following along, Mr. Obama sought to inform them, weaving his side of the dispute into the overarching message of his campaign.

“Some of you noticed that this week I got in a debate with one of my colleagues who is also running for the presidency,” Mr. Obama said Friday night, opening a two-day trip to Iowa. “The debate was about whether we talk to world leaders even if you don’t like them. My theory is that you do.”

The quarrel emerged from this week’s debate in South Carolina, when Mrs. Clinton said she would not meet with foreign leaders, including those of Iran and North Korea, without preconditions. She later criticized Mr. Obama’s response as “irresponsible and, frankly, naïve.”

Those four words touched off the most direct confrontation yet in the fight for the Democratic nomination. And Mr. Obama worked to keep the distinction alive during a weekend trip to Iowa, turning the disagreement into an example of how he would lead the country differently.

“Our standing in the world has diminished so much because people think that the United States wants to dictate across the world instead of cooperate across the world,” Mr. Obama said Saturday. “When we start sending a signal that we are ready to engage in serious diplomacy, then we’ve got the opportunity to stand before the world and say: We’re back. America is back.”

Or maybe McCain was relying on Obama's web site:

Renewing American Diplomacy

• ...
• Talk to our Foes and Friends: Obama is willing to meet with the leaders of all nations, friend and foe. He will do the careful preparation necessary, but will signal that America is ready to come to the table, and that he is willing to lead. And if America is willing to come to the table, the world will be more willing to rally behind American leadership to deal with challenges like terrorism, and Iran and North Korea's nuclear programs.

 

Comments

[Topsecretk9]

RICH

Me too. It's almost too much isn't it? Certainly it can't just be their oil deal in Sudan hinges on Hillary can it?

[RichatUF]

Posted by: Laughing All The Way | May 12, 2008 at 08:06 PM

That has to be about the most ignorant comment I've heard-ever-in any forum. That level of delusion has to be an act.

[Laughing All The Way]

Sorry, guys, I'm not going to put any real money up. Last time I did that on the Internet it was before the '06 congressional elections. I won all my bets and then couldn't collect. I wound up losing what I had put up. Fortunately, it was only a couple hundred bucks, but once was enough.

By the way, it was clear in the context of the interview that Obama was talking about Israel's settlements as the "sore." If he'd called Israel the sore it wouldn't have bugged me, but that's not what he did.

[Laughing All The Way]

BTW, you ain't from the South or from Pennsylvania, are you?

Nope. Wisconsin. Big battleground state.

[PeterUK]

What kind of low grade troll is it that cannot take a credit card or PayPal ?
Why is Mr Maguire letting this pauper comment,did he forgo the deposit and the banker's references?

[RichatUF]

TSK9-

It's almost too much isn't it? Certainly it can't just be their oil deal in Sudan hinges on Hillary can it?

A possible clue. I had no idea that the nuclear power industry was so highly developed in Illinois. Seems that Team Yellowcake might have picked the weak horse.

[PeterUK]

"Sorry, guys, I'm not going to put any real money up. Last time I did that on the Internet it was before the '06 congressional elections. I won all my bets and then couldn't collect. I wound up losing what I had put up. Fortunately, it was only a couple hundred bucks, but once was enough."

Piker.You mean to say you are shooting your mouth off here and you fell for a simple internet scam ? Gawd what a pillock!

[Topsecretk9]

Rich

This is about as hilarious as it gets though, the left is now doubting the Wilson's authenticity ala leak

I guess they thought he'd look a little too much like one of the elites he really is if they put him on camera with his usual Fekkai type haircut and Eurostyle suit. I think they probably bought him the trailer park shirt too. But these two are bad choices. Even the antiwar progressives had to kinda sorta look the other way while these two wined and dined and got their faces in every rag they could. They got to be just a tad embarassing, and that they hang with the Clintons now is, I guess, a nobrainer.

Posted by anna am

I always saw Wilson and Plame as more anti-Bush than anti-war. Wilson was upset that Bush didn't listen to his recommendations about Iraq, and then infuriated by the way his wife was treated. The war was just a means to an end - Wilson and Plame opposed the war because it could hurt Bush.

I think a partial explanation of their support for Senator Clinton is their status in Washington. She's even more establishment than Bush, and Wilson and Plame are VERY establishment.

Posted by chicagobama

I've always wondered about the anti-Bush worship of these two.

Joe Wilson was one of the expeditors of Bush I's Iraq turkey shoot and the subsequent "1,000,000 Iraqi dead are worth it" sanctions. And his wife was a friggin' CIA agent, for chrissakes, making the world safe for US vampire capitalism.

Of course, they would support Ma Scorpion. That's what the Clintons do -- put a happy face on barbarism.

Posted by Mitchum22

And, again, he didn't go public with his "What I Didn't find in Africa" until four months into the War.

Posted by anna am

Joe's published revelation about yellowcake did not stop us from going into Iraq, but it did make him famous. Figure it out.

Posted by wizinit...

[windansea]

Sorry, guys, I'm not going to put any real money up.

of course not we understand piker

get lost

[Jane]

Who is this infantile moron polluting this site with his vulgarities?

I dunno but I strongly suggest we ignore him. He's boring as hell.

[RichatUF]

TSK9-

Here's a topshelf conspiracy theory for you. Say the DNC puppetmasters decided back in late 2002 that they were going to wreck the Bush Administration and the RNC and began massing two teams-the Clinton Network to kill off the Bush Administration and the RNC (by keeping the hate simmering on a slow boil) and a fresh group (BHO) to supplant the burned out Clinton group when the time came. Even works as a five year plan if we date it to Team Yellowcake.

I've been thinking back to the Hsu story lately and the odd ball timing of it-but it's as if the Red Witch never really recovered, especially in her fundraising. And it really is stunning that her entire team, even Bill Clinton, didn't see BHO coming.

[vnjagvet]

Another BS artiste exposed.

[Fat Man]

This is great:

“Our standing in the world has diminished so much because people think that the United States wants to dictate across the world instead of cooperate across the world,” Mr. Obama said Saturday. “When we start sending a signal that we are ready to engage in serious diplomacy, then we’ve got the opportunity to stand before the world and say: We’re back. America is back.”

Of course demanding that Canada and Mexico renegotiate NAFTA won't be perceived as dictation.

[Donna V.]

Oh, you mean like Donna V, who called Obama "the Chi-town yuppie?"

My, a tad sensitive, aren't we? How, exactly, is that description inaccurate? Or even insulting, really? Barry and Michelle are in fact young urban professionals, Ivy League grads who pull in very good coin. Jesus, does "laughing all the way" think Obama's from the 'hood?

And yeah, I can see how calling someone a yuppie is exactly like calling someone Chimpy McHitler. Or saying McCain needs diapers. Judging from McCain's mother, I would say that "laughing all the way" will need Depends long before McCain does, since LATW already displays all the signs of diarrhea of the mouth. It'll work its way down eventually.

And actually I have frequently thought in the past that my Democratic relatives are candidates for the mental institution. However, they are starting to display glimmers of sanity by saying they'll vote GOP in November.

[Topsecretk9]

Rich
Since the media's in the tank for Obama...I'm a little surprised they aren't shinning a little more light on Mr. Yellowcake and Obama hater Larry's little Sudan deal

Officially, US businesses are out of Sudan. However, a company called Jarch Capital, based in New York City (on the 9th floor at 445 Park Avenue), bought a Block B concession back in 2003 from the SPLM/A before the 2005 peace agreement was signed. Jarch Capital is owned and chaired by an American named Phil Heilberg, also owner of Heilberg Management Group. He is also the manager of AIG’s Hong Kong office. AIG, an insurance giant, has an African Infrastructure Fund. Don’t be surprised if South Sudan will be a large recipient in the future after independence.

Back in 2003, before the North-South peace deal was signed, the legality could be debated because South Sudan did not have semi-autonomous status and any sovereignty they had was de facto. So due to sanctions, Mr. Heilberg could not do business in Sudan. However, he had a novel solution. He helped create Jarch Management Group LLC, of which he became Chairman. Jarch Management (JMG) was registered in the Virgin Islands:

The original deal was signed Feb 12, 2003. Interesting date huh?

[windansea]

I was against flag pins before I decided to

pander

[Danube of Thought]

This one is great:

"Sorry, guys, I'm not going to put any real money up. Last time I did that on the Internet it was before the '06 congressional elections. I won all my bets and then couldn't collect."

If this guy is not an admitted dumb shit, then how will we recognize an admitted dumb shit when one comes along?

[windansea]

West Virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads

[windansea]

seriously, if I was Obama or an Obot I'd be ashamed

dude's wearing a flag pin now

[jimmyk]

dude's wearing a flag pin now

As Groucho Marx said: "These are my principles. And if you don't like them . . . well, I have others."

[Bill in AZ]

TSK9 - c'mon, it's hard enough being a lib with all those inconvenient loose ends from their haphazard tapestry of lies flapping in the breeze without you exposing them for the world to see... Feb 12 2003 one more of those things that make you go hmmmm...

Sorry, guys, I'm not going to put any real money up."
Prolly would have to borrow moms credit card - agaaaiin - and can't get past the pizza boxes blocking the basement door.

[arrowhead]

dude's wearing a flag pin now

How predictable and how telling.

Given Obama's history, comments and previous behavior, the flag pin looks obscene on his lapel.

[RichatUF]

TSK9-

I really didn't follow all the contours of the Sudan deal when it came up, but Feb 12 2003 (its news to me). We are being taunted.

[glenda waggoner]

Who is the Laughing Gas guy? "if someone nukes Israel(a terrorist group)...." What
in the !***! does he think IRAN is? If the democrat party is comprised of LATW's, we
will keep the WH and get back the Senate.I
so love the smell of "liberals" in the morning!

[Jim Miller]

Laughing - If you want to bet, InTrade will take your money. Right now, the bettors there are giving McCain a 37 percent chance to win.

And I wouldn't be surprised to learn that you could place a bet a Paddy Power, too. (An outfit I admire because they paid off early on Boris Johnson's win.)

And there is always the Iowa market.

If, that is, you really want to bet.

If you do place some bets, let us know how it all works out -- if you can do so politely.

[narciso]

Left out of that snippet is Jarch's tie to the Hadramauti-Saudi Al Amoudi clan which was involved in the El Shifa plan, and through Delta Oil, Amerada Hess board member
Tom Kean. Yes, that Tom Kean, chairman of the 9/11 commission. Seeing how Goodyear and Davenport are earning the ire for their
representing of the SLORC; is it time to bring up that fmr. Chieg of Station Milton Bearden,who was contradicted by Steven Coll in his Bin Laden biography as to BinLaden's
tie to the CIA; through Mr. Jaqquani's network. at the time when he dissented from the El Shifa finding and helped Hitchens coin the "wag the dog" tag to thatoperation,
was a lobbyist for Sudan. Wilson, by the way, who looks worse than a zombie from Resident Evil, is also part of the Jarch
affiliations, through his previous contact with Rock Creek Park Partners and those fabulous Hadramauti brothers. For those keeping track at home, Gov. and fmr Sen. Corzine, while at Goldman, underwrote the IPO for PetroChina which is a major player in the Sudan; serving a similar role as
Rubin did vis a vis Enron & KenLay.

[28&49]

Joe was probably CIA like his dad. The Basques had a thing for him and Plame when she did 'Vanity Fair.' The ambassador theories can go even farther if you go with genetics, but the US military did.

The no WMD theory is CIA planned not finding it and making the deal with Dr. WMD 2 in the lab, Plame. The war is inevitable is CIA not finding wmd and going deeper with the anti war crap that couldn't work.

The eye problems and strokes are all checked later. What they look for involves heart murmurs too. An air bauble going form one part to another. This is usually a killer. Airplanes and trains; leg problems. After your clean and checked they come up with the answer and ask how your feeling. Of course, the answer is always good. This is always the answer and I don't know anybody who said anything different.

Oregon and ngos and plames and pay offs. Obama Chicago and union foreign policy. No problems here, really, it's like studying what happened to you and it's wrong and your owed...............and most won't understand until you speak to them..............

[Mutant Pacifist]

Well, I can't predict how the election will go, but I've been wondering if Obama could even lose California. Anecdotally, I know at least six people who would have voted for Clinton who plan to switch to McCain if Obama is the Dem candidate. For moderates and independents, Obama just doesn't cut it. That alone might not be enough to swing a strongly blue state like California, but there are other issues as well, as we discuss in our blog.

[1106]

Obama is having a military official The POWER is out all over the world sale in Burma!!!!!!!!!!

Always give those those most in need, especially commodities.

[MayBee]

but Feb 12 2003 (its news to me).

Sounds like a great time to have your wife ask her boss to pick up your tab for a flight to Africa.

[MayBee]

Oh no, wrong year, right?

[HoosierHoops]

Well Laughing,if you have anything worth looting and putting in a museum let me know.We could pickle your brain and keep it in the Unnatural History Museum.
What century is this crazed gobshite living in?

Posted by: PeterUK |

I Don't know Peter... this laughing all the way troll acts so juvenile and claims he's 50 years old..yet he approaches his point of view like a 14 year old..If he could make a logical, mature augument without calling everybody names like a kid i'd then be impressed.. He says he's from Wisc. which is a very dem state.. my aunt holds an important dem office in the north country and my grandfather was considered one of the great labor leaders in the state for 30 years. As a very young boy he introduced me to JFK one rainy day, I'll never forget that moment..Politics were about ideas then..not name calling but he has acted so immature and off his rocker so to say.
We have a summer home there on Lake Tomahawk, Wisc. and the people there are first class people, no matter what view is expressed. Laughing..you are an embarrassment to the great state of wisconsin..as is your basketball team.
Please go away and regroup and return with lucid, civil auguments then engage JOM.

[Soylent Red]

jeez...

Someone left the door to the monkey house open tonight.

TSK9:

That's some very amusing stuff upthread at 20:51. Amazing how a grab for power changes the landscape of friends and enemies in the Democrat party.

Lucky for us Rs we can still just keep it simple and hate all of them. And Ron Paul.

Who, while I'm thinking about it, has published a "Manifesto" (I'm not making that up) which made it to the top of the Amazon 100 last week.

Must have some pretty challenging pictures to color to get up that high.

[RichatUF]

Maybee-

Oh no, wrong year, right?

My eyes are glazing over. You are right the cable was 12 Feb 2002 (the Cheney request came on the 13th). Cecil nailed all that down! Remember it like was yesterday-sort of-in a fitzory sort of way.

"James Lewis" has a good article regarding the spectacular rise of BHO.

[cathyf]

Laughing..you are an embarrassment to the great state of wisconsin..as is your basketball team.

Oh, HH, that was harsh, LOL!

[RichatUF]

I don't see BHO blaming this on a staffer:

JG: Do you think that Israel is a drag on America’s reputation overseas?

BO: No, no, no. But what I think is that this constant wound, that this constant sore, does infect all of our foreign policy. The lack of a resolution to this problem provides an excuse for anti-American militant jihadists to engage in inexcusable actions, and so we have a national-security interest in solving this, and I also believe that Israel has a security interest in solving this because I believe that the status quo is unsustainable. I am absolutely convinced of that, and some of the tensions that might arise between me and some of the more hawkish elements in the Jewish community in the United States might stem from the fact that I’m not going to blindly adhere to whatever the most hawkish position is just because that’s the safest ground politically...

He eventually gets back to "settlements" (though that wasn't the question) and seems to have forgotten the entire Oslo Process (the Oslo War?), Israel just leaving Southern Lebanon, picking up and leaving Gaza-how well has all that worked?

When Claice linked to the Atlantic article earlier, I didn't really get it, and didn't bother looking at the whole thing. Wow, just wow. Wonder how this oops is going to get fixed?

[Chris]

LATW;
"He said Israel is a constant sore. And it's true. They are. Last time I looked, Israel isn't the 51st state,..."

Are you for real? It's got to be parody? Satire, perhaps? Getting paid by the word or the post?

Perhaps they're the 57th state.

[Bill in AZ]

Remember it like was yesterday-sort of-in a fitzory sort of way.

Well, Monday *was* the 2nd anniversary of Fitzmas when Rove was to be frog marched after 24 business hours.

[Topsecretk9]

My eyes are glazing over. You are right the cable was 12 Feb 2002

You don't waltz into Sudan to get a 60,000 kilometer block Oil contract on the same day folks...it takes some time and negotiations.

Now, wasn't there some talk of many trips to Africa for the CIA (Feb. 1999 and 2001 and Larry says more time) and wasn't there some eyebrows raised that in the OH TWO ('02) trip he spent 5 days to talk to like one person! Despite the Niger Ambass impressing to CIA Wilson wasn't needed-- also, it was imperative on Wilson's part that he be allowed to say he was there on behalf of the government. (lest they think he was there on behalf of the government and think it was a NATIONAL COMMAND AUTHORITY THING!!! the stupidest spin BS I have ever heard)

[canariceaday]

status quo is unsustainable

I guess five years works for sustainable budgets and agencies if your smart and can get agency people hired at the programs. of course there was Plame's five year IIPA violation and we know it was wrong.

Plame's eating with Michelle in Chicago. I now think it was Obama in S. America, but, with Colombia it gets harder to figure. Michelle is too nice. The Bolivia investigation was just those goofy dems making mistakes. Chicago and Plame have no history?

Joe is old. If he was CIA or his dad was CIA, it was important he contract for his future family jobs. I don't think he needed to join PC, even if his dad was CIA. The NCA humanitarian aid to save planet thing is old. It's end it.

[hrtshpdbox]

"The only reason McBush is your nominee is that the holy rollers went nuts about the Mormon and cock-blocked him.."
Laughing, you're sure off the mark a lot for someone who knows everything. Your predictions, six months before the election, of enormous congressional losses is pure speculation; here, I'll make a wild prediction too - Bush delivers Obama...err, I mean Osama Bin Laden's head on a plate the week before the election, and the GOP gains five seats in the House and doesn't lose a Senator - hey, feels good to me when I say that so I'll restate it over and over just like you do with yours. Romney wasn't rejected for his Mormonism, don't just make silly things up. Romney planned a run for years, but strategized too much and feinted left and right when he should've been projecting a coherent set of beliefs. He was an attractive candidate who was somehow a poor vote-getter (reminds me of Jack Kemp a little). Guiliani and Thompson were also poor candidates, and though Huckabee ran a good campaign, in the end his political judgement was flawed. Huckabee was never going to play it seriously enough, sometimes he invoked the feeling of Pat Buchanan holding a rifle over his head in Arizona three days after winning the New Hampshire primary . So McCain was the last man standing, and I think there's a pretty good shot that more Americans will vote for a war hero with decades of experience who can eloquently enough express a vision for America than they will for a man of shiny platitudes who wants to "dialogue with" our sworn enemies but can't seem to keep the people in his life from saying outrageous things all the time. And this might hurt you, Laughing, but two or three years from now the reappraisal of George Bush may have already begun, and his particular style of resoluteness (with the inevitable comparisons to Truman) fondly recalled - and wished for anew. Crazy things happen, y'know?

[Topsecretk9]

I can never make heads or tails of cryptic commenter but I sure leads me to google things... and I find things I never knew

Larry J:

And what did we learn about their relationship and how well connected they have become?

Well, we learned publicly in the trial that there's a relationship that was not probed. And we do not know what's in the sealed parts of the indictment. This much is known. There's a sealed indictment in the United States against Imad Mughniyah that still has not been brought public. So the fact that those two are tied together, when you step back and look over the last 20 years of all the significant terrorist attacks against the United States in which Americans were killed or injured, you discover -- I ran the numbers -- it's roughly 72 percent of all Americans killed and wounded in international terrorist attacks since 1968 have been carried out by these two individuals, Mughniyah and bin Laden.

So, we're not looking at a global threat. We're not looking at multiple groups. This notion that all terrorists want to kill Americans, not true. If that's true, why haven't FARC [Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia] and ELM [National Liberation Army of ***Bolivia] been out attacking American targets and killing Americans? They'll blow up oil pipelines, but they shy away from killing Americans. Kurdish Workers Party in Turkey, no compunction about killing Turks in Europe. Very hesitant to kill Americans in Europe or in Turkey.

What about Hamas and Hezbollah? Even Hamas with its suicide bomb killing, would kill Americans who happened to be onboard buses, but not because they were Americans. And they reached a point at which, [with] the death of Americans and such, they backed away from the suicide bombing campaign.

The only one who's really been consistent with his actions to kill Americans has been bin Laden over the last eight or nine years, and those who have affiliated themselves with him....

Lar was in Bolivia in the last few months. He's also traveled a lot to the horn of Africa in the last few years. He was hired by Jarch too.

Also, the Algerian Arms Dealer biggie in Spain nabbed and indicted for Arms dealing with FARC, and he's known to deal with Iraq, Lebanon, Stans and FARC and then Victor Bout dealing with FARC and you read what Larry - been wrong about everything he has to say , including his embarrassing July '01 OP-ED- you begin to wonder if he's being intentionally wrong

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/interviews/newjohnson.html

[JM Hanes]

RichatUF:

"That has to be about the most ignorant comment I've heard-ever-in any forum."

The Middle East in a tidy little Persian/Arab-Sunni/Shia nutshell! I'm not surprised to hear that kind of thing from a Laughing boy, but alas, he and Obama were apparently made for each other.

[Topsecretk9]

"The only reason McBush is your nominee is that the holy rollers went nuts about the Mormon and cock-blocked him.."

this mentality is Obama's strategy to get the guns, gays and god vote.

[Topsecretk9]

Oh and "Laughing at Obama" says religious people are freaks, but stops to explain that Obama doesn't think the Joooos are an "open sore" but just Isreal is an "open sore".

[Topsecretk9]

OK, this is just too funny and weird....after Larry talked about FARC in 2001 as NOT being a threat and having interest in threatening the US and HAMAS - see PBS above...oh nevermind, here's Larry tonight:

Barack Obama’s circle of advisors and supporters are playing with fire that could singe or even incinerate their King by cozying up to the Venezuelan strongman, Hugo Chavez. Chavez, a Castro wannabee, is more audacious than Barack and is backed by a healthy wad of oil dollars from Venezuela’s bounteous supply. Chavez, when not making interminable speeches or engaging in symbolic populism, also amuses himself with foreign meddling and support for causes that directly challenge the United States.

Flush with cash, Chavez has sent money and material assistance to the FARC–i.e., the Armed Revolutinary Force of Colombia–a longstanding Marxist insurgent group responsible for more than three decades of terrorism in Colombia. The FARC is like a prehistoric bug frozen in amber. They are completely out of touch with the modern world and refuse to acknowledge that Colombia is no longer a nation dominated by a small group of elites bent on plundering the masses. No matter. The FARC believes it is true and therefore, by definition, it must be true...

This information is true. It is not fabricated. *****It is not planted.***** I also know, firsthand, from conducting undercover investigations in Colombia in the northeast Guajira peninsula, that a significant community of merchants with ties to Hezbollah, who lived and operated in Maicao, Colombia, have moved across the border and set up shop in Venezuela. I am not suggesting they are preparing terrorist attacks. These muslim merchants with strong family ties to Hezbollah in Lebanon are worried first and foremost about making money. A substantial portion of their wealth is obtained thru smuggling and grey market activities. They are willing to send money to Hezbollah but, so far, have shied away from supporting terrorist attacks on this continent.

Oh, and did I mention Hamas. A minority of the muslim merchants that moved across the border into Venezuela are tied to Hamas.

OMG...what are Larry, Joe and Val so worried about if Obama or McCain is elected?

[Mutant Pacifist]

The fact that Obama attracts so many worshippers like Laughing is exactly what makes Democratic moderates distrust Obama himself. And who does Obama think he's fooling -- he admires Leon Uris, but thinks Israel is an open sore?

The only open sore in the Middle East is the appalling lack of democracy in every nation BUT Israel, and now, thanks to the effort Obama wants to end, in Iraq.

[kepa poalima]

laugher

"It's not Al Gore's gambit. I voted for Gore, but he's not someone I have a great deal of affection for. Global warming is a solid theory; there will always be contrary evidence, as there is with any theory, but a fair reading of the evidence shows that it's happening."

you're right it isn't gore's gambit, he was put up to it by one of the left's boogie-men of the 90's :
http://www.investigatemagazine.com/archives/2006/03/investigate_oct_5.html

you're 50, sure fooled me - you argue like and in the language of a twenty something. most 50 year olds have matured sufficiently that they left behind those juvenile habits of foul language and bathroom talk and teen-age one-up-manship

[PeterUK]

"BO: No, no, no. But what I think is that this constant wound, that this constant sore, does infect all of our foreign policy. The lack of a resolution to this problem provides an excuse for anti-American militant jihadists to engage in inexcusable actions, and so we have a national-security interest in solving this"

That's Barrack Hussein Obama,the man who puts all his cards on the table.Reminds me of the scene in the Godfather with Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo.Obama would get people killed.

[PeterUK]

"You don't waltz into Sudan to get a 60,000 kilometer block Oil contract on the same day folks...it takes some time and negotiations".

You certainly don't.Very big on protocol and the niceties of negotiation are the Sudanese.

[qrstuv]

"The lack of a resolution to this problem provides an excuse for anti-American militant jihadists to engage in inexcusable actions, and so we have a national-security interest in solving this"

Yeah, sure let's "solve" this.

Then we can "move on" to the next excuse the jihadists have. Which one do you want to "solve" after that?

Free speech?
Gay rights?
Women's rights?
Voting?

[Jack Klompus]

I've never posted here before but I just have to chime in to say that Laughing is one of the most pompous, smug, immature, sanctimonious assholes I've ever seen in print. I love how trashing someone's age is okay as long as they're a Republican, oh wait let me channel leftist wit - ReTHUGlican hahaa I'm so fucking witty! Thus cheap shots at McCain, a man whose accomplishments I'm SO sure Laughing's match up to in any significant way.
Laughing, you're a prick. You cobble together the same lame gloating, one-liners and cheap insults (I'm sure you have a whole arsenal of good ones to use on Hillary that would garner shrill cries of sexism were not Obama the chosen one)while making retarded, hyperbolic claims of people dancing in the street when Obama is elected? Seriously dude, stop dropping acid - it will have repurcussions when you become an adult.
What an asshole.

[Rocco]

According to Martha Lagace, Senior Editor of the Harvard Business School Working Knowledge,

In addition to his role as Special Advisor for Economic and Financial Affairs to President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, who was elected in 2000, and chairmanship of the president's economic and financial advisory council, Ndiaye is also director of AIG-African Infrastructure Fund, which has $400 million in commitments. He also serves as managing director of MIDROC-BVI, which invests in Africa for Saudi businessman Sheikh Mohammad Hussain Al-Amoudi.

So Ndiaye is director of both AIG-AIF and MIDROC-BVI owned by Al Amoudi. Wilson doesn't seem too far removed from this Sheiks influence.

[kim]

Larry went off to East Africa a couple of years ago, too, Rocco. At the time I thought he was planning an escape route and safehouse for Val and Joe.

Laughing sounds a lot like a Ronian with whom I conversed at length last fall, but not half as funny and not nearly so intimate with American culture. By the way, L, this Persian bomb about which you are so nonchalant, they'll only be using it against their ancient rivals, right?
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