That photo that popped up with the Syrian Sleazeball and the Clintons looks like a personal picture given at a book signing or a banquet. Something likely taken by Rezko's wife or a friend, that has been in the Rezko family album for the past 20 years or so.

It would be nice to see Patrick Fitzgerald subpeona the media involved to make them disclose where they got the photo. It seems to impact on the case in that it was an obvious favor to a prominent politician, which seems to be the crux of the investigation.

I wonder how much of the apparent acrimony between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is driven by Obama's tumultuous relationship with his mother Ann Dunham?

Barack was sent to live with his grandparents when he was about 10, from what I understand. Having first been abandoned by his biological father, then having to adapt to a rather strict stepfather and a new culture, to finally being "abandoned" by his biological mother to the care of her parents. I don't pretend to know the all circumstances of the arrangement, but based on Obama writing "Dreams of My Father" while his mother was on her death bed, and an apparent rift with his maternal grandmother, who refuses to speak about him publicly, you have to assume there are some residual resentments all around.

Certainly there have to be some echos in the presence of the headstrong maternal efficiency that Hillary Clinton represents, to his own liberal minded, convention defying mother. Barack wants something very badly, and "Mom" still stands in the way.

That's all for today, you can go now, but you owe me $200.00. ;)

The thing that jumped out at me last night in the debate was the extreme contrast between the confidence and control Barack Obama exhibits is his SCRIPTED SPEECHES read off a TELEPROMPTER, and written by PROFESSIONAL WRITERS, as opposed to standing alone and weilding surprise questions.

The difference in the respective candidate's capacity for abstract thought and speech, appropriate to a changing situation, was glaring last night. Obama was not in the same league with either of the other two on the stage.

No wonder his role model is Reagan, a somewhat dimwitted front man who relied on charm and simplistic slogans to win the Presidency, then relied on aides to govern once in office. Arnold Swarzenegger is another good example of that path to power.

A consistent complaint coming from the Hillary Clinton campaign has been the degree to which Barack Obama has been vetted in his short political career. The resurfacing of the Rezko affair in Chicago, the controversy about Obama's church, the Trinity United Church of Christ and his Pastor/mentor Jeremiah Wright Jr., and the questionable antics of Obama's friend/cousin Raila Odinga in Kenya would seem to justify their concern.

What kind of fun can the Rep oppo artists have with the fact that Obama was involved in some shady ventures with people named Antoin Rezko (Syrian background), Abdulmuhamid Chaib (Algerian), and Milorad Blagojevich (Serb/Chetnik heritage)? Given those names, along with Obama's, and no other information, the average American would probably conclude it was a terror cell. Particularly when they are being prosecuted by the All American defender of democracy Patrick Fitzgerald.

What kind of fun can they have with a loose cannon like Jeremiah Wright Jr. who represents an essentially "blacks only" church, and has recently honored Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan? How soon before they take that debate back to the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s via Louis X, and the tenants of the TUCC pledge?

What kind of fun can they have if the Kenyan situation blows up and all the details about Obama's cousin Raila Odinga, their mutual support system, and the convoluted history of Obama's African family emerge? Odinga inherited his power via his father, a former tribal cheiftan and Kenyan Vice President. He embraces a Marxist doctrine and has strong ties to Muslim interests and nations in Africa. He courted the Muslim vote in Kenya by offering to facilitate the influence of Sharia Law there, and "loosen ties with Washington".

Anyone else notice how these three sites bounce all their articles off each other to create an Echo Chamber Effect, and AMP UP THE VOLUME?

Ordinarily it wouldn't be a huge issue, but whether by political choice or PAYOFFS, the three sites all emphasise information FAVORABLE TO BARACK OBAMA and UNFAVORABLE TO HILLARY CLINTON.

This needs to be looked in to. It is collusion, and a form of collusion that suggests MONEY IS CHANGING HANDS.

http://allafrica.com/stories/20080118091 6.html

Barack Obama has had a major impact on the recent disputed Kenyan election. He spoke in support of Orange Democratic Movement opposition leader Raila Odinga when in Kenya in 2006. The two men met last fall when Odinga visited America as each was preparing an "insurgency" campaign in their respective countries. In a recent BBC interview, Raila Odinga, averred that he and Obama were "old friends who spoke often on the telephone". Odinga also said that he and Obama were cousins, a claim that the Obama campaign was unwilling to acknowledge,(given Odinga's current difficulties) but did not deny.

Former Clinton aides currently working for Obama were the "mutual acquaintances" who directed Dick Morris to Kenya to advise the Odinga campaign in November of 2007, shortly after Odinga visited with Obama in America. Morris was an extremely divisive factor in the Kenyan elections, as a foreigner, a white man, and the creator of an antagonistic "have vs. have nots" campaign platform for Odinga's ODM. He also suggested the current campaign of civil disobedience to protest the election result, including a "Million Person March", a la Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.

When things got out of hand following the election, Obama called Odinga repeatedly, but Mwai Kibaki, the leader of the Government would not return his calls as he perceives Obama to be biased toward his Luo relative Odinga in the conflict. Obama is featured prominently in ODM campaign posters, slogans, and songs in Kenya, and the plaintive phrase "A Luo will become President in America before a Luo will become President in Kenya" is often heard.

Now, according to the above dispatch from Africa, it appears that the tribal rupture in Kenya, percipitated by the election, could spread to other countries. Some 700 people have died in Kenya as a result of the agitation since the beginning of 2008, and around 300,000 have been displaced from their homes. Human Rights monitors and Church leaders in Western Kenya have both suggested that the slaughter was organized by members of the ODM, and the Kenyan government has vowed to prosecute those guilty of the crimes.

Interesting interview with Cousin Odinga in L.A. Times, Jan 18, 2008 edition. My attention was drawn to this portion in particular..........

"In an interview Thursday, Odinga said his credentials as an outsider are exactly what Kenya needs and pledged not to abandon his decades-old dream of leading this East African nation.

"I represent change," the politician said at his party headquarters in the capital, Nairobi, appearing bleary-eyed and tired from fighting a political war that began with the disputed Dec. 27 presidential election. "People voted for me because they want change."

Seven more demonstrators died in clashes with police around the country Thursday, the second day of a three-day "mass action" called by Odinga to protest the election, which he denounces as fraudulent. Odinga said that as many as 500 people had been killed by police during the last three weeks, many shot in the head.

Government officials have defended their handling of postelection riots and ethnic clashes, saying many of those shot were looting or killing innocent people.

Kibaki, who was declared the victor and inaugurated Dec. 30, says the protests are illegal and has called upon Odinga to cancel them.

Undeterred, Odinga said he would expand his campaign next week to disrupt the government and economy by calling for boycotts of banks, bus companies, milk factories and other businesses that are supporting the Kibaki administration. He said he also would attempt to organize strikes among sympathetic unions in the hotel and security industries.

Postelection chaos has tarnished Kenya's reputation as a model for African democracy and cost the economy more than $1 billion. Tourism, a key industry, has screeched to a halt.

But Odinga scoffed at the notion of giving up his pursuit and spending "another five years sitting outside the fence."

"To say we will surrender is not an option," he said. "It's not for me. It's for this country. It's for prosperity. If we just give up because we are doing things that destroy the economy, then change will never come."

Barack Obama'a acknowledged mentor and long time friend and confidante Jeremiah Wright Jr., pastor of the Trinity United Church of which Obama is a long time member, is in the headlines this week. First over the fact that the Church sponsored magazine The Trumpet awarded Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan (Louis X) with a distinguished acheivement award last month, then over a sermon in which he decided to mix religion and politics by accusing Bill Clinton of "doing to black people what he did with Monica Lewinsky". May as well throw a little sex into the volitile religion/politics chemical mix while you're at it. :)

Farrakhan for all the work he has done for black rights is also a fundamentalist Muslim who is a notorious Jew baiter, and based on his comments, an obvious Jew hater. The Church that Obama attends seems far less about religion than race and black politics. If you visit the website you will see that it advertises itself as "Unabashedly Afrocentric" touching on Christ and Christianity only in the context of advancing the cause of people of African heritage around the world. The pledge of loyalty on the church website is to "Mother Africa", and not to Jesus Christ or America.

Wright is a black advocate first, a preacher second. He is one in a line of many in America, including Louis Farrakhan and fellow charismatic preachers Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, etc., all the way back to Martin Luther King and the pioneers of the civil rights movement.

The largest minority race in America (14% of the population) has no shortage of high profile advocates. Other racial minorities such as Asians and Native Americans, have no public advocates to compare with the plethora of well known black leaders. Moving from racial minorities to ethnic/religious minorities, Hispanics, Arab/Muslims, and Jews have none to compare either. As a group, the "non black" minorites constitute a much larger portion of the non Caucasian residents. Hispanics alone outnumber African Americans in the country.

A philosophy that is based on "blacks first" such as the one "Trumpeted" so loudly on the website of the Trinity United Church, (and presumably shared by Barack Obama), necessarily dimishes or excludes rights of other minorities in the country. From my perspective, the concern is not so much that Barack Obama is a "closet Muslim", but the fact that he is a Christian who worships at, and embraces the goals of, the Trinity United Church in Illinois, and it's pastor Jeremiah Wright Jr.