October 13-15, 2008
Oct 15 03:58 Questions For ACORN Oct 13 03:40 Obama Cabinet Speculation Oct 13 13:09 Setting the Haditha Record Straight Oct 13 23:28 Who's Investigating the Investigators? Oct 14 03:54 Obama's Misogynistic Supporters Oct 15 02:02 New Strib Blog A Great Read Oct 15 20:00 Liveblogging the Finale
Prior Months: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep
Questions For ACORN
I posted the transcript of Jamie Colby's interview with Scott Levenson, ACORN's national spokesperson, here . Something that Mr. Levenson said bugged me so now I'm going to address it here. Here's what he said that's bugging me:
LEVENSON: Let me jump in here because it's really important for the public to understand what's gone on here. We spot, proactively, by ourselves, any questionable voter registration forms and proactively notify the appropriate authorities at the time that we collect it. We have been turning over registration forms to the authorities in these states weekly.Mr. Levenson just admitted that ACORN workers have committed voter registration fraud. This isn't the first time that this has happened, either. It's happened in Seattle, St. Louis and Kansas City, just to name a few places it happened in 2004 and 2006.
It's worth noticing that Mr. Levenson didn't say that ACORN had fired all of the registration workers who'd filled out those thousands of fraudulent registrations. Whether they did or didn't is almost immaterial going forward, though. Anyone who's paid attention to ACORN knows that this year isn't the exception to the rule. It's their hallmark pattern. It isn't a stretch to think that ACORN's management encourages their employees to fill out fraudulent registrations. At minimum, they're indifferent to these practices.
Here's a partial list of my questions for Mr. Levenson:
- What disciplinary actions has ACORN established for dealing with registration workers caught filling out fraudulent registrations?
- Mr. Levenson says that ACORN "spot...any questionable voter registration forms and proactively notify the appropriate authorities." Has ACORN turned in any of the workers to "the appropriate authorities"? If not, why not?
- Considering the fact that ACORN has been dogged by these problems the past 3 election cycles, why hasn't ACORN tightened up their procedures and protocols to eliminate potential registration fraud?
- What type of supervisory system has ACORN installed to prevent registration fraud? Do these supervisors have the responsibility for disciplining ACORN employees? If not, why not?
- Why shouldn't the American people think that ACORN is a corrupt organization that is indifferent to maintaining the integrity of our election system?
Posted Wednesday, October 15, 2008 4:01 AM
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Obama Cabinet Speculation
This Salena Zito column should scare the bejeebers out of every security-minded person in America. Here's what scares me most:
One insider, who refuses to predict on the record, says privately that Obama will quickly announce his appointments to the Cabinet positions of state, defense, treasury and attorney general. He believes Obama's Cabinet is shaping up to look like this: retiring U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., as defense secretary; Massachusetts Democrat Gov. Deval Patrick as attorney general; New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a political independent, at treasury; Susan Rice as national security adviser; Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., as secretary of state.This national security team should scare everyone because they're all pacifists. Chuck Hagel isn't as nutty as Ron Paul but he's every bit the pacifist that Paul is. Susan Rice's national security credentials are thin. The only thing I've notice about her is that her temper flares anytime she's pinned down with the facts. Deval Patrick's ethical lapses disqualify him for being the AG because he isn't a trustworthy person. I'd defy people to read this and argue that he's trustworthy:
This is supposed to be Patrick's honeymoon period. But after a quiet first month in office, February was overtaken by stories about the $1,100-a-month Cadillac, the helicopter trips, the fancy drapes, the pricey aide hired to handle his wife's schedule. March began with his acknowledgement of a call he made on behalf of a controversial mortgage company to a large bank with significant dealings with the state. Yesterday, the Massachusetts Republican Party asked the state Ethics Commission to investigate Patrick's Feb. 20 call to Citigroup.That national security team is nothing but a flock of doves. John Kerry, Chuck Hagel and Barack Obama are doves. They're also traditional Washington insiders. It isn't good when Joe Biden is the most hawkish member of the national security team.
William G. Mayer, a political science professor at Northeastern University, said that if Patrick continues to make unwise decisions, not even the strongest grass-roots network in recent memory can shield him from the consequences.
"If you make a call that is purely illegitimate, or you seem to be using the resources of your office to pamper yourself, merely saying 'I've got these people who support me on the issues' is not going to carry a whole lot of weight," he said. "A grass-roots network, however extensive it is, represents a very, very narrow slice of the electorate."
The only way to prevent such a disastrous cabinet being assembled is to do everything possible to defeat Sen. Obama.
Technroati: Joe Biden , Hawk , Barack Obama , Chuck Hagel , John Kerry , Susan Rice , Michael Bloomberg , National Security , NSA , Deval Patrick , Cabinet , Election 2008
Cross-posted at California Conservative
Originally posted Monday, October 13, 2008, revised 30-Jan 11:01 AM
Comment 1 by Walter hanson at 13-Oct-08 12:39 PM
the people of MA might be happy with that list. It gets two bad apples out of their jobs and gets them replaced.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Comment 2 by Gary Gross at 13-Oct-08 01:29 PM
That's true. I like the sound of Sen. Beatty & Gov. Ogonowski.
Setting the Haditha Record Straight
I've been following John Murtha's attempted railroading of the Haditha Marines since May, 2006. After learning the details of what happened in Haditha, I then focused on what's been happening in the military injustice system. It's been difficult to watch the purely political machinations within the persecutions. This morning, the Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) issued a statement that their appeal to the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals court will be this Friday. Here's part of the text of their statement:
Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Law Center, commented, "For the last two and a half years, Lt. Colonel Chessani, has been investigated and prosecuted for his involvement in the so-called "Haditha massacre", a massacre the Government now knows never happened. This loyal officer who served 20 years defending our nation, including three tours of duty in Iraq, has been made a political scapegoat to appease anti-war Congressman John Murtha and the liberal press."It's time that we turned up the heat on the powers that be and force an end to this charade. That means pressuring the politicians behind this persecution.
Thompson continued, "The outcome of this case could have a negative impact on our national security. If the Government succeeds with this prosecution, every combat commander will know that difficult battlefield decisions can end up with a politically motivated criminal prosecution based on insurgent-driven propaganda."
Lt. Col. Chessani is essentially charged with covering up a military crime. As Mr. Thompson notes, the military now knows that a military crime wasn't committed. That isn't opinion. It's a finding of fact evidenced by the dropping of charges against 5 of the 8 Marines. That's evidenced by the acquittal of another of the accused Marines. The only people who haven't been officially been cleared are Lt. Col. Chessani and SSgt. Wuterich. Again, it's time for this charade to end.
Here's another important portion of TMLC's statement:
Background of LtCol Chessani's CaseI talked about these events in this post :
On November 19, 2005, at approximately 7:15 a.m., a Marine convoy was rolling through Haditha, Iraq, a terrorist stronghold. Suddenly, a roadside bomb went off destroying a Marine Humvee, killing one Marine, and seriously injuring two others.
The Marines immediately received fire from the ambushing insurgents, who were shooting from nearby civilian-occupied homes. A four-man fire team responded as trained; they cleared several houses occupied by the armed insurgents. In the ensuing room-by-room, house-by-house gun battle, 8 enemy insurgents were killed.
Tragically 15 civilians also died, in urban combat, where insurgents purposefully use civilians as human shields, civilian casualties are tragic, but not uncommon. In fact, sometimes the insurgents themselves kill civilians to achieve a propaganda victory by blaming the Americans.
That's one of the bullet points in Phil Brennan's June 7, 2007 article. Here's the full set of bullet points:Jeffrey Dinsmore's testimony at the Article 32 hearing shows two things: (a) that a massacre didn't happen and (b) that the officers reported everything that happened. Since it's now a legal finding of fact that the massacre didn't happen and that a detailed PowerPoint presentation was put together, then sent up the chain of command, it isn't a stretch to think that this continued charade is purely political theater.
- Intelligence gathered by Marine S2 officers in advance of the events of Nov. 19th, 2005, revealed that it was known that an insurgent ambush was planned for the day.
- Although exact details of the planned ambush were not known, some important details were revealed, most importantly, that some 20 insurgents would take part, and a white car would play an important role in the ambush.
- The intelligence was made available to the officers and men of Kilo Company, including Sgt. Frank Wuterich who has been charged with, among other things, murdering the occupants of a white car that came on the scene following the IED explosion that killed one Marine and seriously wounded another. The evidence will show that Wuterich acted appropriately when he shot the passengers of the vehicle.
- Although the media continues to report that 24 innocent civilians were killed that day , the S2's testimony shows that eight of the dead, including four of the five occupants in the white car killed by Wuterich, were known insurgents and the dead civilians therefore numbered 16, not 24.
- The insurgents whose communications were intercepted and which revealed the planned ambush were the same two men who were the sources of the fallacious and dishonest Time magazine story, which was the source of the accusations against the Marines.
- As previously reported by NewsMax, the battalion S2 officer made a full and complete report based on his monitoring of the day's events and the intelligence he and others had amassed then and previous days. As we wrote at the time, the PowerPoint after-action report he sent up the command ladder proved to all the higher officers that the incident warranted no further investigation. None!
If the military wants to convince us that the word justice means anything to them, they must immediately end this charade. At this point, I'm not convinced that justice is an important consideration for the military. If it was, Colonel Steven A. Folsom wouldn't have issued a ruling of unlawful command influence in the case of Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani. If justice was their primary goal, they wouldn't continue this charade.
Let's recognize that Rep. Murtha first lied about this on May 17, 2006. he then lied about where he got his information from, first saying that he was getting his information "from the commanders, it comes from people who know what they're talking about." It didn't take long before that story changed:
Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, is being sued by one of the accused Marines for libel. He had told The Philadelphia Inquirer that Gen. Michael Hagee had given him the information on which he based his charge that Marines killed innocent civilians.Rep. Murtha's version of events has changed frequently, which says he isn't telling the truth.
But a spokesman for the Marine Corps said Hagee briefed Murtha on May 24 about Haditha. Murtha had made comments on the case as early as May 17.
It's time that the military acted in the interest of justice towards Lt. Col. Chessani and SSgt. Wuterich. If they're interested in justice, they should correct their mistake ASAP.
Posted Monday, October 13, 2008 11:31 PM
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Who's Investigating the Investigators?
One of the things that popped into my head as I read TMLC's statement was whether anyone was investigating the investigators or the military personnel making rulings at the various hearings. Here's what got me started wondering about that:
The investigation of the "Haditha Marines" by over 65 Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) agents is the largest investigation in that agency's history according to the director of that agency.It isn't possible that that many investigators objectively examined that much information, including videotape from UAV's that monitored the firefight and audiotape communications between the Haditha Marines and the command center, and thought that there was a basis for charges against the Haditha Marines.
Capt. Dinsmore testified via video from Iraq that they knew in advance that there was an insurgent attack planned for November 19, 2005. They knew that a white car would play an important role in the ambush.
Here's what I posted over a year ago from John Murtha's interview with Charlie Gibson:
GIBSON: Jonathan just mentioned, there's no charges yet filed against any of the Marines that were in this outfit, but Jonathan mentioned a moment ago, defense lawyers are already saying, well, there's drone video and there is actual radio traffic to higher-ups that will give a different picture than you have been talking about of this incident. What do you know about that?Why hasn't NCIS come under closer scrutiny? They're responsible for this witch hunt. Why aren't they being held accountable?
As I said earlier today, Col. Steven Folsom dismissed all charges against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani on the grounds that there was "unlawful command influence" involved in bringing the charges against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani. This is about as serious a charge as can be brought against the convening authorities. Here's what USMilitary.org says about UCI:
UCI occurs when senior personnel, wittingly or unwittingly, have acted to influence court members, witnesses, or others participating in military justice cases. Such unlawful influence not only jeopardizes the validity of the judicial process, it undermines the morale of military members, their respect for the chain of command, and public confidence in the military.It isn't a stretch to think that the influence in this instance was intentional. Putting it in betting parlance, the fix was in. If this happened in criminal court, the possible range of charges might include obstruction of justice, subornation of perjury, witness tampering and/or jury tampering.
Let's think of this from a civilian standpoint. The investigators would be part of the prosecution's team. They'd likely be a law enforcement organization like the FBI or a police or sheriff's department. If a judge ruled that a law enforcement organization had fixed a trial, rest assured that there'd be front page headlines in the local paper talking about the criminal activity.
The next logical question I'd ask is whether courts-martial trials were being determined by legislators. This deserves a full-scale investigation. I'd specifically want to know if John Murtha, Norm Dicks or Ike Skelton exerted pressure on NCIS investigators or on the Article 32 hearings. If they did, they should be immediately expelled from the House of representatives.
That type of behavior is unacceptable, especially when it involves true American heroes who followed the ROE.
Posted Monday, October 13, 2008 11:34 PM
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Obama's Misogynistic Supporters
Everyone's heard about the vulgar anti-Palin t-shirts. Monday afternoon, Martha McCallum interviewed Tammy Bruce about those t-shirts. Here's the videostream of the interview:
Here's a partial transcript of the interview:
Martha McCallum: Well, McCain supporters have been accused of stirring up hate but what about Barack Obama's supporters against Gov. Sarah Palin? She's been pounded with protests in Pennsylvania this past weekend but the most dramatic is very offensive, frankly, no matter who you support.I'm certain that the vast majority of people would be utterly disgusted if they heard about these t-shirts. That's why the Obama news networks won't say a word about it.
An anti-Palin t-shirt that is so vulgar that we can't even show it to you on cable TV. Are these protesters crossing the line? Joining me now is Fox News Analyst and syndicated radio talk show host Tammy Bruce. Tammy I think we have a photograph with part of this sort of blurred out to show what these people had on their t-shirts. But first of all, why haven't we heard more about this?
Tammy Bruce: Well, partly from the way you introduced this, it's not even a word that can be said. It's not a word that people want to say. It's the most derogatory term for womanhood that there is and the other remarkable thing other than knowing that the general establishment media is in the tank for Obama, the fact is that this is nothing new. This is part and parcel of the attitude and tone of the Obama campaign, which has upset so many Hillary Clinton supporters from the beginning of his presidential run, the misogyny and the sexism sets a tone for his supporters and it manifests in this way and it really is quite horrific.
Martha McCallum: Yeah. We're not going to show the picture because we don't want to add any legitimacy to it but it's four people wearing green t-shirts and it basically says Palin is a...and it finishes that sentence in a really gross, derogatory way. And I was also shocked to see that there was a woman in that picture. Where does that come from?
Tammy Bruce: You know, this kind of misogyny, it's not just from men. It transcends gender and race. It transcends class. The fact of the matter is that one of the most popular t-shirts out there when Barack Obama was running in the primary season said "Bros before hoes." I mean, this is the tone that was set against Hillary and Hillary supporters, which is why John McCain has received so much support from that end. This isn't just about defeating an oppponent when it comes to the issues. This is about personal destruction and this is the kind of thing that many people decided to reject and when we deal with issues of character and judgment, what your supporters are doing does reflect on what the top of the ticket is doing.
Martha McCallum: And I guess you always have to put the shoe on the other foot to see how this would be treated and I'm trying to imagine if there was something derogatory along those lines of a racial nature against Barack Obama on a t-shirt. I've gotta believe that you'd see this story practically everywhere.
Tammy Bruce: Well, already through these campaigns, we've learned that the issue of race is treated much more seriously than misogyny is. That's an education that we've got to deal with. John McCain and Sarah Palin will be the beneficiaries of the types of people who reject this type of dynamic.
Obama's crafted an image of being a moderate who gets along with everyone of all political stripes. The ladies of PUMA aren't buying into that. Bill Clinton isn't buying into that either. Bill Clinton knows that Sen. Obama played the race card on him. He knows that Sen. Obama played the sexism card against Hillary, too. Let's not forget that Sen. Obama unloaded on Geraldine Ferarro, too.
I don't even think it's all about being sexist, though I think that Sen. Obama is sexist. Instead, Sen. Obama is a product of the Daley machine, which means he's ruthless. If someone challenges Sen. Obama, he'll do everything he can to annihilate his opponent.
Frankly, I hope alot of feminists give Sen. Obama the political equivalent of the finger on Election Night. He's ruthless, a racist, a sexist, a political radical and a thoroughly dishonest man.
Posted Tuesday, October 14, 2008 9:44 AM
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New Strib Blog A Great Read
Anyone who's read LFR before knows that I've been critical of some of the Strib's columnists in the past. While I've been critical of some of their columnists, I've been a huge fan of their beat writers for the sports teams. Most of their beat writers also have blogs.
Now they've introduced a new sports blog , this one covering the Gophers men's hoops team. Myron Medcalf's first post is certainly must reading to any hoops junkie. Here's the part that's got me excited:
Some may look at this scenario and recall Tubby's substitution pattern that he employed during the nonconference portion of the team's schedule last season. It didn't work as well in the Big Ten because teams were too deep and talented. He had to keep his best guys on the floor. This season, however, the Gophers are deep. But they have two juco players who didn't come here to sit. Two second-year players in Al Nolen and Blake Hoffarber who proved their worth last season. Two freshmen, Colton Iverson and Ralph Sampson III, who may have the energy and drive to become the squads starting post players. Two returning juniors (Damian Johnson, Lawrence Westbrook) who will probably start. Add in Jon Williams and you have a team that needs good chemistry to make sure every player is content with their role.This is a year of resurgence for Gophers sports, especially with the Gopher football team already bowl eligible. If Tubby's team is as good as the experts have predicted, this should be an exciting year, finishing with an NCAA tournament berth.
Posted Wednesday, October 15, 2008 2:02 AM
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Liveblogging the Finale
7:50 -- While waiting for the candidates, let me lay out what I think John McCain needs to do tonight. First, Sen. McCain must show people that he'll fight for them by going after the corruption on Wall Street. His best approach on that will be to say that he drafted legislation to clean up Freddie and Fannie and that Sen. Obama wrote a letter to the Treasury Department.
Next, he's got to show them that he'll fight for their prosperity by keeping spending low and by cutting taxes. If he does that, he'll win over independents and moderates.
Finally, he must talk about how he'll reform the election process by ending the corruption of ACORN.
7:58 -- Shieffer is now talking. nice talking about Tim Russert, wishing "Tim could be here."
8:03 -- Americans are hurting because they've been betrayed by the greed on wall Street. The culprit was the Fannie/Freddie/subprime lending crisis.
8:05 -- McCain: I'd like to talk about a plumber whom Sen. Obama talked with. Sen. Obama said that he'd "spread the wealth around." Joe won't have the money to buy his company.
8:07 -- Obama: Joe the plumber thinks that because of the misleading ads that Sen. McCain has run.
8:13 : McCain: We need to cut corporate taxes. Ireland only pays 11%. We pay 35%. Where do you think companies will go?
8:15 -- Obama: "I've promised a net spending cut." "If we invest in health care, we'll save money." (When has government helped make things more efficient?)
8:17 -- McCain: I'd propose a spending freeze." "Some say that that's taking a hatchet out when we need a scalpel. I'd take a hatchet out first, then take out the scalpel."
8:20 -- McCain: "Sen. Obama, I'm not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should've run 4 years ago." "Let's look at our records. I've fought against my party on immportant issues."
8:23 -- Obama: "You're essentially proposing 8 more years of the same."
8:25 -- McCain: "Your argument isn't very convincing."
8:28 -- Obama: 100% of your ads have been negative.
8:30 -- McCain: I watched the Arizona Cardinals defeat the Dallas Cowboys. Every other ad was a negative ad distorting my position on stem cell research, on immigration.
8:35 -- McCain: Sen. Clinton said that we need to know the extent of Sen. Obama's ties to Ayers. We still don't know the extent.
8:37 -- Obama is now trying to explain away his connections with ACORN & Ayers. The only connection I've had with ACORN is that I was their counsel.
8:39 -- McCain is now forcefully refuting Obama's answer.
8:45 -- McCain: Sen. Biden had a cockamamie answer on Iraq. We needed a surge." "Notice that everything Sen. Obama says "We need to invest more..." We need to increase nuclear power." The Navy sails around the world with nuclear power plants onboard. Sen. Obama says that he's for drilling. You need to examine his words. Notice that he's 'for drilling'. He hasn't said that he'd drill.
8:55 -- McCain: Sen. Obama doesn't want a free trade agreement with our best ally in South America but he will sit down with Iran.
9:04 -- McCain has the est line of the night. "Sen. Government....Sen. Obama..."
9:07 -- McCain is talking about the Gang of 14, noting that "Sen. Obama, you had a chance to join that group but you didn't join" for political reasons. "You didn't vote for John Roberts and Samuel Alito."
9:11 -- Sen. McCain is hammering Obama on BAIPA.
9:12 -- Obama: If it sounds incredible that I could deny care to a baby, that's because it isn't true. He's gonna get hammered on that again tonight.
9:15 -- McCain: Notice the eloquence of Obama's words.
9:18 -- McCain: We need competition to improve education. We need charter schools.
Originally posted Wednesday, October 15, 2008, revised 16-Oct 4:30 AM
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