From: Rick Basora [the_dragonwolf@comcast.net]
Sent: Saturday, May 17, 2008 8:20 PM
To: 'verdict@msnbc.com'
Cc: 'hardball@msnbc.com'; 'countdown@msnbc.com'
Subject: To: Dan Abrams - An Obama / Clinton ticket - You're smarter than that, Dan!
Dan,
I normally love your show, so much so, that I watch it in tandem with Hardball and Countdown. However, Dan, this “quest” that you’ve adopted, so as to justify Senator Hillary Clinton as Senator Barack Obama’s running mate, has made me think that you’ve been spending far too much time playing Bush “non-golf” with Hannity and Limbaugh! Kindly ponder the following three considerations, my friend.
- In addition to the plethora of disregard for the protocols of fairness and decency, throughout this Presidential Primary season, Senator Clinton lied about negotiating a peace agreement in Northern Ireland. She lied about negotiating the opening of the Kosovo / Macedonia border. She lied about her involvement in Canada’s NAFTAgate. She lied about Bosnia’s “sniper-fire” landing. Iran has filed a grievance against her before the U.N. Security Council, regarding the “We will obliterate them” comment. These countries know that we, as a people and as a government, are aware of these lies and misconducts. How can we expect to be regarded with respect and credibility by these nations, if we grant this bona fide liar, a place on the “Change” ticket? What message would we be sending to those countries, who have been “the objects” of Clinton’s lies and gross political misbehavior, about the nature of the respect that we regard them in?
- Many responsible American parents have walked their children through this historic Party Nominee selection process, in an effort to begin or to continue the education of a future generation of voters. No doubt, many a Republican dad and an Obamite mom have pointed out the lies, and the dishonesty of the Clinton campaign as vivid reasons why voting is the patriotic imperative with which Americans can keep such Carpetbaggers from gaining office. If Hillary Clinton is leveraged into the position of Obama’s VP running mate, how are we supposed to explain to our children that, despite a wealth of qualified, credible candidates, the LIAR, the most corrupt, was the one chosen as a running mate? How are Civics teachers supposed to answer the pointed questions that can be expected to come from those kids?
- The Clinton “laundry list” (from Peter Paul to NAFTAgate), which Obama chose not to engage during this primary election, is so vast and so damning, that it is the “core reason” why the Republicans have gone to extremes in order to insure that it is Hillary, and not Barack, that they run against in November. They KNOW that they can destroy her with it; they won’t stand for Chelsea-like dismissals of “it’s none of your business” and there aren’t enough older, frustrated and scorned women in America, to “stay off” that indefensible onslaught. Has it occurred to the great, geo-political, pro-Obama minds that propose such a misbegotten ticket, that Barack would inherit that laundry list (and ALL of it’s liabilities) by proxy? Therefore, while she may help him secure a greater slice of the feminist demographic, as well as of the “blue-collar” vote, which she cost him to begin with, the likelihood is that the Clinton “baggage” would cost Obama, and the Democrats, the election.
I welcome hearing how you would reconcile these.
Warmly,
Rick F. Basora
Fort Lauderdale, FL
The following is in response to the April 9, 2008 article, OBAMA'S MINISTER PROBLEM, published in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL and written by former Clinton Administration Counsel, Lanny J. Davis, a staunch supporter and fund-raiser for Senator Hillary Clinton. Mr. Davis was interviewed, on the same day, by Bill Hemmer and Megyn Kelly, of FOX News, regarding the content of his article. His interview was the subject of a subsequent discussion between Hemmer, Kelly and Mr. Bill O'Reilly, also with FOX Television.
-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Basora <the_dragonwolf@comcast.net>
To: Lanny Davis<ldavis@orrick.com>
Cc: billandmegyn@foxnews.com; americasnewsroom@foxnews.com; Myword@foxnews.com; Friends@foxnews.com; Feedback@foxnews.com; Jamie@foxnews.com; Newswatch@foxnews.com; Foxreport@foxnews.com; Atlarge@foxnews.com; Hannity@foxnews.com; JER@foxnews.com; Lineup@foxnews.com; Martha@foxnews.com; AmericasPulse@foxnews.com; Ontherecord@foxnews.com; Special@foxnews.com; Cavuto@foxnews.com; president@nytimes.com; executive-editor@nytimes.com; managing-editor@nytimes.com; washington@nytimes.com; national@nytimes.com; metro@nytimes.com; news-tips@nytimes.com; public@nytimes.com; letters@nytimes.com; mm-tips@mediamatters.org; CEO-CarolineLittle@wpni.com; executive.editor@washingtonpost.com; letters@washpost.com; ombudsman@washpost.com; metro@washpost.com; national@washpost.com; wsj.ltrs@wsj.com; a.murray@wsj.com; a.latour@wsj.com; d.pettit@wsj.com; t.cullen@wsj.com; j.fry@wsj.com; darren.mcdermott@wsj.com; tips@tribune.com; ctc-tribletter@tribune.com; publiceditor@tribune.com; EAchenbaum@tribune.com; ctc-editor@tribune.com; bdold@tribune.com; TMcNulty@tribune.com; gdelama@tribune.com; JCWarren@tribune.com; aaguilar@tribune.com; aahmed@tribune.com; KAlleynemorris@tribune.com; LBAnderson@tribune.com; rranderson@tribune.com; kataiyero@tribune.com; NBendavid@tribune.com; lbowean@tribune.com; SChapman@tribune.com; LCohen@tribune.com; JChase@tribune.com; JCrewdson@tribune.com; HDardick@tribune.com; MDorning@tribune.com; askamy@tribune.com; national@latimes.com; tvtimes@latimes.com; op-ed@latimes.com; letters@latimes.com; ctc-TribLetter@Tribune.com; info@ap.org; headlinenews@cnn.com; mediainquiries@msnbc.com; letters@msnbc.com; Nightly@NBC.com; Dateline@NBCUNI.com; hardball@msnbc.com; countdown@msnbc.com; race08@msnbc.com; dabrams@msnbc.com; kolbermann@msnbc.com; verdict@msnbc.com; WebEditors@newsweek.com; Letters@newsweek.com; myturn@newsweek.com; letters@usnews.com; letters@time.com; Inquirer.Letters@phillynews.com; sf.nancy@mail.house.gov; AmericanVoices@mail.house.gov; letters@post-gazette.com; views@phillynews.com; opinion@tribweb.com; mm-tips@mediamatters.org
Sent: Fri, 11 Apr 2008 3:16 am
To: Mr. Lanny J. Davis
Dear Mr. Davis,
I poured myself that second cup of coffee, yesterday morning, and settled in for a comfortable read of The Wall Street Journal and… there it was again; Obama's Minister Problem by Lanny J. Davis..
I must tell you, that, while I hold you in the highest regard, your opinion evoked the same tired “HERE WE GO AGAIN” reaction that is becoming typical to the Clinton campaign’s desperate need to keep the “Reverend Jeremiah Wright issue” alive. With the frantic nature of these efforts, Sir, you make it tacitly clear that the Clinton Campaign is at a loss for anything else of substantive value to wedge against the Presidential candidacy of Senator Barack Obama. . You may have also noticed, that the electorate, as well as the Superdelegates, seem to be having that same visceral reaction to many of these “Clintonian” campaign strategies that now yield the same “There she goes again” found as the opening line of the February 8, 2008, NY Post article “Hillary Clinton Cries Again.”
I later turned on FOX, which I make a point of watching, just because I find it necessary to keep my finger on the pulse of what Neoconservatives are hatching these days… and there you were…with Bill Hemmer and Megyn Kelly, asking the same questions. “Why did he stay a member of the congregation? Why didn't he speak up earlier?” To my complete surprise, you were immediately followed by Bill O’Reilly (video) who, when asked by Kelly to provide his “take” on your article, referred to it as a “bogus point". Mr. Davis, I think it may have been the very first time in my whole “liberal” life that I agreed with this Neoconservative Icon and with most of his rationale. He said, “I agree with Lanny. I don’t think Obama agrees with anything Wright says” and “I scolded Lanny on the radio today, and I said, you brought this up. This story was dead and you, Lanny Davis, brought it up.” In fact, you, Mr. Davis, confirm, in your article, that “Clearly Mr. Obama does not share the extremist views of Rev. Wright. He is a tolerant and honorable person.” Then you wrote, “When I said on CNN recently that concerns about the Wright-Obama issue were "appropriate" to continue to be discussed, my friend Joe Klein of Time Magazine said, "Lanny, Lanny, you're spreading the poison right now" and that an "honorable person" would "stay away from this stuff." …your words, Sir.
What makes your posture flawed, in the eyes of highly educated Americans; people whose intelligence seems to have been underestimated by Senator Clinton, is that it contains a tacit philosophical “double standard” made evident by Frank Schaeffer, son of the late “Religious Right” leader, Francis Schaeffer. On March 16th, 2008, Frank wrote an article titled Obama's Minister Committed "Treason" But When My Father Said the Same Thing He Was a Republican Hero. In it, he made the following paramount statement:
“When Senator Obama's preacher thundered about racism and injustice, Obama suffered smear-by-association. But when my late father -- Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer -- denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government, he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr.”
There are many “Francis Shaeffers” in America, Sir, that have and continue to spread their “Revolution Theology” with impunity. The only difference between theirs and Wright’s “Liberation Theology", Mr. Davis, is that Wright’s…has left NO body count.
The Clinton Presidential Candidacy has far more serious issues of trustworthiness and of legitimacy that will not be made to disappear with feeble distractions like Jeremiah Wright. But, very well, Sir, since you insist that the candidates to the Democratic nominee engage the issues that are regarded to be hazardous to their electability, before, the General Election, then, by all means, please join us in seeing to it that your candidate engages the following in a public forum, as openly as Senator Barack Obama engaged your “Reverend Wright issue” in a nationally televised speech:
1 - Their recently disclosed tax information indicates that 5.9 million dollars of the Clinton’s 6.4 million dollar donations to charity (93%) were paid to their own family’s foundation, according to Bloomberg. This is the same Clinton Foundation that, according to The Washington Post , The New York Times, MediaMatters, Jihad Watch, The Sun and Digg.com, also received over 10 million dollars from the Saudis for the Clinton Library. Why is it that this massive amount of money is not openly revealed to the American public, other than in sideline articles, so that, as we consider that 3:00 am call to the Whitehouse, announcing a real-time terrorist action being perpetrated by a radical Islamic Fundamentalist group funded by the Saudi government, that WE THE PEOPLE may be allowed to utilize the conflict of interest as an element of judgment in determining WHO, in fact, WE want answering that phone. 2 - Three days ago, a news story titled HRC Colombia ties don't stop with Penn appeared in POLITICO.com. It revealed that the roster of Clinton campaign members, identified as having ties to the promotion of the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, seems to be ever growing. Since this is so reminiscent of the pre-Ohio Primary NAFTAgate. When is Senator Clinton going to reveal to America, and to the people of OHIO, what the Clinton Campaign’s REAL participation was in NAFTAgate by answering Paul Rogat Loeb’s (The Hillary Project) question, ”did Clinton win the Ohio Primary on a LIE” that disguised members of her own campaign reported to have been the ones doing the “wink-wink?” Canada’s Press tells a whole different story than that contained in the Clinton radio ad misleadingly presenting itself as a news story... until the very end. Mark Halperin, of TIME magazine, yesterday, provided the script to that ad as follows: This is an election news update with a major news story reported by the AP. While Senator Obama has crisscrossed Ohio giving speeches attacking NAFTA, his top economic advisor was telling the Canadians that was all just political maneuvering. A newly released document from the Canadian government shows that Obama’s senior economic advisor met with the Canadian Consul General and made clear that Obama’s attack on NAFTA were just, quote, “political maneuvering,” not policy. Political maneuvering, not policy. In fact, the document shows that Obama’s advisor also assured the Canadians that these attacks against NAFTA would not continue. Obama would not want to be, quote, “fundamentally changing the agreement.” As Senator Obama was telling one story to Ohio, his campaign was telling a very different story to Canada. How will Ohioans decide whether they can believe Senator Obama’s words? We’ll find that out on Election Day. Paid for by Hillary Clinton for President. 3 - We know that, in the same manner that Mrs. Clinton appears to have manipulated the outcome of Ohio, the same holds true for the result of the New Hampshire Primary as well. The now historic “emotional moment”, along with reported messages similar to the one found in the recent article, Clinton drops hospital story from stump speech, raised an immediate “sisterhood” of support that, the vast majority of political analysts agree, gave her the “last minute” Primary WIN. I am convinced that it took far more than a “boo-hoo” to evoke such a response and you, as well as the candidate that you help fund, must certainly know it. When will you explain how Clinton is said to have “hoodwinked” a significant number of women of the Democratic Party leadership in New Hampshire, including former State Senator, Katie Wheeler, into signing a letter, (once again) just prior to the Primary election, said to describe Senator Obama as “soft” on the abortion issue and which later had to be reversed, when these women discovered that they had been misinformed. Of course, the Clinton campaign could not send out the mass-mailing of a misleading Hillary mailer without having the “buy-in” of the local Dems; even if they admittedly didn’t understand what they were buying in to. By the time they figured it out, like NAFTAgate and Ohio, your candidate had “appropriated” yet another election. However, in this case, she left the state’s Democratic Party trying to heal the RIFT that she left behind. 4 - When is America going to be briefed about Superior Court of California – County of Los Angeles Case # BC 304174: Peter Paul vs. The Clintons, The Senate of the State of NY (2000), et al? (complaint) This complaint alleges a fraud, conspiracy and, quite possibly, the largest campaign finance fraud case in American history (video). The last thing that I heard regarding this case was that the appeal had been rejected and that the plaintiff was reportedly seeking an OCTOBER, 2008 trial date, one month before the General Election.
1 - Their recently disclosed tax information indicates that 5.9 million dollars of the Clinton’s 6.4 million dollar donations to charity (93%) were paid to their own family’s foundation, according to Bloomberg. This is the same Clinton Foundation that, according to The Washington Post , The New York Times, MediaMatters, Jihad Watch, The Sun and Digg.com, also received over 10 million dollars from the Saudis for the Clinton Library. Why is it that this massive amount of money is not openly revealed to the American public, other than in sideline articles, so that, as we consider that 3:00 am call to the Whitehouse, announcing a real-time terrorist action being perpetrated by a radical Islamic Fundamentalist group funded by the Saudi government, that WE THE PEOPLE may be allowed to utilize the conflict of interest as an element of judgment in determining WHO, in fact, WE want answering that phone.
2 - Three days ago, a news story titled HRC Colombia ties don't stop with Penn appeared in POLITICO.com. It revealed that the roster of Clinton campaign members, identified as having ties to the promotion of the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, seems to be ever growing. Since this is so reminiscent of the pre-Ohio Primary NAFTAgate. When is Senator Clinton going to reveal to America, and to the people of OHIO, what the Clinton Campaign’s REAL participation was in NAFTAgate by answering Paul Rogat Loeb’s (The Hillary Project) question, ”did Clinton win the Ohio Primary on a LIE” that disguised members of her own campaign reported to have been the ones doing the “wink-wink?” Canada’s Press tells a whole different story than that contained in the Clinton radio ad misleadingly presenting itself as a news story... until the very end. Mark Halperin, of TIME magazine, yesterday, provided the script to that ad as follows:
This is an election news update with a major news story reported by the AP. While Senator Obama has crisscrossed Ohio giving speeches attacking NAFTA, his top economic advisor was telling the Canadians that was all just political maneuvering. A newly released document from the Canadian government shows that Obama’s senior economic advisor met with the Canadian Consul General and made clear that Obama’s attack on NAFTA were just, quote, “political maneuvering,” not policy. Political maneuvering, not policy. In fact, the document shows that Obama’s advisor also assured the Canadians that these attacks against NAFTA would not continue. Obama would not want to be, quote, “fundamentally changing the agreement.” As Senator Obama was telling one story to Ohio, his campaign was telling a very different story to Canada. How will Ohioans decide whether they can believe Senator Obama’s words? We’ll find that out on Election Day. Paid for by Hillary Clinton for President.
3 - We know that, in the same manner that Mrs. Clinton appears to have manipulated the outcome of Ohio, the same holds true for the result of the New Hampshire Primary as well. The now historic “emotional moment”, along with reported messages similar to the one found in the recent article, Clinton drops hospital story from stump speech, raised an immediate “sisterhood” of support that, the vast majority of political analysts agree, gave her the “last minute” Primary WIN. I am convinced that it took far more than a “boo-hoo” to evoke such a response and you, as well as the candidate that you help fund, must certainly know it. When will you explain how Clinton is said to have “hoodwinked” a significant number of women of the Democratic Party leadership in New Hampshire, including former State Senator, Katie Wheeler, into signing a letter, (once again) just prior to the Primary election, said to describe Senator Obama as “soft” on the abortion issue and which later had to be reversed, when these women discovered that they had been misinformed. Of course, the Clinton campaign could not send out the mass-mailing of a misleading Hillary mailer without having the “buy-in” of the local Dems; even if they admittedly didn’t understand what they were buying in to. By the time they figured it out, like NAFTAgate and Ohio, your candidate had “appropriated” yet another election. However, in this case, she left the state’s Democratic Party trying to heal the RIFT that she left behind.
4 - When is America going to be briefed about Superior Court of California – County of Los Angeles Case # BC 304174: Peter Paul vs. The Clintons, The Senate of the State of NY (2000), et al? (complaint) This complaint alleges a fraud, conspiracy and, quite possibly, the largest campaign finance fraud case in American history (video). The last thing that I heard regarding this case was that the appeal had been rejected and that the plaintiff was reportedly seeking an OCTOBER, 2008 trial date, one month before the General Election.
By now, Mr. Davis, and with the preceding as elements of comparison, you must have concluded that most of America, even those who differ politically with Senator Obama, agree, that the controversy presented by the Senator’s affiliation to Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s church, is a worn issue that has run its course to the satisfaction of WE THE PEOPLE. Why? To use your own words, Mr. Davis;
“Clearly Mr. Obama does not share the extremist views of Rev. Wright. He is a tolerant and HONORABLE person.”
Respectfully yours,
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312
The_dragonwolf@comcast.net, http://my.barackobama.com/page/dashboard/public/gGR355
GREETINGS OBAMITES!Some of you know that I lead an ongoing "charge" against the insidious journalism practiced by FOX NEWS and SHAWN HANNITY. I have taken it personally, as have many of you, when these Neoconservatives apply these dangerous, misleading and offensive practices to our candidate. While the attached letter was sent to over 80 newspapers, Editors and pundits, I took the liberty of forwarding it, separately, to Mr. Keith Olbermann and COUNTDOWN at MSNBC. I did so, because I know NO OTHER PUNDIT who could vocalize the feeling of indignation that so many of you have told me that you have felt. It warranted, I felt, the castigating tone that is one of Mr. Olbermann's "to the point" hallmarks. I was honored in that he conveyed my message "loud and clear." This, my friends, was beyond imperrative, because Mr Hannity's incidiary tone could have reasonably been expected to incite radicals who, in an a "John Wilkes Booth-like" show of mutated patriotic bigotry, could very well attempt to do PHYSICAL harm to Senator Barack Obama or to members of his family. Keith, however, took it ONE STEP FURTHER, and exposed the expressions of SANCTIONED HATE that have come forth from FOX owner, RUPERT MURDOCH and the patrons of his public-opinion boards and blogs. I have posted the TWO relevant links in the "boxed" section immediately following this one, as well as at the points of relevance in the main body of this piece for easy reader correlation. It may interest you to know that, yesterday, it was made clear, that Democratic Governor, and staunch Clinton supporter, Governor Ed Rendell, of Pennsylvania, has endorsed…FOX NEWS! (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23889508#23889508). The Governor described it as "a fair and balance"news service. Keith immediately bestowed upon him the same "testimonial" earned only by the members of that most "exclusive of exclusive," "members only" order; THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD! Subsequent letter: Shawn Hannity: STOP the anti-OBAMA “FOX-VIRUS” NOW (http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/rickbasora/gGBnpb)
GREETINGS OBAMITES!
Some of you know that I lead an ongoing "charge" against the insidious journalism practiced by FOX NEWS and SHAWN HANNITY. I have taken it personally, as have many of you, when these Neoconservatives apply these dangerous, misleading and offensive practices to our candidate. While the attached letter was sent to over 80 newspapers, Editors and pundits, I took the liberty of forwarding it, separately, to Mr. Keith Olbermann and COUNTDOWN at MSNBC. I did so, because I know NO OTHER PUNDIT who could vocalize the feeling of indignation that so many of you have told me that you have felt. It warranted, I felt, the castigating tone that is one of Mr. Olbermann's "to the point" hallmarks. I was honored in that he conveyed my message "loud and clear." This, my friends, was beyond imperrative, because Mr Hannity's incidiary tone could have reasonably been expected to incite radicals who, in an a "John Wilkes Booth-like" show of mutated patriotic bigotry, could very well attempt to do PHYSICAL harm to Senator Barack Obama or to members of his family. Keith, however, took it ONE STEP FURTHER, and exposed the expressions of SANCTIONED HATE that have come forth from FOX owner, RUPERT MURDOCH and the patrons of his public-opinion boards and blogs. I have posted the TWO relevant links in the "boxed" section immediately following this one, as well as at the points of relevance in the main body of this piece for easy reader correlation. It may interest you to know that, yesterday, it was made clear, that Democratic Governor, and staunch Clinton supporter, Governor Ed Rendell, of Pennsylvania, has endorsed…FOX NEWS! (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23889508#23889508). The Governor described it as "a fair and balance"news service. Keith immediately bestowed upon him the same "testimonial" earned only by the members of that most "exclusive of exclusive," "members only" order; THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD!
Subsequent letter: Shawn Hannity: STOP the anti-OBAMA “FOX-VIRUS” NOW (http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/rickbasora/gGBnpb)
KEITH OLBERMANN presents: THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD
March 19, 2008 - Hannity's Site Features Outrageous Obama Posts http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23716643#23716643 March 21, 2008 - FoxNews.com HATE SPEECH http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23716643#23750779
March 19, 2008 - Hannity's Site Features Outrageous Obama Posts
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23716643#23716643
March 21, 2008 - FoxNews.com HATE SPEECH
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23716643#23750779
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 11:23 AM
To: KEITH OLBERMANN & COUNTDOWN [countdown@msnbc.com]
Subject: FW: SHAWN HANNITY - THE PINNACLE OF IRRESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM AT ITS WORST
The very “worstest” person in the world
Keith, You are my absolute “bestest PUNDITARIAN hero.” I’ve circulated this “modestly” but my deepest hope is that it gets to you. Kindly note the “Olbermannisms.”
SIC’EM!
Nothing can excuse the extremes of irresponsible journalism exhibited by Shawn Hannity and FOX on the 3/9/08 edition of Hannity's America. There, he deliberately attempted to vilify a Presidential candidate with tabloid-worthy disinformation. This is how tyranny is raised; by feeding it. I wrote this letter and sent it to the journalistic world in order to expose this un-American "jester". I am forwarding it to the respectable and credible Keith Olbermann, in hopes that he may use it as a "belt" with which to "spank" this buffoon for discrediting your legitimate profession of "informers of the world." If this “Roman Circus” of an election campaign succeeds in its apparent objective of robbing America of its “popular” will, let all Americans know, that Shawn Hannity stands charged and convicted of complicity.
From: Rick Basora Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 11:26 PM
To: Hannity@foxnews.com; Feedback@foxnews.com; yourcomments@foxnews.com
Cc: 'americasnewsroom@foxnews.com'; 'Myword@foxnews.com'; 'Friends@foxnews.com'; 'Jamie@foxnews.com'; 'Newswatch@foxnews.com'; 'Foxreport@foxnews.com'; 'Atlarge@foxnews.com'; 'JER@foxnews.com'; 'Lineup@foxnews.com'; 'Martha@foxnews.com'; 'Ontherecord@foxnews.com'; 'Special@foxnews.com'; 'Cavuto@foxnews.com'; 'editor@ajr.org'; 'mailto:editor@ajr.org'; 'rrieder@ajr.org'; 'rsmolkin@ajr.org'; 'tkunkel@ajr.org'; 'executive-editor@nytimes.com'; 'managing-editor@nytimes.com'; 'washington@nytimes.com'; 'national@nytimes.com'; 'metro@nytimes.com'; 'news-tips@nytimes.com'; 'public@nytimes.com'; 'president@nytimes.com'; 'CEO-CarolineLittle@wpni.com'; 'executive.editor@washingtonpost.com'; 'wsj.ltrs@wsj.com'; 'a.murray@wsj.com'; 'a.latour@wsj.com'; 'd.pettit@wsj.com'; 't.cullen@wsj.com'; 'j.fry@wsj.com'; 'darren.mcdermott@wsj.com'; 'ombudsman@washpost.com'; 'metro@washpost.com'; 'national@washpost.com'; 'tips@tribune.com'; 'ctc-tribletter@tribune.com'; 'publiceditor@tribune.com'; 'EAchenbaum@tribune.com'; 'ctc-editor@tribune.com'; 'bdold@tribune.com'; 'TMcNulty@tribune.com'; 'gdelama@tribune.com'; 'JCWarren@tribune.com'; 'aaguilar@tribune.com'; 'aahmed@tribune.com'; 'KAlleynemorris@tribune.com'; 'LBAnderson@tribune.com'; 'rranderson@tribune.com'; 'kataiyero@tribune.com'; 'NBendavid@tribune.com'; 'lbowean@tribune.com'; 'SChapman@tribune.com'; 'LCohen@tribune.com'; 'JChase@tribune.com'; 'JCrewdson@tribune.com'; 'HDardick@tribune.com'; 'MDorning@tribune.com'; 'askamy@tribune.com'; 'national@latimes.com'; 'tvtimes@latimes.com'; 'op-ed@latimes.com'; 'letters@latimes.com'; 'info@ap.org'; 'mediainquiries@msnbc.com'
Subject: SHAWN HANNITY - THE PINNACLE OF IRRESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM AT ITS WORST
To Shawn Hannity and to the Management of Fox Broadcasting;
Last night, as I watched Shawn Hannity, on Hannity’s America, corrupt the minds of “the corruptible” with a program that tendered accusations of “terrorist” affiliations between Barack Obama and William Ayers of the former Weathermen, I was reminded of the collective “brainwashing” that, as a child, I was taught to believe was a characteristic only of “evil” nations like the former Soviet Union and of former Nazi Germany. As a child, I recall being assured by my 6th grade teacher that such a robbery of the human “will” would never be tolerated in America. FREEDOM, she said, could only be achieved by a people who were empowered with TRUTH as the element that, along with a sense of identity, made valid their RIGHT to CHOOSE it. Last night, your Shawn Hannity usurped that right from those Americans susceptible to the inflammatory; from those vulnerable to the politics of FEAR and from those ignorant BY CHOICE to the REALITIES of the Presidential candidates at large.
Mr, Hannity, I am compelled to remind you that, despite your reluctance, we still reside in a country where the rule of law prescribes that a person is innocent, and not by association, until proven guilty. I feel further obligated to engage your cynical racial and religious bigotry by reminding you that, if African Americans find refuge in institutions and churches whose very names herald a predictable WELCOME, it is because the sins of our fathers have forced them, however subconsciously, to find refuge in an identity. (Keith Olbermann's observations - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23716643#23750779) No, Mr. Hannity, a church with a name that speaks to a black congregation is not a racist statement; it is a statement of fraternity that you and our forefathers insisted on disallowing white America from fully participating in…and yet…they welcome us. Further, you “mouth” the word “Muslim” as if it were the very “sound” of social and religious leprosy. You might recall that legitimate Muslims are a peaceful people in non-complicity with the fanatics that did us and still wish us harm. Your message, sir, is one that has a history of inciting lynch mobs and, just in case Jenna, LA taught you nothing, ALL OF AMERICA will put that mob DOWN. While I am certain that Senator Obama would strongly sensor my statement, I will ask you that, if you must hate the mutations of religious principal, then, Sir, hate the religion of The Crusades, of the THOUSAND YEARS of European Inquisition, of Waco, Texas and of The Salem Witch Trials. Hate whatever fed the narcissism of Reverends Jim Baker and Jim Jones and you can start by hating the perversion of 10,000 pedophile priests, the Institutions that fed them our children. Hate those who sanctioned their rape and that, in doing so, stripped many of us of the comfort that one should find in the words “In God We Trust.”
As it has become commonplace with radical Conservatives, last night Mr Hannity invoked the late President Reagan and his anecdote of a father who, back in the days of the “cold war”, declared that he would prefer to see his two little daughters dead…rather than to see them live under a faithless and godless Communist regime. With that story, Mr. Hannity attempted to rouse his audience to a “pitch” of nationalistic outrage. It appeared to me that he was IMPLICIT LY charging Senator Obama of practicing a communist-like godlessness. Allow me to remind FOX and Mr. Hannity that it was Mrs. Hillary Clinton’s Wellsley College thesis honoring her ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT mentor, Saul Alinsky and his MARXIST teachings, that earned her the appellative “Alinsky’s daughter.” The document necessitated its being SEALED to the public by a 1993 special Presidential order issued by her husband who considered it a political liability because of its “radical” content. This document was “unsealed” in 2001 after the Republicans took office and is currently available for your scrutiny and review. What happens to human convictions after 40 years have passed is known only to those minds that contain them and to God Himself who made them; not to Shawn Hannity.
He went on to showcase President Reagan in a clip from his “Star Wars” speech, where he indicated that America was “a country that did not start wars.” Gentlemen, if this was Shawn Hannity’s way of weaving “illusions of war-mongering” with which to surround a Presidential candidate who stands on a platform of DIALOGUE as his preferred weapon of pre-emption of war, you may want to advise him about the fact that we ARE, in fact, in a war unjustly started; a war that he endorsed and that he is a member of the political party that started it. Senator Obama was the legislator who attempted unsuccessfully to galvanize an effective movement to avoid it. History has proven him to have been STRATEGICALLY CORRECT and no degree of Mr. Hannity’s resenting him for it will grant him access to that elite minority reserved solely for the JUDGEMENTALLY SOUND.
As the pariah of last nights “Hannity’s America” unfolded, it was clear that Mr. Hannity extended warm and humane concern for the life and wellbeing of one Britney Spears. In stark contrast, was his misguided and malicious presentation of the character, principals, religion and persona of one Barack Obama; a legitimate Senator of the United States, respected by what most polls reflect as the majority of our country’s electorate. In doing so, this contemporary carpetbagger has insulted the MILLIONS whose voices are the mandate that drives his candidacy. Hannity has slapped the essential face of Democracy; of the decent journalists and pundits of FOX and of our media. He attempted a coupe on the people’s right for TRUTH to be allowed to guide the American Electoral process. Most of all, Mr. Hannity has provided the most educated minds in America, described by Frank Newport of the Gallup Organization as being the core of Senator Obama’s support, with irrefutable evidence that any legitimate opposition to Senator Obama’s Presidential bid can only find momentum in feeble minds inspired by synthesized realities delivered by “tabloid” journalists beholden to tyrants who, regardless of their party affiliation, are certainly worthy of the descriptive, “MONSTERS.” It is no wonder, gentlemen that we are referred to in Europe as “hypocritical contradictions of ourselves.”
Perhaps, Mr. Hannity, you may want to discuss issues that are current and of legitimate concern to America. I might suggest that you begin with programming devoted to the more than TEN MILLION DOLLARS in Saudi, Middle Eastern and Taiwan contributions received by the Clintons and disclosed by The Washington Post, The NY Times, Jihad Watch and more. Some good questions to begin with would be; how will this impact “President” Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy decisions regarding the war on terror if she and her husbands personal interests are funded by the world’s largest supporters of it? How will this Saudi endorsement affect her right to speak to women’s rights? How will Taiwan’s “offering” temper her engagement of China as the possible new “owner” of America? There are REAL issues, I assure you, that scream for addressing; issues of far greater nobility than your need for tabloid ratings. If, however, that is all that we can expect from you, you might consider a piece on the story that just broke on New York’s Governor Spitzer admitting to involvement in a prostitution ring. It is, as you know, yet another scandal from a State plagued by the seemingly polar opposites of unspeakable hardship and of chronic corruption by its politicians. That should be sordid enough to satisfy your personal and/or political libations, Sir.
Take heed of these, my closing words. The irresponsibility of Shawn Hannity’s “rabble rousing journalism” could very well inspire right wing radical extremists to commit acts in PATENT SUPPORT of his bastardized rant. Because you, Mr. Hannity, are in contempt of the most basic of professional standards and of the ethics of personal decency, we, the majority of America’s electorate hold you and The Fox Network personally responsible for any such actions and further hold you accountable for promoting them and for inspiring them. (KEITH OLBERMANN'S observations - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23716643#23716643)
If we are to learn the lessons willed to us by the American “giant” that was Robert F. Kennedy, it behooves us to recognize that YOU, Mr Hannity, are THE EXTREMIST.
“What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.” Robert Francis Kennedy
Rick Basora
I was 11 years old in 1964 and proud of being the latest New Yorker promoted to the 8th grade. The familiar smells of my mother’s Spanish cooking added to the comfort of being included in the monthly gathering of my father, an “old-world” Puerto Rican, and his two brothers and their families. My father was the elder and, for as long as I could remember, like clockwork, these men met at my house, every month, to discuss politics, the month’s novelties, my cousin Nancy’s first Holy Communion, Uncle Oscar’s new job, who would be on Ed Sullivan, and so that everyone could tease my mom about her ongoing obsession with feeding my dad and I to death. This "five-foot-dumpling" of a wife and mother was convicted in her certainty that the measure of a woman’s worth, was found in the girth of her family's waistlines! As the kids ran about to the sporadic heralding of “…if you make me get up from here…” and the women discussed Lucy Ricardo's latest dress, the talk at the smoky table… where the men sat…always seemed to turn to HONOR. It was a subject spoken of in "broken English" by those who clutched the fierce objective of arriving at these shores, not merely to live in America... but to BECOME IT. HONOR: At that table, it was measured by how well each man there cared and provided for his family; how well each had repaid America’s hospitality and, each was accountable to the other two for compliance. It was, they said, what gave our family name its worth. HONOR; it was a word that seemed to be a big deal to these men and any one of them would grow by two inches when acknowledged with it by the others, but specially by the women of the clan. They were larger than life, those men, and as they donned their fedoras and left, I was always left with a yearning to somehow...one day, grow up to be just like them. Most of all, I wanted to grow up to be like my dad; the patriarch. On this particular night, just as he closed the door behind the last to exit, he turned to me and asked “Are you a man of HONOR, son?” I was startled... I wasn’t expecting the question! Searching for what I felt he was expecting as the “right” answer, I said “SURE, dad!” Pleasing him was my life's purpose. “Why," he asked. "Well... because I’m your son.” This must certainly be the right answer. A silent moment ensued, as he seemed to study me with an unsettling scrutiny that I had never before seen in his eyes. It made me uneasy…like being on stage…and forgetting your lines. “Then, you won’t mind explaining… what honor IS.” As I fumbled and scoured my brain for an answer, he stopped me in mid “fidget” and said... with something between a smirk and a smile,“You cannot be that which you do not know. Honor is different things to different people but, to all, it is the thing that, when choosing which fork to take when life’s road splits, compels a person to DO THE RIGHT THING. So from today forward, because you are my son, I will ask that you begin to reflect on the things that you are... and on things that you would like to become... so that you may grow into what you are meant to be. Whatever that may be, son, I need for you to become it…like your uncles and like me; as one of the "Basora men" who always try, no matter what, to DO THE RIGHT THING.” "You know..." he said, starting down the hall, "...the best gift that I can ever give your mother... and this country... is to build them AN AMERICAN."
Thirty three years later, mom succeeded and fed him to death. In my arms and surrounded by love; his two favorite Shepherds, like sentries, flanking his bed, I had never wished so hard for anything in my life, as I wished for that day; that he could speak to me from beyond this thing, this coma...just one more time...just one more time before he left me. "You're my best friend," I muttered. "I still need you. How can you even be certain that I've become this... man of HONOR?" His eyes parted slightly; mom, a nurse and my wife gasped... wide, reddened eyes... hands cupped to their mouths... as if frozen. "Because... it was you that compelled me... to never... ever... stop being one," he whispered... and died.
It has taken those 33 years of a work-in-progress to write this. It found its origins in the ways of my father and inspired, yet further, by the ways of WOLVES; the noble, social creatures that they are; a species that forsakes the frenzied existence of "the individual," living solely to amass "THE MOST THINGS" in favor of caring for their old... for their injured and disabled; of raising their young in a culture with no ORPHANS; of insuring the survival of THE PACK and in embracing a wondrous commitment by ALL… to doing THE RIGHT THINGS.
The Way of the WOLF Doctrines and Covenants of the Alpha MaleHonor is the inherent dignity of the doctrines and covenants by which one lives and the values that compel you to embrace them.To live with honor fulfills a life. To die with honor fulfills a destiny.Respect is the premium owed only to those with the courage to earn it.Nothing good will be written of the coward, the tyrant or the mediocre.Courage is not found in the absence of fear. It is found in the ability to step forward in spite of it.The tyrant orders the charge. Only the leader will head it.The tyrant fights all…to appear to be right. The leader fights for all…and for all that is right.Power not tempered by wisdom and compassion defines tyranny.Love with your heart; commit with your soul; believe with your gut; lead with all three.The true measure of strength is found in the ability to choose not to use it. But…if you must… Hurt before you injure; injure before you maim; maim before you kill; choose DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR.To ignore abuse is to endorse it. Love is the unselfish pursuit of the happiness of the beings you cherish.If you cannot express love, no one will know that you do.As you give of yourself, you will give to yourself.At the point of arrogance does pride lose its virtue.True partnership can only be achieved by separate and whole beings that retain their uniqueness even as they unite.A friend’s worth is measured by the stature of the person you become when they enter your life.Accept your relatives. Choose your family.A man’s honor can only repose in the heart of a woman whose strength and virtue proclaim and confirm the substance that it took to earn her.When life is allowed to yield less than its best, it will.Put mind in gear before mouth in motion.Dreams are the children of hope that whisper of all things that can be…in words that were never written…yet refuse to remain silent. Dreams are the blueprints of a better reality.Those who howl at the stars will be heard, at least, on the moon.For a pack without a destination, no trail is favorable.To solve a problem, you must first acknowledge that you have one.Doing nothing means nothing will change.Those who believe their own lies have fools as their witnesses.Pursue what you wish to do until summoned by what you are meant to do.Evil, like the blackest of nights, is the necessary darkness without which the magnificent aurora of virtue could never appear as splendid.Goodness is but a choice. Even the minions of the morally bankrupt are no match for one child clad in virtue and armed with truth. Nurture and proclaim him for in his spirit rests the seed of the alpha male, the heart of the pack, KING OF THE WOLVES. Rick F. Basora, son of Fil Basora, an Alpha Male
The Way of the WOLF
Doctrines and Covenants of the Alpha Male
But…if you must…
Rick F. Basora, son of Fil Basora, an Alpha Male
Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2008 6:00 PM
To: letters@time.com; WebEditors@newsweek.com; Letters@newsweek.com; letters@usnews.com
Cc: 'Atlarge@foxnews.com'; 'Hannity@foxnews.com'; 'JER@foxnews.com'; 'Lineup@foxnews.com'; 'Martha@foxnews.com'; 'Ontherecord@foxnews.com'; 'Special@foxnews.com'; 'Cavuto@foxnews.com'; 'yourcomments@foxnews.com'; 'editor@ajr.org'; 'rrieder@ajr.org'; 'rsmolkin@ajr.org'; 'tkunkel@ajr.org'; 'president@nytimes.com'; 'executive-editor@nytimes.com'; 'managing-editor@nytimes.com'; 'washington@nytimes.com'; 'national@nytimes.com'; 'metro@nytimes.com'; 'news-tips@nytimes.com'; 'public@nytimes.com'; 'letters@nytimes.com'; 'CEO-CarolineLittle@wpni.com'; 'executive.editor@washingtonpost.com'; 'letters@washpost.com'; 'ombudsman@washpost.com'; 'metro@washpost.com'; 'national@washpost.com'; 'wsj.ltrs@wsj.com'; 'a.murray@wsj.com'; 'a.latour@wsj.com'; 'd.pettit@wsj.com'; 't.cullen@wsj.com'; 'j.fry@wsj.com'; 'darren.mcdermott@wsj.com'; 'tips@tribune.com'; 'ctc-tribletter@tribune.com'; 'publiceditor@tribune.com'; 'EAchenbaum@tribune.com'; 'ctc-editor@tribune.com'; 'bdold@tribune.com'; 'TMcNulty@tribune.com'; 'gdelama@tribune.com'; 'JCWarren@tribune.com'; 'aaguilar@tribune.com'; 'aahmed@tribune.com'; 'KAlleynemorris@tribune.com'; 'LBAnderson@tribune.com'; 'rranderson@tribune.com'; 'kataiyero@tribune.com'; 'NBendavid@tribune.com'; 'lbowean@tribune.com'; 'SChapman@tribune.com'; 'LCohen@tribune.com'; 'JChase@tribune.com'; 'JCrewdson@tribune.com'; 'HDardick@tribune.com'; 'MDorning@tribune.com'; 'askamy@tribune.com'; 'national@latimes.com'; 'tvtimes@latimes.com'; 'op-ed@latimes.com'; 'letters@latimes.com'; 'ctc-TribLetter@Tribune.com'; 'info@ap.org'; 'headlinenews@cnn.com'; 'mediainquiries@msnbc.com'; 'letters@msnbc.com'; 'Nightly@NBC.com'; 'Dateline@NBCUNI.com'; 'transnet87@aol.com'; 'countdown@msnbc.com'; 'race08@msnbc.com'; 'Inquirer.Letters@phillynews.com'; 'views@phillynews.com'; 'letters@post-gazette.com'; 'opinion@tribweb.com'; 'mm-tips@mediamatters.org'; 'barrett_td@yahoo.com'; 'wholesalershoppers@yahoo.com'; 'karendillard@hotmail.com'; 'dplouffe@barackobama.com'; 'john@greenskydesign.com'; nancymillinger@theamericaninitiative.org; Blackberry Muppet; Mutt; Sis; Cousin Jeannette; Marmaduke's Office; Marmaduke ; Mike Beauregard; Rick Basora ; Tuneta; Gizmo Chula; Broomrider; The Wielder of the Wand; Wiccan Bride of the Elder God
Subject: Shawn Hannity - STOP the anti-OBAMA FOX VIRUS NOW
Dear Mr. Hannity;
By now you must certainly be aware that a NATIONAL MOVEMENT is in motion against you and against what America has come to know as THE FOX VIRUS that comes forth from the RADICAL EXTREMIST NEO-CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN mouthpiece that you and FOX have become. Presenting our voice to the media of America now comes in the form of the Robert Greenwald film “Fox Attacks Obama (Spreading the Virus)” which, as you can see, is the envelope sent “special delivery” and containing the national petition now underwritten by moveon.org and their Political Action’s Adam Green.
After the travesty of ethical journalism perpetrated by FEMA on October 26, 2007, where it hosted its own “staged” televised news conference reporting on the state of EMERGENCY SERVICES to victims of Hurricane Katrina, it was brought to the attention of America that, not only was the person addressing this “skit” a FEMA official, but so were those asking the questions who, while posing as reporters, were exposed by Al Kamen of The Washington Post in his article FEMA Meets the Press, Which Happens to Be . . . FEMA. The fact that the article alleges that you carried this charade LIVE, and then passed on the video to MSNBC and other news outlets, renders FOX Television, and its agents, complicit in the efforts of what Christy Hardin Smith, of FIREDOGLAKE, calls The Department of Planting Your Own Propaganda And Hoping No One Notices assigned to the Bush administration.
Mr. Hannity, neither you, nor your colleague-at-arms, Rush Limbaugh, can be allowed, by a nation on the very brink of social, economic, political and global chaos, to continue manipulating puppet strings, pushing buttons and pulling levers the outcome of which you CLEARLY know nothing about. Mr. Limbaugh’s disgracefully titled attempt at hijacking the current Presidential election has earned him the dubious distinction of being named WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23908634#23908634) by MSNBC's KEITH OLBERMANN. It now appears on his own website with the headline Operation Chaos Under Assault.
As you frantically attempt to continue the milking of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright controversy, synthetically created by your Conservative minions, you appear less than pathetic before an increasingly intolerant nation that, as you can see, by Senator John McCain’s attainment of the honorable position of The Republican Presidential Nominee, America has declared you and your Neoconservative “cult”, politically, philosophically, morally and subversively UNDESIREABLE.
I, and America, continue to observe your frenzied contribution to the engineering and staging of a premeditated and choreographed conspiracy aimed at discrediting the legitimacy of Senator Barack Obama as a Presidential candidate, as well as the WONDER of the grass-roots movement taking shape around him. We watch in dismay as you question your guests, carefully selected to provide the most desirable answers for the damming of the voice of HOPE that FOX radio has described as “sounding like Hitler.” Yet, when Democratic Analysts, Tanya Acker and Bob Beckel, as well as your own Alan Colmes, have asked you questions as simple as “So, are you saying that every child whose parents took them to the Trinity United Church of Christ is, therefore, disqualified from growing up to aspire to one day becoming President of the United States,” you conspicuously, and at every turn, refuse to answer the question. You are fully aware that, answering that question, honestly, would reduce you to the hypocritical contradiction of yourself that you are. Take note, Mr. Hannity, your refusal to respond implicitly convicts you in spite of you.
I was held in utter disbelief … which then slowly grew to anger when, last night, you summoned former House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, to join in the spreading of THE FOX VIRUS. I found two things to be in poignant opposition with your intention of subverting America. The first was Mr. Gingrich’s repeated insistence that he did NOT question Senator Obama’s integrity, his loyalty to America or his non-alignment with Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s apparent anti-American rants. Later in the same program, and despite your best efforts, this same opinion was echoed, with even greater emphasis and eloquence, by Senator John McCain, who insisted on addressing issues of legitimate concern to our country and clearly, refused to participate in your scripted outcomes. You must, as a consequence, Sir, be torn between wondering if the walls of correctness are closing in on you or whether they, in fact, are spreading so far apart that your only company would be the members of your own League of Liars.
The second observation, born of your program’s intentions, last night, was your patent set-up of “JUDGMENT” as the supposedly flawed characteristic displayed by Senator Barack Obama in his choosing to continue to attend Wright’s Trinity church. You spoke the word “JUDGMENT,” with diacritical accentuation, no less than a dozen times and consistently modified it with adjectives such as “flawed,” “poor,” etc in your transparent attempt to pre-empt the Senator’s platform of SOUND JUDGEMENT in the furtherance of his Presidential bid. I will excuse myself from redundancy and I will quote my own words from the letter that, on March 16, 2008, I sent to you and Fox Management titled SHAWN HANNITY - THE PINNACLE OF IRRESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM AT ITS WORST:
“Gentlemen, if this was Shawn Hannity’s way of weaving “illusions of war-mongering” with which to surround a Presidential candidate who stands on a platform of DIALOGUE as his preferred weapon of pre-emption of war, you may want to advise him about the fact that we ARE, in fact, in a war unjustly started; a war that he endorsed and that he is a member of the political party that started it. Senator Obama was the legislator who attempted unsuccessfully to galvanize an effective movement to avoid it. History has proven him to have been STRATEGICALLY CORRECT and no degree of Mr. Hannity’s resenting him for it will grant him access to that elite minority reserved solely for the JUDGEMENTALLY SOUND.”
Last night, what achieved the “apex of the offensive,” Sir, was that you utilized former Speaker, Newt Gingrich, to assist you in making the point of presenting Senator Obama’s judgment as, somehow, flawed. Might I remind you that Newt Gingrich headed the 1998 charge to impeach President William Jefferson Clinton on charges stemming from the extramarital affair that he sustained with one Monica Lewinsky. In a March 8, 2007 Associated Press article featured on your very own FOX News, titled "Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich Acknowledges ...Having Affair During Clinton Impeachment," we are presented with an interview with James Dobson of Focus on the Family that reveals the following:
“Gingrich argued in the interview, however, that he should not be viewed as a hypocrite for pursuing Clinton's infidelity.”
"The president of the United States got in trouble for committing a felony in front of a sitting federal judge," the former Georgia congressman said of Clinton's 1998 House impeachment on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. "I drew a line in my mind that said, 'Even though I run the risk of being deeply embarrassed, and even though at a purely personal level I am not rendering judgment on another human being, as a leader of the government trying to uphold the rule of law, I have no choice except to move forward and say that you cannot accept ... perjury in your highest officials."
Sir, translated into common English, this says…There are rules and laws that apply to ALL, including the President of The United States, but that I, because my name is Newt Gingrich, a Neoconservative, reserve the right to exempt myself from them. No, Mr. Hannity, your show, your network, your self-righteous, pontificating ploys called supporting guests, your intentions, your manic obsession with imposing dynastic rule… but most of all, YOU… are tacitly UNACCEPTABLE as is your effort to present this morally diseased neoconservative “fowl” as someone qualified to “judge the judgment” of EAGLES. I am taking the liberty of forwarding this correspondence to Representative Henry Waxman, who, last year moved to have yours and Mr. Rush Limbaugh’s actions investigated, as well as to Federal Communications Commission Chairman, Kevin Martin, who, I am advised, has been put on notice of the nature of your endeavors, that now appear to many, as being contrary to our very national security.
America will NEVER belong to your minion of disguised patriotic indigence, Sir, and, least of all, to YOU. I would suggest that you listen to a song, considered by many of my generation as an American Anthem, and that I recently sent to the Democratic Superdelegates as well. In ’64 Bob Dylan spoke of times that were “a-changing. I submit to you, Shawn Hannity, that there is an unmistakable wind of CHANGE in the air and MILLIONS, like me, bear witness to its hopeful reality. To you, and to those like you, frantically trying to stop this will be like trying to stop the wind. We have paid for this campaign and for this movement, unlike the politicians of yesteryears and of today, with our own monies, 5, 10, 25 dollars at a time. I know that you must resent the force that such a movement presents. Your colleagues must , as well, fear the threat to their lifetime relationships with lobbyist dollars that will scatter like fallen leaves on this wind. Yes, Mr Hannity, make no mistake. More than times a-changing, Sir, the times …THEY DUN HAVE CHANGED!
Come senators, congressmen Please heed the call Don't stand in the doorway Don't block up the hall For he that gets hurt Will be he who has stalled There's a battle outside And it is ragin'. It'll soon shake your windows And rattle your walls For the times they are a-changin'.
From the song The Times They Are A-Changin’ by Bob Dylan (1964)
Complete lyrics - http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/times.html
Listen to it here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vou4qUu5YY
RICK F. BASORA
Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2008 6:15 PM
To: letters@time.com; WebEditors@newsweek.com; Letters@newsweek.com; letters@usnews.com; Foxreport@foxnews.com
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Subject: Limbaugh, Hannity and my WHITE thoughts on the "RACE" issue
Dear Nancy;
I'm so very proud of you and THE AMERICAN INITIATIVE that you co-chair. Steps, the likes of which you are taking, take courage; LOTS of IT! I received your message at the campaign site but was unable to post to these issues because my day was devoted to working with the tools and folks of the remarkable, MediaMatters.com. The work that they do at keeping the media honest deserves a collective vote of gratitude from ALL of us. They hold the pundit's feet to the fires of integrity in journalism at a time when our countrymen and women, more than ever, require reliable and unbiased data with which to impact our country’s destiny.
We are in unanimous agreement that something must continue to be done about Rush Limbaugh and Shawn Hannity regarding their texturing of America’s reality to suit Neoconservative political objectives, as well as the toxic effect that they are having by forcing these on the American Electoral Process. Limbaugh’s “Operation Chaos” “Continues to Roll On Unabated” and, to date, the he brags about its “Meeting and Exceeding Objectives.” Fortunately, we have new evidence that your people, mine and countless other patriots, have made enough "noise" so as to be heard by the Judicial. It has given me immense satisfaction, albeit no pleasure to see that, just today, the following headline appears on Mr. Limbaugh’s site: “Operation Chaos Under Assault.” It would appear that we have succeeded at gaining the attention of those who believed that this couldn’t possibly happen in America. Yesterday, I was in touch with the offices of TIME magazine and their Mark Halperin, who have been conducting their own investigation into the matter, querrying through the Ohio and Texas Primaries, and exposing this travesty of the Democratic process. An aide to Halperin, who asked to remain anonymous, said, “You must admit, Rick, that to even begin to believe that there could be that many people “stuck on stupid” so as to be used as tools to impact an election, takes a bit of a stretch to the imagination, would you not say…and to think that the guy that’s pulling the puppet-strings would go public and brag about it…I mean…that’s a cult…and they call your people over-zealous! …now them’s SHEEP!” If Senator Barack Obama wins the Presidency, be assured that we will move to hobble this modern day scalawag’s ability to ever wreak electoral havoc again.
And so, the racial divide, and the resentful distrust that emerges from it, are fed by a complexity that, at the end of the day, finds its victims and its perpetrators in a constant state of role reversals. In the early morning hours of any given day in the life of American Bigotry, one voice will say, “You have injured and deprived my ancestors and myself. What are you going to give me to make amends and to provide restitution?” The other, “OK, here, take this. Now we are even. Now we are equal.” By dusk of the same day, the first voice will be heard to say, “I should not have had to ask for amends and restitutions for injuries that should never have been inflicted upon us …but now … I resent myself as well … for having asked and for having taken your token amends and restitution … and still, I do not believe that you are sorry … because … I had to ask.” As night falls, from across the divide, the other mutters, just loud enough to be heard, “I wasn’t the one that injured and deprived them. Why should I and my kind have to be first to come forward and take ownership of our father’s guilt? We have given them their Welfare. We have provided them with big Housing Projects. We have given them food stamps. We have given them the best of Affirmative Action … and they are still in their ‘hood. They must certainly like it. Ya’ know what … Ya’ know what? They should be PROUD …YEAH…PROUD… to live in America where people work so that these things can just get handed to them …”
Please pause ………. STOP for a second ………. take a minute ………. THINK!
The next day, the sun rises on a racially divided America … ever so slightly more resentful than the morning before … and a voice yells across the chasm, “You have injured and deprived my ancestors and myself …”
Cherokee Wisdom: TWO WOLVES
an old Cherokee legend
One evening an old Cherokee told his granson about a battle that goes on inside people.
He said, "My son, the battle is between TWO WOLVES
inside us all.
ONE IS EVIL. It is anger, jealousy, sorrow, regret,
greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies,
false pride, superiority and ego.
THE OTHER IS GOOD. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility,
kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity,
truth, compassion and faith."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather.
"Which wolf wins?"
The old Cherokee simply replied,
"The one you feed."
With great respect and gratitude for your service to America,
The_Dragonwolf@comcast.net http://my.barackobama.com/page/dashboard/public/gGR355
The last words, "Thank you," had barely left the mouth of the candidate on TV and I heard a boisterous commotion coming from just outside of my middle class, suburban Fort Lauderdale home. I started to become apprehensive and instinctively reached for "protection" (top drawer on the right) while trying to silence the "Alpo" security system. As I looked beyond the blinds, what started as a cacophony of voices, yelling, screaming; two women hugging and weeping in a driveway…, dropped in noisiness and rose in both theme and essence. As I stepped out, curiously, a neighbor yelled out "Did you hear the speech?" I asked myself, is this hoopla of laughter and weeping over Barack Obama's speech? Nah uuh…" The two women embracing had, for a long time, been neighbors but, more so, friends. The "Wright controversy" had really tried their friendship because one was an Obamite; the other, a Hillerean (both husbands Republicans). We are "close" on our block and we can find any excuse to kick up our heels and "get silly;" so…the beer, the music and the collapsibles came out as people spoke to people and to cell phones at the same time; Bill, Mike and Pedro blocked off the street with their trucks (Pedro's a State Trooper so…YES WE CAN (lol) and doors were opened and an impromptu block party was underway. I would have wished for "converts" but…oh well. The new subject of contentious BUZZ: a black Bobby Kennedy or a "jacksonized" Luther King? THIS IS NUTS, I thought! Conspicuously missing was the cloud of suspicion that had recently come to pollute the interactive trust of our block community and that had lingered until just before noon. All of a sudden I realized just how affected America has actually been over the Wright controversy. As I excused myself because I was compelled to satisfy the need to pen this, I was overcome by an almost melancholy sense of accomplishment. I knew then…in my heart…as did the people outside making the noise…that if America did NOT elect Barack…it was because it was not yet ready for the wonder that it would first need to grow into.Today, on this the 18th day of March, 2008, we have been served with what may be written into history as the 21st Century's most defining moment in the chronicle of a people's transition from THE SINS OF OUR FATHERS to THE DESTINY OF OUR CHILDREN; from hate and fear to compassion and understanding; from resentment to thoughtfulness; from denial to courageous realization; from sempiternal racial division to a celebration and exaltation of the magnificent multi-colored tapestry stitched by the very hand of GOD into the splendid work of wonder that is HUMANITY. Today, those who have depended on the demons of fear, ignorance and distrust to act as their captive audience made ripe for the continuance of a SOCIAL DIVISION that has become the drug of choice for those sociopaths obsessed with its perpetuation, have been dealt a mortal blow. On this day, the people of America have been given an improbable, albeit remarkable tool with which to breach the SOCIAL DIVIDE that has become the sole and hungry client base of the career American BIGOT; WISDOM. Make no mistake, however. The celebrated triumph of the human spirit that most of us are, at this very moment, reveling in, must and will be met with violent repudiation by those who stand in opposition of reconciliation. If the words of Barack Obama are allowed to speak to the very heart of a country hungry for unity and who, in moving forward, turns its back on the icon which is INTER-RACIAL FEAR, the leaders and lieutenants of institutional, racial and social prejudice will be denied the listeners for their sole subject of expertise; the GRAIL that they have practiced to validate, justify and champion; THE VERY CHALICE of HATE. Despite the disdain that I heard in the televised voice of Mr. Rush Limbaugh, it will be written that, in the middle of a day, in the middle of March on the year of the most contested presidential election in the history of America, even those held in humanistic stagnancy, not through malice, but by ignorance, have been literally pushed upward into a conscious, enlightened awareness that guarantees that, from this day, the harvest of recruits available to the minions of the morally indigent; those drawn to the ranks of racist America, will be reduced to the chronically cynical, the galactically disoriented, to those in terminal denial and to those choosing to live, from here forward, for the words "The HATE will Rise Again."The landmark discourse, made minutes ago by Senator Barack Obama, has been quickly touted as the most significant address of race issues in America since King's now legendary 1963 "I have a dream…"speech. It provides those who did not merely listen, but who objectively assimilated its content, with a rational narrative of answers to the questions that, with obvious and transparent intent, have been repetitiously brought forth, regarding his 20 year relationship with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and his Trinity United Church of Christ. A metal beyond his years was evident as this young legislator from Chicago showed the resolve to denounce Wright's radical rhetoric while retaining the integrity that it took to declare inviolate the spiritual kinship that has existed with this, his former minister, who, quite frankly, would have been given up as burnt offerings by any of the other contenders facing the same "trial by fire." The most poignant reality is that it is a disconnection with the enigma that is HONOR that explains any inability to regard this courageous action as anything but HEROIC. The nobility of the gesture augured that, when pushed to the wall, Barack Obama, as my President, will not barter ME for political safety. Of equal importance, Barack spoke to the post-trauma of the black experience in America and reminded a beleaguered white working class that they too suffered from a post-traumatic syndrome rooted in their own history as kindred targets of unfairness and disregard. To "accuse, denounce, renounce, decry, rebuff, rebuke, reject, beat with a bat, dismember and summarily execute" are the standards of acceptable disassociation that, throughout this campaign, have been reserved SOLELY for the candidacy of one Barack Hussein Obama. Despite the tacitly ridiculous, I feel that the answers to any concerned questions have been tendered beyond any reasonable expectation. It would need to be left to the polls to determine if the rest of America concurs. Therefore, if the people of America call for the tired issue to be laid to rest, any Neoconservative measure intended to perpetuate that which has now been answered to the point of the redundant, can only be interpreted as an act of HARASSMENT and should be met by a vote of solidarity returned to sender in the words of those who spoke them to the centuries of distorted inhumanity that shaped Reverend Wright's painfully distorted views; "GET OVER IT!" It will be at the time, when those words are forced from our lips, that the floodgates will be thrown open on what has become known as "THE LAUNDRY LIST" of Obama's opposition. This WILL NOT happen because Barack will initiate or even desire it. It will be driven by citizens, worn by the "trailer park politics" that are the trademark of "The King of the Double-Wides", Rush Limbaugh, and his "pimp your vote 'n pull my finger" election strategies and who, like me, WILL FORCE THE ISSUE in our courts. Moving towards the election of a President, America must observe the politically postured alignment of FOX Television and its Neoconservative pundits, anchors and commentators. History has shown that their obsession with the forced-feeding of America can be predictably expected to drag this campaign episode to a conclusion of political martyrdom. As I listened to an MSNBC viewer e-mail being read on the air and insisting that the media now let go this matter in favor of legitimate ECONOMIC issues of paramount concern, I was reminded of the Clinton - Lewinski scandal of the late 1990s. Neocons of the Republican party, and their media vocals, blatantly disregarded the populous and dragged an American President through a highly protested impeachment proceeding that ultimately fell short of the 2/3 Senate majority needed to convict and remove him from office. In doing so, our "Magoo-like" conservative visionaries failed to see that, the only thing that they had succeeded in dragging across a snickering world stage; ragged, bloodied, ridiculed and clad in a muddied clown suite, was not Bill Clinton...it was AMERICA ITSELF. Those of us who can still recall that episode, as well as those of sufficient age to understand the function and mechanics of GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE will inevitably incur a rendezvous with OUTRAGE in confronting the following. At the time that this happened, the polls taken of the nations electorate showed that an average of 70% of Americans was against pursuing the allegations and impeachment. (N Y Times December 21, 1998). Neo-Republicans disregarded an overwhelming national majority...and simply...DID IT ANYWAY. I, for one, am on record as having shown my repudiation and disdain for neo-conservatism, and the EXTREMISTS that it breeds, by officially renouncing of my 20 year affiliation with the GOP. From that day forward, some ten or so years ago, I have been a proud registered DEMOCRAT. If this happens again, however, or if Superdelegates self-appoint themselves as the demi-gods that can replace a populous in the determination of an electoral outcome, we MUST then be attentive to the promise in the air that heralds the charter of The Constitutionalist National Committee aka THE CONSTITUTIONALIST PARTY. Most agree that it is an idea whose time has come. If we are to teach our children to believe in Democracy, then it is DEMOCRACY itself that we are bound to provide for them.As for Shawn Hannity, we can be assured of a unilaterally myopic assessment of today's event that, while panting with wet tongue slavering in the wind, will inspire him to eek out an "Atta boy" from his trailer-bound master, Rush Limbaugh, for having rolled over, played dead and for "fetching" a ball made slimy with the trivialization of the words of A GIANT. I await his show and you can expect that I will confront Limbaugh's political mongrel, Shawn Hannity, with the same stick that I did on March 10, 2008 and that, amongst numerous others, inspired American Initiative co-chair, Nancy Millinger, to follow with her now coined, "two word," grass-roots e-mail that simply said "TAKE THAT!"I leave you now to re-join the dancing in the MULTI-RACIAL streets...literally! RICK F. BASORA
Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 11:26 PM
To: 'Hannity@foxnews.com'; 'Feedback@foxnews.com'; 'yourcomments@foxnews.com'
Mr, Hannity, I am compelled to remind you that, despite your reluctance, we still reside in a country where the rule of law prescribes that a person is innocent, and not by association, until proven guilty. I feel further obligated to engage your cynical racial and religious bigotry by reminding you that if African Americans find refuge in institutions and churches whose very names herald a predictable WELCOME, it is because the sins of our fathers have forced them, however subconsciously, to find comfort in an identity. No, Mr. Hannity, a church with a name that speaks to a black congregation is not a racist statement; it is a statement of fraternity that you and our forefathers insisted on disallowing white America from fully participating in…and yet…they welcome us. Further, you “mouth” the word “Muslim” as if it were the very “sound” of social and religious leprosy. You might recall that legitimate Muslims are a peaceful people in non-complicity with the fanatics that did us and still wish us harm. Your message, sir, is one that has a history of inciting lynch mobs and, just in case Jenna, LA taught you nothing, ALL OF AMERICA will put that mob DOWN. While I am certain that Senator Obama would strongly sensor my statement, I will ask you that, if you must hate the mutations of religious principal, then, Sir, hate the religion of The Crusades, of the THOUSAND YEARS of European Inquisition, of Waco, Texas and of The Salem Witch Trials. Hate whatever fed the narcissism of Reverends Jim Baker and Jim Jones and you can start by hating the perversion of 10,000 pedophile priests, the Institutions that fed them our children. Hate those who sanctioned their rape and that, in doing so, stripped many of us of the comfort that one should find in the words “In God We Trust.”
Take heed of these, my closing words. The irresponsibility of Shawn Hannity’s “rabble rousing journalism” could very well inspire right wing radical extremists to commit acts in PATENT SUPPORT of his bastardized rant. Because you, Mr. Hannity, are in contempt of the most basic of professional standards and of the ethics of personal decency, we, the majority of America’s electorate hold you and The Fox Network personally responsible for any such actions and further hold you accountable for promoting them and for inspiring them. If we are to learn the lessons willed to us by the American “giant” that was Robert F. Kennedy, it behooves us to recognize that YOU, Mr Hannity, are THE EXTREMIST.
“What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents." Robert F. Kennedy
Browse Oprah.com
TURN THE OTHER CHEEK SO MICHELLE CAN SLAP AGAIN.Feb 20, 2008 6:37 PM
crazyhat 749 posts since Feb 10, 2008 I can barely discuss the awful behavior of Michelle Obama, yet again today. She reiterated and reinforced her statement that she has not been proud of her country until now. Guess the Civil Rights Movement and Womens Voter Rights did nothing to put her in Harvard. Let's turn the other cheek America, so she can slap us around again. Bill Clinton is a proud American, proud to be president. Hillary is the same. Michelle should be ashamed of herself. Such arrogance.
4micheal4 652 posts since Feb 20, 2008 Reply 1. Re: TURN THE OTHER CHEEK SO MICHELLE CAN SLAP AGAIN. Feb 20, 2008 6:51 PM Don't you just know people in Washington are laughing at her. I am. I am laughing at their Cult followers as well. I have seen what how the "cult mentality" destroy themselves and when they finally come around they are apologetic and look like idiots. Michelle is not ready to be a first Lady. She needs to learn how to be a Lady first..
rickbasora 125 posts since Feb 3, 2008 Reply 24. Re: TURN THE OTHER CHEEK SO MICHELLE CAN SLAP AGAIN. Feb 20, 2008 11:39 PM
The PRIDE that is felt by the people of a country where an individual's right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" was extended to persons of ALL races, and genders by the moral uprising of a Civil Rights Movement will always live in the shadow of the indelible SHAME for the cruel acts that it took a "movement" to end. The movement that freed women from the collective and social audacity that assigned them a place of "blanket" incompetence unworthy of a "ballot", I suppose, would enjoy the same PRIDE. With a heritage that qualifies Michelle Obama to pass judgement on both of those enigmas and with the brilliance required to gain access to Harvard and, quite possibly, to The White House, one cannot expect her to celebrate the movements that granted her "permission" to claim the inalienable rights bestowed upon her by a Constitution and by GOD HIMSELF! Acknowledging that there is NO PRIDE in having travelled the road that has lead to the America of TODAY can only indicate that, as First Lady, she has the objective understanding needed to help us arrive at the moral destination that should be the America of the years to come. My friends, In order to solve a problem, you must first recognize that you have one. In openly and courageously doing so, Mrs. Obama in no way slaps any of us in the face. Rather, she initiates the processes that may keep us from continuing to deserve the buffetings of history and of the world.
If you allow yourselves to see beyond the obvious, you will find that, in her controversial statement, lays the motive that transfers the Obama promise of CHANGE from the pages of rhetoric to the substance of conviction. To alter a wayward child's behavior, you must love it enough to "change" it. To engage the daunting task of changing America, you must certainly have to LOVE America. There can be no reason but LOVE that could inspire a woman, a mother, to accept the life-threatening challenge that The Obamas have accepted in order to take up the destiny of those charged with securing ours. In doing so, Michelle, like her husband, teaches us that courage is not found in the absence of fear. It is found in the ability to step forward in spite of it. Therefore, to laugh or to ridicule such a "lady" is the act of those to whom acknowledging what Mrs. Obama IS parades before their eyes as proof of what they ARE NOT. On the other hand, those with the wherewithal to, not merely look, but SEE, will find confirmation of what they CAN BE. To us Obama people, we call that HOPE!
A man and a country's honor can only repose in the heart of a woman whose strength and virtue confirm and proclaim the substance that it took to earn her. As you question Michelle's worthiness of us, consider what she is putting at grave plausible risk and ask yourself; do you deserve her?
Late last night, I advised two dear and respected board members of my decision to withdraw from these boards because the disrespect, disregard and "drunken tavern" demeanor that I've observed to be climatic in some of these is having a virulent and toxic effect on my spirit and on the way that I see my people and our way; the American way... for which my brother tripped a claymore and blew up like confetti; the American way... for which good people (fathers, sons, moms, sisters) soak the earth with their blood in defense of. Tonight, however, you've dragged me back by my heart and by what you've left of my pride as an American MAN to stand and be counted in defense of the honor of who may very well be called upon to carry The Honor of The United States of America, my future First Lady, from YOU who demand respect from a world that, in observing you, witnesses a nation in the ongoing manic act of disrespecting itself!
...and you expect Michelle to be PROUD? Shame! SHAME on you!
Goodnight
The following was submitted to FOX NEWS for consideration:
Five independent sources, washingtonpost , The New York Times' mediamatters, jihadwatch, nysun and digg dot com, confirm that the Clintons have received contributions exceeding $10,000,000 from the government of Taiwan, Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern interests for The Clinton Library fund. The article in Jihad Watch is particularly telling.
So, who do I want answering that White House phone at 3 in the morning? I expect for that phone call to be answered by a President whose successful bid for office and/or other personal interests were NOT significantly funded by individuals, industries or countries whose interests would be better served by the nature of the answer to that call. We feel stronger yet that the phone MUST NOT be answered by such a President that, while still a candidate, required keeping the identity of such benefactors CONFIDENTIAL.
Attached are washingtonpost , The New York Times' mediamatters, jihadwatch, nysun and digg dot com articles revealing the Clintons as recipients of contributions exceeding $10,000,000 from the government of Saudi Arabia for The Clinton Library. Hillary has made universal women's rights one of the platforms of her Presidential campaign. During the Iowa caucuses, she accused Iowans of being "Mississippi-like" in having failed to elect women to their legislature. Further, she recently pointed to her speech in China in defense of women's rights worldwide.
How can Mrs. Clinton be an advocate for the rights of women to live their lives free of the most heinous of abusive practices that are commonplace and mundane in Saudi Arabia, while receiving the implicit endorsement of such a barbaric regime made paramount by the acceptance of their multi-million dollar contributions? What moral authority will empower the words of a President Hillary Clinton when, at 3:00 A.M., international women's rights organizations call for immediate emergency American intervention to save the lives of a nine teenage Saudi girls to be beheaded in the morning for the crime against morality of "dancing and holding hands?" Mrs. Clinton, will you refund, denounce and reject?
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised Thursday that an internal investigation would probe all facets of how information was leaked that may have influenced the U.S. Democratic presidential primaries, including the alleged comments by his own chief of staff, Ian Brodie, and the subsequent leak of a sensitive memorandum.
Opposition politicians yesterday demanded Mr. Brodie's dismissal amid reports that he leaked information that set off a chain of events that some say resulted in Senator Barack Obama's loss in Tuesday's Ohio primaries.
"New reports indicate very clearly that it was Ian Brodie, the chief of staff," New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton said yesterday in the Commons.
"My question to the Prime Minister is very simple. Will he now apologize to this House, the American people and Senator Obama, and will he fire his chief of staff?"
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's chief of staff Ian Brodie watches from the back of the room during a photo op before the government caucus meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa Wednesday. (Tom Hanson/Canadian Press)
Recent
BRIAN LAGHI AND CAMPBELL CLARK
From Friday's Globe and Mail
March 6, 2008 at 9:52 PM EST
Mr. Layton was joined in his demands for Mr. Brodie's firing by the Liberals.
Mr. Harper responded that he plans to investigate the entire matter, suggesting that Mr. Brodie's role and that of a leaked memo will be looked into. He acknowledged that the matter is a serious one and that it was damaging "in a way that was completely unfair."
"… I have also said that it is completely contrary to the interests of the Government of Canada."
The controversy began after Mr. Brodie allegedly told a group of journalists from CTV News that candidate Hillary Clinton was not serious about earlier suggestions that she would reopen NAFTA if she became president. The network later reported that it was Mr. Obama's campaign that had informed Canadian diplomats not to be overly concerned that he would fundamentally change the deal. The network also reported that Ms. Clinton's officials indirectly tried to deliver the same message, a report the campaign denied the next evening.
Later, a memo from a Canadian diplomat in Chicago emerged in which Mr. Obama's chief economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee, was quoted as saying that Mr. Obama's NAFTA stand was about "political positioning," rather than an articulation of policy.
The Clinton campaign has used the issue against Mr. Obama, saying he is insincere in his opposition to NAFTA. Ms. Clinton went on to win the primary in the state of Ohio, where NAFTA is blamed by some for the loss of manufacturing jobs.
Meanwhile, yesterday, U.S. ambassador David Wilkins, who called the NAFTA leak "interference" when he spoke to the CBC yesterday, said he overstated the case.
"It's a regrettable instance, it should not have happened. But certainly… regret has been expressed very strongly by the Canadian government," Mr. Wilkins told The Globe and Mail.
"I do think the term 'interference' is a little strong. It implies some intentional act. And I've got no way of knowing whether it was unintentional or intentional, or anything of that nature. But my statement of interference was not meant to mean intentional interference by the Canadian government, and unfortunately that's the way it got played."
He said he accepts the expressions of regret from Mr. Harper and the Canadian embassy in Washington, and now thinks "it's important we all get this behind us."
It's unclear, however, whether Mr. Obama's campaign will be as quick to forgive as Mr. Wilkins — a Republican appointed by George W. Bush.
Ms. Clinton's chief strategist, Mark Penn, said Wednesday in a conference call with reporters that the so-called "NAFTA-gate" leaks "had a significant impact" on the key race in Ohio, where Ms. Clinton won handily.
The Tories have said that Mr. Brodie does not recall having a conversation in which he discussed the NAFTA issue.
Mr. Layton continued his attack on Mr. Harper last night on CNN, when he was interviewed by Conservative U.S. commentator Lou Dobbs, who opposes NAFTA.
"It's not right, he hasn't yet apologized and he hasn't yet fired the source of the leak so we'll keep working on that on our end," Mr. Layton said.
The NAFTA matter, combined with the controversy surrounding the late Chuck Cadman, put the government on the defensive for much of yesterday.
"It is the only defence of the Prime Minister that we do not know how to choose among all the scandals he has," Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion said.
Mr. Dion was referring to allegations from Mr. Cadman's widow, Dona, that the Tories had offered a $1-million life insurance package if Mr. Cadman would support the Tories three years ago in their efforts to defeat the then-government of Paul Martin.
"The problem with the Leader of the Liberal Party is he is so busy chasing appointments that never happened, favours that were never given, lawsuits that were never cancelled," Mr. Harper said.
With a report from Canadian Press
Recommend this article? 62 votes
“What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.”
Robert Francis Kennedy
“He doesn’t have experience.” “He’s not qualified to be commander of our military.” “His middle name is Hussein.” “He’s wearing ethnic clothing.” “He snores.” “He has terrorist ties.” “His wife isn’t proud enough.” “He doesn’t wear a flag pin.” “He’s not black enough.” “He’s a muslim.”…and today…”He did a “WINK-WINK” to Canada on NAFTA.”…hours before a critical election…dispersed during the election… and having an effect on the election. Sadly…Shamefully…Canada’s apology for what has left me speechless came too late to reverse the damage done to THE MAN and to OUR RIGHT TO HOPE! ……. HOW CONVENIENT!...........more on this on a separate post following investigation into possible Clinton Campaign complicity.
Belated Canadian apology:
http://about.reuters.com/dynamic/countrypages/mexico/1204588843nN03391783.ASP
http://www.forbes.com/reuters/feeds/reuters/2008/03/03/2008-03-04T000047Z_01_N03391783_RTRIDST_0_CANADA-OBAMA-UPDATE-1.html
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2008/03/clinton_obama_gave_canada_wink.html
A legitimate candidate has been accused of speculative incompetence, contrived (or hoped for) corruption, terrorist affiliations"(but no one mentions the Clintons and Yassar Arafat), of political double talk with governments and subjected to the demonization of “his very name”. The ferocity of the attacks (even as Republicans call for their members to vote for Hillary) can only be defined by a Washington infrastructure in fear of the effects that the Obama ETHICS REFORM LEGISLATION would have on their collateral incomes. I, as well as other political thinkers in my state, have concluded that it is time...and we MUST oblige Mrs. Clinton’s "serve" and begin the task of educating America’s voting population in the manner that she has inspired us to do with her own campaign of "EDUCATION." In keeping with our candidates theme of taking a higher road, we will commit to doing so, not with speculations or conjectures...but with documented facts that have not led to convictions because (1) the parties involved were and are subject to “O.J. SIMPSON” impunity or (2) the witnesses related to the cases mysteriously died or committed suicide. The intention of this exercise is not to seek justice but to arouse America to THINK…so that we, as a nation, never again have to read a headline describing our election in the press of a foreign ally, such as the one that appeared two days after the election of 2004, on November 4th on the front page of London’s Daily Mirror and which read:
How Can 59,054,087 People be so DUMB?
http://www.plasticbag.org/archives/2004/11/how_can_59054087_people_be_so_dumb/
The following is subject to the legal premise of res ipsa loquitor; the facts speak for themselves.
HILLARY CLINTON - 35 YEARS of EXPERIENCE...and counting - a priliminary synopsis
PA Democratic Party - CLINTON'S TRUTH = HEALTH CARE PLAN TO SCANDLE + FRAUD + DEATH LIST = LONG LONG LAUNDRY LIST
http://www.padems.com/node/843
List of Alleged Crimes In the Clinton Administration
http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/crime2.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpNyXf6teU4
http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/ethical.html
With Friends like These ... Everything you ever wanted to know about the Clintons' shadiest donors
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=076fd56f-4aca-4683-a9d1-3c55d748946e
The Clinton DEATH List
http://www.lizmichael.com/clintond.htm
The Shocking Video Hillary Does NOT Want You to See (Peter Paul)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn4_LXERusY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88633A0wShg&feature=related
http://www.2004dnc.com/peterpaulhillaryclinton/index.html
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7007109937779036019
http://www.hillcap.org/pp_complaint_022504_njw.pdf
HILLARY THREATENED JUANITA BROADDRICK 2 WEEKS AFTER RAPE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KZ8ICvutc0&feature=related
Shays Shocker: Clinton Raped Broaddrick Twice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORfppYixrXM&watch_response
Chris Matthews calls Clinton control of media "FASCISTIC" why the Press resents The Clintons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjMNoCldIMk&NR=1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPe-9GW6jsI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSMrjWe69bQ&feature=relatedHillary
Clinton EXPOSED AS A RACIST
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDHbHcOV1N4&feature=related
SECTS, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE: Hillary Clinton’s ethnic slurs – what she thinks of Jews
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxlpI3LuvtU&feature=related
Soldiers love Ron and Barack, and lobbyists love Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, the No. 1 recipient of lobbyist cash, receiving $823,000 in 2007 from the lobbying industry, which gave about $2.7 million overall.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/02/military-donors.html
THIS BLOG WILL BEGIN DEPLOYMENT TO THE 10,000 MEMBERS of STUDENTS FOR OBAMA and a first week demographic distribution of a targeted 100,000 recipients. Thereafter, it will be made available for media consideration so as to allow it maximum public exposure before Pennsylvania and the other remaining primaries. I will wait till it is appropriately posted to by those wishing to comment so that it may convey a plurality of voices far more significant than that of the author. In keeping with the spirit of tolerance set forth by Oprah Winfrey, ALL ANTI- OBAMA posters from THE OPRAH DISCUSSION BOARDS are invited to contribute with their thoughts as well. I appreciate their participation in advance as they will serve to underline our purpose.
The search for Clinton related proof sources needs to be an ongoing thing until the day that we seat our candidate or America mandates differently. Therefore your continued and ongoing posts, particularly those that contribute legitimate findings of concern, will help to keep this banner (in the words of my friend 4michael4) "FRESH" and current.
In closing, I dedicate this blog and this effort to my father who taught me to define HONOR! Therefore, let us not become the stuff of those that oppose us. There can be no HONOR without RESPECT…and…Respect is the premium owed only to those with the courage to earn it.
NEXT, I will share what has been prepared for the SUPERDELEGATES. YOU'LL LOVE THIS!
For now, LET’S GO TO WORK!
The “Daisy Ad”: During the 1964 Presidential election, incumbent Democrat, Lyndon. B. Johnson, ran a campaign TV ad that, to date, has come to be known by this name. Political campaign strategists consider it to be the brilliant marketing tool that marked the turn of his failing campaign that went on to win the election. Before you read further…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkWAhuXtalw&NR=1
In the latest Clinton television ad, we see the poignant image of two children fast asleep, late at night. The redundant ringing of a White House phone is heard in the background. Against that background the ad asks us; if the phone is ringing at The White House in the middle of the night, wouldn’t you prefer for it to be answered by someone who already knew and had relations with the leaders of the world? WE THE PEOPLE expect for that phone call to be answered by a President whose successful bid for office and/or whose personal interests were NOT funded by individuals, industries or countries whose interests would be better served by the nature of the answer to that call. We feel stronger yet that the phone MUST NOT be answered by such a President that, while still a candidate, required keeping the identity of such benefactors CONFIDENTIAL. The contrary defines the concept of “CONFLICT OF INTEREST” as well as the name “Halliburton.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halliburton)
The Washington Post - December 15, 2007
Clinton Library Got Funds From AbroadSaudis Said to Have Given $10 Million
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/14/AR2007121402124_pf.html
The Wall Street Journal – Feb 28, 2008
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120277819085260827.html
Greetings from "THE FRONT". I have spent weeks posting to the OPRAH DISCUSSION BOARDS along with a handful of Obama loyalists. I felt that, there, I would find a more "grass-roots" support group to serve as a base from which to take action..I was wrong...dead wrong! Instead I found that the politico blogs that are on the website of staunch Obama supporter and endorser, Oprah Winfrey, have been infiltrated by a horde of opposition MILITANTS who have descdended on the site deploying "lynch-mob-like" group-ambush tactics meant to disable the intended function of the boards. With the demeanor of drunken sailors, they belittle and intimidate Obama volunteers so as to disturb the work of meeting, greeting. educating and supporting visitors to the forum. Curious new arrivals find quick discouragement from posting opinions or asking questions that may yield Obama-friendly answers. Generally, a good "slap-fest" at the hands of up to SIX of these marauding moles suffices at sending them back to their search engines yelping. They then turn on our own with effects on morale that are evident in the thread-exerps that will follow. These people arrived like a destablizing "rabble" TOXIC to our campaign's political protocol of dignity. I've been on post there for a month and I myself said "NO WAY" and almost exited. A 2/20/08 thread titled "TURN THE OTHER CHEEK SO MICHELLE CAN SLAP AGAIN", however, drew me back with a vengeance and "the gift" of a written lesson in AMERICAN DECENCY that a friend later forwarded to FOX NEWS. We cannot allow them to pollute our psyche, the morale of our communications forums or weaken our resolve. We called for a movement of ACTION volunteers and many selflessly came forward. They labor for you, me and for America because they believe that we deserve it. We must NEVER allow for them TO BE WRONG! We may never again have the chance to rescue America. We are MAKERS of HISTORY poised on the brink of VICTORY but this movement and this moment in history is ours to lose. I am calling for those with thick skins and strong convictions to take to those boards, recruit the dissenters... or take up the banner of THE AMERICAN RESISTANCE and, in its name and by its glory, send those puny minds BACK to the mother that bore them with ONE DEAFENING ROAR of "NO YOU WON'T!". The anger with which they attack all things "Barack" borders on the irrational and is well within the realm of "frenzy." It can only be born of the desperation of those who rage at having been beaten BACK or by the fear that is thet rade-mark of the ill-educated or the grossly misinformed. There are threads opened by persons BRAGGING about being FAKE Obama supporters; their are threads in ridicule of Michelle Obama that present her as Washington's pariah unworty of the descriptive of "LADY." There are threads accusing our candidate of being complicit in the machete-hacking of babies in Africa as well as of spiritual things best left unspoken. I've done extensive work in there and have freed some "hostages" but...it's "E-wojima" revisited in that venue. I fear that a Clinton movement, in a strategic act of dispair, may be attempting to creat a hive of dissent on Oprah Winfrey's site that, once brought to the protest pitch of a cyber-mob, can be brought to the attention of the media as evidence that Oprah was wrong to endorse Barack. Any combination of these slugs would be all too happy to appear on Rush Limbaugh's show to claim their 5 minutes of fame. THIS IS REAL FOLKS! Here is a link to those discussions. I call for volunteers to go into that site, do a little "recon" and bring back some "intel" so that we can build a strategy to bear and deploy a "cleansing" counter-offensive. It may be that we may need to advise Barack so that measures can be taken, through Oprah herself, if he deems it necessary. Here's the sad part. Some of our people that, like myself, labor tirelessly in there. The young ladies and the women particularly, are being overwhelemed and verbally assaulted to the point of panic and bordering on hysteria. I've pasted some exerps from a few Private Messages that they've sent me for your consideration. Be careful. The more intelligent your statement of support, the more fiercely you'll be acosted, insulted and belittled. Be prepared to be challenged by users that you haven't even addressed with words you did not write. As for me...I am but ONE...and that is all it takes sometimes to start a RAGING FIRE...ONE SPARK!
http://www.oprah.com/community/community/world/news?view=discussions
Feb 19, 2008...I'm staying behind the scenes til told to do something else. And yes, much hostility on these boards. His opponents are terrified. Can't figure out how to stop it. Negativity even helps. No on has seen anything like it before. When you read the excerpt, you'll know what they fear. A power beyond measure. The same that will be with you with this. FAVOR! Blessings
Feb 24, 2008...M______ is quite anti-Obama filled with fear...He believes that Mr. Obama is evil...but do not accept his crap either. Thanks for all your work on the thread. I do not think that I have seen so much negativity in my life.
Feb 24, 2008...It's beyond negative. It borders on "violent." I almost turned away from it because my intention in being here is not to satisfy some underlying fantasy of being a pundit. It is to teach and learn in a spirit that would promote a more informed and educated voter and that could further Obama's platform of unity...
The next two are clips from the last two messages that I received from kmdillard1 (her user name on Oprah's site), one of our field commanders who attended the Youngstown rally so as to bring back uplifting and positive news from the frontlines. If you visit and register on the Oprah site, look her up and fire a message of support her way. She and the folks their could all use it.
Feb 26, 2008...I would like to debate issues with these guys, but there is no debating!!! This is just bashing! None of these candidates are perfect, but certainly, Obama is not the spawn of satan they make him out to be! I don't know Rick! Hang in there!
Feb 28, 2008... Hi Rick, I did not receive an e-mail from you! I will keep looking for it! Forgive me this is short. And forgive me, I have been a bit negative on the boards lately. Those people were getting in my head and making me doubt myself and belief. I have been mean toward Hillary. I thought the Clinton supporters deserved to feel the way I did for a moment. It is not a good thing.
Mar 2, 2008...Greetings Rick in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ. Thanks for letting me know that my prayers have been answered. I had written to the Barack Obama email website begging for assistance weeks ago. I cannot thank God enough that you have picked up the mantle. It has been painful to watch. Many times it felt so lonely trying to beat off these lies, harassments, smears, attacks, wicked and evil gang groupies. I am aware that M______ is back with at least 4 additional new user names. Welcome onboard and I pray that more truth seekers join and participate in these boards because these lies are beginning to be considered as truth and flowing into the mainstream media against Obama. This has to be stopped. It makes me sick to see Hillary Clinton doing the dirty work for republicans. I am getting very upset now so I will stop for now. God bless you.
...ENOUGH SAID.
Now, onto a separate and far more uplifting note. I would like to lead you to some GREAT stats regarding who you "warriors" and you "friends of warriors" are keeping company with. It appears that the most BRILLIANT minds in America believe as we do. If anyone challenges your judgement or the "wisdom of your alignment" proudly refer them to the following link. I've used it to silence many and to win over even more. Be advised, however...the tinier the mind that opposes you, the greater the anger they will display at these statistics.
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/2007/08/obamas_strong_appeal_to_highly_educated_americans_/
doctrine #2: DOING NOTHING MEANS NOTHING WILL CHANGE.
DRAGONWOLVES: Make keen your thoughts and prepare to TEACH... but make wise your claws, file keen the fangs of your words, polish them well as they must be the LAST THING that treachary ever sees!
much, much more to come...feedback please!
