Back to Basics

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“Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation…” -Barack Obama

Who is President Barack Obama and what does he want? That he is an enigma is indisputable.

The ultra-Left continues to see him as a transformative figure that will remake America. His critics agree that Obama wants to change America, but not for the better. I decided to find out by reading half a dozen books and taking notes over the past few months.

The three books that are most compelling in their explanations of Obama are:

• Richard Minter, Leading From Behind: The Reluctant President and the Advisors Who Decide For Him.

• Edward Klein, The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House.

• Bob Woodward, Obama Wars.

Minter’s credits include writing for The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and even the left-leaning Newsweek. Klein was a former editor for Newsweek. And the venerable Woodward was a key player that revealed Watergate when he was famously reporting for The Washington Post and has been considered to be the political assassin of President Richard Nixon.

These books contend Obama is a loner with few or no friends, has a messiah complex and an unequalled ego. They state that beyond his troika – wife and First Lady Michelle Obama, Senior Advisor to the President Valarie Jarrett and Attorney General Eric H. Holder – Obama listens to nobody. More damning is both Minter and Klein contend that the President and his gang of three are sympatico; that their African-American heritage has made them and all blacks victims of the white establishment and that they must change the United States with the redistribution of wealth, the Constitution be damned.

In Leading From Behind, Minter writes:

(In college Obama had) a passion for civil rights, social justice, and radical politics… (He) was developing a radical resume. He audited a class at Columbia University taught by famed writer and Palestinian activist Edward Said, spoke at protests at Harvard Law School, attended a church where the radical Israel sermons of Rev. Jeremiah Wright echoed off the walls.

Is Obama a Muslim in Christian Clothing?

No one can forget the Reverend Wright and his “Goddamn the United States!” outburst from the pulpit. But according to Klein, it wasn’t Wright who corrupted young Obama. It was Obama who used Wright by cultivating a relationship for his own political gain, namely to cover his Islamic beliefs.

I can already see a wave of hate comments from of our liberal readers so I am going to fully cite my reference from his book where Klein interviewed almost 200 people that have personally known the President, including Rev. Wright.*

Below and verbatim is from page 40 of The Amateur. It is Klein’s interview with Wright, the man Obama once said was, “like my father”:

“After Barack and I got to know each other, it got to the point where we would just drop by my church to talk,” Wright said. “And the talk gradually moved away from his community-organizing concerns — street cleaning, housing, child care, and those kinds of needs — to larger things, more personal things. Like trying to make sense of the world. Like trying to make sense out of the diverse racial and religious background from which he came.

TIME has just published pictures from Barack Obama’s prom night in 1979. For me, these photos are more evidence of something I have thought for a long time – young Obama seemed like a white guy.

Greg Orme, Kelli Allman, Barack Obama and Megan Hughes at Allman’s parents’ house in Honolulu.

Despite the Obama mythology, these new photos show that the young Obama was dating a white girl named Megan Hughes and hanging out with other white people including his basketball teammate Greg Orme and fellow student Kellie Allman. It was Kelli Allman (née McCormack) who provided these new photos to Time. She is pictured second from the left.

One of the most puzzling things to me about contemporary politics is the way so many people seem to think that Barack Obama is a black man. As one of the folks who got to know him while he was at Occidental College, I can report that I thought of Obama as an average white guy in terms of his IQ and his cultural inheritance. This, of course, should not be so surprising since Obama was raised by his white mother and his white grandparents nearly his entire life.

The young Obama that I knew was mainly interested in hanging out with white guys and white girls (like me and my radical girlfriend) or with his radical Muslim friends. I interacted with young Obama on various occasions between 1980-1981 and I can report that I never saw him hanging out with black students. Never.

Obama, of course, has done a lot of work to create a politically and socially advantageous black image for himself. In his autobiography, for example, I have called attention to how Obama converted my white college era girlfriend into a big black woman.

This ruse needs to end. The young Obama I knew was nothing like the young black people I knew at Occidental College. He did not come from an underprivileged background. He did not have any of the hostility to white people that I sometimes saw among blacks at Occidental College. All the reports we have so far indicate that young Obama was dating white women, hanging out with his white roommate – Phil Boerner – at Columbia, and generally living a white lifestyle imbued with radical, socialist ideology.

I remain amazed that a guy as white as me managed to game the affirmative action system all the way into the White House. I expect future generations, however, will see through this ruse and render judgments that reflect the actual evidence of Obama’s life including these new photos.

Parody, banter, satire, burlesque, conundrum, aside and anecdotes are all forms of humor, but the President has introduced a new form of humor.

Heretofore, asking legitimate questions was thought to be part and parcel to arriving at the truth and advancing education, jurisprudence, government and common knowledge. Barack Obama has put forth the idea that such questions are now to be labeled – a joke!

Mr. Obama slammed the internet media in his address at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner recently. He poked fun at Politico, Buzzfeed and birthers but became serious at times and belittled all those who questioned his administration, policies or personal life.

Hidden behind a thin veil of humor and the chuckles of obedient main stream media sycophants and their guests, Mr. Obama took particular aim at birthers, those who question the authenticity of his Hawaiian birth certificate.

Conspicuously missing was any mention of the hundreds of other unanswered questions to do with Mr. Obama’s past, policies and economic disasters. There is no humor to be found in these serious questions and, as yet, there are no answers.

Is the cup half empty or is it completely empty?

Barack told the correspondents, “I’m also hard at work on plans for the Obama library, and some have suggested we put it in my birthplace, but I’d rather keep it in the United States.”

This would truly be funny if the birth certificate were the only missing or unseen document from the presidents past. A bevy of school records and other questions have been secreted away from the public by order of the president. Why? Your guess is as good as mine, but before we slam birthers why don’t we ask what else will be missing from the Obama Library if these records are not released. Leaving this question unanswered will leave one presidential library half-filled and only promises and failed policies will be on display

It is not what they can’t disprove or unravel that bothers those who question, but it is the lack of provability for the answers that were already proffered. That glass is not half full – it is completely empty.

Legislators would tax the internet, Obama would smash the internet

A timeless and immutable rule of thumb as ancient as man himself is that, wherever exuberant lavish and unbridled praise is found, falsehood is not far behind. It is what Christ inferred when

he said, “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you for so did their fathers to the false prophets.” (Lk 6: 2

White House correspondents were not given a pass to the inner sanctums of the president’s doings because they were noted critics and hardline questioners of his administration. It takes no wizardry to explain why they were handpicked by the president.

White House correspondents are comparable to the praise teams in most evangelical churches, but we can be certain that God has nothing to hide.

When it comes to the internet Obama gets to choose no one.

With all of its trash and topsy-turvy mix of good and evil it is still, so far, the tool of the people.

Mr. Obama chose to use that tool when he called for tweets from those who would support his policies, especially during his presidential campaign.

PHOTOS.COM

Who is Harrison J. Bounel? According to the 2009 tax return submitted by President Barack Obama, he’s the President of the United States. All nine U.S. Supreme Court Justices are scheduled to discuss this anomaly today.

The case in question is Edward Noonan, et al v. Deborah Bowen, California Secretary of State, and the Justices are finally looking at it thanks to the dogged determination of Orly Taitz. The case calls into question many of the documents Obama (Bounel, Soetoro, Soebarkah, etc.) has used and/or released as authentic since he came on the national scene. The case contends that the documents — birth certificate, Social Security number, Selective Service registration, etc. — are fakes or forgeries. If that’s the case, Obama should not have been on the California ballot in 2008 and, therefore, should not have received the State’s electoral votes.

Four of the nine Justices must vote to move the case forward. We’ll see.

Meantime, on Feb. 4, Kathleen O’Leary, presiding judge of the 4^th District Court of Appeal, reinstated the appeal of Taitz v. Obama et al filed by Taitz when she ran for Senate. That case involves evidence of 1.5 million invalid voter registrations in the State of California. The appeal also involves Obama’s lack of legitimacy to hold the office of President based on his forged IDs, stolen Connecticut Social Security number, the fact the last name he’s using is not legally his and his fraudulent claim to be the U.S. citizen.

Evidence in the case includes:

• A certified copy of the passport records of Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, showing her son’s legal last name to be Soebarkah, not Obama.
• Obama’s school records from Indonesia, showing his citizenship to be Indonesian.
• Sworn affidavits of top law enforcement experts and investigators, showing Obama’s birth certificate and Selective Service certificate are forgeries and that the Social Security number used by Obama on his 2009 tax returns as posted on WhiteHouse.gov was fraudulent. (The SSN failed when checked through both E-Verify and the Social Security Number Verification Service.)

On another legal front, Obama defaulted in the case of Grinols et al v. Obama et al on Jan. 30 when he failed to file a response within 21 days of being served notice of the suit. This case also involves Obama’s phony SSN.

The suit states:

[I]nvestigator Albert Hendershot found in the database of http://www.acxiom.com/identity-solutions/acxiom-identity-batch-solutions/ the name of the individual whose Social Security Obama is using. Acxciom-batch-solutions showed (Exhibit 1) that Harry J Bounel with the same Social Security number xxx-xx-4425 at 5046 S Greenwood Ave in Chicago, home address of Barack Obama, Database shows Bounel with the same address and Social Security number as Barack Obama himself. According to the databases last changes to the information on Harrison (Harry) J Bounel were made in and around November 2009 by Michelle Obama, who is listed as Bounel’s relative. Database changes can involve entering the information or deletion of information. It appears that changes made by relative Michelle Obama included deletion of information, which was done at a time when Taitz brought to Federal court in the Central District of California before Judge David O. Carter a case of election challenge by her client, former U.S. ambassador Dr.

On a day filled with celebration and retrospection, namely the Inauguration of President Barack Obama, a well-known and respected public-interest attorney, who appears regularly on top television and radio news and talk shows, said on Monday that he refuses to congratulate Obama, and his legal organization released a shockingly harsh statement to explain that refusal.

Larry Klayman, the founder of the successful organization Judicial Watch and a former candidate for the U.S. Senate in Florida — and the only lawyer ever to have obtained a court ruling that a sitting president had committed a crime (which occurred during the Clinton administration) — issued a biting statement on Inauguration Day.

In his statement Klayman declared his refusal “to congratulate Barack Hussein Obama with regard to his inauguration celebration” and his having been illegally sworn in [Sunday] and [Monday] by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.

Mr. Klayman said he does not and cannot recognize Obama as President of the United States.

And Klayman is not alone in his suspicions: the majority of Republicans — 64 percent — believe Obama is hiding something about himself while 33 percent of independents and even 14 percent of Democrats agree, New Jersey’s Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind survey revealed.

Klayman’s new organization, Freedom Watch, is currently representing voters and a 2012 Presidential candidate, Virgil Goode, in election challenges in Alabama and Florida where it is alleged, according to Klayman, that proof from official government sources exists that reveals Obama is not a “natural born citizen” born in the United States or its territories to two American citizen parents as required by the U.S. Constitution. Klayman and Freedom Watch state that by law Obama should not have run or have been elected for the Office of the President, let alone re-elected and re-inaugurated.

While the vast majority of the members America’s news media, including conservative pundits, believe allegations of Obama’s ineligibility to hold the office of President are not to be taken seriously, there remain numerous Americans who continue to have suspicions, but who are ridiculed and mocked into being silent, notes political strategist and consultant George Reznick.

“While I myself do not ascribe to the allegation that Obama is ineligible to hold the office of president, I don’t believe those who question his eligibility should be mocked or silenced,” said Reznick.

While the political and media establishments frown on questions of Obama’s eligibility, there are cases such as those presently before the Alabama Supreme Court (Alabama CV-2012-1053) where Chief Justice Roy Moore now presides, and the First District Court of Appeal in Florida (1D12-3489).

Klayman noted in his biting statement:

“The biggest fraud in the history of the nation has been perpetrated against the American people. Since Republicans have refused to stand up to Obama’s fraud, which has put him in office now for two successive terms, my clients and other voters around the country have been forced to take legal actions challenging his eligibility to be president.

“Obama, a man who holds little allegiance to our country, and in fact has taken many actions in the last four years which have harmed thenational interest, must be held to account in a court of law under the rule of law.

President Barack Obama could not pass a background check if he was applying for a gun permit or a job. Why has this man been allowed to remain in office or take the oath for a second time?

During the 2008 campaign, it was known that:
His official, long form birth records were SEALED
His Occidental College records were SEALED.
His Columbia College records were SEALED.
His Harvard College records were SEALED.
His College thesis – SEALED.
His Harvard Law Review articles – SEALED.
His Indonesian adoption records – SEALED.
His passport file – SEALED.
His medical records – Unavailable
His baptism records – Unavailable
His papers from his service in the Illinois legislature – Unavailable
His Illinois State Bar Association records – Unavailable
The birth certificate that the White House released is reputed by document experts to be false.

The Social Security number he has used was issued to someone else. He could not pass an E-Verify test. The first three numbers of his Social Security ID are reserved for applicants with Connecticut addresses, 040-049. The number was issued between 1977 and 1979. Obama’s earliest employment reportedly was in 1975 at a Baskin-Robbins in Oahu, Hawaii.

Many of the “facts” he cited in his two memoirs have turned out to be questionable, if not outright lies; particularly as regards his birth father, a citizen of Kenya at the time of his birth.

A job applicant with Obama’s paper trail would not even pass the smell test, but this man was elected and reelected. The role of journalism is to vet the credentials of anyone running for public office, let alone the highest office in the land. Instead, he has been protected against all inquiries and those making them have been called “birthers” or simply ignored.

Obama so routinely lies that keeping track of them would require a team of full-time archivists.

In August 2009 he said, “I have not said I was a single-payer supporter”, but in June 2003, as an Illinois state senator, he said, “I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care system.”

In March 2006, he said “Leadership means the buck stops here…I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.” He is now into his second political battle to raise the debt limit. In July 2011, he said “It is not acceptable for us not to raise the debt ceiling and to allow the U.S. government to default.”

In response to a 1996 questionnaire he said “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages, but in November 2008 he said, “I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage.”

He spent his first term blaming the nation’s economic ills on his predecessor, George W. Bush, saying in July 2008, that “he added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion in debt that we are going to have to pay back. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.” Today, the debt stands at more than $16 trillion because Obama added more to the debt than all previous presidents combined. For the first time in U.S. history, our credit rating was reduced and rating services are warning they will reduce it again.

Reprobation is a condition of moral confusion that the scriptures say will be pervasive in the last days of time as we know it. (Romans 1: 27-32) It is a result of spiritual deprivation which always accompanies moral decline according to every historical record of man. Nations rise and fall on the outcome of this powerful and recurring social and spiritual malady.

In this clouded nether region of convoluted thinking, identifying exactly who leaders are is part and parcel to the confusion entire generations have, concerning their own identities. Teens are thought to rebel and act out largely because they are struggling to ascertain their own identities.

We are not sure if politicians are crooks or statesmen, republicans or RINO’s. Is the cop a public servant or a mobster; is the teacher an educator or a molester? Is the sports hero a role model or a drug abuser? Our failure to properly identify people is often discovered far too late. Is it too late to discover who is leading us today, or who led us to the truth in the past? We are moving dangerously close to a simple – yes – on that question. Let’s see.

In a day when minds were less muddled, a day Jesus called, a “green tree” (Lk 23: 31) the single most important question ever asked was laid upon the band of twelve men who followed him daily. It was the question of the hour and it is still the single most important question of all time. It is a question of identity.

“When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” (Mt 16: 13)

His followers gave him a mixed answer that included the various opinions of the entire community. It was much like a blog response where every viewpoint is voiced, but none are definitive or completely authoritative. The disciples told Jesus that some of the people thought he was a prophet, or the reincarnation of John the Baptist. Many of the people thought he was a fake and a charlatan and possibly demon possessed. (Jn 8: 48)

Christ told them to get off the opinions of men and answer the question for themselves. In an answer as clear as the sky the Apostle Peter answered the question in no uncertain terms for himself and those who followed Christ from day to day observing his speech and the many miracles he did.

“He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Mt 16: 15, 16)

In this day of the – “dry tree,” (2 Ti 3: 1-7) identity confusion reigns, but is most apparent in the strong varying views of just who our President really is. A list of seven possible identities barely covers the full range of identity questions for Barack Obama, but it is a start.

1. Is he a good old American prez or a communist? Many people think his economic policies which tend to favor government care for all, but little help for entrepreneurs and capitalists is a clear sign that his proclivities are communistic. But none could speak with more authority than the former communists.

If anyone had read any of the many books that have examined President Obama’s life and his many questionable qualifications for office, including a Social Security number that appears to have been purloined from someone else, he should not be allowed to take the oath of office for a second time.

Here are just some of the books I have received and read over the first four years of his disastrous first term:

The Obama Nation by Jerome Corsi

Where’s the Birth Certificate? By Jerome Corsi

Deconstructing Obama by Jack Cashill

The Blueprint: Obama’s Plan to Subvert the Constitution
And Build an Imperial Presidency by Ken Blackwell & Ken Klukowski

The Post-American Presidency by Pamela Geller with Robert Spencer

The Audacity of Deceit: Barack Obama’s War on American values by Brad O’Leary

The Communist: Frank Marshall Davis, The Untold Story of Barack Obama by Paul Kengor

The Manchurian Candidate by Aaron Klein

An American Obsession: Race and Conflict in the Age of Obama by Seth A. Forman

If only one half or one quarter of the facts cited in these books were true, Obama has no legal right to be President and is committed to an ideology that seeks to undermine capitalism. He is set to take the oath of office a second time.

Few of these books received any of the attention they deserve in the mainstream media and all of the authors are at risk of being whisked off to jail as enemies of the state if the Bill of Rights continues to be eroded and ignored by the Obama administration.

To those who deride the “birthers” who have raised issues about his eligibility, Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch notes that “Even if born in America, Obama does not quality as a ‘natural born citizen’ under our Constitution, since he was not, as also required under our law to be president, sired by two American born parents. Only his mother was an American at the time of birth.”

Historians will look back at his first term and wonder how 51% of the voters reelected Obama when he added $6 trillion to the national debt (more than all Presidents who preceded him combined.) They will wonder how he got reelected in a nation with more than 26 million unemployed and 47 million on food stamps and other “safety net” programs including 99 weeks of unemployment checks.

They will wonder how his opponent promised to repeal Obamacare was defeated when many states have refused to set up the “exchanges” the law requires be created. Health insurance premiums will increase 25% to 30% on January 1, 2013. At the same time employers of more than 50 people will put most of them in a part-time status to avoid the increase to the cost of doing business, guaranteeing less work and less pay.

I recently received an email from Dr. Orly Taitz, an attorney who has filed many law suits alleging that Obama used “forged IDs, forged short form birth certificate, forged long form birth certificate, forged Selected Service certificate and fraudulently obtained Connecticut Social Security number, which Obama is using in his tax returns and which was never assigned to him according to e-verify.”

Any one of these charges should have been sufficient to keep Obama from taking his first oath of office and should foreclose any opportunity for a second one.

Fasten your seat belts: Finally the missing information on the occupier of The White House has been gathered and published that fully identifies who Obama is and what he is about, complete with documentation that cannot be disputed. This is the information that Obama has paid lawyers over 2 million dollars to conceal.

Ms. Schlafly’s book, “No Higher Power—Obama’s War on Religious Freedom,” (Regnery Publishing, Inc.-Washington, D.C.-$27.95) is positively the best resource available to define the identity of a man whose background is clouded in secrecy. And for good reason.

The author’s solid legal background enabled her to research and examine all the evidence and present it with such compelling force that readers will not want to put the book down. It is jam packed with fascinating facts about “The One”  who has deceived the world.

This work is not just about Obama’s war on the Christian religion. Names of those who mentored and groomed him are spotlighted with full details.

In Chapter five, Saul Alinsky not only took Obama under his wing, but was a father figure to him—it has been considered in other accounts that Alinsky is possibly Obama’s real father.

On page 68,  Alinsky’s tactics are explained by him as he first tells his students, “Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.” He then lists his recommended tactics that are fascinating. This list is like a cross between The Communist Manifesto and Sun Tzu’s-The Art of War.

It is startling to see how we have all been manipulated by psychological tricks, newspaper stories and how to ridicule your opponents and provoke “irrational anger.” Alinsky goes on to instruct: “A mass impression can be lasting and intimidating.”

All of these skillful ingenious tactics that placed Obama in The Oval Office without a trace of identification or personal background. You will slap your forehead with the palm of your hand.

You will see how Jim Wallis, publisher of “Sojourners,” the flagship publication for Obama’s longstanding “dupe-the-Protestants” operation. (pg.75) And how Wallis is financed by George Soros, who subsidized, “Protestant front groups.”

The author correctly states, “Obama has compiled a record of hostility to religion that is unmatched by any other president in American history.”  The numerous examples documented are shocking, taking place while America sleeps as though in a hypnotic trance state.

Chapter five begins: “Barack Obama’s interest in religion is in direct proportion to his ability to manipulate it—a political calculus that he absorbed through his study of the life, thought and methods of Saul Alinsky, a radical socialist from Chicago who established the Industrial Areas Foundation in the 1940s.”

The Chapter, The Great Con, tells it all. How he deceived ‘values voters’ by adopting a tone of religious uplift and coaching his policies in terms of The Golden Rule.

On page 16 in the chapter, “One Nation Under Obama,” the very best explanation of the “separation of church and state” or “Wall of Separation,” shows how that phrase has been manipulated to virtually make churches illegal.

I pushed the envelope of citizen journalism a little further this week by introducing myself to Pulitzer-prize winning journalist David Maraniss. According to Maraniss, his research for Barack Obama: The Story took him to Hawaii, Indonesia and Kenya. Unfortunately, he did not have the time to Google search me or review any of the five books, multiple blog posts, YouTube videos or hundreds of websites that feature my take on young Obama’s ideological extremism.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4sYJFguGpo

Ironically, Maraniss got awfully close to confirming the details of my 1980 Christmas break debate with young Obama, a debate that reveals just how radical Obama was as a college student. Maraniss reports young Obama was in the San Francisco area at precisely the time when I indicated I first met and debated him. Maraniss, in fact, talked at length with my college-era Marxist girlfriend – Caroline Boss – at whose home the debate took place. Maraniss goes so far as to report that Caroline was part of the composite character “Regina” in Dreams from My Father.

I managed to converse with Maraniss during his recent visit to my alma mater, Occidental College, on October 29, 2012. My wife and I arrived at Occidental’s Thorne Hall early and picked out seats near the front. I learned Maraniss sees young Obama as a largely apolitical figure generally more interested in personal growth than raw political power. In Maraniss’s view, young Obama was largely untouched by the radicalism of either my ex-girlfriend or of his Pakistani roommate, Hassan Chandoo– the older student who admitted to his youthful Marxism in David Remnick’s The Bridge. Maraniss sees no evidence that young Obama was interested in pursuing elected office. For Maraniss, Obama’s lust for power only kicks in just prior to Obama’s application to Harvard Law School. Maraniss’s portrait of young Obama, of course, is absolutely inconsistent with my face-to-face observation that young Obama was 100% committed to preparing for a Communist revolution in the United States and was actively grooming himself to play a leadership role in that highly anticipated, potentially violent conflict.

Maraniss called for questions and I stood up. Speaking into a microphone, I dropped my well-rehearsed bombshell before an audience of about 200 listeners: “Mr. Maraniss, my name is John Drew. I’m a former professor and a former Marxist.” This opening line got a laugh.

“For several years now,” I continued, “I have been very public about my time with Barack Obama at Occidental, where he and I and my girlfriend were all fellow Marxists. A number of conservative authors have asked me about this and published my account in bestselling books. You’ve interviewed my girlfriend and others in our radical circles, but not me. I’d love to talk with you. Would you be open to that? I’m not looking to sell my story or for increased name recognition. I just want to share the truth.”

Maraniss’s response was curt. “Of course,” he said, “ I’m open to talk with anyone.” He shut up and immediately moved on to the next question. Nevertheless, I could see I was on his mind since Maraniss mentioned me by name two more times during his question and answer session. The good news is that he was nice enough to assert that he was not sure of my motivations.