Back to Basics

October 26, 2009 by Bob Livingston

In the Aesop’s Fable, The Ass and His Purchaser, a man looking to buy a donkey wanted to test the animal before completing the purchase. So he put the donkey in his field with the other donkeys to see what would happen.

The donkey immediately strayed from the majority of the herd and cozied up to the laziest donkey of all.

Seeing that, the man led the donkey back to his owner. When the owner asked how he could judge the donkey’s character so quickly the man explained, “I didn’t even need to see how he worked. I knew he would be just like the one he chose to be his friend.”

A person is known by the company he keeps.

Fables are popular because they tell the story of the way things in life really work. In business, when someone takes over a department or company, that person promotes those he or she likes to positions of authority. The new manager seeks out those who have a philosophy, work ethic and disposition similar to his.

One would expect a president to do the same thing. After all, a president is elected—supposedly—based on the vision, ideas and proposals he championed during the campaign. It would then make sense that he would put in place those who supported his vision and would therefore be enthusiastic in working to achieve it.

So who are President Barack Obama’s friends, and who has he put in charge of the effort to enact his policies? And what do the friends he has chosen and the people he has put in position of authority in his administration say about him?

Following, in alphabetical order, is a list of some of Obama’s friends, advisors and people charged with enacting his policies:

• William Ayers—Now a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Ayers spent 10 years as a fugitive in the 1970s when he was part of the domestic terrorist organization known as the Weather Underground. In the early 1970s the Weather Underground was responsible for bombing the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C., and setting a bomb that didn’t go off at a military induction center in Oakland, Calif. The group also murdered two policemen and a Brink’s truck driver in a botched armored car robbery, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) website. Ayers surrendered to face charges in the 1980s, but the charges were dropped because of improper surveillance. Coincidentally, on Sept. 11, 2001, Ayers was being interviewed about a book he had written and he told the interviewer he didn’t think the Weather Underground had done enough. Ayers and Obama first crossed paths in Chicago in the 1990s and served together on the board of the not-for-profit Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a boondoggle to spend tens of millions of dollars for their pet “education” projects. Obama downplayed his friendship with Ayers as casual, but evidence indicates their relationship was much more. Many now believe that Ayers penned Obama’s “autobiography” Dreams from My Father.

• Carol Browner—Obama’s Director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, Browner is an avowed socialist. She served as one of 14 leaders of Socialist International’s Commission for a Sustainable World Society, which calls for global governance and says rich countries must shrink their economies to address climate change, according to an article in The Washington Times. The group supports socialism and has been harshly critical of U.S. policies. She is also a supporter of smart growth policies, as we have described previously. Browner also served on the board of Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection, though her name was scrubbed from the site after Obama tapped her for the director’s position. Not surprisingly, Obama’s transition team told The Times Browner’s membership in a socialist organization was not a problem.

• Frank Marshall Davis—You won’t find Davis’ name on an organizational chart of White House staff, but he was instrumental in forming the political philosophy of Barack Hussein Obama. Called “Uncle Frank” in Dreams from My Father, Davis was a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), according to a 1951 report of the Commission on Subversive Activities to the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii. Obama has admitted to spending time with Uncle Frank—who he cryptically describes as being a person of some modest notoriety at one time—and listening to his poetry and getting career path advice. Davis may also have been a pedophile. Writing under the pseudonym Bob Greene, Davis wrote a debased pornographic novel entitled, Sex Rebel: Black (Memiors of a Gash Gourmet), in which he describes group sex encounters and sex he and his wife had with a 13-year-old girl named Anne. Davis died in 1987.

• Anita Dunn—As White House Communications advisor, Dunn has been seen a lot lately as the face of the Obama administration’s strategy to try and discredit Fox News. She is described on Politico.com as a veteran Democratic strategist and top advisor on Obama’s presidential campaign. As the war between the Obama White House (see more under Rham Emmanual) and Fox has escalated, videotape has surfaced showing Dunn gloating over how the campaign “controlled” the media. Another videotape surfaced showing Dunn speaking at a June high school graduation ceremony where she praised Marxist/Communist Chinese Premiere Mao Zedong as one of her favorite philosophers and one of the two people she turns to most. It’s difficult to understand how Mao had time to philosophize as he was busy killing somewhere between 50 million and 70 million of his country’s citizens during his 27-year reign of terror.

• Ezekiel Emanuel—The president’s Special Advisor for Health Policy, Ezekiel is brother to White House Chief of Staff Rham Emanuel. Ezekiel is the source of Sarah Palin’s death panel idea. This Emanuel has written that he believes many healthcare treatments should be denied to those under 15 and over 65 to save money, the rationale being that only people between 15 and 65 are beneficial to society.

• Rahm Emanuel—Obama’s White House Chief of Staff, Emanuel is a thug Chicago politician who once sent a two-and-a-half foot long, dead and decomposing fish to lobbyist Allen Secrest to express his displeasure. He’s known for his full-time use of gutter language and once told then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair just before an appearance with Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal: “This is important. Don’t f**k it up.” He also coined the phrase, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” He’s also behind the ridiculous policy of starting a fight with television news agency Fox News.

• Chai Feldblum—Nominated by the president to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Feldblum signed a radical 2006 manifesto which endorsed polygamous households and argued traditional marriage should not be privileged “above all others,” according to a report in Catholic News Agency. According to a statement from the White House, Feldblum has worked on advancing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights…” She is co-director of Workplace Flexibility 2010, which she described at a UCLA symposium as a homosexual rights group that aimed to change the American workplace and revolutionize social mores, according to a report on the WorldnetDaily website.

• Patrick Gaspard—White House Political Director, Gaspard was formerly a lobbyist for Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the organization that sent its thugs out to disrupt Tea Party protests and stir up trouble at town hall meetings in August. Prior to that, Gaspard worked as national field director for American Coming Together (ACT), a sub-group of the Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). ACT was fined $775,000 in civil penalties by the federal government for various voter fraud offenses. You can read more about ACORN here.

• Eric Holder—The Attorney General of the United States is an anti-gun racist who earlier this year referred to the United States as “a nation of cowards” on race relations. He also has an interesting take on justice. He worked to convince President Clinton to pardon billionaire fugitive Mark Rich (convicted of fraud and racketeering), Weather Underground (where have we heard of that organization before?) terrorists Susan Rosenberg and Linda Evans, and he declined to prosecute New Black Panther brutes who stood over a Pennsylvania polling station with baseball bats intimidating voters. Oh yes, he also wants to bring Guantanamo Bay prisoners to the United States.

• John Holdren—Obama’s Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy is not only an abortion supporter, he is an abortion nut who believes that compulsory abortions could be sustained under the existing U.S. Constitution if a population crisis arose. He also supports mass sterilization of the U.S. population through lacing the country’s water supply with drugs. Holdren authored with two other people a book called Ecoscience promoting their loony ideas about population control and One World Government—or what they called a Planetary Regime—to regulate international trade, the food supply and determine the optimum population for the world.

• Valerie Jarrett—The New York Times called Jarrett, Obama Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs, the ultimate Obama insider. She has also been called the other half of Obama’s brain. She’s another one of those Chicago thug politicians who has gamed the system—including operating as a slum lord—for her own benefit. Her company, Habitat, Inc., managed the Grove Parc housing complex which was located in the district represented by State Senator Obama. As state senator, Obama coauthored a bill to give tax credits for developers which Jarrett used on the complex. As U.S. senator, Obama pressed for increased federal subsidies for like projects. Despite receiving government funds and tax credits, Grove Parc was ordered demolished because of its deplorable condition. She also served the administrations of Chicago mayors Harold Washington and Richard Daly, both scandal-plagued. Washington, by the way, was backed in his bid for mayor by Chicago’s Communist Party and the local branch of the Democratic Socialists of America. Called by the Washington Post a tutor to Obama and his wife Michelle, Jarrett is the step-daughter of Chicago journalist Vernon Jarrett. Vernon Jarrett was an associate of Frank Marshal Davis, Obama’s mentor, when Davis lived in Chicago prior to moving to Hawaii.

• Kevin Jennings—This former school teacher and long-time gay rights activist was named Obama’s Safe Schools Czar. He has accused Baptists, the Boy Scouts and sports fans of anti-gay bias, and advocates a special high school for gay teens and gay-straight alliance clubs for every high school in America, according to a report in CNSNews.com. He believes that kindergartners should be taught to respect all sexual orientations while insisting that “ex-gay messages” and “Christian values” are misused to isolate or denigrate lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and have no place in the nation’s public schools, CNSNews.com reported. Oh yeah, he also supports pedophilia. While Jennings was a teacher, a minor student told Jennings that he was having gay sex with an adult. Jennings covered it up. He also has praised Harry Hay, a defender of the North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), which promotes legalization of sexual abuse of young boys by older men.

• Van Jones—Once Obama’s White House Environmental Advisor, Jones was fired in the dead of night on a holiday weekend after a video surfaced in which he called Republicans a bodily orifice, and after a controversial document he signed was revealed. That document accused former President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney of either planning or knowing about ahead of time the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In addition to being a 9/11 Truther, Jones is an avowed Communist. He was appointed to his position by Valerie Jarrett, who has been seen on video praising Jones and saying she and Obama had been watching Jones for a long time.

• Mark Lloyd—FCC Diversity Czar, is also known as the man who wants to stifle free speech in America like Hugo Chavez does in Venezuela. He has been videotaped saying the Chavez revolution in Venezuela was almost lost because of the privately-owned media. Chavez, of course, is the Marxist dictator of Venezuela, personal friend to Communist dictator Fidel Castro of Cuba and Islamic terrorist dictator Mahmoud Ahmadenijad of Iran. In 2006, while at the liberal Center for American Progress, Lloyd wrote a book entitled, Prologue to a Farce: Communications and Democracy in America. In it he presents the idea that all private broadcasters should be charged licensing fees at a rate equal to their operating expenses and that money should go to the Public Broadcasting System (PBS). In a 2007 report entitled The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio, Lloyd complains about the fact that people want to listen to Christian and conservative talk radio rather than liberal radio, and lists ways the Federal government can fix the “problem.” His solution would include caps on the number of local stations a corporation can own, ensure greater local accountability on radio licensing and require owners who fail to fulfill their obligations to pay a fee to support PBS.

• Cecelia Munoz—Now White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs, Munoz was previously Senior Vice President of The National Council of La Raza, the largest Hispanic lobbying organization in the country, which has called national anti-immigration groups “hate groups.” La Raza, which literally translates The Race, funds extremist groups and supports illegal immigration as a way of obtaining political power. The group advocates taking the Southwest U.S. for the purpose of creating a new Hispanic state.

• Cass Sunstein—Recently confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Administrator of the White House Office of Administration and Regulatory Affairs, Sunstein is a Harvard Law School professor and dingbat who has—in writings and speeches—called for a ban on all hunting and claims that animals should be represented by lawyers in animal abuse cases. He is a socialist who has advocated for gun control and heavy regulation of the Internet. He also wrote in his 2008 book, Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness, that he believes people’s organs can be harvested without their consent. Sunstein would like to see personal email communications regulated by the government and believes the Internet is anti-democratic because of the way users can filter out information of their own choosing.

• Rev. Jeremiah Wright—Obama sat in Wright’s church for 20 years yet claims to have never heard any of the hate-filled racism that crossed his lips. Wright’s anti-Semitic, anti-American sermons came to light during the campaign. Among his claims: the U.S. government was responsible for infecting blacks with the virus that causes AIDS, America was responsible for the 9/11 attacks—“the chickens have come home to roost”—and Jews are responsible for ethnic cleansing in Gaza and are pressuring Obama associates to keep Wright and Obama separated.

These are just a few of the folks who have occupied or currently occupy Obama’s inner circle. He was passed off by the mainstream media as being a centrist and moderate, but many of friends are anything but that, and some are quite radical. And when you parse some of his words or find video or audio from several years ago you know that Obama himself has some radical views.

Corruption in government – it starts with the election process.  Special interest groups, labor unions, big pharma, all making campaign contributions supporting the candidate that is going to give them the back room deals they are after.  Why do you think this country is in this much trouble!  They have all basically bought and paid for the candidate of choice, the one who is looking out for their special interests instead of the interests of the American people.  The corruption needs to stop now, and reform needs to start with the funding of political campaigns.

The democrats seem to want to make everything equal – take from the rich and give to the poor.  So let’s start with campaign funding.  Let’s implement this equal for all system for the politicians, right from the start of the campaign process.  It’s time for a radical campaign funding change.

Instead of companies and individuals supporting one candidate over another, campaign contributions would be made to a government fund for each elected position.  There would be one fund for the president, one for each state senator race, one for each representative of the house race.  All campaign monies would go into this fund and NO OTHER funding for campaigns would be permitted.  The money from these funds would then be divided equally to all candidates running for that position, whether it be two or more.  Everyone would have an equal opportunity in campaigning for the desired position.

How the campaign spends this money would be up to them, but they would have to limit spending to only the money received from the fund.  It would be restricted, of course, to legal activities only.  At the end of the campaign a full disclosure of the money would be required within a specific timeframe and an audit would be completed on the final campaign funds.  Any money remaining from the election would be returned to the fund for the next elections.  There could be no “outstanding balance due” at the end of the campaign.

A radical move, but the problems we see in the government today are because every special interest group and every company has their own agenda and they have all made deals with the politicians to get what they want.  They donate and expect to receive benefits in return – and they don’t just mean a thank you letter.  The government is no longer run by the people, for the people.  It is being run by special interests and big business.  This has got to stop!  Start the reform where the corruption begins – the campaign funding.  Equal opportunity for everyone.

Freedom of speech and freedom of the press is one of the rights we must hang on to.  Without those basic freedoms the country is in grave trouble.  You may not like or agree with someone, but that does not give you the right to take away their freedom to speak.

Millions of people watch Glenn Beck.  You may agree with him today and disagree with him tomorrow.  You may watch his show and think he is great – or you may think he is some kind of nut.  Either way, he has a right to speak his mind and you have a right to agree or disagree.

Although I do not watch the Glenn Beck show as I do not have cable TV, I watched a clip of the video that is raising such a controversy.  Glenn was stating his opinion of the president and how he handled the situation involving a friend of his and the police department.  His statements only reflected what many people have been thinking and they came to those conclusions by actions and statements made by the president himself!  Glenn’s statements made on that show were less offensive than Nancy Pelosi calling all republicans who oppose the health care bill Nazis!  But because Glenn is white and his comments are against an African-American, making these comments it is not acceptable.  After all, how can a black man be racist!

The group putting pressure on removing the advertising is totally a racist group.  They represent only the African-American population.  Yet companies cower to their Chicago style tactics.  How stupid can these companies get?  The show is one of the top rated TV shows and because some racist organization coerced them they are removing advertising from the Glenn Beck show.

Where does this stop?  Any company that pulled their advertising from the Glenn Beck show is not supporting our 1^st amendment rights.  Maybe we should ban them and any station or television show that supports their disrespect for our constitution!

No one forces you to watch television and you have the choice which shows you choose to watch.  Starting censorship in television is a very dangerous road to travel.  No organization should be allowed to have the power to encourage censorship.  No company should allow these same organizations to dictate where to advertise.  One day they may all find themselves on the wrong side of a censorship issue.

Anyone with any brains knows that the ads shown during a television show do not necessarily represent the views of those companies whose products are being advertised.  Do we need to have a disclaimer run with every ad making that obvious statement?  Is it wrong for them to want to get their advertising message out to as many people as possible?

Your support of the ban is an indication to the American people that you are involved in special interest groups.  If you don’t have the balls to stand up to them, then maybe the product you are toting or the company you represent isn’t one the people should be supporting.  Maybe it’s a good thing you removed your advertising so we aren’t exposed to it.  If we don’t see it, we won’t buy it!  Maybe you actually did us a favor.  For every person that may object to the show, there are just as many, if not more, that support it.  Start standing up for our 1^st amendment rights – otherwise you may find your company’s advertising being censored one day from some other special interest group.

The Congressional Research Service has issued their report regarding the treatment of noncitizens in H.R. 3200. There has been a lot of debate over this topic, with the president and democrats saying illegals are not covered, while those opposed to the bill saying they are. A number of loopholes in the bill, including no provisions for checking immigrations status, prove illegal immigrants can and will be covered by the bill, at the taxpayers’ expense.  The Summary of the report is include below.  If you would like to read the entire report, please click on CRS Report.

August 25, 2009
Treatment of Noncitizens in H.R. 3200
Congressional Research Service

Summary

This report outlines the treatment of noncitizens (aliens) under H.R. 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009. In particular, the report analyzes specific provisions in H.R. 3200, and whether there are eligibility requirements for noncitizens in the provisions. Within the bill, noncitizens are treated differently in several provisions. In 2008, there were approximately 37.3 million foreign-born persons in the United States. The foreign-born population was comprised of approximately 15.1 million naturalized U.S. citizens and 22.2 million noncitizens.

H.R. 3200 includes an individual mandate to have health insurance, with tax penalties for noncompliance. Individuals who do not maintain acceptable health insurance coverage for themselves and their children would be required to pay an additional tax. Some individuals, including nonresident aliens, would be exempt from the individual mandate. “Nonresident alien” is a term under tax but not immigration law. For federal tax purposes, alien individuals are classified as resident or nonresident aliens. In general, an individual is a nonresident alien unless he or she meets the qualifications under a residency test. Thus, legal permanent residents, and noncitizens and unauthorized aliens who qualify as resident aliens (i.e., meet the substantial presence test), would be required under H.R. 3200 to have health insurance.

In addition, under H.R. 3200, a “Health Insurance Exchange” would begin operation in 2013 and would offer private plans alongside a public option. The Exchange would provide eligible individuals and small businesses with access to insurers’ plans, including the public option, in a comparable way. Individuals would only be eligible to enroll in an Exchange plan if they were not enrolled in other acceptable coverage (for example, from an employer, Medicare and generally Medicaid). H.R. 3200 does not contain any restrictions on noncitzens participating in the Exchange – whether the noncitizens are legally or illegally present, or in the United States temporarily or permanently. Nonetheless, only aliens who could be classified as resident aliens would be required under the bill to have health insurance.

In 2013, under H.R. 3200, some individuals would be eligible for premium credits (i.e., subsidies based on income) toward their required purchase of health insurance. To be eligible for the premium credits under H.R. 3200, individuals must be lawfully present in a state in the United States, excluding most nonimmigrants (i.e., those in the United States for a specific purpose and a specific period of time). The exceptions for nonimmigrants who could obtain premium credits under H.R. 3200 would be trafficking victims, crime victims, fiancées of U.S. citizens, and those who have had applications for legal permanent residence (LPR) status pending for three years. It is expected that almost all aliens in these excepted nonimmigrant categories will become LPRs (i.e., immigrants) and remain in the United States permanently. Furthermore, unauthorized aliens would be barred from receiving the premium credit.

H.R. 3200 as reported from the House Energy and Commerce Committee (E&C) would extend Medicaid eligibility up to 133 1/3% of poverty for populations that previously were not covered (e.g., childless adults and many parents). This extension of benefits could mean an increase in the number of noncitizens who already meet the immigration status requirements for Medicaid eligibility who would be eligible for Medicaid. Also, H.R. 3200 as reported by E & C would make eligible for full Medicaid noncitizens who lawfully reside in the United States in accordance with the Compacts of Free Association between the Government of the United States and the Governments of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau, and are otherwise eligible for such assistance. This report will be updated.

Obama and his supporters are out there again trying every tactic they know to get H.R. 3200 passed NO MATTER WHAT the American people want.  They are going to start strong-arm tactics to get Congress, especially those in their own party opposing it, to force them into support of a bill they don’t believe is right for America.  They’ve pressured the two critically ill senators into CHANGING STATE LAWS so they can get two more votes.  If that fails, they will then use “reconciliation” to get the bill through the Senate with only a majority vote.  Do you not understand the word NO?

The people are speaking out against this legislation and the president and Democratic Party are going to do anything and everything they want to pass this bill.  This blatantly shows the president and democrats who support the bill and are willing to go to such lengths are not representing the people they have been elected to represent but their own political and personal agendas.  What are they getting, and from whom, to be so arrogant that they will dismiss the will of the people?

The people of the United States are not insensitive to the needs of their fellow citizens.  However, while the democrats and president are telling us we must have health care reform, the fact still remains that 80-85% of Americans are happy with the current coverage they already have.  Why do they insist on passing drastic reform measures that will negatively affect those that are already covered?  What’s in it for them?

The president is claiming misinformation is being spread about the bill.  Maybe he should take a look at his own statements.  Millions of Americans are uninsured – and this number I’ve seen range now from 40-50 million.  If you take a look at the breakdown of these numbers it does not present a crisis in any form.

According to the Census Bureau, of the 46 million Americans who are uninsured:

- 10.1 million are individuals who have income of $66,000 for a family of four, but who elect to remain uninsured.
- 9.3 million are non-citizens who generally do not pay tax.
- 6.4 million are enrolled in Medicaid or S-CHIP but reported to the Census taker that they were not.  (This phenomenon is known among statisticians as the Medicaid undercount.)
- 4.3 million are eligible for Medicaid or S-CHIP but have not enrolled.
- 5 million are childless adults, mainly healthy, young adults who simply do not wish to pay for insurance.

In short:  Most uninsured Americans are uninsured by choice, not by circumstance.  Myths such as these confuse and frustrate Americans who simply want the best for their country.