Thread: Obama's priorities...let's take a look

^^ Yep, good quote and comment, Tex. I liked the part about the news conference with American & Jordanian journalists -- he still to scared the Euros will ask tough questions so they're barred from joinng in? 555

Originally Posted by Texpat

Originally Posted by Jet Gorgon

He looks pretty, but can he do the job? You want an America that panders and grovels to all the other nations? I think not.

How do I break this to you, Jetty ...?

I think that's exactly what many want.

The latte crowd on both sides of the Atlantic mebbe. I think people are waking up on this side and seeing him for what he is -- a freewheeling politician who will say and do anything to win.

For all the warnings from the media about how "risky" Barack Obama's world tour would be -- and I was one of the people who issued such a warning very early on -- so far, it's hard to imagine how it could have gone better for him. There's more yet to go, and the ultimate effect of it probably will not be determined until polls afterwards. But let's take a look at what Obama's gotten out of it so far.

Separate from, but surely deliberately timed to, Obama's trip, is the now quite indisputable fact that the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is more aligned with Obama on a U.S. troop pullout than his Republican opponent, John McCain. There can be no more denials or ambiguities on this, thanks to third party translations of Maliki's original remarks and subsequent comments by a spokesman that point to substantial agreement with Obama. He's gotten good news in other ways, too, such as Great Britain's own plans for Iraq. He's gotten tons of images of himself looking presidential, one of the areas where he's lagged behind McCain in the polls, by meeting with foreign leaders. He's getting more glowing press than ever, perhaps more than he will ever get, which is saying something. As Obama's jump shot with the troops has made evening news rundowns, McCain has been left, somewhat pitifully, complaining about the lack of news coverage, being greeted by crickets in Maine and despite his own history of receiving glowing press, just generally being left in the dust in this category. Meanwhile, McCain's gotten attention primarily for increasing press notice of his own, foreign policy-related gaffes.

That's not to say Obama's trip has gone perfectly. His uncertain response in a television interview about the apparently successful troop surge that he opposed but McCain backed shows that this particular issue continues to be an advantage for the Republican and a weak point for the Democrat. There are grumblings that maybe he's been a little too concerned with appearing presidential, prematurely, something that plays into the perception of some voters that Obama is arrogant (whether it's accurate or not, this perception could be damaging -- on my last visit to my hometown in Indiana, more than a few relatives who tend to vote Democratic but only follow politics casually and vote said they were having a hard time embracing him for this very reason). Obama's done as well as he can explaining away his apparent shifts on Israel, but they still count as stumbles.

Add it all up, though. When you combine the successes and failures of the trip to this point, can anyone say Obama has done more harm than good to his presidential bid with the trip? Coming soon is the Europe wing. There are plenty of subjects he can discuss there.

Across The Pond | DW-WORLD

[Across the Pond is a joint German-American blog about the U.S. election campaign 2008 with a focus on international aspects of the presidential race.]

I agree- this tour has definitely been a winning strategy for Obama. John McCains assertion that Obama lacks any foreign policy credentials ( and he doesn't?) has basically had the wind taken out of it's sails, and as far as I can see all he's really got going for him at the moment is taking credit for the 'Surge' in Iraq. His gripes about lack of Press coverage are telling too. Apart from already sounding like a loser, it raises the question- what is he saying or doing that in fact is newsworthy?

Hard to see the European leg going badly for Obama- it's no secret that the Euro leaders would much prefer not to see another Republican term, or a leader that says he is willing to stay for 'a hundred years' in Iraq.


Right now, the Obama campaign is on a roll -

Obama trounces McCain ... in sales of T-shirts, badges, caps

WASHINGTON (AFP) — \Barack Obama is trouncing John McCain in the race for the White House -- at least in sales of T-shirts, badges, baseball caps and other campaign merchandise.

"Everyone is going for Obama," a sidewalk vendor whose stand was smothered in Obama and McCain T-shirts, along with garb for visitors to Washington, told AFP.

"We sell about 70 percent Obama stuff -- way more than McCain," said the vendor, who asked not to be named

AFP: Obama trounces McCain ... in sales of T-shirts, badges, caps

I just watched his Berlin speech on Channel 4 (UK) The impression was that this was a campaign speech aimed at the US electorate with a European background and the overiding message was 'I will make Americans popular again in the rest of the world'

Originally Posted by bkkmadness

^ Will he put them on diets too?

Originally Posted by Obama Portland speech

We can't drive our SUVs and, you know, eat as much as we want and keep our homes on, you know, 72 degrees at all times

It's coming. Obama is going to dictate how much goes on your plate. Eat your peas! Shut your face!

By Gerard Baker
Times Online
July 25, 2008

And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.

When he was twelve years old, they found him in the temple in the City of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organization with the Prophet Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and said among themselves: “Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and minds to the audacity of hope?”

In the great Battles of Caucus and Primary he smote the conniving Hillary, wife of the deposed King Bill the Priapic and their barbarian hordes of Working Class Whites.

And so it was, in the fullness of time, before the harvest month of the appointed year, the Child ventured forth - for the first time - to bring the light unto all the world.

He traveled fleet of foot and light of camel, with a small retinue that consisted only of his loyal disciples from the tribe of the Media. He ventured first to the land of the Hindu Kush, where the Taleban had harbored the viper of al-Qaeda in their bosom, raining terror on all the world.

And the Child spake and the tribes of NATO immediately loosed the Caveats that had previously bound them. And in the great battle that ensued the forces of the light were triumphant. For as long as the Child stood with his arms raised aloft, the enemy suffered great blows and the threat of terror was no more.

From there he went forth to Mesopotamia where he was received by the great ruler al-Maliki, and al-Maliki spake unto him and blessed his Sixteen Month Troop Withdrawal Plan even as the imperial warrior Petraeus tried to destroy it.

And lo, in Mesopotamia, a miracle occurred. Even though the Great Surge of Armour that the evil Bush had ordered had been a terrible mistake, a waste of vital military resources and doomed to end in disaster, the Child's very presence suddenly brought forth a great victory for the forces of the light.

And the Persians, who saw all this and were greatly fearful, longed to speak with the Child and saw that the Child was the bringer of peace. At the mention of his name they quickly laid aside their intrigues and beat their uranium swords into civil nuclear energy ploughshares.

From there the Child went up to the city of Jerusalem, and entered through the gate seated on an ass. The crowds of network anchors who had followed him from afar cheered “Hosanna” and waved great palm fronds and strewed them at his feet.

In Jerusalem and in surrounding Palestine, the Child spake to the Hebrews and the Arabs, as the Scripture had foretold. And in an instant, the lion lay down with the lamb, and the Israelites and Ishmaelites ended their long enmity and lived for ever after in peace.

As word spread throughout the land about the Child's wondrous works, peoples from all over flocked to hear him; Hittites and Abbasids; Obamacons and McCainiacs; Cameroonians and Blairites.

And they told of strange and wondrous things that greeted the news of the Child's journey. Around the world, global temperatures began to decline, and the ocean levels fell and the great warming was over.

The Great Prophet Algore of Nobel and Oscar, who many had believed was the anointed one, smiled and told his followers that the Child was the one generations had been waiting for.

And there were other wonderful signs. In the city of the Street at the Wall, spreads on interbank interest rates dropped like manna from Heaven and rates on credit default swaps fell to the ground as dead birds from the almond tree, and the people who had lived in foreclosure were able to borrow again.

Black gold gushed from the ground at prices well below $140 per barrel. In hospitals across the land the sick were cured even though they were uninsured. And all because the Child had pronounced it.

And this is the testimony of one who speaks the truth and bears witness to the truth so that you might believe. And he knows it is the truth for he saw it all on CNN and the BBC and in the pages of The New York Times.

Then the Child ventured forth from Israel and Palestine and stepped onto the shores of the Old Continent. In the land of Queen Angela of Merkel, vast multitudes gathered to hear his voice, and he preached to them at length.

But when he had finished speaking his disciples told him the crowd was hungry, for they had had nothing to eat all the hours they had waited for him.

And so the Child told his disciples to fetch some food but all they had was five loaves and a couple of frankfurters. So he took the bread and the frankfurters and blessed them and told his disciples to feed the multitudes. And when all had eaten their fill, the scraps filled twelve baskets.

Thence he travelled west to Mount Sarkozy. Even the beauteous Princess Carla of the tribe of the Bruni was struck by awe and she was great in love with the Child, but he was tempted not.

On the Seventh Day he walked across the Channel of the Angles to the ancient land of the hooligans. There he was welcomed with open arms by the once great prophet Blair and his successor, Gordon the Leper, and his successor, David the Golden One.

And suddenly, with the men appeared the archangel Gabriel and the whole host of the heavenly choir, ranks of cherubim and seraphim, all praising God and singing: “Yes, We Can.”

He ventured forth to bring light to the world | Gerard Baker - Times Online


***

Clever piece of writing. I'm amused at how this 46-year-old, first-term senator is acting and equally amused at the reception he's getting from other countries' leaders. It's a bit embarrassing.

Originally Posted by Texpat

Clever piece of writing.

Good find Tex. First rate satire. Gotta love it.

Great find Tex. This campaign has now swung to completely OTT with regard to Obama, and that piece is a closer to life than satire it seems at this point.

I thought one of the funniest lines I heard was that someone was commenting on Obama shadowing JFK and how he uttered the famous "Ich bein ein Berliner!" - and how that Obama would be expected to follow in those famous footsteps with:

"Ich bein ein Beginner!"

Originally Posted by chinthee

I thought one of the funniest lines I heard was that someone was commenting on Obama shadowing JFK ...

Indeed, but I don't think Obama wants to shadow JFK to the very end.

Originally Posted by chinthee

Great find Tex. This campaign has now swung to completely OTT with regard to Obama, and that piece is a closer to life than satire it seems at this point.

I thought one of the funniest lines I heard was that someone was commenting on Obama shadowing JFK and how he uttered the famous "Ich bein ein Berliner!" - and how that Obama would be expected to follow in those famous footsteps with:

"Ich bein ein Beginner!"

I see the the joke, but I'm just checking.

Did Obama really repeat that famous, "I am a Jelly Roll" German phrase?

I doubt he did.

And yes, as you said CT, the campaign is waaaay OTT. Getting very silly, and the candidates seem to be focusing on the Independent Low-Info voters.

The campaign is over basically. Now it's mixed messages, false accusation, nuances, and confusion, during the final stretch.

Thanks for the read, Tex. I was disappointed the writer said nothing about 666 branding.

Originally Posted by Milkman

Did Obama really repeat that famous, "I am a Jelly Roll" German phrase? I doubt he did.

No, of course Obama didn't re-utter JFK's phrase. I worded it hastily.

I really wonder how either side can beat this dead horse any further. McCain is old and forgetful. Obama is inexperienced and flip flopping. If it doesn't get more entertaining I may tune out too. However, the McCain getting forgetful thing is more serious. I read a piece that outlined all his slips of the tongue, such as Czechoslavakia etc., and like most people in their 70s, yes, he is guilty of confusion. If that happens during some major campaign moments, he will look bad. Obama impressed me that he made no gaffs whatsoever on his overseas trip, which is impressive for someone so little traveled.

The funniest thing I've heard about McCain lately is how people are wishing he'd quit smiling, because they're calling it the "horror smile." I wonder if he had some plastic surgery that gives him that grimace when he smiles?

Originally Posted by chinthee

If that happens during some major campaign moments, he will look bad.

Or worse yet if he becomes President!

Form over function? No way!

Originally Posted by chinthee

Originally Posted by Milkman

Did Obama really repeat that famous, "I am a Jelly Roll" German phrase? I doubt he did.

No, of course Obama didn't re-utter JFK's phrase. I worded it hastily.

I really wonder how either side can beat this dead horse any further. McCain is old and forgetful. Obama is inexperienced and flip flopping. If it doesn't get more entertaining I may tune out too. However, the McCain getting forgetful thing is more serious. I read a piece that outlined all his slips of the tongue, such as Czechoslavakia etc., and like most people in their 70s, yes, he is guilty of confusion. If that happens during some major campaign moments, he will look bad. Obama impressed me that he made no gaffs whatsoever on his overseas trip, which is impressive for someone so little traveled.

The funniest thing I've heard about McCain lately is how people are wishing he'd quit smiling, because they're calling it the "horror smile." I wonder if he had some plastic surgery that gives him that grimace when he smiles?

No gaffs because his people have things tightly controlled.


At this hour, Sen. Barack Obama is holding a news conference in Jordan, which the cable news networks are carrying. But last night Newsbusters reported on NBC's chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell who let loose some of her frustrations with the lack of access being given to reporters on the trip, specifically in Afghanistan and Iraq. Mitchell's comments came during an appearance on Hardball with Chris Matthews.

"You're seeing selected pictures taken by the military, questions by the military and what some would call fake interviews because they're not interviews from a journalist," she said. "Politically, it's smart as can be, but we have not seen a presidential candidate do this, in my recollection, ever before."

When questioned by Matthews about some of the video from Obama's time in Iraq, Mitchell continued. "I can't really say, being a reporter who was not present in any of those situations, I just can't report on what was edited out, what was on the sidelines," said Mitchell. "We don't know what we are seeing."

Mitchell hasn't, so far, landed one of the handful of "exclusive" interviews with Obama.

Mitchell: "You're Seeing...What Some Would Call Fake Interviews" - mediabistro.com: TVNewser

Originally Posted by attaboy

Mitchell hasn't, so far, landed one of the handful of "exclusive" interviews with Obama.

Suppose there are dozens who have yet to land an exclusive interview. Sounds a little like sour grapes to me. McCain has a lot of time to give her an exclusive. She should be talking with him so the pundits stop claiming the media is pro Obama!

^ People mag got an exclusive with photos inside the BO Chicago home!!!!! Saw it at the checkout counter. I did not buy it.

Originally Posted by Jet Gorgon

Saw it at the checkout counter. I did not buy it.

Usually no need to buy a mag at the checkout counter. I just read the bits that interest me as I wait in line.

^ He's on the cover of People mag this week with exclusive shots of the Obamas at their home in Chicago. Photoshop did a great job on super whitening and straightening all of the fam's teeth for the cover photo.

Originally Posted by chinthee

I really wonder how either side can beat this dead horse any further. McCain is old and forgetful. Obama is inexperienced and flip flopping. If it doesn't get more entertaining I may tune out too. However, the McCain getting forgetful thing is more serious. I read a piece that outlined all his slips of the tongue, such as Czechoslavakia etc., and like most people in their 70s, yes, he is guilty of confusion. If that happens during some major campaign moments, he will look bad. Obama impressed me that he made no gaffs whatsoever on his overseas trip, which is impressive for someone so little traveled.

Yes, I am tuning out right now. I probably started tuning out about a week ago. The Real Campaign is over. Now, I think both candidates are going for the Independent voters that may vote either way. Both candidates are saying silly things, and things that are not relevant. Obama wears a Yamalka and puts a prayer in the Wailing Wall, and McCain has been talking about the Surge for 4 days now.

We know the candidates positions for those of us that follow. The independent and low-info are now the audience for both candidates.

I haven't been following this thread, but rather than start another I thought I'd drop this in here.
I've always felt from snippets here and there that Obama was corrupt, crooked and generally suspicious.

ELECTION 2008
Obama tied to Iraqi government fraud?
Hundreds of millions in deals with candidate's associates
Posted: July 30, 2008
1:00 am Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2008 WorldNetDaily


Antoin "Tony" Rezko
JERUSALEM – Sen. Barack Obama's office engaged in six months of negotiations with a company controlled by convicted criminal Tony Rezko to lobby the U.S. government to push through a nixed $50 million contact to train Iraqi security personnel at a site in Chicago.
The contract was awarded to Rezko's company while Aiham Alsammarae, a long-time, close Rezko friend and a contributor to Obama's campaign, served as Iraq's U.S.-appointed electricity minister, the senator's office confirms.
Rezko was a major Obama fundraiser and associate for two decades.
Alsammarae also awarded another Rezko-controlled operation as part of a $150 million contract to construct a 250-megawatt electricity plant in Iraq.
Alsammarae later was arrested by Iraqi authorities for bilking the coalition government out of some $650 million. He was sprung from prison under questionable circumstances in 2006 and escaped from Iraq, where he is still wanted for questioning with regard to major financial crimes.
The information raises questions into the nature of Obama's relationship with multiple deals made by Iraq's Electricity Ministry while Alsammarae was in charge. Obama has ties to Alsammarae and to the recipients of several of the massive contracts Alsammarae handed out.

While he was the electric czar of Iraq for the Coalition Provisional Authority from mid-2003 until mid-2005, Alsammarae granted the $50 million contract to train Iraqis to guard electrical plants to Companion Security, a start-up reportedly controlled by Rezko, his partner Daniel Mahru and a front man, Daniel Frawley, a former Chicago policeman. Frawley has multiple civil court judgments against him for his alleged failure to pay millions in outstanding bills.

Aiham Alsammarae (PBS.org)

The plan was to fly about 150 Iraqis to a site in Illinois for security training, which reportedly would include the use of AK-47 assault rifles.
Obama's office did not reply to repeated WND requests for comment. A working number could not be found for Frawley.
Alsammarae did not return WND calls left on his cell phone and at his voicemail at his KCI Consultants firm in Chicago.
The contract with Rezko's group was signed April 18, 2005, one month before Alsammarae left his governmental post.
But Iraq's new electricity minister aborted the deal, complaining the Companion contract was too expensive, according to a U.S. embassy official in Baghdad who spoke earlier this year to the Chicago Sun-Times.
In the spring of 2006, Frawley and his company reportedly reached out to Chicago politicians, including Obama and Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, to bring pressure to revive the deal, arguing the business would be good for the state.
Blagojevich's office and Illinois Homeland Security reportedly helped by offering an Army depot in Savanna in western Illinois as a site for Companion to conduct the Iraqi training.
Frawley then reportedly reached out to Obama, who in 2006 was a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, engaging in six months of dialogue petitioning the Illinois senator to write a letter introducing the Rezko-connected Companion company to senior Iraqi officials. Frawley met with Seamus Ahern, who runs Obama's Moline, Ill., office.
But Obama, who has denied doing political favors for Rezko, later claimed he did not known Rezko was involved with Companion.
Obama's office declined to help about the same time Rezko was indicted on charges of fraud.
Obama's spokesman Ben LaBolt said, "The Senate staff had two meetings, one conference call and sporadically e-mailed with representatives of Companion Security about their request for Sen. Obama to write a letter introducing the company to senior officials in the Iraqi government."
LaBolt said Obama declined to help in the Companion deal, because "that is not the kind of action Sen. Obama usually takes for individual companies, and our staff concluded on that basis to decline the requested assistance."
LaBolt claimed Obama was not aware of Rezko's connections to the security firm.
LaBolt did not explain how Frawley could have survived the routine vetting of a petitioner by the U.S. Senate office staff when it was a matter of public record that his company was controlled by Rezko.
The nixed Iraqi government deal opens questions into the nature of Obama's relationship with agreements made by various associates with Iraq's Electricity Ministry while Alsammarae was in charge. Obama has ties to both Alsammarae and to the recipients of several of the massive contracts he handed out.
Alsammarae, a dual Iraqi-U.S. citizen, arrived in U.S. in 1976 and currently lives in Chicago and travels frequently to Amman, Jordan, where he maintains a residence despite still being wanted in Iraq.
Alsammarae has described himself as a close friend to Rezko, a former top confidante and fundraiser for Obama. Alsammarae and Rezko had been friends for nearly 30 years, since the two were classmates at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
WND reported Alsammarae posted more than one-third of Rezko's jail bond earlier this year, putting up as surety his $1.9 million Chicago home and two other properties.
Alsammarae contributed the maximum allowable donation of $2,300 to Obama's campaign, sending money six times in January, February and March. Obama donated the funds to charity in April, only after Alsammarae posted bond for Rezko.
As electricity minister, Alsammarae not only granted a Rezko firm the $50 million security training contract but also approved a contract with another Rezko company, Rezmar, to construct a 250-megawatt plant in the Kurdistani city of Chamchamal. That contract was granted to both Rezmar and the London-based General Mediterranean Holdings, which is headed by British billionaire Nadhmi Auchi, who was also involved in a large real estate deal in Chicago with Rezko and others around Obama.
Auchi, a former Baathist who left Iraq in 1979, was convicted in 2003 in a French court of corruption in an oil deal that stretched back to the Saddam Hussein regime. Auchi denies the charges.
Auchi could not be reached for comment
In another connection to Obama, when Alsammarae was jailed in Iraq in 2006, his Chicago-based family reportedly contacted Obama's U.S. Senate office for information. Obama's office passed a written request to the State Department about Alsammarae Oct. 16, 2006, and received a reply from the U.S. consul in Iraq about a week later. The reply was forwarded by Obama's staff to Alsammarae's daughter.
It wasn't immediately clear how Alsammarae landed his electricity ministry job. He was an outspoken critic of the U.S. military campaign in Iraq and publicly has supported Hussein.
In August 2000, Alsammarae, a board member of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, appeared in Washington alongside celebrities such as Martin Sheen and British politician George Galloway at a demonstration against U.N. sanctions on Saddam's regime.
Even as late as last month, Alsammarae delivered a press conference stating he hoped the insurgency in Iraq "would continue [against U.S. occupation] and avenges the Iraqi people."
American political insiders suggest Alsammarae received major insider help in securing his U.S.-brokered Iraqi government position. Unconfirmed reports point to Alsammarae's previous Baathist background as being a factor in his elevated status in post-Saddam Iraq.
Alammarae was accused in a federal filing during the Rezko federal corruption trial of being the recipient of a $1 million bribe from Rezko to deliver the original Companion deal. No charges have yet been filed, though the accuser is Daniel Mahru, the former partner in the Companion deal.
Alsammarae was the only cabinet-level Iraqi official to be convicted and jailed for misusing money during his time in office. In April, Alsammarae made an appearance on CBS's "60 Minutes" to defend his troubled conduct in Iraq and in the U.S.
An Interpol warrant for his arrest, issued in 2007 at the request of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki's government, was taken down after Alsammarae was forgiven for some parts of his conduct by an Iraqi legislative initiative, according to Arabic-language Iraqi criminal court documents obtained by WND and translated into English. Alsammarae has been warned by the Maliki government not to return to Iraq. Other charges are still pending, and Alsammarae has been warned by the Maliki government not to return to Iraq.

Obama tied to Iraqi government fraud?

Another interesting perspective.

Political Hay
Reparations for Al Qaeda
By Jeffrey Lord
Published 7/29/2008 1214 AM
Does Barack Obama believe it's time for America to apologize to al Qaeda?

Does he share the increasingly vocal calls of his fellow liberals that Americans should not just apologize to Osama and his followers but pay reparations as well? Having cited the U.S. treatment of Nazis, does he now believe the U.S. government should be subjected to a class action suit by his trial lawyer allies on behalf of any surviving Nazi soldiers or their descendants?

You think I'm joking, right? Wrong.

The push has begun among Obama's fellow-liberals for reparations to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda warriors. Look no further than the Los Angeles Times review of the new book by liberal journalist Jane Mayer, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals. Mayer's indictment of the Bush administration's fight against terrorism has predictably received glowing reviews from the gatekeepers of liberalism, including a July 15th review from Times staff writer Tim Rutten.

In wonderfully liberal style that is beyond parody, Rutten uses a book review to endorse the idea of paying money to Osama's fighters who, in the eyes of liberals, have been denied their "right" of habeas corpus at Guantanamo. The denial of habeas to non-Americans captured on foreign battlefields is, of course, also a major campaign point for Senator Obama. Obama, restating his long-held position about captured al Qaeda fighters having the right of habeas corpus, was prompted by the recent 5-4 Supreme Court decision in Boumediene v. Bush. The liberals on the Court, with the mind-boggling addition of Reagan appointee Anthony Kennedy, held that contrary to Bush administration and congressional policy, not to mention all of American history, the prisoners of war or "detainees" picked up off the battlefields (in this case Afghanistan and Iraq) are in fact entitled to the same constitutional rights as American citizens.

Within weeks of this Obama-approved decision, his allies in liberalism have now started lobbying not simply for habeas corpus rights for al Qaeda but reparations as well. They believe American taxpayers should pay monetary damages to bin Laden terrorists, with Mr. Rutten of the Times approvingly citing the liberal editors of the Jesuit magazine America: The National Catholic Weekly. In their July 21st issue these presumed Obama supporters say this:

Finally, in the years ahead our country must still come to grips with our national acquiescence to the politics of fear, which has led to the detention and abuse of hundreds of individuals. Among the necessary steps will be restoration of freedom to innocent detainees, accompanied by public apology and some monetary restitution for the years they lost to incarceration. Furthermore, Congress needs to accept responsibility for its complicity with the executive in laws that denied suspects rightful appeal. A national truth commission should be instituted to establish political accountability for the decisions, policies and statutes that placed suspects outside the protection of the law.

In other words, if you have been captured on the field of battle fighting the U.S. military on behalf of the global jihad and, as a result, are now on an extended stay at Gitmo, liberals feel the appropriate policy of the United States government is to 1) apologize for capturing you and 2) pay you some cold American cash to ease your pain and humiliation.

This sentiment is the obvious next step behind the Obama contention that foreign enemies are deserving of the same constitutional rights as American citizens. To the extensive applause of liberals like Ms. Mayer and Mr. Rutten, Obama has insisted that the "principle of habeas corpus, that a state can't just hold you for any reason without charging you and without giving you any kind of due process -- that's the essence of who we are." Exhibiting a considerable ignorance of American history, he went on by saying:

"I mean, you remember during the Nuremberg trials, part of what made us different was even after these Nazis had performed atrocities that no one had ever seen before, we still gave them a day in court and that taught the entire world about who we are but also the basic principles of rule of law. Now the Supreme Court upheld that principle...."

Unsurprisingly Obama's rehash of American treatment of German POWs is flatly wrong. Around 200 German war crimes defendants went on trial in what most people commonly refer to as the "Nuremberg Trials," with another 1,600 tried under the laws governing military justice. All these trials, of course, took place after the German surrender in May of 1945. None occurred during the war itself. The trials ran from 1945 until 1949.

The obvious question never seems to occur to Obama. If America's only problem was with a sum total of about 1,800 German soldiers, why all that disturbing fuss known as World War II? What happened to all the Germans who weren't killed outright when they were captured on the battlefields of Europe and North Africa as al Qaeda fighters are being captured now in Afghanistan or Iraq? And what about all the captured Italians and Japanese who were busily fighting America in the 1940s?


TO BE SPECIFIC, almost a half million of them were brought to America. Once here they were stashed in 511 internment camps sprinkled all around the good old USA from North Carolina to Iowa to California. And no, I'm not talking about or including here FDR's infamous internment camps for 120,000 Japanese-American citizens, who did indeed have their constitutional rights violated. We're talking about captured Nazis, Italians and Japanese -- warriors on the battlefield for Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini, the bin Laden's of their day. From the viewpoint of the L.A. Times' Rutten and Jane Mayer, that would mean these people were imprisoned in 511 "American gulags," not just one measly Gitmo. Not a single one of these men were given their habeas corpus rights. They were not tried. Not one. They were held as prisoners, forced to do whatever labor their American captors thought suitable until America had won the war.

Forced labor was their lot. Like the case of a German POW known to history only as "Hans" who was made to load and unload trucks at the E.G. Morse Poultry house in Mason City, Iowa. Hour after hour, day after day, with no lawyer from the ACLU to come to his rescue and no Jane Mayer to write him up sympathetically, young Hans was forced to do the backbreaking labor American men weren't around to do because they were overseas fighting Germans. Then there was the young German who signed himself in a note to an American girl only as "R." "R" was frustrated that his status "thwarts all my plans" and described what he called his "instantaneous dead life here." "R" was in this vicious state of affairs because the Roosevelt administration had him doing his forced labor at a cannery in Owatonna, Minnesota.

Then there was "Jerry." Whether that was really his name or he identified himself as such because it was the American slang for Germans is not known. How did "Jerry" find himself in the wilds of Fairmont, Minnesota? He was captured in North Africa where he was trying to kill Americans as a member of Nazi General Erwin Rommel's murderous Afrika Corps. Did I mention that "Jerry" was crying at his sad state one particular day that he was standing in downtown Fairmont during a momentary pause in his labors? It seems the day in question was June 6, 1944. Minnesotans in Fairmont were listening to radio accounts of D-Day and the fierce fighting that was in progress as American soldiers sought to break the iron grip "Jerry's" fellow countrymen had imposed on all of Europe. Jerry's tears, of course, were not being shed for the Americans charging those beaches. Beaches where, according to the D-Day Museum, almost 7,000 Americans were lost that June 6th as they fought the followers of a zealot obsessed with mass murdering Jews and establishing a thousand year Reich.

Quite aside from these "American gulags" in America were the American gulags in Europe and North Africa. The number of prisoners, according to General Dwight Eisenhower, was almost overwhelming. There were a quarter million Axis prisoners that had to be dealt with in Tunisia alone. The Battle of the Bulge all by itself produced German prisoners at the rate of 10,000 a day. Here's this from the late historian Stephen Ambrose, an Eisenhower biographer, in a 1991 article in the New York Times:

There was widespread mistreatment of German prisoners in the spring and summer of 1945. Men were beaten, denied water, forced to live in open camps without shelter, given inadequate food rations and inadequate medical care. Their mail was withheld. In some cases prisoners made a "soup" of water and grass in order to deal with their hunger. Men did die needlessly and inexcusably.

This, of course, on top of the fact that none of these hundreds of thousands of Nazi "detainees" were told of their habeas corpus rights by Allied troops.

So now what? Sixty-three years have passed. Isn't it time make amends to the Nazis?


WILL OBAMA, MAYER and Rutten have the courage to follow their arguments to their logical conclusions? If the idea is to have American taxpayers fork over damages to Osama's men, why not Hitler's? Where are the trial lawyers who have been flocking to Guantanamo? The size of the damage pot in a suit against the U.S. government for the treatment of Nazis would, one suspects, be considerable. Not to mention that many of the men in these "American gulags" doubtless have descendants who should, according to this line of thought, be recompensed for the horrors visited upon their families by America and the "men of zeal" (Mayer's favorite phrase for the Bush-Cheney administration) led by Franklin Roosevelt.

Amazingly, Mayer isn't satisfied with just ensuring that al Qaeda fighters get their day in court. Doubtless uncomprehendingly (one would hope) she chastises Abraham Lincoln for his "infamous" decision to suspend the right of habeas corpus during the Civil War. One can only be stunned at the use of the word "infamous" here. As written, she leaves the impression she would just as soon, with a sigh of resignation, accept the existence of slavery rather than impose on the rights of white Confederate sympathizers Lincoln saw as a serious impediment to his objectives of preserving the Union and ending slavery. Her sentiments, while startling 143 years after the war ended, are a reminder of the "dark side" exhibited by the Democrats of the day. Not only did they violently object to Lincoln's actions, in 1864 they ran on a platform that proclaimed the war a failure. In short, supporters of slavery before the war (and instigators of the Ku Klux Klan and segregation after the war) were prepared to accept slavery for blacks as long as the white folks had their habeas. Is this the logic Mayer, Rutten -- and more to the point Obama -- are endorsing?

To be blunt, yes.

What is the difference between, say, German detainees Hans, "R," and Jerry and an al Qaeda Gitmo resident named Abdullah Salih al Ajmi? The first three remained lawyerless while they waited out World War II in Iowa and Minnesota. The last, Abdullah, went through Gitmo's thoroughly lawyered process and was released. On March 23, 2008, he showed up in Mosul, Iraq, when he drove a truck packed with 5,000 to 10,000 pounds of explosives into an Iraqi Army base. He killed 13 Iraqi soldiers and wounded 42 on his last mission, a mission that would never have occurred were he still in Gitmo.

Are mistakes made in war? Obviously, yes. No one would ever be foolish enough to deny it -- whether in this war or any other. It is, as history sadly says, the nature of the beast. Should the now out-in-the open liberal demand for reparations to al Qaeda be an issue in this campaign? Should the thinking behind it be exposed and understood? One would hope that Senator McCain, the only man in this race who actually has seen war close up, would raise the subject.

Is it really okay with Obama that Americans pay damages to Osama?

The American Spectator