Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Did the New York Times just out an undercover CIA Operative?


Brother of Afghan Leader Is Said to Be on C.I.A. Payroll

KABUL, Afghanistan — Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials.

The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.’s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai’s home.

The financial ties and close working relationship between the intelligence agency and Mr. Karzai raise significant questions about America’s war strategy, which is currently under review at the White House.


If this guy is working for the CIA, why is it OK for the New York Times to put it out in the paper for all to see? I wouldn't want my name out there if I was a CIA mole in a country with a civil war. What are the odds that someone comes gunning for his life now?

More from the article:

Ahmed Wali Karzai said in an interview that he cooperated with American civilian and military officials, but did not engage in the drug trade and did not receive payments from the C.I.A.

The relationship between Mr. Karzai and the C.I.A. is wide ranging, several American officials said. He helps the C.I.A. operate a paramilitary group, the Kandahar Strike Force, that is used for raids against suspected insurgents and terrorists. On at least one occasion, the strike force has been accused of mounting an unauthorized operation against an official of the Afghan government, the officials said.

Mr. Karzai is also paid for allowing the C.I.A. and American Special Operations troops to rent a large compound outside the city — the former home of Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban’s founder. The same compound is also the base of the Kandahar Strike Force. “He’s our landlord,” a senior American official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Mr. Karzai also helps the C.I.A. communicate with and sometimes meet with Afghans loyal to the Taliban. Mr. Karzai’s role as a go-between between the Americans and the Taliban is now regarded as valuable by those who support working with Mr. Karzai, as the Obama administration is placing a greater focus on encouraging Taliban leaders to change sides.

A C.I.A. spokesman declined to comment for this article.



So the alleged "CIA Agent" denies it, and the CIA won't comment on it. Someone else in the Obama administration has leaked this information, and now this agent and his operations have a raised threat level. They even detail his work with the strike force, and they even pinpoint the compound and name the actual house where they are basing operations.

Is publishing this information of a undercover CIA agent and the extent of the details of the covert operation good for America? Where is the Daily Kos or the Huffington Post on this? It appears they are with the New York Times.




Also from the Wall Street Journal:

October Marks Deadliest Month for U.S. in Afghanistan

Afghanistan is a cesspool of humanity that can't even give Detroit a run for its money. I don't see what we are really trying to accomplish there anymore. What would be victory and what would it look like? The Generals want a sustained effort and increased troops that could last another decade. From a cost benefit analysis, I see lots of costs that are clear and unavoidable. From the benefit side of the analysis I see little gain and perhaps some loss. "Walking through the region is "like walking through the Old Testament." (- Dutch Commander) Afghanistan is in the stone age. It was Stone Age before we came in, and it will be in the stone age long after we leave. Time to cut bait.

Yesterday the Washington Post ran this:

U.S. official resigns over Afghan war
Foreign Service officer and former Marine captain says he no longer knows why his nation is fighting

"I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan," he wrote Sept. 10 in a four-page letter to the department's head of personnel. "I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end."

...

"I'm not some peacenik, pot-smoking hippie who wants everyone to be in love," Hoh said. Although he said his time in Zabul was the "second-best job I've ever had," his dominant experience is from the Marines, where many of his closest friends still serve.


"There are plenty of dudes who need to be killed," he said of al-Qaeda and the Taliban. "I was never more happy than when our Iraq team whacked a bunch of guys."

But many Afghans, he wrote in his resignation letter, are fighting the United States largely because its troops are there -- a growing military presence in villages and valleys where outsiders, including other Afghans, are not welcome and where the corrupt, U.S.-backed national government is rejected. While the Taliban is a malign presence, and Pakistan-based al-Qaeda needs to be confronted, he said, the United States is asking its troops to die in Afghanistan for what is essentially a far-off civil war.


Read the whole thing.

Looks like I got a bit off topic, but it is my blog and I am a ramblin man.

. Sphere: Related Content

Monday, October 26, 2009

Detroit is a Cesspool of Humanity



Detroit house auction flops for urban wasteland



Life in "Progress" City

In a crowded ballroom next to a bankrupt casino, what remains of the Detroit property market was being picked over by speculators and mostly discarded.
After five hours of calling out a drumbeat of "no bid" for properties listed in an auction book as thick as a city phone directory, the energy of the county auctioneer began to flag.

"OK," he said. "We only have 300 more pages to go."

There was tired laughter from investors ready to roll the dice on a city that has become a symbol of the collapse of the U.S. auto industry, pressures on the industrial middle-class and intractable problems for the urban poor.

On the auction block in Detroit: almost 9,000 homes and lots in various states of abandonment and decay from the tidy owner-occupied to the burned-out shell claimed by squatters.

Taken together, the properties seized by tax collectors for arrears and put up for sale last week represented an area the size of New York's Central Park. Total vacant land in Detroit now occupies an area almost the size of Boston, according to a Detroit Free Press estimate.


These auctioned properties were only from one year (2006). Things have only got worse in the housing market since then and the Auto Companies just went bankrupt. I read that last year Detroit had 50,000 to 60,000 abandoned buildings. Wouldn't surprise me if that number is larger now.



Gordon Gekko at the Taxman Blog notes that it wasn't conservative administrations that turned Detroit into a cesspool of humanity. You can make that argument for every big city in decline in middle america.

That argument was made very well in the past by Steven Hayward:

Broken Cities- Liberalism’s urban legacy

. Sphere: Related Content

Polution In China



Found the link to this at The Corner:

Amazing Pictures, Pollution in China at Chinahush.com

Be sure not to be eating anything when you view. Sphere: Related Content

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The Dollar's Decline

Dollar loses reserve status to yen & euro

From the New York Post:


Over the last three months, banks put 63 percent of their new cash into euros and yen -- not the greenbacks -- a nearly complete reversal of the dollar's onetime dominance for reserves, according to Barclays Capital. The dollar's share of new cash in the central banks was down to 37 percent -- compared with two-thirds a decade ago.

Currently, dollars account for about 62 percent of the currency reserve at central banks -- the lowest on record, said the International Monetary Fund.

Bernanke could go down in economic history as the man who killed the greenback on the operating table.

After printing up trillions of new dollars and new bonds to stimulate the US economy, the Federal Reserve chief is now boxed into a corner battling two separate monsters that could devour the economy -- ravenous inflation on one hand, and a perilous recession on the other.

"He's in a crisis worse than the meltdown ever was," said Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital. "I fear that he could be the Fed chairman who brought down the whole thing."


I wish Peter Schiff was President. He is on my list of favorite Americans. I fear that he is correct about our prospects. My biggest fear has always been the collapse of the dollar.

"Things that can't go on forever, don't" - Herbert Stein Sphere: Related Content

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Jack Cashill Getting Traction (Ayers-Obama Authorship)

-
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Literary Fraud!

From Mark Whittington at Associated Content:

Barack Obama Alleged to Have Committed Literary Fraud
October 06, 2009 by Mark Whittington



The evidence that William Ayers is the actual author of Dreams From My Father seems to have been confirmed by Christopher Anderson, the author of a sympathetic Obama book Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage.

Ayers, in allegedly ghostwriting the Obama memoir, seems to have resorted to fiction on at least one occasion. There is mention in Dreams From My Father of a "rich green-eyed lovely" with whom Obama is alleged to have had a year-long affair while in college. The problem is, the woman likely never existed and seems to have been based upon a former lover of William Ayers.

Besides the odor of literary fraud, the most interesting thing about this is the that Cashill says it was William Ayers who had been the actual author of Dreams From My Father. During the campaign, Barack Obama downplayed his relationship with William Ayers, a former terrorist with the Weather Underground who would have been in jail for a long time had it not been for FBI bungling. Barack Obama presented his friendship with William Ayers as casual.

Obviously Barack Obama's friendship with William Ayers was much more than just casual. William Ayers was entrusted with the production of a book that launched Barack Obama as a intellectual/politician, someone who not only read books, but wrote them. William Ayers was also trusted enough to conceal his authorship of Dreams From My Father and hence the literary fraud that had been committed by Barack Obama.


I think the case is quite good that Barack Obama is a literary fraud. As time has gone on evidence mounts and more people that look at the facts come to the same conclusion.

If one thinks about it, it is stunning how little we know about the actual Barack Obama.



The Summer of Lies, 1981


Moving on, we have an interesting post on a site called Family Security Matters. The post was by Paul Hollrah. Perhaps I should have led with this: The Summer of 1981

Paul Hollrah makes an interesting point about the summer of 1981 in "Dreams From My Father". In Obama/Ayers' Dreams, Barack was hard at work in New York City. He was finding a place to live. Finding a job. He was searching out the City and exploring. I will quote liberally, as is my nature. Amazingly there is this:

Then his life took an unexpected turn. He writes, “It was in this humorless mood that my mother and sister (Maya Soetoro) found me when they came to visit during my first summer in New York,” and that, “They stayed with Sadik and me for a few nights, then moved to a condominium on Park Avenue that a friend of my mother’s had offered them while she was away.”

Obama explains, “That summer I had found a job clearing a construction site on the Upper West Side, so my mother and sister spent most of their days exploring the city on their own. When we met for dinner, they would give me a detailed report of their adventures… I would eat in silence until they were finished and then begin a long discourse on the problems of the city and the politics of the dispossessed.” He says, “I instructed my mother on the various ways that foreign donors and international development organizations like the one she was working for bred dependence in the Third World.”

It sounds as if Obama was an absolute joy to be around. The “dog-eat-dog” environment of the streets of New York must have been a welcome departure from their evenings with Obama.

But wait a minute. How can this be?

Although Obama fails to mention it in either of his memoirs… not in Dreams from My Father and not in The Audacity of Hope… he traveled to Indonesia and Pakistan during the summer of 1981. In an April 6, 2008 speech in San Francisco… the same speech in which he referred to rural Pennsylvanians as “bitter” people who “cling to guns or religion…” he explained, offhand, the value of his trip to Pakistan, vis-à-vis his knowledge of foreign affairs. He said, “I knew what Sunni and Shia was (sic) before I joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.”

When questioned about that trip, Obama’s campaign press secretary, Bill Burton, confirmed to the New York Times, and others, that Obama had visited his mother and his sister in Indonesia during the summer of 1981 and that, after leaving Indonesia, he’d spent three weeks in Pakistan, traveling with a Pakistani friend from Occidental College, Wahid Hamid. According to Burton, Obama stayed in Karachi with the family of another Pakistani friend, Mohammed Hasan Chandoo. Obama has never mentioned the Pakistan trip again.

So the question arises, which version are we to believe: the version contained in his memoir, Dreams from My Father, or the version his press secretary provided following his April 2008 speech in San Francisco? In other words, if Obama arrived in New York, say, during the first week of June, had housing problems, explored Manhattan like a “lab rat,” lived for a time with a friend, spent time with his mother and sister during their stay in New York, and worked as a laborer on a construction site on the Upper West Side, how did he find the time or the money to embark on an around-the-world trip to Indonesia and Pakistan by the middle of July?


I would say that is pretty damning stuff. In his book he is finding a place to live, getting a job and getting his life organized in New York City. He had problems finding a place, then he got kicked out of a place and someone ran away with his deposit. He finally settled in and explored the city. Then he got a job and was paying the bills. Then his mom and sister show up. That is a lot going on.

He never mentioned he went to Indonesia and Pakistan in his own autobiography. It can be confirmed that he went there to visit his mother and his sister. How likely is it in the same summer his mother and his sister came to New York City to visit him? Please!

And what about the way the passages are written? Read this again:

“I instructed my mother on the various ways that foreign donors and international development organizations like the one she was working for bred dependence in the Third World.”

Who do you think wrote that sentence? Is that a 20 something year old kid remembering conversations with his mother, or is that Bill Ayers? Sanity please rule the day. As far as I can tell, his mom wasn't even anywhere near New York City.

Kudos to Paul Hollrah. It is hard to look at his autobiography as anything more than a lie. It really is amazing how little we know about this man who is our President.


Ayers Admits or Mocks?


Blogger Anne Leary at Backyard Conservative met up with Bill Ayers at the Washington airport. She took this picture:



She went on to write this:

There I was, sitting in Reagan National Monday morning, sipping a Starbucks by the United counter before going through security. I had a little time, so I was browsing through the news. Some military guys had borrowed a chair from my table. I looked up from time to time to enjoy the sun streaming through. That's when I saw Bill Ayers, an instant blight. Scruffy, thinning beard, dippy earring, and the wirerims, heading to order. I gathered my things, got my camera ready, and snapped a shot right when he got his coffee.

I asked--what are you doing in D.C. Mr. Ayers?

For a moment I thought he might be on my flight back to Chicago. Charming. Initially I guess he thought I was laying claim to his coffee or something. He gave me an uneasy cheesy smile when he realized I was taking his picture. I asked him if he was speaking at GW? (Only I said GFW, guess I had the VFW on my mind) He said oh you mean GW, he said no...was trying to decide if I was a fan, then said he was giving a lecture in Arlington to a Renaissance group on education--that's what I do, education--you shouldn't believe everything you hear about me, you know nothing about me. I said, I know plenty--I'm from Chicago, a conservative blogger, and I'll post this. (Oh, yeah, Bill Ayers, quite the Renaissance man, nail-bomber extraordinaire. Gee, I see another friend of Barack, U.S. Sec. of Education Arne Duncan was there too. "The conference theme is “A Time for Reflection, Celebration and Rebirth.” How touching. At best, useless, at worst, so wrong.)

Then, unprompted he said--I wrote Dreams From My Father. I said, oh, so you admit it. He said--Michelle asked me to. I looked at him. He seemed eager. He's about my height, short. He went on to say--and if you can prove it, we can split the royalties. So I said, stop pulling my leg. Horrible thought. But he came again--I really wrote it, the wording was similar. I said I believe you probably heavily edited it. He said--I wrote it. I said--why would I believe you, you're a liar.

He had no answer to that. Just looked at me. Then he turned and walked off, and said again his bit about my proving it and splitting the proceeds.



I stole all of this from her blog. It was also written up in the Chicago Daily Observer. I couldn't parse it well without stealing, even though Jim Simpson of Renew America did a fine job in this post:

Ayers admits writing 'Dreams' to conservative blogger

If I take a step back and try to put on the objective hat, it is easy to say that Bill Ayers was joking. That is what he could easily claim if push comes to shove. It would be believable that he could say such things in mocking jest. I am a fan of sarcasm myself.

I don't know Anne Leary. If we accept her story of how this came out it does seem interesting. She didn't ask him about it. That is what struck me. He wanted to throw that out there. And he insisted on going back and reiterating the point to throw it out there again. From a critical standpoint, it does seem from reading her post that she might border on Ayers obsession. I doubt I would be able to spot him in an airport. That doesn't disqualify her account, but it does pose some questions.

Obviously at this point Cashill's theory is out there in some quarters, but it isn't a national story. Part of me tends to think that Bill Ayers would like that story. And if he did write or heavily edit the book, part of him probably would like to see that story. I am biased and have my own notions of what is going on, so maybe I am a bad judge. I found the tidbit interesting though, enough to pass it on to my massive following.

I think the "Summer of 1981" post adds a serious dimension to this just as a factual matter. Both of the stories didn't happen. One did. Either Barack way lying on the campaign trail or he was lying in his book.

The Whittington article just shows that other people are looking at the facts and coming to some of the same conclusions.

Don't know exactly what to make of blogger Anne who took him on in the DC airport, but I am a junkie and that had to be displayed.

So here are some other links on the topic. Most cover the exact same ground, but I link them so I can go back and read the comments. Sometimes some good stuff comes out in the comments. We have a world of diverse knowledge and talents, and you never know where the next angle will break. I believe that Ayers played a huge part in editing Dreams, and he probably did write it. The evidence looks better today than it did a year ago when it first came up. It will probably look much better a year from now. By the time the Democrats will actually have to acknowledge it, they will probably say "What? That old story? Ghostwriters are commonly used throughout history. What is the big deal? Shouldn't we focus on the real problems that affect us all, like healthcare, global warming or any other topic of the day?"

Jack Cashill is a stud for calling this early.

I would like to thank a lot of people I don't know for this post. I cited everything I could find. I would also like to thank my alcohol problem. In my life I have had trials and tribulations. Friends come and go, situations and circumstances can change, sometimes turning on a dime. The only constant that has stayed with me is my alcohol problem. I know at least that she will never leave.

What was my original point again? Oh yeah, the other links to this fiasco. So here they are:

Marathon Pundit: Backyard Conservative's encounter with Ayers--and his claim he wrote "Dreams," catches fire

According to Anderson, Michelle Obama suggested that the then little-known Barack approach Ayers for assistance in writing the book. And last week, while a guest on Cashill's show, the author said two people witnessed the future 44th president handing notes and tapes over to Ayers during the time Obama was said to have been writing the book.

I have a good memory, and I remember then-Sen. Obama saying this to the Chicago Tribune:

I would feel very uncomfortable putting my name to something that was written by somebody else or co-written or dictated. If my name is on it, it belongs to me.


Someone is lying. And it's certainly not Anne Leary.


You wonder what the political fallout would be if it could be proved without a doubt. I think there will always be plausible deniability. Wink wink, nudge nudge... Of course I have already swallowed the bait.

Tymon Smith from South Africas TimesLive:

Dreams from Obama's ghostwriter
Critics say he did not write his 1995 memoir alone


Steve Sailer: Ayers tells blogger in Starbucks he wrote "Dreams from My Father"

Ace of Spades: Claim: Conservative Blogger Says Bill Ayers Admits, Unprompted, He Wrote Dreams From My Father

Dennis Byrne from Chicago Now: Bill Ayers claims he wrote Obama's "Dreams From My Father"

Hot Air and AllahPundit: Bill Ayers to righty blogger: Of course I wrote “Dreams from My Father”

Rachel Slajda of TPM Livewire: Bill Ayers: Sure, I Wrote Obama's Book. Now How 'Bout Those Royalties?

World Net Daily: Palin co-author probed, Obama's ignored
News outlets silent about fresh evidence terrorist Ayers wrote 'Dreams'


American Thinker: Media Malpractice: Ayers' Dreams authorship suppressed

Maybe his significance to Martin Luther King, Jr. is plagerism.

Here and Here.

--------------------------------

Related Posts:

More of Ayers, Obama and Jack Cashill

Dreams From My Ghost Writer? Sphere: Related Content

Monday, October 5, 2009

Cincinnati Football: Best In Ohio

The Cincinnati Bengals just beat the Cleveland Browns in the "Battle of Ohio. They are 3-1 and sit atop the division.

The Cincinnati Bearcats remained undefeated by thrashing Miami. They leapfrogged "The" Ohio State University in the polls, moving up to #8 in the nation:

The best college football team in Ohio, according to the voters in the Associated Press media poll, is the University of Cincinnati.

UC (5-0) moved ahead of mighty Ohio State on Sunday, jumping from No. 10 to No. 8. The Buckeyes remained at No.9.

It’s the first time since Nov. 21, 1951 that UC has been ranked ahead of Ohio State


And on the high school level, Cincinnati continues to dominate the state, with five of the last seven State Champions hailing from the Queen City.

As of right now Cincinnati feels like a football town. Nothing last forever, and this feeling could be short lived. But it is worth a little strut. From the high schools on Friday Night, to the College field on Saturday, to the pro ranks on Sunday right now WE OWN THE ENTIRE WEEKEND!

Take that Cleve Land and Columbus. You got nothing on us. Bunch of Sallys if you ask me. The Nati is where it is at.

And while I am running some smack up the flag pole, I wanted to add something about tOSU. They way they insist on saying "The Ohio State University" instead of Ohio State University is just gay. Nobody is impressed by that.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programing. Sphere: Related Content

Friday, October 2, 2009

Tough History is Coming

From Tyler Durden at Zerohedge:

Visualizing The Upcoming Treasury Funding Crisis

Summary: foreign purchasers are congregating exclusively around the front end of the Treasury curve, meaning that the primary net purchaser of dated bonds has been the Federal Reserve. As everyone knows by now, the Fed only has $10 billion left out of the $300 billion total allotted for Treasury QE. That should expire next week. The question then becomes will we see another major steepening leg in the UST curve as yields on long-dated paper finally catch up to the real supply-demand curve absent the Fed's manipulation of the equilibrium point. Or will we see an outright funding crisis as foreigners pull out entirely of all treasury purchases, not just Long-term USTs.

The time of unravelling may be upon us sooner than most think.


Translation: Other countries don't want to buy our crap. They don't want to buy American bonds and invest in America anymore. They think it is a losing proposition. When they do buy, they buy short term on the front end, the don't want anything to do with long term.

In fact, The Fed is the one buying up all the bonds. And if you are like me, you probably figured the Fed was the one selling the bonds! It doesn't matter. The Fed, the Treasury, it is all one government (OUR GOVERNMENT!) and one currency, and when the shit hits the fan nobody will care. We are financing our debt by having the Treasury selling bonds to the Fed. Next they will tell you to finance your new car by having your left hand promise to pay your right hand.

That was a stupid analogy. But so what. If you read this you should realize that we are alone in a dark corner of the web. I mean you no harm, but tough history is coming.

But just as The Incredible Ginzu: But Wait! There is MORE!

From Doug Ross:

Analysts: Government borrowing will lead to 'Armageddon', 'Collapse of our Capitalistic System', '$5000 per ounce' gold

Financial gurus Henry Blodget, Marc Faber, Peter Schiff and Julian Robertson represent a wide spectrum of political opinion but are unified in their assessment of Democrat spending policies. Unprecedented government borrowing -- in a climate hostile to small business -- is hastening the "collapse" of capitalism.

Henry Blodget: "...the economy is being sustained by one huge borrower that is taking on debt faster than it has anytime since World War 2: The government. Government spending and government lending is REPLACING private spending and lending. And if it wasn't, the economy would have collapsed... The government can't keep borrowing like this forever, though, or we'll become Argentina. So the hope is that consumers and businesses will start borrowing BEFORE the government has to get itself under control. The history of financial crises suggests that this transition is unlikely to be smooth."


Don't Cry For Me Argentina! Tough History Is Coming. WOO HOO!

Marc Faber: "The future will be a total disaster, with a collapse of our capitalistic system as we know it today, wars, massive government debt defaults and the impoverishment of large segments of Western society."


Hard to improve on that! Tough History is Coming. Dance a jig!

Senate candidate Peter Schiff: "The worst is not over... the Dow will fall another 90% from current levels when measured against gold... gold [will hit] $5000 per ounce in the next couple of years..."


Peter Schiff is like a God to me. I wish he was the President. He predicted this crisis. Now Peter Schiff says that "the Dow will fall another 90% from current levels when measured against gold". I wish he was a crackpot like me. From my general experience with that man, he generally knows WTF he is talking about. Given that, I would say that Tough History Is Coming.

Julian Robertson: "You're in for some real rough sledding... we are borrowing so much money that we can't possibly pay it back... unless the Chinese and Japanese buy our bonds... it's tragic that we've let ourselves be put in this position... it's almost Armageddon if the Chinese and Japanese don't buy our debt. I don't know where we could get the money. And-- maybe we-- end up printing it-- and-- taking-- a million dollar bill-- bill to the grocery... which you have to do now in Zimbabwe. But I think we've let ourselves get in-- in [a] terrible situation... we're totally dependent on the Chinese and Japanese."


The reality is that we already owe so much money. It is an incredible sum. We can't really afford to pay it back. And we are borrowing at a pace never seen before. It is laughable to think that debt will be repaid.

The World Currency and Argentina

Argentina was one of the top 10 wealthiest nations in 1900. I have seen reports that put them at 4 or 5, though I read that some time ago and can't find a link. By the end of the century in 2000 they were bankrupt. Today they are around 35-40 range. It was an astounding fall, especially for a country with great people, infrastructure, natural resources and the like. The most striking aspect is that Argentina didn't play a part in either World War. What an ideal location. You are a wealthy country and World Wars don't even mean a damn to you. But yet they went from the top to the bottom. The government took over, and it can happen here too.

One ace in our hole is that the world currency is the US Dollar. We can print as much of the world currency as we like. At some point, those stupid bastards will reject our currency. That appears to be happening now. When that happens for a substantive amount of time, we will fail to be the world currency.

The problem Argentina had is that they couldn't print dollars. That is the main asset that is keeping us afloat. Our government is running the printing press and printing dollars for anyone that wants them. Argentina tried printing Pesos or some such things, but their debt was held in dollars. Who cares about Pesos when you need dollars? The great thing about out debt is that it is in dollars. And we get to print the dollars.

At some point soon, I predict the other players will clue into this critical flaw. It really is just paper with some green and black printing on it. I don't know why they took it so seriously. It was fun while it lasted.

Tough History is Coming.

My first post on this blog was from Peggy Noonan, and I don't even care for her much. Seems like an uppity bitch ass to me, but she wrote this:

A Separate Peace
America is in trouble--and our elites are merely resigned.


That link was the first post on this blog.

That piece haunts me to this day.

Tough history is coming. Sphere: Related Content

Thursday, October 1, 2009

More of Ayers, Obama and Jack Cashill

I have read my own blog. It seems that I am a one trick pony. Post after post about Barack Obama. I really need to mix it up. It appears that I am part of a pathetic echo chamber.

That said, I do what I do. I love my conspiracy theories. My favorite conspiracy theory is that Osama Bin Laden is dead. He really is. I would bet on that.

Another pet theory I have followed and am begining to believe is the Jack Cashill theory that Bill Ayers had a lot more input and linkage with Barack Obama than the media revealed to us.

From Ed Laskey at the American Thinker:

Obama's Work Ethic

Barack Obama won praise for Dreams From My Father, a 1995 memoir of his life that was published when he reached the grand old age of thirty-four. The provenance of the book has come into question, led by a series of American Thinker columns by Jack Cashill, who used textual analysis to ascribe its writing --or at least a good portion of it -- to Bill Ayers, Obama's neighbor, former Weatherman, Obama campaign supporter and partner in various activist groups in Chicago. This claim has been echoed in a new book by best-selling author Christian Andersen, Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage who wrote that sources close to the Obamas told him that Barack Obama turned over his notes and tapes to Bill Ayers to compose the book.

Subsequently, under questioning by Cashill on a nationally-syndicated radio program, Andersen averred that two separate sources in Hyde Park confirmed to him the story of sending the notes and tapes to Ayers.


We still have the problem that Anderson won't come forward with his sources. If they exist, and I think they might, they would not want to come forward because they would be destroyed by the media. Our press loves the choosen one, and as Joe the Plumber can attest if you "speak truth to power" it is time to come and get your whoppin. I can see why they don't speak out on the record, but if they don't you have a very thin case.

The article isn't just about Obama/Ayers, there is much more interesting stuff at the link. Just wanted to highlight one thing for my own pet project.

On a related note, this from Thomas Lifson:

Unmasking Obama

It is now abundantly clear that the image of Barack Obama sold to the American electorate was tightly edited, air-brushed, and exaggerated. He has worn a series of masks -- eloquent orator, brilliant scholar, centrist, and literary sensation. All of these masks are coming off as he copes with a job for which image will not suffice. For instance, hiding behind the eloquent orator mask is a guy who says "uhh" a lot when he is winging it, and who makes lots of factual and grammatical mistakes.

Now, thanks to Jack Cashill, the literary mask has been removed. Obama is a literary pretender. Case closed. The evidence is overwhelming that Bill Ayers ghost-wrote Dreams from my Father, the book which established Obama's pose as a brilliant writer (and therefore a fine mind, in the estimation of many). The stylistic resemblance between the Dreams and Ayers' work is stunning. Now we know, thanks to Chris Andersen's new book,that Obama hit a brick wall trying to fulfill his contract to produce a book, and shipped off his notes and tapes to Ayers. That is the classic description of a ghost writer's assignment. And it completely fits the theories Cashill had inferentially reasoned from the data of his literary studies.

The revelation that Chris Andersen had two separate sources means that this fact meets the journalistic standard of reliability, provided by a respected, established bestselling author. Obama's dismissal of Ayers as "just a guy in the neighborhood" has been shown to be an outright lie.

That will certainly be the verdict of history, regardless of whether or not the issue of Obama's ghost written book ever breaks through into the national discussion. My bet is that the media will not be able to suppress discussion. The image of Obama packing boxes full of tapes and notebooks and hauling them over to Ayers' house a couple of blocks away, is simple and compelling evidence of a ghost writer being put to work. Jack's literary detective work made the case, and Andersen's two neighborhood sources confirm it.


Thomas Lifson lays it out quite well. Again, I don't know Anderson or anything about him. If he has any credibility, these charges are damning. I have read Cashill's work and have found it compelling.

And here is Jack Cashill on his interview with Anderson:

Andersen Claims'Two Sources' for Ayers' Role in Dreams

On Monday morning, Mancow Muller arranged for me to question author Chris Andersen on The Mancow Show.

Andersen's largely benign new book, Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage, now tops the New York Times best seller list.

Andersen claims that the "hopelessly blocked" Obama turned to the unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers to help him write his much acclaimed 1995 memoir, Dreams From My Father.

When I asked about Andersen's sources, Andersen said that he had two separate sources "within Hyde Park" but, understandably, would not elabora
te.

Andersen, who was gracious throughout, insisted that he had made no claim that Ayers wrote Dreams but he did not deny Ayers' deep involvement, conceding that Dreams is much the better book than Obama's 2006 Audacity of Hope. This, of course, has to trouble the Obama acolytes who insist that Obama is a uniquely gifted writer.

"I've read Obama's books, and they are first-rate," wrote Christopher Buckley, explaining his decision to endorse Obama in October 2008, "He is that rara avis, the politician who writes his own books. Imagine."

Obama has maintained this fiction himself. "I've written two books," Obama told an audience of teachers in Virginia last year. "I actually wrote them myself."

Whether the mainstream media will remain silent on still another Obama scandal remains to be seen. But the journalistic standard of two sources has been met.


Again it comes down to the credibility of Anderson. I sound like a broken record with that. If this story gains any traction I would suspect that Anderson will be attacked.

Links both pro and con:


Wizbang:

Bill Ayers: Not Just Another Guy In The Neighborhood

Building the perfect beast?

Did Young Barack Have a Ghostwriter?
Did an ex-Weatherman terrorist really write 'Dreams from My Father'? Dream on.


The ‘Bill Ayers Wrote Obama’s Memoir’ Train Rolls On

Media acolytes protect their man

I'm going to spend the rest of my life apologizing to Jack Cashill, aren't I?

Marathon Pundit:

Did Bill Ayers ghostwrite Obama's "Dreams from my Father?"

Time for me to get some rest. I will edit my typos in the morning. Or not.


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Related Posts:

Jack Cashill Getting Traction (Ayers-Obama Authorship)

Dreams From My Ghost Writer? Sphere: Related Content