CONFIRMED: Fitz is going after Obama!

(Thanks to Evelyn Pringle for giving me the head's up.) The Chicago Tribune has an amazing story out today, which everyone else seems to be ignoring.

Bottom line: Two months ago, Tony Rezko told his judge that an "overzealous" prosecutor -- that'd be Patrick Fitzgerald, folks -- was pressuring him to rat out his political associates, Governor Blagojevich and Senator Barack Obama.

But in a two-page typed letter, Rezko said he was never involved in any wrongdoing with either of the Democrats and wouldn't make up stories about them in an attempt to benefit himself.

The Obama campaign has seized upon the wording of this letter to say "All clear!"

"There has been absolutely no suggestion at any point during the entire course of this trial that Sen. Obama was involved in any improper action or conduct involving Tony Rezko, and at no point has Sen. Obama been contacted for an interview or for any information about Tony Rezko," said Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt. "Nothing in this letter indicates anything to the contrary."

Hear that high-pitched sound? It's whistling. Whistling in the dark.

Tony wrote that letter before conviction. Now that he is facing prison, he may be of a very different disposition. And even if he remains tight of lip, this letter gives us a very clear indication of where Fitz is heading.

When Rezko was convicted, Fitzgerald announced that he was going after larger fish:

The U.S. attorney for northern Illinois, Patrick Fitzgerald, declined a reporter's invitation to give Rezko any advice on whether he could shorten his impending sentence by talking. He did note enticingly, however, that "any defendant has the opportunity to seek to cooperate."

And while he also wouldn't comment on what Wednesday's conviction means for the governor, Fitzgerald was clear that the trial showed Illinois is a cesspool of corruption.

"Anyone who followed the trial … had to be appalled by the conduct involved," he said.

The investigation is continuing, he noted.

So: Blagojevich and Obama are clearly in the prosecutors' sights. Remember, an FBI informant was in Rezko's office, and Fitz has wiretap evidence. Do you really think Fitzgerald would ask Rezko to rat out Obama if Obama weren't a rat?

We know how the Kossacks will handle the news: They'll turn on Fitzgerald and hound him mercilessly, Freeper-style. I expect the demonization process to start within 24 hours. Hey, if they can call Valerie Plame a criminal, those creeps are capable of anything.

Once again: Can Barack Obama legally run for president?

The meme won't die, even though Obama' s Democratic opponents have -- so far -- avoided it.

On the right, people are asking: Does the Constitution allow Barack Obama to run for president? Is he a "natural born citizen"?

The matter should be obvious. He was born in Hawaii after statehood. His mother was born in Kansas and spent the first 18 years of her life within the U.S.

But...was Obama actually born in Hawaii? Apparently, his birth was also registered in Kenya, the homeland of his father. Rumor has it that Barack Obama's mother, Stanley (yes: Stanley) Ann Dunham went to Kenya to deliver the child.

Consider those rumors scotched.

The current presidential candidate was indeed born on the beautiful island of Oahu. Daily Kos -- leading blog of the Whole Foods Nation -- has published a birth certificate. Until now, the Obama campaign's reluctance to furnish the document fueled wild speculation. (Note that the campaign sent the thing directly to Moulitsas. That fact should tell you how closely they worked together to spread the "Clintons as racists" smear.)

Interesting question: Suppose Barack Obama had been born in Kenya? Would he still be eligible to run for president? In a previous column, we referenced a FindLaw article which states that

...If only one parent was a U.S. Citizen at the time of your birth, that parent must have resided in the United States for at least ten years, at least five of which had to be after the age of 16.

So read the Immigration and Nationality Act between December 24, 1952 and November 13, 1986. (Obama was born in 1961.) Ann Dunham was 18 at the time of her son's birth, so she would not qualify under this measure.

However: The new law, 8 U.S.C. 1401, Sec. 301 (g) (here) has a better understanding of biological reality:

...a person born outside the geographical limits of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is an alien, and the other a citizen of the United States who, prior to the birth of such person, was physically present in the United States or its outlying possessions for a period or periods totaling not less than five years, at least two of which were after attaining the age of fourteen years...

Obama's mama qualifies under that law.

Wait a minute! (I hear you shouting.) That's the post-1986 rule! It wasn't in place when Obama was born! It doesn't count!

Yes it does. Here's the part of 301(g) that the conservative bloggers always leave out:

This proviso shall be applicable to persons born on or after December 24, 1952, to the same extent as if it had become effective in its present form on that date

Looks like we're stuck with Obi.

By the way, if you check out the Kossack thread on the link above, the Cheeto-heads are still decrying Hillary, Queen of Evil. They're pissed off about Whitewater, of all things.

Democrats. Angry about Whitewater. In 2008.

And these blithering idiots still can't understand why, for the first time in my life, I feel so alienated from my party that I would rather see the Republican win.

PS: It was always rather ridiculous to assert that Ann Dunham traveled to Kenya to give birth. She was not welcome there. As the Lightbringer reveals in Dreams From My Father, both sets of grandparents objected to the marriage -- but the strongest objections came from the father of Barack Obama Sr. He hated the idea of his son marrying a white woman.

Gosh. I thought that only those inherently horrid and genetically vicious white people could ever be so racist. Could it be that irrational fear of The Other is a human characteristic, and not a purely paleface practice?

This, we must never do

Just because I oppose Barack Obama does not mean that I would ever countenance dirty tricks. Let us therefore delineate one dastardly tactic, down to which we must never stoop.

If you go to Google and type in the word "Obama," a certain sponsored link for the campaign website will appear at the top of the page. The campaign must pay Google a small amount for every click. (From the Google Adwords site: "Pay only for results. You're charged only if someone clicks your ad, not when your ad is displayed.") Be prepared: When the link opens, you'll hear a voice you may not want to hear.

I'm not sure how many times you'd have to click on that link to cost the Obama campaign a hundred bucks a day. A keyword like "Obama" must not come cheap. A frustrated and angry person might do a whole lot of clickclickclicking -- especially while re-reading some of the false accusations of racism which the campaign's surrogates were spreading not so long ago.

(Still are spreading, actually. They want Hillary to give up those delegates. Then they want to chop off her head and hang it on the gate in front of the Obama mansion.)

But only a very naughty person would chip away at the Obama campaign budget in this fashion. Not even the outrage described here justifies such a maneuver. Don't do it. It would be wrong.

Kwisatz Haderach watch: I've written to San Francisco columnist Mark Morford, asking if he was serious when he referred to Barack Obama as a "Lightworker," as noted in an earlier post. (Scroll down.) No response. I think he meant it -- and I think he belatedly came to realise that such verbiage does his candidate no service.

Good news, everyone!

The wait is almost over...

ABC’s Brian Ross reported on a cult leader who says that nuclear war will begin by June 12.

“Nuclear war will begin next Thursday, June 12, or sooner, according to the latest prediction of self-proclaimed prophet Yisrayl ‘Buffalo Bill’ Hawkins, the founder of a religious sect in Abilene, Texas.”

He's a former trailer park manager who has somehow convinced thusands of others that he is a prophet. His followers have changed their names to Hawkins. Will they change back after the weekend?

Foreign affairs

Those concerned (and rightly so) about the possibility of war with Iran feel that Barack Obama is the safer choice. Is he?

A few months ago, former ambassador Joe Wilson addressed Obama's bizarre record on foreign policy. After noting that Obama, as chairman of a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee, had refused to run any hearings at all on Afghanistan, Wilson scores Obama for his Iran stance:

On Iran and the question of designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization, the junior senator from Illinois was not quite so clever at avoiding taking a position. He first co-sponsored the “Counter-Proliferation Act of 2007,” which contained explicit language identifying the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization. He subsequently claimed to oppose the Kyl-Lieberman sense of the Senate resolution proposing the same thing. Obama’s accountability problem here is that he didn’t show up for the vote on that resolution — a vote that would have put him on record. Then he declined to sign on to a letter put forward by Senator Clinton making explicit that the resolution could not be used as authority to take military action. All we have is Obama’s rhetoric juxtaposed with his co-sponsorship of a piece of legislation that proposed what he says he opposed.

Clearly, his position has pinged and ponged to suit the viability of his White House run.

(Side note: The piece was written in March. The resultant Obot commentary displays the sort of repulsive vitriol that caused Hillary's support to surge when it should have collapsed.)

We can't take Obama at his word -- after all, this is the fellow who once said that he barely knew Tony Rezko. Actions speak louder than.

Nothing in his history suggests that Barack Obama will maintain a left-wing stance on foreign policy issues. He is, after all, a protege of Zbigniew Brzezinski. (The two seem to have had their first encounters during Obi's days at Columbia.) Today, most people forget that Democrats were among the first neoconservatives, and that Brzezinksi was once closely allied with neocon founding saint Henry "Scoop" Jackson.

Zbig is the man who funded Pol Pot. He bragged about luring the Soviets into Afghanistan. Reagrding Iran, let me repeat what I've said earlier:

Few on either the right or the left understand that, until roughly a year-and-a-half before the revolution in Iran, the Socialist Tudeh party and the constitutionalist National Front commanded wide public support in that country and stood an excellent chance of gaining power when the Shah's tyranny ended. When the CIA learned of the Shah's precarious health, Brzezinski had the Agency covertly aid the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini, a Shi'ite theocract. The goal was twofold: Preventing a Socialist or nationalist government from taking power, and fomenting a jihad against the Soviets.

In recent times, Brzezinski has written responsibly against the Bush administration and its warlike posture against Iran. But we cannot trust the man. Certainly, Obama would not have sponsored the Counter-Proliferation Act of 2007 without first consulting Brzezinski.

Never forget that Brzezinski's great enemy is Russia. If he now seems to take a sensible position on Iraq and Iran, he does so only because he considers all other matters subordinate to his goal of reigniting the cold war.

Bundle of trouble

Bundlers are people who can "bundle" campaign contributions from many others, thereby working around campaign finance rules. Politicians love bundlers but also fear them: What if they do or say something that might reflect badly on the candidate?

Hillary survived one "bad bundler" named Norman Hsu, who turned out to be a wanted fugitive. Before gloating, Obots should know that the now-forgotten Hsu scandal tarnished the Savior as well.

A recent outburst by Obama bundler Jodie Evans, founder of Code Pink, has a particular power to do harm in the general. In an on-air interview, she did the unthinkably stupid: She defended Osama Bin Laden's right to attack the United States of America.

Jodie Evans: ”We were attacked because we were in Saudi Arabia, that was the message of Osama, was that because we had our bases in the Middle East, he attacked the United States.”

Paul A. Ibbetson: “Do you think that’s a valid argument?”

Evans: “Sure. Why do we have bases in the Middle East? We totally violated the rights of that country. Why do we get to have bases in the Middle East?”

The bases on Saudi soil were created by permission of the royal family, for the protection of their oil fields. Acting in concert with a nation's legitimate government hardly constitutes a violation of rights -- at least not as the U.N. charter defines such things. Yes, the Saudis are a group of rather detestable unelected autocrats, but that doesn't confer legitimacy upon Osama Bin Laden, who was elected by exactly nobody.

Jodie is a creature straight out of central casting: Her entire life seems designed to alienate swing voters. McCain's people would be overjoyed if she became a household name.

She's rich, having earned her money the old-fashioned way: By marrying it and divorcing it. (Her ex- is a billionaire high-tech investor named Max Palevsky.) Her fortune now goes to groups like the Animal Liberation Front, Earth First, and the Rain Forest Action Network. The FBI has described ALF as a terrorist group.

Code Pink has also tried their hand at mass witchcraft spells. I consider such activities harmless, but I can just imagine how the more Jesus-oriented parts of the country might react to that bit of theater.

The right is assembling a propaganda narrative: Obama as dangerous lefty. Affluent dimwits like Jodie play right into that scenario. Ironically, the true danger he poses goes in the other direction.

Clinton Derangement Syndrome: Take this quiz

In the past, we've taken a look -- wide of eye and slack of jaw -- at some of the more outlandish examples of CDS (Clinton Derangement Syndrome) to be found on Democratic Underground, the Cheeto, TPM and elsewhere.

Today, we will make a game of it. Each of the examples below comes from one of three sources:

A) The quote comes from a recent progressive source. (Use Google to check my work)

B) The quote comes from a 1990s-vintage conservative source. (Use Google groups to check my work.)

C) The quote comes from Coleman Francis' classic The Beast of Yucca Flats.

Your first task is to determine which quote comes from which source. Then you must determine which quote is the most insane. Mark each quote A, B, C, following the guidelines above. (Either make the mark mentally or jot it down on paper. I don't have time to install one of those widgets.)

Ready to play? Let's hit it!

* * *

1. "She makes even Leona Helmsley look frugal and fair with "the little people.""

2. "That Queen and Savior Hillary thinks that rules are for other people and not her. That is why I hate Hillary!"

3. "Only after it hit the media did old Hillary decide to return the drug money."

4. "Into the mud scum queen!"

5. "Did Clinton murder his own mother?"

6. "Kill. Kill, just to be killing."

7. "Dammit, where are those snipers when you really need one?"

8. "Note the suspicious ties between bush and clinton in "Mena"."

9. "Thats a lot of "carbon monoxide poisoning (apparent suicides)"

10. "Nothing bothers some people, not even flying saucers."

11. "The woman is so uncuth"

12. "I've always thought Hillary was a bitter shrew"

13. "doctors can't help her. Maybe angels, but not doctors."

14."There are obviously enough psychos for Clinton out there"

15. "A man runs, somebody shoots at him."

16. "the Clinton's took their lead from the bush crime family..."

17. "Are former "sex slaves" of Bill Clinton in danger of losing their lives?"

18. "Clintons = Bushes = Clintons = Bushes =Corporate Elites"

19. "Feed soda pop to the thirsty pigs."

20. "Its pitiful that people are even defending this travesty against civil society."

21. "Clinton is a good Republican."

22. "I used just dislike her. Now I truly hate her."

23. "Always on the prowl. Looking for something or somebody to kill."

24. "As many know, the efforts by the Clinton camp to move to New York and take over the Senate seat there...included the killing of JFK Jr to free up some real estate."

25. "WE need to investigate indite and imprison the traitors."

26. "...decades of racial prejudice and xenophobia."

27. "A fiend prowling the wastelands."

28. "lyin, cheatin, whitetrash."

29. "Bill Clinton doesn't matter anymore as a political leader."

30. "A flag on the moon. How did it get there?"

31. "Sorry to hear that when a push came to a shove in the voting booth, you voted for the pathological liar."

32. "Despicable. This is the worst thing I have ever heard her say."

33. "Another man caught in the frantic race for the betterment of mankind. Progress."

34. "One doesn't have to look too far into Clinton's history to find several bodies..."

35. "It's time for us to start talking about white-water, impeachment, rape-gate, monica-gate, pardon-gate, vince foster murder probe, and the list goes on."

(To read the answers, click "Permalink" below)

Here are the answers. Remember: A) is "recent progressive;" B) is "1990s conservative;" and C) is Beast of Yucca Flats.

1. "She makes even Leona Helmsley look frugal and fair with "the little people."" (A)

2. "That Queen and Savior Hillary thinks that rules are for other people and not her. That is why I hate Hillary!" (B)

3. "Only after it hit the media did old Hillary decide to return the drug money." (B)

4. "Into the mud scum queen!" (A)

5. "Did Clinton murder his own mother?" (B)

6. "Kill. Kill, just to be killing." (C)

7. "Dammit, where are those snipers when you really need one?" (A)

8. "Note the suspicious ties between bush and clinton in "Mena"." (B)

9. "Thats a lot of "carbon monoxide poisoning (apparent suicides)" (A)

10. "Nothing bothers some people, not even flying saucers." (C)

11. "The woman is so uncuth" (A)

12. "I've always thought Hillary was a bitter shrew" (A)

13. "doctors can't help her. Maybe angels, but not doctors." (C) [I bet you marked this one "A" -- didn't you?]

14."There are obviously enough psychos for Clinton out there" (A)

15. "A man runs, somebody shoots at him." (C)

16. "the Clinton's took their lead from the bush crime family..." (A)

17. "Are former "sex slaves" of Bill Clinton in danger of losing their lives?" (B)

18. "Clintons = Bushes = Clintons = Bushes =Corporate Elites" (A)

19. "Feed soda pop to the thirsty pigs." (C)

20. "Its pitiful that people are even defending this travesty against civil society." (A)

21. "Clinton is a good Republican." (B) [Honest. That's a "B" answer, not "A"!]

22. "I used just dislike her. Now I truly hate her." (A)

23. "Always on the prowl. Looking for something or somebody to kill." (C)

24. "As many know, the efforts by the Clinton camp to move to New York and take over the Senate seat there...included the killing of JFK Jr to free up some real estate." (B)

25. "WE need to investigate indite and imprison the traitors." (A)

26. "...decades of racial prejudice and xenophobia." (A)

27. "A fiend prowling the wastelands." (C)

28. "lyin, cheatin, whitetrash." (B)

29. "Bill Clinton doesn't matter anymore as a political leader." (A)

30. "A flag on the moon. How did it get there?" (C)

31. "Sorry to hear that when a push came to a shove in the voting booth, you voted for the pathological liar." (B)

32. "Despicable. This is the worst thing I have ever heard her say." (A)

33. "Another man caught in the frantic race for the betterment of mankind. Progress." (C)

34. "One doesn't have to look too far into Clinton's history to find several bodies..." (B)

35. "It's time for us to start talking about white-water, impeachment, rape-gate, monica-gate, pardon-gate, vince foster murder probe, and the list goes on." (A)

Which quotation was the most deranged? For me, it's a toss-up between "Flag on the moon" and the line about Clinton murdering his own mother. But you may have your own thoughts on that score.

Can Obama run for president? Yes.

A goofy meme is seeping its way through the conservative blogosphere: Barack Obama cannot be president because he is not, technically, a natural-born U.S. citizen.

US Law very clearly stipulates: "...If only one parent was a U.S. Citizen at the time of your birth, that parent must have resided in the United States for at least ten years, at least five of which had to be after the age of 16." Barack Obama’s father was not a U.S. Citizen and Obama’s mother was only 18 when Obama was born, which means though she had been a U.S. Citizen for 10 years, (or citizen perhaps because of Hawai’i being a territory) the mother fails the test for being so for at least 5 years **prior to** Barack Obama’s birth, but *after* age 16.

Hawaii became a state in 1959. Before that, it was an incorporated territory -- which means that the people there lived under the U.S. Constitution.

So this whole meme is actually rather silly. Barack Obama was born on U.S. soil in 1961. Of course he is a natural-born citizen. The case of Barry Goldwater was more interesting -- he was born in Arizona when it was still a territory. A few people still argue that he was technically ineligible to run.

Right now, there is only one incorporated territory left -- the Palmyra Atoll. Nobody lives there except for roughly a dozen scientists. I don't know anything about their mating habits, and I don't want to know.

The beginning of Dick

Plan 9 From Outer Space lists "Dick Chaney" as the provider of "Wardrobe." Obviously, this is a typo for THE Dick Cheney. I refuse to believe anything else.

The case for Hillary as VP

By all reliable accounts (the crap you read on DU, Kos, HP and TPM is not reliable), Hillary Clinton does not want the veep gig. And the Obamas have certainly shown their arrogant contempt for the Clintons.

But a case for Hillary taking the slot has occurred to me. This case has nothing to do with any desire to see the party win in November. I would prefer a loss, which would rid the party of Dean, Brazile and the prog-mob.

But. Patrick Fitzgerald has indicated that he will now go after certain corrupt politicians involved with the Illinois Combine. Rezko and a host of other criminal worthies must feel desperate to play Let's Make a Deal. Blagojevich is the obvious primary target. Obama is the obvious secondary target.

Of course, if Obama gets in, he will want to fire Fitzgerald. Any such move will automatically prove the case against Obama.

Fun thought for the day: What would occur if Obama were named in an indictment between November and January? Suddenly, the VP position looks interesting...

On another note: Obama is the first Democratic nominee who seems to require a conversion narrative -- we even have a respected newspaper columnist referring to him, in print, as a "LIGHTWORKER":

...that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging...

Yeesh. I've hung out in my share of New Age bookstores; I should be able to read this crap without vomiting. But that gag refex is a-kicking in...

My question is: Don't the Obots know how self-defeating this kind of verbiage can be? How disgusting and bizarre it seems to normal people?

A similar question surrounds Obot online tactics. The Confluence notes that poseurs have been hopping onto that site, and other sites, pretending to be regulars who have had the demons of Clintonism driven from their hearts by the Radiance That Is He. Of course, IP addresses give the game away. Also see the important warning here about a specific "Unity" message being spread under various assumed identities.

MyDD has become an Inquisition dedicated to rooting out the anti-O heresy. Other sites have had to suspend comments altogether.

You know what's been happening to me, even though I delete the wackjob comments on sight. I thought that the 9/11 nuts were bizarre, but they were puttytats compared to the Obots.

Why do they behave in this fashion? They aren't going to convert anyone. In fact, a display of zealotry can only toughen our resistance.

Nuclear dreams

(Non-political posts occasionally appear on weekends.)

I'm in my car. Unusual military aircraft circle the San Fernando Valley. A civil defense siren -- a sound not heard since childhood -- fills the air. The radio blares the Emergency Broadcast System attention signal. An announcer warns: Only ten minutes left...

And then I wake up.

Nuclear dreams are the only nightmares that truly frighten.

Other types of nightmare disappear from memory a few moments after awakening. On those occasions when the theater of the mind books a Grand Guignol performance, intra-psychic displays of grue and gore don't have any lingering impact, thanks to Hollywood's ongoing desensitization project. The nightmares of social embarrassment (you're back in high school and you haven't studied for the big test!) seem like annoying cliches even as they play out.

But nuke dreams haunt you throughout the day.

I've had a few of these dreams lately, for the first time in years. The nightmares always end just before the bombs hit. The terror comes in the mad scramble for shelter. My dream self usually dashes for the sewer, which is probably what I'll do if the real thing happens.

Every child of the cold war has had these nightmares.

For some people, the nuke nightmares focus on post-apocalypse scenarios -- rubble, corpses, blistered skin peeling from the faces of wailing children, etc. For me, anticipation is the true horror. The ten minutes just before impact. Morpheus, god of dreams, has made me live through those ten minutes many, many times.

My question is this: Do people born after the cold war's end have these dreams? If people under 30 do have these nightmares, do they occur less frequently?

NEVER FORGIVE. NEVER FORGET.

Bill Clinton did more than any other human being, of any race, to bring prosperity to Harlem. Does that undisputed fact of history obligate black people to support his wife? No. But it does, I think obligate the people of Harlem to show him some respect. Calling him a plantation owner, as did NY State Senator Bill Perkins in February of 2008, is disgusting and indefensible. We must never forgive or forget.

From Time magazine, 1994:

Along Harlem's main thoroughfare, 125th Street, business is booming, a function of indigenous forces mostly but of Clinton's policies as well. The vacancy rate for commercial property is less than 2%, and space is renting for more than $30 per sq. ft., about the same as in midtown Manhattan, an astounding surge. New stores will soon dot the cross streets, and nearby housing units are being rehabilitated. The private investment responsible for most of this growth is following rising incomes and the return of better-off families.

"EZs," as they are known, are the latest incarnation of an old idea formerly called enterprise zones. What Clinton's added to the notion beyond tax incentives for businesses is a panoply of social services (day care and job training being the most prominent) designed to produce a work force capable of staffing the enterprises likely to be attracted by the tax breaks. After the Harlem-South Bronx EZ is formally approved later this year, the Federal Government will pour $100 million into the area, an amount New York City and State will match. Added to the total $300 million will be about $70 million in low-interest loans from Fleet Bank.

From the New York Times, 2001:

Mr. Clinton, who spoke with great feeling during his presidency about the needs of the underclass, noted during his Harlem speech that Harlem's ''empowerment zone,'' created during his presidency, had attracted $600 million in private investment.

By way of contrast...

Barack Obama directly intervened to make sure that local crime lord Tony Rezko got massive taxpayer subsidies for a tenement housing project. Tony stashed at least $100 million overseas, then pleaded poor as he refused to pay his mortgages or pay the utility bills for his tenements.

Hundreds of extremely poor black people suffered Chicago winters without heat. The neighborhood, already dismal, just got worse and worse.

Although he pretended to be out of cash, Fat Tony somehow found enough $ to contribute a quarter-million to Obama's campaign and to help him buy a mansion that the new Senator could not otherwise afford.

Will black people continue to judge entirely by skin color, by rhetoric, by wishful thinking -- or will they also pay attention to resumes?

When Jeremiah Wright accused Clinton of "riding dirty" -- that is, of screwing over the black community -- he did not cite a single real-world example. He could not come up with one specific illustration to prove his claim. Instead, he relied on puerile name-calling.

Wright lives in a mansion too -- in an upper-class white neighborhood, well away from the kind of people who suffered under Tony Rezko's regime. Just who is "riding dirty"?

A mere six months ago...

Barack Obama, December, 2007:

Making an argument for his electability, Obama said, "I don't want to go into the next election starting off with half the country already not wanting to vote for Democrats -- we've done that in 2004, 2000," according to a person at the event

Six months later, half the Democrats don't want to vote for the Democrat.

Throughout the primaries, the prog-bloggers kept bleating that they don't need those dreadful "Clintonistas," who should all be kicked out of the party. Well, the proggers don't say that any more. Now they try very hard to disguise their nervousness as they say: "You're not really going to desert the Democrats, are you?"

Yep! You kept telling us how much you hate us. We now have nothing to give you but our spit.

According to the CBS poll, 22 percent of Clinton supporters say they prefer John McCain to Barack Obama. Additionally, 7 percent claim they're undecided, and 8 percent say they won't vote at all.

Somewhere between 30%-37% of Clinton's majority of the Democratic electorate won't support Obi. Don't kid yourself into thinking that the number will go down; it won't. Don't kid yourself into thinking that Obi can make up the deficit by appealing to Republicans and independents; he can't. The love affair is over. He lost six of the last nine primaries -- and the media backlash against him hasn't yet begun.

You smell toast? I do.

It's not about Hillary

The pro-Hillary vote now divides like the Red Sea.

One side supports the nominee, however unfairly he got the nod and however ghastly his tactics. The other side understands that you need to punish a child if you want to make sure he or she does not misbehave again. The only way to punish Dean, Brazile, the progressive bloggers, the DNC and the big media pundits is to ensure that the Democrats lose in November. If you can think of any less drastic way to "spank" the parties responsible, tell me about it.

An alien force has commandeered the Democratic party. This force does not have a name. I've called it "the progressive movement," but that term lacks accuracy, since the ringleaders are actually libertarians. By whatever nomenclature, this force mimics the politics of mob hatred previously associated with the Republican party.

If Obama wins, the brutes win, and things will get worse in the next electoral cycle. The DNC countenanced a smear campaign in a primary; this must never occur again.

The truth is, I don't care for Hillary. The idea of a former president's wife running for office never sat well with me. The entire concept seems like an attempt to circumvent the Constitution.

Do not count me among those who grew to admire Hillary's tenacity and courage. In my view, she failed because she was too timid. Her most courageous moment occurred when she berated Obama for his ties to Tony Rezko. The next-morning's press reviews were murderous, and she never mentioned the topic again. Instead of backing away from that mode of attack, she should have kept hitting and hitting and hitting on the corruption theme.

If she had ignited a national debate, more people would understand that Barack Obama helped Rezko attain those tenement buildings, and that Rezko received $100 million from the taxpayers to help poor people who never got any help. The loot was stashed overseas with the aid of Tony's ultra-shady Middle Eastern associates.

If HIllary had spoken up, the public would now understand that State Senator Obama pushed through a law which placed the hospital board in the greedy hands of Governor Blagojevich, who instituted a ruthless "pay to play" policy. Every time Blago got paid, so did Obama.

Hillary Clinton could have educated the public, but she did not.

So do not count me as a fan. She would make a decent president, and I certainly prefer her to Obama. But her calls for party unity do not impress me. I call for party cleansing. For punishment.

The height of Obot madness. Plus: a "novel" origin of "Whiteygate"?

While tracking links back to this site, I stumbled across this Kos page. The original post is of no small interest, and we shall get to it presently. First, I would ask you to scroll down through the Kossack sewer system, where you will discover a comment which will boggle even the most un-boggle-able mind:

Larry Johnson is a CRIMINAL

I ill say it again...the reason he and Joe Wilson have been such BIG supporters of Clinton and have said such horrendous things about Obama is because...Obama will NOT let the criminality of government remain the status quo.....Clinton would of covered up for Bush and the CIA etc like her husband did, Obama will NOT and Larry and his buddies and Joe and Valeries budddies may just be caught for whatever criminal acts they were part of.....

So. Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson are now criminals, partners with Bush, and thus must be put into prison by Barack Obama. And how do we know this? Simple: Plame and Wilson did not support Obama in the primary election!

Is the Obama movement a new form of Maoism? Or is it simply an online insane asylum?

The idea that Clinton and Bush are "in it together" is laughable. Get a clue, Obots: At the Tony Rezko trial, we had testimony under oath tying Obama's posse of Chicago hoodlums to the Bush administration. Tony felt confident that his pals in the Bush DOJ would can Patrick Fitzgerald. That's why he knew he could get away with helping Obi buy that mansion.

Enough. Let's deal with the fascinating topic of the original Kos post, which recapitulates an interesting catch made by the National Review.

It seems that many details of the "Whiteygate" story parallel the events in a 2006 novel called The Power Broker, by Stephen Frey.

In that book, a black presidential candidate named Jesse Wood faces a problem: His enemies have hold of a tape in which he rails against "whitey."

Hewitt thought for a second. “I’m going to let Jesse win the nomination and let the public get used to him as the Democratic candidate. Give the country some time to get to know Jesse Wood, to start to like him. And they will because he’s a very likeable guy. Then I’m going to drop the bomb, after everyone’s started to like him. That way the clip will have maximum effect and people will be as angry as they can be.

Is this the origin point for the Michelle tape rumor? Perhaps.

But at the risk of sounding like a "coincidence theorist," we should note that history gives us many examples of literature offering eerie forecasts of real-life events.

I'm old enough to recall seeing an exploitative novel called Black Abductor on the paperback racks. (Wish I had bought it!) This quasi-pornographic opus was infamous for presenting a kidnap scenario which mirrored the later abduction of Patty Hearst. In the novel, an extremist left-wing group, led by a black man named after a revolutionary leader, kidnaps an heiress named Patricia.

Both kidnappings take place at night, not far from the campus.

In both abductions, the victim is dragged away half-naked.

Both Patricias are with boyfriends when seized, and both boyfriends survive bad beatings.

Both boyfriends are initially regarded as suspects, but later cleared.

The abductors are a multiracial, ragtag clutch of ideologists, of both sexes, led by an embittered young black man.

Fictional and actual abductors use the mails to communicate with the anguished parents.

Fictional and actual abductors mail Polaroid pictures of their victims along with their messages.

The fictional abduction is described as the United States' "first political kidnapping." That description has frequently been employed to describe the Hearst case.

Both the fictional and the real-life abductors model themselves after Latin American terrorists who have used kidnapping as a revolutionary technique.

The fictional terrorist band includes a woman who is more interested in sex with women than with men. At least two women reputed to be members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the nonfictional guerrillas, are known to have lived together as lovers.

The fictional Patricia, depicted as a political ingenue with fairly conventional sexual experiences, joins the revolutionary cause after submitting--with increasing willingness--to a variety of sexual impositions at the hands of her captors. According to taped communiqués from Patty Hearst and the SLA, her mildly political consciousness has been transformed into revolutionary activism.

The details were so strikingly similar that some conspiracy buffs presumed that "they" -- the CIA, the Illuminati, whoever -- had published the thing as a grand psychological experiment. (Such theorists also theorize that "they" engineered the actual kidnapping.) Even after another publishing house reprinted the work to capitalize on the real-life fulfillment, the pseudonymous author refused to step forward and claim his share of the royalties. To this day, no-one knows who wrote Black Abductor. (I like to think it was Ed Wood. Call me a romantic.)

You probably already know about the numerous literary and artistic (if that is the right word) forecasts of the tragic events of 9/11. The most striking example: An episode of The Lone Gunmen centers on a plot to fly an aircraft into the World Trade Center. If I recall correctly, the infamous neo-Nazi novel The Turner Diaries ends with a zealot flying his plane into the Pentagon. Even this classic WWII-vintage Bugs Bunny cartoon has a brief sequence which carries a 9/11 vibe.

The most striking example of a predictive literary work is, of course, the novel Futility, which describes the sinking of a ship called the Titan on her maiden voyage. The book was published in 1898; the Titanic went down in 1912. Many details of the actual event had an exact parallel in the fictional account.

You may be able to name other instances in which a piece of fiction seemed to offer a prophecy of real life events. So, yes, coincidences of this sort do happen. Indeed, the parallels linking Black Abductor to the Patty Hearst case strike me as far more bizarre than are the parallels linking The Power Broker to "Whiteygate."

The Power Broker makes reference to a "nutjob preacher" whose big mouth and irrepressible speech threaten candidate Wood. Coincidence? Or did author Frey base his character on Barack Obama, and did he do more research into the man than had the national press?

The Power Broker is the third in a line of thrillers centering around a hero named Christian Gillette. Here's the Amazon description:

Murder, global conspiracy, treason, blackmail, sexual infidelity and perversity propel bestseller Frey's entertaining, if highly implausible, third financial thriller starring Christian Gillette (after 2005's The Protégé). Christian, the CEO of Everest Capital, a hugely successful Manhattan-based investment firm, faces a host of adversaries, chief among them the Order, a secret society made up of nine white American businessmen and government leaders whose predecessors have been manipulating financial and historical events since the society's inception in 1839. Led by Jackson Prescott Hewitt, chairman of U.S. Oil, the Order fears that America is falling under the control of minorities whose agendas include statehood for Puerto Rico and Mexico and the election of the nation's first African-American president. Christian comes to the attention of this cabal and, aided by series regulars Allison Wallace and Quentin Stiles, is soon fighting for his very life. The action roars along like a small tsunami, sweeping logic aside and carrying aloft those readers willing to suspend a substantial amount of disbelief.

The customer reviews are mixed. One negative reviewer threatens to toss away his copy. I suggest that he hold onto it; it might be worth money some day. That's why I wish I had purchased an original edition of Black Abductor.

And finally...

For another entertaining bit of nuttiness, check out this Rigorous Intuition board, where my name becomes "Joe Cannonfire," and my post on Cynthia McKinney -- described as my "beloved Cynthia McKinney" (!!) -- is summarized with skull-popping inaccuracy. Once again, Obots display an appalling inability to read. One reader's verdict:

I've come to the conclusion, after careful observation, that he [i.e., me] is a prick or works for the man.

It's the former, bub. And proud of it! Oddly enough, I once again find myself agreeing with RI head honcho Jeff Wells, who says that he too would have voted for Jesse Jackson or Malcolm X, but not Obama. You're a cool dude, Jeff -- so why are your readers so ghastly? Then again: Why are so many of my readers so ghastly?