Archive for the ‘radical’ Category
Jamaican drug king’s father found fertile ground in 1980s Miami.
It was 1988 and Lester Lloyd Coke’s Shower Posse — a notorious Jamaican drug gang — was deep into gun and drug running. He was wanted in a South Florida courtroom to answer to murder and drug charges, but never made it to Miami to stand trial.
Now, two decades later, another Coke is accused of running the Shower Posse.
It’s Lester’s son, Christopher “Dudus” Coke, the man wanted for extradition by the U.S. on drug and weapons charges and the object of a manhunt that has touched off a bloody battle between Jamaican authorities and his supporters in Kingston. The government announced last week that the violence had claimed 73 lives.
“All of this old stuff is coming up again,” said Len Cartor, a former Miami-Dade police sergeant who worked in the department’s warrants bureau and arrested the father, also known as Jim Brown, in the 1980s.
Though the father has been dead for 22 years, there’s still a painting of him in Tivoli Gardens, where some of the fiercest fighting between government troops and gunmen loyal to Christopher Coke took place this week. It reads: “Legend Jim Brown, don of dons.”
The violence now erupting in Jamaica has its roots in 1980s Miami, when Jamaicans and Colombians were the soldiers in the cocaine wars, say those who worked to put them behind bars.
Under Lester Coke, the Shower Posse — so-named because it rained bullets down on rival gangs — was centered in Jamaica but its tentacles reached far into the United States.
“It seemed like Miami was their secondary base of operations,” said retired Miami-Dade police Sgt. Kevin Dougherty, who tracked Coke while working with MDPD’s Warrants Bureau.
Coke was well-known to Jamaican law enforcement and was an activist in the Jamaica Labour Party long before he was indicted in 1988 along with dozens of others by a federal grand jury.
“It was a whole gun running and drug running operation going up and down the East Coast,” said Andrew Reich, an assistant U.S. attorney who handled the case. “Coke was one of the lead players.”
Then, as now, the gangs enjoyed backing from political parties on the island.
“Tivoli Gardens residents looked to Jim Brown for leadership,” said David Rowe, who represented Vivian Blake, a Shower Posse leader indicted with Coke. “He was a well-known and notorious enforcer and that reputation followed him. He was always hounded by federal authorities when he was here. Once they became aware of the activities of the Shower Posse, Jim Brown was always under some degree of scrutiny.”
Rowe, who never met father or son, said there appears to be a difference in leadership styles between the two men.
“The father was a little more abrasive, prominent individual,” said the Jamaican-born Rowe, an adjunct law professor at the University of Miami and extradition expert. “The son is a better educated person, and he’s quiet.”
In the summer of 1985, a U.S. Marshals task force was out searching for dangerous fugitives in the Miami area. The Jamaican government had put out wanted fliers for Lester Coke, sought in the “mass murder” of 12 in May 1985 in Kingston. He was also sought in two other shootings.
That July 17, Doughtery got a tip that led authorities to a house in the Norland neighborhood in Northwest Miami–Dade County. A morning drive by the house revealed that a 5’10, 240-pound man believed to be Coke was inside.
The Special Response Team broke down the door and Coke, along with 10 others, was arrested on marijuana trafficking charges. Officers seized more than 100 pounds of marijuana.
“He was just a quiet guy,” Doughtery said. “He was in the company of some other really bad people. None of these `dons’ were ever overtly aggressive to us.”
The charges against Coke were later dropped after another man said the marijuana was his.
A year or two later, Coke ran into some of the very officers who arrested him. Doughtery was eating in The Ham & Eggery on 167th Street when in walked Coke.
Coke was personable, he said, and even posed for Polaroid pictures with the officers.
In 1987, Coke was deported back to Jamaica despite his efforts to remain in the U.S. Jamaican authorities had accused him of the 12 murders but later dismissed the charges.
On Sept. 28, 1988, Coke was indicted by the U.S. government along with 33 others accused of being members of a violent gang, described in a Herald article as the “largest and most powerful” of 40 Jamaican gangs.
The indictment, which spanned 1984 to 1986, said the gang was directed in Miami by Vivian Blake, now deceased, and from Jamaica by Coke. It blamed the gang for two murder cases in November of 1984, including a quintuple homicide.
It marked the first time the federal RICO law was used in an indictment against Jamaican gangs.
“The leaders of the Shower Posse were very entrepreneurial,” said Lee Stapleton, a former assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted Blake after he was extradited. “They realized not only that Miami was a great staging area for their drug business, but it was a great market and a comfortable place for them to live.”
Coke died before he could return to the U.S. to face charges. He was awaiting extradition in 1992 when there was a fire in his cell block. Officials at the Kingston hospital where his body was taken said he suffered severe burns.
But the father’s legacy lives on in the son — and his alleged criminal enterprises.
“The `parent’ Shower Posse limited most of their violence to drug disputes within the organization and among competitors,” said Stapleton. “The progeny Shower Posse that `Dudus’ has has taken the violence further. . . . the second generation of the Shower Posse seems like the parent Shower Posse on steroids.”
Said Bruce Udolf, a former federal prosecutor who worked on the Coke case in the late 1980s: “They were a very deadly group. We had thought that they had been effectively dismantled. . . . It’s curious to see that there’s another generation out there operating under that same name.”
Miami Herald Staff Writer Jim Wyss, reporting from Kingston, contributed to this report.
The Miami Herald
Posted on Mon, May. 31, 2010
By JENNIFER LEBOVICH AND TRENTON DANIEL
jlebovich@MiamiHerald.com
Jamaican drug king’s father found fertile ground in 1980s Miami.
Read more:
http://vlemxkeepinformed.blogspot.com/2010/05/jamaican-drug-kings-father-found.html#ixzz0pY6xPkFN
Judicial Watch Announces List of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” for 2009
Contact Information:
Press Office 202-646-5172, ext 305
Washington, DC
Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2009 list of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians.” The list, in alphabetical order, includes:
1. Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT): This marks two years in a row for Senator Dodd, who made the 2008 “Ten Most Corrupt” list for his corrupt relationship with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and for accepting preferential treatment and loan terms from Countrywide Financial, a scandal which still dogs him. In 2009, the scandals kept coming for the Connecticut Democrat. In 2009, Judicial Watch filed a Senate ethics complaint against Dodd for undervaluing a property he owns in Ireland on his Senate Financial Disclosure forms. Judicial Watch’s complaint forced Dodd to amend the forms. However, press reports suggest the property to this day remains undervalued. Judicial Watch also alleges in the complaint that Dodd obtained a sweetheart deal for the property in exchange for his assistance in obtaining a presidential pardon (during the Clinton administration) and other favors for a long-time friend and business associate. The false financial disclosure forms were part of the cover-up. Dodd remains the head the Senate Banking Committee.
2. Senator John Ensign (R-NV): A number of scandals popped up in 2009 involving public officials who conducted illicit affairs, and then attempted to cover them up with hush payments and favors, an obvious abuse of power. The year’s worst offender might just be Nevada Republican Senator John Ensign. Ensign admitted in June to an extramarital affair with the wife of one of his staff members, who then allegedly obtained special favors from the Nevada Republican in exchange for his silence. According to The New York Times: “The Justice Department and the Senate Ethics Committee are expected to conduct preliminary inquiries into whether Senator John Ensign violated federal law or ethics rules as part of an effort to conceal an affair with the wife of an aide…” The former staffer, Douglas Hampton, began to lobby Mr. Ensign’s office immediately upon leaving his congressional job, despite the fact that he was subject to a one-year lobbying ban. Ensign seems to have ignored the law and allowed Hampton lobbying access to his office as a payment for his silence about the affair. (These are potentially criminal offenses.) It looks as if Ensign misused his public office (and taxpayer resources) to cover up his sexual shenanigans.
3. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA): Judicial Watch is investigating a $12 million TARP cash injection provided to the Boston-based OneUnited Bank at the urging of Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank. As reported in the January 22, 2009, edition of the Wall Street Journal, the Treasury Department indicated it would only provide funds to healthy banks to jump-start lending. Not only was OneUnited Bank in massive financial turmoil, but it was also “under attack from its regulators for allegations of poor lending practices and executive-pay abuses, including owning a Porsche for its executives’ use.” Rep. Frank admitted he spoke to a “federal regulator,” and Treasury granted the funds. (The bank continues to flounder despite Frank’s intervention for federal dollars.) Moreover, Judicial Watch uncovered documents in 2009 that showed that members of Congress for years were aware that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were playing fast and loose with accounting issues, risk assessment issues and executive compensation issues, even as liberals led by Rep. Frank continued to block attempts to rein in the two Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs). For example, during a hearing on September 10, 2003, before the House Committee on Financial Services considering a Bush administration proposal to further regulate Fannie and Freddie, Rep. Frank stated: “I want to begin by saying that I am glad to consider the legislation, but I do not think we are facing any kind of a crisis. That is, in my view, the two Government Sponsored Enterprises we are talking about here, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not in a crisis. We have recently had an accounting problem with Freddie Mac that has led to people being dismissed, as appears to be appropriate. I do not think at this point there is a problem with a threat to the Treasury.” Frank received $42,350 in campaign contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac between 1989 and 2008. Frank also engaged in a relationship with a Fannie Mae Executive while serving on the House Banking Committee, which has jurisdiction over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
4. Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner: In 2009, Obama Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner admitted that he failed to pay $34,000 in Social Security and Medicare taxes from 2001-2004 on his lucrative salary at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), an organization with 185 member countries that oversees the global financial system. (Did we mention Geithner now runs the IRS?) It wasn’t until President Obama tapped Geithner to head the Treasury Department that he paid back most of the money, although the IRS kindly waived the hefty penalties. In March 2009, Geithner also came under fire for his handling of the AIG bonus scandal, where the company used $165 million of its bailout funds to pay out executive bonuses, resulting in a massive public backlash. Of course as head of the New York Federal Reserve, Geithner helped craft the AIG deal in September 2008. However, when the AIG scandal broke, Geithner claimed he knew nothing of the bonuses until March 10, 2009. The timing is important. According to CNN: “Although Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told congressional leaders on Tuesday that he learned of AIG’s impending $160 million bonus payments to members of its troubled financial-products unit on March 10, sources tell TIME that the New York Federal Reserve informed Treasury staff that the payments were imminent on Feb. 28. That is ten days before Treasury staffers say they first learned ‘full details’ of the bonus plan, and three days before the [Obama] Administration launched a new $30 billion infusion of cash for AIG.” Throw in another embarrassing disclosure in 2009 that Geithner employed “household help” ineligible to work in the United States, and it becomes clear why the Treasury Secretary has earned a spot on the “Ten Most Corrupt Politicians in Washington” list.
5. Attorney General Eric Holder: Tim Geithner can be sure he won’t be hounded about his tax-dodging by his colleague Eric Holder, US Attorney General. Judicial Watch strongly opposed Holder because of his terrible ethics record, which includes: obstructing an FBI investigation of the theft of nuclear secrets from Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory; rejecting multiple requests for an independent counsel to investigate alleged fundraising abuses by then-Vice President Al Gore in the Clinton White House; undermining the criminal investigation of President Clinton by Kenneth Starr in the midst of the Lewinsky investigation; and planning the violent raid to seize then-six-year-old Elian Gonzalez at gunpoint in order to return him to Castro’s Cuba. Moreover, there is his soft record on terrorism. Holder bypassed Justice Department procedures to push through Bill Clinton’s scandalous presidential pardons and commutations, including for 16 members of FALN, a violent Puerto Rican terrorist group that orchestrated approximately 120 bombings in the United States, killing at least six people and permanently maiming dozens of others, including law enforcement officers. His record in the current administration is no better. As he did during the Clinton administration, Holder continues to ignore serious incidents of corruption that could impact his political bosses at the White House. For example, Holder has refused to investigate charges that the Obama political machine traded VIP access to the White House in exchange for campaign contributions – a scheme eerily similar to one hatched by Holder’s former boss, Bill Clinton in the 1990s. The Holder Justice Department also came under fire for dropping a voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party. On Election Day 2008, Black Panthers dressed in paramilitary garb threatened voters as they approached polling stations. Holder has also failed to initiate a comprehensive Justice investigation of the notorious organization ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), which is closely tied to President Obama. There were allegedly more than 400,000 fraudulent ACORN voter registrations in the 2008 campaign. And then there were the journalist videos catching ACORN Housing workers advising undercover reporters on how to evade tax, immigration, and child prostitution laws. Holder’s controversial decisions on new rights for terrorists and his attacks on previous efforts to combat terrorism remind many of the fact that his former law firm has provided and continues to provide pro bono representation to terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. Holder’s politicization of the Justice Department makes one long for the days of Alberto Gonzales.
6. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)/ Senator Roland Burris (D-IL): One of the most serious scandals of 2009 involved a scheme by former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to sell President Obama’s then-vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder. Two men caught smack dab in the middle of the scandal: Senator Roland Burris, who ultimately got the job, and Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, emissaries for Jesse Jackson Jr., named “Senate Candidate A” in the Blagojevich indictment, reportedly offered $1.5 million to Blagojevich during a fundraiser if he named Jackson Jr. to Obama’s seat. Three days later federal authorities arrested Blagojevich. Burris, for his part, apparently lied about his contacts with Blagojevich, who was arrested in December 2008 for trying to sell Obama’s Senate seat. According to Reuters: “Roland Burris came under fresh scrutiny…after disclosing he tried to raise money for the disgraced former Illinois governor who named him to the U.S. Senate seat once held by President Barack Obama…In the latest of those admissions, Burris said he looked into mounting a fundraiser for Rod Blagojevich — later charged with trying to sell Obama’s Senate seat — at the same time he was expressing interest to the then-governor’s aides about his desire to be appointed.” Burris changed his story five times regarding his contacts with Blagojevich prior to the Illinois governor appointing him to the U.S. Senate. Three of those changing explanations came under oath.
7. President Barack Obama: During his presidential campaign, President Obama promised to run an ethical and transparent administration. However, in his first year in office, the President has delivered corruption and secrecy, bringing Chicago-style political corruption to the White House. Consider just a few Obama administration “lowlights” from year one: Even before President Obama was sworn into office, he was interviewed by the FBI for a criminal investigation of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s scheme to sell the President’s former Senate seat to the highest bidder. (Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and slumlord Valerie Jarrett, both from Chicago, are also tangled up in the Blagojevich scandal.) Moreover, the Obama administration made the startling claim that the Privacy Act does not apply to the White House. The Obama White House believes it can violate the privacy rights of American citizens without any legal consequences or accountability. President Obama boldly proclaimed that “transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency,” but his administration is addicted to secrecy, stonewalling far too many of Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act requests and is refusing to make public White House visitor logs as federal law requires. The Obama administration turned the National Endowment of the Arts (as well as the agency that runs the AmeriCorps program) into propaganda machines, using tax dollars to persuade “artists” to promote the Obama agenda. According to documents uncovered by Judicial Watch, the idea emerged as a direct result of the Obama campaign and enjoyed White House approval and participation. President Obama has installed a record number of “czars” in positions of power. Too many of these individuals are leftist radicals who answer to no one but the president. And too many of the czars are not subject to Senate confirmation (which raises serious constitutional questions). Under the President’s bailout schemes, the federal government continues to appropriate or control — through fiat and threats — large sectors of the private economy, prompting conservative columnist George Will to write: “The administration’s central activity — the political allocation of wealth and opportunity — is not merely susceptible to corruption, it is corruption.” Government-run healthcare and car companies, White House coercion, uninvestigated ACORN corruption, debasing his office to help Chicago cronies, attacks on conservative media and the private sector, unprecedented and dangerous new rights for terrorists, perks for campaign donors – this is Obama’s “ethics” record — and we haven’t even gotten through the first year of his presidency.
8. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): At the heart of the corruption problem in Washington is a sense of entitlement. Politicians believe laws and rules (even the U.S. Constitution) apply to the rest of us but not to them. Case in point: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her excessive and boorish demands for military travel. Judicial Watch obtained documents from the Pentagon in 2008 that suggest Pelosi has been treating the Air Force like her own personal airline. These documents, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, include internal Pentagon email correspondence detailing attempts by Pentagon staff to accommodate Pelosi’s numerous requests for military escorts and military aircraft as well as the speaker’s 11th hour cancellations and changes. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also came under fire in April 2009, when she claimed she was never briefed about the CIA’s use of the waterboarding technique during terrorism investigations. The CIA produced a report documenting a briefing with Pelosi on September 4, 2002, that suggests otherwise. Judicial Watch also obtained documents, including a CIA Inspector General report, which further confirmed that Congress was fully briefed on the enhanced interrogation techniques. Aside from her own personal transgressions, Nancy Pelosi has ignored serious incidents of corruption within her own party, including many of the individuals on this list. (See Rangel, Murtha, Jesse Jackson, Jr., etc.)
9. Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) and the rest of the PMA Seven: Rep. John Murtha made headlines in 2009 for all the wrong reasons. The Pennsylvania congressman is under federal investigation for his corrupt relationship with the now-defunct defense lobbyist PMA Group. PMA, founded by a former Murtha associate, has been the congressman’s largest campaign contributor. Since 2002, Murtha has raised $1.7 million from PMA and its clients. And what did PMA and its clients receive from Murtha in return for their generosity? Earmarks — tens of millions of dollars in earmarks. In fact, even with all of the attention surrounding his alleged influence peddling, Murtha kept at it. Following an FBI raid of PMA’s offices earlier in 2009, Murtha continued to seek congressional earmarks for PMA clients, while also hitting them up for campaign contributions. According to The Hill, in April, “Murtha reported receiving contributions from three former PMA clients for whom he requested earmarks in the pending appropriations bills.” When it comes to the PMA scandal, Murtha is not alone. As many as six other Members of Congress are currently under scrutiny according to The Washington Post. They include: Peter J. Visclosky (D-IN.), James P. Moran Jr. (D-VA), Norm Dicks (D-WA.), Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), C.W. Bill Young (R-FL.) and Todd Tiahrt (R-KS.). Of course rather than investigate this serious scandal, according to Roll Call House Democrats circled the wagons, “cobbling together a defense to offer political cover to their rank and file.” The Washington Post also reported in 2009 that Murtha’s nephew received $4 million in Defense Department no-bid contracts: “Newly obtained documents…show Robert Murtha mentioning his influential family connection as leverage in his business dealings and holding unusual power with the military.”
10. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY): Rangel, the man in charge of writing tax policy for the entire country, has yet to adequately explain how he could possibly “forget” to pay taxes on $75,000 in rental income he earned from his off-shore rental property. He also faces allegations that he improperly used his influence to maintain ownership of highly coveted rent-controlled apartments in Harlem, and misused his congressional office to fundraise for his private Rangel Center by preserving a tax loophole for an oil drilling company in exchange for funding. On top of all that, Rangel recently amended his financial disclosure reports, which doubled his reported wealth. (He somehow “forgot” about $1 million in assets.) And what did he do when the House Ethics Committee started looking into all of this? He apparently resorted to making “campaign contributions” to dig his way out of trouble. According to WCBS TV, a New York CBS affiliate: “The reigning member of Congress’ top tax committee is apparently ‘wrangling’ other politicos to get him out of his own financial and tax troubles…Since ethics probes began last year the 79-year-old congressman has given campaign donations to 119 members of Congress, including three of the five Democrats on the House Ethics Committee who are charged with investigating him.” Charlie Rangel should not be allowed to remain in Congress, let alone serve as Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, and he knows it. That’s why he felt the need to disburse campaign contributions to Ethics Committee members and other congressional colleagues.
Caller to the Rush Limbaugh Show, recounts meeting McCain-Palin
September 9, 2008
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Kurt in Pittsburgh, hello, sir. Nice to have you on the EIB Network, and how about the Steelers defense?
CALLER: How about those Steelers, huh?
RUSH: How about that?
CALLER: Hey, listen, Rush, longtime listener, first-time caller, one of those Bible, family, gun clingers from western Pennsylvania.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: And I wanted to share a story with you. A week ago last Saturday we went to the Palin-McCain rally in Washington, Pennsylvania, and we have a five-year-old daughter with Down syndrome, and we made a sign that said: ‘We Love Kids with Down Syndrome.’ So when they pulled in in their bus the sign did catch their, McCain and Palin and the rest of their family, it caught their eye, we could tell, they gave us a thumbs-up from the bus, so we were all excited just by that –
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait. Who gave you the thumbs up, McCain and Palin?
CALLER: McCain, Palin, Cindy McCain, we could see them from the bus. We were in a position where we had eye contact with them –
RUSH: Oh, cool!
CALLER: My wife was holding our daughter.
RUSH: Very, very, very cool.
CALLER: It was really cool, Rush. I was like, ‘Wow, that’s awesome,’ because I love Governor Palin and so I thought that’s really neat. So then we moved around as the bus was getting ready to pull out, we kind of positioned ourselves so we could just wave them on and a Secret Service agent came up to us and said, ‘Hey, can you come with us?’ I was like, ‘Do we have a choice?’
RUSH: (laughing) You shouldn’t have worried. It’s not the Clinton administration.
CALLER: Right. So we accompanied them up the hill, we went right to the bus, where it was, and Governor Palin, Senator McCain, Cindy, Todd Palin, they’re all standing there. We’re in this inner circle with just us and them, and the Secret Service agent, and they came right up to us and thanked us for coming out, said they loved our sign, and Governor Palin immediately said, ‘May I hold your daughter?’ and our daughter Chloe, who’s five, went right to her, and I have some pictures I’d love to send you maybe when I’m done here, but Governor Palin was hugging Chloe, and then her little daughter brought their baby Trig who has Down syndrome from the bus, he was napping, and Chloe went right over and kissed him on the cheek, and my son Nolan who’s nine, he thanked her.
RUSH: This is amazing.
CALLER: I will send you all the stuff, Senator McCain was talking to my son, and we thanked him for his service, and he asked my son if he wanted to see the bus, and we were hanging out and it was very surreal. I felt like we could have had a pizza and a beer with them, they were so warm.
RUSH: You know what? I want to put you on hold. I want Snerdley to give you our super-secret, known-only-to-three-people here, e-mail address.
CALLER: I will send you everything, Rush.
RUSH: And then could you send us these pictures? Would you mind if we put them on the website?
CALLER: I would be honored, and my main thing is they are warm, kind, genuine people, and they represent the best of this country.
RUSH: That’s right. And when you send these pictures, make sure you identify them. I mean, we’ll know Palin and McCain, of course. Identify yourselves.
CALLER: I will, I will identify everybody in the picture, Rush, and God bless you for being a beacon of hope and truth in this country.
RUSH: Oh, no, no. It’s nothing, it’s nothing. You’re doing the Lord’s work.
CALLER: Well, we’re very blessed and I want people to know what a blessing it is to have a child with Down syndrome. These kids, they’re angels.
RUSH: That’s the thing. There’s always good to be found in everything that happens. It may be a while before it reveals itself.
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: Right, and when she hugged my daughter I said, here’s the difference, this candidate embraces life and all its limitless possibilities.
RUSH: All right.
CALLER: That’s what she is.
RUSH: Terrific, okay, I gotta run here, but I’m going to put you on hold.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you, Kurt. I really appreciate it.
END TRANSCRIPT
McCain a Bush clone? These numbers dispute that
John R. Lott Jr. is a senior research scientist at the University of Maryland
Does John McCain represent a third Bush term? The Obama campaign claims the two are almost indistinguishable. It was the mantra during the Democratic convention, and it is the theme of new ads Barack Obama is running. The ads claim that McCain is “no maverick when he votes with Bush 90 percent of the time.”
This week Obama has begun a constant refrain that there is “not a dime worth of difference” between Bush’s and McCain’s views. It is a consistent theme of Democratic pundits on talk shows.
Is this the same McCain who drove Republicans nuts on campaign finance, the environment, taxes, torture, immigration and more? Where has McCain not crossed swords with his own party?
As it’s being used, the 90 percent figure, from Congressional Quarterly, is nonsensical. As Washington Post congressional reporter Jonathan Weisman explained, “The vast majority of those votes are procedural, and virtually every member of Congress votes with his or her leadership on procedural motions.”
Obama might want to be a little careful with these attacks, as the same measure has him voting with Democrats 97 percent of the time.
Fortunately, a number of organizations on the left and right provide useful evaluations on how congressmen and senators vote each year. These conservative and liberal groups pick the votes they care about most and figure out how often lawmakers match up with their positions.
Well-known organizations that rank congressional voting include the American Conservative Union on the right, Americans for Democratic Action on the left, and the nonpartisan National Journal in the middle. The League of Conservation Voters also ranks politicians from an environmentalist position.
These groups’ rankings from 2001 to 2007 paint fairly similar pictures, putting McCain to the left of most Republican senators and to the right of most Democratic senators – though usually much closer to the average Republican.
The American Conservative Union finds that the average Republican senator voted conservatively 85 percent of the time, and that the average Democrat voted conservatively 13 percent of the time. McCain voted conservatively 74 percent of the time.
Although it’s at the opposite end of the political spectrum, Americans for Democratic Action essentially agreed. It found that the average Republican senator voted liberally just over 12 percent of the time, and the average Democrat voted liberally 89 percent of the time. McCain voted liberally 24 percent of the time – twice as frequently as the average Republican.
McCain missed too many votes campaigning in 2007 to be included in the National Journal ranking for that year, but it found that he voted conservatively 59.4 percent of the time from 2001 to 2006.
According to the League of Conservation Voters, John McCain is the ultimate centrist. While the average Republican supported liberal environmentalist positions 13 percent of the time, and the average Democrat supported them 76 percent of the time, McCain’s 44 percent put him in the middle.
Another way to look at these numbers is to see how many of the 99 other senators voted more conservatively than McCain. In 2006, these four groups ranked McCain as the 47th, 46th, 44th and 51st most conservative member of the Senate, respectively. Surely, McCain is not nearly as liberal as the typical Democratic senator, but rankings from the left, middle and right find he is more liberal than the vast majority of Republicans in the Senate.
What issues put McCain well to the left of the average Senate Republican? The American Conservative Union lists a number of specific votes on which he differed from most other Republicans, including:
Taxes. He opposed reducing capital-gains tax rates, eliminating the inheritance tax and lowering income-tax rates.
Environment. He opposed drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, supported compliance with the Kyoto global-warming treaty, supported requiring businesses to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, favored stricter mercury-emission rules for power plants, and supported stricter fuel-efficiency standards.
Other regulations. McCain consistently supported stricter campaign-finance regulations and voted to mandate that handguns be sold only with locks.
A number of these votes were closely contested. Some of McCain’s votes led to a 50-50 deadlock in the Senate, requiring Vice President Cheney to break the tie.
In contrast to the very liberal ratings given to Obama, the interest groups find that there are about as many senators to McCain’s right as there are to his left. This might not endear him to many conservatives or liberals. But it is a real distortion to claim he is a Bush clone.
E-mail John R. Lott Jr. at jlott@umd.edu.
Man convicted in 2 slayings linked to victims’ race
OBAMA’S WOMEN PROBLEM
OBAMA’S WOMEN PROBLEM
By DICK MORRIS
Published on TheHill.com on July 29, 2008.
If soccer moms determined the outcome of the 1996 presidential race and security moms tipped the balance in 2004, it is beginning to look as if older moms are the key to the 2008 contest. Obama has a problem among women over 40 and a big problem among women over 50. These groups, normally the staunchest of Democratic supporters, are showing a propensity to back McCain and a disinclination to support Obama.
According to the latest Fox News survey, Obama is winning among women under 40 by 13 points, but McCain is winning among women aged 41-45 by four points. Among women 50 and over, McCain is three points ahead. Obama’s 48-35 lead among women under 40 is normal for a Democrat, but to trail among women in their 40s by 45-41 and by women over 50 by 38-35 is extraordinary.
The problem is that older women don’t like Obama as much as younger women do. While 70 percent of women under 40 have a favorable opinion of the Democratic candidate, only 58 percent of women in their 40s feel the same way, and only 52 percent of those over 50 see him favorably.
For a Democrat to be losing among women over 40 is without precedent in the past 20 years.
In fact, the gap between male and female voting preference in this election is far lower than it normally is. Among people under 40, men back Obama by eight points and women support him by 13. Among those in their 40s, men back McCain by 11 points and women support him by four. And for those over 50, men vote for the Republican by a nine-point margin while women prefer him by three points.
Usually, the gender gap runs at least 10 points in each age group and, more usually, averages a 15-point differential. The lower gap in this race does not indicate any special popularity for McCain or negatives on Obama among men. Men are voting the way they usually do. It’s women who are making the big difference and keeping this race tied.
Part of the problem may stem from Obama’s defeat of Hillary Clinton during the primaries. Hillary drew her strongest support from older women who still remembered the sexism of their youth and their struggles to pierce the glass ceiling. For younger women, sexism has much less personal relevance and they were less drawn to her candidacy.
But a bigger problem may be a cultural alienation older white women feel toward Obama. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright may linger as a worry in their increasingly gray heads as they contemplate an Obama presidency. This fear of the unknown and the gap they seem to feel with Obama is so strong that it is overcoming their normal proclivity to back Democrats.
Of course, McCain is a uniquely attractive candidate to the Democratic and independent base. Long regarded as a maverick Republican, he attracts these swing voters and is ideally positioned to exploit the estrangement between older women and Barack Obama.
Would choosing Hillary as a running mate assuage the concerns of older white women? It might.
They could get enthusiastic, one would think, about seeing a woman sitting a few feet away from the president in the Oval Office (again!).
But Hillary would bring with her a different set of problems. Her candidacy would invite scrutiny of Bill’s financial dealings, most recently exposed in The Wall Street Journal’s coverage of the incredible corruption of his buddy the president of Kazakhstan.
The problem is Obama. And it can only be solved by Obama, not by his running mate. For his part, McCain should take dead aim at this demographic, perhaps by selecting a female running mate who would appeal to them.
The current favorite, Mitt Romney, does him no earthly good with these folks, and his Mormonism is likely to be a big turnoff. But McCain could choose Condi Rice or any number of other Republican women (like Kay Bailey Hutchison, the Texas senator) and attract these dissident women.
Go to DickMorris.com to read all of Dick’s columns!
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Report: Murder Suspect Was Protected By SF Sanctuary Policy
Presidential Elections 2008
We The People — Send a letter to Congress
We The People — Send a letter to Congress
House Hikes Energy Taxes on Americans, Gives Tax Breaks to Venezuelan Dictator Hugo Chavez
Urge Your Senators to Vote “No” on H.R. 5351!
Arab-American Activist Says Obama Hiding Anti-Israel Stance – Politics & Government – Israel News – Arutz Sheva
Obama: ‘Outrageously wrong’ to reprint Hamas manifesto
OBAMA
“On one end of the spectrum, weve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that its based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, weve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.
I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as Im sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.”
Now after everyone has either read or heard this speech, this writer has drawn a conclusion.
On March 18, 2008 Mr. Obama said the following to Major Garrett on FNC:
Garrett: I want to ask you a set of basic, sort of threshold questions about your faith experience at Trinity United Church of Christ because I think they will help Americans understand the story. So, the first question: How long have you been a member in good standing of that church?
Obama: You know, I’ve been a member since 1991 or ’92, and… but I’d known Trinity even before then when I was a community organizer on the south side helping steelworkers find jobs, and we were organizing with churches and trying to recruit folks to get involved in that process. Trinity was one of the churches that we tried to get involved in some of these community projects.
Garrett: As a member in good standing, were you a regular attendee of Sunday services?
Obama: I won’t say that I was a perfect attendee. I was regular in spurts because there were times where… For example, our child had just been born, our first child, and so we didn’t go as regularly then.
Garrett: When you attended, sir, when you attended did you donate frequently?
Obama: Yes.
Garrett: OK. Were you and Michelle married there and did Rev. Wright preside?
Obama: Yes.
Garrett: Were your two daughters baptized there and did Rev. Wright preside over the baptisms?
Obama: That is correct, Major.
Garrett establishes that Obama has a long, close connection with Wright and his church.
Wright and that church is an integral part of the lives of Obama and his family.
Obama gave money to support Wright and Trinity United Church of Christ.
Garrett: Very good. I wanted to talk to you about your statement released this afternoon because earlier today when I contacted your campaign and I asked them if there was any way the campaign felt the need to add further context, add further distance between yourself and the statements of Rev. Wright, the one word answer I received was ‘No.’
Then late this afternoon, you have a statement that says, ‘I vehemently disagree,’ ‘strongly condemn.’ I’m trying to understand the evolution between this morning and this afternoon. I’d like to know specifically, Senator, what you vehemently disagree with and what you strongly condemn.
Obama: Well, Major, I gotta confess that as you know I was voting in the Senate all day yesterday, so I wasn’t following this story as carefully as I could have been and then I flew back to Chicago. When I saw these statments, many of which I had heard for the first time, then I thought it was important to make a very clear and unequivocal statement.
None of these statements were ones that I had heard myself personally in the pews. One of them I had heard about after I had started running for president and I put out a statement at that time condemning them.
The other statements were ones that I just heard about while we were… when they started being run on FOX and some of the other stations. And so they weren’t things that I was familiar with. Once I saw them I had to be very clear about the fact that these are not statements that I am comfortable with. I reject them completely. They are not ones that reflect my values or my ideals, or Michelle’s; and that had I heard them, had I been sitting in the church at the time that they were spoken, I would have been absolutely clear to Rev. Wright that I didn’t find those acceptable.
The excuses are priceless.
Obama saying that he was voting all day on Thursday so he didn’t know about this is an absolute joke.
It’s impossible to believe that he didn’t know there was a controversy. It’s inconceivable.
It is conceivable that Obama is lying and doing a bad job of it.
I think it’s interesting that Obama says Wright’s statements don’t reflect his values and they don’t reflect Michelle’s values. Obama went out of his way to do damage control for Michelle. That was no accident.
Wright and Michelle sound like they’re on the exact same page, divisive and angry and down on America.
Garrett: Sir, would you have quit the church had you heard them personally?
Obama: You know, I guess, keep in mind that just to provide more context, this is somebody who I’d known for 20 years. Pastor Wright had been a pastor for 30 years. He’s an ex-Marine. He is somebody who is a Biblical scholar, has spoken at theological seminaries all across the country from the University of Chicago to Hampton. And so he is a well-regarded preacher, and somebody who is known for talking about the social gospel.
But most of the time when I’m in church, he’s talking about Jesus, God, faith, values, caring for the poor, family. Those were the messages that I was hearing. And so, you know, I think that the statements that have been strung together are compiled out of hundreds of sermons that he delivered over the course his lifetime. But, obviously, they are ones that are, from my perspective, completely unacceptable and inexcusable.
And if I had thought that was the tenor or tone on an ongoing basis of his sermons, then yes, I don’t think that it would’ve been reflective of my values or my faith experience.
Obama says, “Most of the time when I’m in church, he’s talking about Jesus, God, faith….”
“Most of the time”? What about the rest of the time? What has Obama heard Wright say?
Obama points out that Wright is an ex-Marine. How lame!
That doesn’t matter. Wright spews hate. He’s divisive and racist and says outrageous things about America.
Who cares that he’s an ex-Marine? That doesn’t give him a pass to preach such ugliness. Given Wright’s remarks, it’s hard to imagine that he was a Marine and served our country.
Obama notes that Wright is a Biblical scholar. Really? He must be a bad one. The things Wright says don’t sound very Christian. He sounds like he’s trying to incite a riot.
On what planet is the hateful Wright a “well-regarded preacher”?
He talks about Jesus and the poor. Fine. He also talks about God “damning” America.
Garrett: So quick yes or no, if you had heard them in person you would have quit.
Obama: If I had heard them repeated, I would’ve quit. I mean obviously, understand that, understand that, this is somebody who is like an uncle, if you have…, to me. He’s somebody who helped me find Christ. And somebody who always talked to me in very powerful ways about relationship to God and our obligations to the poor. If somebody makes a mistake, then obviously, you recognize I make mistakes. We all make mistakes. If I thought that that was the repeated tenor of the church then I wouldn’t feel comfortable there, but frankly that has not been my experience at Trinity United Church of Christ.
The old uncle stuff again — good grief.
We know the tenor of the Trinity United Church of Christ.
We also know that Obama has felt comfortable there for 20 years.
Garrett: In the time we have remaining, you said that in your statement today, ‘When I first heard these I was beginning my campaign,’ yet you did not begin your campaign on December 4, 2007, when in a press release your campaign announced that Rev. Wright was a part of a, quote unquote, African-American religious leadership committee. I’d like you to try to help me understand the inconsistency there, because obviously if you knew about them at the beginning of your campaign and you put him on this committee later you would have been aware.
Obama: No, no. Wait, wait, Major. I didn’t know about all these statements. I knew about one or two statements that had been made and as a consequence, as I said, if it was just a function of one or two statements, then that’s not something that would lead me to distance myself from either my church or my pastor. And if I was gonna have a committee talking about faith issues, which we’ve been very active in doing all across the country, reaching out to evangelicals and talking to the church communities all across the country, it would not make sense if my own pastor wasn’t on that committee.
——– Now I will keep to this statement:
“None of these statements were ones that I had heard myself personally in the pews. One of them I had heard about after I had started running for president and I put out a statement at that time condemning them.” Says Obama
This writer’s conclusion is that Obama is a liar throughout his statement.
And that we should only vote for him because he is black. Thereby stopping or putting to an end the racism he sees in America.
The Hooker Beat
Live from New Yourl:
http://collect.myspace.com/music/popup.cfm?num=0&time=undefined&fid=69041220&uid=1&t=3fTq88kw6Wu3Zrbt0oRfiz5W9PjuwSU5i50rT2Lx6joN6aBUcfKbg6XKEhJdjLE wBsfFGxNyUk98G040adg8A==d=NjkwNDEyMjBeMTIwNTQzNDA1OA==
David A. Paterson
Did you know:
Is legally blind,
The first non-white legislative leader in New York’s history,
New York’s first African-American lieutenant governor.
Paterson is a proponent of embryonic stem cell research.
In February 2008, a U.S. District Judge denied a motion to dismiss a $1.5 million racial discrimination lawsuit naming Paterson. A former staff photographer claims that in 2005 Paterson’s office replaced him with an African American because he is white. According to the New York Post, Paterson’s chief of staff “denied the claim… Paterson, in his deposition, countered that the decision… was simple politics – [the photographer] was a holdover from former Minority Leader Marty Connor, who was ousted by Paterson in 2003
What a world!
‘Dream Ticket’ Is Anything But For Principals
Plainly irritated by the suggestion that he might need, or accept, a favor from his rival, Obama said Monday, “I don’t know how somebody who’s in second place (in delegates and popular votes) is offering the vice presidency to somebody who’s in first place.”
Send them both back to the Senate!
WZZM13 – President Bush vows to veto restrictions on Christian broadcasting
Soft Power
Election ’08: A radical foreign-policy adviser to Barack Obama — flushed from the shadows after calling Hillary a name — speaks volumes about her enigmatic boss and his worldview.
Samantha J. Power, a Harvard professor and author, was in line to be Obama’s national security adviser or secretary of state before calling Clinton a ruthless “monster.” The “gaffe” led to her resignation from his campaign. While she may be gone (for now), her ideas have left an indelible imprint on Obama.
Obama can pick them.
Power, like Obama, believes America will be more secure in the world and face fewer threats if it practices “human security.” Voters should be warned: That means turning the war on terror into global social work.
The Al-Qaida Caucus
Obama, whose foreign policy consists of talking to our enemies while bombing our allies, told the assembled veterans at the VFW Convention in Kansas City last year, “All our top military commanders recognize that there is no military solution in Iraq.”
Except, of course, for Gen. David Petraeus.
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=290041110746868
Iran fomenting violence in Iraq, U.S. says – Los Angeles Times
Steve King, Republican Congressman: Al-Qaida Will Be “Dancing In The Streets” If “Hussein” Obama Wins – Politics on The Huffington Post#postComment
Thought of the day
Islam spelled backwards is Malsi=Mal = Evil in Latin, Spanish, and a couple other languages.
si=yes in spanish
Coincidence – House Democrats Get Letters With Picture Of Recruiting Station Before New York Bombing : Homeland Security National Terror Alert – Homeland Security News
Radio host Michael Savage’s suit against Islamic group in court
Breitbart.tv » ‘Why Are You So Angry?’: McCain Gets Testy Over NYT Reporter’s Inquiry
Breitbart.tv » ‘Why Are You So Angry?’: McCain Gets Testy Over NYT Reporter’s Inquiry
Not angry but right!
