POLLS SHOW CATHOLICS WILL VOTE FOR McCAIN

The Catholics this blogger knows can use any code words they want such as BARACK OBAMA is "too arrogant," "too elitist," "too skinny," "too whatever," but what it boils down to is for many, many Catholics this Catholic knows BARACK OBAMA is TOO BLACK.

PERIOD.

Comment by BILL CORCORAN, editor of CORKSPHERE

THE REST OF THIS BLOG REPORT COMES FROM A RIGHT WING BLOG SITE

Catholics Opting for McCain

August 9th, 2008 at 06:07am Mark Noonan
http://blogsforvictory.com/2008/08/09/catholics-opting-for-mccain/

Social issues are driving it:

The latest Associated TV/Zogby International poll reports a significant change in Catholic support for the leading presumptive presidential nominees of both major U.S. political parties. Zogby analyst Fritz Wenzel explains that the shift amongst Catholics is due to increased concern about “social values.”

In mid-July, Catholics polled by Zogby International favored Democratic Sen. Barack Obama by 11 percent. The latest poll now shows they favor Republican Sen. John McCain by a margin of 50 to 34 percent.

Zogby International said in a Tuesday press release that McCain leads Obama among all voters by 42 to 41 percent, as measured by a telephone poll of 1,011 likely voters. The poll, commissioned by Associated TV and conducted from July 31 to August 1, claims a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

On the other hand, an Associated Press/Ipsos poll conducted between July 31 and August 4 finds Catholic support evenly divided between both candidates.

Fritz Wenzel, a Zogby Polling Analyst, gave CNA a statistical breakdown of the 269 Catholic respondents’ answers.

About fifty percent of the Catholics favored McCain, while 34 percent favored Obama. Twelve percent were undecided, while two and one percent favored third-party candidates Bob Barr and Ralph Nader, respectively.

“Catholics vote largely on a set of conservative values and on social values. On social values McCain has a natural advantage because of his pro-life stance, compared to Obama’s pro-choice stance,” Wenzel told CNA.

“This is a dominant issue in voting for Catholics because of the balance of the Supreme Court. The other issues are also important. When you start thinking about the conditions in the Iraq War, that was a concern for Catholics earlier. It’s becoming less so, so voters are turning to other, more domestic concerns.”

BELOW ARE NOT THE COMMENTS OF BILL CORCORAN, EDITOR OF CORKSPHERE, BUT COMMENTS FROM A RADICAL RIGHT-WING BLOGGER

The push is rapidly coming to a shove and I think that, in the end, a very large majority of devout Catholics will give their votes to John McCain.

There’s just too much riding on this election to think that Obama is the man for the times. While a lot of Catholics very much want large increases in social spending (heck, in a way even I do - though I don’t want to pour it into the failed, liberal programs; I have other ideas), with the Supreme Court in the balance and the Culture of Life poised for some real victories under continued Republican government, the thought of a few more billion for social spending drops in the scales of relative values. Lets first save life, then we can worry about what to do with the life once here.

There is also in Obama that very off-putting arrogance and self-centeredness. While we’re not better than anyone else, there is in Catholic attitude a demand of humility, and the higher you go the more humble we want you to be. As Obama rises, so does his ego, and Pride isn’t a deadly sin for nothing, you know?

All in all, this year is shaping up to have a lot of surpises in store, and the fact that the Catholic vote might go decisively for McCain - and perhaps hand him the White House - is just one of a dozen oddities…but it is good that my fellow Catholics are wise to the needs of the day.

WHITE HOUSE STATIONERY ORDERED FAKE 9/11 LETTER THAT LED TO IRAQ WAR: CHENEY LIKELY SUSPECT

Tape: Top CIA official confesses order to forge Iraq-9/11 letter came on White House stationery

08/08/2008 @ 8:38 pmFiled by John Byrne
http://rawstory.com//printstory.php?story=11877

In damning transcript, ex-CIA official says Cheney likely ordered letter linking Hussein to 9/11 attacks

A forged letter linking Saddam Hussein to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks was ordered on White House stationery and probably came from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a new transcript of a conversation with the Central Intelligence Agency's former Deputy Chief of Clandestine Operations Robert Richer.

The transcript was posted Friday by author Ron Suskind of an interview conducted in June. It comes on the heels of denials by both the White House and Richer of a claim Suskind made in his new book, The Way of The World. The book was leaked to Politico's Mike Allen on Monday, and released Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the White House released a statement on Richer's behalf. In it, Richer declared, "I never received direction from George Tenet or anyone else in my chain of command to fabricate a document ... as outlined in Mr. Suskind's book."

The denial, however, directly contradicts Richer's own remarks in the transcript.
"Now this is from the Vice President's Office is how you remembered it--not from the president?" Suskind asked.

"No, no, no," Richer replied, according to the transcript. "What I remember is George [Tenet] saying, 'we got this from'--basically, from what George said was 'downtown.'"
"Which is the White House?" Suskind asked.

"Yes," Richer said. "But he did not--in my memory--never said president, vice president, or NSC. Okay? But now--he may have hinted--just by the way he said it, it would have--cause almost all that stuff came from one place only: Scooter Libby and the shop around the vice president."

"But he didn't say that specifically," Richer added. "I would naturally--I would probably stand on my, basically, my reputation and say it came from the vice president."

"But there wasn't anything in the writing that you remember saying the vice president," Suskind continued.
"Nope," Richer said.
"It just had the White House stationery."
"Exactly right."

Later, Richer added, "You know, if you've ever seen the vice president's stationery, it's on the White House letterhead. It may have said OVP (Office of the Vice President). I don't remember that, so I don't want to mislead you."

Suskind says decision to post transcript unusual
Suskind posted the transcript at his blog, saying, "This posting is contrary to my practice across 25 years as a journalist. But the issues, in this matter, are simply too important to stand as discredited in any way." It was first picked up by ThinkProgress and Congressional Quarterly's Jeff Stein.

Suskind's new book asserts that senior Bush officials ordered the CIA to forge a document "proving" that Saddam Hussein had been trying to manufacture nuclear weapons and was collaborating with al Qaeda. The alleged result was a faked memorandum from then chief of Saddam's intelligence service Tahir Jalil Habbush dated July 1, 2001, and written to Hussein.
The bogus memo claimed that 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta had received training in Baghdad but also discussed the arrival of a "shipment" from Niger, which the Administration claimed had supplied Iraq with yellowcake uranium -- based on yet another forged document whose source remains uncertain.

The memo subsequently was treated as fact by the British Sunday Telegraph, and cited by William Safire in his New York Times column, providing fodder for Bush's efforts to take the US to war.

The Sunday Telegraph cited the main source for its story on Iraq's 9/11 involvement as Ayad Allawi, a former Baathist who rebelled against Saddam and was appointed a government position after the US occupation.

Nothing in the story explains how an Iraqi politician was privy to the fake memo, but the New York Times column alluded to Allawi and described him as "an Iraqi leader long considered reliable by intelligence agencies."

"To characterize it right," Richer also declares in the transcript, "I would say, right: it came to us, George had a raised eyebrow, and basically we passed it on--it was to--and passed this on into the organization. You know, it was: 'Okay, we gotta do this, but make it go away.' To be honest with you, I don't want to make it sound--I for sure don't want to portray this as George jumping: 'Okay, this has gotta happen.' As I remember it--and, again, it's still vague, so I'll be very straight with you on this--is it wasn't that important. It was: 'This is unbelievable. This is just like all the other garbage we get about . . . I mean Mohammad Atta and links to al Qaeda. 'Rob,' you know, 'do something with this.' I think it was more like that than: 'Get this done.'"
Magazine asserts Feith created bogus document

Today, The American Conservative also published a report saying that the forgery was actually produced by then-Defense Undersecretary Douglas Feith's Office of Special Plans, citing an unnamed intelligence source. The source reportedly added that Suskind’s overall claim “is correct."

"My source also notes that Dick Cheney, who was behind the forgery, hated and mistrusted the Agency and would not have used it for such a sensitive assignment," the magazine wrote.
"Instead, he went to Doug Feith’s Office of Special Plans and asked them to do the job. … It was Feith’s office that produced the letter and then surfaced it to the media in Iraq. Unlike the [Central Intelligence] Agency, the Pentagon had no restrictions on it regarding the production of false information to mislead the public. Indeed, one might argue that Doug Feith’s office specialized in such activity."

More of Suskind's transcripts are available here.

AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE REPORTER SAYS IT WAS CHENEY WHO WANTED LETTER FORGED THAT LED TO WAR WITH IRAQ

American Conservative: It was Feith’s office, not CIA, that forged the Habbush letter.

Ron Suskind’s new book alleges that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein linking the dictator to the 9/11 terrorists.

The American Conservative’s Philip Giraldi argues today that “an extremely reliable and well placed source in the intelligence community” told him Suskind’s overall claim “is correct,” but that it was Douglas Feith’s Office of Special Plans — not the CIA — that forged the letter:
My source also notes that Dick Cheney, who was behind the forgery, hated and mistrusted the Agency and would not have used it for such a sensitive assignment.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/07/american-conservative-it-was-feiths-office-not-cia-that-forged-the-habbush-letter/

Instead, he went to Doug Feith’s Office of Special Plans and asked them to do the job. … It was Feith’s office that produced the letter and then surfaced it to the media in Iraq. Unlike the [Central Intelligence] Agency, the Pentagon had no restrictions on it regarding the production of false information to mislead the public. Indeed, one might argue that Doug Feith’s office specialized in such activity.

A CIA counterrorism expert said that, in the run-up to war, Feith’s office recommended that the CIA’s finding of no link between Iraq al Qaeda relations “be ignored. Not challenged, not made the subject of a critical dialogue between policymakers and analysts, but ignored.”

VOICE OF AMERICA REPORTS: U.S.-LED FORCES KILL 4 WOMEN AND 1 CHILD IN AFGHANISTAN

Afghanistan Coalition Says 4 Women, Child Killed in Offensive Against Militants

By VOA News 08 August 2008
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-08-08-voa14.cfm

U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan say Friday they inadvertently killed four women and a child while battling militants in central Afghanistan.

Ghazni Province, AfghanistanA U.S. military spokeswoman, Lieutenant Colonel Rumi Nelson-Green, says the civilians were killed Thursday as troops moved in on a key Taliban militant in the Giro district of central Ghazni province.

She says armed militants threatened coalition forces, which responded with small-arms fire, killing several Taliban as well as the women and the child. Three militants were arrested.

The U.S. military called the deaths "inadvertent" and promised a full investigation.

CNN REPORTS: IRAQ BOMBING KILLS 21: TWO MARINES DIE

The Olympics and the John Edwards' affair have not stopped the violence in Iraq as another attack took place on Friday killing 21.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A bombing at a crowded outdoor market in northern Iraq on Friday killed 21 people and wounded 50 others, according to police.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/08/08/iraq.main/index.html

Nineveh provincial police said the parked car bomb went off in Tal Afar, west of Mosul. There has been violence in Tal Afar throughout the Iraq war, and U.S. and Iraqi troops in Nineveh province have been taking on al Qaeda in Iraq there.

Also Friday, the U.S. military announced that two Marines died in a noncombat-related incident near Karma on Thursday in Anbar province.

Nine American troops have died in Iraq so far this month -- two in combat and the others in vehicle accidents and other noncombat incidents.

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE UNDER REPORTS BATTLEFIELD CASUALTIES

Veterans for Common Sense http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ has uncovered a glaring and sickening error in the way the Department of Defense reports battlefield casualties from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Department of Defense reports more than 78,000 battlefield casualty statistics for both Iraq and Afghanistan. While casualties in Iraq appear to be decreasing, casualties in Afghanistan continue rising.

During July 2008, the U.S. military reported 800 battlefield casualties. The monthly average number of casualties per month for both wars is approximately 900. A battlefield casualty is defined as killed, wounded, injured, or ill whiled deployed to the war zone.

The injured and ill are counted only if they are medically evacuated out of the country due to serious conditions. These figures are for the military only.

The most recent Department of Veterans Affairs report indicates 325,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran patients treated in VA hospitals and clinics.

DoD Fact Sheet: Impact of Iraq and Afghanistan Wars
Updated by Veterans for Common Sense on August 6, 2008

78,048 Total U.S. Military Battlefield Casualties Through August 2, 2008

Casualty Category
Iraq War
Afghanistan War
Both Wars
Deaths
4,122
561
4,683
Wounded in Action
30,490
2,309
32,799
Medically Evacuated Due to Injury or Disease
33,529
7,037
40,566
Total Casualties
68,141
9,907
78,048

Sources: Department of Defense: Afghanistan War (Operation Enduring Freedom, OEF), Casualties from Oct. 7, 2001, through Aug. 2, 2008; Iraq War (Operation Iraqi Freedom, OIF), Casualties from Mar. 19, 2003, through Aug. 2, 2008; DoD Contingency Tracking System, through Mar. 31, 2008.

CHEBOYGAN, MICHIGAN PARENTS WATCH VIDEO OF SON KILLED BY SNIPER FIRE IN AFGHANISTAN.

500: Deadly US Milestone in Afghan War

Kirk Semple and Andrew W. Lehren
The New York Times
Aug 07, 2008

http://tinyurl.com/6hztt3

August 6, 2008 - Not long after Staff Sgt. Matthew D. Blaskowski was killed by a sniper’s bullet last Sept. 23 in eastern Afghanistan, his mother received an e-mail message with a link to a video on the Internet.

A television reporter happened to have been filming a story at Sergeant Blaskowski's small mountain outpost when it came under fire and the sergeant was shot.Since then, Sergeant Blaskowski's parents, Cheryl and Terry Blaskowski of Cheboygan, Mich., have watched their 27-year-old son die over and over. Ms. Blaskowski has taken breaks from work to watch it on her computer, sometimes several times a day, studying her son's last movements."Anything to be closer," she said. "To see what could have been different, how it —" the bullet — "happened to find him."For months, the Blaskowskis felt alone in watching their son die in an isolated and nearly forgotten war.

And then, in June, the war in Afghanistan roared back into public view when American deaths from hostilities exceeded those in Iraq. In the face of an expanding threat from the Taliban, the conflict is becoming deadlier and much more violent for American troops, who three weeks ago reached their highest deployment levels ever, at 36,000.June was the second deadliest month for the military in Afghanistan since the war began, with 23 American deaths from hostilities, compared with 22 in Iraq. July was less deadly, with 20 deaths, compared with six in Iraq.

On July 22, nearly seven years after the conflict began on Oct. 7, 2001, the United States lost its 500th soldier in the Afghanistan war.

Click on this link to read rest of New York Times story: http://tinyurl.com/6hztt3

SEAN HANNITY AND RUSH LIMBAUGH CAUGHT USING RACE RE OBAMA

Ask yourself this. Why do the BIGGEST names in broadcasting keep reminding viewers and listeners that Barack Obama is Black?

Could it have anything to do with their own racism and the racist audience that view and listen to their programs?

Is the Pope a Catholic?

SOURCE: MEDIA MATTERS: http://mediamatters.org/items/200808070009?lid=501616&rid=12228022

Sean Hannity falsely claimed "Obama can't point to a single instance in which ... Sean Hannity or talk radio" has "made an issue of Obama's race"

Summary: On his radio show, Sean Hannity said that Sen. Barack Obama "can't point to a single instance in which President Bush or McCain or Karl Rove or Sean Hannity or talk radio or any other major Republican has made an issue of Obama's race." In fact, Hannity asserted on the March 2 edition of Hannity's America: "As more is learned about Barack Obama's positions, his past, and his affiliations, it seems that the 'change' candidate has all the same problems with race as those before him," and later added, "It's only fair to ask: Do the Obamas have a race problem of their own?"

Media Matters has also documented numerous examples of other radio and TV personalities making "an issue of Obama's race."

Four days after falsely suggesting that no "prominent Republican" has "said that [Sen. Barack Obama] is not patriotic, or that he's got a funny name," Sean Hannity claimed on the August 4 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program that Obama "can't point to a single instance in which President Bush or [Sen. John] McCain or [former White House senior adviser] Karl Rove or Sean Hannity or talk radio or any other major Republican has made an issue of Obama's race." In fact, as Media Matters for America noted, Hannity asserted on the March 2 edition of Fox News' Hannity's America: "As more is learned about Barack Obama's positions, his past, and his affiliations, it seems that the 'change' candidate has all the same problems with race as those before him," and later added, "It's only fair to ask: Do the Obamas have a race problem of their own?"

Hannity has also repeatedly distorted what Michelle Obama wrote in her 1985 Princeton University senior thesis, taking the following phrase from the thesis out of context to suggest that she has divisive views of race: "because of the belief that Blacks must join in solidarity to combat a White oppressor." As Media Matters documented, the full paragraph in the thesis makes clear that Obama was purporting to document attitudes among black Princeton alumni who attended the school in the '70s, and not asserting her own views.
Media Matters has also documented numerous examples of other radio and TV personalities making "an issue of Obama's race."

Radio host Rush Limbaugh:
On the June 2 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio program, while discussing Obama's presidential candidacy, Limbaugh asserted that the Democratic Party was "go[ing] with a veritable rookie whose only chance of winning is that he's black."

On May 21, Limbaugh said that "Barack Obama is an affirmative action candidate." Speaking about 'feminazis,' " Limbaugh asserted: "They forgot affirmative action for black guys. And because of that, every bit of their plan has gone up in smoke now, because they -- if -- they had to come out in favor of affirmative action for black guys, and that's -- see, this is one of the things that really irritates the women. And there are women all over this country fit to be tied -- trust me on this. ... [L]iberals eventually are going to be devoured by their own policies. And it has happened here. Because Barack Obama is an affirmative action candidate." He concluded, "So, it's just -- they just forgot that one thing: affirmative action for black guys. And if they had remembered to oppose that, then they wouldn't face the situation they face today."

Limbaugh stated during his May 14 broadcast that "[i]f Barack Obama were Caucasian, they would have taken this guy out on the basis of pure ignorance long ago."

On the January 24, 2007, edition of his radio show, Limbaugh referred to Obama and actress Halle Berry as "Halfrican American[s]," stating that "Barack Obama has picked up another endorsement: Halfrican American actress Halle Berry." Limbaugh then said: " 'As a Halfrican American, I am honored to have Ms. Berry's support, as well as the support of other Halfrican Americans,' Obama said." Limbaugh then conceded that Obama "didn't say it."

Fox News contributor Monica Crowley:
Guest-hosting the June 23 broadcast of Talk Radio Network's The Laura Ingraham Show, Crowley forwarded a wholly unsubstantiated smear that Obama has lied about his ethnicity. A caller to the show claimed that Obama is "not really African-American. He's Arab. Forty-three percent Arab, 6 percent African negro, and half white. And that is the biggest fraud being perpetrated on us all." In response, Crowley said that "according to this genealogy -- and again, because I haven't done the research, I can't verify this -- but according to this guy Kenneth Lamb, Barack Obama is not black African, he is Arab African." Crowley continued: "And yet, this guy is campaigning as black and painting anybody who dares to criticize him as a racist. I mean, that is -- it is the biggest con I think I've ever seen."

Radio hosts Melanie Morgan and Brian Sussman
On the December 4, 2006, broadcast of San Francisco radio station KSFO's Sussman, Morgan & Vic, in speaking to a co-host -- apparently Sussman -- Morgan referred to Obama as an, "as you call, 'Halfrican.' " Sussman responded, "Halfrican ... his father was from Kenya, his mother's white." He added that, "in my opinion -- 'cause my opinion is your average white guy," Obama "is not allowed to wear the African-American badge because his family are not the descendants of slaves, OK? He can't identify with the discrimination and the slavery and all of that that's gone into these black families for generations."

Sussman also said, "I have ... nothing against mixed-race people," but later added, "I get offended and I know I have many black friends who get offended when he [Obama] stands in front of that black audience talking like he's from the hood, born and raised, and ... can identify with all of their issues. He can't!"

Radio host and former FOX NEWS "Big Story" host John Gibson:
On the June 6 edition of his Fox News Radio show, Gibson said to a caller who spoke favorably of Obama: "You don't know what Barack Obama stands for. You just like him because he's -- he's -- he's like you and you want to see one of you up there, and you don't care what he stands for." The caller responded: "[H]e's not one of me. ... He's not one of me just because he's a black guy or something like that. That doesn't make him one of me. He's standing for him, not me."

During the April 9 broadcast of his radio show, Gibson told a caller, "[Y]ou are the third or fourth caller in a row who is -- has identified yourself to [associate producer] Christine as African-American. And when I talk to you, you obviously are smart, well-educated, well-read, and all that, and I think that your loyalty to Obama here is an issue that goes beyond the issues." When the caller asserted, "No, it's not -- it's not beyond the issues," Gibson said, "It is a racial solidarity bond you have with Obama. Tell me -- I dare you to deny that." Moments later, Gibson added: "You're sticking with Obama, because he's ... he's a brother." Gibson also asserted about Obama: "He is lying to your face but he knows you are so -- you so identify with him on the basis of race, you will not even see the lies."

CNN Headline News host Glenn Beck:
On the February 12, 2007, broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Beck featured Philadelphia-based conservative radio host Dom Giordano, who claimed that "the mainstream media has dubbed [Obama] to be African-American" and said, "If you start to, you know, delve around the edges, say, 'Wait a minute, isn't he mixed race? Weren't we told that last year?' Or whatever, biracial. Not allowed to say that anymore." Beck responded by saying "he's very white in many ways," adding, "Gee, can I even say that? Can I even say that without somebody else starting a campaign saying, 'What does he mean, "He's very white?" ' He is. He's very white."
After the interview, Beck attempted to clarify his comments to executive producer and head writer of The Glenn Beck Program, Steve Burguiere, who is known on- air as "Stu." Beck claimed that Obama "is colorless," adding that "as a white guy ... [y]ou don't notice that he is black. So he might as well be white, you know what I mean?" In addition, Beck said: "I guarantee you, there will be blogs today that will have me being a racist because I say that."

On the January 25 edition of his CNN Headline News program, Beck asserted: "[I]f [Sen.] Hillary Clinton wants to be consistent, I believe, affirmative action, she should give Barack Obama an additional five percentage points just for the years of oppression."
From the August 5 broadcast of ABC Radio Networks' The Sean Hannity Show:
HANNITY: But I think they made a real tactical mistake here by playing the race card the way they did. It's -- because Senator McCain has gone out of his way not to do this. You know, they're making the argument that Obama is a risky choice for president. And that is the right argument to make because he doesn't have experience. And after all, if Obama had his way, we would already have been defeated in Iraq. We would have lost a major war. That's a risky experiment.

You know, when Obama says they're going to scare Americans by saying that he doesn't look like all those presidents on dollar bills, he can't mean anything other than race. In fact, Obama tipped his hand when he said it back in June: "Oh, and did I mention he's black?"

Obama can't point to a single instance in which President Bush or McCain or Karl Rove or Sean Hannity or talk radio or any other major Republican has made an issue of Obama's race.
As for his name, earlier in the campaign, when my buddy Bill Cunningham in Cincinnati, great American that he is, criticized -- he was criticized by McCain for saying Barack Hussein Obama. The only one that keeps bringing up Obama's middle name is Barack Obama. So the charge is without merit. And it is his name, by the way.

HOW U.S. INVASION AND OCCUPATION HAS DESTROYED IRAQ

Iraq has been virtually destroyed by the U.S. military invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Moronic reporters from right wing rags like the Weekly Standard, owned by Rupert Murdoch who also owns FOX NEWS, argue that conditions were worse BEFORE the U.S. invaded Iraq which is patently false.

Here is the before and after about Iraq:

– Education: According to a 2005 analysis by the United Nations University, since the 2003 invasion, 84 percent of Iraq’s higher education institutions had been “burnt, looted or destroyed.”

– Medical Care: Before the U.S. invasion, there were 34,000 doctors registered in Iraq; an estimated 20,000 have left since then. “It’s definitely worse now than before the war,” Eman Asim, a Ministry of Health official who oversees the country’s 185 public hospitals, told the New York Times in 2004.

– Electricity: Although the average hours of electricity each day across Iraq have increased since the invasion, the number in Baghdad has decreased to 10.6 hours each day, down from 16-24 before the war.

– Oil Production: Since the U.S. invasion, Iraq’s oil infrastructure has been hampered by post-conflict sabotage, with more than 450 attacks on its pipelines. Only as recently as May has Iraq been able to return to its pre-war crude oil production levels.

IRAQI PARLIAMENT CAN'T GET THEIR ACT TOGETHER

The stumbling blocks of forming a workable Iraqi government keep popping up.

Political pressures hinder passing elections law - MP

Baghdad - Voices of Iraq
Thursday , 07 /08 /2008 Time 8:25:43

http://tinyurl.com/57bt2g

BAGHDAD, Aug. 7 (VOI) – An MP from the Kurdistan Coalition (KC) said on Thursday that political pressures exerted by some parliamentary blocs on the Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani were the main reason for Wednesday's session adjourning without passing the provincial council elections law.

"We are in the Kurdistan Coalition had agreed with the Unified Iraqi Coalition (UIC) to pass the law during yesterday's session in accordance to the proposal made by the UN," Sirwan al-Zahawi told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI)."The proposal says that if the Kirkuk cause has not been resolved during this year, political powers should leave the issue to the Iraqi government and the parliament's chairmanship to put all necessary mechanisms and conditions to hold the elections in the oil-rich Kirkuk," he explained.

"The KC had announced its agreement on the proposal thus there is an agreement among main political powers on passing the law," he also said."

After the KC agreed to pass the law, we were surprised during yesterday's session that the speaker adjourned the session, the matter made us feel injustice," the MP noted.A legislator from the Kurdistan Coalition parliamentary bloc, Abdul-Mohsen al-Saadon, said yesterday that the Iraqi Parliament ended Wednesday afternoon's extraordinary session, after forming a committee of parliamentary blocs' heads to find a consensus text for the provincial election bill.

THE "ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM"---RACISM---WHY OBAMA IS IN TROUBLE

The mainstream anchors and pundits have been scratching their heads and trying to find out why Barack Obama is not miles ahead of John McCain in the polls.

Like "the elephant in the room," the reason is right in front of their eyes but the media continues to travel down roads like the "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska that end up a dead end in trying to explain why Obama hasn't taken off in the polls

Racism is the "elephant in the room" and all polls indicate people will not be honest with pollsters when asked if race will affect their vote.

Of course it will, and the McCain campaign, which is now run by Karl Rove surrogates and former Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth leftovers from the '04 campaign, are going to work 24/7 in reminding the "closet racists"that Barack Obama is a Black man.

FOX NEWS and the right wing radio talk shows keep pounding away at how Obama is an "elitist and arrogant" even though Obama was raised by his grandmother and lived for many years on food stamps.

John McCain, on the other hand, came from a military family including a father who was an Admiral in the U.S. Navy, and McCain never had to rely on food stamps to eat. McCain may have ended third from last in his class at Annapolis, but he still was among the privileged few who receive an appointment to attend the U.S. Naval Academy.

But it is isn't just latent racism why Obama is in trouble.

The media have turned on Obama and they are coming off as McCain campaign assistants as the story below so aptly points out.

Comments by BILL CORCORAN editor of CORKSPHERE

Why Obama Could be in Trouble

By Robert Parry, Consortium NewsPosted on August 7, 2008, Printed on August 7, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/94030/

It might seem unlikely that the United States would elect John McCain to succeed George W. Bush when that would ensure continuation of many unpopular Bush policies: an ill-defined war with the Muslim world, right-wing consolidation of the U.S. Supreme Court, a drill-oriented energy strategy, tax cuts creating massive federal deficits, etc., etc.

But there are reasons -- beyond understandable concerns about Barack Obama's limited experience -- that make a McCain victory possible, indeed maybe probable.

Here is one of the big ones: The U.S. news media is as bad as ever, arguably worse.

On Monday, Obama gave a detail-rich speech on how he would address the energy crisis, which is a major point of concern among Americans. From ideas for energy innovation to retrofitting the U.S. auto industry to conservation steps to limited new offshore drilling, Obama did what he is often accused of not doing, fleshing out his soaring rhetoric.

McCain responded with a harsh critique of Obama's calls for more conservation, claiming that Obama wants to solve the energy crisis by having people inflate their tires. McCain's campaign even passed out a tire gauge marked as Obama's energy plan.

For his part, McCain made clear he wanted to drill for more oil wherever it could be found and to build many more nuclear power plants.

These competing plans offered a chance for the evening news to address an issue of substance that is high on the voters' agenda. Instead, NBC News anchor Brian Williams devoted 30 seconds to the dueling energy speeches, without any details and with the witty opening line that Obama was "refining" his energy plan.

So, instead of dealing with a serious issue in a serious way, NBC News ignored the substance and went for a clever slight against Obama, hitting his political maneuvering in his softened opposition to more offshore drilling.

Williams's quip fit with one of the press corps' favorite campaign narratives, Obama's flip-flopping. But the coverage ignored far more important elements of the story, such as the feasibility of Obama's vow that "we must end the age of oil in our time" or the wisdom of McCain's emphasis on drilling -- and nuking -- the nation out of its energy mess.

And, as for flip-flops, McCain's dramatic repositioning of himself as an anti-environmentalist -- after years of being one of the green movement's favorite Republicans -- represents a far more significant change than Obama's modest waffling on offshore oil.

Click on link above to read the full story by Robert Parry, award-winning journalist.

DROP IN U.S. CASUALTIES COINCIDES WITH SURGE IN IRAQI DEATHS

The U.S. can use the lowest ever July casualties and declare victory. But victory over whom?

(Comment: This is the same question we have been asking for months. What does "victory" in Iraq look like? And who signs the armistice agreement?)

The Unites States has received reports that its combat casualties in Iraq dropped to their lowest level in July with glee.

The Pentagon and the White House saw it as an indication of the success of their military tactics and that security conditions were improving in the country.

But is it possible to measure the situation in Iraq within U.S. parameters of success and failure?

By Fatih Abdulsalam, AzzamanPosted on August 5, 2008, Printed on August 7, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/93976/

The killing of only four U.S. service personnel in July, the fewest combat casualties for any month since America's 2003 invasion of the country, will only remain an American measure which cannot be extended to the conditions in Iraq.

Lowest ever U.S. casualties may speak volumes for the U.S. but it has little meaning for Iraqis.
The drastic drop in U.S. casualties coincides with a drastic surge in Iraqi casualties.

Joint U.S. and Iraqi military operations are proceeding in several provinces, leaving behind a trail of destruction and many casualties. The U.S. keeps no tally of the Iraqis it kills. Neither does the Iraqi government.

There is no indication of an end to these military operations. U.S. military commanders say many more are in the offing.

The military tactics pursued by the U.S. in the past five years have illustrated that military campaigns in which heavy weapons like warplanes, artillery and armor are deployed, have become the means to solve problems, though experience has shown that they have drastically failed to do so.

Iraqis have no security guarantees because those carrying arms are still afraid for their own security.

U.S. troops, Iraqi armed forces and the country's marauding militias see their weapons as the only means for survival.

The U.S. relies on its own security parameters to judge its performance in Iraq, the country it invaded and destroyed.

But Iraqis need other parameters for their own security - no more militiamen on the streets, no more invasions of cities and towns by U.S. and Iraqi troops, no more infighting between U.S.-raised militias and other Iraqi groups.

Iraqis have other parameters in mind. They long for national reconciliation which the mighty U.S. military machines has failed to bring about and the Iraqi government has been dodging all efforts to have it materialized.

Go back to link and continue reading....

So long as these parameters are not met, there will be no success in Iraq.

Coercive security measures are proceeding ahead unabated. Baghdad is being bisected by concrete walls. Tribes are being armed and Iraqis are fighting Iraqis. The death squads are dormant and not finished.

McCAIN: GET TO WORK!!!! MOVEON.ORG VIDEO

This is MoveOn.org's VIDEO answer to McCain's plea to a biker rally in Sturgis, South Dakota that Obama and Congress should get to work on the energy crisis.

This is the same rally where McCain volunteered his wife, Cindy, to be a participant in "Miss Buffalo Chip" contest obviously not knowing the other participants appear almost naked and make a stripper's convention look like a Girl Scout convention.

Here is the hilarious VIDEO which points out McCain was absent for EVERY vote on the energy bill.

WATCH VIDEO HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/v/vxeHeIVZsTw&hl=en&fs=1

CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW IN PICTURE TO ACTIVATE VIDEO

BEST IRAQ WAR VIDEO EVER!!!! LILAC TIME

The title of this video says it all. This video is devoted and dedicated to every brave young American who sacrificed their lives for the stupid and needless war in Iraq. The music, Lilac Time, is haunting and is a perfect background to this video you won't want to miss.

Commentary by BILL CORCORAN editor of CORKSPHERE

Watch video here:

http://www.youtube.com/v/nWGKeUmFuW8&hl=en&fs=1

CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW IN PICTURE TO ACTIVATE VIDEO

VIDEO TRIBUTE---10,000 MILES AWAY

I'm so fed up with the media in United States I can't see straight. They have decided the Iraq War is not worth covering anymore and every moronic reporter in the news business has bought into the idea "the surge" has been a roaring success.

IT WASN'T AND NEVER WILL BE. THE SUNNI AWAKENING SHOULD GET ALL THE CREDIT NOT THE U.S. MILITARY WHO STOOD AROUND AND PERFORMED GUARD DUTY. IF THE US MILITARY WAS SO SUCCESSFUL, HOW COME THERE WEREN'T MORE REPORTS ABOUT ALL THE INSURGENTS AND AL QAEDA WHO WERE KILLED?.

Here is another heart-breaking video which I'm presenting because I will NEVER forget the brave young men and women who served in IRAQ.

Commentary by BILL CORCORAN editor of CORKSPHERE

WATCH VIDEO HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/v/oPsPZMvC3yY&hl=en&fs=1

CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW IN PICTURE TO ACTIVATE VIDEO

VERY, VERY SAD VIDEO DEDICATION TO US ARMY IN IRAQ

The economy and selfish interests of so-called AMERICANS has shoved the Iraq War to the back burner in a every news room in the nation.

This is not only a sickening indictment of the AMERICAN people who have no vested interest in the war, but the finger of guilt it put right in the FACE of EVERY so-called journalist in AMERICA.

Every AMERICAN and every flabby-assed journalist in AMERICA should be forced to sit down and watch this video over and over again.

This VIDEO is supposed to bring tears to your eyes, but for some reason I've got a feeling not many AMERICANS and NONE of press could give a damn about the faces in this heart-breaking video.

Commentary by BILL CORCORAN, editor of CORKSPHERE

Watch VIDEO here:

http://www.youtube.com/v/WPatV7ZwhaY&hl=en&fs=1

CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW IN CENTER OF PICTURE TO ACTIVATE VIDEO

WASHINGTON POST: IRAQ BANKS BILLIONS IN SURPLUSES

The United States is shelling out $9 BILLION DOLLARS a month to fight the war in Iraq and help in rebuilding Iraq and all the time the Iraqi government is salting away almost $90 BILLION DOLLARS in surplus profits from the sale of oil.

What's wrong with this picture?

Iraq Banks Billions in Surpluses, GAO SaysNation's Oil Revenue Rising Sharply While U.S. Funds Reconstruction Projects

By Karen DeYoungWashington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 6, 2008; A06
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/05/AR2008080502493.html

Iraq's oil income will more than double this year, even as Baghdad continues to spend only a small percentage of its own money on reconstruction and services while it banks billions in surplus funds, according to projections by U.S. government auditors.

Between 2005 and 2007, only 10 percent of Iraq's expenditures went toward reconstruction, with just 1 percent spent on maintaining U.S. and Iraqi-funded investments in roads, water, electricity and weapons, according to a report released yesterday by the Government

Accountability Office. Even when Baghdad has allocated larger sums, the report said, it has spent only a small portion of the budgeted money.

Those trends, which the report said have continued during the first half of this year, are likely to fuel further congressional discontent over ongoing U.S. payments to rebuild Iraq. "It is inexcusable for U.S. taxpayers to continue to foot the bill for projects the Iraqis are fully capable of funding themselves," Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) said in a statement yesterday.

Click on link to continue reading story.

VIDEO: TRIBUTE TO OUR FALLEN SOLDIERS

The mainstream media seldom mentions the deaths of our fallen heroes from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and that in my opinion is a travesty bordering on treason.

This video is a touching and beaufiul tribute to our fallen heroes.

http://www.youtube.com/v/HkvVfqzjkG4&hl=en&fs=1

Click on diamond-shaped arrown in center of picture to activate video.

VIDEO "SURGING McCAIN"---THE REAL TRUTH ABOUT "THE SURGE"

This video is enlightening on many fronts because award-winning Real News journalist Pepe Escobar explains what really happened with "the surge" and shows how John McCain kept changing his position on the Iraq war.

The video also chronicles how the Sunni Awakening and other tribal groups took matters into their own hands long before "the surge" was launched, and how the U.S. military played only a minor role in the success of "the surge."

Pepe Escobar, who works for THE REAL NEWS NETWORK, has spent years in Iraq and was embedded with U.S. forces when they went into Baghdad.

The White House and FOX NEWS like to say the U.S. military brought about stability in Anbar Province, but as Escobar points out the U.S. military never set foot in Anbar Province and the peace was obtained by the tribal war lords running the Al Qaeda and other terrorist elements out of Anbar Province.

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE:

http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=2006

PARIS HILTON RESPONDS TO McCAIN AD: NEW VIDEO

You knew it was going to happen, but did you know Paris Hilton, attired in a skimpy bikini, would mock John McCain in the HOTTEST video to hit the Internet in a long, long time.

We have the VIDEO it and here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/v/opcJlIWlY6Y&hl=en&fs=1

CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW IN CENTER OF PICTURE TO ACTIVATE VIDEO

HOW LONG WILL MEDIA CONTINUE TO LIE TO YOU?

The media continues to LIE to Americans about why Barack Obama is not ten or 20 points ahead in EVERY poll.

The media keeps saying it is because Obama is not that well known to the American public.

Who the hell are they kidding?

Obama has been all over the news for better than a year now and to say he is not that well known defies all logic and is patently absurd.

What the media can't seem to bring themselves to mention is how much racism is playing into why Obama is not miles ahead of McCain.

Every pollster says their polls can't factor racism into their poll results because people have a tendency to lie to a pollster when asked about race.

So Obama stays stuck a point or two ahead of McCain in just about every poll, and in some polls Obama is actually behind McCain.

I don't know about any of you reading this email, but I'm sick and tired of being lied to by the media who just can't bring themselves to talk about the "elephant in the room"------RACISM.

Commentary by BILL CORCORAN, editor of CORKSPHERE

BOOK SAYS WHITE HOUSE ORDERED FAKE LETTER TO GET U.S. INTO WAR WITH IRAQ

Book Says White House Ordered Forgery

by: Mike Allen, Politico.com
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12308.html

A new book by the author Ron Suskind claims that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein.

Suskind writes in "The Way of the World," to be published Tuesday, that the alleged forgery - adamantly denied by the White House - was designed to portray a false link between Hussein's regime and al Qaeda as a justification for the Iraq war.

The author also claims that the Bush administration had information from a top Iraqi intelligence official "that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - intelligence they received in plenty of time to stop an invasion."

The letter's existence has been reported before, and it had been written about as if it were genuine. It was passed in Baghdad to a reporter for The (London) Sunday Telegraph who wrote about it on the front page of Dec. 14, 2003, under the headline, "Terrorist behind September 11 strike 'was trained by Saddam.'"

The Telegraph story by Con Coughlin (which, coincidentally, ran the day Hussein was captured in his "spider hole") was touted in the U.S. media by supporters of the war, and he was interviewed on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"Over the next few days, the Habbush letter continued to be featured prominently in the United States and across the globe," Suskind writes. "Fox's Bill O'Reilly trumpeted the story Sunday night on 'The O'Reilly Factor,' talking breathlessly about details of the story and exhorting, 'Now, if this is true, that blows the lid off al Qaeda-Saddam.'"

According to Suskind, the administration had been in contact with the director of the Iraqi intelligence service in the last years of Hussein's regime, Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti.

"The White House had concocted a fake letter from Habbush to Saddam, backdated to July 1, 2001," Suskind writes. "It said that 9/11 ringleader Mohammad Atta had actually trained for his mission in Iraq - thus showing, finally, that there was an operational link between Saddam and al Qaeda, something the Vice President's Office had been pressing CIA to prove since 9/11 as a justification to invade Iraq. There is no link,"

Click on this link for full Politico story: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12308.html

WHITE HOUSE AND CHENEY ACCUSED OF FAKE LETTER

White House denies fake Iraq-al-Qaeda link letter

Vice President CHENEY'S office had been pressing CIA to prove since 9/11 as a justification to invade Iraq

ASSOCIATED PRESS
9:16 a.m. August 5, 2008
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20080805-0916-whitehouse-iraq.html

WASHINGTON – The White House and the CIA on Tuesday adamantly denied a report that the Bush administration concocted a fake letter purporting to show a link between Saddam Hussein's regime and al-Qaeda as a justification for the Iraq war.

The allegation was raised by Washington-based journalist Ron Suskind in a new book, “The Way of the World,” published Tuesday. The letter supposedly was written by Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, director of Iraqi intelligence under Saddam Hussein.

“The White House had concocted a fake letter from Habbush to Saddam, backdated to July 1, 2001,” Suskind wrote. “It said that 9/11 ringleader Mohammad Atta had actually trained for his mission in Iraq thus showing, finally, that there was an operational link between Saddam and al-Qaeda, something the vice president's office had been pressing CIA to prove since 9/11 as a justification to invade Iraq. There is no link.”

Suskind said the letter's existence had been reported before, and that it had been treated as if it were genuine.

Denying the report, White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto said, “The notion that the White House directed anyone to forge a letter from Habbush to Saddam Hussein is absurd.”
Fratto and former CIA Director George Tenet also rejected Suskind's allegation that the U.S. had credible intelligence, before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, that Saddam did not possess weapons of mass destruction. It was supposedly British intelligence, based on information from a senior Iraqi official.

Fratto said U.S. and other intelligence agencies believed Saddam harbored such weapons and that Saddam had tried to make his neighbors believe he had them. In the end, no such weapons were found, undercutting Bush's main reason to go to war.

Go back to link to read full report.

IRAQ TODAY: VIOLENCE ON THE RISE IN IRAQ

After a brief lull, violence is again on the rise all across Iraq.

IRAQ TODAY: http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/
is reporting the following list of violence in Iraq.

Reported Security incidents:Baghdad:#1: Police also discovered the bodies of three awakening council members who were abducted several days ago, police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir said.

#2: One of Tuesday's blasts struck the commercial Bab al-Muadham district in the capital, killing one person and wounding five others, police and health officials said.

#3: Another roadside bomb went off on Palestine Street, a major thoroughfare in Baghdad, wounding seven people, authorities said.

#4: Monday Police found two unidentified bodies in Baghdad. The first body was found in Talbiyah and the second was found in Iskan.

#5: Two soldiers and one gunman were killed and 10 army personnel others wounded while security forces detained 21 people and defused several explosive charges during the past 24 hours, according to the Baghdad Operations Command on Tuesday. "Two army soldiers were killed and 10 others wounded while security forces killed a gunman, detained 19 wanted men and two suspects, and defused 23 improvised explosive devices in Baghdad and its districts," read a BOC statement as received by Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq.

Youssifiyah:#1: Gunmen killed a senior leader of a U.S.-allied Sunni group and six of his guards in an ambush south of Baghdad, a group member said Tuesday. Unknown gunmen attacked the convoy of Sheik Ibrahim al-Karbouli in Youssifiyah on Monday, said the group member who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fears for his own security. The sheik was a senior leader of the so-called awakening council in the town, which is a former al-Qaida stronghold about 12 miles south of Baghdad.

Karbala:#1: A bomb planted in a minibus exploded and wounded four people on Monday in central Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad, police said.Suwayra:#1: Two handcuffed bodies were recovered from a river on Monday in Suwayra, 50 km (30 miles) southeast of Baghdad, police said. A third body was found near the river.Hilla:#1: A man was found shot dead on Monday just south of Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

Basra:#1: Unidentified gunmen shot down a barber in the central part of the southern Iraq port city of Basra on Tuesday, police said. "The gunmen raided the barber's shop in the area al-Saymar in central Basra, killing the shop owner and escaping to an unknown place," a security source, who did not want his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of IraqTouz

Khurmato:#1: The commander of the Touz Khormato medical corps escaped an assassination attempt in central Touz district, where a sticky improvised explosive device targeted his motorcade on Tuesday, a police source said. "Lt. Colonel Nijm Salaheddin survived an attempt on his life on Tuesday morning. The incident did not leave any casualties but caused material damage," the source, who asked that his name not be revealed, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq

Kirkuk:#1: Militants killed three members of a U.S.-backed neighbourhood patrol who were guarding a checkpoint just southwest of Kirkuk, 250 km (150 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.Unidentified gunmen slit the throats of three Sahwa (Awakening) tribal fighters on Tuesday in an attack on their checkpoint west of the city of Kirkuk, a senior security official said.

Mosul:#1: A suicide bomber wounded one U.S. soldier and one other person on Monday in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

#2: The body of a young man was found in eastern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

#3: The body of a child was found in eastern Mosul on Monday, police said.

Irbil Prv:#1: One Iraqi civilian was wounded by rockets launched from Iran on Monday, an Iraqi border guard commander said. Major-General Omar Sharif, head of operations for Iraqi border guards in Iraq's Kurdish north, said on Tuesday about 120 Katyusha rockets had landed in Arbil province, close to the Iranian border.

"THE CASE AGAINST BARACK OBAMA" NEW BOOK USES RIGHT WING CHICAGO COLUMNISTS AS SOURCES

"The Case Against Barack Obama" author David Freddoso relied upon such right wing Chicago columnists as John Kass of the Chicago Tribune to help him in his research for a scathing attack on Barack Obama.

Freddoso also worked for Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Novak, the radical right winger who was just diagnosed with a brain tumor and has retired.

Freddoso's book, "The Case Against Barack Obama," is filled with one fabrication after another and as Alan Colmes pointed out on Fox News' "Hannity and Colmes," the book also contains contradictions which render the book a waste of time and money.

The books just keep coming about Barack Obama and if racism or the mainstream media don't sink his bid for POTUS, the book publishing world will.

Bill Corcoran, Editor, CORKSPHERE

"THE CASE AGAINST BARACK OBAMA"

REVIEW By: Jonathan Martin http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11263.html
The same publisher that distributed the 2004 best-seller that took aim at John Kerry’s Vietnam service is planning

a summer release of what’s scheduled to be the first critical book on Barack Obama.Conservative journalist David Freddoso’s “The Case Against Barack Obama” will offer “a comprehensive, factual look at Obama,” according to Regnery Publishing president and publisher Marjory Ross.But the book’s subtitle makes clear its perspective: “The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media’s Favorite Candidate.”Ross contends that the mainstream media has offered insufficient scrutiny of Obama and likens the goal of Freddoso’s book to that of “Unfit for Command,” the scathing assessment of Kerry’s war record that rocketed to No. 1 on The New York Times best-seller list.

By highlighting negative aspects of Obama’s record and background, Ross says, Freddoso may compel others to offer more critical coverage of the Democratic nominee.“I think it’s critically important that the country gets a clear and honest view of who is running and what they stand for — warts and all,” Ross says. “With ‘Unfit for Command,’ like ‘The Case against Barack Obama,’ we believe the media has whitewashed the candidate.”

But unlike the Kerry book, which was co-authored by a fellow Swift Boat veteran and focused exclusively on the Massachusetts senator’s actions in Vietnam and immediately after, “The Case Against Barack Obama” aspires to be a full-length political biography.

Freddoso has taken a leave from his job with National Review Online — where he has written posts with titles such as “Obama’s Problem with the Truth” — to write the book, which is scheduled to be published on Aug. 4.

A former writer for Human Events, Freddoso learned shoe-leather reporting at the knee of syndicated conservative columnist Robert D. Novak, for whom he worked as a political reporter on the “Evans-Novak Political Report.”

Freddoso’s book is being promoted by the well-connected conservative public relations firm Creative Response Concepts. The firm, headed by former GOP operative Greg Mueller, also handled publicity for “Unfit for Command” and media relations for the 527 group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which in 2004 ran widely covered television advertisements featuring veterans who had served in Vietnam with Kerry, criticizing his conduct and character and claiming he had exaggerated his war record.

"THE OBAMA NATION" FILLED WITH FALSEHOODS

The printing presses are rolling and one book after another attacking Barack Obama are hitting the nation's bookstores.


The smears of Barack Obama have just begun and this is one of them.

Bill Corcoran, Editor, CORKSPHERE

Unfit for Publication: Corsi's The Obama Nation filled with falsehoods

Summary: In its preface, Jerome Corsi compares his new book, The Obama Nation, to his 2004 book Unfit for Command. The comparison seems apt: Just as Unfit for Command contains false attacks on Sen. John Kerry's military service, a Media Matters review finds that The Obama Nation similarly contains numerous falsehoods about Sen. Barack Obama.

Read the entire article here: http://mediamatters.org/items/200808040005?lid=492732&rid=12058016

In the preface of his recently released book, The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, author Jerome Corsi writes: "My intent in writing this book, as was the case in coauthoring Unfit for Command, is to fully document all arguments and contentions I make, extensively footnoting all references, so readers can determine for themselves the truth and validity of the factual claims."

Indeed, Corsi's comparison of the two books seems quite apt: Just as Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry contains false and baseless attacks on Sen. John Kerry's military service, a Media Matters for America review finds that Obama Nation similarly contains numerous falsehoods about Sen. Barack Obama.

Media Matters previously documented false and baseless charges Corsi made in Obama Nation about Obama's positions on the Global Poverty Act of 2007 and nuclear weapons. Media Matters also pointed out false statements Corsi made while discussing the book with Fox News host Sean Hannity, concerning Obama's position on abortion and Obama's memoir Dreams From My Father (Crown, 1995).

Below are additional falsehoods from Obama Nation, listed in the order in which they appear in the book:
The divorce
Corsi baselessly suggests that Obama's father, Barack Obama Sr., may have divorced his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, "following the prescripts of Islamic sharia law." Corsi's sole source for this statement is a blogger who made the claim in a March 20 post, which featured the false headline, "BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA WAS MUSLIM FOR 31 YEARS" and misstated Obama's mother's name as "Shirley Ann." The blogger Corsi cited, "Majalah Bulanan Kumunitas Indonesia Di Edmonton," provided no substantiation for the claim that "the senior Obama divorced Dunham according to Sharia law."

On page 44, Corsi writes:
The circumstances of exactly how or why Stanley Ann ended her marriage with Obama's father, like much else in the narrative, remain unclear. One version is that Stanley Ann divorced Obama Senior in 1964, when Obama Junior was three years old and Stanley Ann realized Obama Senior had returned to Africa to rejoin the previously undisclosed wife he had abandoned in Kenya. The other version is that Obama Senior, following the prescripts of Islamic sharia law, divorced Stanley Ann when he returned to Africa in 1963 to begin his work as a bureaucrat in the Kenyatta government.4
The endnote for Corsi's claim reads as follows:
The first version, that Stanley Ann Dunham Obama divorced Obama Senior, is the version commonly found. The version that Obama Senior divorced Stanley Ann under sharia law is told in sources such as the following: Majalah Bulanan Kumunitas Indonesia Di Edmonton, "Barack Hussein Obama was Muslim for 31 Years," March 20, 2008, at http://www.indonesiaedmonton.org/berita/2008/03/20/barack-hussein-obama-was-muslim-for-31-years/.

In the blog post that Corsi cites, the author asserted:
The senior Obama married a fellow student, eighteen-year old Shirley Ann (Anna) Dunham of Witchita, Kansas. Dunham was an anthropology student. Obama Jr. was born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu.

Two years later, the senior Obama divorced Dunham according to Sharia law and returned to Kenya the same year that Kenyatta took control as the first prime minister of a self-governing Kenya (June 1963).

In Dreams from My Father, Obama quotes his mother stating of Barack Obama Sr., "I divorced him":
The teapot whistled, and I stamped my envelope. Then, without any prompting, my mother began to retell an old story, in a distant voice, as if she were telling it to herself.

"It wasn't your father's fault that he left, you know. I divorced him. When the two of us got married, your grandparents weren't happy with the idea. But they said okay -- they probably couldn't have stopped us anyway, and they eventually came around to the idea that it was the right thing to do. Then Barack's father -- your grandfather Hussein wrote Gramps this long, nasty letter saying that he didn't approve of the marriage. He didn't want the Obama blood sullied by a white woman, he said. Well, you can imagine how Gramps reacted to that. And then there was a problem with your father's first wife ... he had told me they were separated, but it was a village wedding, so there was no legal document that could show a divorce ..." [Pages 125-126]

The dedication
On Pages 49-50, Corsi falsely claims that Obama did not dedicate Dreams from My Father to his mother or his grandparents. Corsi writes:
Interestingly, Obama did not dedicate Dreams from My Father to his mother, or to his father, Barack Senior, or to his Indonesian stepfather. Missing from the dedication are the grandparents who raised him in Hawaii, especially during the years his mother abandoned him to return to Indonesia to be with Lolo [Soetoro, Obama's stepfather].

In fact, while the 2004 edition of Dreams -- the version Corsi cites in Obama Nation (Part One, endnote 2, Page 306) -- does not contain a separate dedication page, on Page xvii, the last page of the book's introduction, Obama writes:
It is to my family, though -- my mother, my grandparents, my siblings, stretched across oceans and continents -- that I owe the deepest gratitude and to whom I dedicated this book. Without their constant love and support, without their willingness to let me sing their song and their toleration of the occasional wrong note, I could never have hoped to finish. If nothing else, I hope that the love and respect I feel for them shines through on every page [emphasis added].
Obama's sister

Corsi falsely claims that Obama does not mention the birth of his half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, during the chapter in Dreams in which he discusses his time living in Indonesia. Corsi writes:
In the midst of the personal drama being played against the background of this Indonesian turmoil, on August 15, 1970, Obama's half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, was born to his mother and stepfather. Obama devotes the entire second chapter of his autobiography to his time in Indonesia, but remarkably, he makes no reference to Maya's birth [Page 48].

In fact, on Page 47 of Dreams, in the chapter discussing his time in Indonesia, Obama writes that "my mother and Lolo would remain cordial through the birth of my sister, Maya."

Continue reading this review here: http://mediamatters.org/items/200808040005?lid=492732&rid=12058016