David Drake

Rev. Michael Pfleger, the left-leaning Chicago Catholic priest who ridiculed Hillary Rodham Clinton this week in a racially-charged speech from the pulpit of Barack Obama's church, has contributed to Obama's state Senate campaigns, backed his ill-fated run for Congress and stumped for him in Iowa.

On Sunday, Pfleger mockingly quoted Clinton as saying she shed tears before the New Hampshire primary because "there's a black man stealing my show."

Senator Barack Obama, candidate for President, seems to collect annoying and embarrassing friends like other people collect baseball cards.

[...]

[Pfleger said]: "When Hillary was crying, people said that was put on. I really don't believe it was put on. I really believe that she always thought, 'This is mine. I'm Bill (Clinton's) wife, I'm white, and this is mine. I just got to get up and step up to the plate -- and then out of nowhere came, 'Hey, I'm Barack Obama.' And she said, 'Damn! Where did you come from?! I'm white! I'm entitled! There's a black man stealing my show! She wasn't the only one crying -- there was a whole a lot of white people crying." The congregation went delirious with joy.

To paraphrase that character from Hunt for Red October, "Senator, you have another insane pastor?"

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) believes that on September 11 "we were basically at peace."

Asked to clarify his remarks, specifically asking about the attacks on the U.S.S. Cole during Barack Obama campaign conference call, Kerry said, "well, we hadn't declared war,"

[...]

Asked if al Qaeda was a threat at the time, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee said, "well yes, obviously they were a threat. But, fundamentally we were not at war at that point in time."

Malloy: ["General David Petraeus] is a half-witted, four-star freak."
- 37 minutes into hour one, on his virtually unlistened to NOVA-M program September 13, 2007.

Mike Malloy: "I'm not impressed with [people who wear] uniforms, badges, clerics or reverends."
Spoken after hanging up on a caller who identified himself as a U.S. Military Serviceman who said he served two tours of Iraq.
- A "Best Of" Malloy show, week ending July 15, 2006.

Malloy, speaking about U.S. Troops, ("em" referring to U.S. Soldiers):
"Let 'em die. Let 'em bleed. Let 'em come home without limbs. So disfigured and gross you won't want to kiss your son, daughter, father or brother. Keep putting metallic ribbons on your vans and SUVs. Let 'em bleed. Let 'em bleed."
- Opening show monologue on his virtually unlistened to NOVA-M program on September 19, 2007.

Malloy: "I'm not anti-Military, I'm anti-war."
- May 1, 2007; 42 minutes into hour three

Senator Barack Obama said today that he is considering visiting American troops and commanders in Iraq this summer. He declined an invitation from Senator John McCain to take a joint trip to Iraq, saying, “I just don’t want to be involved in a political stunt.”

After an on-air opinion which shocked and sickened many ... ESPN Radio 1250 host, Mark Madden has been "permanently removed" from the station's airwaves.

On May 21, Madden said on his radio show, "I'm very disappointed to hear Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts is near death because of a brain tumor. I always hoped Senator Kennedy would live long enough to be assassinated. And I wonder if he will receive a get well card from the Kopechne family."

Mary Jo Kopechne died in 1969, while a passenger in a car driven into the water by Senator Kennedy on Chappaquiddick Island, which is near Martha's Vineyard, in Massachusetts. He left the accident scene and waited 10 hours before calling police. Kennedy later pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident where there was bodily injury.

Hours after the comments, Madden reportedly apologized, but it was apparently too little too late. ESPN, based in Bristol, Connecticut, said Madden's comments were "inappropriate and uncalled for." His last day on the air was May 22.

He also received a $6,000 fine, seven years supervised probation, a suspended prison sentence of 48 months and will have to pay further restitution which has yet to be determined.

The suspended sentence means Jones must not violate the terms of his probation or the 48-month sentence will be executed.

He must also register as a sex offender and attend sex offender counseling.

The sentence was more severe than the recommended sentence for the fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct charge against Jones, because of the particularly demeaning and humiliating nature of the act, Judge Marilyn Rosenbaum said.

Jones, however, is eligible be put on work or school release. Despite that, after sentencing, Jones' attorney Earl Gray said his client had been "released" from the University and that he no longer has his athletic scholarship.

Prior to sentencing, the victim read a statement to the court expressing the trauma she endured in the past fourteen months.

"I don't feel there is any punishment that would justify my permanent damage," she said. "I'm the only one that has a mandatory life sentence because of this assault."

...the woman had come to the apartment complex with a friend and some Gopher players. He said she drank heavily with the players and had sex with E.J. Jones, Massey and Daniels before passing out.

Dominic Jones arrived later and had sex with the woman [Note: the charge of Jones having intercourse with the alleged victim was later dropped as it was never proven. - Drake] while Daniels recorded the video on his cellphone, Freeman said. The file had been deleted from the phone, but investigators recovered a part of it, he said.

"It's amazing what the forensics can do to reconstruct that," Freeman said. "That cellphone video, a picture is worth 1,000 words, and that video reflects what happened, at least at that point in time."

The woman's blood-alcohol level was estimated at at least 0.30% by a doctor who reviewed police reports and witness statements, according to the criminal complaint. Stephen Smith, the doctor, based his estimate on her size and weight and descriptions of the amount of alcohol consumed.

That's a level, Freeman said, "in which motor function, including the ability to stand or walk, is lost." He said third-degree criminal sexual conduct occurs when a "victim is helpless. This is the textbook definition of helplessness when you're over .30."

Jones had been charged with third-degree sexual assault for having sex with an 18-year-old woman who prosecutors said was too drunk to give consent.

The Obama campaign called for unity at Saturday’s meeting, as aides said they hope avoid a “circus”-like atmosphere. Pro-Clinton protests, however, are expected outside the meeting.

“We are not encouraging our people to gather and protest,” Campaign Manager David Plouffe said in a conference call with reporters, adding this warning shot. “With a click of a mouse in the Mid-Atlantic, we could get thousands of people there. But in the interest of party unity we are not encouraging a protest. We don’t think a scene is helpful as we try to bring the party together.”

Supporters of Barack Obama’s presidential bid are planning to demonstrate outside the Saturday meeting in Washington where Democratic officials are slated to debate the seating of the Florida and Michigan delegations at the party’s summer convention.

John McCain on Wednesday repeated his challenge to Barack Obama to take a ride with him over to Iraq and see the situation on the ground before concluding that U.S. efforts have failed to get the war-torn nation back on track.

Speaking in a town hall meeting in Reno, Nev., the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said he was surprised Obama’s campaign considered it a political stunt when McCain proposed earlier this week that the two travel together to Iraq.

“The security of this nation is more important than any political campaign. To say that we failed in Iraq doesn’t comport with the facts on the ground,” McCain said to applause.

[...]

"He could meet Gen. Petraeus and he could meet Ambassador [Ryan] Crocker, and he could see — he could see the fact that Sadr City is quiet. He could see that the Maliki government has taken control of Basra. He could see that the Iraqi military is leading the fight in these places with the support of American troops,” McCain said.

McCain has visited Iraq eight times since the war began. Obama has been to Iraq once, in 2006, before the surge credited with allowing the oil-rich nation a chance to rebuild.

[...]

“Barack Obama has only visited Iraq once — and that was 871 days ago,” RNC Chairman Mike Duncan said.

“Obama has done shockingly little to educate himself firsthand about the war in Iraq. Instead, he displays an arrogant certainty gained on the campaign trail. … Obama’s failure to visit Iraq, listen and learn firsthand and witness the surge’s progress demonstrates weak leadership that disqualifies him from being commander in chief.”

A group of Muslim workers allege they were fired by a New Brighton tortilla factory for refusing to wear uniforms that they say were immodest by Islamic standards.

Six Somali women claim they were ordered by a manager to wear pants and shirts to work instead of their traditional Islamic clothing of loose-fitting skirts and scarves, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a civil liberties group that is representing the women.

The women have filed a religious discrimination complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

"For these women, wearing tight-fitting pants is like being naked," said Valerie Shirley, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota chapter of CAIR. "It's simply not an option."

CAIR issued a press release calling on Mission Foods to reinstate the women in their jobs. However, the group declined to disclose the names of the women and would not make them available for interviews Tuesday.

Gruma Corp., the Irving, Texas-based parent company of Mission Foods, released a written statement Tuesday denying that any employees were terminated or disciplined at the New Brighton plant. However, the company made clear the six women have been relieved of their responsibilities for the time being, and may ultimately lose their jobs if they don't wear uniforms.

"Should these employees choose to adhere to the current Mission Foods uniform policy, they may return to their positions with the company," the company statement said. "However, these positions will need to be filled as soon as possible and cannot be held indefinitely."

A company spokeswoman said she could not provide photographs of the uniforms.

"On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes—and I see many of them in the audience here today—our sense of patriotism is particularly strong."

"I had an uncle who was one of the, part of the first American troops to go into Auschwitz and liberate the concentration camps[.]"

Children as young as six are being sexually abused by peacekeepers and aid workers, says a leading UK charity.

Children in post-conflict areas are being abused by the very people drafted into such zones to help look after them, says Save the Children.

After research in Ivory Coast, southern Sudan and Haiti, the charity proposed an international watchdog be set up.

[...]

The UN has said it welcomes the charity's report, which it will study closely.

Save the Children says the most shocking aspect of child sex abuse is that most of it goes unreported and unpunished, with children too scared to speak out.

[...]

Heather Kerr, Save the Children's Ivory Coast country director, says little is being done to support the victims.

"It's a minority of people but they are using their power to sexually exploit children and children that don't have the voice to report about this.

Twelve-year-old Elizabeth - not her real name - was walking in fields with her brother, following an aunt who had gone ahead to work on the family's plot of land near the town of Man in north-western Ivory Coast, when they were approached by "les casques bleues", as UN peacekeepers are known.

Her brother took a biscuit from one of the men; she refused.

As Elizabeth tried to run away, one of the soldiers seized hold of her. There were 10 of them.

I spoke to Elizabeth near her home. She said: "They grabbed me and threw me to the ground and they forced themselves on me... I tried to escape but there were 10 of them and I could do nothing... I was terrified.

"Then they just left me there bleeding..."

Elizabeth was raped by 10 peacekeepers and abandoned.

Her village elders say they tried to take the case to UN officials at the camp nearby. But Jean-Baptiste Domade, one of the village chiefs, said they were made to wait for ages and then sent away.

Elizabeth's brutal rape is one of an unknown number of sexual assaults carried out by peacekeepers and aid workers, the very people who are brought in to post-conflict areas around the world to protect the vulnerable.

A report by Save the Children UK says such assaults are continuing and, despite an undertaking by the UN and other international bodies to operate a policy of zero tolerance, little appears to be done on the ground to stop the attacks taking place.

The 10 peacekeepers accused of the attack on Elizabeth have returned home.

As Barack Obama bashes the Tennessee GOP as “low class” for criticizing his wife, the Daily KosKidz show Tennessee what “class” really means.

So you can appreciate all the details in this Photoshop masterpiece, here’s the full sized image.

...fast on the heels of Obama telling us we can't use the anti-American statements of his wife as a campaign issue we get the kiddies over at the DailyKos doing their best to "help" Barack Obama by making an image of Michelle Obama hanging from a tree with robbed KKK figures torturing her with a branding iron and claiming that this is the "NEW IMPROVED" GOP strategy. So much for the subtleties and civility that Barack claims he wants, eh?

Guantanamo is kept top-secret so you and I won't know how many innocent people have been locked up there[.]

The war on terror, to most people, is a lame joke[.]

"It's the soldier, not the reporter who has given us
Freedom of the Press.
It's the soldier, not the poet, who has given us
Freedom of Speech.
It's the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the
Freedom to Demonstrate.
It's the soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us the
Right to a Fair Trial.
It's the soldier who salutes the flag, serves under the flag and
Whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who gives the protester the right to burn the flag."