Obama’s dirty-money Hawaii connection

Hawai`i Free Press | 01/02/07 | Andrew Walden

[AndrewWalden]

Barack Hussein Obama is the closest Democrats can come to electing a foreign Muslim President of the United States without actually violating the constitutional requirement that American Presidents be native-born.

Obama’s nomination would follow in the footsteps of 2004 Democrat presidential candidate John Forbes Kerry, whose French-language Swiss boarding school education made him the closest thing to a European socialist able to run for President of the US without violating the constitution.

Not only does Obama’s name sound like some kind of sick Islamist joke on America—a candidate whose moniker invokes both Saddam Hussein and Osama bin-Laden—but he would be the first madrassa-educated American President. Moreover Obama is subject to a standing order of death to any Muslim who abandons Islam as Obama formally did when he finally joined Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ in the early 1990s just prior to his first political campaign.

While it is tempting to dismiss Obama as a lightweight who is peaking too early in the election season, comparisons with another Democrat presidential candidate—Bill Clinton—should give pause to any who might dismiss his candidacy as a fad. The Clinton parallels include early dirty-money backing from Hawaii Democrats.

Obama, born in Honolulu in 1961, has not only a Muslim father, the late Barack Hussein Obama Sr. of Kenya, but a Muslim step-father as well. His first father left when Obama was two. His mother divorced and soon remarried Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian oil manager. Obama’s first campaign book is titled, “Dreams from My Father: A story of race and inheritance.”

The new family moved to Jakarta Indonesia in 1967 when Obama was six. Indonesia was still reeling from a Muslim war with the Maoists leading to the death of between 300,000 and 1 million Indonesians.

According to a March 2004 Salon.com article by Scott Turow, Obama in Jakarta spent "two years in a Muslim school, then two more in a Catholic school." He was then sent back to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandmother and attend the private secular Punahou School from grade five through high school graduation.

Growing up without a father in the house is not Obama’s only Clinton common denominator. There’s drug abuse too. In Dreams from My Father, Obama writes about smoking marijuana and snorting cocaine during his teenage years.

Obama studied for two years at California’s Occidental College then continuing at Columbia University, where he majored in political science with a specialization in international relations. He also studied for three years at Harvard Law School.

Occidental, Columbia and Harvard are all places where conservative students and faculty are denied academic freedom.

Obama’s life: Raised in Muslim lands and educated in Muslim schools, then sent to a secular high school serving the children of Hawaii’s Democrat-controlled political and business elite. Graduating to secular US colleges run by academic leftists. Not a pretty picture, as Obama himself explains in a June 28, 2006 speech:

“I was not raised in a particularly religious household, as undoubtedly many in the audience were. My father, who returned to Kenya when I was just two, was born Muslim but as an adult became an atheist. My mother, whose parents were non-practicing Baptists and Methodists, was probably one of the most spiritual and kindest people I've ever known, but grew up with a healthy skepticism of organized religion herself. As a consequence, so did I.”

Beyond corrupt Hawaii Democrats, leftist academia and cultural secularism, Obama has another Clinton characteristic: shady land deals. A standard method for bankrolling the lifestyle of up-and-coming Democrat politicians, in Obama’s case his associate in the deal is already indicted by a federal grand jury. The December 24 ChicagoTribune documents Obama’s relationship with political fundraiser Antoin ‘Tony’ Rezko and Illinois businessman Joseph Aramanda—both of whom are named in a federal investigation of bribery of Illinois state officials. Rezko was indicted by a federal grand jury in October and Aramanda is named as an un-indicted co-conspirator.

According to the Tribune, “Rezko, a real-estate and fast-food entrepreneur, has emerged as a central figure in a series of state government corruption scandals. He began cultivating a friendship with Obama around 1990, becoming a key fundraiser…".

In June 2005, even as Rezko was widely reported to be under federal investigation, the Tribune reports, “Obama bought a $1.65 million South Side home on the same day that Rezko's wife purchased the adjoining garden lot for $625,000. Obama and Rezko then engaged in a series of private transactions to redivide and improve their adjoining parcels.”

Obama’s corrupt backers in Illinois’ seamy and fetid political swamps are matched only by the unsavory gaggle of politically-connected supporters assembling to back his candidacy in Hawaii. Obama’s Hawaii support comes from a group of Democrat politicos around former Governor John Waihee—considered by some the dirtiest figure in Hawaii’s very dirty politics. Waihee and his cronies were also early money backers of Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 bid for the White House.

The little-known story of Clinton’s Waihee ‘early money’ Hawaii connection is told in the 1997 PBS Frontline special “The Fixers”, a story which begins with poor Hawaii farmers being driven off their land in a mid-1980s deal to build Maunawili Valley Oahu golf course deal with Japanese investors flush from the Japanese market and real estate bubble. “Fixers” (and Waihee associates) Gene and Nora Lum go from buying the entire Hawaii State legislature for $50,000 in order to pass a bill allowing golf courses on agricultural land to becoming ‘early money’ Clinton financial backers. They engage in a series of transactions mixing Oklahoma gas leases, Democrat connections with Asian money and the sale of political influence to facilitate other Hawaii land deals.

The story continues into the Clintons’ better-known mid-1990s Asian money scandals involving John Huang, Charlie Trieh, Johnny Chung, the Lippo Bank of Indonesia, Clinton’s Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, Hillary Clinton, and 938 documented visits to the Lincoln Bedroom by hundreds of people who paid thousands for the privilege. “The Fixers” ends with then-President Clinton, ten days after winning his second Presidential term, on his way to Asia stopping in Honolulu and playing golf with Waihee in the pouring rain on the Maunawili Valley O`ahu course where it all started. The ‘early money’ backing of Clinton paid off handsomely for Waihee and his cronies. Clinton in 1993 signed the so-called “Apology Resolution” in essence apologizing for the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom and 1898 US annexation of Hawaii and implicitly placing Hawaii Statehood in question.

The Apology Resolution quickly became a politically correct ‘guilt’ justification for corrupt Hawaii political operators to rake in millions operating lucrative state and federally funded programs and even private companies pretending to benefit Native Hawaiians. One deal alone, Sandwich Isles Communications, got $500 million in federal funds to provide nearly useless fiber optic connections to Hawaiian Homelands residential lots--most of which are undeveloped. Costs are estimated at $278,000 per utilized connection.

Today Hawaii’s political class is focused on passage of the so-called “Akaka Bill” a political descendant of the “Apology Resolution” which would create a sovereign native Hawaiian “tribal” government—a guaranteed source of billions for Hawaii’s venal elites, possibly making them able to drain all of Native Hawaiians’ patrimony without legal oversight. Obama has been such a strong Senatorial advocate for the Akaka Bill, he is often called “Hawaii’s third Senator.”

In addition to the Hawaii Democrat dirty money machine Obama is tied in with Goldman Sachs, investment houses specializing in highly regulated industries and many Clinton administration figures as described in the December 6 Harper’s Magazine article, “Barack Obama, Inc.”:

“He (Obama) quickly established a political machine funded and run by a standard Beltway group of lobbyists, P.R. consultants, and hangers-on. For the staff post of policy director he hired Karen Kornbluh, a senior aide to Robert Rubin when the latter, as head of the Treasury Department under Bill Clinton, was a chief advocate for NAFTA and other free-trade policies that decimated the nation’s manufacturing sector (and the organized labor wing of the Democratic Party). Obama’s top contributors are corporate law and lobbying firms (Kirkland & Ellis and Skadden, Arps, where four attorneys are fund-raisers for Obama as well as donors), Wall Street financial houses (Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase), and big Chicago interests (Henry Crown and Company, an investment firm that has stakes in industries ranging from telecommunications to defense). Obama immediately established a “leadership PAC,” a vehicle through which a member of Congress can contribute to other politicians’ campaigns—and one that political reform groups generally view as a slush fund through which congressional leaders can evade campaign-finance rules while raising their own political profiles.”

Goldman Sachs had substantial dealings with ex-Governor Waihee and the corrupt trustees of the $6 billion Bishop Estate exposed finally in the late 1990s and documented in the current Hawaii best-selling book, “Broken Trust”.

Is “Broken Trust” a thing of the past? Obama’s Hawaii steering committee taps into both Bishop Estate and the Waihee administration. As the December 13 Honolulu Advertiser explains, “Chuck Freedman, a retired vice president of corporate relations for Hawaiian Electric Co. (HECO) and former communications director for former Gov. John Waihee, said the committee has contacted Obama's aides and has received a positive response.”

Currently three of the five Bishop Estate trustees are also board members of Hawaiian Electric. HECO monopolizes power generation and distribution in Hawaii and through double-taxation (tax on fuel for generation, and on the electricity produced) under the General Excise Tax, supplies a large part of the State General Fund. HECO also provides many thousands of dollars of political ‘donations’ to legislative incumbents. Bishop Estate is Hawaii’s largest private landowner.

Voters rarely got the truth from Bill Clinton; will they get the straight story from Obama? Not judging by his December 6 comments to Harper’s: “Progressive candidates generally have a harder time raising money, he said, and at times some of them will ‘trim their sails’ on behalf of the people who are financing them.”

Hawaii may not amount to much in the Electoral College, but to the National Democrat Party money machine, these islands are a fountainhead of cash. If Waihee and his cronies could parlay their dirty land deals into the Presidency for their selected candidate in 1992, they could do it again. Barack Hussein Obama will keep his Islamic past under wraps and his radical secularist sails trimmed. He will say whatever it takes to bring in the cash and win election. His candidacy, record and corrupt connections deserve close scrutiny now, before it is too late.

PBS Frontline: The Fixers: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/fixers/etc/script.html

Harper’s Barack Obama, Inc.: http://harpers.org/BarackObamaInc.html

Chicago Tribune: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0612240343dec24,1,7299492.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

Salon.com: http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2004/03/30/obama/print.html

Hawaii Donations to Incumbents: http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?1ba6f2ab-6c24-46a5-855a-452cec2339e6

Advertiser: Effort launched here to draft Obama http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2006/Dec/13/br/br9324817650.html

Broken Trust: www.brokentrustbook.com

Sandwich Isles Communications: http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?9341371c-c4b7-4b47-8855-8279fefcf04c

[kinghorse]

You do know this was probably some Clinton suckup doing this. I would be careful who you are rooting for when you see this stuff. 2008 ss going to be the most fascinating Presidential election of my lifetime.

[ArmyTeach]

That's ok. It is government that can not apply any religious test for eligibility for office, but you as a private citizen have a right to form your opinions on whatever basis seems reasonable to you.
You already knew that, didn't you? :-)

[trisham]

I will never vote for a Muslim....

Oops, do I have the right to say that..

***********

For the time being. Talk fast.

[kinghorse]

Do you think the military in Ethiopia did a good thing spanking the Islamists trying to take over Somalia? I hear those Christian Ethopian guys are as black as Obama. Most of them blacker. Mostly. Okay by you?

[Eva]

This is a little different than the bio that I read while he was speaking at the Democrat convention, but it is possible that the original information was wrong, that Obama did only attend the madrassa for two years, but it seems unlikely to go from the madrassa to a catholic school, unless the education at the madrassa was deemed inferior (always a possibility).

Here is something that I found on the internet about his father:

His natural father and namesake, was a Kenyan Muslim associated with one of the most corrupt and violent organizations in Africa, the Mau Mau of the Kenyatta regime. He divorced Barack's mother when Barack was two years old, according to Moslem law.

[colorcountry]

Yes. :D

I was trying to make a point. We CAN and MUST judge the suitability of a candidate by any means possible to us. It is our duty as voters.

[EternalVigilance]

ping...

[ArmyTeach]

Bingo! Anything less means that we are not free citizens.

[Lorianne]

Stupid. Obama is an American born person and not Muslim. His names are family names.

If Republicans go this low route of criticizing a candidate there will most certainly be a backlash.

[Kimmers]

Well you certainly have a right to feel that way. It was not a Catholic, Jew, Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist the list goes on, that flew an airplane into the WTC,bombed the Marine Corp barracks or starting wars and social strife pretty much anywhere in the world. You can blame that on the Muslims.

[kinghorse]

I take it the guy is a walking example of life after Islam and fine example to hold up to people sitting on the fence about which way to go in places like Nigeria and Somalia and THE USA for that matter.

We need to tip the balance in favor of the Christian West by any and all means. When the Vatican chooses a Pope from Poland during the cold war it is not an accident. When the UN chooses a Korean during the chance for re-unification it is not an accident. When the Vatican chose a Pope from the historic seat of anglo power in Europe, Germany, in the midst of a re-assertive Islam it is not an accident. If Obama Barack heads to the front of the class, it won't be an accident and it may be a move of great genius like these others. Just saying, there's a lot riding on the next 10 years.

[kinghorse]

We are headed for dark times in the Republican party regardless of what the mental midgets do. The republicans are trapped like the liberals were trapped back when they were stepping on each other's toes over issues like gun control. They relented on issues like gun control in favor of unity. They lost in gun control and pretty much quit trying because it was costing too many votes in places like Ohio. Republicans are busy splintering off here and there.

[colorcountry]

Well you certainly have a right to feel that way. It was not a Catholic, Jew, Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist the list goes on, that flew an airplane into the WTC,bombed the Marine Corp barracks or starting wars and social strife pretty much anywhere in the world. You can blame that on the Muslims.

Even if I had been a Muslim at one point in time, and had now converted to Christianity, would it still be my right to speak out about Muslim candidates, their practices, and beliefs?

[PA-RIVER]

I suggest he change his name. It Worked for Billy Blyth. Some suggestions:

Joe Zarqawi
Mike Arafat
Pete Polpot
Bob Mussolini
Ed Frankenstein
John F'N Kerry

[Kimmers]

I could say yes, you do have the right, but you may be attacked not by me but by "the others."

Ms Pelosi is trying her damnedest to take that right away from us.

I do not get it. The Muslims are creating havoc all over the world, they have attacked us but yet so many continue to embrace them and elect them.

[spinestein]

[If Republicans go this low route of criticizing a candidate there will most certainly be a backlash.]



That's an interesting prediction. I personally don't care about Obama's religious beliefs since he seems like nearly every other American politician -- secular. And I care even less about his surname, but when Democrats judge Republicans (like George W. Bush) they condemn him for his private religious beliefs as well as for possessing the Bush family name, and there is no backlash against them.

I restrict my criticism of Obama to his socialist policies because, for me, that's more than enough reason to reject him, but why should we be surprised when the superficial standards that Democrats have used for the past 5 years are now turned against them?

[Candor7]

I hear those Christian Ethopian guys are as black as Obama. Most of them blacker. Mostly. Okay by you? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

What's Black got to do with it?

I have spent time in Ethiopia, and I can tell you fer sure, the Ethiopians are more like old testament people than anyone else I have ever seen, not like Muslims in the least.The Amharic speaking Ethiopians are Hamitic blacks, and have a very distinct and well defined separate cultural background as compared to most African nations.

The Queen of Sheba was a fox, and after being in Ethiopia, I can see why history makes that statement.

My experiences in Ethiopia , although a long time ago when Saille Halassie was still the Emperor, led me to conclude, that a person could do a lot worse than an Ethiopian warrior having your back. I would go back in a heart beat.

Miss Ethiopia 2004: Ferehiyewot Abebe

Tenastaling!

[kinghorse]

It doesn't have a damn thing to do with it. That was my point. Quality people know no color.

[Lorianne]

I believe there WAS a backlash for Democrats for their antognism towards religion in general, and Bush's religious convictions in particular.

[spinestein]

[We are headed for dark times in the Republican party regardless of what the mental midgets do. The republicans are trapped like the liberals were trapped back when they were stepping on each other's toes over issues like gun control.]


On the contrary, this is the best opportunity that CONSERVATIVE Republicans have had since '94. Consider:

1) Republicans have just been shown in no uncertain terms what happens to them when they ignore the wishes of the people who voted for them and they act too much like liberal Democrats and not enough like conservative Republicans. They get voted out of office.

2) Democrats believe their own rhetoric about how they now have a mandate to yank the country to the left because of the outcome of the last election. They don't have that mandate because they didn't campaign on a platform of Democrat ideas, and if they start trying to pass socialism based legislation that "stars" like Obama are championing, then they're going to anger a lot of people.

3) There is a palpable demand for a Republican candidate for president to take a strong position on a very simple concept -- a smaller, less intrusive government. And if they are also for continuing to aggressively take on the Jihadists (with our military, not with international courts) then they would have even more support.