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Pictures and annotations from the Upcoming 2010 Peace Conference: Whew...this guy is tough! Breakthrough! PEACE IN OUR TIME! IT WILL LEAD TO THE SAME PLACE

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama accused President Bush on Thursday of launching a "false political attack" with a comment about appeasing terrorists and radicals. The Illinois senator interpreted the remark as a slam against him but the White House denied that Bush's words were in any way directed at Obama, who has said as president he would be willing to personally meet with Iran's leaders and those of other regimes the United States has deemed rogue. In a speech to Israel's Knesset, Bush said: "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as...

I am writing to complain about an interruption of my privacy. Recently I sat down to watch "Saturday Night Live." I figured that after a long day of studying I might be able to lay back on my couch and laugh a little bit. There's just one problem: every 10 minutes, the show was interrupted by one of your grandstanding political ads. My free time was disturbed by your babbling about change and your claims about fixing Washington, D.C. A majority of my peers might accept intrusions of this nature, as they are captivated by you like toddlers listening to...

The Early Show did its best this morning to help Barack Obama climb out of the hole he's dug for himself with his close association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. In a set-up segment, CBS's Dean Reynolds rhetorically asked: "the question is whether the rhetoric is so remarkable, because in African-American churches pastors often seek to rouse their congregants to self-reliance by speaking harshly about the country's troubled racial past and the need to overcome it." Nice try, but how does accusing the US government of introducing AIDS and giving black people drugs equate to a call for self-reliance? Reynolds...

Sunday, March 16, 2008 6:18 AM CDT Time for Rep. King to go BEN SORIANO CEDAR FALLS --- U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, is an embarrassment to our country, and his remarks on Obama are a reflection of a fear-mongering politician who should not be allowed through re-election to shame the values upon which our country was founded. Maybe those of us interested in turning away from divisive politics should start an online donation drive to oppose his re-election. These days, small donors are having a huge impact on election races. It wouldn't take much to ensure that he no...

In an interview with Major Garrett on Fox News last night, among many other things, Barack Hussein Obama indicated that regarding the upproar over the very controversial, hateful, rascists, and unAmerican statements of his long time pastor, menotr, and spiritual advisor, that Obama, upon learning of earlier statements: "It was my judgement at the time that it was not as problematic.." Also, yesterday, reveleations in the Rezko corruption trial, indicate that the Obama campaign is now revealing much larger donations through Rezko's efforts than previously stated. The Obama campaign also indicated that Barack had lapses of judgement in dealing with...

What else is there to do on Thursdays besides FReep and listen to TSN?! C'mon, eat, drink, breathe SAVAGE?

Clinton escalated her attack on Obama’s qualifications to be president on Saturday, arguing that both she and the presumptive Republican nominee, McCain, could offer voters a “lifetime of experience” while Mr. Obama could only hold out his 2002 speech opposing the Iraq war. ... Mr. Obama, meanwhile, mocked Mrs. Clinton’s credentials as a self-professed agent of change, saying she had come down on both sides of the Nafta trade deal and criticizing her reasoning for voting in 2002 for the invasion of Iraq. “Real change isn’t voting for George Bush’s war in Iraq and then telling the American people it...

CINCINNATI (AP) — Republican John McCain quickly denounced the comments of a radio talk show host who while warming up a campaign crowd referred repeatedly to Barack Hussein Obama and called the Democrat a "hack, Chicago-style" politician. Hussein is Obama's middle name, but talk show host Bill Cunningham used it three times as he addressed the crowd before the likely Republican nominee's appearance. "Now we have a hack, Chicago-style Daley politician who is picturing himself as change. When he gets done with you, all you're going to have in your pocket is change," Cunningham said as the audience roared. The...

His record isn't likely to win back the rural "pro-gun" voters who've fled to the Republicans in recent years, likely costing Gore the election in 2000. From the Chicago Defender, Dec. 13, 1999: Sweeping federal gun control legislation proposed by Sen. Barack Obama (D-13th) would increase the penalties on gun runners who are flooding Chicago's streets with illegal weapons. At an anti-gun rally held at the Park Manor Christian Church, 600 E. 73rd St., headed by the Rev. James Demus, Obama also said he's backing a resolution being introduced into the City Council by Alds. Toni Preckwinkle (4th), Ted Thomas...

In his biography of Barack Obama, David Mendell writes about Obama's life as a "secret smoker" and how he "went to great lengths to conceal the habit." But what about Obama's secret political life? It turns out that Obama's childhood mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, was a communist. In his books, Obama admits attending "socialist conferences" and coming into contact with Marxist literature. But he ridicules the charge of being a "hard-core academic Marxist," which was made by his colorful and outspoken 2004 U.S. Senate opponent, Republican Alan Keyes. However, through Frank Marshall Davis, Obama had an admitted relationship with someone...

With its similarity to popular online sites such as Facebook and MySpace and its links to a network of grassroots blogs, Barack Obama’s campaign website has been hailed as a testament to the candidate’s transformative politics. But at least part of the senator’s online outreach, “Muslim Americans for Obama ’08,� proposes installing Muslim prayer areas in public places and giving Muslims time off for prayer and has denounced Obama’s colleagues in the U.S. Senate who happen to be Jewish. This segment of Obama's online outreach also has ties to unindicted co-conspirators in terror trials and has recruited Obama supporters from...

Barack Obama's new stump speech employs the homiletically lyrical style of his well-received Jefferson-Jackson Day delivery, while making oblique reference to the race card. On December 27, Barak Obama rolled out his new, revised stump speech to Iowa voters.   The speech uses several literary techniques typical of Old Testament Hebrew poetic parallelism.  For example: [Synthetic parallelism where successive lines add to the first.] I've met Maytag workers who labored all their lives only to see their jobs shipped overseas, who now compete with their teenagers for $7-an-hour jobs at Wal-Mart. I've spoken with teachers who are working at doughnut shops after school...

I have yet to decide for whom I will vote much less who I will support in the process. I might have supported John McCain, but he shot himself in the foot with his openly pro-illegal immigration stance then had the temerity to badmouth those of us who oppose illegal, (repeat for those who need to have it pointed out to them), ILLEGAL immigration; then, I might just vote for Ron Paul, but he's so far right, he's left. Then there's Romney or Biden, they certainly have the distinguished looks for the role, but there's something about Biden on the...

During rendition of the national anthem when the flag is displayed, all present except those in uniform should stand at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart. Men not in uniform should remove their headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart. -- United States Code, Title 36, Chapter 10, Sec. 171 Turns out that not wearing a flag lapel pin isn't the only way Barack Obama chooses to show he's a different kind of Democrat. Have a look at the photo from the October 1,...

Nobody can dispute that Barack Obama opposed the Iraq war from the start and, with striking prescience, predicted U.S. troops would be mired in a costly conflict that fanned "the flames of the Middle East." But nobody should accept at face value the Illinois senator's claim that he was a "courageous leader" who opposed the war at great political risk. The truth is that while Obama showed foreign policy savvy and an ability to keenly analyze both sides of an issue in his October 2002 warnings on Iraq, the political upside of his position rivaled any risk. And, once elected...

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton drew another distinction between herself and Sen. Barack Obama yesterday, refusing to rule out the use of nuclear weapons against Osama bin Laden or other terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Clinton's comments came in response to Obama's remarks earlier in the day that nuclear weapons are "not on the table" in dealing with ungoverned territories in the two countries, and they continued a steady tug of war among the Democratic presidential candidates over foreign policy. "I think it would be a profound mistake for us to use nuclear weapons in any circumstance" in Afghanistan or Pakistan,...

Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the Democratic party's frontrunners for the White House, are locked in a battle that has unleashed a raft of negative campaigning as their party debates who should be its 2008 presidential candidate. An ugly fight between the two politicians raged all last week in the first serious bout of open infighting in the current Democratic political campaign. Previous spats had broken out between campaign officials, but now the candidates are openly attacking each other. There are signs that the fight has damaged both the top-tier candidates and perhaps opened a door of opportunity to...

Democrat presidential hopeful Barack Obama cast himself as the leader the US needed to stand up to and engage renegade nations such as North Korea. ’We need a president who’ll have the strength and courage to go toe-to-toe with the leaders of rogue nations, because that’s what it takes to protect our security,“ the Illinois senator told Democrats at a rally in Des Moines, Iowa. “That’s what I’ll do as your next commander in chief.� Obama and rival Hillary Clinton have had a running argument since clashing in last week’s debate over how far the US should be willing to...

“Obama Just Got Less ‘Brown’ Friendly,� reads the Indian American blog Sepia Mutiny. The US-India Political Action Community, having elicited one tepid pseudo-apology from the Barack Obama campaign, then demanded an acceptably contrite expression of contrition. Barack Obama’s macaca moment is hardly the campaign killer that George Allen’s proved to be, but the spectacle of a Kenyan Kansan would-be president deflecting criticism from pro-trade Indian Americans is at least more interesting. Last week, Obama’s campaign sent out a not-for-attribution memo to media professionals, slamming Hillary Clinton for courting Indians and the Indian American Community. The dossier, delicately titled “Hillary Clinton...

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Friday that fathers have to share the responsibility for raising children and caring for families because their role doesn't end at conception. Days before Father's Day, the first-term Illinois senator and father of two daughters delivered his life message as well as an assessment of what government needs to do in remarks at a Baptist church. "What makes you a man is not the ability to have a child but the courage to raise a child," Obama said. In his prepared text, Obama said: Men need to "stop acting like boys - who need...

Republican Rudy Giuliani once derided Hollywood in his Senate bid against Hillary Rodham Clinton. Today, as he pursues the presidency, he's collecting checks from actors Adam Sandler and Kelsey Grammer, and Paramount studio chief Brad Grey. The entertainment industry has always been a wealth of cash for political candidates—a whopping $27.5 million in the 2004 election cycle—and Democrats traditionally have been the top draw. In the last election, $7 out of every $10 from the industry went to Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Yet, the latest campaign finance reports show Republicans making some inroads, not only with...

We sat around the dinner table, a group of 50-something progressive feminists, talking to a friend from England about presidential politics. We were all for Hillary, weren’t we, he asked. Hillary? We hated Hillary. He was taken aback. Weren’t we her base? Wasn’t she one of us? Why did we hate Hillary? Of course, a lot of people seem to hate Hillary. According to some polls, anywhere from 39 to 50 percent of respondents claim they’d vote against her no matter what; her “negatives” continue to be high. Many of these are Republicans and men. But many are not. According...

Fred Thompson isn't the only 'Law and Order' character eyeing the 2008 presidential campaign. Inside Sam Waterston’s efforts to help promote a third-party ticket. The actor Sam Waterston, who plays the hard-hitting assistant D.A. in “Law and Order,” has a confession to make. “I’m a moderate,” he declared in a speech at the National Press Club. “You’re looking at a bird rarely seen in Washington, even in springtime.” Waterston was in town to promote Unity ’08, an Internet scheme to launch a third-party ticket, made up of a Republican and a Democrat, to run together against the two major party...

Obama criticizes war in Iraq during Ames visit By Charlotte Eby, Journal Des Moines Bureau AMES, Iowa -- A day after jumping into the presidential race, Democrat Barack Obama began the courting of Iowa party activists Sunday with a blistering critique of the war in Iraq. More than 6,000 people who came to hear him at the Iowa State University campus saved their biggest cheers for his criticism of the war. "We ended up launching a war that should have never been authorized, and should have never been waged, and to which we now have spent $400 billion and have...

PRIME Minister John Howard has been described as bizarre and irrelevant by US Democrats after he launched an attack on Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama. Mr Howard said yesterday al-Qaeda would be praying for an Obama-led White House because Senator Obama has promised to withdraw US combat troops from Iraq by March 2008. A string of Democrats have reacted angrily to Mr Howard's comments which have received widespread media coverage in the US. Terry McAuliffe, a former chairman of the Democratic National Convention, criticised Mr Howard's strong links to US President George W. Bush. "The prime minister has been a...

Barack Hussein Obama fired back at Autralian PM John Howard today, invoking the familiar “nutroots” chickenhawk meme. Responding to Howard’s criticism of Obama’s Iraq surrender-by-May plan, Obama lashed out at Howard by minimizing the Australian troop commitment of 1400, and said that if Howard believes so strongly in the American effort, he should commit an additional 20,000 Australian troops. (I have been reminded that “stategic redeploment” does not mean “surrender”, but failing to see the difference, I have decided to continue to use my original characterization.) Perhaps Obama thinks Howard is an easy target. Given Obama’s lack of experience on...

SPRINGFIELD, Illinois (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record), citing the legacy of Abraham Lincoln, pledged on Saturday to bridge the partisan gridlock in Washington, end the war in Iraq and transform American politics as the first black U.S. president. Launching his 2008 White House campaign outside the building in where Lincoln began his fight against slavery with a famous 1858 speech that declared "a house divided against itself cannot stand," Obama said it was time to "turn the page" to a new politics. "Let us begin this hard work together. Let us transform this nation,"...

George Soros, the billionaire New York philanthropist, has made maximum donations in the past to both candidates, for instance, and last week he faced a choice: support Mr. Obama, who created his committee on Tuesday, or stay neutral and see what Mrs. Clinton and others had to say. In this case, Mr. Obama won. Mr. Soros sent the maximum contribution, $2,100, to Mr. Obama, the first-term senator from Illinois, just hours after he declared his plans to run. “Soros believes that Senator Obama brings a new energy to the political system and has the potential to be a transformational leader,”...

Boston (CNSNews.com) - Without a formidable Republican opponent in his U.S. Senate race, Barack Obama has little reason not to take money from billionaire liberal financier George Soros, a man other Democrats keep at a distance. ...Obama, however, is different from most Democrats because of his willingness to embrace the controversial Soros. Shortly after Soros equated the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Obama joined him for a New York fund-raiser June 7.Little has been made of his connection to Soros, although it is quite unique. Not only did George Soros donate...

After only being a U.S. Senator for a couple of years, Barak Hussein Obama, Democrat Senator from Chicago, has managed to catapult himself to the status of a messiah in the Democrat Party. The result is that, ever since, he's been walking on water toward the White House. Obama says after his visit with friends and family in Hawaii during the 2006 year-end holidays, he'll announce if he's going to run for president in 2008. Bets are that he will. Who is Obama and what has he done? Independent columnist, Andy Martin (Out2.com) says he believes Obama is a political...

In 1994, two sociologists went to Red Hook, Brooklyn, to solve a mystery. Red Hook abutted the East River, and along the waterfront sat shipping companies and warehouses — all in need of low-skilled labor. Next door sat a housing project teeming with exactly that. But the locals — primarily African Americans — didn't get hired. Instead, the jobs went to workers from outside the neighborhood, often Caribbean immigrants. Employers, wrote The New Yorker's Malcolm Gladwell in summarizing the sociologists' findings, "had developed an elaborate mechanism for distinguishing between those who they felt were 'good' blacks and those they felt...

Even if you are not a Muslim, calling someone a Muslim in America is a common political technique to destroy a candidate’s chances for election. Barack Obama is best known as an overnight political success story. Only a few years ago, he was just a local legislator in the Illinois State Senate. Two years ago, we was slated for the US Senate and won. Today, he is seen as a potential candidate for president of the United States. And, he is African American. And, his middle name is Hussein, and his father was, in Obama’s own words, an African “goat...

“Swift boating” is a term that came into use during the 2004 presidential election to reflect Senator John Kerry’s flaccid response to attacks on his wartime record in Viet-Nam. The term, a noun, adjective and verb, has entered the political lexicon and is usually invoked when liberals and Democrats are stung trying to defend themselves against unpleasantly truthful accusations hurled by conservatives. Well, “swift boating” is obviously a two-way street in politics. Democrats are equally adept at hurling painful accusations at Republicans and conservatives. I have no problem with people bringing the truth to light, digging up unpleasant facts and...

One of the most entertaining opportunities that will emerge in 2007 will be using Barack Obama to fight Islamofascism. He is the product of a black Moslem from Kenya, Barrack Hussein Obama, and a white atheist from Kansas, Shirley Ann Dunham, who met at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu. That is why his middle name is the same as Saddam’s: Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. His first name is taken from the Islamic term in Arabic for “blessed,” baraka, used in the Koran. His father deserted the family when Barack Jr. was two and returned to Kenya. His mother then...

Maureen Dowd plays the false indignation card in her pay-per-view column of today, What’s in a Name, Barry?The gist: those mean Republicans are trying to tar the rising star of the Democratic party [legally-mandated descriptor] by making malign associations with his moniker. The GOP's latest mischief - letting people know that the middle name of the junior senator from Illinois is "Hussein." Bunk. Any possible shock value in the Barack Hussein Obama handle has already largely faded. And this being a nation that likes to see itself as open and accepting, I'd say that, should he stay in the race,...