Thursday, March 29, 2012
A One Minute Commercial from the 1950's
This is a Short One Minute Video of a 1950's Recording that was shown in homes across America and possibly aired on television. Would that everyone had seen it and remembered it. It was a warning. We are seeing the effects of it now in many, many ways. Wake up America!
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
OBAMA REVELATIONS & QUESTIONS
The above picture of Obama's Columbia University ID, when he had the Alias of Barry Soetero (who elects a man with an alias!!!! Ack!) And the following is an article that came with the picture.
Legitimate Questions posted by the person who wrote this Article:
This election has me very worried. So many things to consider. I voted for Obama. McCain was a Washington insider and we don’t need any more of them. I have changed my mind three times, since then. I watch all the news channels, jumping from one to another. I must say this drives my husband crazy. But, I feel if you view CNN, and Fox News, you might get some middle ground to work with. I started thinking "where does all the money come from for President Obama"? I have four daughters who went to College, and we were middle class, and money was tight. We (including my girls) worked hard and there were lots of student loans. I started looking into Obama's history for my own peace of mind.
Around 1979 Obama started college at Occidental in California. He is very open about his two years at Occidental, he tried all kinds of drugs and was wasting his time but, even though he had a brilliant mind, did not apply himself to his studies. "Barry" (that was the name he used all his life) during this time had two roommates, Muhammad Hasan Chandoo and Wahid Hamid, both from Pakistan. During the summer of 1981, after his second year in college, he made a "round the world" trip. Stopping to see his mother in Indonesia, next Hyderabad in India, three weeks in Karachi, Pakistan where he stayed with his roommate's family, then off to Africa to visit his father's family.
My question - Where did he get the money for this trip? Nether I, nor any one of my children would have had money for a trip like this when they were in college. When he came back he started school at Columbia University in New York. It is at this time he wants everyone to call him Barack - not Barry. Do you know what the tuition is at Columbia? It's not cheap to say the least. My girls asked me; where did he get money for tuition? Student Loans? Maybe it’s none of my business?
After Columbia, he went to Chicago to work as a Community Organizer for $12,000. a year. Why Chicago? Why not New York? He was already living in New York. By "chance" he met Antoin "Tony" Rezko, born in Aleppo Syria, and a real estate developer in Chicago. Rezko has been convicted of fraud and bribery several times in the past and in 2011. Rezko, was named "Entrepreneur of the Decade" by the Arab-American Business and Professional Association". About two years later, Obama entered Harvard Law School. Do you have any idea what tuition is for Harvard Law School? Where did he get the money for Law School? More student loans? His family has no money that’s for sure.
After Law school, he went back to Chicago. Rezko offered him a job, which he turned down. But, he did take a job with Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland. Guess what I discovered? They represented "Rezar" which is Rezko's firm. Rezko was one of Obama's first major financial contributors when he ran for office in Chicago. In 2003, Rezko threw an early fundraiser for Obama which Chicago Tribune reporter David Mendelland claims was instrumental in providing Obama with "seed money" for his U.S. Senate race.
In 2005, Obama purchased a new home in Kenwoood District of Chicago for $1.65 million (less than asking price). With ALL those Student Loans - Where did he get the money for this property? On the same day Rezko's wife, Rita, purchased the adjoining empty lot for full price. The London Times reported that Nadhmi Auchi, an Iraqi-born Billionaire loaned Rezko $3.5 million three weeks before Obama's new home was purchased. Obama met Nadhmi Auchi many times with Rezko.
Now, we have Obama running for President. Valerie Jarrett, was Michele Obama's boss. She is now Obama's chief advisor and he does not make any major decisions without talking to her first. Where was Jarrett born? Ready for this? Shiraz, Iran! Am I going nuts or is there a pattern here?
On May 10, 2008, The Times reported, Robert Malley advisor to Obama was "sacked" after the press found out he was having regular contacts with "Hamas", which controls Gaza and is connected with Iran. This past week, buried in the back part of the papers, Iraqi newspapers reported that during Obama's visit to Iraq, he asked their leaders to do nothing about the war until after he is elected, and he will "Take care of things". What the heck does that mean?
Oh, and by the way, remember the college roommates that were born in Pakistan? They are in charge of all those "small" Internet campaign contribution for Obama. Where is that money coming from? The poor and middle class in this country? Or could it be from the Middle East?
And the final bit of news. On September 7, 2009, The Washington Times posted a verbal slip that was made on "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos. Obama on talking about his religion said, "My Muslim faith". When questioned, "he made a mistake". Some mistake huh?
All of the above information I got on line. If you would like to check it - Wikipedia, encyclopedia, Barack Obama; Tony Rezko; Valerie Jarrett: Daily Times - Obama visited Pakistan in 1981; The Washington Times - September 7, 2008; The Times May 10, 2008.
Now the BIG question - If I found out all this information on my own, Why haven't all of our "intelligent" members of the press been reporting this? Is this a Kettle of Fish??
As Arseno Hall would say.----"HUMMMMMMM! Does something stink or is it my imagination?" These are legitimate questions for our president.
Note by Kenaga: BESIDES his lack of verifiable birth records (We have the legitimate one from Kenya), according to the U.S. Constitution, he must be a citizen of this country to be President. From the date of this photo to the present, either he must prove he is an American Citizen or he outright lied to travel under the guise of a Foreign Student. Who in their right mind wants a liar for a President?
Thursday, March 15, 2012
IF PATTTON WERE HERE NOW.
This is the text of an email I received. Its a good message: I repeat it here. I don't know who the author was.
I visualize General George Patton addressing everyone today. It would go something like this......
ATTENTION!
To ALL those whining, panty-waisted, pathetic Citizens, it's time for a little refresher course on exactly why we Americans occasionally have to fight wars to keep this nation great.
See if you can tear yourself away from your "reality" TV and Starbucks for a minute, pull your head out of your ass -- and LISTEN UP!!
Abu Ghraib is not "torture" or an "atrocity."
Got that ?
JIHADISTS Beheading Journalists IS an atrocity!
The World Trade Center being hit by airplanes full of American citizens is an atrocity?
WHICH PART DON'T YOU GET?
Islam Extemists are peaceful people? My Ass!
Millions of these warped misled sons-of-bitches are plotting, as we speak, to destroy our country and our way of life any way they can. Some of them are here among us now.
They don't want to convert you and don't want to rule you. They believe you are a vile infestation of Allah's paradise. They don't give a shit how "progressive" you are, how peace-loving you are, or how much you sympathize with their cause.
They want your ass dead, and they think it is God's will for them to do it.
Some think if we give them a hug or listen to them, then they'll like us, and if you agree - Then you are a pathetic dumb ass!
If they manage to get their hands on a nuke,chemical agents, or even some anthrax -- you will wish to God we had hunted them down and killed THEM while we had the chance.
How many more Americans must be beheaded?
You've fallen asleep AGAIN - get your head out of your ass!
You may never get another chance!
NOW GET OFF YOUR SORRY ASS and pass this on to any and every person you give a damn about - if you ever gave a damn about anything!
DISMISSED!
I visualize General George Patton addressing everyone today. It would go something like this......
ATTENTION!
To ALL those whining, panty-waisted, pathetic Citizens, it's time for a little refresher course on exactly why we Americans occasionally have to fight wars to keep this nation great.
See if you can tear yourself away from your "reality" TV and Starbucks for a minute, pull your head out of your ass -- and LISTEN UP!!
Abu Ghraib is not "torture" or an "atrocity."
Got that ?
JIHADISTS Beheading Journalists IS an atrocity!
The World Trade Center being hit by airplanes full of American citizens is an atrocity?
WHICH PART DON'T YOU GET?
Islam Extemists are peaceful people? My Ass!
Millions of these warped misled sons-of-bitches are plotting, as we speak, to destroy our country and our way of life any way they can. Some of them are here among us now.
They don't want to convert you and don't want to rule you. They believe you are a vile infestation of Allah's paradise. They don't give a shit how "progressive" you are, how peace-loving you are, or how much you sympathize with their cause.
They want your ass dead, and they think it is God's will for them to do it.
Some think if we give them a hug or listen to them, then they'll like us, and if you agree - Then you are a pathetic dumb ass!
If they manage to get their hands on a nuke,chemical agents, or even some anthrax -- you will wish to God we had hunted them down and killed THEM while we had the chance.
How many more Americans must be beheaded?
You've fallen asleep AGAIN - get your head out of your ass!
You may never get another chance!
NOW GET OFF YOUR SORRY ASS and pass this on to any and every person you give a damn about - if you ever gave a damn about anything!
DISMISSED!
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Why Fear Communism--An article by V. Jackson
They used to say, “He is not a Communist!” Now they say, “What’s so wrong with Communism?”
I got this email from my 28 year old friend “Al” yesterday:
We aren’t living in the 1950’s anymore. Why is there a fear of the communist bogeyman? Isn’t creating and perpetuating this fear just another form of propaganda?
Obviously, this boy has been brainwashed. I was so frustrated a cartoon cyclone came out of my head and ears. Then I wrote him back:
We aren’t living in the 1950′s anymore…so, suddenly communism works?! Which country is it working in?! (I wanted to say ‘you idiot!’) North Korea, Russia, Cuba? Are people flocking there to live? Risking their lives on rafts to get there?
The liberal Miami Herald today had an article about tourists visiting Cuba. They hated to admit that the place is a falling apart poverty stricken mess. They didn’t use the “c” word of course to explain why it suddenly went bad when Castro took over. All they would offer was, “…There’s no way tourism alone can prop up a system so enfeebled by the weight of government bureaucracy, market controls and limits on personal freedoms.”
“…a system enfeebled by the weight of government bureaucracy, market controls and limits on personal freedoms…” sounds like the Obama administration.
28 year old – do you want America to look like Cuba? Than stop defending communism!
The “utopia” of communism killed 94 million, according to The Black Book of Communism.
The breakdown of the number of deaths is as follows:
•65 million in the People’s Republic of China
•20 million in the Soviet Union
•2 million in Cambodia
•2 million in North Korea
•1.7 million in Africa
•1.5 million in Afghanistan
•1 million in the Communist states of Eastern Europe
•1 million in Vietnam
•150,000 in Latin America
•10,000 deaths resulting from actions of the international Communist movement and Communist parties not in power
S. Courtois claims that Communist regimes are responsible for a greater number of deaths than any other political ideal or movement, including Nazism. The statistics of victims includes executions, famine, deaths resulting from deportations, physical confinement, or through forced labor.
Utopia is a nice ideal but it doesn’t work on this earth. The factor preventing it – “sin.” But that word is from the 50′s, right?!
Marxism is the theory. Communism is the implementation. The implementation requires force because it goes against logic and human nature for a man not to reap what he sows. If you work 8 hrs and Joe works 2 hrs and you both get the same salary, house and car – you won’t work 8 hrs anymore. That is just the way it is.
Andrew Breitbart was brainwashed by Tulane, but he survived and eventually realized the difference between fact and fiction. He died last week, trying to explain it to you.
The Progressives like Hilary, Obama, Ayres, Jarret, and the professors at our atheistic universities hate God and are rebelling against Him.
Why do I fear Communism? Because the first thing they do is kill the dissenters, the Christians. You cannot worship state and God. I choose God. So, I’ll be killed.
They’ve already started intimidation tactics by publicly scorning all things Christians in the media 24/7. Check out this article about Christians who signed petitions and are now being investigated.
And check out this article by Chuck Norris about Obama’s Assassination Program!
The European Union Times reported, “Foreign Ministry reports circulating in the Kremlin today are warning that an already explosive situation in the United States is about to get a whole lot worse as a new law put forth by President Obama is said capable of seeing up to 500,000 American citizens jailed for the crime of opposing their government.”
In this video, Trevor Loudon, author of “Barack Obama and the Enemies Within,” traces Obama’s communist background from Hawaii to Columbia.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=d559bMbd6V0
In this video Trevor Loudon explains “Obama didn’t create a movement, a movement (communism) created Obama.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=N4oekXaF5Qg
Finally, Trevor Loudon makes it simple. Why should young people hate communism?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1Gy5Z5cnIZ4
I got this email from my 28 year old friend “Al” yesterday:
We aren’t living in the 1950’s anymore. Why is there a fear of the communist bogeyman? Isn’t creating and perpetuating this fear just another form of propaganda?
Obviously, this boy has been brainwashed. I was so frustrated a cartoon cyclone came out of my head and ears. Then I wrote him back:
We aren’t living in the 1950′s anymore…so, suddenly communism works?! Which country is it working in?! (I wanted to say ‘you idiot!’) North Korea, Russia, Cuba? Are people flocking there to live? Risking their lives on rafts to get there?
The liberal Miami Herald today had an article about tourists visiting Cuba. They hated to admit that the place is a falling apart poverty stricken mess. They didn’t use the “c” word of course to explain why it suddenly went bad when Castro took over. All they would offer was, “…There’s no way tourism alone can prop up a system so enfeebled by the weight of government bureaucracy, market controls and limits on personal freedoms.”
“…a system enfeebled by the weight of government bureaucracy, market controls and limits on personal freedoms…” sounds like the Obama administration.
28 year old – do you want America to look like Cuba? Than stop defending communism!
The “utopia” of communism killed 94 million, according to The Black Book of Communism.
The breakdown of the number of deaths is as follows:
•65 million in the People’s Republic of China
•20 million in the Soviet Union
•2 million in Cambodia
•2 million in North Korea
•1.7 million in Africa
•1.5 million in Afghanistan
•1 million in the Communist states of Eastern Europe
•1 million in Vietnam
•150,000 in Latin America
•10,000 deaths resulting from actions of the international Communist movement and Communist parties not in power
S. Courtois claims that Communist regimes are responsible for a greater number of deaths than any other political ideal or movement, including Nazism. The statistics of victims includes executions, famine, deaths resulting from deportations, physical confinement, or through forced labor.
Utopia is a nice ideal but it doesn’t work on this earth. The factor preventing it – “sin.” But that word is from the 50′s, right?!
Marxism is the theory. Communism is the implementation. The implementation requires force because it goes against logic and human nature for a man not to reap what he sows. If you work 8 hrs and Joe works 2 hrs and you both get the same salary, house and car – you won’t work 8 hrs anymore. That is just the way it is.
Andrew Breitbart was brainwashed by Tulane, but he survived and eventually realized the difference between fact and fiction. He died last week, trying to explain it to you.
The Progressives like Hilary, Obama, Ayres, Jarret, and the professors at our atheistic universities hate God and are rebelling against Him.
Why do I fear Communism? Because the first thing they do is kill the dissenters, the Christians. You cannot worship state and God. I choose God. So, I’ll be killed.
They’ve already started intimidation tactics by publicly scorning all things Christians in the media 24/7. Check out this article about Christians who signed petitions and are now being investigated.
And check out this article by Chuck Norris about Obama’s Assassination Program!
The European Union Times reported, “Foreign Ministry reports circulating in the Kremlin today are warning that an already explosive situation in the United States is about to get a whole lot worse as a new law put forth by President Obama is said capable of seeing up to 500,000 American citizens jailed for the crime of opposing their government.”
In this video, Trevor Loudon, author of “Barack Obama and the Enemies Within,” traces Obama’s communist background from Hawaii to Columbia.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=d559bMbd6V0
In this video Trevor Loudon explains “Obama didn’t create a movement, a movement (communism) created Obama.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=N4oekXaF5Qg
Finally, Trevor Loudon makes it simple. Why should young people hate communism?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1Gy5Z5cnIZ4
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Back Home Again in Indiana History:
PRETTY INTERESTING STUFF YOU PROBABLY NEVER KNEW EXISTED!
Tomato juice was first served at a French Lick, Indiana , hotel in 1925.
The first tomato juice factory was also in French Lick, IN.
World famous basketball star Larry Bird lives in French Lick, IN.
The world's largest orchid species collection is found at Ball State University in Muncie , Indiana .
The first regulated speed limit (20 - 25 mph!) was initiated on Indiana roads in 1921.
The steepest railroad grade in the world is in Madison , Indiana .
An average of 400 funnel clouds are sighted each year in Indiana .
The city of Gary , Indiana , was built on fill brought from the bottom of Lake Michigan through suction pipes. (that explains a lot)
There are only two Adams fireplaces in the United States . One is in the White House and the other in the Diner Home in Indiana.
Josie Orr, wife of former Indiana Governor Ro bert Orr, flew bombers and cargo planes during World War II.
The Indianapolis Methodist Hospital is the largest Hospital in the Midwest .
One of the first complete bathrooms in Indianapolis was in the home of Hoosier poet, James Whitcomb Riley.
The career of Dorothy Lamour (famous for the Bing Crosby-Bob Hope Ro ad Movies) was launched in Indianapolis .
Aviatrix Amelia Earhart was once a Professor at Purdue University .
Crown Hill Cemetery ( Indianapolis ) is the largest cemetery in the U.S.
The library in Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana, houses one of the largest genealogy libraries in America .
Wabash, Indiana, was the first electrified city in the U.S.
Pendleton, Indiana, was the site of the first hanging of a white man for killing Indians.
The Courthouse roof in Greensburg , Indiana , has a tree growing from it.
The world's first transistor radio was made in Indianapolis .
Clark Gable and wife Carole Lombard (born in Fort Wayne , IN ) honeymooned at Lake BarBee near Warsaw, Indiana .
The American Beauty Rose was developed at Richmond, Indiana .
Elkhart, Indiana, is the band instrument capitol of the World.
Frank Sinatra first sang with the Tommy Dorsey band at the Lyric Theater in Indianapolis .
Purdue Alumnus, Earl Butz, served as the Secretary of Agriculture. (there are lots of jokes about that)
U.S. 231 is the longest highway in Indiana (231miles).
Johnny Appleseed is buried at Fort Wayne, Indiana.
The singing McGuire Sisters spent their childhood summers at the Church of God Campground in Anderson, Indiana .
The main station of the Underground Railroad was in Fountain County, Indiana .
There are 154 acres of sculpture gardens and trails at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
La Porte County is the only county in America having 2 functioning courthouses. (I think we can add Vanderburgh and Elkhart Counties in with that also)
Nancy Hanks Lincoln is buried in Posey County, Indiana.
Crawfordsville , Indiana (Montgomery County) is the only site in the world where crinoids are found. (What is a crinoid, you ask? A form of deep-water marine life that looks something like a starfish.)
Pendleton, Indiana, was the site of the 'Fall Creek Massacre'. A museum housing 3500 artifacts of pioneer heritage now exists on that site.
St. Meinrad Archabbey is located in Spencer County and is one of only 2 archabbeys in the U.S. and seven in the world. (Abbey Press is an operation of the archabbey.)
A buzz bomb (German - WWII), believed to be the only one on public display in the nation, can be found on the Putnam County Courthouse lawn in Greencastle.
Roberta Turpin Willett was born in Indiana .
James Dean was born and is buried in Indiana .
The world's tallest woman lived in Indiana .
Red Skelton was born in Vincennes, Indiana .? (and was a proud Hoosier 'til the day he died!)
Mae West and Claude Akins were from Bedford, Indiana.
The inventor of the television, Philo T. Farnsworth, lived in Fort Wayne, Indiana .
Forrest Tucker was from Plainfield , Indiana .
You can't ship wine to Indiana . (So how does it get there?)
Bob Greise is from Evansville, Indiana and was quarterback at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN.
Toni Tenille (of The Captain and Tenille) is from Indiana ..
Oprah Winfrey built her residence in N/W Indiana.
Florence Henderson is from Indiana .
The much sought-after Hoosier Cabinets are an Indiana product.
90% of the world's popcorn is grown in Indiana. (Orville Redinbacher was what percent?)
The Jackson Five are from Gary, Indiana .
The birthplace of the automobile, the pneumatic rubber tire, the aluminum casting process, stainless steel and the first push-button car radio was in Kokomo, Indiana .
Frank Borman, NASA astronaut, born in Gary, Indiana
Pretty neat, huh? And you thought there was only corn in Indiana?
Don't forget, breaded tenderloin sandwiches are RARE (or nonexistent) everyplace else!
And does anyone but Hoosiers know how to play Euchre?
Tomato juice was first served at a French Lick, Indiana , hotel in 1925.
The first tomato juice factory was also in French Lick, IN.
World famous basketball star Larry Bird lives in French Lick, IN.
The world's largest orchid species collection is found at Ball State University in Muncie , Indiana .
The first regulated speed limit (20 - 25 mph!) was initiated on Indiana roads in 1921.
The steepest railroad grade in the world is in Madison , Indiana .
An average of 400 funnel clouds are sighted each year in Indiana .
The city of Gary , Indiana , was built on fill brought from the bottom of Lake Michigan through suction pipes. (that explains a lot)
There are only two Adams fireplaces in the United States . One is in the White House and the other in the Diner Home in Indiana.
Josie Orr, wife of former Indiana Governor Ro bert Orr, flew bombers and cargo planes during World War II.
The Indianapolis Methodist Hospital is the largest Hospital in the Midwest .
One of the first complete bathrooms in Indianapolis was in the home of Hoosier poet, James Whitcomb Riley.
The career of Dorothy Lamour (famous for the Bing Crosby-Bob Hope Ro ad Movies) was launched in Indianapolis .
Aviatrix Amelia Earhart was once a Professor at Purdue University .
Crown Hill Cemetery ( Indianapolis ) is the largest cemetery in the U.S.
The library in Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana, houses one of the largest genealogy libraries in America .
Wabash, Indiana, was the first electrified city in the U.S.
Pendleton, Indiana, was the site of the first hanging of a white man for killing Indians.
The Courthouse roof in Greensburg , Indiana , has a tree growing from it.
The world's first transistor radio was made in Indianapolis .
Clark Gable and wife Carole Lombard (born in Fort Wayne , IN ) honeymooned at Lake BarBee near Warsaw, Indiana .
The American Beauty Rose was developed at Richmond, Indiana .
Elkhart, Indiana, is the band instrument capitol of the World.
Frank Sinatra first sang with the Tommy Dorsey band at the Lyric Theater in Indianapolis .
Purdue Alumnus, Earl Butz, served as the Secretary of Agriculture. (there are lots of jokes about that)
U.S. 231 is the longest highway in Indiana (231miles).
Johnny Appleseed is buried at Fort Wayne, Indiana.
The singing McGuire Sisters spent their childhood summers at the Church of God Campground in Anderson, Indiana .
The main station of the Underground Railroad was in Fountain County, Indiana .
There are 154 acres of sculpture gardens and trails at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
La Porte County is the only county in America having 2 functioning courthouses. (I think we can add Vanderburgh and Elkhart Counties in with that also)
Nancy Hanks Lincoln is buried in Posey County, Indiana.
Crawfordsville , Indiana (Montgomery County) is the only site in the world where crinoids are found. (What is a crinoid, you ask? A form of deep-water marine life that looks something like a starfish.)
Pendleton, Indiana, was the site of the 'Fall Creek Massacre'. A museum housing 3500 artifacts of pioneer heritage now exists on that site.
St. Meinrad Archabbey is located in Spencer County and is one of only 2 archabbeys in the U.S. and seven in the world. (Abbey Press is an operation of the archabbey.)
A buzz bomb (German - WWII), believed to be the only one on public display in the nation, can be found on the Putnam County Courthouse lawn in Greencastle.
Roberta Turpin Willett was born in Indiana .
James Dean was born and is buried in Indiana .
The world's tallest woman lived in Indiana .
Red Skelton was born in Vincennes, Indiana .? (and was a proud Hoosier 'til the day he died!)
Mae West and Claude Akins were from Bedford, Indiana.
The inventor of the television, Philo T. Farnsworth, lived in Fort Wayne, Indiana .
Forrest Tucker was from Plainfield , Indiana .
You can't ship wine to Indiana . (So how does it get there?)
Bob Greise is from Evansville, Indiana and was quarterback at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN.
Toni Tenille (of The Captain and Tenille) is from Indiana ..
Oprah Winfrey built her residence in N/W Indiana.
Florence Henderson is from Indiana .
The much sought-after Hoosier Cabinets are an Indiana product.
90% of the world's popcorn is grown in Indiana. (Orville Redinbacher was what percent?)
The Jackson Five are from Gary, Indiana .
The birthplace of the automobile, the pneumatic rubber tire, the aluminum casting process, stainless steel and the first push-button car radio was in Kokomo, Indiana .
Frank Borman, NASA astronaut, born in Gary, Indiana
Pretty neat, huh? And you thought there was only corn in Indiana?
Don't forget, breaded tenderloin sandwiches are RARE (or nonexistent) everyplace else!
And does anyone but Hoosiers know how to play Euchre?
ANDREW BREITBART'S WAR ON THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA
Most people don't even know who Andrew Breitbart was, and they don't understand why his passing was of any consequence. They don't understand the way he took the knowledge of a large group of Conservative Bloggers and made it into a cause with his web sites, with his marketing of those web sites, with his zealous and fearless method of speaking out and making our concerns heard.
Many, including myself recognized the reason no one vetted Obama was because the mainstream media failed to do it! They were too busy saying nasty things about Sarah Palin (which they continued to do even after the election was over). We always counted on the investigative reporters to very actively let us know everything there was to know about a candidate. They always did. Remember how they demanded that George W. Bush release everything, and how they tried to find proof that he wasn't REALLY a pilot with the Air National Guard?
We should have noticed then how far Left and I don't mean Democrat but I mean Far Left, i.e., Progressive Liberal Socialist Communist the Mainstream Media was leaning. Those of us who went to college as Conservatives (and there's a difference between Conservatives and GOP Republicans too but we won't get into it right now...it's not nearly as big a gap as the one between old time Democrats and the Prog/Libs of today.) ...those of us who went to college as far back as the early
60's had our share of Socialist/Communist leaning instructors, teachers, professors. We noticed them because if we didn't share their Idealistic views of how things should be in our reports, or sit quietly by not debating their comments, not remembering their far out teaching for our exams, we wouldn't get a good grade. Thirty-five years later when my son was in college he was running into more and more of these creatures. I made sure to teach him patriotism from the very start and I advised him to educate himself and come to his own conclusions about the Constitution and Freedom and what America was all about.
I've been saying for nearly four years, we are responsible for ourselves. We must educate our selves, and then we must educate others. The New Media is comprised of those who recognize what Andrew Breitbart recognized. We are the New Media. We are those who use Twitter and Facebook and emails to educate those who are still in the dark because they are still using the mainstream media, believing "they" wouldn't let that happen, i.e., "they" wouldn't let a Communist make it into the Oval Office. Well "they" did. "They" were either too afraid to be called a racist for questioning the credentials or "they" knew very well what was going on and were complicite with it. There are still many among us who think America will go along operating just as it always has with no changes. But at the same time they lament that there are no jobs, manufacturing has left the country, oil prices are sky-rocketing because "we are out of oil" (baloney! We have more oil available on this continent than any other place! We just aren't being allowed to drill for it!)
Wake up people. You can no longer rely upon the mainstream media to educate you, we can't depend upon them to give us the truth to give us the information the old mainstream media always supplied. That's what Andrew Breitbart was all about, educating the public, doing the job the mainstream media was supposed to be doing.
Want to understand more about the discussion of Critical Race Theory? This is why Obama was following Derrick Bell, supporting him & speaking at the same functions in favor of Bell's Critical Race Theory. It's purpose is being obfuscated by the mainstream media. Educate yourself, and understand what's going on. Then make your own decisions. Don't let your facts be "someone told me it was THIS way". We are each ultimately responsible for where we find ourselves. We can blame no one but ourselves for being complacent about the preservation of our Constitution. We can't just rest on the idea "they" won't let anything bad happen to us. Take responsibility for your life & the consequences of your action or inaction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4Ld8tJdfVMc
Many, including myself recognized the reason no one vetted Obama was because the mainstream media failed to do it! They were too busy saying nasty things about Sarah Palin (which they continued to do even after the election was over). We always counted on the investigative reporters to very actively let us know everything there was to know about a candidate. They always did. Remember how they demanded that George W. Bush release everything, and how they tried to find proof that he wasn't REALLY a pilot with the Air National Guard?
We should have noticed then how far Left and I don't mean Democrat but I mean Far Left, i.e., Progressive Liberal Socialist Communist the Mainstream Media was leaning. Those of us who went to college as Conservatives (and there's a difference between Conservatives and GOP Republicans too but we won't get into it right now...it's not nearly as big a gap as the one between old time Democrats and the Prog/Libs of today.) ...those of us who went to college as far back as the early
60's had our share of Socialist/Communist leaning instructors, teachers, professors. We noticed them because if we didn't share their Idealistic views of how things should be in our reports, or sit quietly by not debating their comments, not remembering their far out teaching for our exams, we wouldn't get a good grade. Thirty-five years later when my son was in college he was running into more and more of these creatures. I made sure to teach him patriotism from the very start and I advised him to educate himself and come to his own conclusions about the Constitution and Freedom and what America was all about.
I've been saying for nearly four years, we are responsible for ourselves. We must educate our selves, and then we must educate others. The New Media is comprised of those who recognize what Andrew Breitbart recognized. We are the New Media. We are those who use Twitter and Facebook and emails to educate those who are still in the dark because they are still using the mainstream media, believing "they" wouldn't let that happen, i.e., "they" wouldn't let a Communist make it into the Oval Office. Well "they" did. "They" were either too afraid to be called a racist for questioning the credentials or "they" knew very well what was going on and were complicite with it. There are still many among us who think America will go along operating just as it always has with no changes. But at the same time they lament that there are no jobs, manufacturing has left the country, oil prices are sky-rocketing because "we are out of oil" (baloney! We have more oil available on this continent than any other place! We just aren't being allowed to drill for it!)
Wake up people. You can no longer rely upon the mainstream media to educate you, we can't depend upon them to give us the truth to give us the information the old mainstream media always supplied. That's what Andrew Breitbart was all about, educating the public, doing the job the mainstream media was supposed to be doing.
Want to understand more about the discussion of Critical Race Theory? This is why Obama was following Derrick Bell, supporting him & speaking at the same functions in favor of Bell's Critical Race Theory. It's purpose is being obfuscated by the mainstream media. Educate yourself, and understand what's going on. Then make your own decisions. Don't let your facts be "someone told me it was THIS way". We are each ultimately responsible for where we find ourselves. We can blame no one but ourselves for being complacent about the preservation of our Constitution. We can't just rest on the idea "they" won't let anything bad happen to us. Take responsibility for your life & the consequences of your action or inaction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4Ld8tJdfVMc
Friday, March 2, 2012
STANDING IN THE WAY OF THE OBAMA VICTORY
A friend sent this to me. I'd read it before. It's long but well worth knowing. Study. Learn. Educate yourself to the Truth. This is not a racist rant. This is not hate. This is a true story. Those who refuse to believe say "they" wouldn't let that happen to us.
The mainstream media did not vet Obama. They always vetted everyone in the past, why wouldn't they protect us from this man who is an obvious Communist? We counted on them doing it in 2008. We are now "they" and it is up to us to inform the rest of America what is really happening.
STANDING IN THE WAY OF THE OBAMA VICTORY- STORIES LIKE THIS – February 24, 2011
Meeting Young Obama
By John Drew
My first meeting with young Barack Obama raised strong feelings and left me with a positive first impression. At the time, I felt I’d persuaded a young man anticipating a Marxist-Leninist revolution to appreciate the more practical alternative of conventional politics as a channel for his socialist views.
I met Obama in December of 1980, a couple of days after Christmas, in Portola Valley — a small town near Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA. I was a 23 year old second-year graduate student in Cornell’s Government Department, and had flown to California to visit a 21 year old girlfriend, Caroline Boss. Boss was a senior at Occidental College, where she had taken a class in the fall of 1980 with political theorist Roger Boesche. She met and befriended Obama in that class.
I had been an angry Marxist revolutionary during my undergraduate career at Occidental College. During my hyperactive sophomore year, in the fall of 1976, I founded the Marxist-Socialist group on campus and named it the Political Awareness Fellowship. As I recall, I developed this innocuous sounding name because there were so few students on campus as radical as I, and I was fearful of turning off moderate students who might be willing to learn more about Marxist theory.
On my watch, our group grew to a dozen student activists and managed to attract crowds of 80 or more to our events. The most successful of these was a campaign to raise awareness of the plight of homosexuals who were beaten by Los Angeles City police officers along the Hollywood strip. I promoted this event with a large banner in the Occidental College quad reading: Anita Byrant: Hitler in Drag? During my junior year, I left Occidental College with the mission to study Marxist economics at England’s University of Sussex in the fall of 1977.
By the time I returned to Occidental in the fall of 1978 for my senior year, the Political Awareness Fellowship had morphed into something much bigger, an organization with strong leadership, its own office space and a new name. The group’s president was Gary Chapman, an older student who had served as a Green Beret in Viet Nam. Chapman was a colorful figure who shared stories from his military career including how he was required to take apart and reassemble his rifle in the dark. Under Chapman’s leadership, the group had changed its name to the Democratic Socialist Alliance (DSA). As I recall, he told me “the old name wasn’t letting people know what we stood for.” I agreed. The DSA met weekly and brought in speakers about once a month. Events were advertised by big signs in the campus quad. During my time at Occidental, the group searched for ways to embarrass the administration, help students to see the evil of the U.S. capitalist system, and mobilize people in preparation for the coming revolution.
In the spring of 1979, Chapman and I joined forces with other students on campus to found an anti-apartheid coalition, called The Student Committee Against Apartheid, which included the leadership of the DSA as well as several other groups. Although the coalition included liberals as well as radicals, I think it is fair to say the most significant intellectual and organizational leadership came from students in the DSA. One of the ironies of our effort is that the white students took the lead in organizing these protests while African-American students seemed strangely passive and uninvolved in fighting the South African regime.
My romance with Boss began in the spring of 1979. Boss had joined the DSA and participated in the anti-apartheid events I helped organize that year. Like me, she was a committed Marxist, preparing for the approaching revolution. That year, I completed my senior honors thesis on Marxist economics. Boss and I danced together after I accepted my Occidental degree in June of 1979 wearing the red armband that signified my solidarity with my Marxist brethren around the world and my commitment to the anti-apartheid movement.
My relationship with Boss continued through the summer of 1979 and the academic year 1979-1980. She spent the summer of 1980 with me at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. When Boss returned to Occidental in the fall of 1980 for her senior year, she enrolled in Professor Roger Boesche’s European Political Thought class. It was there that she met Barack Obama who was starting his sophomore year.
When I first saw Obama, I remember I was standing on the porch of Boss’s parents’ impressive home as a sleek, expensive luxury car pulled up the driveway. Two young men emerged from the vehicle. They were well-dressed and looked like they were born to wealth and privilege. I was a little surprised to learn they were Boss’s friends from Occidental College until she articulated the underlying0 political connection. “They’re on our side,” she said.
The taller of the two was Obama, then only 19, who towered over his five-foot-five companion, Mohammed Hasan Chandoo – a wealthy, 21 year old Pakistani student. Chandoo had a full dark black, neatly trimmed moustache, and was dressed in expensive clothes. Nevertheless, Obama was the more handsome of the two. At six foot two, Obama carried himself with the dignity and poise of a model. The diminutive Chandoo, in contrast, came across as more of a practical, businessman type. Obama displayed a visible deference to Chandoo when they were standing together at the vehicle.
Chandoo was vaguely familiar to me as a participant in the earlier anti-apartheid rallies on the Occidental College campus. In David Remnick’s book, The Bridge, Chandoo’s bona fides as a committed Marxist were well-known to those close to him. Chandoo’s girlfriend at the time, Margot Mifflin, told Remnick that “[I]n college, Hasan was a socialist, a Marxist, which is funny since he is from a wealthy family.” (See, Remnick, David, The Bridge, Alfred A, Knopf, 2010, page 104.) Young Obama, on the other hand, was completely new to me.
“This is Barack Obama,” Boss said.
Since I was not much taller than Chandoo, I remember I looked up at Obama as we shook hands. I was completely mystified by the pronunciation of his name. He did not put up a fight over it, however.
“You can call me Barry,” Obama said.
During the introduction, Boss and Chandoo were eager to let me know that Obama was a graduate of the prestigious Punahou Academy, an elite prep school in Honolulu. I vividly remember that Chandoo was intensely proud of Obama’s ties to Punahou. This prestige, however, was wasted on me. I had never heard of the school and did not have a clue about what it meant to be one of its graduates. Obama seemed embarrassed by the fuss. Boss, I remember, wanted to make sure I understood that young Obama was not merely an attractive socialite dabbling in Marxist theory. “You’ve worked with us,” she observed. “You’ve been at our DSA meetings. You’ve been active in the anti-apartheid movement.”
After a while, all six of us — the four students and Boss’ adoptive parents — drove in two cars to a local restaurant. The owner knew Boss’s father. The food was delicious, the setting spectacularly “California casual,” with tall redwood trees all around. At the restaurant, we six continued our talk. Chandoo was quiet, less forceful, and deferential to Obama. Obama was polite to Boss’s parents, calm, and distinguished in his manner. Mr. Boss disapproved of his daughter’s radical perspective and could barely disguise his contempt for me.
Despite the recent election of Ronald Reagan, the focus of our discussion was on El Salvador and Latin America. I remember I was especially angry about what was happening in El Salvador, particularly the recent rape and murder of four American nuns and a laywoman. We also discussed the recent assassination of John Lennon in New York City. After lunch, the entourage returned to the Boss’s home in Portola Valley. Mr. Boss, a gruff Swiss-born businessman, was an aficionado of luxury cars who took pride in his successes in the greeting card and display case businesses.
“That’s an impressive car. Which one of you is the owner?” he asked.
“It’s mine,” said Chandoo, graciously adding: “Would you like to see it?”
While Chandoo and Mr. Boss gave Chandoo’s luxury car a once over, the rest of us engaged in small talk until Chandoo returned. Chandoo beamed smugly, having impressed Boss’s father with his expensive car. Inside the house, Mrs. Boss prepared snacks for everyone. All four of the students lit up after-dinner cigarettes in the dining room of the Boss’s home. Caroline Boss sat at the head of the table to my left. Obama sat directly across from me. Chandoo sat on the other side of the table on Obama’s left. Naturally, our conversation gravitated towards the coming revolution. I expected that my undergraduate friends would be interested in hearing my latest take on contemporary Marxist thought. I was in for quite a bit of a shock.
My graduate studies that fall had tempered my earlier Marxism with a more realistic perspective. I thought a revolution was not in the cards anymore. There was no inevitability, in my mind, to the old idea that the proletariat would rise up and overthrow the ruling classes. Now, the idea that we could entirely eliminate the profit motive from an advanced industrialized economy seemed like a childhood fantasy. The future, I now thought, would belong to nations with mixed economic systems — like those in Europe — where there was government planning of the economy combined with a greater effort to produce a more equitable distribution of wealth. It made more sense to me to focus on elections rather than on preparing for a coming revolution.
Boss and Obama, however, had a starkly different view. They believed that the economic stresses of the Carter years meant revolution was still imminent. The election of Reagan was simply a minor set-back in terms of the coming revolution. As I recall, Obama repeatedly used the phrase “When the revolution comes….” In my mind, I remember thinking that Obama was blindly sticking to the simple Marxist theory that had characterized my own views while I was an undergraduate at Occidental College. “There’s going to be a revolution,” Obama said, “we need to be organized and grow the movement.” In Obama’s view, our role must be to educate others so that we might usher in more quickly this inevitable revolution.
I know this may be implausible to some readers, but I distinctly remember Obama surprising me by bringing up Frantz Fanon and colonialism. He impressed me with his knowledge of these two topics, topics which were not among my strong points — or of overwhelming concern to me. Boss and Obama seemed to think their ideological purity was a persuasive argument in predicting that a coming revolution would end capitalism. While I felt I was doing them a favor by providing them with the latest research, I saw I was in danger of being cast as a reactionary who did not grasp the nuances of international Marxist theory.
Chandoo let Boss and Obama take the crux of the argument to me. Chandoo, in fact, seemed chagrined by the level of disagreement in the group. I cannot remember him making any significant comments during this discussion.
Drawing on the history of Western Europe, I responded it was unrealistic to think the working class would ever overthrow the capitalist system. As I recall, Obama reacted negatively to my critique, saying: “That’s crazy!”
Since Boss and Obama had injected theory into our debate, I reacted by going historical. As best I can recreate the argument, I responded by critiquing their perspective with the fresh insight I had gained from my recent reading of Barrington Moore’s book, Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (1966). Moore had argued that a Russian or Chinese style revolution — leading to communism — was only possible in an agrarian society with a weak or non-existent middle-class or bourgeoisie.
Since I was a Marxist myself at the time, and had studied variations in Marxist theory, I can state that everything I heard Obama argue that evening was consistent with Marxist philosophy, including the ideas that class struggle was leading to an inevitable revolution and that an elite group of revolutionaries was needed to lead the effort. If he had not been a true Marxist-Leninist, I would have noticed and remembered. I can still, with some degree of ideological precision, identify which students at Occidental College were radicals and which ones were not. I can do the same thing for the Occidental College professors at that time.
By the time the debate came to an end, Obama — although not Boss — was making peace, agreeing with the facts I had laid out, and demonstrating an apparent agreement with my more realistic perspective. I have a vivid memory of Obama surrendering to my argument including signaling to the somewhat bewildered Chandoo — through his voice and body language — that the argument had concluded and had been decided in my favor. Around 9 p.m., Chandoo and Obama left for another appointment, either in Palo Alto or San Francisco. In retrospect, Obama had proved to me that he was indeed, as Boss had promised, “on our side.”
Long before I realized Obama had grown into a spectacular political career, I have treasured this particular memory as an early example of my own intellectual growth and an early sign of my modest promise as a teacher. At the time, I had the impression that I might have been one of the first to directly challenge Obama’s Marxist-Leninist mind-set and to introduce him to a more practical view that saw politics, rather than revolution, as the preferred route to socialism. Had I really persuaded him, or was he just making nice to smooth things over with a new friend? I’d like to think it was the former.
Whatever progress I made with Obama that evening, the price of our debate was a greater ideological wedge between me and Boss and a further decline in our rocky relationship. Our relationship would officially end in February and then flicker out completely by June 1981 — much to the satisfaction of Boss’s father.
I remember that Obama was friendly to me on at least three other occasions over the next several months. For example, Boss and I visited the apartment he shared with Chandoo. I spoke with him again on campus in the student union. I saw him on campus in The Cooler — the school’s coffee and sandwich shop. I also spoke with him at large party in June 1981. I certainly considered him a friend, a confidant and a political ally in the larger struggle against poverty and oppressive social systems.
Whatever impact our encounter might have had on him, I know something about what Barack Obama believed in 1980. At that time, the future president was a doctrinaire Marxist revolutionary, although perhaps — for the first time — considering conventional politics as a more practical road to socialism. Knowing this, I think I have a responsibility to place on the public record my account of this incident from our president’s past.
John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist and a blogger at David Horowitz’s NewsReal Blog . Dr. Drew earned his Ph.D. from Cornell and has taught political science and economics at Williams College. Today, Dr. Drew makes his living as an author, trainer, and consultant in the field of non-profit grant writing, fund raising and program evaluation.
The mainstream media did not vet Obama. They always vetted everyone in the past, why wouldn't they protect us from this man who is an obvious Communist? We counted on them doing it in 2008. We are now "they" and it is up to us to inform the rest of America what is really happening.
STANDING IN THE WAY OF THE OBAMA VICTORY- STORIES LIKE THIS – February 24, 2011
Meeting Young Obama
By John Drew
My first meeting with young Barack Obama raised strong feelings and left me with a positive first impression. At the time, I felt I’d persuaded a young man anticipating a Marxist-Leninist revolution to appreciate the more practical alternative of conventional politics as a channel for his socialist views.
I met Obama in December of 1980, a couple of days after Christmas, in Portola Valley — a small town near Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA. I was a 23 year old second-year graduate student in Cornell’s Government Department, and had flown to California to visit a 21 year old girlfriend, Caroline Boss. Boss was a senior at Occidental College, where she had taken a class in the fall of 1980 with political theorist Roger Boesche. She met and befriended Obama in that class.
I had been an angry Marxist revolutionary during my undergraduate career at Occidental College. During my hyperactive sophomore year, in the fall of 1976, I founded the Marxist-Socialist group on campus and named it the Political Awareness Fellowship. As I recall, I developed this innocuous sounding name because there were so few students on campus as radical as I, and I was fearful of turning off moderate students who might be willing to learn more about Marxist theory.
On my watch, our group grew to a dozen student activists and managed to attract crowds of 80 or more to our events. The most successful of these was a campaign to raise awareness of the plight of homosexuals who were beaten by Los Angeles City police officers along the Hollywood strip. I promoted this event with a large banner in the Occidental College quad reading: Anita Byrant: Hitler in Drag? During my junior year, I left Occidental College with the mission to study Marxist economics at England’s University of Sussex in the fall of 1977.
By the time I returned to Occidental in the fall of 1978 for my senior year, the Political Awareness Fellowship had morphed into something much bigger, an organization with strong leadership, its own office space and a new name. The group’s president was Gary Chapman, an older student who had served as a Green Beret in Viet Nam. Chapman was a colorful figure who shared stories from his military career including how he was required to take apart and reassemble his rifle in the dark. Under Chapman’s leadership, the group had changed its name to the Democratic Socialist Alliance (DSA). As I recall, he told me “the old name wasn’t letting people know what we stood for.” I agreed. The DSA met weekly and brought in speakers about once a month. Events were advertised by big signs in the campus quad. During my time at Occidental, the group searched for ways to embarrass the administration, help students to see the evil of the U.S. capitalist system, and mobilize people in preparation for the coming revolution.
In the spring of 1979, Chapman and I joined forces with other students on campus to found an anti-apartheid coalition, called The Student Committee Against Apartheid, which included the leadership of the DSA as well as several other groups. Although the coalition included liberals as well as radicals, I think it is fair to say the most significant intellectual and organizational leadership came from students in the DSA. One of the ironies of our effort is that the white students took the lead in organizing these protests while African-American students seemed strangely passive and uninvolved in fighting the South African regime.
My romance with Boss began in the spring of 1979. Boss had joined the DSA and participated in the anti-apartheid events I helped organize that year. Like me, she was a committed Marxist, preparing for the approaching revolution. That year, I completed my senior honors thesis on Marxist economics. Boss and I danced together after I accepted my Occidental degree in June of 1979 wearing the red armband that signified my solidarity with my Marxist brethren around the world and my commitment to the anti-apartheid movement.
My relationship with Boss continued through the summer of 1979 and the academic year 1979-1980. She spent the summer of 1980 with me at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. When Boss returned to Occidental in the fall of 1980 for her senior year, she enrolled in Professor Roger Boesche’s European Political Thought class. It was there that she met Barack Obama who was starting his sophomore year.
When I first saw Obama, I remember I was standing on the porch of Boss’s parents’ impressive home as a sleek, expensive luxury car pulled up the driveway. Two young men emerged from the vehicle. They were well-dressed and looked like they were born to wealth and privilege. I was a little surprised to learn they were Boss’s friends from Occidental College until she articulated the underlying0 political connection. “They’re on our side,” she said.
The taller of the two was Obama, then only 19, who towered over his five-foot-five companion, Mohammed Hasan Chandoo – a wealthy, 21 year old Pakistani student. Chandoo had a full dark black, neatly trimmed moustache, and was dressed in expensive clothes. Nevertheless, Obama was the more handsome of the two. At six foot two, Obama carried himself with the dignity and poise of a model. The diminutive Chandoo, in contrast, came across as more of a practical, businessman type. Obama displayed a visible deference to Chandoo when they were standing together at the vehicle.
Chandoo was vaguely familiar to me as a participant in the earlier anti-apartheid rallies on the Occidental College campus. In David Remnick’s book, The Bridge, Chandoo’s bona fides as a committed Marxist were well-known to those close to him. Chandoo’s girlfriend at the time, Margot Mifflin, told Remnick that “[I]n college, Hasan was a socialist, a Marxist, which is funny since he is from a wealthy family.” (See, Remnick, David, The Bridge, Alfred A, Knopf, 2010, page 104.) Young Obama, on the other hand, was completely new to me.
“This is Barack Obama,” Boss said.
Since I was not much taller than Chandoo, I remember I looked up at Obama as we shook hands. I was completely mystified by the pronunciation of his name. He did not put up a fight over it, however.
“You can call me Barry,” Obama said.
During the introduction, Boss and Chandoo were eager to let me know that Obama was a graduate of the prestigious Punahou Academy, an elite prep school in Honolulu. I vividly remember that Chandoo was intensely proud of Obama’s ties to Punahou. This prestige, however, was wasted on me. I had never heard of the school and did not have a clue about what it meant to be one of its graduates. Obama seemed embarrassed by the fuss. Boss, I remember, wanted to make sure I understood that young Obama was not merely an attractive socialite dabbling in Marxist theory. “You’ve worked with us,” she observed. “You’ve been at our DSA meetings. You’ve been active in the anti-apartheid movement.”
After a while, all six of us — the four students and Boss’ adoptive parents — drove in two cars to a local restaurant. The owner knew Boss’s father. The food was delicious, the setting spectacularly “California casual,” with tall redwood trees all around. At the restaurant, we six continued our talk. Chandoo was quiet, less forceful, and deferential to Obama. Obama was polite to Boss’s parents, calm, and distinguished in his manner. Mr. Boss disapproved of his daughter’s radical perspective and could barely disguise his contempt for me.
Despite the recent election of Ronald Reagan, the focus of our discussion was on El Salvador and Latin America. I remember I was especially angry about what was happening in El Salvador, particularly the recent rape and murder of four American nuns and a laywoman. We also discussed the recent assassination of John Lennon in New York City. After lunch, the entourage returned to the Boss’s home in Portola Valley. Mr. Boss, a gruff Swiss-born businessman, was an aficionado of luxury cars who took pride in his successes in the greeting card and display case businesses.
“That’s an impressive car. Which one of you is the owner?” he asked.
“It’s mine,” said Chandoo, graciously adding: “Would you like to see it?”
While Chandoo and Mr. Boss gave Chandoo’s luxury car a once over, the rest of us engaged in small talk until Chandoo returned. Chandoo beamed smugly, having impressed Boss’s father with his expensive car. Inside the house, Mrs. Boss prepared snacks for everyone. All four of the students lit up after-dinner cigarettes in the dining room of the Boss’s home. Caroline Boss sat at the head of the table to my left. Obama sat directly across from me. Chandoo sat on the other side of the table on Obama’s left. Naturally, our conversation gravitated towards the coming revolution. I expected that my undergraduate friends would be interested in hearing my latest take on contemporary Marxist thought. I was in for quite a bit of a shock.
My graduate studies that fall had tempered my earlier Marxism with a more realistic perspective. I thought a revolution was not in the cards anymore. There was no inevitability, in my mind, to the old idea that the proletariat would rise up and overthrow the ruling classes. Now, the idea that we could entirely eliminate the profit motive from an advanced industrialized economy seemed like a childhood fantasy. The future, I now thought, would belong to nations with mixed economic systems — like those in Europe — where there was government planning of the economy combined with a greater effort to produce a more equitable distribution of wealth. It made more sense to me to focus on elections rather than on preparing for a coming revolution.
Boss and Obama, however, had a starkly different view. They believed that the economic stresses of the Carter years meant revolution was still imminent. The election of Reagan was simply a minor set-back in terms of the coming revolution. As I recall, Obama repeatedly used the phrase “When the revolution comes….” In my mind, I remember thinking that Obama was blindly sticking to the simple Marxist theory that had characterized my own views while I was an undergraduate at Occidental College. “There’s going to be a revolution,” Obama said, “we need to be organized and grow the movement.” In Obama’s view, our role must be to educate others so that we might usher in more quickly this inevitable revolution.
I know this may be implausible to some readers, but I distinctly remember Obama surprising me by bringing up Frantz Fanon and colonialism. He impressed me with his knowledge of these two topics, topics which were not among my strong points — or of overwhelming concern to me. Boss and Obama seemed to think their ideological purity was a persuasive argument in predicting that a coming revolution would end capitalism. While I felt I was doing them a favor by providing them with the latest research, I saw I was in danger of being cast as a reactionary who did not grasp the nuances of international Marxist theory.
Chandoo let Boss and Obama take the crux of the argument to me. Chandoo, in fact, seemed chagrined by the level of disagreement in the group. I cannot remember him making any significant comments during this discussion.
Drawing on the history of Western Europe, I responded it was unrealistic to think the working class would ever overthrow the capitalist system. As I recall, Obama reacted negatively to my critique, saying: “That’s crazy!”
Since Boss and Obama had injected theory into our debate, I reacted by going historical. As best I can recreate the argument, I responded by critiquing their perspective with the fresh insight I had gained from my recent reading of Barrington Moore’s book, Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (1966). Moore had argued that a Russian or Chinese style revolution — leading to communism — was only possible in an agrarian society with a weak or non-existent middle-class or bourgeoisie.
Since I was a Marxist myself at the time, and had studied variations in Marxist theory, I can state that everything I heard Obama argue that evening was consistent with Marxist philosophy, including the ideas that class struggle was leading to an inevitable revolution and that an elite group of revolutionaries was needed to lead the effort. If he had not been a true Marxist-Leninist, I would have noticed and remembered. I can still, with some degree of ideological precision, identify which students at Occidental College were radicals and which ones were not. I can do the same thing for the Occidental College professors at that time.
By the time the debate came to an end, Obama — although not Boss — was making peace, agreeing with the facts I had laid out, and demonstrating an apparent agreement with my more realistic perspective. I have a vivid memory of Obama surrendering to my argument including signaling to the somewhat bewildered Chandoo — through his voice and body language — that the argument had concluded and had been decided in my favor. Around 9 p.m., Chandoo and Obama left for another appointment, either in Palo Alto or San Francisco. In retrospect, Obama had proved to me that he was indeed, as Boss had promised, “on our side.”
Long before I realized Obama had grown into a spectacular political career, I have treasured this particular memory as an early example of my own intellectual growth and an early sign of my modest promise as a teacher. At the time, I had the impression that I might have been one of the first to directly challenge Obama’s Marxist-Leninist mind-set and to introduce him to a more practical view that saw politics, rather than revolution, as the preferred route to socialism. Had I really persuaded him, or was he just making nice to smooth things over with a new friend? I’d like to think it was the former.
Whatever progress I made with Obama that evening, the price of our debate was a greater ideological wedge between me and Boss and a further decline in our rocky relationship. Our relationship would officially end in February and then flicker out completely by June 1981 — much to the satisfaction of Boss’s father.
I remember that Obama was friendly to me on at least three other occasions over the next several months. For example, Boss and I visited the apartment he shared with Chandoo. I spoke with him again on campus in the student union. I saw him on campus in The Cooler — the school’s coffee and sandwich shop. I also spoke with him at large party in June 1981. I certainly considered him a friend, a confidant and a political ally in the larger struggle against poverty and oppressive social systems.
Whatever impact our encounter might have had on him, I know something about what Barack Obama believed in 1980. At that time, the future president was a doctrinaire Marxist revolutionary, although perhaps — for the first time — considering conventional politics as a more practical road to socialism. Knowing this, I think I have a responsibility to place on the public record my account of this incident from our president’s past.
John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist and a blogger at David Horowitz’s NewsReal Blog . Dr. Drew earned his Ph.D. from Cornell and has taught political science and economics at Williams College. Today, Dr. Drew makes his living as an author, trainer, and consultant in the field of non-profit grant writing, fund raising and program evaluation.
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