Declaration of Dependence

Evidence Mounts: Ayers Co-Wrote Obama's Dreams

Under water grottos, caverns
Filled with apes
That eat figs.
Stepping on the figs
That the apes
Eat, they crunch.
The apes howl, bare
Their fangs, dance . . .

Linda Sue Grimes, Ph.D, critiqued the above poem on Feb 6,2009, saying

This versification fails on three important levels: misuse of grammar/diction, awkward enjambment, lack of meaning. While the apes are charming and endearing with their figs and their musty pelts, the reader leaves them sadly wondering what they might have conveyed through the hand of a genuine poet.

You may be wondering, why would a Ph.D comment on something so laughably amateurish? Why would a respected professor waste time assessing the literary equivalent of a train wreck? Because the poem above is one of only four writings in print by Barack Obama before he penned Dreams From My Father, a book that Time Magazine has called "the best-written memoir ever produced by an American politician."

According to Jack Cashill at American Thinker

It would be another decade before Obama had anything in print, and this only an edited, unsigned student case comment in the Harvard Law Review unearthed by Politico. Attorneys who reviewed the piece for Politico described it as "a fairly standard example of the genre."
Once elected president of the Harvard Law Review -- more of a popularity than a literary contest -- Obama contributed not one signed word to the HLR or any other law journal.
In 1990 Obama also contributed an essay to a book published by the University of Illinois at Springfield, an anthology called After Alinsky: Community Organizing in Illinois...I believe that after failing to finish his book on time, and after forfeiting his advance from Simon & Schuster, Obama brought a sprawling, messy, sophomoric manuscript to the famed dining room table of Bill Ayers and said, "Help."

Cashill pointed out in a column last year that in contrast to "Dreams," the Obama writing samples unearthed before 1995 "are pedestrian and uninspired."

"There is no precedent for this kind of literary transformation," Cashill wrote. "It is as if a high 90s golfer suddenly showed up with his PGA card – with no known practice rounds in between."

And now this. Christopher Andersen in Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage lays it out just as Cashill envisioned it;

Obama was faced with a deadline with the Times Books division of Random House to submit his manuscript after already having canceled a contract with Simon & Schuster. Confronted with the threat of a second failure, his wife, Michelle, suggested he seek the help of "his friend and Hyde Park neighbor Bill Ayers.

Go out and buy (or better yet, check it out from your library) Fugitive Days: A Memoir by Bill Ayers. Read it. Pay attention to the vocubulary, syntax, metaphors, etc. Then, uncomfortable as it may be, listen to Bill Ayers speak and you'll find that it's obvious that you're listening to a talented and gifted individual, someone who "sounds" like his book.

Go out and find other examples. From the left, read something by James Carville, or Chris Matthews. On the right, perhaps Fred Barnes or Charles Krauthammer. You'll find that even when speaking casually, they use a cadence and vocabulary consistent with their writings.

Now go out and buy Dreams from My Father. Read it. Then listen to his interviews. Listen to his unprepared remarks, away from the teleprompter. You may be surprised.

The mythology of Barack Obama is becoming increasingly unraveled, giving way to the amateurish, bungling reality underneath.

Read more here

10.2 %: Off The Chart

16 Million out of work. Anyone else notice that Obama's graph stops at 10%? Time to send Axelrod to Kinko's to get a new chart made.

Maine Same-Sex Marraige Law Appears Headed For Repeal

USA Today

With 86% of the vote counted, Maine voters are on their way to repealing a state law that would have allowed same-sex couples to marry. A 'yes' vote on Question No. 1 was for the repeal and it was leading 52% to 47%.

Follow more at Bangor Daily News

Krauthammer: Republican Wins Explode The Mythology Of Obama Election

Obama 'Saved Job' Deception' Doesn't Add Up In Chicago

From the Chicago Tribune

More than $4.7 million in federal stimulus aid so far has been funneled to schools in North Chicago, and state and federal officials say that money has saved the jobs of 473 teachers.

Problem is, the district employs only 290 teachers.

Other districts in the area are reporting similar "discrepancies"

In the official report, Wilmette Public Schools District 39 was credited with 166 jobs saved by stimulus aid. Superintendent Raymond Lechner said the number should be zero.

At Dolton-Riverdale School District 148, stimulus funds were said to have saved the equivalent of 382 full-time teaching jobs -- 142 more than the district actually has.


Kankakee School District 111, where the stimulus report logged the equivalent of 665 full-time jobs saved. "That's impossible," a top Kankakee school official said, adding that the entire payroll -- full and part time -- is 600 workers.

A spokesperson for Education Secretary Arnie Duncan called the "discrepancies" troubling, but said that it's a pattern unlikely to repeat in other cities. Isn't that the same defense that Acorn used?

Read the rest here

Acorn, Working Families Party, SEIU et al...

NEW JERSEY GOES RED!!!
Republican Christie beats incumbent democrat in state Obama won by 16 points.

Gibbs: Obama Not Watching Returns

No doubt suffering jet lag from his trips to New Jersey...what was he doing there again?

Read more here

NBC's "The Biggest Loser" At The White House

In a story almost too ironic to be true, The Biggest Loser is airing a special episode from the White House tonight. NBC, Obama, and Losers. Hilarious. Read more here

GOP Stampedes Dems in Virginia - Sweep Top Three Spots

In a state that Barack Obama carried by 7 points in 2008, Republicans have stormed back and for the first time since 1997, swept the top 3 state offices with Ken Cuccinell winning the Attorney General race and Lt. Governor Bill Bolling retaining his seat in addition to Bob McDonnell stomping the democrat Deeds by 22 points.

Read more here

Out of Control Forklift Driver Destroys Vodka Warehouse

Remember Belushi's reaction when the guy drops the case of booze?
Imagine if he'd witnessed this...

Showdown!!!

Jim Geraghty from National Review has an interesting take on Dede Scozzafava's withdrawl from the NY-23 race and her subsequent endorsement of the democrat candidate

...a Conservative party candidate eking out a plurality in a three-way race is one thing. A Conservative candidate winning head-to-head against a Democrat, with the endorsement of the Republican... well, the potential reverberations from this potential earthquake just got even bigger.

This was the issue last week that all of the "legitimate" news outlets cited as a perfect example of the impending demise of the republican party. I wonder if this is what Obama intended when he snatched a nine term congresman from an area that republicans have represented since 1872 and made him next secretary of the Army. More unintended consequences from the Obama administration? The latest PPP poll shows conservative party candidate Hoffman with a 15 point lead in a two-way race over the democrat Owens.

Perfect Ten

From Rasmussen Reports

For the first time in recent years, voters trust Republicans more than Democrats on all 10 key electoral issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports. The GOP holds double-digit advantages on five of them.

Republicans have nearly doubled their lead over Democrats on economic issues to 49% to 35%, after leading by eight points in September.

Obama's like one of those Chinese plate spinners. Only the plates keep crashing. And decapitating the audience.

Remember in 2008 he accused McCain of trying to shift the focus of the presidential campaign away from the economy saying

‘‘The notion that we would want to brush that aside and engage in the usual political shenanigans and smear tactics that have come to characterize too many political campaigns is not what the American people are looking for.’’

The latest Rasmussen poll shows that more than a year later, Obama and the Democrats still have no idea what the American people are looking for.

Biden, Halvorson Blamed For 'Dine and Ditch'

From Kristen McQueary

When Vice President Joe Biden flew to Chicago Aug. 20 to raise money for U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorson (D-11th), Biden relied on local law enforcement to ensure swift, safe passage.

Police interrupted travel from the airport, cleared city streets, monitored protesters and helped the vice president's motorcade of unmarked squads and the Secret Service snake through Chicago's West Side and South Loop.

While part of his trip could be considered official business, the primary focus was a fundraising luncheon at Custom House for Halvorson, one of the Democratic caucus' most vulnerable freshmen heading into the 2010 election.

Read the rest here