FOR GRACIE CLARE ~ DONNIE HATHAWAY:


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GAME ON THE WEST COAST, DOING SHIT:



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STATE PROPERTY REUNION! WORD. FUCK THE MONEY. THE LOVE MATTERS MOST.



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THE ECONOMY IS FUCKED. FUCKED. FUUUUCKED!



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TERMANOLOGY GETS PROPS OVER HERE FOR SHOUTING OUT TORONTO, FOR LIKE FOREVER :)



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JOE BUDDENS GOT BEEF WITH PRODIGY?!



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BENZINO'S SIDE OF THE STORY.



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OH GOD, THIS CLOWN IS TOO MUCH.



RETIRE FROM RAP, PLEASE. NOW.

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Pinpoint attacks focus on Obama
By Jim Rutenberg
Published: September 24, 2008

STERLING HEIGHTS, Michigan: Hundreds of times in the past three weeks, cable television viewers here have been the exclusive audience for two of the roughest advertisements of the political season.

One links Senator Barack Obama to the former mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick, an African-American whose political career unraveled in scandal. The other features Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A Wright Jr., also black, and his now infamous sermon marked by the words "God damn America."

The advertisements, from a political action committee that is not connected to Senator John McCain's presidential campaign, are running only here, in Macomb County, heavily populated by white, unionized auto workers, once considered "Reagan Democrats," whose votes could largely determine which candidate wins Michigan, a state vital to both sides.

The advertisements point up the unusual nature of this year's more potentially pernicious political attacks: They are not coming with the loud, nationally recognized cannon blast of the type launched by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth against Senator John Kerry in 2004, but, rather, as more stealthy, narrowly aimed rifle shots from smaller groups armed with incendiary material.

McCain has at times been a target of over-the-top attacks from outside groups, such as a recent advertisement from the liberal group Brave New Pac, based in California, that suggested his time in a Vietnamese prison ill-affected his ability to be president; the Internet was filled with various unsubstantiated and discredited rumors about his running mate, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, immediately after he named her last month.

But the more explosive charges from outside groups against Obama have often drawn closer scrutiny this year for their volume and the cultural and racial sensitivities they tend to touch, and, occasionally, seek to exploit.

In Obama's case, the messages have frequently sought to paint him as foreign, like the chain e-mail messages sent for months to Jewish areas of Florida, suburban Philadelphia and other swing states that portray Obama as Muslim (he is Christian). This week, a hate group calling itself the League of American Patriots distributed fliers to as many as 50 homes in Roxbury, a mostly white town in northern New Jersey, portraying Obama as Osama Bin Laden and including language that was derisive of black people.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups, said the fliers, initially reported by The Star-Ledger in Newark, were the first overtly racist printed tracts of their kind this election season.

The advertisements running here against Obama come from a group called Freedom's Defense Fund, a political action committee based in Washington that was formed four years ago and raises money from conservatives around the country. The advertisements have stood out because of the group's connections — including to its paid consultant, Jerome Corsi, the author of the highly negative, largely discredited political biography of Obama, "Obama Nation" — and what local critics say are their racial overtones.

"That's all they are — race oriented," said Ed Bruley, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Macomb. "I think some people will be affected by it, others will see it for what it is."

It is a view shared by Democratic leaders, including Governor Jennifer Granholm, who, in a recent interview with MSNBC, said of the advertising campaign, "The fact that it is being run in a predominantly white suburb tells you that there is an explicit effort to try to divide people by race."

Todd Zirkle, the executive director of Freedom's Defense Fund, said race had "zero" to do with the spots. "That's the standard retort when you want to say 'Don't listen to these people,' " Zirkle said.

He said the group's intention was to show Obama's affiliations — although Obama and Kilpatrick were never known to be close.

He said coming spots would highlight Obama's ties to two white men, the developer Antoin Rezko, a former financial backer of Obama's who has been convicted of fraud, and to the Weather Underground founder William Ayers, with whom Obama worked on an education commission in Illinois and whose past Obama has repudiated.

Zirkle said a fifth spot would highlight Obama's supposed support for the Kenyan prime minister, the opposition leader Raila Odinga. Zirkle did not share that script, but Corsi's book asserts, without substantiation, that Obama has been a close supporter of the African leader. Obama remained neutral in the Kenyan elections.

Officials with Freedom's Defense Fund, which gives Corsi's book to its donors, said they paid Corsi only to help write fund-raising appeals. Federal returns show he was paid $15,000 as a fund-raising consultant. But the details of his book provide a thread that runs through several of the anti-Obama groups.

Hundreds of times in the past three weeks, cable television viewers here have been the exclusive audience for two of the roughest advertisements of the political season.

One links Senator Barack Obama to the former mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick, an African-American whose political career unraveled in scandal. The other features Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A Wright Jr., also black, and his now infamous sermon marked by the words "God damn America."

The advertisements, from a political action committee that is not connected to Senator John McCain's presidential campaign, are running only here, in Macomb County, heavily populated by white, unionized auto workers, once considered "Reagan Democrats," whose votes could largely determine which candidate wins Michigan, a state vital to both sides.

The advertisements point up the unusual nature of this year's more potentially pernicious political attacks: They are not coming with the loud, nationally recognized cannon blast of the type launched by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth against Senator John Kerry in 2004, but, rather, as more stealthy, narrowly aimed rifle shots from smaller groups armed with incendiary material.

McCain has at times been a target of over-the-top attacks from outside groups, such as a recent advertisement from the liberal group Brave New Pac, based in California, that suggested his time in a Vietnamese prison ill-affected his ability to be president; the Internet was filled with various unsubstantiated and discredited rumors about his running mate, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, immediately after he named her last month.

But the more explosive charges from outside groups against Obama have often drawn closer scrutiny this year for their volume and the cultural and racial sensitivities they tend to touch, and, occasionally, seek to exploit.

In Obama's case, the messages have frequently sought to paint him as foreign, like the chain e-mail messages sent for months to Jewish areas of Florida, suburban Philadelphia and other swing states that portray Obama as Muslim (he is Christian). This week, a hate group calling itself the League of American Patriots distributed fliers to as many as 50 homes in Roxbury, a mostly white town in northern New Jersey, portraying Obama as Osama Bin Laden and including language that was derisive of black people.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups, said the fliers, initially reported by The Star-Ledger in Newark, were the first overtly racist printed tracts of their kind this election season.

The advertisements running here against Obama come from a group called Freedom's Defense Fund, a political action committee based in Washington that was formed four years ago and raises money from conservatives around the country. The advertisements have stood out because of the group's connections — including to its paid consultant, Jerome Corsi, the author of the highly negative, largely discredited political biography of Obama, "Obama Nation" — and what local critics say are their racial overtones.

"That's all they are — race oriented," said Ed Bruley, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Macomb. "I think some people will be affected by it, others will see it for what it is."

It is a view shared by Democratic leaders, including Governor Jennifer Granholm, who, in a recent interview with MSNBC, said of the advertising campaign, "The fact that it is being run in a predominantly white suburb tells you that there is an explicit effort to try to divide people by race."

Todd Zirkle, the executive director of Freedom's Defense Fund, said race had "zero" to do with the spots. "That's the standard retort when you want to say 'Don't listen to these people,' " Zirkle said.

He said the group's intention was to show Obama's affiliations — although Obama and Kilpatrick were never known to be close.

He said coming spots would highlight Obama's ties to two white men, the developer Antoin Rezko, a former financial backer of Obama's who has been convicted of fraud, and to the Weather Underground founder William Ayers, with whom Obama worked on an education commission in Illinois and whose past Obama has repudiated.

Zirkle said a fifth spot would highlight Obama's supposed support for the Kenyan prime minister, the opposition leader Raila Odinga. Zirkle did not share that script, but Corsi's book asserts, without substantiation, that Obama has been a close supporter of the African leader. Obama remained neutral in the Kenyan elections.

Officials with Freedom's Defense Fund, which gives Corsi's book to its donors, said they paid Corsi only to help write fund-raising appeals. Federal returns show he was paid $15,000 as a fund-raising consultant. But the details of his book provide a thread that runs through several of the anti-Obama groups.

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I'LL STOP THERE.

P.S. WORSHIP THIS WOMAN: http://therealfrequency.podbus.com/blog/

(IF THE LINK ISN'T WORKING, JUST CUT AND PASTE. IT'S WORTH IT!)