Quote: * Obama is the one who accepted $250,000 in campaign contributions from Rezko and his criminal cronies.
Money now donated to charity. Politics in Chicago is ugly business, and while Obama has distanced himself from it admirably, it is very difficult to escape Rezko money. Obama is far from the only person who has taken it over the years, and he has a fairly reasonable argument that, as a political neophyte befriended by Rezko, he was not aware of the extent of his shady dealings.
Quote: * Obama is the one who bought under-valued land from Rezko as an under the table graft.
First, none of this was "under the table". Everything done in this deal by Obama and Rezko is public knowledge. Second, while it is stupid to associate oneself with Rezko, this transaction does not appear to be graft. They each bought one half of a property being split. Later, Obama wanted to expand his property to encompass 1/6th of Rezko's lot. The formula appraised value was $40,500, but Obama thought it fair that he paid him 1/6th of what Rezko paid for it, since it was 1/6th of the lot ($104,500, from $625,000).
Maybe that's $60,000 of graft. Or maybe Obama was just being fair to his neighbour. Would it not be strange that, rather than Rezko paying Obama for political favours, this would be Obama paying Rezko?
Quote: * Obama is the one who sat in the pews of Wrights sermons for two decades without a peep of protest at what was said.
This is correct, whatever you make of it.
Quote: * Obama is the one who is friends with Ayers, a convicted and unrepentant domestic terrorist.
"Friends" is too strong. Obama used "guy that lives in my neighbourhood." He apparently once hosted an appearance by Obama in 1996, during his state senate race. Ayers is a major fixture in the Chicago liberal academic scene, and a minor encounter with him is not news.
Also, point of curiosity, was Ayers ever convicted? He is certainly an unrepentant terrorist (and an incompetent one, to boot), so it scarcely matters to me, but I had thought the charges were dropped.
[/quote] * Obama is the one who is friends with Ali Abunimah and helped him raise money for Palistinians. [/quote]
His "friend" certainly doesn't seem very impressed with him these days. As with very nearly all American politicians, Obama has sold his ability to make any but the lamest criticisms of Israel to purchase national security cred. Par for the course, but it doesn't really endear him to Ali Abunimah.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6619.shtml
He also seems to be saying he just encountered him a handful of times at various lectures and dos, which would make him an aquaintance, not a "friend."
Quote: P.S. Since we are talking about Politics and Religion. I'll toss this into the discussion as well. In bin Laden's eyes, Obama is a murtad fitri, the worst type of apostate, because he was blessed by Allah to be born into the true faith of Islam. ... Should Obama become US commander in chief, there is a strong likelihood that Al Qaeda's media arm, As-Sahab, will exploit his background to argue that an apostate is leading the global war on terror (read: attacks against fellow Muslims). This perception would be leveraged to galvanize sympathizers into action. The punishment for Apostasy in Islam is execution.
So, moral of the story, never elect anyone who might be construed as a former Muslim president. You might piss off Bin Laden, and that would somehow be bad.
-Jester