Sean Hannity, A Big Fan of Accused $8 Billion Scammer Allen Stanford, Recommends Companies On Radio Show

Photo: Huffington Post, Sean Hannity & Allen Stanford

It seems like Sean Hannity has endorsed Allen Stanford. According to an article on the Huffington Post, mention ‘Sean Hannity’ to Stanford Coins & Bullion and get a free guidebook. You know, the same Allen Stanford that is on the lam for literally robbing investors blind to the tune of $8 billion and is also being investigated for money laundering.

“Stanford Coins & Bullion, a member of the Stanford Financial Group, their name as good as gold,” Hannity intones on advertisements that regularly run on his radio show. So, Sean Hannity, “Mr. Holier than thou” was palling around with a criminal.

Stanford Coin & Bullion “is just a telemarketer boiler room-type of company that calls during dinner and tries to fleece you,” said Jon Nadler, a senior analyst at gold firm Kitco.com. Source: Huffington Post

Also feeling incredibly stupid are fellow criminal and Texan Tom DeLay, Chris Dodd, who got a sweetheart mortgage deal from Countrywide, and sadly, Colin Powell, all who have been beneficiaries of donations and close friendships. He also has an endorsement deal with golf superstar Vijay Singh.

The SEC charged Stanford, who is the first American to be knighted by the government of Antigua, for fraud Tuesday. Stanford has spent millions in the Caribbean island, erecting sports facilities and other community facilities. He is charged with allegedly trying to rob 50,000 clients out of $8 billion through a scheme involving high-interest-rate CDs. He founded the Stanford Super Series where Caribbean cricket teams compete against the British for a $20 million purse.

Hah, this is all too funny. Remember Rev. Jeremiah Wright? No one can say that he literally robbed his congregants to the tune of billions. Sean Hannity, you lay down with a dog, you’ll surely get up with fleas.

To listen to the audio, CLICK HERE.

Filed under: Buillon, Chris Dodd, Colin Powell, Cricket, Endorses Stanford Coin, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Robert Allen Stanford, Sean Hannity, Tom DeLay, Vijay Singh

Barack Obama Opts for Workout Instead of Going to Church

The media is having a field day with Barack Obama’s absence from church since his historic win in the presidential election. He has opted instead to hit the gym. This is a stark departure from his two immediate predecessors, President George W. Bush and President Bill Clinton. Asked about the president-elect’s decision to not attend church, a transition aide noted that the Obamas valued their faith experience in Chicago but were concerned about the impact their large retinue may have on other parishioners.

“Because they have a great deal of respect for places of worship, they do not want to draw unwelcome or inappropriate attention to a church not used to the attention their attendance would draw,” said the aide.

I guess that is in implicit that the president must attend church, even if he’s cheating on his wife, like President Bill Clinton. Barack Obama reached out to Christians and professed his faith. I guess the least he could do is find a church in Chicago to attend.

In November of 1992, Clinton went to services in Little Rock, Ark., on the three weekends following his election, taking pre-church jogs on the first two and attending on the third weekend a Catholic Mass with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, with whom he was trying to smooth over lingering campaign tensions.

In the weeks after the contested 2000 election, Bush regularly attended services at Tarrytown United Methodist Church in Austin, Texas, and Al Gore was frequently photographed arriving at and leaving church in Virginia.

Obama was an infrequent churchgoer on the campaign trail, though he did make a series of appearances in the pews and pulpits of South Carolina churches ahead of that heavily religious state’s primary. Considering the massive fallout from his association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Trinity United Church of Christ, one could understand his position. For about two decades, Obama and his family attended the church. Obama and his wife, Michelle, in June resigned their membership in the large South Side congregation.

During the campaign, Obama returned to Chicago to attend the South Side’s Apostolic Church of God on Father’s Day Sunday to give a speech aimed at the black community on the importance of fatherhood and family. It would have been nice to see the Obama’s attending church once more. Barack Obama is an extremely intelligent man and he should have realized that his absence from church, especially in the aftermath of such a historic win, would ruffle many feathers and raise some questions. He professed his faith in Christ, then I would have expected to see him in church, even one Sunday with his family. He’d better get used to traveling with a huge security detail and retinue. That’s just a part of the game and not an excuse not to attend church. Just my thoughts, you be the judge……

Filed under: Barack Obama, President Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush, Rev. Jeremiah Wright

Rev. Jeremiah Wright in the News Again, Accused of Having Affair with Elizabeth Payne, 37 and Married

Once again Rev. Jeremiah Wright has managed to pop up in the media once again at a critical juncture in the presidential campaign. This time, he shot himself in the foot, but I am sure the right wing media will some how try to link Barack Obama to this. It seems that the firebrand pastor has helped destroy a Dallas church worker’s marriage – and her job.

Elizabeth Payne, 37, said she had a steamy sexual affair with the controversial, racially divisive man of the cloth while she was an executive assistant at a church headed by a popular Wright protégé. According to media reports, when word of the unholy alliance got out, Payne’s husband dumped her, and she was canned from the plum job at Friendship-West Baptist Church, she told The New York Post.

“I was involved with Rev. Wright, and that’s why I lost my job and why my husband divorced me,” Payne said. Mrs. Payne do you honestly think any decent man would stay married to you after this?

But fellow churchgoers at Friendship-West “found out about the affair in the spring,” Payne said. At the time, she was secretary to the Rev. Frederick Haynes III, a longtime Wright disciple. According to the NY Post, in April Payne organized a series of Texas public appearances by Wright, 67. Weeks before, Obama had disavowed his preacher of 20 years after Wright’s anti-government rants came to light.

“Liz was by Rev. Wright’s side day and night during those days,” a church source said. “It’s all true,” said Payne, adding that she has filed a wrongful-dismissal claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to get her job back.

In an ironic twist, Wright last night spoke at an East Orange, NJ, church revival on the subject of “unexpected problems.” “There’s no such thing as a problem-free relationship,” he told a packed Elmwood United Presbyterian Church. “In life, you’ll have unexpected problems.”

The Post said that he punctuated his 45-minute sermon with evocative 1960s hits, including the Supremes’ “Where Did Our Love Go,” Frankie Beverley’s “Joy and Pain,” and the Temptations’ “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.” He’s set to speak there again tonight.

Payne’s husband, Fred Payne, 64, said he learned of the affair in late February, when he discovered e-mails between his wife and Wright. “There must have been about 80 of them, back and forth,” he said. “Wright said things like he was going to leave his wife for Elizabeth.” Wright has been married to his second wife, Ramah, for more than 20 years.

But Jeremiah Wright has done this sort of thing before. He reportedly wooed Ramah away from her first husband in the 1980s, when the couple came to marriage counseling at Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

Elizabeth Payne said she has been banished by Haynes and the flock at Friendship-West. “I’m not a member of the congregation anymore; I’m not even allowed on the premises,” she said. I wonder why? Hah.

What is startling to me is that Wright has been so vocal about racism in America that the last person I would expect him to have an affair with is a white woman. Rev. Wright is a non-issue to me, but I am sure that this will be linked to Obama somehow. What Wright has done is really horrible, considering he has been the “moral authority” for his former congregants for so long. You, it is high time for these so-called pastors to stop leading double lives.

Filed under: Barack Obama, Elizabeth Payne, Ramah Wright, Rev. Jeremiah Wright

Don Swarthout, New Political Action Committee Exposes Barack Obama’s ‘Black Liberation Theology’

These people will not give up on trying to smear Barack Obama, even though the Republican Party in reeling on the scandals being revealed about Gov. Sarah Palin and her family. It seems as though conservative leader Don Swarthout has formed Honor America PAC, the new Political Action Committee that will work to expose Barack Obama’s affiliation with Black Liberation Theology. This theology was regularly taught at Trinity United Church of Christ during Obama’s 20 year membership. Why are we revisiting Rev. Jeremiah Wright again? People this is getting really tired.

According to Christian News Wire, Reverend Swarthout said, “Obama’s church is committed to ‘Black Liberation Theology.’ All voters have a right to know about Black Liberation Theology and that it is not faithful to the teachings of Jesus Christ,” he said. Totally ridiculous that they would try to bring this up again. This is a desperate attempt by the right wing to continually smear Barack Obama, even though the GOP is in the throes of scandalgate with Sarah “inexperienced” Palin.

According to Christian News Wire, Swarthout also noted that “Americans who go to the web site will see ten different citations which demonstrate conclusively that Barack Obama’s church is fully and publicly committed to this ‘theology’ of racial hatred taught at Trinity United.” Swarthout is appalled by Cone’s ideas that Jesus Christ ever taught anything like the racial hatred which is taught in Black Liberation Theology. Swarthout was particularly upset that Barack Obama had agreed with this Black Liberation Theology for 20 years. Swarthout said that Honor America PAC is currently purchasing radio ads in Colorado and Pennsylvania to encourage voters to learn more about Obama’s ties to Black Liberation Theology by going to www.ObamaReligion.net.

“This ‘theology’ alone is reason enough for people NOT to vote for Barack Obama,” Swarthout told Christian News Wire. Folks, this is nothing new and is just a way to distract voters from the issues. There is certainly a double-standard afoot here. We must uphold with the errors and misdeeds of the Republican Party, but must not see past this issue with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, which by the way, pales in comparison to what is going on in the GOP right now. Is the best John McCain could do Sarah Palin? What about Olympia Snowe or Kay Bailey Hutchinson, women with solid and proven track records. So, these religious fanatics believe that Barack Obama should be castigated for a church he has left? Totally ridiculous and a waste of time.

Filed under: Barack Obama, Black Liberation Theology, Don Swarthout, John McCain, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Sarah Palin

FOX News Calls White Supremacist, Holocaust Denier and Anti-Semite Paul Fromme a ‘Free Speech Activist’

Hat tip to Marty Owings of Radio Free Nation for passing this item on to me. Fox News is so biased that this is not totally unexpected. Here’s the article from Alternet in it’s entirety:

FOX News Calls White Supremacist, Holocaust Denier and Anti-Semite a ‘Free Speech Activist’

By Heidi Beirich

On Aug. 4, FOX News aired a segment about the Canadian prosecution of conservative author Mark Steyn for alleged anti-Muslim human rights violations. Steyn, the author of the No. 1 Canadian bestseller, “America Alone: The End Of The World As We Know It,” has had three complaints lodged against him for human rights violations by the Canadian Islamic Congress. Two cases have been dismissed, but the Human Rights Tribunal of British Columbia is still investigating a charge that Steyn’s work amounts to hate speech against Muslims.

Steyn’s book, which was serialized in the well-known Canadian newsmagazine Macleans, contends that Western democracies, particularly in Europe, may become fertile ground for Islamic extremists because of rapidly growing Muslim populations.

While there are many individuals and groups that think the prosecution of Steyn harms free speech in Canada — including PEN Canada and the Canadian Association of Journalists — Fox News correspondent Steve Brown chose to interview a decidedly odd source: Paul Fromm, who was very sparingly identified on the broadcast as a “Free Speech Activist.” That’s a pretty weak, not to say completely misleading, description of Paul Fromm. As anyone who lives in Canada or who has access to Google should know, Fromm is Canada’s most notorious extremist, whose views form a trifecta of hate: he’s a white supremacist, a Holocaust denier and an anti-Semite. And he’s got a history of extremism a mile long.

“What we are seeing is an effort by minority groups, including in this case radical Muslims, to shut down criticism and that’s what it is,” Fromm, who habitually mocks Muslims, once calling a Muslim woman “a hag in a bag” while participating in a conference put on by former Klansman David Duke, told FOX about the Steyn investigations. At a 2007 meeting of racists and Holocaust deniers in Atlanta, Fromm pulled the Muslim hate card again, labeling Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama “a crypto-Moslem of mixed parentage.”

Fromm’s been a source to news reporters before — but not the type who most American news operations would want to brag about. In 2005, Fromm told the Iranian Mehr News Agency that Hollywood is “controlled by Zionists,” discussed “the story of the ‘Holocaust’ [that] has allowed the Jews to acquire many billions of dollars,” and described the Nazi genocide as “a religion created by the Jews for non-Jews.”

Fromm, whose Canadian teaching certificate was yanked in 2007 because of his racist views and activities, is a stalwart of the American white supremacist and anti-Semitic scene. He has attended dozens of white supremacist events, including one held to mark the anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s death.

Besides running his own extremist group in Canada — the Canada First Immigration Reform Committee — Fromm is a national director of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens, a group that believes in “racial integrity” and views blacks as a “retrograde species of humanity.” Fromm is also a signatory to a 2004 hate group protocol calling for an alliance between various racist and anti-Semitic groups, including David Duke’s European-American Unity and Rights Organization and the neo-Nazi National Alliance.

Final thoughts….

Did I expect any less from Fox News? Certainly not, but this highlights the hypocrisy of the network and its cronies. They literally maligned Rev. Jeremiah Wright night after night calling him a racist over his views of the racist past of America and the racism still inherent in the USA, but to think that this almost flew under the radar is amazing. Again, hat tip to Marty Owings for emailing me this link!

Filed under: Fox News, Paul Fromme, Rev. Jeremiah Wright

Rev. Jeremiah Wright Back in the News, as Petition to Reinstate Honorary Degree from Northwestern Gathers Steam

Rev. Jeremiah Wright is back in the news again, probably through no fault of his own, this time around. There is a protest underway over the university’s rescission of an honorary degree to Wright, the former pastor of Sen. Barack Obama whose remarks caused headaches for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

In a March letter to Wright, announced on May 1, Northwestern President Henry Bienen wrote that he decided to withdraw the degree in sacred theology because controversy about Wright could disrupt graduation ceremonies, as Jodi S. Cohen wrote May 2 in the Chicago Tribune. The rescission is believed to be the first in the history of the Evanston, Ill., school, founded in 1850.
“In light of the controversy surrounding statements made by you that have recently been publicized, the celebratory character of Northwestern’s commencement would be affected by our conferring of this honorary degree,” Bienen wrote to Wright.

According to the Maynard Institute, for the protesters, who have gathered 1,348 signatures on a petition demanding that the degree be reinstated, the issue is about more than Wright. “I’m participating in the petition not based on the merits of whether Rev. Wright does or does not deserve an honorary degree,” Sidmel Estes-Sumpter, a member of the Medill School of Journalism Board of Advisers and a former president of the National Association of Black Journalists, told Journal-isms. “I have issues with the lack of process by the university. Northwestern always seems to ‘change the rules’ when it comes to African Americans. This latest episode is only the latest insult by the university that has led to a dramatic decline in the number of African American students, the decreasing number of African American professors and the almost nonexistent numbers of African American administrators. Northwestern has failed to serve the needs of African Americans across the board and is listed in the latest Journal on Blacks in Higher Education as one of the top four universities in the country with the largest decrease of African American presence on campus,” said the 1977 Medill graduate. The number of black freshmen dropped from 118 in 1998 to 111 in 2007, according to the Journal.

“This is absolutely outrageous, straight up reactionary politics,” said Kevin B. Blackistone, former Dallas Morning News sports columnist newly appointed to a chair at the University of Maryland, and a 1981 Medill graduate. “The president said he was rescinding the offer because he didn’t want to detract from the celebratory nature of commencement for graduates and their families. Then why give any honorary degrees at all or have any invited speakers who drone on seemingly forever only to be quickly forgotten? Wright certainly would not have been forgotten. The sound bites that have been used to slay him are exactly what graduates need to hear: a challenge to do differently, if not better. No uncritical yammering from him. “Interestingly, James Cone, the theologian who coined the phrase black liberation theology, that frightens so many, called Wright one of the finest practitioners of the craft. Where did Cone get his Ph.D? Northwestern. Come on, now!”

Alan K. Cubbage, vice president for university relations, told Journal-isms, “It is highly unlikely that Rev. Wright will receive an honorary degree at commencement” on June 20. But C. Cole Dillon, who heads the Northwestern University Black Alumni Association and is an organizer of the petition, said it addresses more than the rescinded degree. An underlying reason for the protest is “to try to change the conversation on race.” It irks Dillon, she said, that Chicago Mayor Richard Daley is to receive an honorary degree when he is a defendant in a lawsuit over police torture of blacks that was prosecuted by Northwestern’s own MacArthur law clinic. Daley was Cook County state’s attorney at the time of the 1980s incidents.

However, not all African Americans support the petition. Some Medill graduates who are professional journalists did not feel comfortable taking a public position, Dillon said. Others are sympathetic but have other concerns. “I think they’re a day late and a dollar short. This announcement was made nearly two months ago,” Charles Whitaker, director of the Medill’s Academy for Alternative Journalism, told Journal-isms. “That was the time to rally the troops, circulate petitions and express alarm about rescinding the honorary degree. That ship has sailed now. There is absolutely nothing to be gained from circulating a petition at this point. The president certainly isn’t going to have an epiphany and decide to reinstate Wright no matter how many signatures he gets on a petition at this point.

So, I am not sure what side of the fence many people find themselves, but if they had a problem with the university’s decision, then the petition drive should have started from back then and not now when the ceremony is approaching. Rev. Wright, though he spoke fact, said some very incendiary things that caused Barack Obama a lot of headaches. I am sure that Sean Hannity adn company will have this on their broadcasts tonight. The university has a right to do just what it did, but it may have sent the wrong message to many blacks. Northwestern University is an institution of higher learning with an exceptional track record. I would hate to see the school get caught up in the political fallout from Rev. Wright, through no real fault of its own. Just my thoughts, you be the judge…..

Filed under: Barack Obama, Northwestern University, Rev. Jeremiah Wright

Tony Rezko Money Woes Continue to Mount

The saga continues with Tony Rezko and his money woes has made his predicament worst. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, he has gone to jail, but his money troubles won’t go away.

A former Rezko business associate, Semir Sirazi, went to court Thursday to try to get the former top political fund-raiser and adviser to Gov. Blagojevich declared bankrupt and force an investigation into his finances.

Lawyers for Sirazi said Rezko owes him $18 million from business deals in which Sirazi put up assets to secure Rezko loans. In 2006, Rezko promised to pay Sirazi if he sold his stake in various properties, according to Sirazi’s lawyer, Gregory Scandaglia.

Rezko then sold his interest in 62 acres in the South Loop to a company owned by London billionaire Nahdmi Auchi. But Sirazi didn’t get any of the $3.8 million proceeds, Scandaglia said. Rezko later told U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve that much of the money went toward his legal fees, and some to his wife, Rita Rezko, and other family members. Rezko’s failure to disclose that sale prompted St. Eve to order him jailed Jan. 28, pending his trial. She later allowed him to go free once more on bail.

To recoup what Sirazi is owed, Scandaglia said he will seek the appointment of a bankruptcy trustee to sell off Rezko’s remaining assets. The trustee also would have the power to investigate Rezko’s past financial transactions. “We think that there are distributions that were made that the trustee will have the ability to undo,” Scandaglia said.

This is a shame. You make money, why can’t you stay on the right side of the law and do the right thing? So many times we hear of these rich people getting greedy and end up in over their heads. The timing in this matter for Barack Obama couldn’t have come at a worse time. Yes, they did not pin him directly to this man, but it still leaves a cloud of doubt over him because of the so-called questionable people he has been associated with such as Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Pastor Michael Pfleger, Ayers and so on. The right wing media and the GOP will run with this and it is my hope that none of this will stick. Tony Rezko and many others like him are a disgrace. I hope his business associate will be able to collect his money. Just my thoughts, you be the judge….

Filed under: Barack Obama, Pastor Michael Pfleger, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko

Rev. Pfleger Says ‘They Want to Kill Me….It’s Been Ugly’ after Controversial Comments

Rev. Michael Pfleger continues to take heat from the comments he made about Hillary Clinton last week at Trinity United Church of Christ. Rev. Pfleger, who helped reignite Barack Obama’s pastor problems by mocking Hillary Clinton, said that he has received “thousands of hate threats” since his videotaped pulpit rant. “They want to kill me,” Pfleger told parishioners during a service in a St. Sabina Church chapel on Chicago’s South Side this evening. “It’s been very ugly.”

I was glad when Pfleger’s boss, Cardinal Francis George, intervened and also rebuked Pfleger for his “personal attack” on Clinton, and said he had received assurances from Pfleger that he would no longer campaign for or even mention the names of political candidates.

Separately, I was very glad to hear the bombshell revelation that Obama had decided to leave the church. He should have done it a long time ago. While I don’t believe that the gist of Pfleger’s rant was wrong–the fact that Hillary Clinton felt she was entitled to the nomination–nonetheless, the way he said it and what he added to it were wrong.

Barack Obama should have left that church when he caught a whiff that the pastor was overly controversial. Key to that is the real reason why Oprah Winfrey left. Oprah is a smart woman who, in my opinion, was savvy enough to see that Rev. Wright’s message just didn’t jive with her image and what she was about. So, while Obama did not decide to run for the presidency 20 years ago, it is worth stating that he recognized a problem with Wright when he disinvited him to his invocation ceremony. I am not sure if his decision to cut ties with this church will quell the right-wing media and many voters who were turned off by this, but it will put to rest any other issues that emanate from this church. He clearly does not need this type of distraction.

Filed under: Barack Obama, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Rev. Michael Pfleger, Trinity United Church of Christ