Obama’s Christmas Miracle

I think I’m going to puke…

The New York Times reported on Wednesday morning that the President-elect played an important role in helping pass the ethics bill that ultimately was responsible for Blagojevich’s downfall. Several months ago, Obama placed a call to his mentor Emil Jones, imploring the state Senate president to let go of a hold on legislation that would have prohibited contractors from donating to politicians who oversaw their work. The bill, passed over Blagojevich’s objections, compelled the governor to quickly press state contractors for donations before the new law took affect on January 1. That, in turn, pushed authorities to ramp up their case against Blagojevich.

But of course this isn’t just a coincidence, or a politician in the middle of a campaign looking for some cover for his dubious Chicago connections.  Oh no, St. Obama has ALWAYS been a crimefighting superhero, er a staunch supporter of ethics reform.

What went unmentioned in the Times story was how Obama was roped into the process: not out of some drawn-out effort to bring him on board, but, rather, his own interest in the topic of ethics legislation. According to Cindi Canary, Executive Director of Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, Obama never was contacted about pushing the bill.

At the very least, Obama is grossly incompetent for not knowing the shenanigans that were going on with his very own Senate seat.  But I tend to think that Obama didn’t want to “pay to play” with Blago because he didn’t really need to.  The ozombies are also pointing to the fact that Obama refused to play as proof that he is clean.  So why didn’t he report the fact to the US Attorney’s office?  Especially given Obama’s keen interest in ethics.  If he had, I would think that would have made the news by now.  And what about “candidate 5″, Jesse Jackson Jr?  According to Blago he offered $1,000,000 for the seat. 

Chicago Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., is the anonymous “Senate Candidate No. 5″ whose emissaries Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich reportedly offered up to $1 million to name him to the U.S. Senate, federal law enforcement sources tell ABC News.

How could the national co-chairman of Obama’s campaign be involved without a whiff of corruption tainting Obama himself?  And the biggest fish of all, Rahm Emmanuel, how was he involved?  Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire has an idea:

Blago was convinced that he could Rahm Emmanuel for a bribe — a sinecure funded to the tune of $15 million — before picking the senate candidate Obama wanted. He let it be known that he would also pick the guy Rahm wanted for the congressional seat. Did Rahm act outraged? No. Did Rahm toss Blago out on his ear? No. Instead, there was adiscussion of a counter-bribe on which Obama would have “fewer fingerprints.”

Here’s hoping that at least some of these crooks end up paying for treating our democracy like a used car lot.

And as for “Ethics Champion” Obama, let’s not forget how he planned to punish lobbyists by forcing them to eat standing up while they schmoozed with congresspeople.  In what is becoming increasingly disturbing behavior from the Clintons, her statement to that effect has somehow disappeared, but I found reference to it here:

On her website, Hillary Clinton says the following in big, bold letters:

Sen. Obama’s Bill Allows Lobbyists To Wine and Dine Members of Congress, As Long As They Are Standing Up

The fact that Obama’s brownshirted bloggers are trying to rewrite history already is nothing new.  I can only hope that some of these sleazebags that are going to end up getting busted for their crimes start to sing to the feds.  That would be a Christmas miracle.

Catholic Church: Still Homophobic

As if anyone needed to be reminded. 

The Roman Catholic Church is facing a barrage of protests and searing editorials for opposing a French-sponsored decree that calls for an end to discrimination based on sexual or gender identity. The U.N. hopes to abolish summary executions, arbitrary arrests and “the deprivation of economic, social and cultural rights” of gays.

Of course the Catholic Church contends that they are being subjected to unfair “politically correct” propaganda:

Catholic groups say the protests and editorials are part of a campaign to silence the Church on issues where it is considered politically incorrect.

“The fact that there are people who want to silence the Church is disturbing. If people want to disagree with the Church it’s one thing, but when you start this kind of name-calling it is intended to have a chilling effect,” said Susan Fani, a spokeswoman for the Catholic League.

Well if that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black.  The Catholic church would rather see gay men, women, and even teenagers (warning: graphic photos) executed than concede that gay people deserve even the basic human rights that the church itself purports to defend worldwide.

This is reminiscent of the Church’s stance on birth control.  Their opposition to the promotion of condom use, especially in African nations ravaged by the AIDS epidemic has stained the church with the blood of the dead.

This is not a matter of the church defending its right to a freely formed opinion.  The Vatican is a political as well as religious entity.  It wields considerable power in many underdeveloped countries in Africa, the Americas, and Asia.  If they choose to adopt policies that lead to the genocide of whole groups of peoples, then they have to accept the consequences and not whine about “political correctness”.  In this regard, the Vatican is no better than fundamentalist Islamic theocracies such as Iran and Saudi Arabia. 

And as for the U.N., instead of adopting watered down proposals such as this one, maybe they should start cleaning house, because in a grotesque irony, the most egrigious violators of human rights will be the very nations defining what exactly constitutes a violation of those rights.

 Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, which will sit on the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2009, both prescribe the death penalty for gays. And Angola, Bahrain, Bangladesh and Burkina Faso, which will get seats on the council in the next three years, all punish homosexuals with jail.

Even as toothless as it is, will the Obama administration sign the decree?  We know that he doesn’t want us to get married, but does he think we should be hanged?  We’ll see…