John Charlton
The Post & Email
October 16, 2009

What most people know is that the Associated Press (AP) is one of the largest, internationally recognized, syndicated news services.  What most people don’t know that is in 2004, the AP was a “birther” news organization.

How so?  Because in a syndicated report, published Sunday, June 27, 2004, by the Kenyan Standard Times, and which was, as of this report, available at

http://web.archive.org/web/20040627142700/eastandard.net/headlines/news26060403.htm

The AP reporter stated the following:

Kenyan-born US Senate hopeful, Barrack Obama, appeared set to take over the Illinois Senate seat after his main rival, Jack Ryan, dropped out of the race on Friday night amid a furor over lurid sex club allegations.

This report explains the context of the oft cited debate, between Obama and Keyes in the following Fall, in which Keyes faulted Obama for not being a “natural born citizen”, and in which Obama, by his quick retort, “So what? I am running for Illinois Senator, not the presidency”, self-admitted that he was not eligible for the office.  Seeing that an AP reporter is too professional to submit a story which was not based on confirmed sources (ostensibly the Obama campaign in this case), the inference seems inescapable: Obama himself was putting out in 2004, that he was born in Kenya.

The difficulty in finding this gem of a story is hampered by Google, which is running flak for Obama:  because if you search for “Kenyan-born US Senate” you wont find it, but if you search for the phrase without quotes you will find links which talk about it.

For those who believe what they see, here is the screen capture of the page from the Kenyan Sunday Standard, electronic edition, of June 27, 2004 — Just in case that page is scrubbed from the Web Archive:

Readers should take note that this AP story, was syndicated world-wide, so you should be able to find it in major newspapers, archived in libraries world-wide.  If any reader does this, please let The Post & Email know, so that we can publish a follow up-story.  You can scrub the net, but scrubbing libraries world-wide is not so easy.

[efoods]Hanen of Sentinel Blog Radio broke the public news of the existence of this AP story at on October 14, 2009 at 12:31 pm.  However, The Post & Email can confirm that a professional investigator had uncovered this story months ago, and that certified and authenticated copies of this report, meeting Federal Rules of evidence, have already been prepared and archived at many locations nationwide.

It should be noted that on January 8, 2006, the Honolulu Advertiser also reported that Barack Hussein Obama was born outside the United States.

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2006/Jan/08/ln/FP601080334.html

A Chronology of Deceit

One can now ask an important question which has not yet been emphasized enough:  “Just when did Obama begin to publically claim he was born in Hawaii?” This question is distinct from the question, “Just where in fact was Obama born?”, and from the other question, “What do official documents say about where he was born?”

Regarding his claims, we can summarize what is known:

1. As of Monday, Aug. 28, 2006, Obama’s Campaign was putting out that he was born in Hawaii.  This is known from the introductory speech given by Prof. George A. O. Magoha, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nairobi, on the occasion of a speech given there by Senator Obama that day. (One presumes that the Vice-Chancellor was given notes from the Obama campaign, as is customary on such occasions)

2. From the newspaper reports above, it is clear that the Obama campaign was putting out that he was born in Kenya, or overseas, during the period of June 27, 2004, until January 8, 2006.

3. In October of 2004, during the ABC Chicago Affiliate’s broadcast of the Obama-Keyes debates, Obama openly admitted — he conceded — that he was not a natural born citizen. (C-Span aired the uncut version of the debates, which contained this exchange, in the second half of April, 2005)

4. It is known from a classmate of Obama at Harvard University, that while at Harvard, Obama at least on one occasion admitted that he was born in Kenya. (This friend went on record on a call in radio program in Idaho in early July, 2009)

If any reader can find a link which documents a claim to a birth location before Aug. 28th, 2006, which differs from this timeline or which supports it; please let The Post & Email know of it, by posting it in the comment section below.

In a follow up report, The Post & Email has published a brief analysis of the Google Newspaper archive, which shows that Obama’s story changed after June 27, 2004.

Finally, that the AP did cover this story, reprinted by the East African Standard, can be seen from the citation made to AP stories about it (Jack Ryan dropping out of the race), in the following contemporary news articles, which however are incomplete:

June 25, 2004 — http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,123716,00.html

June 26, 2004 — Bellview News Democrat

June 26, 2004 — AP Online Story by Michael Tarm

June 25, 2004 — AP Syndicated Story by Maura Kelly Lannan

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Note from Senior Management:

Andrew Breitbart was never a “Birther,” and Breitbart News is a site that has never advocated the narrative of “Birtherism.” In fact, Andrew believed, as we do, that President Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 4, 1961.

Yet Andrew also believed that the complicit mainstream media had refused to examine President Obama’s ideological past, or the carefully crafted persona he and his advisers had constructed for him.

It is for that reason that we launched “The Vetting,” an ongoing series in which we explore the ideological background of President Obama (and other presidential candidates)–not to re-litigate 2008, but because ideas and actions have consequences.

It is also in that spirit that we discovered, and now present, the booklet described below–one that includes a marketing pitch for a forthcoming book by a then-young, otherwise unknown former president of the Harvard Law Review.

It is evidence–not of the President’s foreign origin, but that Barack Obama’s public persona has perhaps been presented differently at different times.

***

Breitbart News has obtained a promotional booklet produced in 1991 by Barack Obama’s then-literary agency, Acton & Dystel, which touts Obama as “born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii.”

The booklet, which was distributed to “business colleagues” in the publishing industry, includes a brief biography of Obama among the biographies of eighty-nine other authors represented by Acton & Dystel.

It also promotes Obama’s anticipated first book, Journeys in Black and White–which Obama abandoned, later publishing Dreams from My Father instead.

Obama’s biography in the booklet is as follows (image and text below):

Barack Obama, the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii.  The son of an American anthropologist and a Kenyan finance minister, he attended Columbia University and worked as a financial journalist and editor for Business International Corporation.   He served as project coordinator in Harlem for the New York Public Interest Research Group, and was Executive Director of the Developing Communities Project in Chicago’s South Side. His commitment to social and racial issues will be evident in his first book, Journeys in Black and White.

The booklet, which is thirty-six pages long, is printed in blue ink (and, on the cover, silver/grey ink), using offset lithography. It purports to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of Acton & Dystel, which was founded in 1976.

Image courtesy: Pfc. David Hauk, U.S. Army. Kandahar, Afghanistan, November 12, 2009

Do you trust the national media’s reporting on the war in Afghanistan?

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

More Than One Day

Image courtesy: Sgt. Logan Pierce

Most Americans realize that today marks the one-year anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death at the hands of courageous Navy SEALs. Yet many of the same citizens, conditioned by a national media that pays scant attention to the military’s daily sacrifices, probably don’t realize that 2012’s bloodiest month of fighting in Afghanistan has just concluded.

As this blog and others discussed all month, April was difficult for our troops in Afghanistan and their families at home. According to an unofficial count by icasualities.org, at least 33 U.S. service members were killed in Afghanistan during the month of April. This number doesn’t include seriously wounded heroes like Staff Sgt. Travis Mills, who lost his arms and legs in an Apr. 10 terrorist attack.

During the year Osama bin Laden was killed, the war in Afghanistan made up just two percent of American news media coverage, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. If you add in coverage of bin Laden’s death in Pakistan, the number is four percent. Based on the media’s behavior so far this year, I would not be surprised if the death of Whitney Houston wound up generating just as much news coverage as the Afghanistan conflict in 2012.

On Monday — the last day of a month in which at least 33 American troops were killed — I saw a lengthy segment on Fox News about the one-year anniversary of Prince William’s marriage to Kate Middleton. Since trivialities like a couple’s anniversary are now deemed newsworthy by Fox and its competitors, one should not be surprised at the amount of stories we’re seeing today about bin Laden. Today is simply another anniversary for the media to talk about.

Today is not just another day in the mountains of Afghanistan, where thousands of Americans who volunteered to fight for our country are separated from their loved ones. Some of these units have held memorial services for their friends over the past month, while others are thinking about their wounded brothers and sisters hospitalized in Bethesda, Md., and elsewhere.

War is the most serious, sobering reality for a country to face, and the national media, as well as many of us, are turning away.

Since Apr. 24, the following American service members have died as a result of continuing operations in Afghanistan.

Spc. Manuel Vasquez, 22, West Sacramento, California
Spc. Benjamin Neal, 21, Orfordville, Wisconsin
Spc. Jason Edens, 22, Franklin, Tennessee
Lt. Christopher Mosko, 28, Pittsford, New York
Spc. Moises Gonzalez, 29, Huntington, California
Staff Sgt. Brandon Eggleston, 29, Candler, North Carolina
Sgt. Dick Lee Jr., 31, Orange Park, Florida
Staff Sgt. Andrew Brittonmihalo, 25, Simi Valley, California
Master Sgt. Scott Pruitt, 38, Gautier, Mississippi
Pfc. Christian Sannicolas, 20, Anaheim, California

For the families of these fallen heroes, every subsequent day of their lives will be filled with tragic dreams of what could have been. Our thoughts, prayers, and gratitude go out to America’s newest Gold Star families, as well as our country’s wounded warriors and their loved ones.

The extraordinary sacrifices of the post-9/11 generation are far bigger than the death of one terrorist, and certainly span more than one day. To truly honor this patriotic group of volunteer warriors, we must challenge ourselves to always remember that somewhere, at every moment, a fellow American is fighting for us.

Anti-Bullying Speaker Curses Christian Teens

Apr 27, 2012

OMAHA, Neb. — Nebraska assistant coach Ron Brown says he’ll keep speaking out against homosexuality even if it costs him his job.

“To be fired for my faith would be a greater honor than to be fired because we didn’t win enough games,” Brown said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I haven’t lost any sleep over it. I realize at some point, we live in a politically correct enough culture where that very well could happen.”

Brown earned national acclaim for leading a prayer at midfield before the Cornhuskers’ game at scandal-torn Penn State six months ago. He has been under fire recently for testifying against an anti-discrimination ordinance that extended protections to gay and transgender people.

“To be fired for my faith would be a greater honor than to be fired because we didn’t win enough games. ” – Ron Brown

In Brown’s three-minute appearance, he challenged ordinance sponsor Ben Gray and other members to remember the Bible does not condone homosexuality. He told council members they would be held to “great accountability for the decision you are making.”

“The question I have for you all is, like Pontius Pilate, what are you going to do with Jesus?” Brown asked. “Ultimately, if you don’t have a relationship with him, and you don’t really have a Bible-believing mentality, really, anything goes… At the end of the day, it matters what God thinks most.”

Barbara Baier, a member of the Lincoln Board of Education, wrote to university administrators to request Brown’s firing in the wake of his testimony. She noted the university-wide policy not to discriminate based on, among other things, sexual orientation.

Brown — in a decision he said he now regrets — gave Memorial Stadium in Lincoln as his address of record. Baier said some people could have inferred he was representing the university, not just himself, when he appeared before the council. She said Brown’s continued employment creates an atmosphere hostile to gay student-athletes.

“He says terrible things about members of my community — citizens of this country, people who have not committed any crimes,” Baier said. “He compares gays and lesbians to people who have committed crimes, people who are desiring to go and cause the destruction of the American family, and nothing could be further from the truth.”

Chancellor Harvey Perlman admonished Brown for giving the stadium address, but he said Brown’s personal views do not reflect those of the university.

Brown is adamant he won’t change his Bible-inspired message or quit delivering it. As a Christian, he said, he’s called to evangelize.

At a time when Tim Tebow’s faith has been the subject of admiration and ridicule, there are those who like the fearlessness Brown shows going against the grain of what they say is a culture out to marginalize religion and unwilling to define right and wrong.

Nabil K. Mark/Getty ImagesNebraska assistant coach Ron Brown earned national acclaim for leading a prayer at midfield before the Cornhuskers’ game at scandal-torn Penn State six months ago.

A Lincoln city councilman has said he plans to propose a similar anti-discrimination ordinance next week and that a public hearing could be held on May 7. Brown said he is “praying about” speaking in opposition if his schedule allows.

In a state where the Cornhuskers are assigned celebrity status, separating Brown from the program would be a stretch.

Brown acknowledges that he uses his position as a platform for his ministry. He sprinkles in football metaphors during his many speaking engagements and sometimes references the players he’s coached.

He said the risk of losing his job pales in comparison to the price others have paid for standing up for their beliefs. Christians throughout the world, he pointed out, have been murdered because of their faith.

Brown adheres to an unbending interpretation of the Bible.

“The same thing that was a sin 2,000 years ago is a sin today,” Brown said. “The thing that was right 2,000 years ago is right today.”

Brown was born in New York in 1956 to an unwed mother who placed him in an orphanage. His adoptive parents brought him up as a Catholic, and he said he had a mostly trouble-free childhood even as his mom and dad struggled to make ends meet. With their encouragement, he said, he earned an academic scholarship to Brown University and starred there as a defensive back.

He said he felt a spiritual emptiness during his college years but came to be influenced by the devout lifestyle by one of his teammates, Harry Walls. Brown said he was born again in 1979 and began evangelizing.

He now heads a Christian ministry called FreedMen Nebraska, hosts a show on a statewide Christian radio network, appears on a cable-access channel in Lincoln and writes a column for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ magazine. Brown also has written books on Christian character and growth.

Brown has been an assistant at Nebraska under three head coaches, starting with Tom Osborne in 1987. He was let go when Bill Callahan replaced Frank Solich in 2004. Bo Pelini, who took over for Callahan in 2008, rehired Brown.

Advocacy groups called for Brown’s firing after he condemned homosexuality on a Christian radio show in 1999, and the American Civil Liberties Union has threatened legal action against Nebraska public schools that require students to attend Brown’s Bible-fueled motivational talks.

The attention Brown has received for his non-football activities has worn on Pelini.

“Why don’t you ask me why I hired him?” Pelini said. “I hired him because he’s a good football coach. He’s trustworthy. He has a lot of integrity. I hired him because I believe in him as a football coach and a guy who has positive impact on kids.”

Pelini said he knows Brown injects religion into his relationships with his players and none have complained.

Osborne, now the athletic director, said Brown is within his rights to express his personal views.

“I think it’s important that there be clarity with what you do in your capacity at the university and what you do as a private citizen,” Osborne said.

Brown stepped to the pulpit at Dundee Presbyterian Church in Omaha on Sunday night and began preaching with the same passion he brings to coaching. He gave a pep talk about the role of missionaries. Football was the backdrop, with Brown mentioning star running back Rex Burkhead as he spoke figuratively about “pushing the ball over the goal line.”

Brown offered a disclaimer after his 50-minute talk, saying his views did not necessarily reflect those of the university. Pamphlets in the pews referred to Brown as an “accomplished football coach” but made no mention of his ties to the Huskers.

Walls, now pastor at Shades Mountain Independent Church in Birmingham, Ala., said the Brown he knows is not hateful.

“When you speak the truth to people who don’t see it that way, they often come away thinking you condemned them or judged them rather than addressing their sin from God’s perspective, which is an act of love,” Walls said. Brown helps “illuminate the perversion and confusion of our culture.”

Brown said he isn’t “picking on” homosexuals. He said a gay agenda has cropped up in American culture and that he is merely responding to it.

He said gays and lesbians do not deserve the same protections as groups that historically have been discriminated against, such as blacks and women.

“The scriptures teach that blacks were created by God, that women were created by God, but that homosexuals … that is not what God had in mind at all,” Brown said.

Brown said his words should not be interpreted as an attack on homosexuals.

“I have simply said that based on the Bible, homosexuality, the lifestyle of homosexuality, is a sin,” he said. “That has created a flame within itself. But I’ve decided I’m not going to be afraid of people calling me a bigot or a homophobic or narrow-minded out of a simple, gentle, compassionate expression of the truth of God’s word. I’m not going to be bought off by that.”

NEGROES WITH GUNS

Liberals have leapt on the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Florida to push for the repeal of “stand your ground” laws and to demand tighter gun control. (MSNBC’S Karen Finney blamed “the same people who stymied gun regulation at every point.”)

With logic like that, Republicans eventually had to fight a Civil War to get the Democrats to give up slavery.

Alas, they were Democrats, so they cheated.

After the war, Democratic legislatures enacted “Black Codes,” denying black Americans the rights of citizenship — such as the rather crucial one of bearing arms — while other Democrats (sometimes the same Democrats) founded the Ku Klux Klan.

For more than a hundred years, Republicans have aggressively supported arming blacks, so they could defend themselves against Democrats.

The original draft of the Anti-Klan Act of 1871 — passed at the urging of Republican president Ulysses S. Grant — made it a federal felony to “deprive any citizen of the United States of any arms or weapons he may have in his house or possession for the defense of his person, family, or property.” This section was deleted from the final bill only because it was deemed both beyond Congress’ authority and superfluous, inasmuch as the rights of citizenship included the right to bear arms.

Under authority of the Anti-Klan Act, President Grant deployed the U.S. military to destroy the Klan, and pretty nearly completed the job.

But the Klan had a few resurgences in the early and mid-20th century. Curiously, wherever the Klan became a political force, gun control laws would suddenly appear on the books.

This will give you an idea of how gun control laws worked. Following the firebombing of his house in 1956, Dr. Martin Luther King, who was, among other things, a Christian minister, applied for a gun permit, but the Alabama authorities found him unsuitable. A decade later, he won a Nobel Peace Prize.

How’s that “may issue” gun permit policy working for you?

The NRA opposed these discretionary gun permit laws and proceeded to grant NRA charters to blacks who sought to defend themselves from Klan violence — including the great civil rights hero Robert F. Williams.

A World War II Marine veteran, Williams returned home to Monroe, N.C., to find the Klan riding high — beating, lynching and murdering blacks at will. No one would join the NAACP for fear of Klan reprisals. Williams became president of the local chapter and increased membership from six to more than 200.

But it was not until he got a charter from the NRA in 1957 and founded the Black Armed Guard that the Klan got their comeuppance in Monroe.

Williams’ repeated thwarting of violent Klan attacks is described in his stirring book, “Negroes With Guns.” In one crucial battle, the Klan sieged the home of a black physician and his wife, but Williams and his Black Armed Guard stood sentry and repelled the larger, cowardly force. And that was the end of it.

As the Klan found out, it’s not so much fun when the rabbit’s got the gun.

The NRA’s proud history of fighting the Klan has been airbrushed out of the record by those who were complicit with the KKK, Jim Crow and racial terror, to wit: the Democrats.

In the preface to “Negroes With Guns,” Williams writes: “I have asserted the right of Negroes to meet the violence of the Ku Klux Klan by armed self-defense — and have acted on it. It has always been an accepted right of Americans, as the history of our Western states proves, that where the law is unable, or unwilling, to enforce order, the citizens can, and must act in self-defense against lawless violence.”

Contrary to MSNBC hosts, I do not believe the shooting in Florida is evidence of a resurgent KKK. But wherever the truth lies in that case, gun control is always a scheme of the powerful to deprive the powerless of the right to self-defense.