[UPDATES IN BOLD] A Dolt and a Thug, Obama Again Claims He Knows Nothing

(bumped up by NoQuarter from its original Saturday morning spot)

See also my essay entitled “Obama Relegated Aunt Who Resides Illegally in US to the Shadows While Taking Her Campaign Contributions”

Obama, according to the Associated Press, did not know his Aunt Zeituni, the child of Obama’s paternal grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama, was residing in the United States illegally while he was accepting her campaign contributions. I quote the AP:

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said Saturday he didn’t know his aunt was living in the United States illegally and believes that laws covering the situation should be followed.

The Associated Press found that Obama’s aunt had been instructed to leave the country four years ago by an immigration judge who rejected her request for asylum from her native Kenya. The woman, Zeituni Onyango (zay-TUHN on-YANG-oh), is living in public housing in Boston and is the half-sister of Obama’s late father.

A statement given to the AP by Obama’s campaign said, “Senator Obama has no knowledge of her status but obviously believes that any and all appropriate laws be followed.”

The campaign said it was returning $260 that Onyango had contributed in small increments to Obama’s presidential bid over several months. Federal election law prohibits foreigners from making political donations. Onyango listed her employer as the Boston Housing Authority and last gave $5 on Sept. 19.

One would think Obama would know the immigration status of his aunt after he rendered her into a textual spectacle in his 1996 memoir entitled Dreams of My Father. One would also think a relative would have contacted him in 2004 in order to inform the aspiring US Senator and Illinois political official that auntie needed assistance with her asylum petition. After all, auntie attended Obama’s swearing-in to the US Senate the same year her asylum petition was unfavorably adjudicated. Moreover, one would think that Obama would have been informed by someone related to his aunt that she donated tainted money to his campaign. And furthermore, the Obama campaign must have asked Obama a question or two after an article on Obama’s aunt surfaced a few days ago in the London Times. Surely they would have asked about the aunt’s immigration status after it was revealed she fraudulently donated $260 to the campaign from her public housing address in South Boston.

Also pertinent to this line of questioning is Auntie Zeituni’s claim that she could not speak to reporters until November 5. “’I can’t talk about it, I just pray for him, that’s all,’ she said, adding: ‘After the 4th, I can talk to anyone.’” Who asked her to remain silent? Did she receive a directive from David Axelrod?

But Obama claims he had “no knowledge” about his aunt’s willful violation of this country’s immigration laws. Are we surprised? Obama, it seems, knows nothing about anything. Similar to Alberto Gonzales, he “does not recall” anything whenever he is confronted about his lack of judgment or about his record of problematic affiliations with convicted felons and known terrorists. Let us review:

1. Obama had no knowledge of the deportation order submitted against his paternal aunt.

“Senator Obama has no knowledge of her status but obviously believes that any and all appropriate laws be followed.”

2. Obama did not know Bill Ayers was a terrorist when he raised campaign funds in Ayers’s home and worked with Ayers on the Annenberg Challenge in inner city Chicago.

On Monday, Obama chief strategist David Axelrod said Obama was not aware of Ayers’ terrorist background when he attended a political coffee at Ayers Hyde Park home at the beginning of his state senate race sometime in the fall of 1995. Ayers and Obama first crossed paths in 1995 while involved in the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a foundation dealing with urban education issues.

3. Obama did not know convicted slumlord Antoin “Tony” Rezko, the man who provided the seed donations to Obama’s first political race in 1995, the man who chaired the Finance Committee of his US Senate bid in 2004, and the man who helped Obama purchase the mansion he and Michelle could not afford, was mismanaging the funds Obama secured at his behest for his slum landlord empire while defrauding investment firms seeking to do business with Illinois’s various pensions funds.

In a statement, Obama said that he was “saddened” by the verdict. “This isn’t the Tony Rezko I knew,” he said, adding that the charges against Rezko “once again shine a spotlight on the need for reform.” Obama has repeatedly said he did no favors for Rezko. He was never a focus of Rezko’s trial.

4. Obama did not hear anything controversial when sitting in the pews of Reverend Wright’s “God Damn AmeriKKKa” Church in inner city Chicago.

The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation. When these statements first came to my attention, it was at the beginning of my presidential campaign. I made it clear at the time that I strongly condemned his comments. But because Rev. Wright was on the verge of retirement, and because of my strong links to the Trinity faith community, where I married my wife and where my daughters were baptized, I did not think it appropriate to leave the church.

What does Obama know? Does he know anything? Or is he really as vacuous as I and others believe? Diabolically disingenuous when asked to justify his past actions, his affiliations and his complete and utter lack of judgment, Obama is the Democratic Party’s version of Alberto Gonzales. Indeed, he is a thug whose friends and family break laws without apology.

He is also a complete and utter dolt who issues sanctimonious pronouncements when he is caught with his hand in the cookie jar: only now does he believe his aunt should adhere to immigration laws; only now will he return his aunt’s illegal and fraudulent donation; and only now does he believe Illinois politics should be reformed. A thug who portrays himself as a dolt, Obama cannot and should not serve as President of the United States.