The Obama-Salahi Connection: Why No Invite for White House Gatecrashers?

I'm honored that my work on the Salahis was picked up by Atlas Shrugs, Gateway Pundit, Hot Air, and World Net Daily (as well as many others to whom I've linked in earlier entries).

World Net Daily's piece develops the implications of Tareq Salahi's Palestinian ties in full, "White House 'Gatecrashers' Tied to Terror Sympathizer":

But Reliapundit at the Astute Bloggers has questions: For example, why would the Salahis sneak into a state dinner if they knew the president? The Secret Service confirmed, after the gatecrashers left the party unescorted, that the couple had not been officially invited. It's now known, of course, that Barack Obama met the Salahis as far back as 2005, and the couple claims to have been in "the Obamas' glass-enclosed viewing area after an inauguration concert at the Lincoln Memorial." So, there are a lot of unanswered questions.

The intense severity of the security breach is foremost, with scrutiny focusing on the breakdown at the Secret Service. As this morning's Washington Post indicates, "Security experts called the breach an indefensible breakdown that will almost certainly lead to changes within the Secret Service ..."

But after that we're left with Tareq Salahi's shadowy ties to radical Islamists and terror-enablers, especially Columbia University's Rashid Khalidi. Certainly these relationships aren't something that the mainstream press wants to discuss. As Debbie Schlussel noted yesterday, the New York Times, in previously published reports, removed reference to Tareq Salahi's membership at the American Task Force on Palestine, an Israel-bashing group now shown as having long relations with the terrorist organizations in the Middle East. See, "NY Times Scrubs Its Own Reporting on White House Party Crasher Tareq Salahi’s Board Membership in Pro-Palestinian Terror Group."

And Media Matters doesn't want to discuss Salahi's Palestian ties either; and in fact, the Soros-backed unit describes Jim Hoft's entry on the story as a "conspiracy." See, "Gateway Pundit Concocts Conspiracy Theory Involving WH Party Crashers, Rashid Khalidi, and Obama's 'Radicalism'."

The Salahis' reasons for crashing the event are being questioned as well, and the couple's now denying any profit-motivations for their actions. See Fox News, "White House Crashers' Rep Reportedly Says They Do Not Seek Cash for Interviews." (Although Anne Applebaum's piece this morning chaulks it up to the routine climbers' quest for "wealth and fame." See, "Social Climbing With a Twist: White House Gate-Crashers in a Long Tradition.")

So why, then? It's clear that the couple's forthcoming reality show gig was already clinched (a Bravo camera crew was trailing the Salahis at the entrance to the White House). Perhaps, given the Salahis' well-advertised earlier meetings with the Obamas, lacking an invitation, the couple felt entitled to be at the dinner anyway. And if that's so, the White House had to play dumb. After Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, and Barack's long association with the sleazy Chicago underworld of ACORN thugs and (alleged) secret homosexual lovers, the last thing the president needs is for an old Palestianian pal to demonstrate open entrée at a state dinner hosting the prime minister of India.

So, perhaps besides the egregious security breakdown (which amply illustrates gross administration incompetence; no White House social-functions personnel were stationed at the gates), it's mostly a White House in damage control issue at this point. Van Jones, Anita Dunn, Bertha Lewis ... the list goes on. Maybe there's a limit to the heat the president's willing to take on his outrageous ties to ideological extremists and Palestinian lobbyists.

Fresh Conservative takes a look at this angle, "Gate Crashers or Genial Guests?":

Over the years, Barack Obama has distanced himself from the circle of extremist associates like Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko and Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Yet, while the White House denies it was the notorious Ayers on the White House visitor’s list, the cofounder of Weather Underground’s name has mysteriously disappeared from the roster.

New questions arise: could Khalidi, supporter of Palestinian terror and former Palestine Liberation Organization worker, have an ideological association to zany power couple Tareq and Michaele Salahi, crashers of the State Dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh?

Coincidentally, it appears that one half of the reality TV Washington, DC couple that allegedly busted through the security detail at the White House is Tareq Salahi of the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) Board of Directors. The American Task Force on Palestine is an inadvertent successor group of the American Committee on Jerusalem (1995-2003), to which Khalidi once served as President.

Tareq Salahi’s picture, which was still posted a week ago on the American Task Force on Palestine website, is currently deleted from the Board of Directors gallery. Yet, as cited by TPM Document Collectors, the audacious party boy remains on the Board of the American Task Force on Palestine’s website.

At the State Dinner, the Salahi’s were officially announced and took cozy photographs with the Vice President, Chief of Staff and Katie Couric. And if that weren’t stunning enough, it now appears, “President Obama met the couple…as they went through the receiving line.” The Secret Service is downplaying security threats posed by the couple, and the Salahi’s attorney Paul Gardner claims his, “clients were cleared, by the White House to be there.” If it is found out that Salahi was a valid guest, the question that deserves an answer is who granted the Khalidi-styled Director entry to the function? Specifically, because the Obama administration, on perpetual surveillance for threats posed from right-wing extremists, pro-life advocates, ex-military, and born again Christians are, together with the Secret Service, bizarrely downplaying security threats posed by the Salahi’s.

Supping around the First State Dinner table with cronies like Michaele and Tareq wouldn’t be a first for Obama, who admittedly dined on more than one occasion with the likes of Mona and Rashid Khalidi. Based on President Obama’s comfort level dining with PLO activists, its feasible that either he, or a close associate, extended the invitation to kindred Palestinian sympathizer Tareq Salahi and his wife.

Let’s review: Salahi is on the Board of Directors of the Palestinian Task Force, which has connections to the former American Committee on Jerusalem, who’s president was Rashid Khalidi. Obama is a friend and supporter of Khalidi. Then, out of nowhere the Salahi’s show up at the first White House State Dinner, and make it past high security barriers to the reception line, successfully gaining direct access to the President of the United States.

Could this be one big serendipitous twist of fate? Perhaps, but if Michaele and Tareq were indeed legitimate White House guests, such a revelation would be indicative of anti-Israeli sentiment deep within the recesses of the Obama administration, and would be more unsettling than two reality TV wannabes successfully crashing a White House party. If proven that the Salahi's are old friends of Obama, such startling news could be all that is needed to catapult the president into his own starring role in a reality show entitled, How to Dupe a Nation. The series could be a primetime special where a left wing, liberal, anti-America, Israel hating, radical socialist, swindles America into electing a barefaced impostor to the undeserved position of leader of the free world.

Leftists Reduced to Childish Whining Amid Obama-Democratic Epic Failures

James B. Webb's incessant and whiney trolling got me to thinking about how, nearly a year into the Obama administration, the radical left is still obssessed with the Bush administration, and the GOP remains the constant scapegoat for whatever happens to be the Democratic epic fail of the day.

At one of my White House gatecrasher posts yesterday, crazed JBW left a comment so totally off topic to be mind boggling:

With respect, a Republican administration is responsible for the current recession, our two open-ended and unfunded overseas wars and adding trillions to the federal deficit. The current level of outrage on the right over government spending was virtually nonexistent for eight full years before Obama took office and I find it to be the height of partisan hypocrisy.

That just creates one of those, yawn, "yeah right" moments -- especially given the existence of charts like these:

And back in May, Brian Riedl wrote that:

President Obama continues to distance himself from this "inherited" budget deficit. But the day he was inaugurated, the 2009 deficit was forecast at $1.2 trillion — meaning $600 billion has already been added during his four-month presidency (an amount that, by itself, would exceed all 2001-07 annual budget deficits). And should the president really be allowed to distance himself from the $1.2 trillion "inherited" portion of the deficit, given that as a senator he supported nearly all policies and bailouts that created it?

The president also talks of cutting the deficit in half from this bloated level. But even after the recession ends and the troops return home, he'd still run $1 trillion deficits — compared to President Bush's $162 billion pre-recession deficit. In other words, the structural budget deficit (which excludes the impacts of booms/recessions) would more than quintuple.

And even Obama's not unaware of his engorgement on the budget pie. See this morning's New York Times, "Debate on Creating Jobs, Without Raising Deficit":

While stimulus measures usually are not “paid for” by spending cuts or tax increases since that would defeat the purpose of pumping money into the economy, the fact that even liberal groups now are suggesting ways to avoid adding to the deficit shows widespread acceptance of the political if not economic danger of adding to the ever-growing national debt.

Of course, no one wants to increase the size of the deficit, and no one's as good at doing so than the Obama administration and the current Democratic Congress. (See also, the Washington Post, "In Health-Care reform, No Deficit Cure," via Memeorandum.)

In any case, the other example of GOP scapegoating is the freaking unreal post yesterday on the Salahi dinner-crashers, "Before Obama Met Salahi, George Met Jack." Shorter Crooks and Liars: The virtually catastrophic state dinner gate-crashing crisis is nothing compared to George Bush's long-forgotten relationship to the convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff now doing time in a federal correctional facility in Maryland, or something ...

Dumb Democrats, JBW too.

Mike Huckabee Statement on Maurice Clemmons: Suspect Wanted in Washington State Police Killings

Robert Stacy McCain's on the news big time, "UPDATE: 4 Police Officers Ambushed, LATEST: Ark. Man Sought for Questioning."

But the story's taking a deeply significant political angle. See Michelle Malkin, "Violent Felon Granted Clemency by Huckabee Now Sought in Lakewood, WA Police Ambush." Also, at Confederate Yankee, "Huckabee Paroled Cop Killer."

And Mike Huckabee's statement is here, at NWCN Washington News, "Person of Interest Identified in Deaths of Officers":

"The senseless and savage execution of police officers in Washington State has saddened the nation, and early reports indicate that a person of interest is a repeat offender who once lived in Arkansas and was wanted on outstanding warrants here and Washington State. The murder of any individual is a profound tragedy, but the murder of a police officer is the worst of all murders in that it is an assault on every citizen and the laws we live within.

Should he be found to be responsible for this horrible tragedy, it will be the result of a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington State. He was recommended for and received a commutation of his original sentence from 1990. This commutation making him parole eligible and was paroled by the parole board once they determined he met the conditions at that time. He was arrested later for parole violation and taken back to prison to serve his full term, but prosecutors dropped the charges that would have held him. It appears that he has continued to have a string of criminal and psychotic behavior but was not kept incarcerated by either state. This is a horrible and tragic event and if found and convicted the offender should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Our thoughts and prayers are and should be with the families of those honorable, brave, and heroic police officers."

Also at Huck Pac, "Statement Regarding Washington State Slayings."

Hat Tip: Memeorandum. See also, Legal Insurrection, "Willie Horton-ish."

Please join me in sending out a prayer to the loved ones of the officers. The Los Angeles Times has their names and pictures, "from left: Greg Richards, Tina Griswold, Ronald Owens and Mark Renninger."

Secret Service Interviews Tareq and Michaele Salahi: Comprehensive White House Security Review Expected Soon

There are two MSM reports out tonight, and out in print newspapers in the morning. From the New York Times, "Secret Service Interviews Gate-Crashers":

As part of a broadening inquiry into presidential security, Secret Service agents have interviewed the Virginia couple who sneaked into a White House state dinner last week, a senior federal official involved in the investigation said Sunday.

The interviews, which took place Friday and Saturday, were conducted in a neutral location, neither the home of the couple, Michaele and Tareq Salahi, nor the Secret Service’s downtown offices, the official said. He would not comment on the content of the interviews or their length.

A statement on the initial Salahi investigation is due Wednesday, although the final report on the interviews is not likely to be published.

The Washington Post has a second piece on the larger Secret Service review, begun shortly after the inauguration, and due shortly for completion, "White House Security Already Under Review: NEW SCRUTINY AFTER BREACH: Inauguration Had Prompted Concerns":

The bizarre breach at the White House state dinner last week lends new urgency to a review of Secret Service procedures that was begun after President Obama's inauguration, and threatens to revive questions about how much security is enough for the country's elected leader.

A senior Secret Service official said a "top-to-bottom" review of the agency's protective department was ordered shortly after Obama began his term amid the highest threat level for any recent president. The results are due soon, said spokesman James Mackin.

But Tareq and Michaele Salahi, the Virginia couple who waltzed, uninvited, into the White House and shook hands with Obama on Tuesday night provided new evidence that in a democracy, it is far from impossible to breach the bubble of security around the chief executive.

The breakdown stunned the top aides to the first African American president and forced a rare apology from the director of the Secret Service. And it led to predictions that security around the first family will rapidly become more intense.

"A tight system will be tightened even more," said William H. Pickle Jr., a former Secret Service agent who led Al Gore's vice-presidential detail and headed Senate security from 2003 to 2007. "I would encourage the White House social office to buy umbrellas before the next event, because you can be sure the Secret Service will be doing their job, and it may be that visitors will be out there for a very long time."

Security experts called the breach an indefensible breakdown that will almost certainly lead to changes within the Secret Service, which regularly reviews procedures after incidents such as a September 1994 crash of a stolen plane on the White House grounds. At the same time, they cautioned against exaggerating any actual threat posed to Obama.

More at the link.

But see also, the Washington Times, "Senators Want Party Crashers Punished: Kyl Says Example Should Be Made of Salahi Couple."

NY Daily News Bungles Obama-Salahi Contact Timeline: Bloggers Scoop Big Media on Gatecrasher Scandal; Press AWOL on Tareq's Dubai Diplomacy!

We've all done it, jumped on a story without all the facts.

But this screw up at the New York Daily News is major, since the timeline of President Obama's meet up with the Salahi gatecrashers is crucial to the further discovery of administration deception, to Obama's possible knowledge of Tareq Salahi's Middle East ties, and to the ongoing investigation of the failed Secret Service security procedures. Publishing the photo of then-Senator Barack Obama at the 2005 Rock the Vote Awards, here's the New York Daily News' report, "Wanna-Be TV Duo Tareq and Michaele Salahi Hunting for Payday for Party Crashing Story." And check the introduction there:

The brazen White House party crashers met the President months before they waltzed into the A-list state dinner and now they're seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars for their story.

A photograph from an America's Polo Cup party in May shows Tareq and Michaele Salahi hobnobbing with President Obama, Randy Jackson and the Black Eyed Peas.

The photo was taken during Tareq Salahi's America's Polo Cup fashion show - known as Rockin' the Runway, the Huffington Post reported.

But as I reported yesterday here, I picked up the Polo Contacts entry at Atlas Shrugs, and the Canada Free Press nailed the timeline of Obama's meetup with the Salahis, "'Party Crashers' Had Five-Year Relationship With Obama Before State Dinner." Regarding the Obama-Salahi photo-op with Black-Eyed Peas, the report indicates that the picture "was published in June 2005, Barack Obama was still Senator Obama and not the President Elect."

Plus, by checking the page for Polo Contacts Worldwide, "Americas Polo Cup Pre-Event - Invite Only - with President Elect Obama and Black Eyed Peas, " we find that the entry is dated "November 26, 2008 at 2:15pm." (Added: The date stamp at America Polo Cup's photo jpg is marked "June 8, 2005.)

Now, notice that this is a "pre-event" invitation, so the timing's not right. And here's another 2008 announcement from Polo Contacts Worldwide, seeking polo players for the event, scheduled for the following May, "Call for Polo Players for Televised Polo Fashion Show May 8 - 2009."

May 8, 2009 - The Americas Cup hosts the Worlds premier Televised POLO Fashion Show - featuring the best of the United States & Australia.

The America's Polo Cup host thus annual Rockin the Runway Polo Fashion Show on the second Saturday in May, in the Washington DC region. In 2009, the Rockin the RunWay Fashion Show will feature a evening not to be missed.

Looking around online and we don't see anything on Barack Obama's appearance at the fashion show. We do find this society page entry, however, "America’s Cup of Polo (May 10th, 2009)," with this picture of the Salahis:

A YouTube of the event is here. But no mention either of President Obama at Washington Life Magazine "America’s Polo Cup."

The New York Daily News piece is sourced to Lisa Derrick at Huffington Post, "Party Crashing Salahis Met Obama in May 2009":

A photo from May's Rockin' the Runway™ televised fashion event shows party crashers Tareq and Michaele Salahi posing with the Black Eyed Peas, Randy Jackson, and PRESIDENT OBAMA.

Derrick, a Firedoglake blogger, first posted the entry at "Hammering" Jane Hamsher's hate dump, "Guess Who Came to Dinner? Crashers Met Obama Earlier This Year."

But folks should check the Washington Post's May 2005 piece, "At Rock the Vote Awards, 15 Bipartisan Candles." Then-Senator Barack Obama joined Arizona Senator John McCain for some "hard-core partying ($25 a ticket) at Dream nightclub, hosted by the Black Eyed Peas with a performance by pop star Nikka Costa."

So, basically, with the major media outlets flailing over each other to pump up the celebrity angle, Tareq Salahi's shadowy background's getting little play in the press. The sleeze-blog Gawker even cheerleads the security breach as some kind of triumph of the common man, "Seven Reasons Why White House Party Crashers are Awesome for America." Plus, The Moderate Voice does a little updated roundup, but misses the damaging issue of Salahi's Palestinian-Islamist ties.

So, we have to go back over to Canada Free Press, with its report yesteday, "Pro-Palestine Party Crashers." At the entry we find Tareq Salahi's bio-blurb page at the Polo website site, which indicates that our White House intruder made excursions to the Middle East, including Dubai -- which is significant, as the news this week reveals not just the Debai World debt default, but also the country's maze of deep-seated ties to sharia finance networks, where "Islamists were working behind the scenes," not to mention the fact that some of the Dubai-UAE royals have links to Osama Bin Laden.

Here's Salahi's biography at America's Polo Cup, with a screencap just in case the celebrity wannebe decides to take it down:

*****

And note how in the second screencap Salahi's travels are described as "diplomatic visits" rather than commercial tours or polo industry junkets (larger image here)..

Does Tareq Salahi identify as an ambassador to the Middle East's terror-financing networks?

The mainstream press ain't asking.

CNN's Ed Rollins is calling for Salahi prosecutions, however, "Prosecute the White House Gate-Crashers." Might be a good idea, not just to guarantee the integrity of the justice system and to restore the status of the Secret Service; we might also get some new information on President Obama's ties to radical Palestinian activist networkds and the Persian Gulf's "Golden Chain" financers of jihad.

See also my previous reports, "Obama Met Gatecrashers in 2005: Salahi's ATFP Tied to Academic Radical Rashid Khalidi; Security Breach Rekindles Issue of President's Islamist Ties!," and "Tareq Salahi, Gate-Crasher at White House State Dinner, Tied to ATFP, America-Bashing Palestinian Group Calling for Power-Sharing With Hamas!"

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UPDATE: World Net Daily has picked up some of my earlier reporting on this story. See, "White House 'Gatecrashers' Tied to Terror Sympathizer: Salahi Served in Same Anti-Israel Group as Obama's Palestinian Professor Pal."

Plus, Blazing Cat Fur links to this post, here. Also, The Rhetorican links as well, here.

More: Dan Collins links, "The Unintended Consequences of Party Crashing." And Theo Spark, "News."

Obama's Gay Nightmare: Still Waiting for Barry's Backside Boogie Pics!

I saw the Globe's scandalous cover story the other day at the checkout line. I forgot to look it up after I got home, so thanks to Barbara Espinosa for the reminder: "Obama Gay Nightmare" (See the article screencap here, "Obama's 'Gay Lover' Gets Revenge"):

I've never really cared that much about the Obama birth certificate scandal (Obama's not completely forthcoming, but that's just typical for this lying sack of a president). Plus, the fact that Obama's never fully renounced his Muslim upbringing is starting become more clear as his apologetic administration matures.

But the one thing that everyone's waiting to see, now covered up somewhere out there in the seedy underworld of Chicago kickback bosses and drug kingpins, are the pictures of Barry getting bonked from the backside by some big black brother from the 'hood.

If that doesn't sink this administation, nothing will.

P.S. Thanks to my friend Jan at Vinegar and Honey for the inspiration.

ADDED: Make sure you read the article, especially this on Michelle Obama's jihad against Larry Sinclair:

"Insiders say Michelle Obama, 45, spearheaded the drive to neutralized Sinclair, using her clout to lean on publishers to reject his scandalous book, Barack Obama & Larry Sinclair: Coke, Sex, Lies & Murder ..."

Al Gore's Inconvenient Lie

I found the graphic over at Canada Free Press, "The Climategate Affair":

But check out Hall of Record, "An Inconvenient Lie":

Too many politicians have staked a large part of their reputation on "saving" us from the imminent danger of climate disaster with non-scientific understanding of the role of CO2 in the climate... simplistic thinking. Walking away from their position means they are subject to the criticism of being "dupes." That is a career-ender for a politician. It is far easier for politicians to ignore facts and press ahead with positions. Look for President Obama to do just that in Copenhagen.

Ah, Copenhagen.

Al Gore was interviewed by Der Spiegel early this month. He's "optimistic," although this was before Climaquiddick broke wide open:

SPIEGEL: German Chancellor Angela Merkel was less optimistic after the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh. She did not believe there would be a majority for a US climate change law in Congress before the world climate summit in Copenhagen in December.

Gore: I am more optimistic. I do not think that we will have the final enactment of the Conference Committee Report in Congress before Copenhagen. But if President Obama is able to go to Copenhagen having passed legislation in the House and having passed it in the Senate, it will be inevitable that the legislation comes out even if the Conference Committee is still pending.

SPIEGEL: What are your expectations for Copenhagen ?

Gore: I think it is realistic to expect a treaty. It will not be as strong as I would like it to be. But it will put a price on carbon and change the forward planning of businesses and cities and states, provinces and nations. In 1986, when the first crisis of the global atmosphere emerged with the discovery of the ozone hole above Antarctica, one year later the nations of the world passed the Montreal Protocol. It was bitterly criticized by environmentalists as being too weak and insufficient. But then it was toughened and toughened, and it is working quite well, and we are on our way to solving that crisis. I am expecting a similar process for Copenhagen. We will produce a treaty that launches the beginning of a huge transformation process.

But what of the prospects now, amid the Climaquiddick imbroglio?

Well, Al Gore's mum about that. It's understandable, too. Anti-global warming protesters literally forced Gore to abandon a book signing in Chicago earlier this week, and the only thing we heard from him is a statement on President Obama's announcement that he'll attend the summit.

Perhaps to no avail (one can only hope, for an Obama fail). See, "As Copenhagen Summit Nears, 'Climategate' Dogs Global Warming Debate":

Climate experts insist leaked e-mails don’t undercut the science showing a warming planet. But public concern about global climate change is waning as delegates prepare to craft an international agreement at Copenhagen.

The lastest news of the East Anglia document dump certainly throws more cold water on the festivities. See, "Climate Change Data Dumped" (via Memeorandum):

SCIENTISTS at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global warming are based.

It means that other academics are not able to check basic calculations said to show a long-term rise in temperature over the past 150 years.

And Tiger Hawk emphasizes the news:

... the hope that independent scientists could assess the "adjustments" made to the raw data is now dashed, for the raw data no longer exists. This fact has actually been known for months, but the mainstream media ignored it -- no doubt intentionally -- until the email scandal broke last week.

With luck, Copenhagen will be total bust, with the added bonus of making folks like Al Gore and the AGW scientist looking like idiots. There might even be a special place reserved in ... well, let's just hold off on that for now, being above my pay grade and all ...

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UPDATE: Pirate's Cove links, "ClimateGate: CRU Agrees To Publish All The Data. That They Haven’t Thrown Away." Plus, linked at RealClearPolitics, "Best of the Blogs."

St. Louis Tea Party Rocks!

From Gateway Pundit, "4,000 Patriots Rally With James O’Keefe at St. Louis Tea Party Protest":

More pics at A Traditional Live Lived, "4,000 at St. Louis Tea Party-Let Off Some Steam! HUGE SUCCESS!!!" And Bob McCarty Writes, "TEA PARTY: 2,500 Patriots Rally in St. Louis."

We've had some great tea parties in Southern California, but nobody does it as large as consistently as the St. Louis crew!

Hat Tip: Instapundit and Nice Deb. Also, Memeorandum.

Obama Met Gatecrashers in 2005: Salahi's ATFP Tied to Academic Radical Rashid Khalidi; Security Breach Rekindles Issue of President's Islamist Ties!

Atlas Shrugs has the scoop, from Polo Contacts Worldwide, "Americas Polo Cup Pre-Event - Invite Only - with President Elect Obama and Black Eyed Peas":

But see also, Canada Free Press, "'Party Crashers' Had Five-Year Relationship With Obama Before State Dinner":

While the big gun media and American Secret Service are out there investigating “party crashers” Tareq and Michaele Salahi, no one’s telling the truth: Obama knew the Salahis when he was still an Illinois senator.

Polo Contacts Worldwide could make it easy for the investigating Secret Service by brown-enveloping them this picture ....

Interesting little detail for White House gumshoes: As the above photo was published in June 2005, Barack Obama was still Senator Obama and not the President Elect.

And with Michaele Salahi yesterday having been caught out—Facebook pompoms notwithstanding—as a bogus cheerleader for the Washington Red Skins and not a model for Victoria’s Secret as claimed, Canada Free Press (CFP) leaves it to FoxNews.com to find out if she ever was a “former Miss USA”.

We do know for a fact that among the slew of memberships on charitable boards, Tareq Salahi is a former member of The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP). The only way to know for a fact is because even though ATFP scrubbed all references to Salahi as a board member, he can still be found on Google cache. (Canada Free Press)

Sad that White House Secret Service are looking like Keystone Kops in the aftermath of Obama’s very first state house dinner in the tent.

While the media is fixated on the hitch in Michaele Salahi’s git-along, there can be no doubt that these recently minted “party crashers” really get around.

Here's the Washington Post piece on the Rock the Vote event in 2005, "At Rock the Vote Awards, 15 Bipartisan Candles":

Tom Nelson, chief operating officer of AARP, summed up the night for everyone from Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama to "American Idol" judge Randy Jackson and R&B singer Mya gathered in the National Building Museum's Great Hall:

"You were probably wondering, as you sat down at your table, 'What the heck is the AARP doing in a Rock the Vote event?' "

And while we're wondering about things: Why was Rock the Vote -- last year's ubiquitous celeb-magnet, get-out-the-youth-vote group -- throwing a barbecue dinner ($5,000 or $10,000 or $15,000 a table) three years early?

Because Rock the Vote, a teenager itself, is celebrating its 15th year. For the first time, it held its awards dinner and after-party in Washington (usually it's the night before the Grammys, in New York or Los Angeles), bringing in $680,000.

First there were burgers, beans and potato salad at the Building Museum, with erstwhile Republican vice presidential nominee Jack Kemp and former Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe hosting. Then it was hard-core partying ($25 a ticket) at Dream nightclub, hosted by the Black Eyed Peas with a performance by pop star Nikka Costa. Fergie, the lead singer of the Peas, might have violated the height restriction in Washington by vamping on five-inch heels, but they sure went well with her too-short shorts and tight spaghetti-strap pink and beige top.

Readers will recall the Tareq Salahi is a former member of the board at the American Task Force on Palestian, the "moderate" rights groups pushing a thinly-veiled program of Palestinian nationalism and the "right of return" (the backdoor destruction of Israel). See, "Tareq Salahi, Gate-Crasher at White House State Dinner, Tied to ATFP, America-Bashing Palestinian Group Calling for Power-Sharing With Hamas!"

And via American Pundit, here's the cache of Salahi's bio-page at ATFP:

According to Discover the Networks, ATFP's former vice president is Rashid Khalidi, the Columbia University Middle East Studies professor and militant Palestinian rights activist. Khalidi cites the late Edward Said as his major influence, and according to the entry cited, "As with Said before him, Khalidi's involvement with the Palestinian cause goes beyond mere support." And, "Khalidi so strongly identified with the aims of the PLO, which was designated as a terrorist group by the State Department during Khalidi's affiliation with it in the 1980s, that he repeatedly referred to himself as 'we' when expounding on the PLO's agenda." Also, according to Campus Watch, ATFP remains in full support of Kha lidi, for example, during charges of academic misconduct in 2005, at the time of Senator Barack Obama's meeting with Tareq Salahi. See, "ATFP EXPRESSES FULL SUPPORT FOR COLUMBIA PROFESSOR RASHID KHALIDI."

Note too that Obama's ties to the Palestinian community became something of an issue during the 2008 campaign. See, the Los Angeles Times, "Allies of Palestinians See a Friend in Obama." Plus, from Andrew C. McCarthy and Claudia Rosett, "In Obama’s Hyde Park, It's All in the Family: Passing Anti-American Radicalism From Generation to Generation":

In Hyde Park during the 1980s, Rashid [Khalidi] made the easy transition from Arafat apologist to American academic. So, ultimately, did his wife Mona. In Chicago, Mona, a former top PLO translator, joined with her husband to found the Arab American Action Network, an activist anti-Israel/pro-illegal-immigration organization that was generously funded by Obama and Ayers at the Woods Fund. Later, after Rashid made the move from the University of Chicago to the Edward Said professorship at Columbia, Mona became an assistant dean of student affairs and assistant director of graduate programs at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.

So, while earlier speculation at this blog suggested that the state-dinner security breach posed a terrorist danger to the president, the First Family, and guests (a conclusion later bolstered by expert commentary on the gatecrashers), it's becoming increasingly clear as well that the Salahi affair is resurrecting long-buried questions of Barack Obama's ties to hardline anti-American and anti-Israel organizations, some with real ties to violent extremists in the Middle East.

With all of this, combined with my earlier reporting on the total reversal of priorities in the Obama White House, it's looking that the Salahi security breach is much more than an "embarassment" for the Secret Service. This event is a devastating indictment not only of the Obama regime's administrative competence, but of its stewardship of American national interests as well.

See also, "Pumping Celebrity, White House Publishes Dinner-Crasher Pics on Flickr: Yet, Tareq and Michaele Security Breach a Major Blow to Obama Administration."

For additional commentary, see Jules Crittenden, "No Dithering Around ."

Added: Snooper's Report, "That Settles It...Obama is in Fact a Jihadist." Plus, Gateway Pundit, "White House Party Crashers Linked to Obama’s Radical Pal Rashid Khalidi."

More at Astute Bloggers, "BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA AND TAREQ SALAHI GO WAY BACK."

Pumping Celebrity, White House Publishes Dinner-Crasher Pics on Flickr: Yet, Tareq and Michaele Security Breach a Major Blow to Obama Administration

The mainstream press is right to note the major implications of Tuesday night's security breach at the White House state dinner. For example, today's Los Angeles Times reports, "State Dinner Crashers Met President Obama":

The Secret Service says it's 'deeply concerned and embarrassed.' The agency is looking into how such a security breach happened at the White House and whether Michaele and Tareq Salahi broke any laws.

And Ronald Kessler, who wrote a recent book on the Secret Service, reports, "Success of White House party crashers Tareq and Michaele Salahi is disgrace for Secret Service":

The fact that Michaele and Tareq Salahi were allowed into the White House in this dangerous age is a disgrace and symptomatic of lax standards at the Secret Service ever since it was absorbed by the Homeland Security Department in 2003.

Because of a lack of adequate funding, a management culture that considers itself invincible, as well as spinelessness when it comes to standing up to demands by those under protection - including the White House - the Secret Service takes chances that would have been unthinkable years ago.

That includes not putting people through magnetometers at all or shutting them down early when an event is about to start, and staffs apply pressure because attendees are waiting outside.

Last April, despite the fact that Vice President Biden's presence was announced beforehand, the Secret Service did no magnetometer screening whatsoever when Biden threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Orioles game in Baltimore.

When Mary Cheney, Dick Cheney's daughter, insisted that the Secret Service take her friends to restaurants and the detail refused, the Secret Service acceded to her request to have her detail leader removed.

My assumption is that the same kind of spinelessness motivated the Secret Service Uniformed Division officer at the White House to allow the couple through so as not to inconvenience them by requiring that they wait for the results of a background check before gaining admittance.

To its credit, the Secret Service made it clear that the agency simply ignored the fact that the couple were not on the guest list. Thus, the White House's social secretary's office did not vouch for the couple. Even if it had, they should have gone through a background check before being admitted.

The corner-cutting goes on despite the fact that threats against President Obama have been up 400% at times compared with when George W. Bush was in office.

While Secret Service agents are brave and dedicated, and will take a bullet for the President, Secret Service management has betrayed its trust to a shocking degree. Assassinations occur because of the kind of lapses we saw at the White House on Wednesday evening.

The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee has pledged to investigate the breach.

But Doug Ross and Pamela Geller are looking at the sheer incompetence in the Oval Office itself.

See, Doug Ross @ Journal, "Brilliant: White House Posts Party Crasher Photos to its Flickr Feed," and Atlas Shrugs, "Amateur Hour at Oblunder's House."

Plus, more commentary and related reactions:

* Astute Bloggers, "LATEST OBAMA GAFFE - PHOTO EDITION."

* Big Government, "Saturday Open Thread: Party Crashers Edition."

* Blue Crab Boulevard, "The Reality Show Based Community."

* Booker Rising, "The Secret Service Is Slippin' Big Time ..."

* Gateway Pundit, "White House Party Crashers Met With Obama Too."

* Grandpa John's, "Has Burt Prelutsky Gone Over the Edge?"

* Hot Air, "Video: Party crashers’ entrance announced at WH state dinner; Update: Took photo with Obama."

* JammieWearingFool, "Unprecedented Stupidity: WH Posts Party Crashers on Flickr Page."

* Jules Crittenden, "No Dithering Around."

* Legal Insurrection, "The Greatest Celebrity's Reality Show."

* Pace Enterprises, "Cracks in the Road to Serfdom."

* Pat in Shreveport, "Make of This What You Will... (Obama's New Low in Public Opinion)."

* Pundit and Pundette, "Crashers get up close and personal with Obama and Biden."

* Reaganite Republican, "Watching Obamamania Go >Pooof<."

* Smart Girl Politics, "Party Crashers Met Briefly With Obama...I think there is a lot more going on here."

* Stop the ACLU, "Socialites Crash a White House State Dinner."

* TrogloPundit, "Could it be that the Obamas just didn’t want to let “those people” into their house?"

* Weasel Zippers, "The Terribly Worded Title: 'Couple penetrates White House security to get into state dinner' (MSNBC)...Couple Sneaks Into State Dinner And Poses For Pictures With Biden, Rahm, Katie Couric UPDATE: Poses With POTUS."

* WyBlog, "Obama returns to his bedouin roots, will hold first State Dinner in a tent."

*****

ADDED BONUS! Cassandra's "unpopular post of the day" ... "Classy": "I love, love, love the way Michelle Obama looks in this photo ..." (Check the link to see it!)

Plus, add your link in the comments if you'd like to be added to the roundup, or drop me an e-mail!

Toyota's Runaway-Car Recall

The Los Angeles Times has been following the story for a while now. Here's this from Thursday's paper, "Toyota to Fix 'Very Dangerous' Gas Pedal Defects," and "Recall Another Blow to Toyota's Reputation."

But here's this from October, "Toyota's Runaway-Car Worries May Not Stop at Floor Mats":

The 2009 Lexus ES 350 shot through suburban San Diego like a runaway missile, weaving at 120 miles an hour through rush hour freeway traffic as flames flashed from under the car.

At the wheel, veteran California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Saylor desperately tried to control the 272-horsepower engine that was roaring at full throttle as his wife, teenage daughter and brother-in-law were gripped by fear."We’re in trouble .... There’s no brakes," Saylor's brother-in-law Chris Lastrella told a police dispatcher over a cellphone. Moments later, frantic shrieks filled the car as it slammed into another vehicle and then careened into a dirt embankment, killing all four aboard.

The tragedy Aug. 28 was at least the fifth fatal crash in the U.S. over the last two years involving runaway Toyota and Lexus vehicles made by Toyota Motor Corp. It is also among hundreds of incidents of sudden acceleration involving the company's vehicles that have been reported to Toyota or the federal government, according to an examination of public records by The Times.

Toyota has blamed the incidents -- apart from those caused by driver error -- on its floor mats, asserting that if they are improperly installed they can jam open the accelerator pedal. A month after the Saylor crash, Toyota issued its biggest recall in company history, affecting 3.8 million vehicles in model years as far back as 2004. But auto safety experts believe there may be a bigger problem with Toyota vehicles than simply the floor mats.

The full story at the link. A dramatic YouTube audio of the Saylor's 911 call is here.

Tiger Woods Having an Affair?

Dan Riehl had up-to-the-minute posting on Tiger Woods' car crash yesterday. I was too busy with the Salahi story and CRU to look into it. But sheesh, this is pretty big. Woods was hospitalized for facial lacerations, but it's being reported that Elin Nordegren, Woods' wife, inflicted the pain. TMZ has the story, "Tiger Woods: Injuries Caused by Wife, Not SUV." (Via Memeorandum.)

And Fox News has this, "Tiger Woods' Car Crash Came After Explosive Story Claiming Affair":

Tiger Woods' bizarre overnight car crash outside his Florida home came only two days after the National Enquirer published an article claiming the golf champ was having an affair.

Police said they had no knowledge of a fight between Woods, 33, and his wife, Elin, before Woods left their house at 2:25 a.m. Friday — backing out of his driveway and plowing into a fire hydrant and a neighbor's tree in a gated community near Orlando.

The Enquirer's explosive story hit the stands Wednesday contending that Woods has been seeing New York night club hostess Rachel Uchitel and that the pair recently were spotted in Melbourne while Woods was playing in the Australian Masters tournament.

And Elin beat Tiger with a golf club? Ooh, that's harsh! See, "Tiger Woods Wife Elin Nordegren Furious Over 'Affair' With Rachel Uchitel in Australia."

The golfing great's wife, Erin Nordegren, said she rescued her husband from the wreckage using a golf club to smash the car window, but other reports emerging out of the US claimed she had used the club on her husband during their late-night row.

The fight that apparently led to the crash was reportedly sparked by tabloid reports Woods cheated on his wife with a nightclub hostess in Melbourne during the recent Australian Masters.

The Fox report says that Uchitel denies a relationship, but TMZ puts it more crisply, "Tiger's Alleged Mistress: I Never Saw His Putter."

My sense is that, boy, the super-sports celebrity life must be rough!

Whew!

Man, did Old Tiger tire of his hot Swedish blonde model wife? Unbelievable! Elin was ranked the 3rd hottest sports wife in Coed Magazine's , "Top 20 Sexiest Athlete Wives of 2007" (pictured):

But compare to Doug Ross, "Rachel Uchitel Photos: The Woman Reported To Have Caused Tiger's Wife to Lay a Smackdown on Him."

So who knows?!!

More on Climaquiddick: Eric S. Raymond on CRU's Global Warming Fraud

I've been reading the Air Vent blog periodically; and it's just fascinating -- and supremely affirming -- to follow along on this with someone how knows exactly what they're talking about. So obviously I'm pleased to find Reboot Congress' links to Eric S. Raymond's blog on technology, politics, and what not, "Armed and Dangerous." The Reboot post provides some samples from Raymond's commentary, especially some of his remarks in the comments at his posts. For example:

On 11/21, esr, set the tenor for his upcoming posts in Hiding the Decline: Prologue:

For those of you who have been stigmatizing AGW skeptics as “deniers” and dismissing their charges that the whole enterprise is fraudulent? Hope you like the taste of crow, because I do believe there’s a buttload of it coming at you. Piping hot.

Comments on Hiding the Decline: Prologue:

Those who claim “scientific consensus” as a justification for any position are attempting to perpetrate a fraud, and have only themselves to blame when it blows back on them. The proper justification of any theory is not “consensus”, it is predictive power.

--

The most data could tell you is that average temperature is rising and CO2 is too. Well, except that average temperature isn’t rising – it was flat between 1998 and 2008, plunged sharply in 2008, and has not resumed the previous trendline. This is embarassing to AGW alarmists, since CO2 has kept rising and their theories require anthropogenic CO2 forcing to swamp anything that mere nature might be doing – and that’s manifestly not happening.

--

My point is that the data fails to meet the criteria the alarmists themselves have set. That is, they’ve been quite willing to interpret a short-period temperature rise between 1975 and 1998 as indication that we’re on a long-term trend with that slope, but when we get a decade of flatness after that they ignore it. It’s not responsive and not honest to point out that a decade is too short to mean anything unless you’re also willing to dismiss the previous 23 years.

Over longer timeframes, I don’t think there’s any statistically significant evidence that we’ve deviated off the very shallow warming trend following the last Ice Age. If you scrutinize the alleged data claiming otherwise, you keep finding noise and fraud.

There's more at the link, via Memeorandum.

This has been a great Thanksgiving for news! Gosh, and everyone says "slow news day." Both, don't the AGW totalitarians wish?!!

See also, "'Climaquiddick'."

Cartoon Credit: Michael Ramirez at Investor's Business Daily.

Jeffrey Jolson, Publisher and Editor-in-chief at Hollywood Today, Responds to Absence of Source Attributions at Tareq Salahi ATFB Story

I just received an e-mail, titled "Libel," from Jeffrey Jolson, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, at Hollywood Today. He responds to my post, "Did Hollywood Today Plagiarize American Power on Tareq Salahi's Palestinian Ties?" Mr. Jolson writes (available publically in the comments here) that he'd never heard of American Power before, not until I posted my "libelous blog link" on his page. He also suggests that at the time of writing, there were 525 online stories of Salahi's ties to ATFP, although the screencap of Tareq Salahi at the ATFP website "may have orginated" at KABOBfest, which Mr. Jolson claims was widely availble by the time he was working on his report at 3:00 in the morning.

Mr. Jolson is actually quite amicable in the remainder of the e-mail, although he condescends without any clear journalistic (or hierarchical) justification for doing so. But to be clear:

* I did not link my post at Hollywood Today. Readers can check the comment I left at the comment form signed as "Americaneocon," my online handle. It's a typical blog comment form, asking for the author's information, etc., and I wrote:

If I’m not mistaken, this essay cites my post, published yesterday, without proper attribution. Please update with an acknowledgement and link to my blog post at American Power Blog. At the least, please e-mail with an explanation of your sources.

* I make no firm allegations as to plagiarism. I only infer and pose questions, since I cannot know for sure, and libel requires malicious intent, of which I have none. I'm simply looking for recognition where recognition's due, if it is in fact due (and while I believe so, there's no independent confirmation -- so yeah, it's hard out there for a blogger). Thus, it's hardly accurate for Mr. Jolson to allege libel. That said, the prose styling and phrasing between my post and Mr. Jolson's are exceedingly close -- damned near identical, in fact -- so I ask Mr. Jolson to forward his specific references and links to ATFP's "America-bashing" and "power-sharing" with Hamas. When I wrote my piece last night on ATFP, I searched "ATFP Hamas" in Google, and checking the first dozen or so results turned up little specific commentary and analysis on the group's calls for power-sharing with Hamas; and besides, Mr. Jolson's essay does not cite the one piece, of the first dozen or so entries at the search, that really does, "Palestinian National Unity: The Question of Hamas (ATFP)."

* Mr. Jolson claims I erred at my entry, where he notes (also in the comments at my post):

I am writing a follow-up story on the Salahis tonight, and am happy to quote you in it (with full credit of course) -- maybe use that paragraph of yours that further outline Taraq Salahi's links to Palestinian causes. Is he really a Palestinian national? I did not know that. The Secret Service apparently did not vet him then, yes? That alone would have gotten him an armed escort at the State Dinner, even if we are promoting peace from all sides. And he would not have gotten to shake hands with President Obama. Sorry you were wrong about that too. He did get close to the President and the honorees. The White House has issued the photo to major media, HT included though we are small compared to the Times or Post.

That'd be nice to get a quote at the follow up piece, but again, to be clear: My post links to Discover the Network's entry on ATFP (here). It's there that the group is identified as "nationalist," as in the nationalist aspirations noted in the first paragraph:

Established in 2003, the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP), originally called the American Committee on Jerusalem, is a not-for-profit group whose goal is to persuade U.S. lawmakers to support the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel "in the territories occupied in 1967." ATFP favors "a two state solution, with a shared Jerusalem and a just solution for the refugee problem according to international law."

Further, I've never said a word about Mr. Salahi shaking hands with the president. My concern all along is that a Washington insider/operative with ties to a nationalist Palestinian group that has blamed U.S. foreign policy for 9/11, and that has sought to integrate Hamas into a power-sharing agreement at the PA, might not be the first person I'd trust to be whooshed into a black-tie affair of state at the White House. And, as I noted, my initial concerns were bolstered by the comments of security experts and those who've written on Secet Service protocol. I'm confident that my analysis is perfectly accurate so far.

In any case, Mr. Jolson has asked if I'd be interested in publishing an essay at Hollywood Today. That's very kind, although I'm not sure if I'll have time, considering my backlog of papers waiting to be graded, as well as my regular publishing load at this blog, as well at Pajamas Media, FrontPage Magazine, and Right Wing News. (And that's to say nothing of the holiday family time I'm also currently enjoying.)

In his reponse, Mr. Jolson pumps up his contacts with mainstream press outlets such as Associated Press and the New York Times. But given the very strained relationships those two organizations have with the top bloggers across the web, may I suggest -- with all due respect -- that Mr. Jolson become a bit more familiar with the norms and standards of attribution common to those regularly breaking stories across the blogosphere.