Democrats Declare Tax War on the Middle Class

The Democratic Party has declared a tax war on the American middle class. Whether Clinton or Obama become their nominee, if the Democrats win, the Middle Class loses. The reason is both candidates have promised to repeal the Bush tax cuts. In the Democratic twisted view of reality, all tax cuts are evil because they only benefit the wealthy, the so-called "fat cats" or "filthy rich."

So, who are these "fat cats" or "filthy rich" who have benefitted from President George W. Bush's tax cuts? Are they only the millionaires and billionaires? Far from it. Instead, they are the vast majority of middle class Americans. Here's the proof from the Tax Foundation.

Note: These figures do not take into account the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) that these taxpayers may have had to pay. They presume the taxpayers have no dependents and are taking the standard deduction.

Back in 1999, when Bill Clinton was still President, if you were single and making $30,000 per year, you paid $3,158 in federal taxes. Today, under President George W. Bush, you paid $2,756 or 13% less than under Clinton. If you were married and filing jointly with an income of $60,000 per year, under Clinton, you owed $6,585 in federal income taxes. In 2008, under Bush, you owed only $5,513 or 16% less.

If you are a little better off and make $50,000 as a single person, you paid $7,263 in federal income taxes under Clinton, but only $6,606 or 9% less under Bush. A married couple filing with a joint income of $75,000 paid $9,427 under Clinton, but only $7,763 or 18% less under Bush.

For the upper middle class, singles making $75,000 per year paid $14,263 in taxes under Clinton. Under Bush, they pay $12,856 or 10% less. For married couples with a joint income of $125,000, they paid $23,427 under Clinton and $19,463 or 17% less under Bush.

Another way to look at it is when Tax Freedom Day falls. Tax Freedom Day is the day when the average American taxpayer stops working just to pay taxes (local, state, and federal) and starts earning income for personal use. In 2000, Tax Freedom Day was May 3rd, the latest in history. In 2008, we celebrated Tax Freedom Day on April 23rd. Despite the Bush tax cuts, the average American worker pays more in taxes than on food, clothing, and housing combined.

The danger to all American taxpayers, if the Democrats win the White House or continue to control Congress, is the Bush tax cuts will not be made permanent. Many taxpayers do not realize that the Bush tax cuts are scheduled to "sunset" in 2011. According to the Tax Foundation's "The Effect of Temporary Tax Relief on a Typical American Family of Four" report,

"If Congress and the President do not act to make permanent the Bush tax cut, known formally as the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA), a family of four earning the median income can expect its federal income tax bill to increase by $2,681 between 2010 and 2011, a 48.8 percent increase. This will amount to 3.3 percent of the family’s adjusted gross income in that year and roughly equals what the average family of four spends on out-of-pocket health care costs each year."

What will happen if Bush's tax cuts are not made permanent, a move most Democrats oppose? The 10% tax bracket for the lowest income workers will increase to 15%. The child tax credit which will be $1,000 in 2010 will be reduced to $500. And, married couples will once again pay a marriage penalty. Because married couples pay the majority of all federal income taxes, they were the biggest beneficiaries of the Bush tax cuts and stand to loose the most if they are sunsetted (eliminated). These are only some of the painful results that are scheduled to occur on January 1, 2011.

The greatest irony is that if the Democrats get their way and do not make the Bush tax cuts permanent, then the top 20% earners will pay a smaller percentage of the total tax liability than they do now with the Bush tax cuts. In other words, the "fat cats" or "filthy rich" will pay 78.7% or 3% less of all federal income taxes under the Democrats' plan than the 81% they currently pay under the Bush plan. Is this why the wealthiest Americans contribute more to Democratic than Republican candidates?

Source: The Tax Foundation http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/22958.html

Other recommended Tax Foundation reports are:
U.S. Federal Individual Income Tax Rates History, 1913-2008 http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/151.html
The Effect of Temporary Tax Relief on a Typical American Family of Four http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/134.html
The Effect on a Typical Family of Four of Accelerating Scheduled Tax Cuts and Making Temporary Tax Relief Permanent http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/130.html
Impact of Bush Tax Cuts on AMT and Non-AMT Returns for 2007 Under Current Law http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/22424.html
Married Couples Pay Majority of Federal Income Taxes, Received Majority of Bush Tax Cuts http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/66.html
The Tax Code's Day of Reckoning: January 1, 2011 http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/1476.html
Comparing the Kennedy, Reagan and Bush Tax Cuts http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/323.html
Comparing Popular Tax Deductions to the Bush Tax Cuts http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/22447.html

Mad Cow Disease in Jacksonville – Part 2

Yesterday, I wrote about a case of Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (CJD) in Jacksonville, Fla. The initial report said the patient, a 23-year old woman, did not acquire it by eating tainted meat.

Today, I call that assertion into serious question. Intrigued that CJD could be caught in some other way than through eating meat from a cow with Mad Cow Disease, I did some online research.

It is true Mad Cow Disease is not the only way to get CJD. There are two different types of CJD. One is called “classic,” in which there is a spontaneous mutation of normal brain protein into an abnormal protein” that then “leads to the production of more abnormal protein.” The other form of CJD is called Variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease or “vCJD.” This comes from “ingesting meat infected with the prion that causes mad cow disease (BSE).” The meat has to be contaminated by nervous system tissue to cause vCJD.

Here’s the kicker. “Most of the cases of classic CJD have been diagnosed in people between the ages of 55 and 75” because it takes “between 10 to 40 years” to become symptomatic after the protein mutates. Again, “Classic CJD almost always occurs in people over 50 years old. Once someone gets classic CJD, they may live for 6 to 12 months.”

Variant CJD, on the other hand, is a disease of young people. The average age of onset is 29 years of age. The symptoms of vCJD are slightly different and patients live slightly longer than those with classic CJD. “There have been 153 cases of vCJD reported in the world since the first case was identified in 1995.” It took about ten years for the first cases of vCJD to be reported after Mad Cow Disease infected British cattle.

The Jacksonville patient is too young to have classic CJD if my sources are correct. If she has Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease, then it is the vCJD.

The question, then, becomes where or how did she eat meat tainted with Mad Cow Disease? Did she travel to Britain during the 1990s and eat British meat before Mad Cow Disease was under control there? Or, was she exposed to Canadian beef when Mad Cow Disease was discovered there? Or, did she eat beef in her school lunch program that came from downer cattle that had Mad Cow Disease? I simply do not know, but I call for thorough investigation.

Source: CDC Fact Sheets, State of Massachusetts Dept. of Public Health http://www.mass.gov/dph/cdc/factsheets/madcow.htm

Is Mad Cow Disease in Jacksonville?

According to a report aired by Channel 47 on Friday, April 18, 2008, a woman has been diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). She has been a patient at Shands Hospital Jacksonville, Fla. since December. Doctors here say they are 99.9% sure she has CJD. The report said she did not acquire it by eating tainted meat infected with Mad Cow Disease. This is such a sad story.

Channel 47 emphasized a family scrabble involved with the case. It was reminiscent of the Terry Schiavo case. Here, the patient’s parents are in opposition to the woman’s long-time boyfriend, who is her healthcare surrogate. The parents want to transfer her to a third hospital for another opinion. The boyfriend says Shands is the second hospital and second opinion. The woman was initially hospitalized at Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville. According to comments on Channel 47’s website (http://www.cbs47.com), both the woman, boyfriend, and his family are unhappy that the parents went to the media or that Channel 47 did the story.

However, Channel 47 was right to broadcast this story. Unfortunately, the TV station was more interested in the family conflict than the real meat, pardon the pun, of the story.

It is news if someone has Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in Jacksonville. What I found missing in the story was an elaboration on how she acquired CJD. It is news to me that one can get it other than by eating tainted meat. That may be true, but I did not know that. The story did not offer any evidence of that, either.

What I do know is that Mad Cow disease (which only cows or ruminants can have) has been found in the U.S., Canada, and Britain in recent years. In the past couple of months, there have been reports about downer cows being processed and their meat sent to market, especially to school cafeterias. It is my understanding that CJD has a long incubation period. I want more information on why doctors or the CDC think this patient did not acquire CJD from tainted meat. Or, is the CDC repressing news?

This is not the only recent case of CJD in the U.S. A Scott City, Kan. man, who worked for a meat packer 15-20 years ago, died of CJD, according to an article in The Wichita Eagle on March 28th. A Portsmouth, Va., woman is dying of it, as reported on WVEC-TV on April 7th.

The Kansas case is cause for concern. It could mean downer cows with Mad Cow disease entered the U.S. meat supply years ago. This is the aspect local and national news need to investigate further. I trust the doctors at Shands where I get most of my medical care, but I do not trust the CDC or the federal government to tell the truth.

The beef lobby is very powerful in Washington, D.C. The pressure to repress news about Mad Cow Disease is enormous. It would be devastating to the cattle industry, if Mad Cow tainted meat was sold in the United States. Nonetheless, we consumers have a right to know.

Sources:

CBS 47 Jacksonville http://www.cbs47.com/content/topstories/story.aspx?content_id=a37723ac-599c-4d3a-a810-d4c670df9a7b&rss=1

FOX News http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,342651,00.html

WVEC-TV, Portsmouth, VA http://www.wvec.com/news/topstories/stories/wvec_local_040708_mad_cow_disease.3fd7e5c7.html

Give a Man Enough Rope & He'll Hang Himself

It is not often that a politician produces his own noose to hang himself. Obama is the exception. The real Barack Hussein Obama is coming out slowly but surely.

It is no surprise to me to find out he is an arrogant liberal elitist. It is very much a surprise that a liberal elitist blog, The Huffington Post, is the one that outed him. They quoted him speaking about the economic malaise of the middle class,

"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Clearly, Obama is clueless about people like myself, a disabled American middle class worker. My values do not change with the times. I am a Life Member of the National Rifle Association (NRA). I am pro-gun rights in good times and bad. The Second Amendment makes gun ownership a fundamental right under the Constitution. Likewise, I cling to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ regardless of my economic circumstances. I have opposed open borders, illegal immigration, and free trade for years, during times of prosperity and times of recession. I believe in the sovereignty of the United States at all times. Our Founding Fathers understood that a strong country protected its borders and its manufacturing base. Thus, they wisely forbade the income tax, preferring to raise the Federal government's operating funds through tariffs and duties on imports.

Obama's campaign is trying to repair the damage caused by his remarks at the San Francisco campaign fundraiser for the wealthy. At a Pennsylvania rally, he tried to fix it by saying:

"Lately there has been a little typical sort of political flare up because I said something that everybody knows is true, which is that there are a whole bunch of folks in small towns in Pennsylvania, in towns right here in Indiana, in my hometown in Illinois who are bitter. They are angry. They feel like they have been left behind. They feel like nobody is paying attention to what they're going through.

"So I said, well you know, when you're bitter you turn to what you can count on. So people, they vote about guns, or they take comfort from their faith and their family and their community. And they get mad about illegal immigrants who are coming over to this country.

"The truth is that these traditions that are passed on from generation to generation, those are important. That's what sustains us. But what is absolutely true is that people don't feel like they are being listened to.

"And so they pray and they count on each other and they count on their families. You know this in your own lives, and what we need is a government that is actually paying attention. Government that is fighting for working people day in and day out making sure that we are trying to allow them to live out the American dream."

Hillary Rodham Clinton was correct to call his original remarks "demeaning." She said:

"I was raised with Midwestern values and an unshakable faith in America and its policies. Now, Americans who believe in the Second Amendment believe it's a matter of constitutional right. Americans who believe in God believe it's a matter of personal faith. I grew up in a church-going family, a family that believed in the importance of living out and expressing our faith. The people of faith I know don't 'cling' to religion because they're bitter. People embrace faith not because they are materially poor, but because they are spiritually rich. Our faith is the faith of our parents and our grandparents. It is a fundamental expression of who we are and what we believe. People don't need a president who looks down on them. They need a president who stands up for them."

Of course, Republicans cheered the gift of Obama's remarks. It is fantastic fodder for the Fall campaign ads if Obama is the Democratic nominee. John McCain wasted no time in exploiting Obama's self-imposed error. McCain adviser Steve Schmidt shot the first volley:

"It shows an elitism and condescension towards hardworking Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking. It is hard to imagine someone running for president who is more out of touch with average Americans."

If Only I Drank: Boycott Absolut Vodka

If I were an alcohol drinker, I could boycott Absolut Vodka and buy American-made SKYY Vodka. Alas, medications keep me from enjoying cocktails these days. However, I can urge anyone who does drink to reject Absolut and switch to SKYY Vodka.

Swedish-made Absolut ran ads in Mexico that showed maps of the United States in which Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and large parts of Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California were part of Mexico. Somehow the company must have imagined that U.S. customers would not hear about this affront to our sovereignty. They claimed it was only a joke and not meant to offend. Well, it did, especially in the Southwest where radical groups, like La Raza (the Race), support a reconquest and return of land to Mexico. It is called the Reconquista Separatist Movement.

"Like SKYY Vodka, the residents of states like California, Texas and Arizona are exceptionally proud of the fact that they are from the United States of America," said Dave Karraker, SKYY Vodka. The Absolut ad was absolutely insulting to them. It suggested that in an absolutely perfect world, a large chunk of the U.S. would be ruled by Mexico.

The National Illegal Immigration Boycott Coalition (NIIBC) and Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) have joined forces to boycott Absolut. Go to www.boycottabsolut.com for more details. "We are launching a formal, national, and sustained boycott against the Absolute Vodka corporation for promoting, encouraging, and pandering to separatists that threaten the territories, sovereignty, and national security of the United States of America," according to their website.Besides Vodka, Absolut manufactures Aquavit, bitters, rum, gin, and wines. A complete list of products can be found at www.boycottabsolut.com .

Does Barack Hussein Obama Damn AmeriKKKa?

Barack Hussein Obama has tried to excuse the inflammatory, anti-America preaching of his Pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. In 2003, Wright preached, "The government gives them [blacks] the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme." The congregants cheered lustily, which tells me this is not the first time they have heard such pronouncements and obviously agree with heartily.

Obama compared Wright to "an old uncle who says things I don't always agree with" during a meeting with Jewish leaders in Ohio. Obama defended his continued membership in Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. Calling the above remarks "completely unacceptable and inexcusable," he went on to say if they had been "the repeated tenor of the church ... I wouldn't feel comfortable there."

At the same time, Obama attempted to distance himself from Wright whom Obama has called his "mentor" and "spiritual guide" who led him to Christ. "I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it's on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Reverend Wright that are at issue." Wright has resigned from Obama's African American Religious Leadership Committee. Obama's political hacks argue that there should be no guilt by association accusations against Obama. I, for one, am not buying it.

First, if any pastor of mine told my congregation to "damn America" and I was in attendance, I would be immediately out of my seat and out the door. Such words would have left any church I have belonged to or attended in shocked silence, not wild cheers. Because of that, I might stay a member long enough to try to have such a pastor fired. If that did not happen, I would quit a church with such a pastor in a heartbeat no matter how long I had been a member.
However, this was not the first time Wright used "inflammatory rhetoric," a description made by Obama's aides. No, Wright has "a long history" of such sermons. As far back as 1971, Wright asked his congregation, "Are we going to be a black church in the black community, or are we going to continue to be a white church in blackface?"

Quoted in Rolling Stone, Wright spoke at Howard University, "Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run! ... We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God ... And. And And! Gawd! Has GOT! To be SICK! OF THIS SHIT!"

Imagine how 9/11 survivors and victims' families must feel to hear Wright's sermon immediately after the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon: "We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye. We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost." In other words, Wright considered the 9/11 attacks America's "just desserts." Obama minimized this as Wright just being “provocative.”

The church advertises its Africentrism, calling itself "unashamedly Black and unapologetically Christian." The Church's website proclaims, “We are an African people and remain true to our native land, the mother continent, the cradle of civilization.” According to Christian Century, "Bible courses at Trinity emphasize the African roots of Christianity ... In his preaching Wright goes out of his way to describe Moses as 'an African prince' and his wife as a 'raven-black' beauty.” Obviously geographically challenged, “Wright calls the Holy Land ‘northeast Africa.’ He declares that Jesus himself had 'nappy hair' and 'bronze skin' (he cites Rev. 1:14-15)."

Is this why Wright compared Obama to Jesus in a December 2007 sermon? Wright stated Jesus was “a poor black man who lived in a country and who lived in a culture controlled by rich white people.” Wright went on, "Barack knows what it means to be a black man to be living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary can never know that. Hillary ain't never been called a nigger." [Note: This sermon has brought Trinity United Church of Christ under IRS investigation for violations of rules forbidding non-profit organizations from endorsing political candidates.]

Of course, I cannot fail to mention the honoring of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan with a lifetime achievement award by the church's magazine. Less often cited is Wright's pastor's letter lauding Mousa Abu Marzook, deputy leader of Hamas and a known terrorist, who has a "virulently anti-Israel stance."

Obama's repudiation has been tepid, at best. "Reverend Wright preached the gospel of Jesus, a gospel on which I base my life. And the sermons I heard him preach always related to our obligation to love God and one another, to work on behalf of the poor and to seek justice at every turn." Unbelievably, Obama said, "I don't think my church is actually particularly controversial." Yet, Christian Century magazine declared, "There is no denying ... that a strand of radical black political theology influences Trinity."

Trinity UCC wrote a statement of its beliefs regarding black economics entitled The Black Value System. On the church's website, they state, "Trinity United Church of Christ adopted the Black Value System, written by the Manford Byrd Recognition Committee, chaired by the late Vallmer Jordan in 1981 ... These Black Ethics must be taught and exemplified in homes, churches, nurseries and schools, wherever Blacks are gathered." One section is entitled "The Disavowal of the Pursuit of “Middleclassness.” It teaches the adoption of a black value system will prevent "warping by our racist competitive society." The evil of "middleclassness," according to the document, includes tools of "captors" such as assassinations, murder, crime, concentration camps, jails, prisons, and hypnotic suggestion of superiority. It warns against "the psychological entrapment of Black 'middleclassness'.”

The document goes on to require adherents to "pledge to make the fruits of all developing and acquired skills available to the black community, pledge to allocate regularly a portion of personal resources for strengthening and supporting black institutions, and to pledge allegiance to all black leadership who espouse and embrace the black value system." This harkens back to Marx's Communist Manifesto, which advocates collectivism.

Commitment to the Black Value System will be evidenced if adherents "measure the worth and validity of all activity in terms of positive contributions to the general welfare of the Black Community and the Advancement of Black People towards freedom." Yet, Obama says, "I would be puzzled that they [white critics] would object or quibble with the bulk of a document [The Black Value System] that basically espouses profoundly conservative values of self-reliance and self-help." According to Investor's Business Daily in a January 15, 2008 article, Obama pledged his allegiance to The Black Value System in 1991 when he joined the church. On capitalism, Obama says he has learned to distrust “the idolatry of the free market” thanks to the teachings of his church.

It is clear that Obama does not get it. Neither does Obama-endorser Oprah Winfrey, another member of Trinity United Church of Christ, according to Christian Century. There are two possible explanations of Obama's defense of Wright and Trinity United Church of Christ.
One is that Obama rarely attends church. Thus, he has not been in attendance often enough to hear the hate Wright preaches. In fact, "I wasn't there" was Obama's first argument. "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," wrote Obama in The Huffington Post. However, in his speech on race to answer critics of his association with Wright, Obama admitted he had heard some of Wright's more controversial statements. "Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes." If Obama truly believes "Reverend Wright preached the gospel of Jesus," then it also tells me Obama does not know his Bible.

The other explanation is that Obama agrees with Wright, despite his protests that he does not. One simply does not remain a member of a church if one is in profound disagreement with its teachings. Either Obama is not particularly disturbed by his church's preachings or he agrees with them. His wife Michelle appears to agree when she remarked on February 18, 2008, that "for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country." Disinviting Wright from appearing at his presidential campaign's beginning, Obama explained to Wright, “'You can get kind of rough in the sermons, so what we’ve decided is that it’s best for you not to be out there in public.'” But privately, Obama and his family prayed with Wright just before the presidential announcement. I agree with Brad Blakeman of Freedom’s Watch, “Silence is an admission that you agree with what your spiritual advisor pronounces.”

Obama is hoping he can take cover over the fact that Wright recently retired. "With Reverend Wright's retirement and the ascension of my new pastor, Rev. Otis Moss III, Michelle and I look forward to continuing a relationship with a church that has done so much good." It may not matter. Moss, described Trinity United Church of Christ, "We're a black church first--one that just happens historically to be UCC." Briefly removed from the church's website, The Black Value System is back like an evil poltergeist. In his Easter service, Moss railed against the "public lynching" of Wright by the media and solicited donations for a "Resurrection Fund" to defend the church from attacks. Moss stated, "The Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.’s character is being assassinated in the public sphere because he has preached a social gospel on behalf of oppressed women, children and men in America and around the globe."

Mortimer B. Zuckerman wrote in an opinion piece for U.S. News & World Report: "Pastor Wright was not some cranky old uncle. He was a public preacher, endorsed by Obama with his continued presence. And a senator and now presidential candidate isn't just an ordinary church member. Doesn't such a public figure as Obama have an obligation to denounce anti-American bigotry as well as those who praise bigots? Wasn't he aware that this kind of preaching doesn't just affect adults but infects and exposes a younger generation to precisely the kinds of racism that Obama says he is committed to transcending? Doesn't it undermine his role as a racial healer when he implies that the inflammatory comments of his pastor were somehow made understandable by history? What else could be justified by this logic?"

Sean Hannity on Fox News' Hannity and Colmes correctly points to the racial double-standard in the media's coverage of Obama and his "unashamedly black" church with its "Black Value System." “If you substitute the word black for white, there would be an outrage in this country. There would be cries of racism in this country.” Imagine if John McCain belonged to an "unashamedly white" church with a "White Value System."

Another commentator, Tucker Carlson of MSNBC, described Trinity as having a "racially exclusive theology" that "contradicts the basic tenets of Christianity." Black columnist Erik Rush asks, "Is Obama seeking to be our first black president, or our first stealth black nationalist president?" Rush went on to say this should be as alarming as a Republican presidential candidate "belonging to the Aryan Brethren Church of Christ." This is why I wrote the “Republican Politician’s Fairy Tale” in my previous post.

Sources:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080315/ap_on_el_pr/obama_pastor_17;_ylt=Ag6hUN9EQltILjDRsUgCOQ4E1vAI
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1985156/posts
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/sliming_obama.html
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/02/19/cindy-mccain-michelle-obama-in-patriotism-flap/
Nedra Pickler, "Obama Denounces Pastor's 9/11 Comments," in USA Today, March 14, 2008 [http://www.usatoday.com/news/topstories/2008-03-14-3721253854_x.htm]
"Africentric church: a visit to Chicago's Trinity UCC" in Christian Century [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_11_124/ai_n19328537/pg_1]
"The Black Value System"by the Trinity UCC [http://www.tucc.org/black_value_system.html]
"Obama's Church" editorial in The Investors Business Daily, January 15, 2008 [http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=285292746454291]
http://www.firesociety.com/forum/thread/21228/-quot-Obama-s-Church-quot--He-pledged-allegiance-to-something-called-the-Black-Value-System--which-is-a-code-of-non-Biblical-ethics-written-by-blacks--for-blacks./
Lisa Lerer & Mike Allen, "Church Accuses Media of 'Crucifixion'," March 16, 2008 http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0308/9062.html
Ronald Kessler, "Barack Obama's Racist Church" [http://www.newsmax.com/kessler/Obama_Church_Racism/2008/01/07/62285.html]
"Obama Speech in Full: A More Perfect Union," The Drudge Report, March 18, 2008, [http://drudgereport.com/flashos.htm]
Judson Berger, "In Easter Sermon, New Obama Pastor Charges Rev. Wright Victim of 'Lynching'," Fox News, March 23, 2008 [http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/03/23/in-eastor-sermon-trinity-united-pastor-compares-rev-wright-to-jesus/]
Mortimer B. Zuckerman, "Obama's Double Standard on Reverend Wright" in U.S. News & World Report [http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/mzuckerman/2008/03/28/obamas-double-standard-on-reverend-wright.html]
Erik Rush, "Obamination: Barack Obama's Black Supremacist Connection," http://www.therealitycheck.org/StaffWriter/erush022007.htm
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/03/17/trinity-united-church-of-christ-makes-changes-to-web-site/