The Times Online (UK) reports on a very shady deal involving Barack Obama and a British-Iraqi billionaire, that also involves Tony Rezko and the already shady land deal they had.

A British-Iraqi billionaire lent millions of dollars to Barack Obama’s fundraiser just weeks before an imprudent land deal that has returned to haunt the presidential contender, an investigation by The Times discloses.

The money transfer raises the question of whether funds from Nadhmi Auchi, one of Britain’s wealthiest men, helped Mr Obama buy his mock Georgian mansion in Chicago.

A company related to Mr Auchi, who has a conviction for corruption in France, registered the loan to Mr Obama’s bagman Antoin “Tony” Rezko on May 23 2005. Mr Auchi says the loan, through the Panamanian company Fintrade Services SA, was for $3.5 million. Three weeks later, Mr Obama bought a house on the city’s South Side while Mr Rezko’s wife bought the garden plot next door from the same seller on the same day, June 15.

Mr Obama says he never used Mrs Rezko’s still-empty lot, which could only be accessed through his property. But he admits he paid his gardener to mow the lawn. Mrs Rezko, whose husband was widely known to be under investigation at the time, went on to sell a 10-foot strip of her property to Mr Obama seven months later so he could enjoy a bigger garden.

Mr Obama now admits his involvement in this land deal was a “boneheaded mistake”.

Mrs Rezko’s purchase and sale of the land to Mr Obama raises many unanswered questions. It is unclear how Mrs Rezko could have afforded the downpayment of $125,000 and a $500,000 mortgage for the original $625,000 purchase of the garden plot at 5050 South Greenwood Ave….

MORE: Our Obama file…

Victor Davis Hanson over at NRO’s The Corner:

Most Americans simply cannot imagine their president as the topic of a two-hour encomium by Farrakhan, or why an unrepentant terrorist like Ayers would have once been associated with him. Those are legitimate issues, and the Obama campaign needs to come up with a comprehensive defense against them before they arise: e.g., “All sorts of diverse people are attracted to various causes under the umbrella of social change; what distinguishes Obama is his singular devotion to working within the system and avoiding the extremism that plagues the movement.”

Until there is some systematic preemptive exegesis, I think more and more of these disturbing hard-Left embarrassments will turn up — none of them alone a problem; all of them in sum finally devastating.

Our leftwingers have convinced themselves that America has turned decisively leftwards and will embrace a leftwing President. If this is true, then so be it – but I don’t think it is. What this means for Obama is that he’s going to be running in a center/right America as a liberal/left politician. As long as Obama can keep it to high sounding rhetoric, all is well – but just as soon as Obama is forced down into the nitty gritty of politics, his liberalism will prove an obstacle to winning.

Americans are tired of Iraq – but do Americans want to lose in Iraq?

Americans are tired of the mess in health care – but do Americans want socialised medicine?

Americans are tired of endless government debt – but do Americans want tax increases, or would they prefer spending cuts?

These are the sorts of questions we are going to answer between now and November and while Obama can, perhaps, answer them in a way which leads to his being sworn in on January 20th, 2009, the plain fact of the matter is that it won’t be easy – especially not easy against a seasoned campaigner like John McCain, who is popular, highly respected and has a vastly more substantial resume’ than Obama.

The dratted snow is entirely messing up this global warm….errr, I mean…climate change thingy:

Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966.

The U.S. National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that many American cities and towns suffered record cold temperatures in January and early February. According to the NCDC, the average temperature in January “was -0.3 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average.”

China is surviving its most brutal winter in a century. Temperatures in the normally balmy south were so low for so long that some middle-sized cities went days and even weeks without electricity because once power lines had toppled it was too cold or too icy to repair them.

There have been so many snow and ice storms in Ontario and Quebec in the past two months that the real estate market has felt the pinch as home buyers have stayed home rather than venturing out looking for new houses.

In just the first two weeks of February, Toronto received 70 cm of snow, smashing the record of 66.6 cm for the entire month set back in the pre-SUV, pre-Kyoto, pre-carbon footprint days of 1950.

Looking out from my neighborhood, I’ve noticed that Mt. Charleston has a much thicker snow cover than usual (yes, we’re in sight of snow here in the Las Vegas valley) – started snowing up there earlier, and has snowed up there far more often than I’ve seen over my 13 years in Las Vegas. Heck, even the hills behind my house have received several dustings of snow this winter.

I wonder what it all means? Oh, I know – it doesn’t matter; more snow = climate change. Less snow = climate change. Higher temperatures = climate change. Lower tempuratures = climate change. The perfect theory of everything – climate change.

Flipping through the television channels a few moments ago, I happened to catch Chris Matthews suggest that Hillary may concede to Barack Obama before the primaries in Ohio and Texas…

I don’t see that happening. Hillary will take this fight until the end. Hillary feels entitled to not only the nomination, but the presidency… and as the release of the Obama photo earlier shows, Hillary is more likely to be on the verge of unloading a slew of attacks on Obama… and by no means about to bow out.

The Washington Post gives the top five flip-flops for both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton…

So now, let’s hear all our friends on the left with their spin explain why these aren’t flip-flops…

So start saying them…

More from Politico.

UPDATE: Of course it’s a non-issue. I’m not suggesting it implies anything. What should be the topic is that the Hillary campaign is apparently behind the release of the photo…

UPDATE: How predictable… our friends on the left are apparently either too stupid realize or just don’t care that it was Hillary’s campaign that put the photo out, because they’re blaming us “right wingers” for daring to talk about it.

UPDATE: Hillary camp denies having anything to do with the photos…

Stephen Spruiell over at NRO has gathered quite a collection of e mails from military personnel – past and present – who dispute Obama’s assertion of ill-equipped US troops – a sample will do for here, but you should go check them all out:

I am an Infantry Captain. I have deployed to Afghanistan twice, OEF 4 (2003-2004) and OEF 7-8 (2006-2007). In the army, we don’t split up units like that; the quote about 15 guys from a rifle platoon bound for Afghanistan getting sent to Iraq is utter nonsense. Not enough ammunition? are you nuts? No soldier leaves Bagram Airfield without a Basic Load, 210 rds of 5.56 (7 full magazines).

As to the statement about humvees, early in OEF there was a shortage of vehicles, specifically up-armored ones — the IED threat was still relatively new at that time. During my last deployment with 2-87 Infantry (3D BCT, 10th MTN DIV) that took place from January 2006 until May of 2007, every soldier in our task force was equipped with state of the art equipment, and plentiful amounts of it. We fired veritable mountains of ammunition during combat operations, and always had more on hand. Vehicles were plentiful, as were the resources required to maintain (the REAL challenge!) them.

US Soldiers do not use enemy weapons or equipment under most circumstances (Special Forces and assorted secret squirrel guys sometimes do). Think about it: why would I train up on a weapon system, zero the optic so that I hit what I aim at, maintain it etc. and then trade it in for an AK47?

What do we do with captured Taliban/Al-Qaeda/Haqqani/Waziri equipment? We turn some of it over to the Afghan police (what is serviceable, which usually isn’t much) and Afghan army units, but the majority is destroyed.

I seriously question the veracity of the “Army Captain” referred to. Most disturbing to me about this incident is it illustrates how clueless Obama and his staff are when it comes to the military. Prepared to be the CIC indeed.

The only part of Obama’s story which survives some scrutiny is the part where he says a captain was in command of a platoon – platoons aren’t commanded by captains, but we give the benefit of the doubt and say that the captain was a lieutenant when he was sent to Afghanistan – other than that, Obama’s story is proving to be pure fiction, just on the practical aspects of it, especially in that no one has ever heard of a platoon being divvied up between different theaters.

The central issue here is not the story, as such, but the fact that Obama believes it – which indicates he is entirely clueless as to the composition and employment of the United States military he aspires to command. Without question, John McCain is the better man to be Commander in Chief of the United States armed forces – while qualification to be CinC should not be, in and of itself, determinative of whether a person becomes CinC, it is a very important aspect of the job, especially in the very dangerous times we live in. And while military knowledge is not vital to be President, Obama’s lack of such knowledge also brings up his general lack of executive experience, as well as real-world knowledge – in short, Obama has never really had to do anything strenuous or risky on his own part in order to obtain the position he holds, and the position he aspires to.

The question before us – if Obama secures the nomination – is whether or not we, the people of the United States of America, are willing to turn our government over to a man of such clearly substandard qualifications? There is, perhaps, a chance that a President Obama will be a quick study and become a competant President, but if he is elected he will be the first man so positioned in at least a century – even comparitively unqualified JFK had some command and real world experience in his Navy days during WWII; Obama has nothing to recommend him except a good speaking style.

Not sure if Obama will really want this one:

Washington DC, Feb 20, 2008 (CNA).- Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama has been endorsed by Frances Kissling, the former president of the pro-abortion group Catholics for a Free Choice.

In an article written for the Huffington Post, Kissling defended her endorsement of Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton saying that his presidency would finish the “social transformation” begun by the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

“While I believe in the nitty gritty of a day-to-day legislative agenda, there will be little difference between Clinton and Obama, I am convinced that in the larger struggle to complete the social transformation promised by Roe, Obama’s instincts and values will bring us closer to that transformation,” Kissling said.

Kissling broke ranks with other feminists who favor abortion rights but have endorsed New York Senator Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. She said that both candidates would appoint Supreme Court justices who favor Roe v. Wade, overturn the Mexico City policy that forbids funding for non-governmental organizations that also perform abortions, and restore funding to the United Nations Population Fund, which lost US funding after its co-operation with coerced abortions in China was exposed…

…”It is no longer about ‘winning, the culture war. It is about completing the social transformation that Roe began but did not solidify,” Kissling concluded. “That task, I believe, will best be accomplished by a president who sees her or his role as calling us to greatness … I think Barack Obama is the person who can do that,” she said.

Abortion on demand is part of our call to greatness? What a horrid sickness it is, a position in support of abortion – completely dehumanizing in the worst possible way. At any rate, Kissling is correct in her assertion that both Hillary and Obama will follow a pro-abortion-fanatic line, but I’m not sure that either of them needs this sort of endorsement – there is that wool which needs to be pulled over the public’s eyes on abortion, after all, and someone coming along and pointing out – as if its a good thing – that Obama will even go as far as helping out baby-butchering in China might not help Obama pretend to be other than a ultra-liberal extremist.

DNC Chairman Howard Dean is pursing an FEC complaint against John McCain for his withdrawing from the primary election public finance system…

The only problem is, in 2003 Howard Dean, during his presidential campaign, did the exact same thing. Time Magazine’s The Page blog posts a McCain backgrounder on Howard Dean’s hypocrisy.

Mike Huckabee certain got enough flack for using Boston’s “More Than A Feeling” without permission… so, I wonder how the left will spin Obama’s unauthorized use of of “Hold On, I’m Coming” on the the campaign trail.

Hold On: Stop using my song.

That’s the message to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama from soul singer Sam Moore of Sam & Dave fame.

The singer said Saturday that he’s sent a letter to the Obama campaign asking them to stop using one of the duo’s signature songs, “Hold On, I’m Comin’,” at campaign rallies.

Moore says he’s not endorsing Obama or anybody else at this time for president.

“No one called me, no one sent a telegraph, no one did anything. They just did it, and I think that’s rather rude,” Moore said from his home in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Tommy Vietor, an Obama campaign spokesman, responded in a brief e-mail Saturday that they received the letter and will stop using the tune.

Moore, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, said the song is played frequently at campaign events, with supporters sometimes changing the lyrics to “Hold On, Obama’s Comin’.”

First he was caught stealing Deval Patrick’s words, now he’s been caught using someone else’s song without permission. Is anything on the level with this guy?