AUDIO: PHIL BERG DEBATES ANDREW WALDEN

On Thursday, July 23rd I had the opportunity to guest host for Matthew Hill on IRN/USA Radio and attempted to moderate a debate between two people with completely diametrically opposing views on Barack Obama's citizenship. Phil Berg is an attorney who has filed suit challenging Obama's eligibility to become president because of his place of birth, which Berg maintains was Kenya.

Andrew Walden is the editor of the Hawaii Free press,insisting that Obama was born in Hawaii and is simply stoking a 'blind alley controversy' in order to distract conservatives from stories that could be truly damaging to his presidency.

Here is a link to the one hour program. Debate starts at 18:20 mark.

Just in case you're holding out hope that one changed the other's mind, I assure you that didn't happen. Nonetheless entertaining.

DOES OBAMA RESENT CAMBRIDGE POLICE OVER UNPAID PARKING TICKETS?

It appears that during his time at Harvard (1988-1991) Barack Obama accumulated 17 parking tickets. On March 8, 2007 the Boston Globe reported that until January 26th, 2007, he had only paid two of them and did so late. On the 26th of January in 2007, the Globe Reports the balance of $375 was paid by credit card.

So why did he bother paying them in 2007 after not having paid them over 15 years earlier? Coincidentally or not, his presidential campaign was being launched two weeks hence.

In January, about when the Globe began asking local officials about Obama's time at Harvard, including any violations of local laws, someone representing the senator called the parking office to inquire about the decades-old tickets.

Say it ain't so!

Did Obama find the opportunity to use the Henry Louis Gates arrest to take a shot at the Cambridge police for harassing him with parking tickets? Perhaps Obama feels that he was the victim of racial profiling? Why hadn't he paid the tickets until it was politically expedient to do so? Maybe he was standing on principle.

Let's take a look at what kinds of infractions Mr. Obama committed:

Clippinger said her records show that Obama received the tickets between Oct. 5, 1988, and Jan. 12, 1990, for violations including parking in a resident-only area, blocking a bus stop, and failing to put money in meters.

Here is the entire Boston Globe article. Does anyone think Obama is willing to go public with his thoughts on these tickets?

OBAMA'S FRIEND HENRY LOUIS GATES: HERE WE GO AGAIN

"Skip Gates is a friend (of mine)," said Barack Obama on his July 22nd press conference. Then he said, "The police acted stupidly". In the middle somewhere, he said he didn't have all the facts and admitted to being biased due to his friendship with Gates.

As for the police acting stupidly, the official police report seems to pin the "stupid" button squarely on the chest of a Harvard professor who teaches African American Studies. If the police report is at all true, the default position of this professor, at least in this case, was to ASSUME racism before getting the facts, which seems to be what his friend Barack Obama did at the press conference, albeit less overtly.

Putting aside the argument about Gates being arrested justly or unjustly for a minute, the police report paints a picture of an angry and defensive black man with racism being an extremely sensitive issue. Doesn't it make one wonder about the tenets of the brand of African American studies he teaches? Does it share views common with Black Liberation Theology?

Jeremiah Wright was caught on tape saying derisive and racist things about America and Americans. His words were hateful and racist. Barack Obama sat in his church for 20 years. The words documented to have come from Gates' mouth as a white police officer approached his home seem to share a common resentment with those of Wright.

Now we have Obama admitting that Gates is a friend of his. Here we go Again. Whether officer Crowley followed the letter of the law may still be in question. What does NOT appear to be in question (based on eye witness accounts of the incident), the people Obama seems to befriend have race as a central focal point in their lives.

Moving on and getting past racism must involve a commitment to moving on and getting past it.

It was reported that Gates yelled to Officer Crowley, 'You have no idea who you're messing with and you haven't heard the last of this.' I wonder how Gates feels about practically everyone knowing him under these circumstances. If the report quoted him accurately, he may not know how right he was about hearing the last of it either.