Obama: Outside Looking In

I suppose I should apologize for the lack of updates. To all that have emailed, all is well, I've just been terribly busy with work recently. Rest assured that the blogging will return very soon with fresh updates regarding how Obama's campaign is being viewed overseas here in Southeast Asia.

To my compatriots back home, many who are war weary and hopelessy enslaved by political correctness, it is difficult to explain exactly how a vote for Obama = a vote for appeasement, but what Americans are playing with is "fire".

In many ways I'm shocked to hear how my original reporting on Obama has been refered to by the mainstream media as simply rumours and fear mongering. It is amazing how so many Americans will trust CNN and simply dismiss everyone else "out of hand".

With your support we can win, we can expose CNN and Obama for the lies they have told the American people. And with your support I will do all that is required to see that Obama never sees the White House.

Never in my life have I been so outspoken, but then again, I've seen the other side and I know exactly how the prospects of an Obama presidency will be perceived.

Obama must be stopped at all costs.

Say tuned.

Good Luck Barry...! From Indonesia

"Good Luck, Barry!" the shout gave birth to Indonesia's Obama Fan Club established by the childhood friends and alumni of the Democrat party's presidential candidate.

The shout of support was given by 18 childhood friends of Barack Obama from when he went to school at SDN 01 Menteng (Besuki Primary School), Indonesia on Saturday, March 1st at 2:30pm.

18 from the original 40 of Barack Obama's classmates gathered around in the schoolyard against a backdrop on the roof that read "Good Luck Barry".

"Not all of Obama's friends could come" There are those who are deceased and those that no longer live in the area said Sonni Gondokusuman, one of the alumni of SDN Menteng.

The Obama Fan Club was formed to show support for Obama. "This is our way of showing our support for Barry" said the coordinater of the Obama Fan Club, Rully Dasaad

"From the first time I saw him on televison, I knew Barry was ambitious" He has wisdom. I am sure he will win said Rully who is a professional photographer.

Would Rully and his friend's hope be realized?

Obama Fan Club: Good Luck Barry

Obama's Messianic Foreign Policy

In a recent response to the circulation of a photograph of Barack Obama dressed in what has been described as "traditional Somali garb" Obama's foreign policy adviser, Susan Rice, said that the circulation of the photograph was divisive and suggested "that the customs and cultures of other parts of the world are worthy of ridicule or condemnation."

The statement, of course, begs the question "Are some customs and cultures of other parts of the world in fact worthy of ridicule or condemnation?" Being bolstered by the certainties of my own "expatriate empiricism", my first reaction was simply to say to myself "yeah and so what?" I mean despite the political incorrectness, the harsh reality is that some of the customs and cultures of other parts of the world are in fact worthy of our ridicule or/and condemnation.

I don't suppose Susan Rice has ever come face to face with the proclivities of a cultural who experience no moral dilemma with beating their wives to within an inch of their lives or with customs of a primitive society who to this very day still dine on the occasional "long pig". But you see, this is where expatriate empiricism trumps not just the liberal academic intelligentsia of the West but the profound intellectual arrogance of Barack Obama's ivy-league foreign policy advisers.

Aside from the fact that the photographs of Barack Obama in of themselves never actually "said" or "suggested" anything, it was Susan Rice's recondite statement concerning the photograph that I found confounding. Not just because Susan Rice's statement and vociferous indignation seemed to be completely devoid of any literal meaning, or attributed to any logical thought process, but because I question how a foreign policy adviser who subscribes to the doctrine of cultural and moral equivalency can effectively advise the Presidency on issues that concern not only nation's interests, but our national security as well.

"Why must we change and yet our enemies get to remain the same? Don't ever expect to hear the Obama camp ever answer that question. The harsh reality is that for Barack Obama and his foreign policy advisers, this isn't about what is in America's best interests or even our nation's national security. It is about America changing and seeking atonement by redressing the sins of the past. Led by an administration who is predisposed to see America not as an exceptional nation, but as a bully, a war-mongering ogre, perpetually bloodied with the guilt of imperialism and inescapably tainted by a past history of inequality and racism.

Understanding Obama and his foreign policy

As Spengler would so adroitly point out, "Cherchez la femme" - When you want to uncover an unspecified secret, look for the woman. As Mona Charen would uncover in Obama's own book he inadvertently sheds some light on his formative years and the political views of his mother.

"Looking back, I'm not sure Lolo ever fully understood what my mother was going through ... why the things he was working so hard to provide for her seemed only to increase the distance between them ... He landed a job in the government relations department of an American oil company. ... Sometimes I would overhear him and my mother arguing in their bedroom, usually about her refusal to attend his company dinner parties, where American businessmen from Texas and Louisiana would slap Lolo's back and boast about the palms they had greased to obtain the new offshore drilling rights, while their wives complained to my mother about the quality of Indonesian help. He would ask her how it would look for him to go alone, and remind her that these were her own people, and my mother's voice would rise to almost a shout."

"They are not my people!"

Herodotus once said that "If anyone, no matter who, were given the opportunity of choosing from amongst all the nations in the world the set of beliefs which he thought best, he would inevitably - after careful considerations of their relative merits - choose that of his own country"

A young mulatto abandoned by his black Kenyan father and cared for by his white American mother, an anthropologist and Islamophile who hated America and subsequently went native. We may never completely understand the pathological self-criticism that Obama holds deep down in his soul, the overwhelming guilt that consumes him or the messianic aspirations that he now seems to revel in.

What we do know is that in Plato's Euthyphro, Socrates would advance argument that piety to many gods, who all want conflicting devotions is impossible. Something the Democrats and their Golden Calf have yet to realize.

Rick Moran Succumbs to Obama Mania

Here at "An American Expat in Southeast Asia" I try to write about the subjects that I have an intimate knowledge of. Subjects that pertain to Southeast Asia and ones where I can offer a clear and concise analysis of and a perspective from an American citizen here. Many of my posts here regarding Barack Obama starting in January of 2007 have been my own direct translations of Indonesian media reports along with my own analysis and opinion of how Barack Obama's bid for the presidency is viewed here in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. In fact the very first English language translations on the web of the life of a young "Barry Soetoro" were first posted here back in January of 2007. I've spent a lot of time researching Barack Obama in Indonesia and interviewing people in the region. Speaking the language and having spent much of my adult over here, I think I am fairly qualified to opine on the matter.

That is why I took issue with a recent post by Rick Moran at Rightwing Nuthouse entitled 'Enough With All Of This "Obama Is A Mooslim" Crap'. In a haughty long-winded screed aimed at fellow conservatives Rick Moran wielded a broad brush and accused his fellow conservatives of being "ignorant" and "unschooled" for having the audacity to dare question issues pertaining to Barack Hussein Obama's Muslim heritage. I emailed Rick Moran and asked him to clarify his remarks with regard to how Muslims elsewhere perceive Barack Obama and his Muslim heritage what Moran had considered "bizarre". In a Pavlovian response, Rick Moran accused me of being a "bigot" and that he didn't "give a shit" what I had to say regarding Obama. Needless to say, I was taken aback. This is the type of response I've come to expect from the Obama fanbois but one that I didn't expect to receive from a self-proclaimed conservative. Surely one would think that substance trumps symbolism, but apparently not for Rick Moran.

For Rick Moran, it's quite simple, and that is the the veracity of these reports regarding Barack Obama's heritage or patriotism is not to be made an issue of. What is an issue for Rick Moran though is the audacity of conservatives to dare tread into what Moran and his liberal cohorts consider to be an illegitimate area of inquiry. For Moran, simple things like facts though are irrelevant. Exacerbating Moran's agony it seems was the publishing of a photograph of Barack Obama dressed as some sort of Muslim goat herder. The same Barack Obama who won't wear an American flag pin on his lapel.

Between now and November I will continue to translate Indonesian media reports and offer a perspective from Southeast Asia offering a fresh insight when I can. And if I uncover photos, I'll see that they get published as well. I will stand by what i have said previously that an Obama presidency will be disastrous for Southeast Asia and to the overall war on terrorism. I'm also not alone in my sentiments. Greg Sheridan has also recently voiced his concerns on how an Obama presidency will affect the region. In the end though it will be for the American voters to decide.

And Rick Moran? As far as I'm concerned, Mr. Moran can sit there on his fat ass in front of the computer screen with his bag of Doritos and can of Diet Coke and stew all he wants. Eventually he will have to come to the bitter realization that his hubris and sanctimonious sermonizing contribute nothing to the national debate or to the marketplace of ideas.

Obama and CNN: Black, White or Yellow

"...If anyone is still puzzled about the facts, in fact I have never been a Muslim. We had to send CNN to look at the school that I attended in Indonesia where kids were wearing short pants and listening to ipods to indicate that this was not a madrassa but was a secular school in Indonesia..." ~ Barack Obama, 24 February 2008

In a recent episode of Saturday Night Live that featured a parody of a Clinton Obama debate, a faux Campbell Brown chirped "Like nearly everyone in the news media, the three of us are totally in the tank for Senator Obama". Funny? Yes, but this might have hit a bit too close to home.

Surely Barack Obama wouldn't lie now would he? But did the Obama camp really send CNN to Indonesia? Are we to believe that when the accusations of Barack Obama attending a madrassa as a child first broke on Fox News last year that Sam Feist's reply to the Obama camp would be "Please relax. You furnish the money, I'll furnish the debunk."

Like many Americans, my parents raised me to believe that it is the truth that matters. It is. Network news broadcasts and newspaper reports have the power to shape our perceptions, consciously and subliminally and as consumers we naturally expect a bit of integrity on behalf of the networks and media outlets. We expect that opinion and commentary are clearly identified as such. What we don't expect is that the news has been manufactured or bought and paid for. That CNN would assist Obama in deceiving the American people is downright despicable and I think if what Obama is saying is true, then both CNN and Obama owe the American people an apology.

For Barack Obama, the facts are that he is a liar and no one, not CNN or Sam Feist is ever going to change that fact. There is no amount of spin, flooding the internet or debunking that is ever going to change the fact that Barack Hussein Obama was born a Muslim and that he practiced Islam as a child, no more than I can change the fact that I was born and baptized a Catholic and attended Catholic school as a child.

Barack Obama often speaks of hope and change, but for a man that truly aspires to lead our nation, hope and change will simply not suffice, there can be no dignity without honesty.


If you haven't read the two related posts below, you need to

Related Posts

CNN Calls The Kettle Black

Obama and the Audacity of CNN

Defeating Islamic Extremism 101 - Part 3

"They (the Taliban) might be implementing Islamic law, an Islamic state, but they completely waste their time because they do it in a totally un-Islamic way"

In a letter to his mother in late 2000, Australian David Hicks would offer a glimpse into the mindset of a Western Al Qaeda recruit who was slowly beginning to see the pharisaical hypocrisy in Al Qaeda's austere call to primitive purity. What Hick's had failed to see though was that Al Qaeda and the Taliban's revolution was more "nationalistic" than "Islamic" and it's violence inspired more so by jealousy rather than jihad.

I can understand exactly how David Hicks felt at the time. You see, I had been in the same situation as Hicks once before, the only difference I suppose is that I never made Al Qaeda's final cut. Unlike Western Al Qaeda recruits David Hicks and Adam Gadahn, I would have an epiphany, a sudden intuitive realization of the profound hypocrisy in the words and deeds of Islam's self-proclaimed über elite, a pharisaical hypocrisy that not only made their avowals of pious purity unconvincing, but one that made them vulnerable.

My first day at the madrassa was interesting to say the least, but I had made my decision. I was there to teach English and in return Hassan and his friends would teach me all about Islam. I'd mentioned to Hassan that I had never taught English before, but that didn't seem to matter. What mattered is that I spoke English and that the children didn't. I told Hassan that I guess I could help with the basic conversational English and so I went to a book store and picked up a some elementary school books for my first class the next day.

I arrived back at the madrassa later after the evening prayer. Just in time for dinner and I joined Hassan at one of the wooden picnic-type tables in the canteen. The students were all sitting on the vinyl-covered floor in a large room next to the canteen eating their dinner. In total there was around 30-40 students with four students to each large rounded tray consisting of a mound of rice, four hard-boiled eggs, some dried fried anchovies, boiled tapioca leaves and a sambal. The students were sitting on the floor many with their left hand positioned under their knee and then eating with their right hands. Hassan must have caught me watching this and then proceeded to explain to me that the left hand is dirty and meant for cleaning yourself. Making a mental note of this, I picked up the cup of coffee in front of me with my right hand and took a sip.

Hassan didn't realize that it wasn't the way the students were eating that had caught my eye, but rather what they were eating. This was something that I found a bit disturbing, the food served to the children hardly seemed to be sustaining. There was no meat and the amount of food that the children were given hardly seemed to be even enough to even fill their stomachs. As the students finished eating the passed by our table on their way into the dormitories.

By this time our food had arrived, a sumptuous spread of saffron-scented biryani rice, lamb and dhal curries, a large omelette of some type, fresh vegetables and several large pieces of naan. Being the new English teacher I sat at the table with Hassan and his guests from Pakistan. With the students all passing by obviously still hungry I felt embarrassed and ashamed and yet Hassan and his friend didn't seem to be phased in the least, they proceeded to help themselves. As I sat there, Hassan spoke up and asked me to join in. I looked at the table and at the people eating before me and then asked Hassan if I could kindly have a fork and spoon. Hassan frowned and then called for the cook to bring a fork and spoon over to the table. Hassan took the fork and spoon from the cook and handed it to me and as he did I seemed to find myself focusing on his other wrist, the one with the gold Rolex on it.

As I ate my meal, I found myself intrigued by the fact that Hassan and his students didn't seem to be very Malay to me, they seemed to have cultivated a predilection for everything either Arabic or Pakistani, as evidenced not only by their gross adulation of the dress and mannerisms of their "brothers" from Pakistan but by their adoption of a dualistic worldview where they see themselves as part of some cosmic, Manichaean struggle between good an evil. It wouldn't be long before I found myself being constantly critiqued on what was acceptable under Islamic jurisprudence and what was not.

to be continued...


Related Posts

Defeating Islamic Extremism 101 - Part 1

Defeating Islamic Extremism 101 - Part 2

Obama On Indonesian Television - Part 2

In the video below, the reporter visits Zulfian Mirzan and his wife who bought Obama's childhood home in Jakarta just four years ago from Barack Obama's stepsister Maya Soetoro-Ng for 500 million rupiah (USD 54,500). The reporter describes the inside of the home and shows all the rooms, including the room with the single bed across the hall from the master bedroom which the reporter states was a young Barack Obama's room. According to the current owners, the house including all the interiors has not been changed since the time Obama and his family lived there. The end of the video shows the Zulfian Mirzan's new baby who will be living in Obama's room.

Right click to open in a new window:

*Video* Tracking Barack Obama: Obama's Childhood Home



The beginning of the next video below shows Obama on the campaign trail while the Indonesian reporter in the background explains that before Barack Obama became famous in the United States he attended two schools in Indonesia as a child. The reporter then shows the two schools, the Menteng Primary School and the Franciscus Assisi Primary School where Obama was registered under the name of "Barry Soetoro". The video ends with the reporter stating that Obama was a clever and friendly boy and that he left Indonesia in 1972 for Hawaii.

Right click to open in a new window:

*Video* Tracking Barack Obama: Assisi Primary School and Menteng Primary School


Related Posts

An American Expat in Southeast Asia: Barack Obama

Obama On Indonesian Television - Part 1

This is the beginning of a two part series here at "An American Expat in Southeast Asia" entitled "Obama on Indonesian Television". The videos below are from DetikTV in Jakarta who ran a small series in February 2008 entitled tracking Barack Obama in Indonesia. The information you will find in the videos below confirms and substantiates much of what we originally translated and reported in our series of posts on "Obama in Indonesia" back in January of 2007.

The picture above is seen in the following video, showing a young Barry Soetoro (Barack Hussein Obama) posing with his mother, Ann, half sister, Maya, and maternal grandfather Stanley Dunham in Hawaii in the early 1970s after the family returned from Indonesia. Ann Dunham would return to Indonesia and shortly after this picture was taken, Lolo Soetoro Mangunharjo would later divorce Ann and then remarry, fathering another two children.

Right click to open in a new window:

*Video* Tracking Barack Obama: From Menteng to Dempo



In the next video below, a photo is shown of a young Barack Obama and his father Hussein Obama, a Muslim from Kenya and then his mother and stepfather Lolo Soetoro.

Referring to a young Barack Obama, the reporter states in Indonesian "juga hidup tengah-tengah orang muslim" (he lived his life in the middle of Muslims) - an interesting choice of words to use which can have an ambiguous meaning depending on how exactly it is translated. Highlighting the United States presidential campaign, the reporter states that Obama's enemies have been making a political issue out of Obama's "life among the Muslims". The reporter then states, "Barry yang punya wajah lucu sering dimainkan teman-teman pernah dipakaikan sarong meski tak pernah ikut solat" (Barry had a funny face and his friends made fun of him by putting a sarong on him even though he didn't pray). The emphasis here is that even though Barry was a Muslim and was in the mosque and was wearing Islamic clothes, that he was only "playing" and not really "praying". I suppose you can interpret that any way you wish.

In the second part of the video, Zulfan Adi, a former neighborhood playmate of Obama's who has been cited in numerous news reports claiming that Obama regularly attended Friday prayers with his stepfather Lolo Soetoro points out the "Musholla Al-Rahman" (Al-Rahman Prayer Room) to the reporter where he then goes out of his way to explain that Obama wasn't "praying" in the prayer room, he only "playing". That Zulfan Adi found it necessary to use and emphasize the English word "praying" in the Indonesian language report leads us to the self-evident conclusion that this part of the report if not all of it was simply staged for foreign consumption.

Right click to open in a new window:

*Video* The Prayer Room Where Obama Played


Remember to donate. Every little bit counts.


Related Posts

Tracking Down Obama in Indonesia

Tracking Down Obama in Indonesia - Part 2

Tracking Down Obama in Indonesia - Part 3