(Spl Thnx to Splash News for the Paris Hilton Pic)... how somebody can be famous for just being, well, famous - and for no particular reason.
Take Paris Hilton for example. Aside from her occasional romps with the fashion police and, um, the Los Angeles Police, her only real claim(s) to fame are a couple of sex videos she let her boyfriend(s) shoot that ended up on the internet. She has done nothing notable other than a short-lived reality show and being photographed with some of the people she hangs around with. (Remember the whole Spears/Lohan freak fest? Bet that was a real proud daddy moment, huh.)
The gal never graduated from high school, yet she's managed to ditz-n-glitz her way into the headlines, write an autobiography, cut an album, and launch her own fragrance ... well, other people have actually written the autobiography, produced the album, and made the perfume ... and paid her to use her name, but that's another story.
I bring this up because Paris Hilton reminds me of Barak Obama, albeit Barak is much better dressed and educated - no fashion faux pas for the big BO. (Well, there was that bike riding thing.) As well, to my knowledge, there have been no run in's with the police either in L.A., Chicago, or D.C.
However, consider:
Here's a guy who has done nothing notable other than a short-lived and unremarkable stint as the junior Senator from Illinois who's managed to sham his way to the Democratic nomination without really ever having to explain the who, what, where, and how -- let alone the why -- of his campaign for "Change" and bringing "Hope" (or was it hype, I get confused) to the unwashed masses.
He hangs out with some real characters (and not just his other Senate colleagues).
Let's review:
There's the infamous Bill Ayres and Bernadette Dohrn. Dohrn is a Communist. She believes that "Marxism-Leninism is the science of revolution" and Ayres, in his youth, was a terrorist who ran around blowing things up - hardly youthful indiscretions.
Then there's our friend the right Reverend Jeremiah Wright. James Cone couldn't be any more radical than Jeremiah is. In fact, Cone says that Wright and his church, Trinity United, are the best example of a church living out black liberation theology. So controversial is this man and his Theology, that our boy, BO, had to undergo an excruciatingly public "throwing-my-Pastor-under-the-bus" moment.
My personal favorite is Tony Rezko. BO's bag-man, Tony raises big-big money for Illinois pols.
Consider the following from the Chicago Sun-Times:
In 2003, Obama announced he was running for the U.S. Senate, and Rezko -- a member of his campaign finance committee -- held a lavish fund-raiser June 27, 2003, at his Wilmette mansion.
A few months after Obama became a U.S. senator, he and Rezko's wife, Rita, bought adjacent pieces of property from a doctor in Chicago's Kenwood neighborhood -- a deal that has dogged Obama the last two years. The doctor sold the mansion to Obama for $1.65 million -- $300,000 below the asking price. Rezko's wife paid full price -- $625,000 -- for the adjacent vacant lot. The deals closed in June 2005. Six months later, Obama paid Rezko's wife $104,500 for a strip of her land, so he could have a bigger yard. At the time, it had been widely reported that Tony Rezko was under federal investigation. Questioned later about the timing of the Rezko deal, Obama called it "boneheaded" because people might think the Rezkos had done him a favor. (You mean the Rezko's didn't do you a huge favor BO? Do the math Baby! -G.O.D)
Eight months later -- in October 2006 -- Rezko was indicted on charges he solicited kickbacks from companies seeking state pension business under his friend Gov. Blagojevich. Federal prosecutors maintain that $10,000 from the alleged kickback scheme was donated to Obama's run for the U.S. Senate. (Update: Rezko was convicted on 16 of 24 charges. BO gave the 10 grand to charity - G.O.D.)It's a long way around the track to get back to Paris Hilton. Heck, there really isn't any way to tie this back in. I just knew you were not going to read the whole BO thing without something to keep you from dozing off.
" ... and my flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. Yeah, baby!"
But before you nod off, kids, remember: This guy wants to be our President. Shouldn't we want to know more about him before we give him the job?
