Pelosi Dossier 1 Nancy Pelosi and the Radical Hallinan Clan
US Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi has represented the San Francisco area in Congress since 1987 and has lived there since 1969.
Pelosi has made lot of radical friends in the Bay Area, including the late Vivian Hallinan.
When Vivian Hallinan died in March 1999, Nancy Pelosi placed a tribute in the Congressional Record.
I am very saddened to know that the leader of one of San Francisco's great Irish families, Vivian Hallinan, passed away last night.
Vivian and her family have deep roots in San Francisco and she has contributed immensely to the fiber of our community during her 88-year lifetime. Throughout her life, Vivian was devoted intellecutally and passionately to many causes, well before they became popularly embraced. Her opposition to the war in Vietnam was an example of the courage she displayed in taking an early and fearless stand for her conscience and convictions.
Vivian was a pioneer, a mentor and a leader...
In an article from the San Francisco Examiner also placed in the Congressional Pecord Pelosi described Vivian Hallinan as "a role model for many of us..."
Conn Hallinan, one of Vivian Hallinan's six sons has said "My mother and Nancy were pretty close...".
But who was the Vivian Hallinan that Nancy Pelosi so admired?
According to the San Francisco Examiner article;
Vivian Hallinan, the preeminent peace activist, wife of the later legend Vincent Hallinan and matriach of San Francisco.s, best known Irish political family, whose members include prominent criminal defense lawyer Patrick Hallinan and San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan, has died...
Over a five-decade span, Mrs. Hallinan played a prominent part in San Francisco's progressive politics with grace, beauty and courage. In 1986, when she was 77, she was tear-gassed in Chile while protesting human rights abuses.
Although Vincent Hallinan, an atheist who once sued the Catholic Church to prove the existence of God, was publicly perceived as the more radical of the pair, Vivian Hallinan fueled the family's political fire, two of her sons said.
`She was really the heart and soul of our family's political philosophy,' said Patrick Hallinan, her eldest son. `My father resented the abuse of political authority, but my mother had a focus. She was a very committeed radical socialist.'
Indeed Vivian was a committed socialist and while maintaining friendships with open Communist Party members like Doris Brin Walker, chose to pursue her radical goals through the Democratic Party.
Although Mrs. Hallinan held `socialist' views--ideas that people should be guaranteed a decent living, that there should be racial equality and an end to war--she never joined any socialist or communist party and was a life-long Democrat, said Patrick Hallinan.
Husband Vincent was a prominent lawyer, also close the Communist Party.
In 1950, Mr. Hallinan was sentenced to six months in McNeil Island prison for a contempt citation he got while successfully defending union leader Harry Bridges against charges of being a communist.
Harry Bridges was later revealed as a secret member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party USA. Coincidentally Bridges was instrumental in the move from Chicago to Hawaii in 1948, of Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis-later a mentor to teenage Barack Obama. Bridges also hired and mentored a young Latino Communist Party member named Burt Corona-a mentor to to a young radical named Tony Vilar (Antonio Vilaraigosa), now Mayor of Los Angeles and a former member of President Obama's Economic Transition Team.
In 1952, after Mrs. Hallinan persuaded her husband to campaign for president on Henry Wallace's Progressive Party ticket, the couple were indicted for tax evasion. She was acquitted, but he was sentenced to two years in jail.
The Progessive Party was almost completely controlled by the Communist Party.
In 1964, she and sons Patrick and Matthew were arrested while sitting-in at San Francisco's `auto row,' the car dealers that then lined Van Ness Avenue, protesting their failure to hire African Americans. She served 30 days in county jail.
She helped organize anti-Vietnam war demonstrations, leading a march of 5,000 women in Washington, D.C.
In the 1980s, she opposed U.S. policy in Central America and befriended Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua's Sandinista leader. She also met with Fidel Castro.
Vivian Hallinan headed the San Francisco chapter of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom-itself heavily pentrated by the Communist Party. "Peace was always her biggest issue" according to Terence Hallinan.
In 1967 Hallinan joined with Women Strike for Peace (WSP)to set up an umbrella peace organisation the Jeanette Rankin Brigade.
WSP was formed in 1961 by New York attorney and later Democratic Congresswoman Bella Abzug-a long time communist front activist and suspected secret party member.
Bella Abzug, foreground leading WSP march c1961
WSP leaders were almost exclusively Communist Party members-Pauline Rosen (Chicago), Blanche Posner, Ruth Meyers, Rose Clinton, Iris Freed, Elsie Neidenberg (New York), Barbara Bick (San Francisco/Washington DC), or the daughters of party members such as Amy Swerdlow and Cora Weiss (both New York).
Some like Barbara Bick and Cora Weiss became heavily involved with the Washington DC based Institute for Policy Studies (IPS)-notorious for its links to Soviet and Cuban intelligence agents.
Several of Vivian Hallinan's six sons went on to involvement with the Communist Party and one to the IPS.
Like their parents, the sons were almost all rebels and were all given macho nicknames by their boxing mad Dad-Butch, Kayo, Toughy, Dynamite, Ringo and Dangerous.
Patrick Hallinan, latterly a prominent defense lawyer was in the early 1960 active in the WEB DuBois Clubs of America (DCA)-the youth wing of the Communist Party USA. In 1961 Patrick served on the US steering committee for the Soviet front World Federation of Democratic Youth's festival in Helsinki, Finland.
Terence (Kayo) Hallinan is a lawyer and former San Francisco District Attorney.
After high school Terence worked in Hawaii as a laborer and clerk for Harry Bridges' International Longshore Workers Union (ILWU) for a year. After law school Terence was one of the founders of San Francisco's W.E.B. DuBois Club.
Terence Hallinan was also an early propagandist against the Vietnam War.
According to a 1967 FBI report
Typical of such material was an article by Terence Hallinan, then organizational secretary of the DCA, which appeared in the January, 1966, issue of "Dimensions," DCA theoretical quarterly journal.
Hallinan labeled the Vietnam conflict an "aggressive," "imperialistic," and "unjust" war which cannot be won by the United States. He stated that peace will come to Vietnam only as a result of a combination of the efforts made by the National Liberation Front on the battlefields, the pressure which can be brought to bear on our country internationally, and the opposition to the war which can be mobilized here in the United States. He urged DCA members to "help increase and organize the already widespread discontent with the war that exists in this country."
In 1970, in sworn Congressional testimony, Terence Hallinan was accused of attending a Comunist Party cadre training school at Camp Webatuck, New York.
Mathew (Dynamite) Hallinan returned to San Francisco in the early 90s, leaving his post as Communist Party education director to manage his mother's real estate business.
Mathew had spent more than 20 years in the Communist Party and it's youth wings, the Young Workers Liberation League and the DCA.
According to the FBI report cited above;
While the DCA has joined other groups in several national anti-Vietnam activities, the DCA itself initiated a national youth conference which was held on August 27 and 28, 1966, in Washington, D.C. The conference, with the theme of "jobs, peace, and freedom," was called following a resolution passed at the DCA's second National Convention in June, 1966. Along with the DCA, the sponsors included the Students for a Democratic Society; the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; the National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam; and the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, which was expelled from the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1950 as a communist-dominated Union.
Workshops were conducted by DCA leaders and members with CPUSA affiliations including Hugh Fowler, DCA executive secretary; Matthew Hallinan; Charles Harris, Blaine Wishart; and Bettina Aptheker. Two high-level CPUSA functionaries at the conference were George Meyers, chairman of the CPUSA Maryland-District of Columbia District, and Michael Zagarell, CPUSA national youth director.
Today Mathew Hallinan works for socialism through the Democratic Party in the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club. Hallinan claims the club "registered 2/3rds of all new Democratic voters in Alameda County" and played a major role in electing leftist Democratic Congressman Jerry McNerney.
Conn (Ringo)Hallinan, now retired ran the journalism program at the University of California/Santa Cruz.
Hallinan was long time member of the Communist Party and edited the party paper Peoples World.
In 1991 Conn Hallinan joined several hundred party members who split to form a new Marxist-Leninist organisation, Committees of Correspondence (CoC). Another early secret CoC member from the same area was a Democratic California State Senator with communist connections named Barbara Lee.
After her CoC membership was exposed Lee became a Democratic Congresswoman and leader of the leftist progressive congressional caucus with her long time friend Nancy Pelosi.
Conn Hallinan is also an editor for Foreign Policy in Focus,a "project of the Institute for Policy Studies"-the old socialist think tank from the 60s which is enjoying a new lease of life under the Obama administration.
As a senior elected member of the US Congress, Nancy Pelosi has to undergo no security vetting to do her job.
If she was applying for a far more junior salaried position in the US government, she would likely need a security clearance.
Her friends, associations and views would be scrutinised, to the Nth degree.
Would Pelosi's association with Hallinan clan raise any security questions?
What do you think?
Pelosi dossier 2 here
posted by Trevor Loudon at
5/30/2009 02:16:00 PM
14 Comments:
I see you are still selling the "mentor" canard. Although "Dreams From My Father" indicates Davis advised him on racial issues, Obama wrote that Davis "fell short" and his views were "incurable." Obama did not even visit Davis for three years before going to college. Obama's book, itself, proves that Obama did not consider Davis to be a "wise and trusted counselor," which is the definition of "mentor."
By exaggerating evidence that Davis advised Obama, yet ignoring evidence from the same source that Obama did NOT trust Davis's advice, those who claim Davis was Obama's "mentor" are as dishonest as ex-D.A. Mike Nifong. The "Nifong Syndrome" is the stacking of evidence by ignoring evidence that does not fit one's agenda. By portraying Davis as Obama's mentor, despite conclusive evidence to the contrary, Cliff Kincaid and others have proven to be void of journalistic integrity. They are unreliable sources of information on the Davis-Obama relationship.
It is regrettable that so many honest people have been hoodwinked by a skillful disinformation campaign led by conservative firebrand Cliff Kincaid's ironically named "Accuracy In Media" (AIM). Fraudulent memes, unwittingly propagated by well-intentioned bloggers, have spread throughout the blogosphere, which proves the effective of viral disinformation campaigns. Even the title of Kincaid's initial attack, "Obama's Communist Mentor," is itself a masterful deception because it falsely implies that Davis taught communism to young Obama. In only three words, it implied three enduring falsehoods:
- That Davis taught communism to young Obama. In reality, the evidence indicates that although Davis advised Obama on racial issues, he did not even trust that advice.
- That Davis had a continuing relationship with teenage Obama. In reality, Davis was an occasionally visited family friend whom Obama did not even see for three years before college. The Obama campaign directly refuted the mentorship meme, where AIM deliberately misrepresents the Davis-Obama relationship as "almost like a son."
- That Davis was an avowed communist who advocated collectivist principles. In reality, Davis was a small business owner after he joined the CPUSA during WWII as a closet member for other reasons. Davis never publicly admitted his membership, nor did he advocate communism.
By combining innuendo, half-truths and outright fabrication, Obama’s opponents have deliberately misrepresented a casual family friendship as being sordid political indoctrination sessions or worse. In their fervor to malign Obama, they sought to transform the legacy of a relatively obscure leftist poet into a “Stalinist agent” who corrupted Obama’s values. Slander and libel were their tools of the trade, because truth was no obstacle. Destroying Davis’s reputation was collateral damage.
Sesh.
I knew Pelosi was far left, but now it seems like she's way far left.
And oh, kaleokualoha, your denial of Obama not being a close friend to the late Frank Marshall Davis is quite weak at best. I bet if some American Fascist taught a major Republican leader to be propped up for the next American Presidential race, you'd have a field day with it.
Why does it seem like it's okay for mainstream Democratic leaders to have these associations when it comes to open Communist radicals like Davis? Hypocrisy anyone?
It's so typical of the far left to deny Obama's relationship with Frank Marshall Davis. Even though Obama himself admitted his relationship I believe in his own words.
If an old Klan leader was a mentor to a Republican leader, would those same deniers complain about it as much? But I guess to them, some associations are more equal than others.
Mah29001:
You might try following the evidence rather than speculation or wishful thinking. "Dreams" indicates that Obama's grandfather was a close friend of Davis, not Obama himself. The fact that Obama didn't even visit Davis for three years refutes any claim of a "close" friendship. By what creative definition of "close" would someone not visit a close friend who lived in the same town for three years? Do you have any independent evidence of a close friendship? Please!
Further, Davis was not an "open Communist radical." You still believe that falsehood. Once again, he was a closet communist who never publicly admitted his membership in the CPUSA, according to "Accuracy In Media" (AIM). Do you have evidence to the contrary?
Who on the "far left" denied Obama's relationship with Davis? The Obama campaign identified Davis as "Frank" from his book. In case you haven't been paying attention, the issue is not whether they had a relationship. The issue is misrepresenting the nature of the relationship through a disinformation campaign.
You obviously swallowed the disinformation by (a) misrepresenting the relationship as a "close friendship" despite evidence in Obama's book, and (b) misrepresenting Davis as an "open Communist radical" despite evidence in AIM's posts. It's like folks still insisting that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Do you? Did you ever?
Kaleokualoha-for the sake of newer readers I think it is fair to let them know you are Frank Marshall Davis's son.
FMD reportedly caused friction inside the Hawaiian CP with his anti white views.
Obama had a white mother and grandparents, so i think it is perfectly possible that Obama absorbed FMD's socialism, but not his alleged racism.
FMD was involved in CP causes from around 1931 to at least 1974. He may have had a small business, but many communists did-especially those involved in espionage or deep cover subversion.
FMD was observed by the FBI on several occasions photographing remote Hawaiian beaches-what was that all about?
He also held office in the Democratic Party while still in the CP-happens all the time, but what was he up to?
Why did he never publicly admit membership, while being involved in several known CP fronts?
The three year gap-I simply don't believe it.
The key question is-did FMD's Chicago connections help Obama's career when he moved to that city?
I have a little evidence on that coming up.
Genuinely good to hear from you Mark-thanks.
"You obviously swallowed the disinformation by (a) misrepresenting the relationship as a "close friendship" despite evidence in Obama's book, and (b) misrepresenting Davis as an "open Communist radical" despite evidence in AIM's posts. It's like folks still insisting that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Do you? Did you ever?"
I'm pretty sure you'd likely not say this denial BS, if it were a Republican whom had an old KKK mentor and was gearing up to become the USA's next President. Why is it that anyone on the left whom has the same brand of extremist views get away?
Anyone on the left can have extremist views and not be attacked for them. Yet if anyone on the right had similar extremist views I'm sure you'd file a complaint or two. That's the bottom line in your outright hypocrisy.
Mah29001: Still swallowing that "mentor" claim? Because Obama did not trust Davis's advice, he was not a trusted advisor, and therefore he does not meet the definition of "mentor." Sorry.
Hypocrisy? I understand "hypocrisy" to be pretending to have a principle. If you are implying that I am a hypocrite, then please advise: What principle do I pretend to have? Please quote where I claimed to have a principle, and provide proof that it was a pretense. (Assumed principles do not count, because that would create a straw man.)
BTW: If you read my blog, your would find that your claim that "Anyone on the left can have extremist views and not be attacked for them" is garbage. To whom are you referring? I do not make of habit of attacking anyone. Please provide examples, please. To refute any possible assumption that I do not attack people on the far left, please read my criticism of CPUSA member Alan Maki. Also, Frank Marshall Davis criticized Stalin.
Trevor: Good to hear from you too. Please elaborate:
- Please provide evidence that "FMD reportedly caused friction inside the Hawaiian CP with his anti white views." Remember that he married a white woman. Who, prior to 2008, alleges Davis's "racism"? Links, please.
- What "CP causes" was he involved in prior to WWII? Publishing in CPUSA funded periodicals or something else?
- Re: photography. Davis was an accomplished photographer of people and scenery. Although he was a journalist, photography was his hobby. We have many family photographs of our childhood.
- Although I agree that anything is "possible," Obama "absorbing" Davis's socialism is extremely unlikely. If you are speaking of Marxist socialism, or support of collectivist principles, then Obama could not have absorbed them from Davis because Davis never advocated such a system. If you are speaking of mixed economy "socialism," then that is a different issue. According to your colleague Cliff Kincaid, Bush and McCain also traveled down the road to socialism. As a matter of fact, Newsweek's cover story recently announced that "We Are All Socialists Now."
University of Kansas Professor Edgar Tidwell, whom AIM's Cliff Kincaid cites as "an expert on the life and writings of Davis," dismisses misrepresentation of Davis's influence in one simple paragraph: "Although my research indicates that Davis joined the CPUSA as a "closet member" during World War II, there is no evidence that he was a Stalinist, or even a Party member before WWII. Further, to those attempting to make the specious stand for the concrete, there is no evidence that he instructed Barack Obama in communist ideology. Frank Marshall Davis did NOT believe in overthrowing the USA. He was committed to what the nation professed to be. For him, communism was primarily an intellectual vehicle to achieve a political end-a possible tool for gaining the constitutional freedoms of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for ALL Americans" (see http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/Kaleokualoha ).
If you accept Professor Tidwell's incriminating evidence regarding Davis's CPUSA involvement, integrity dictates that you also accept Professor Tidwell's exculpatory evidence on the same issue. Otherwise you are stacking the evidence in direct violation of investigative journalism ethics.
- Do you have ANY evidence to reject Obama's claim of a three year gap, or is it pure speculation because it supports your agenda? This would also be stacking the evidence.
- Why did he never admit membership? Good question, but one that can only be answered through speculation. Since he did not believe in collectivism, perhaps he did not admit membership because the cost of admission would exceed the benefits. He seems to have joined the CPUSA for other reasons. Membership had its privileges.
He joined the CPUSA because of the professional and social opportunities it presented. He joined the CPUSA during WWII, just as the United States joined the Soviet Union during WWII, not because they shared the delusion of a communist utopia. Each was a marriage of convenience
Vilifying a writer for continuing to publish in CPUSA-supported publications, when they provided his only significant institutional support, is completely unfair. Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, and Frank Marshall Davis all took advantage of this institutional support.
For those who question whether anyone would join the CPUSA without internalizing collectivist values, examples abound in more recent developments. Russians and Chinese joined their respective Communist parties because membership was important to professional advancement. Mikhail Gorbachev rejected these values in dismantling the Soviet Union. Leaders of the PRC's capitalist boom are nevertheless pro forma Party members.
Even today people join some organizations, such as churches and the YMCA, without internalizing their core values because membership has its advantages. I believe everyone will agree that many so-called "Christians" have not internalized Christian values. Some could argue that Stalinism perverted the core values of Marxism, just as the Spanish Inquisition and pedophile priests perverted the core values of Christianity.
Davis and USG officials praised the Red Army during WWII when the Soviets were our allies. "Frank Marshall Davis wrote poetry attacking Stalin by name, which appeared in his collections "I Am The American Negro" (1937) and "47th Street Poems" (1948)" (see page 48 of "The New Red Negro" at
http://books.google.com/books?id=kt5LMD-OnxoC&pg=PA48&lpg=PA48&dq=%22the+new+red+negro%22+communist+davis&source=web&ots=B-HaNJA9HW&sig=ZiOltjxuI1QwdjCAvvEC0f4NnGQ&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPA48,M1)
"The FBI regarded your father worthy of internment if war broke out with the Soviet union. only the most hardcore reds were awarded that honor."
History has shown the error of their ways. Despite years of investigation, he was never charged, much less convicted, of any crime. Our "standards of internment" were officially repudiated through apologies to internment victims. Further, J. Edgar Hoover even considered Dr. King to be a communist. His impaired judgment was repudiated by the official designation of King's birthday as a national holiday. My father was in good company.
"The bottom line is mark that your dad supported the CP line for more than 40 years."
What "CP line" is that? Inherently communist causes such as collectivism, or causes supported by people of integrity across the political spectrum, such as civil rights? Does it make a difference to you?
"The way to combat noxious ideas is with other ideas. The way to combat falsehoods is with truth."
- William O. Douglas
This amibguous term may be misunderstood due to the "fallacy of equivocation," which is the misleading use of a term with more than one meaning or sense (by glossing over which meaning is intended at a particular time. It occurs when an equivocal word or phrase makes an unsound argument appear sound (see http://www.fallacyfiles.org/equivoqu.html).
Maybe Obama did not see Frank Marshall Davis for one of 2 reasons: 1. He found out Frank Marshall Davis was in fact his father and the news completely shocked him.
or
2.frank Marshall Davis was having sex with him when they were both stoned adn Obama couldn't get over that.....Afterall Davis was a seld confessed sex addict.
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