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| This page is organized in "loose" chronological
order. Blue titles are "hot links." |
| Political
Jiu
Jitsu |
When Obama got the chance to run for the
state senate in a district that included Hyde Park, the home of the
university and some of the poorest ghettos on the South Side,
he jumped at it.
In 1995, Alice Palmer represented the state's 13th District, and decided to run for
the United States Congress. She hand-picked Obama to run to replace her.
Palmer
introduced her chosen successor, Barack Obama, to a few of the
district's influential liberals at the home of two well-known figures on
the local left: William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, former members of
the terrorist Weather Underground.
"I remember being one of a small group of people who came to Bill Ayers'
house to learn that Alice Palmer was stepping down from the Senate and
running for Congress," says Quentin Young, a prominent Chicago physician
and advocate for single-payer health care. "(Palmer) identified (Obama)
as her successor."
Ten years earlier, Palmer was an executive board member of the U.S.
Peace Council, which the FBI identified as a communist front group,
an affiliate of the World Peace Council, a Soviet front group.
Palmer participated in the World Peace Council's 1983 Prague Assembly,
part of the Soviet launch of the nuclear-freeze movement. The only
thing it would have frozen was the Soviet Union's military superiority.
In June 1986, while editor of the Black Press Review, she wrote an
article for the Communist Party USA's newspaper, the People's Daily
World, now the People's Weekly World. It detailed her experience
attending the 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
and how impressed she was by the Soviet system.
Palmer gushed at the "Soviet plan to provide people with higher wages
and better education" and spoke of the efficiency of the Soviets' most
recent five-year plan, attributing its success to "central planning."
She praised their "comprehensive affirmative action program, which they
have stuck to religiously -- if I can use the word -- since 1917."
Palmer also marveled that all Russian citizens were guaranteed a job
matching their training and skills, free education, affordable housing
and free medical care. Because Soviet school curricula were
established at the national level, she said, "there is no second-class
'track' system in the minority-nationality schools as there is in the
inferior inner city schools in my hometown, Chicago, and elsewhere in
the United States."
Well, Alice lost the congressional race to Jesse Jackson, Jr., and decided that she wanted to
hang onto that hard-won state senate seat. Most of the community
leaders tried to persuade Obama to withdraw and wait his turn. He was a
newcomer after all.
Obama said no. He had every right to do so, but he decided to fight her
for the nomination instead of stepping aside in deference to her.
Instead Obama performed his first real act of political jujitsu.
He sent his aides to the courthouse to carefully examine all of Alice
Palmer's signatures to see if enough could be disallowed to knock her
off the ballot altogether. And indeed, some of Alice's signatures
were fake. The aides also found enough other fake signatures on
opponents' ballot initiatives to knock them off the ballot as well.
"They began the tedious process of
challenging hundreds of signatures on the nominating petitions of
state Sen. Alice Palmer, the longtime progressive activist from the
city's South Side. And they kept challenging petitions until every one
of Obama's four Democratic primary rivals was forced off the ballot."
Obama ran unopposed in the primary.
By the time Barack Obama walked handily into his state senate seat,
everyone there knew him as "the man who knocked off Alice Palmer."
Quite a feat indeed for the newcomer, the young whippersnapper with the
odd name.
A close examination of Obama's
first campaign clouds the image he has cultivated throughout his
political career. The man now running for president on a message
of giving a voice to the voiceless first entered public office not by
leveling the playing field, but by clearing it. |
| Obama's Political
Baseline |
Obama's "General Candidate Questionnaire" (.pdf),
was completed during his first run for the
Illinois State Senate makes for some interesting reading.
Among his responses are the following:
"I have been a financial support of...Alice Palmer" --
Alice Palmer was a
board member
of the US Peace Council, identified by the FBI as a front organization
of the Communist Party USA. She attended the 27th Congress of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union and came away favorably impressed by
the Soviet system.
...state why you feel you should be endorsed... --
"...long-standing commitment to social justice issues." --
Social Justice: Code word for Socialism-Communism.
Please outline...criteria for hiring and promoting public employees.
-- "I am a strong supporter of affirmative action programs that ensure
qualified minorities, women and gays and lesbians are actively recruited
and supported at all levels of government.
Biographical sketch -- ...five years working as community
organizer, first in Harlem, then in Chicago. -- When did Obama organize
in Harlem? Was this what he was doing when he claimed to be at Columbia
University? Why is it that no one
remembers ever seeing him at Columbia? Why is there no
picture of him in the yearbook?
...recipient of the 1995 Legal Eagle Award...for his work in bringing
Illinois into compliance with the
National Voter Registration Act (Motor Voter).
...serves on the boards of...Chicago Annenberg Challenge
(Chairman), the Joyce
Foundation (anti-gun),
the Woods Fund of Chicago,
Center for Neighborhood Technology, the Chicago Committee for Civil
Rights Under the Law and Public Allies.
...is married to Michelle Obama and is a member of
Trinity
United Church of Christ. (pastor:
Rev.
Jeremiah A. Wright)
Do you support Merit Selection of judges? -- Yes, although it would be
important to construct a system that ensures adequate minority
representation on the bench... -- Obama supports
quotas.
Do you support increasing income taxes to relieve or replace
property taxes? Yes.
Will you vote to increase state funding (taxes) to at least 50%
of public education costs? Yes.
Do you support vouchers or other means of public funding for
private or parochial schools? No.
Do you support public financing of election campaigns?
Yes. -- He just won't use those monies -- It
limits his foreign contributions.
Do you favor adding sexual orientation to Human Rights Act?
Yes.
Do you favor domestic partnership legislation? Yes.
Do you favor amending professional Regulation legislation to
prohibit discrimination against board-certified graduates of foreign
schools? Yes.
Do you support mandatory AIDS testing for insurance or
employment? No.
Do you favor comparable worth for state employees? Yes
-- a truly bad
notion.
Do you support the right of public employees to strike?
Yes. -- he doesn't exempt cops and firemen.
Do you support family leave legislation for private employment?
Yes.
What is You Position on raising the minimum wage? I
support it.
What is You Position on establishing a lower minimum wage for minors?
Opposed.
What is You Position on including farm workers and household
employees under existing labor laws? Support.
W ill you support a single-payer health plan for Illinois?
Yes. -- Socialized medicine.
Do you support Medicaid funding for abortions? Yes.
Do you support insurance coverage of abortions for state employees?
Yes.
Do you support parental consent/notification for minors seeking
abortions? Depends on how
young -- possibly for extremely young teens, i.e. 12 or 13 year olds.
Do you support any other restrictions on abortions. No. --
and that includes partial birth abortions.
Do you support cost of living adjustment for public aid
recipients? Yes.
Do you support workfare? Yes.
Do you support restrictions on welfare benefits for teen mothers?
No.
Do you support restrictions on benefits for women who have
children while on welfare? No. --
Go for it girls -- see if you can set a new record -- the more the
merrier!
Do you support repeal of the six month limit for receiving
general assistance? Yes. -- Welfare
for life!
Do you support restoration of the Aid to the Medical Indigent
program. Yes. -- Welfare for bums!
Do you support capital punishment? No.
Do you support criminal prosecution of juveniles as adults?
No. -- Not even if they commit multiple
murders?
Do you support mandatory sentencing? No.
Do you support work release, home monitoring, other alternative
sentencing? Yes. -- Rezko
will be thrilled.
Do you support state legislation to ban the manufacture, sale and
possession of handguns? Yes.
Do you support state legislation to ban assault weapons? Yes.
Do you support state legislation to mandatory waiting periods and
background checks? Yes. |
| The
Book |
As part of Obama's first run for office, he releases his memoir/fable,
"Dreams of My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance," in which he acknowledges that he
used marijuana and cocaine as a high school and college student but rejected heroin. "Pot had helped, and
booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though," he
wrote.
On "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (12/5/2006) Obama was asked by Leno about taking drugs. Said Leno, "Remember, Senator, you are under oath.
Did you inhale?"
Replied Obama, "That was the point." In his book, Obama excuses
his drug use as "reflective of the struggles and confusion of a teenage
boy; teenage boys are frequently confused."
Even more incriminating than the fact that Obama inhaled and admits to "maybe a little blow," Obama is a cigarette smoker, actually, a chain smoker. |
| Obama's Introduction To Politics |
| As part of her transition out of power, the
communist, Alice Palmer, introduced her
successor, Barack Obama, to a few of the district's influential "liberals"
at the home of left-wing terrorists,
William Ayers
and Bernardine Dohrn -- long-time friends of the Obamas. |
| ACORN |
In 1995, Obama represented
ACORN on
voting-rights legislation, when former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar refused to
implement the federal "Motor Voter" law, which Republicans argued could
invite fraud and which some Republicans feared could swell the ranks of
Democratic voters.
Toni Foulkes, a Chicago ACORN leader and a member of ACORN’s National
Association Board claims that ACORN specifically sought out Obama’s
representation in the "Motor Voter"
case, remembering Obama from the days when he worked with Talbot.
And while many reports speak of Obama’s post-law school role organizing
"Project VOTE" in 1992, Foulkes makes it clear that this project was
undertaken in direct partnership with ACORN. Foulkes then stresses
Obama’s yearly service as a key figure in ACORN’s leadership-training
seminars.
At least a few news reports have briefly mentioned Obama’s role in
training ACORN’s leaders, but none that I know of have said what Foulkes
reports next: that Obama’s long service with ACORN led many members to
serve as the volunteer shock troops of Obama’s early political campaigns
-- his initial 1996 State Senate campaign, and his failed bid for
Congress in 2000 (Foulkes confuses the dates of these two campaigns.)
With Obama having personally helped train a new cadre of Chicago ACORN
leaders, by the time of Obama’s 2004 U.S. Senate campaign, Obama and
ACORN, arguably the most politically radical large-scale activist group
in the country were "old friends," says Foulkes.
The ACORN File |
| Joyce
Foundation |
During this period, Obama
served as a director of the Joyce Foundation. While on the
Joyce Foundation board, Obama funneled tens of millions of dollars to
radical gun control organizations such as the Illinois Council Against
Handgun Violence and the Violence Policy Center.
Obama claims that Illinois sportsmen know him as an advocate for their
rights. On the contrary, Obama's voting record while a state
senator clearly indicates that he has nothing but contempt for the
law-abiding firearm owner.
"Any sportsman who counts Barack Obama as one of his friends is
seriously confused," said ISRA Executive Director Richard Pearson.
"Throughout his tenure in the Illinois Senate, Obama served as one of
the most loyal foot soldiers in Mayor Daley's campaign to abolish
civilian firearm ownership."
"While a state senator, Obama voted for
legislation that would ban and forcibly confiscate nearly every shotgun,
target rifle and hunting rifle in the state. Obama also voted for
bills that would ration the number of firearms a law-abiding citizen
could own, yet give a pass to the violent thugs who roam our streets.
And, inexplicably, Obama voted four times against legislation that would
allow citizens to use firearms to defend their homes and families." |
| Gun
Grabber |
During his first run for elected office, Barack Obama played a
greater
role than his aides now acknowledge in crafting liberal stands on
gun control, the death penalty and abortion -- positions that appear at
odds with the more moderate image he has projected during his
presidential campaign.
The evidence comes from an amended version of an Illinois voter group's
detailed questionnaire, filed under his name during his 1996 bid for a
state Senate seat.
Late last year, in response to a Politico story about Obama's answers to
the original questionnaire, his aides said he "never saw or approved"
the questionnaire.
They asserted the responses were filled out by a campaign aide who
"unintentionally mischaracterized his position."
But a Politico examination determined that Obama was actually
interviewed about the issues on the questionnaire by the liberal Chicago
nonprofit group that issued it. And it found that Obama -- the day
after sitting for the interview -- filed an amended version of the
questionnaire, which appears to contain Obama's own handwritten notes
added to one answer. |
| Follow
The Money |
The
pattern of funneling money to political allies and their allies is
evident throughout Obama’s tenure at the Woods Fund. Tens and tens
of thousands of dollars were granted to organizations including the
Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, Business and Professional People for
the Public Interest (BPPPI), the Center for Neighborhood Technology,
Centers for New Horizons, the Chicago Jobs Council, the Chicago
Education Fund, the Chicago Institute on Urban Poverty, the Chicago
Urban League, The Gamaliel Foundation. Dozens of the board members and
officials from these organizations in turn would donate money, in many
instances up to the legal limit, for Obama’s Senate and Presidential
races between 2004 and 2008.
For example the Woods Fund between 1999 and 2002 granted $60,000 to
BPPPI. Board member and executives donated at least $16,950 to
Obama’s political campaigns. The Woods Fund granted the Center of
Neighborhood Technology $150,000 between 1999 and 2002. Obama
received over $24,000 in campaign donations from its officials.
And in turn Obama made sure to seek earmarks on their behalf once he
reached the U.S. Senate.
In 1999, the Woods Fund even granted $50,000 to the Annenberg Challenge.
Another
recipient of the Woods Fund largesse was the Association of
Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), an organization infamous
for its left wing agenda.
A similar pattern of mutual financial help existed with regard to many
of these organizations. While there is no evidence of an explicit
quid pro quo, what is apparent is that the seeds of long term
relationships and a network of financial support were sewn while Obama
was a Woods board member. |
| Who
Wrote
The Book |
Ayers and Obama both
grew up in comfortable white households and have struggled to find
an identity as righteous black men ever since.
Just as Obama resisted "the pure and heady breeze of privilege" to which
he was exposed as a child, Ayers too resisted "white skin privilege" or
at least tried to.
"I also thought I was black," says Ayers only half-jokingly. He
read all the books Obama did -- James Baldwin, Leroi Jones, Richard
Wright, The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
As proof of his righteousness, Ayers named his first son "Malik" after
the newly Islamic Malcolm X and the second son "Zayd" after Zayd Shakur,
a Black Panther killed in a shootout that claimed the life of a New
Jersey State Trooper.
Tellingly, Ayers, like Obama, began his careers as a self-described
"community organizer," Ayers in inner-city Cleveland, Obama in
inner-city Chicago.
In short, Ayers was fully capable of crawling inside Obama's head and
relating in superior prose what the Dreams' author calls a "rage at the
white world [that] needed no object."
Jack Cashill's
perspective . . . |
| 2° of
Separation |
"President Hugo Chavez, Vice-President Vicente Rangel,
Ministers Moncada and Isturiz, invited guests,comrades. I'm
honored and humbled to be here with you this morning. I bring
greetings and support from your brothers and sisters throughout Northamerica. Welcome to the World Education Forum! Amamos
la revolucion Bolivariana!"
These are the opening remarks from Obama sponsor, Bill Ayers, to the
Marxists, communists and socialists at the World Education Forum,
November, 2006. Read the rest at the link.
From Bill Ayers blog -- the red star is a nice
touch. |
| Mike
Klonsky |
"The Small Schools Workshop was
founded
in 1991 at the University of Illinois at Chicago to provide support for
teachers who were trying to create new smaller learning environments.
Its director was Michael Klonsky, a former professor of education at the
University of Illinois, Chicago."
"One of Bill Ayers' and Bernardine Dohrn's comrades in the late 60s
Students for a Democratic Society was Mike Klonsky. When Dohrn and
Ayers moved in one direction toward the violent tactics of the Weather
Underground, Klonsky, in the wake of the Soviet invasion of
Czechoslovakia, dropped the pro-Russian communist politics of his
parents and became a committed Maoist. As leader of the Communist
Party Marxist-Leninist (CPML) in 1977 he travelled to Beijing and
was toasted by the senior Beijing leadership.
When the crazy left of the 70s died in the 80s, Klonsky resigned as
party chairman, and the CPML disbanded that same year. Klonsky
went to graduate school in education in Florida and then moved to
Chicago.
While driving a cab there he was recruited by his old friend Bill Ayers
to head up a new project called the Small Schools Workshop in 1991.
It's offices were in the Department of Education building at the
University of Illinois Chicago Circle Campus where Ayers taught.
In 1995 the newly formed Chicago Annenberg Challenge headed by Ayers and
Obama gave the Workshop a grant of $175,000.
The Annenberg Challenge also had its office space in the same building
as Ayers Department and the Workshop, rent free courtesy of the
University.
In 2008 Klonsky
ran a blog on the official Obama campaign website on education
policy and "social justice" teaching. When discussion of the
Klonsky blog emerged in the blogosphere, it was promptly shut down by
the campaign and all of the posts made by Klonsky were removed from the
site."
This communist has been
super-close to Obama for 20 years. |
| Obama
Defends
Ayers |
On Sunday, April 21st, Obama took the
low road in defending his relationship with the terrorist, Bill
Ayers. Obama invoked some bizarre kind of moral equivalence
between Ayers' explosive past and that of a Senate colleague, Tom Coburn
of Oklahoma.
During the debate, Obama had said, "I'm also friendly with Tom Coburn,
one of the most conservative Republicans in the United States Senate,
who during his campaign once said that it might be appropriate to apply
the death penalty to those who carried out abortions. Do I need to
apologize for Coburn's statements?"
No, Sen. Obama, just your own, including this latest round. Coburn
may be pro-life, but -- unlike Ayers -- he never acted violently on his
beliefs. Coburn, a doctor who has delivered more than 4,000
babies, never bombed an abortion clinic. The Oklahoman made his
remark in the context of abortion being made illegal, which it isn't.
As someone once said of another famous senator: Sen. Obama, have you no
shame?
John McCain found Obama's remarks offensive, saying "Coburn was a great
humanitarian," and "to compare him (Ayers) with Dr. Coburn, who spends
so much of his life bringing babies into this world, that in my view is
really -- borders on the outrageous. He became friends with him
and spent time with him while the guy was unrepentant over his
activities as a member of a terrorist organization, the Weatherman.
Does he condemn them? Would he condemn someone who says they're
unrepentant and wished they had bombed more?" |
|
Socialism |
|
Obama is elected to the
Illinois State Senate as a
Democrat.
During his run,
Obama receives the endorsement of the
Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) for the Illinois state senate
seat.
Later, the Chicago DSA newsletter reported that Obama, as a state
senator, showed up
to eulogize
Saul Mendelson, one of the "champions" of "Chicago's
democratic left" and a long-time socialist activist.
Obama is/was an associate of the Chicago branch of the DSA.
A close examination of Obama's
first campaign clouds the image he has cultivated throughout his
political career. The man now running for president on a message
of giving a voice to the voiceless first entered public office not by
leveling the playing field, but by clearing it. |
| Million
Man
March |
Barack Obama, the uniter across party lines, across religions, across
racial divides, wasn't always Mr. Sunshine. He had a
different view 12 years ago, when his campaign was more localized.
He was 34 years old: a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law
School -- bastions of power and wealth. He was the beneficiary of
the best education America had to offer. What were his feelings at
age 34? Resentment, hyper-partisan, and accusatory towards whites,
Republicans and the so-called Christian right.
As Barack Obama prepared to run for the state Senate he spoke up shortly
after the Million Man March lead by Louis Farrakhan -- or as Barack
Obama honorifically recently titled him, Minister Farrakhan, he said:
"These are mean, cruel times, exemplified by a 'lock ‘em up, take no
prisoners' mentality that dominates the Republican-led Congress.
Historically, African-Americans have turned inward and towards black
nationalism whenever they have a sense, as we do now, that the
mainstream has rebuffed us, and that white Americans couldn't care less
about the profound problems African-Americans are facing."
"The right wing, the Christian right, has done a good job of building
these organizations of accountability, much better than the left or
progressive forces have. But it's always easier to organize around
intolerance, narrow-mindedness, and false nostalgia. And they also
have hijacked the higher moral ground with this language of family
values and moral responsibility."
Barack Obama has commented on the value of words to inspire, to bring
about change. What kind of change was he talking about in his mid
30's when most of us had already given up the rebellion we flirted with,
and the resentments that beset us, in college? |
| Payback |
Obama
stopped working full-time for Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Gallard once
he took office in 1997. He remained associated with the firm until
he was elected to the U.S. Senate nearly eight years later.
In some instances, Illinois state Sen. Obama took action that could have
benefited some of his firm's clients. In 1998, for instance, he
used state Senate stationery to urge that state and city officials
provide tax subsidies to help a partnership consisting of Davis and
Rezko develop low-income housing, the Chicago Sun-Times reported last
year.
In 2001, Obama was coauthor of a law that created a tax credit for
people who donate land, buildings or construction material to help
develop low-income housing.
Illinois state Rep. Jack D. Franks, a Democrat, lauded the bill, which
garnered near-unanimous support. But Franks said that while the
measure helped Obama's low-income constituents, it raises questions
because his law firm's clients could have benefited from it.
"Someone else should have carried this legislation," said Franks, who
has endorsed Obama's Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"I can't fault him for the idea. But he is wearing two hats.
He is a legislator, and he is serving as a private attorney whose client
interests benefited here. This goes to the judgment issue."
Obama strategist Axelrod scoffed at the notion that Obama should have
avoided such legislation.
He said that the beneficiaries were nonprofit corporations and people in
need of low-cost housing.
"The shortage of affordable housing is a major public-policy concern of
his and of the state," Axelrod said.
"His view of public policy is that you should use the tools of
government to deal with some of the crying social needs that we have." |
| Empathy |
| Obama
introduces "Islamic Community Day" bill -- Synopsis of Bill as
introduced: Declares November 1, 1997 to be South Shore Islamic
Community Center Day. |
| Obama
Loses |
|
Three years later, in September 1999, Obama was already
preparing his first national campaign.
He ran for U.S. Congress against veteran incumbent Bobby Rush, a
former co-founder of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party.
Rush painted the largely unknown freshman lawmaker as an out-of-touch
elitist, and won the 2000 primary by more than 30 percentage points. |
| Arab
American
Action
Network |
The directors of the Woods Fund, including Obama and Ayers, provided a $40,000 grant to the
Arab American Action Network, or AAAN.
The co-founder of the AAAN, Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi,
was a
director of the official PLO press agency WAFA in Beirut from 1976
to 1982, while it was involved in anti-Western terrorism and was labeled
by the State Department as a terror group. He also has held a
fundraiser for Obama.
Khalidi's wife, Mona,
serves as president. The Fund provided a second grant to the AAAN
for $35,000 in 2002.
The $40,000 grant from Obama's Woods Fund to the AAAN constituted about
a fifth of the Arab group's reported grants for 2001, according to tax
filings
obtained by WND. The $35,000 Woods Fund grant in 2002 also
constituted about one-fifth of AAAN's reported grants for that year.
Oh, and Obama
accepted a $200
contribution from his friend William Ayers. |
| Halal
Food
Act |
In 2001, Obama
sponsors Illinois
Senate Bill 750
creating the "Halal Food Act," providing for inspections by the
Department of Agriculture to ensure that all food labeled Halal is
prepared according to Islamic law.
This act plays into
Islamization. Here's how it works
and how Halal food plays a role. |
| On
Abortion |
As an Illinois state senator, Obama opposed a
bill to define as a "person" a fully born baby who survived an abortion.
In 2001, three bills were proposed to help babies who survived
induced labor abortions. One, like the federal Born Alive Infants
bill, simply said a living "homo sapiens" wholly emerged from his mother
should be treated as a "'person,' 'human being,' 'child' and
'individual.'"
On all three bills, Obama voted "present," effectively the same as a
"no." Defining "a pre-viable fetus" that survived an abortion as a
"person" or "child," he argued, "would essentially bar abortions,
because the Equal Protection Clause does not allow somebody to kill a
child, and if this is a child, then this would be an anti-abortion
statute."
In 2002,
Obama voted "no" on the bill. |
| Blackwell |
After his unsuccessful campaign for Congress in 2000, Obama faced serious financial pressure: numerous debts,
limited cash and a law practice he had neglected for a year.
Help
arrived in early 2001 from a significant new legal client -- a
longtime political supporter.
Chicago entrepreneur Robert Blackwell Jr. paid Obama an $8,000-a-month
retainer to give legal advice to his growing technology firm, Electronic
Knowledge Interchange. It allowed Obama to supplement his $58,000
part-time state Senate salary for over a year with regular payments from
Blackwell's firm that eventually totaled $112,000.
A few months after receiving his final payment from EKI, Obama sent a
request on state Senate letterhead urging Illinois officials to provide
a $50,000 tourism promotion grant to another Blackwell company,
Killerspin.
Killerspin specializes in table tennis, running tournaments nationwide
and selling its own line of equipment and apparel and DVD recordings of
the competitions. With support from Obama, other state officials
and an Obama aide who went to work part time for Killerspin, the company
eventually obtained $320,000 in state grants between 2002 and 2004 to
subsidize its tournaments. |
| Opposes Liberation Of
Iraq |
| On October,
2nd, 2002, Obama gives a speech at an antiwar rally in Chicago
opposing the invasion of Iraq, saying, "I am not opposed to all wars. I
am opposed to dumb wars." |
| Grove
Parc |
As a state senator, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee
coauthored an Illinois law creating a new pool of tax credits for
developers. As a US senator, he pressed for increased federal
subsidies. And as a presidential candidate, he has campaigned on a
promise to create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund that could give
developers an estimated $500 million a year.
But a Globe review found that thousands of apartments across Chicago
that had been built with local, state, and federal subsidies --
including several hundred in Obama's former district -- deteriorated so
completely that they were no longer habitable.
Grove Parc and several other prominent failures were
developed and managed by Obama's close friends and political supporters.
Those people profited from the subsidies even as many of Obama's
constituents suffered. Tenants lost their homes; surrounding
neighborhoods were blighted.
The squat brick buildings of Grove Parc Plaza, in a dense neighborhood
that Barack Obama represented for eight years as a state senator, hold
504 apartments subsidized by the federal government for people who can't
afford to live anywhere else.
But it's not safe to live here. (video)
About 99 of the units are vacant, many rendered uninhabitable by unfixed
problems, such as collapsed roofs and fire damage. Mice scamper
through the halls. Battered mailboxes hang open. Sewage
backs up into kitchen sinks. In 2006, federal inspectors graded the
condition of the complex an 11 on a 100-point scale -- a score so bad
the buildings now face demolition.
Obama -- judgment and experience -- you betcha! |
|
A Perfect Progressive |
Obama, who has no
military service record, has shown via his
political history in Illinois, that he is a nearly perfect
Progressive-Democrat.
While in the Illinois State Senate, Obama is named Chairman of the
Health and Human Services Committee. His distinguished works include
passing bill to assist children and adults who cannot afford health
insurance; increasing funding for AIDS prevention and care; a law
requiring police to videotape interrogations for crimes punishable by
the death penalty; a law requiring insurance companies to cover routine
mammograms; legislation to curb racial profiling.
Obama supports homosexual marriage, racial preferences, banning all guns, flag-burning, socialized medicine and the absolute right to abortion, including partial-birth abortions. He voted against requiring medical care for aborted fetuses who survive.
Obama is anti-war, voted against the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act, against privatizing Social Security and opposes the death penalty, three strikes laws and school vouchers.
He has no military service record. He strongly supports the
decriminalization of marijuana.
Obama opposed the Defense of Marriage Act; would work to repeal
it in the U.S. Senate; would not vote for any legislation that would
restrict the ability of gays and lesbians to marry.
Obama opposed the Born Alive Infant Protection Act four times in
Illinois. A similar bill passed the U.S. Senate 98-0. The Born Alive
bill would have prohibited a baby from being born alive but left to die according to the mother's wishes.
Obama opposed this bill not once, twice, or three times, but four times.
Obama took almost $90,000 in bundled contributions from the Council for
a Livable World. The council is a well-known anti-defense organization.
Obama puts rigid ideology before what's best for the people of Illinois,
and presumably he would do that as President as well. He has on several
occasions made public his opposition to the NAFTA trade agreement and
his belief that it must be negotiated. All the while thanks to NAFTA,
Illinois exports $1.3 billion in agricultural goods to Canada.
Obama refused to vote for a bill in the Illinois State Senate that would
have increased penalties for drug traffickers.
Obama voted against a bill that would have delivered the death penalty
to gang members who murder first responders.
Obama was the only member of the Illinois State Senate to vote against a
bill that prohibited early release for sexual predators. |
| "Present" |
Controversial votes when Obama was a state senator were avoided by
voting "present" 107 times or claiming later that he erred by pressing the wrong
button and didn't really mean to take that position.
Seen in the context of the "Great Game" the left plays with the American
people in trying to mask their liberalism for fear of rejection by the
voter, Obama, it turns out, is a master of "post partisan problem
solving" -– hiding his liberalism under an avalanche of platitudes and
feel-good bromides that have his supporters swooning and the media
eating out of his hand. |
| License |
Obama
opted to voluntarily assume inactive status as an attorney in 2008.
Some suggest that he did not renew his law license so as to avoid being
subject to possible discipline by the Attorney Registration and
Disciplinary Commission (ARDC) of the Supreme Court of Illinois.
The ARDC has investigatory powers in addition to registration
recordkeeping responsibilities. |
| Vote
Rigging |
Obama should be indicted under 18 USC
1346 (the same code section under which Rezko was convicted) for his
actions on the boards legislation in 2003. Here, in detail is a
chronology of Obama's illegal activity.
The following comes from Evelyn Pringle's
opednews.com "Curtain Time" series.
"That part of the scheme will likely be detailed in future indictments,
probably starting with Blagojevich. Blagojevich signed the
Illinois Health Facilities Planning Act with an effective date of June
27, 2003. However, before he could sign the act, a bill had to be
passed by the Illinois House and Senate. As discussed fully in
Curtain Time Part II, Obama was the inside guy in the senate who pushed
through the legislation that resulted in the Act.
Obama was appointed chairman of the Senate Health and Human Services
Committee. The minute the bill was introduced, it was referred to
his committee for review. The sponsors of the bill also served on
this committee with Obama. Within a month, Chairman Obama sent
word to the full senate that the legislation should be passed.
On May 31, 2003, Senate Bill 1332 passed and specified that the "Board
shall be appointed by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the
Senate." The legislation reduced the number of members from 15 to
9, paving the way for the appointment of a five-bloc majority to rig the
votes.
The corrupt members appointed included three doctors who contributed to
Obama. Michel Malek gave Obama $10,000 on June 30, 2003 and
donated $25,000 to Blagojevich on July 25, 2003. Malek also gave
Obama another $500 in September 2003.
Fortunee Massuda donated $25,000 to Blagojevich on July 25, 2003, and
gave a total of $2,000 to Obama on different dates. After he was
appointed, Dr. Imad Almanaseer contributed a total of $3,000 to Obama.
Almanaseer did not give money to Blagojevich.
When the first pay-to-play scheme was put in play, and the application
for approval of a new hospital was submitted, the Department of Human
Services, along with four other Illinois agencies, sent recommendations
that the project should be approved even though experts said the
hospital was not needed.
During the trial, Rezko's attorney presented an email exchange to the
jury that hinted at Obama's role in setting up the scheme. The
exchange showed that Obama and seven other top Illinois politicians
consulted on the legislation passed in 2003 and were involved in
recommending the members for the board.
Matthew Pickering wrote the memo to Blagojevich's general counsel, Susan
Lichtenstein, on behalf of David Wilhelm, a former chairman of the
Democratic National Committee, who headed Blagojevich's 2002 campaign
for governor.
Pickering said he and Wilhelm had "worked closely" over six months with
state legislators. The memo recommended the appointees listed
above and stated, "our attached recommendations reflect that
involvement" with the political leaders.
The persons appointed to rig the votes, including those who contributed
to Blagojevich and Obama, are cooperating in exchange for immunity or
lighter prison sentences. |
| Emil
Jones,
Jr. |
In
late 2002, Emil Jones Jr., a gravel-voiced, dark-skinned
African-American known for chain-smoking cigarettes on the Senate floor,
became Illinois Senate Majority Leader, Emil Jones.
When
Obama was considering a run for the US Senate in 2003, he paid an
intriguing visit to Jones, the former Chicago sewers inspector, who had risen to
become one of the most influential African-American politicians in
Illinois.
"You have the power to elect a US senator," Obama told
Emil Jones.
Jones
looked at the ambitious young man smiling before him and asked,
teasingly: "Do you know anybody I could make a US senator?"
According to Jones, Obama replied: "Me." It was his first,
audacious step in a spectacular rise from the murky political backwaters
of Springfield, the Illinois capital.
The
exchange also sealed an intimate personal and political relationship
that is likely to attract intense scrutiny amid the furor over Obama's
links to some of Chicago's most controversial political and religious
power brokers. Obama has often described Jones as a key political
mentor whose patronage was crucial to his early success in a state long
dominated by near-feudal party political machines. Jones, 71,
describes himself as Obama's "godfather" and once said: "He feels like a
son to me."
At one point during Obama's 2003 Senate campaign, Jones set out to woo
two African-American politicians miffed by Obama's presumption and
ambition. One of them, Rickey "Hollywood" Hendon, a state senator,
had scoffed that Obama was so ambitious he would run for "king of the
world" if the position were vacant. When Jones secured the two
men's support, Obama asked his mentor how he had pulled it off. "I
made them an offer," Jones said in mock-mafioso style. "And you
don't want to know."
Jones had served in the Illinois Legislature for three decades. He
represented a district on the Chicago South Side not far from Obama's.
He became Obama's kingmaker.
Several months before Obama announced his U.S. Senate bid, Jones called
his old friend Cliff Kelley, a former Chicago alderman who now hosts the
city's most popular black call-in radio program.
I called Kelley last week and he recollected the private conversation as
follows:
"He said, 'Cliff, I'm gonna make me a U.S. Senator.'"
"Oh, you are? Who might that be?"
"Barack Obama."
Jones appointed Obama sponsor of virtually every high-profile piece of
legislation, angering many rank-and-file state legislators who had more
seniority than Obama and had spent years championing the bills.
"I took all the beatings and insults and endured all the racist comments
over the years from nasty Republican committee chairmen," State Senator
Rickey Hendon, the original sponsor of landmark racial profiling and
videotaped confession legislation, yanked away by Jones and given to
Obama, complained to me at the time. "Barack didn't have to endure
any of it, yet, in the end, he got all the credit.
"I don't consider it bill jacking," Hendon told me. "But no one
wants to carry the ball 99 yards all the way to the one-yard line, and
then give it to the halfback who gets all the credit and the stats in
the record book."
During his seventh and final year in the state Senate, Obama's stats
soared. He sponsored a whopping 26 bills passed into law --
including many he now cites in his presidential campaign when attacked
as inexperienced.
It was a stunning achievement that started him on the path of national
politics -- and he couldn't have done it without Jones.
Before Obama ran for U.S. Senate in 2004, he was virtually unknown even
in his own state. Polls showed fewer than 20 percent of Illinois voters
had ever heard of Barack Obama.
Jones further helped raise Obama's profile by having him craft
legislation addressing the day-to-day tragedies that dominated local
news headlines.
For instance. Obama sponsored a bill banning the use of the diet
supplement Ephedra, which killed a Northwestern University football
player, and another one preventing the use of pepper spray or
pyrotechnics in nightclubs in the wake of the deaths of 21 people during
a stampede at a Chicago nightclub. Both stories had received
national attention and extensive local coverage.
Jones gave Obama the legislation because he believed in Obama's ability
to negotiate with Democrats and Republicans on divisive issues.
So how has Obama repaid Jones?
Last June, to prove his commitment to government transparency, Obama
released a comprehensive list of his earmark requests for fiscal year
2008. It comprised more than $300 million in pet projects for
Illinois, including tens of millions for Jones's Senate district.
Shortly after Jones became Senate president, he was asked his view on
pork-barrel spending. He said: "Some call it pork; I call it
steak." |
| US
Senate
Run |
Obama
announced his bid for the U.S. Senate, where
he cruised to victory thanks to the self-destruction of his top
opponents in both the primary and general elections.
Obama joined a crowded field of seven candidates vying to fill an open
Senate seat being vacated by retiring two-term incumbent Peter
Fitzgerald. For months, he polled in the middle-of-the-pack behind
frontrunner and former securities trader Blair Hull, who spent $30
million of his own fortune on the primary.
But Hull's campaign imploded just weeks before the election when his
divorce files were unsealed, revealing an ex-wife's charges of verbal
and physical abuse.
Obama unleashed a barrage of television ads just before the election,
when the other candidates had largely depleted their war chests. He won
the nomination with 53 percent of the vote.
In the
general election for the U. S. Senate, Obama squared off against
another multimillionaire: Jack Ryan, who later dropped out of the race
after a judge ordered his divorce files unsealed. The documents
revealed that Ryan's ex-wife, actress Jeri Ryan, a former Miss Illinois
best known for her role as "Seven of Nine" on Star Trek: Voyager, accused
him of trying to coerce her to perform sex acts in public.
Obama spent several weeks facing no opponent as the Illinois Republican
Party exhausted a laundry list of replacement candidates that included
former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka. The GOP ended up recruiting
two-time failed presidential hopeful Alan Keyes from Maryland to fill
the slot.
Keyes's strategy to use bombastic rhetoric to attract headlines turned
off most voters. Most memorably, he said Jesus would not vote for
Obama and that homosexuals, including Vice President Dick Cheney's
daughter, participated in "selfish hedonism."
In the end, Obama won more than 70 percent of the vote in the most
lopsided Senate election in Illinois history and became the fifth
African-American to win a seat in the U.S. Senate. |
| Fast
Track |
Obama has spent his entire political career
trying to win the next step up. Every three years, he has
aspired to a more powerful political position.
"He's been given a pass,"
says Harold Lucas, a community organizer in Chicago. "His
career has been such a meteoric rise that he has not had the time to set
a record."
Three years later, he'd be trying to win the most powerful political
position in the world. |
| The
Speech |
| Obama delivers his now-famous speech before the Democratic
National Convention. (transcript) |
| A
Star
Is
Born |
On the day after his speech at the Democratic convention catapulted him
into the national spotlight, Barack Obama
told a group of reporters in Boston that the United States had an
"absolute obligation" to remain in Iraq long enough to make it a
success.
"The failure of the Iraqi state would be a disaster," he said at a lunch
sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, according to an audiotape of
the session. "It would dishonor the 900-plus men and women who
have already died. . . . It would be a betrayal of the promise
that we made to the Iraqi people, and it would be hugely destabilizing
from a national security perspective."
Did he believe what he said that day? It's sure different than
what he now says in Spring 2008. |
| Bill
Jacking |
He sure has an ability to "get
things done."
If you consider that every bill he
passed as a State Senator was passed his last year in office by a
Democrat-controlled legislature. Also, some of the more high
profile accomplishments he cites now like the racial profiling/videotape
confession legislation were bills where a lot of the legwork had been
done by other Democrats in the legislature years prior when it was
controlled by Republicans, but were given to Obama by his kingmaker,
Senate president Emil Jones, Jr. in order for him to make the "close"
(where he often did).
When asked about this by the Houston Press'
Todd Spivak, State Senator Rickey Hendon replied, "I don't consider it
bill jacking. But no one wants to carry the ball 99 yards all
the way to the one-yard line, and then give it to the halfback who gets
all the credit and the stats in the record book."
This isn't to
suggest that Obama's achievements in the state senate are totally
without merit, but instead to point out they weren't all done by his
leaping tall buildings in a single bound. He had a lot of help
from Democrats. Consider this, too: if he wins, he will have a
solid Democrat Congress to work with, so the only "reaching out" he'd
have to do would be to the few moderate Republicans who have already
proven themselves all too eager to vote with liberal Democrats. |
| Stacking The
Board |
An e-mail message
made public in the fraud trial of Antoin Rezko, a businessman and political
contributor, brought attention to Obama's role in discussions involving
a state health planning board that Mr. Rezko is accused of improperly
influencing.
The message indicated that Obama, and other top Illinois politicians,
consulted in 2003 on legislation to keep the board, which approved the
construction of health facilities, from expiring under sunset provisions
in state law.
The vaguely worded message also seemed to raise the possibility that Mr.
Obama, who at the time was chairman of the Illinois Senate's health
committee, had been involved in recommending candidates for the board.
Mr. Rezko is accused of using his influence in state government to stack
the board with associates, including some who made political
contributions to Mr. Obama and other top Illinois politicians, and of
seeking a bribe on a hospital project.
Mr. Rezko is accused of using his influence in state government to stack
the board with associates, including some who made political
contributions to Mr. Obama and other top Illinois politicians, and of
seeking a bribe on a hospital project.
Mr. Pickering said he and Mr. Wilhelm had "worked closely" over six
months with several state legislators to extend the life of the health
facilities board. He then listed Democratic and Republican leaders in
the state House and Senate, including Mr. Obama.
Mr. Pickering's message went on to suggest four candidates to serve on
the board, stating that "our attached recommendations reflect that
involvement" with the political leaders. |
| No
Records |
There's no
paper trail on Obama.
The president of a prominent watchdog group said Wednesday that he
believes Democratic presidential frontrunner Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.)
"intended to leave no paper trail" during his time in the Illinois
Senate.
In a statement, Tom Fitton noted that his group, Judicial Watch, has
sought access to Obama's records as a state senator and questioned
whether the presidential candidate has been forthcoming with regard to
what happened to those documents.
The Illinois State Archives told Judicial Watch that they never received
any request from Senator Obama to archive any records in his possession.
Similarly, in 2007, Obama
said to Tim Russert that his records were "not kept."
MR. RUSSERT: You talked about Senator Clinton having records released
from the Clinton Library regarding her experience as first lady, and yet
when you were asked about, "What about eight years in the state senate
of Illinois," you said, "I don't know." Where, where are the --
where are your records?
SEN. OBAMA: Tim, we did not keep those records. I...
MR. RUSSERT: Are they gone?
SEN. OBAMA: Well, let's be clear. In the state senate, every
single piece of information, every document related to state government
was kept by the state of Illinois and has been disclosed and is
available and has been gone through with a fine-toothed comb by news
outlets in Illinois.* The, the stuff that I did not keep has to do
with, for example, my schedule. I didn't have a schedule. I
was a state senator. I wasn't intending to have the Barack Obama
State Senate Library. I didn't have 50 or 500 people to, to help
me archive these issues. So...
MR. RUSSERT: But your meetings with lobbyists and so forth, there's no
record of that?
SEN. OBAMA: I did not have a scheduler, but, as I said, every document
related to my interactions with government is available right now.
And, as I said, news outlets have already looked at them.
MR. RUSSERT: Is your schedule available anywhere? Are -- the records
exist?
SEN. OBAMA: I -- Tim, I kept my own schedule. I didn't have a
scheduler.
I have no idea how Obama's statement that "every document related to
state government was kept by the state of Illinois and has been
disclosed and available" can be in line with the statement from the
Illinois State Archives. Is there some separate archive for state
legislators?
However, he said that "nobody knows where they are, if they exist at
all" and claimed that "Obama's story keeps changing."
It could mean that Obama tried to hide his work, hoping to keep
political opponents from unearthing ammunition in future elections.
It could also mean that he didn't do that much actual work, which would
match his wafer-thin record of accomplishments in three years as U. S.
Senator.
It's the cost of running as a cipher, and of running on ambiguous
concepts of hope and change. Having what little records that
should exist come up missing doesn't help build confidence in a
candidate's credibility, either. |
| The
Kingmaker |
The President of the Illinois Senate is sitting in his statehouse
office, talking in gravelly tones about political strategies and
counter-strategies. Out of nowhere, the theme from "The Godfather"
begins playing.
It turns out to be the ringtone on his cell phone -- an appropriate song
for the man who amounts to Barack Obama's political godfather.
Emil Jones Jr. helped Obama master the intricacies of the Legislature.
When Democrats took control of the state Senate, Jones, though he risked
offending colleagues who had toiled futilely on key issues under
Republican rule, tapped Obama to take the lead on high-profile
legislative initiatives that he now boasts about in his presidential
campaign.
Jones
appointed Obama sponsor of virtually every high-profile piece of
legislation, angering many rank-and-file state legislators who had more
seniority than Obama and had spent years championing the bills.
During his seventh and final year in the state Senate, Obama's stats
soared. He sponsored a whopping 26 bills passed into law --
including many he now cites in his presidential campaign when attacked
as inexperienced.
It was a stunning achievement that started him on the path of national
politics -- and he couldn't have done it without Jones. Before
Obama ran for U.S. Senate in 2004, he was virtually unknown even in his
own state. Polls showed fewer than 20 percent of Illinois voters
had ever heard of Barack Obama.
And when Obama wanted a promotion to the U.S. Senate, Jones provided
critical support that gave the little-known legislator legitimacy,
keeping him from being instantly trampled by the front-runners.
"He's been indispensable to Barack's career. He wants to see a
black president before he gets called home," said fellow state Sen.
Rickey Hendon, a Democrat.
So how has Obama repaid Jones? Last June (2007), to prove his
commitment to government transparency, Obama released a comprehensive
list of his earmark requests for fiscal year 2008. It comprised
more than $300 million in pet projects for Illinois, including tens of
millions for Jones's Senate district.
Shortly after Jones became Senate president, I remember asking his view
on pork-barrel spending. I'll never forget what he said: "Some
call it pork; I call it steak."
Background |
| Ineligible? |
| The Conservative Edge contends Obama would not survive a
Vice Presidential vetting process. They argue that if Barak Obama
wasn't heading the Democratic ticket, he wouldn't make the ticket.
That's because the Vice Presidential nominee goes through an exhaustive
'vetting' process that examines the person's life in depth. But,
an exhaustive examination of Obama's life would have eliminated him from
consideration. |
| Part-Time
Senator |
Bill Dupray
calculates that Obama worked less than 2 days per week in the
Illinois Senate.
Good thing he has that Community Organizer thing on his resume,
otherwise people might start wondering if he ever had a real job before
coming to the U.S. Senate. Obama’s Illinois Senate job was a
pretty good part-time gig. One would have plenty of extra time to
nurture nascent Hope and Change. A Hillary supporter did some
digging at
the height of the primary battle and found out how often the Illinois
Senate convened during Obama’s tenure.
90th General Assembly - 1997-1998
Senate days - 118 days (59 days per year; 1.13 days per week)
91st General Assembly - 1999-2000
Senate days - 112 days (56 days per year; 1.08 days per week)
92nd General Assembly - 2001-2002
Senate days - 118 days (59 days per year; 1.13 days per week)
93rd General Assembly - 2003-2004
Senate days - 161 days (80 days per year; 1.52 days per week)
Another cool thing about the job is they let you vote "present" to avoid
tough decisions. A local Chicago reporter also has reported that, though
Obama spent 7 years in the state senate, he built his entire
legislative record in one
year, and none of it was his.
So, if my math is right, Obama’s experience in the Illinois Senate
amounts to 161 days (his final year: the year of all his
"accomplishments"), in which he often voted "present," and during which
he bill-jacked the legislation (see the link) of others, taking credit
for their work. |
| |
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Copyright Beckwith 2010
All right reserved
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