Obama says he's never
witnessed or heard Rev. Wright's racist and anti-American rants.
year
event
1995
In his memoir,
Obama writes of one of the watershed moments of his racial awareness --
time and again in remarkable detail. It is a story about a Life magazine article that influenced him.
The report was about a
black man who tried to bleach his skin white. When Obama was told
no such article could be found in Life, he says "it might have been
Ebony."
He is 9 years old, living in Indonesia, where he and his mother moved
with her new husband, Lolo Soetoro, a few years earlier. One day
while visiting his mother, who was working at the U.S. Embassy in
Jakarta, Obama passed time by looking through several issues of Life
magazine. He came across an article that he later
would
describe as feeling like an "ambush attack."
The article included photos of a black man who had destroyed his skin
with powerful chemical lighteners that promised to make him white.
Instead, the chemicals had peeled off much of his skin, leaving him sad
and scarred, Obama recalled.
"I imagine other black children, then and now, undergoing similar
moments of revelation," Obama wrote of the magazine photos in "Dreams."
Yet
no such photo exists, according to historians at the magazine.
No such photos, no such article. When asked about the discrepancy,
Obama said in a recent interview, "It might have been an Ebony or it
might have been ... who knows what it was?" (At the request of the
Tribune, archivists at Ebony searched their catalogue of past articles,
none of which matched what Obama recalled.)
In fact, it is surprising, based on interviews with more than two dozen
people who knew Obama during his nearly four years in Indonesia, that it
would take a photograph in a magazine to make him conscious of the fact
that some people might treat him differently in part because of the
color of his skin.
“I happen to be a proponent of single-payer universal healthcare
coverage. That’s what I’d like to see.”
In January, 2008, Obama claimed in a nationally televised debate:
"I never said that we should try to go ahead and get single-payer."
2004
In Obama's famous DNC
Convention speech, Obama says, "My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in Kenya. He grew up herding goats, went to school in a tin-roof shack. His father -- my grandfather -- was a cook, a domestic servant to the British."
Kezia, Obama Sr.'s first wife tells a story that puts Obama's account to
lie.
Kezia said:
In 1955 Obama Sr. was 18 and working in an office in Nairobi, when he took Kezia from
her family at the age of 16. Her father was furious.
"He did not like Obama. My father and brothers came to
Nairobi to bring me back. They said I had to go back to school.
"When I wouldn't, they said they would never speak to me again.
"Barack was also worried about what his father would think because I was
so young, but he gave us his approval. Obama's father (often described
as poor) sent my mother and father
14 cows for my dowry.
Just how can a cook, a domestic servant to the British, provide a dowry
of 14 cattle for Senior's first wife? Also, Obama's father
had been working in a Nairobi office since the age 16, not herding
goats.
As an aside, can you imagine if a Republican
was running for president and it came out that his father had bought his
first wife for 14 cows???!!!Just wow!!
2004
Responding to questions about his intent to serve out the six year
senate term, Obama says, in
this video,
(link removed),
that he will not run for the presidency in four years.
Notice: The video has disappeared. Using WayBackMachine, I found
two links -- both played empty videos -- a lot of stuff is being
scrubbed from the web.
Here is what he said in the video:
"I think I've been very clear. Ah-ah-mumble-mumble, there's
a presidential election in four years. I'm not running for
president in four years."
Here is a backup story -- during a meeting with reporters at his Illinois
campaign headquarters after his election to the U.S. Senate,
he ridiculed as "a silly question"
whether he would run for president or vice president before his term
ends in 2011. "I’ve never worked in Washington," he said. "I can
unequivocally say I will not be running for national office in four
years, and my entire focus is making sure that I’m the best possible
senator on behalf of the people of Illinois."
7/28/04
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."
In late winter, 2008, on the campaign trail, Obama says he wants to
bring the troops home yesterday -- you decide -- was he lying then or is
he lying now?
Russert: "When we talked back in November of '04 after your election, I
said, 'There's been enormous speculation about your political future.
Will you serve your six-year term as United States senator from
Illinois?'"
Obama: "I will serve out my full six-year term. You know, Tim, if
you get asked enough, sooner or later you get weary and you start
looking for new ways of saying things. But my thinking has not
changed."
Russert: "So you will not run for president or vice president in 2008?"
Obama: "I will not."
1/24/07
On January 24, the Obama campaign released a statement, saying, "To be clear, Senator Obama has never been a
Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed
Christian who attends the United
Church of Christ in Chicago.
On March 14th, in a
statement to The Times, the Obama campaign offered this statement to
correct their previous statement, that appears to be a bold-faced lie:
"Obama has never been a practicing Muslim. The statement added
that as a child, Obama had spent time in the neighborhood's Islamic
center."
And, the original statement began, "To be clear ..."
So, in three months, Barrack's campaign has gone from describing the U.S.
presidential hopeful as never having been a Muslim and never having been
raised as a Muslim to now never having been a practicing Muslim.
What's with the semantics? Statements from Obama's campaign appear
to have evolved, to say the least.
3/25/07
On March 25th, the Chicago Tribune reports that an extensive search found no basis for an episode Obama
recounts about a picture he ran across
in Life magazine of a "black man who had tried to peel off his skin" in
a failed effort to use chemicals to lighten it. Obama writes that
"seeing that article was violent for me, an ambush attack."
The Tribune
continued: "Yet no such Life issue exists, according to historians at the
magazine. No such photos, no such article. When asked about the
discrepancy, Obama said in a recent interview, "It might have been an
Ebony or it might have been ... who knows what it was?"
At the request
of the Tribune, archivists at Ebony searched their catalogue of past
articles, none of which matched what Obama recalled."
3/26/07
As another example, consider Obama's
stirring tale for the Selma audience
about how he had been conceived by his parents, Barack Obama Sr. and Ann
Dunham, because they had been inspired by the fervor following the
"Bloody Sunday" voting rights demonstration that was commemorated March
4. "There was something stirring across the country because of
what happened in Selma, Alabama," he said, "because some folks are
willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack
Obama Jr. was born. So don't tell me I don't have a claim on
Selma, Alabama. Don't tell me I'm not coming home to
Selma, Alabama"
Obama was born in 1961, and the Selma march occurred four years later,
in 1965. The New York Times reported that when the senator was
asked about the discrepancy later that day, he clarified: "I meant the
whole civil rights movement."
3/26/07
Obama went on to tell his audience that the Kennedys -- Jack and
Bobby -- decided to do an airlift. They would bring some young
Africans over so that they could be educated and learn all about
America. His grandfather heard that call and sent his son, Barack
Obama, Sr., to America.
The problem with that
scenario is that, having been born in August 1961, the future
senator was not conceived until sometime in November 1960. So, if
his African grandfather heard words that "sent a shout across oceans,"
inspiring him to send his goat-herder son to America, it was not
Democrat Jack Kennedy he heard, or his brother Bobby, it was Republican
President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Actually, Senior was
awarded
an American sponsored scholarship in economics to the University of
Hawaii
at Manoa. He was selected by a former Kenyan cabinet minister, the late Tom Mboya, who was earmarked as
the successor to Jomo Kenyatta,
Kenya's first prime minister.
The presumption was that Senior would return to Africa
and use his "Western-honed skills in a new Kenya."
3/27/07
Obama, tells the crowd at fundraiser , "I was a
constitutional law professor, which means unlike the current president I
actually respect the Constitution."
For the record, Obama is a "Senior Lecturer (on leave of absence)" at
the University of Chicago Law School. He has taught Constitutional
Law III: Equal Protection and Substantive Due Process, Current Issues in
Racism & the Law, and Voting Rights & the Democratic Process.
5/8/07
Obama, caught up in the fervor of a campaign speech
Tuesday, drastically
overstated the Kansas tornadoes death toll, saying 10,000 had died.
"In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten
thousand people died -- an entire town destroyed," the Democratic
presidential candidate said in a speech to 500 people packed into a
sweltering Richmond art studio for a fundraiser.
The death toll was 12.
5/10/07
Obama
botched his facts in a speech criticizing the U.S. auto industry for
"investing in bigger and faster cars while foreign competitors invested
in more fuel-efficient technology."
Obama stated that "while our fuel standards haven't moved from 27.5
miles per gallon in two decades, both China and Japan have surpassed us,
with Japanese cars now getting an average of 45 miles to the gallon."
But Toyota, which should know, has responded, "No carmaker gets 45 mpg; ours is closer to
30 mpg."
Well, we're glad to see Obama's shifting the blame from the consumer to
the automakers. That must explain why the Illinois Senator and
Presidential candidate owns a HEMI-powered
V8 Chrysler 300C.
Obviously it's Chrysler's fault Obama
bought a big 5.7-liter engine from them -- he just didn't have a choice.
6/15/07
During his 12 years in politics, Sen. Barack
Obama
has received
nearly three times more campaign cash from indicted businessman, Tony Rezko and his associates, than he has publicly
acknowledged, the Chicago Sun-Times has found.
Seven months ago, Obama told the Sun-Times his "best estimate" was
that Rezko raised "between $50,000 and $60,000" during Obama's political
career.
However,
Obama has collected at least $168,308 from Rezko and his circle.
Additionally, Obama
also has taken in an unknown amount of money from people who attended
fund-raising events hosted by Rezko since the mid-1990s.
Everything you ever wanted to know about Obama and Rezko.
9/17/07
Responding to criticism of his disrespect of the flag of the United
States during the National Anthem, Obama defended himself by saying
"My grandfather taught me how to say the Pledge of Allegiance when I was
2."
He didn't even remember what he was doing on
September 17th, when Obama, Hillary and Bill Richardson attended the
Steak Fry of Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) in Indianola, IA.
How can he possibly remember what happened when he was two
years old?
10/6/07
Obama accused his fellow American citizens of the
indiscriminate murder of Iraqi civilians, saying, "And these private (Blackwater
USA) contractors, they go out and they're spraying bullets and hitting
civilians and that makes it more dangerous for our troops."
Obama lies with the same ease as the Clintons and proves that he will
say anything to win the nomination and election.
11/11/07
Last fall during a nationally televised presidential debate,
Obama hesitantly raised his hand and joined with most of his Democratic
rivals to declare that he opposed decriminalizing marijuana. (first
video).
But as a candidate for the U.S. Senate four years ago, Mr. Obama told
Illinois college students that he supported eliminating criminal
penalties for marijuana use or possession, according to a videotape of a
little noticed debate that was obtained by The Washington Times.
"I think we need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws," Mr.
Obama told an audience during a debate at Northwestern University in
2004. "But I'm not somebody who believes in legalization of marijuana."
(second
video).
Asked about the two different answers, Mr. Obama's presidential campaign
said he in fact has "always" supported decriminalizing marijuana as
he answered in 2004, meaning the candidate mistakenly raised his hand
during the presidential debate last fall.
12/1/07
Obama said,
"I'm not running because I'm trying to fulfill some long-held plan."
Oh, really?
Iis Darmawan, 63, Obama's teacher in 1970, remembers him as an
exceptionally tall and curly haired child who quickly picked up the local
language and had sharp math skills. "He wrote an essay titled, 'I
Want To Become President,'" the teacher said.
In 1971,
Obama's sister
Maya, has also
said, "There was always a joke between my mom and Barack that he
would be the first black president."
In 1991,
David B. Wilkins , the Kirkland and Ellis professor of law,
said he advised
Obama to become a Supreme Court Clerk. "Obama recognized the honor in
pursuing that post," Wilkins said, but quickly added that he wasn’t interested.
“He said that he wanted to write a book about his life and his father, go back
to Chicago, get back into the community, and run for office there. He knew
exactly what he wanted and went about getting it done,” Wilkins said.
In 1992, Obama's brother-in-law, Craig Robinson pulled him aside and
asked about his plans. "He said, 'I think I’d like to teach at
some point in time, and maybe run for public office,'" recalls Robinson,
who assumed Senator Obama meant he’d like to run for city alderman.
"He said no -- at some point he’d like to run for the U.S. Senate.
And then he said, 'Possibly even run for President at some point.'
And I was like, 'Okay, but don’t say that to my Aunt Gracie.' I
was protecting him from saying something that might embarrass him."
In 1993, Obama began teaching at the
University of Chicago Law School, where he declined to pursue
a tenure-track post, hoping to save time for politics.
The one thread, that remains consistent, throughout Obama's life, is his
teacher's, mentor's and friend's recollection of Obama's single-minded pursuit of
high political office.
12/22/07
In a small-town café in
Pleasantville, Omaha, Obama was asked a
question that typically only circulates on the Internet.
As he sat down to have a slice of pie with a small group of potential
voters and an elderly woman asked him about being Muslim.
"I've always been a Christian," the Illinois Democrat responded. "I
have never practiced [Islam]."
Note: The newspaper editors had to add the word, "Islam."
In his autobiography, "Dreams From My Father," Obama mentions studying
the Quran. He was enrolled in two Jakarta schools as a
Muslim. His teacher Tine Hahiyary said that she remembered that he
had studied "mengaji" (recitation of the Quran)." Classmate Rony
Amiris described Obama as being a very devout Muslim, saying, "Barry was
previously quite religious in Islam." Another classmate, Emirsyah Satar,
now the CEO of Garuda Indonesia, was
quoted as
saying, "He (Obama) was often in the prayer room wearing a 'sarong.'"
(See Obama's Education.)
Yet, on his official campaign website, Obama has posted
this statement, "Barack has never been a Muslim or practiced any
other faith besides Christianity."
Obama's grandfather was a Muslim. Obama's father was a Muslim.
Obama's stepfather was a Muslim. His African relatives are
Muslims. What was he for the 27 years before his alleged
conversion if he wasn't a Muslim?
If Obama has always been a Christian, why was he enrolled in two
Jakarta schools as a Muslim, and why did he study the Quran?
And note his Clintonesque defense, "I have never practiced."
But that's not what Obama's
sister says -- in an
interview with the New York Times, published on April 30th, Maya
Soetoro-Ng, Obama’s younger half sister, told the Times, "My whole
family was Muslim, and most of the people I knew were Muslim." (Alternate
link)
I assume Maya thinks of her brother, Obama, as a member of her family?
And, the Jerusalem Post
reports that Barack Obama's half brother Malik said, if
elected, his brother will be a good president for the Jewish people,
despite his Muslim background.
This is Obama's biggest problem -- his dissimulation.
Saying, "I've always been a Christian," is a bold-faced lie.
Especially since he's never been baptized.
1/22/08
The Hillary Clinton Campaign releases a video that
proves that Obama lied about his position on "single-payer healthcare."
The video compares statements Obama made during the January 21st
Democratic debate with those he made to an AFL-CIO conference in June
2003 while campaigning for the Senate. Contradicting what
Obama said at the debate, the old footage shows the senator saying, "I
happen to be a proponent of single-payer universal healthcare coverage.
That’s what I’d like to see."
At the debate, Obama stated: “I never said that we should try to go
ahead and get single-payer (healthcare)."
Single-payer healthcare is an euphemism for socialized medicine.
2008
February -- As Sen. McCain has
pointed out, Obama promised to use public funding in the general
election if the Republican candidate would do so also. Well,
McCain has agreed to it, but now Obama wants to back out of the deal.
After all, when he made the promise, he didn't have a chance of raising
more than the public's $85 million stipend. But now that he can
raise $300 million, well, what's a little untruth between the waited-for
one and his people? Yes, he can.
2/29/08
The Obama campaign
told Canadian Television (CTV) that no message was passed to the
Canadian government suggesting that Obama does not mean what he says
about opting out of NAFTA if it is not renegotiated.
However, the Obama camp did not respond to repeated questions from CTV
on reports that a conversation on this matter was held between Obama’s
senior economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee, and the Canadian Consulate
General in Chicago.
Earlier Thursday, the Obama campaign insisted that no conversations have
taken place with any of its senior ranks and representatives of the
Canadian government on the NAFTA issue. On Thursday night, CTV spoke
with Goolsbee, but he refused to say whether he had such a conversation
with the Canadian government office in Chicago. He also said he has been
told to direct any questions to the campaign headquarters.
CTV didn’t stop there. They announced that their sources, at the highest
levels of the Canadian government," reconfirmed the story to CTV
and one of their primary sources provided a timeline of the discussion
to CTV.
3/2/08
Obama told
another whopper
while criticizing Hillary Clinton.
Obama said that Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a fellow Democrat from neighboring
West Virginia, had read the intelligence estimate as a member of the
Senate Intelligence Committee and after a brief pause said the
then-chairman had voted against the war resolution.
However, Rockefeller was not the chair at the time and voted in favor of
the war authorization. Sen. Bob Graham of Florida was the
intelligence committee chair in 2002 and voted against the resolution.
Obama did not mention Graham’s name in the passage.
His exact words are, "She didn’t read the National Intelligence
Estimates. Jay Rockefeller read it. But she didn’t read it.
I don’t know what all that experience got her because I have enough
experience to know that if you have a National Intelligence Estimate and
the chairman of the national, um, Senate Intelligence Committee says you
should read this, this is why I’m voting against the war, that you
should probably read it. I don’t know how much experience you need
for that."
3/7/08
Obama's courage: Contrary to a recent hyperbolic campaign
ad, it wasn’t "courageous"
to give his 2002 anti-war speech, primarily because he delivered it at
an anti-Iraq war rally.
At the last debate, America’s former
co-president claimed that it was easy to give that speech, and it wasn’t
a gamble for him because he wasn’t in the US Senate and therefore wasn’t
in a position of responsibility. Obama’s impassioned reply was, "I
was in the midst of a U.S. Senate campaign. It was a high-stakes
campaign."
Wrong. In reality, Obama did not announce his
intentions to run for the US Senate until January 2003.
3/7/08
Obama say he doesn't
take money from DC lobbyists and special interest PACS. This is
the type of double-talk "politics of the past" rhetoric Obama rails
against.
While his claim is technically true, what he does do is
take money from state lobbyists and other big money contributors who
have substantial lobbyist machines in DC, like law firms and
corporations.
In April 2007, the LA Times quoted the Campaign
Finance Institute’s Stephen Weissman as pointing out that the
distinction Obama makes on lobbyist money is meaningless: "He gets an
asterisk that says he is trying to be different. … But overall,
the same wealthy interests are funding his campaign as are funding other
candidates, whether or not they are lobbyists."
The Capital Eye
reported that "[a]ccording to the Center for Responsive Politics,
14 of Obama’s top 20 contributors employed lobbyists this year, spending
a total of $16.2 million to influence the federal government in the
first six months of 2007."
Obama’s no stranger to being influenced by
those campaign donations, either.
3/14/08
In one of the biggest lies he ever told -- Obama says he "vehemently
condemns" the words of his pastor and mentor, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright,
an official member of Obama's campaign, as a
member of Obama's African American Religious Leadership Committee.
What an absolute pile of crap!
Obama says he's never witnessed or heard these statement before.
Double click arrow on tool bar to view. (01:30)
Another load of crap!
Obama has! Later, in a cover-his-ass speech, Obama even admits
he heard "the REv's" despicable words.
Obama and his wife Michelle have been listening to this man for 20 years.
Obama is a bold-faced liar to now claim he
had no idea the "the Rev" was such an anti-American, racist,
hate-monger!
Why hasn't Obama denounced "the Rev" at any time in the past 20 years?
The answer, of course, is because Obama wasn't running for national
office before -- that's one reason.
Another?
Obama and Wright are of the same mind -- now and then!
3/14/08
OK, OK! Maybe he didn't hear those words. But
what about Reverend White's words that appear in Obama's
very own book, "Dreams of My Father."
"It is this world, a world where cruise ships throw away more food in a
day than most residents of Port-au-Prince see in a year, where white
folks’ greed runs a world in need, apartheid in one hemisphere,
apathy in another hemisphere… That’s the world! On which
hope sits!"
Reverend Wright spoke of Sharpsville and Hiroshima, the callousness of
policy makers in the White House and in the State House. That was 13 years ago, in 1995.
3/14/08
March 14th -- Barack may not have heard Wright's rants, but did he read
them?
In the Trinity United Church of Christ
Bulletin,
January 21, 2007, on pages 9 and 10, "The Pastor's Page," are these
words:
"We have lost over 3,000 boys and girls in an illegal and unjust war,
and the media is on a feeding frenzy about Barack Obama’s church.
Where is the outrage about the 3,000 dead American military personnel
and the 600,000 dead Iraqi civilians who are dead for no reason
other than greed and ego? What’s goin’ on?"
"I use his words today on the third Sunday of a New Year to keep before
you the painful truth of who we are and where it is we are in this
racist United States of America! What’s goin’ on?"
"The reality, however, is that the entire war in Iraq and the larger
“war on terror” have been based on lies, half-truths and distortions to
serve the agenda of the United States imperialism. Where is the
public outcry? Where is the outrage? What’s goin’ on?"
He may never have heard Wright actually say the U. S. was racist or some
aspiring empire. But he never read it in his bulletin? Ever?
3/14/08
Presidential candidate Barack Obama repudiated
what he called "inflammatory and appalling remarks" made by his Chicago
pastor.
Obama said he had not been present during the sermons in question.
Obama
told MSNBC, "Had I heard them in church I would have expressed that
concern directly to Rev. Wright."
Please note, he says that he would have expressed concern, not
repudiate, the words
Yet, in
this video, "the Rev"
places Obama in the congregation, by saying, "There is a man here,
who can take this country in a new direction" and he points at him.
In the next clip, during Wright's 2007 Christmas services,
Wright rails, "Barack knows what it means to be a black man living
in a country and a process that is controlled by rich white men, Hillary
can never know that, Hillary ain't ever been called a nigger!"
While Wright rails, "Bill did us like he did Monica Lewinsky," Wright's
successor, Otis Moss III, jumps into the picture frame, attempting to
high-five "the Rev."
Barack was
in Chicago for Christmas 2007 and Wright is addressing him from the
pulpit. Will Barack say me didn't attend Christmas services?
When Obama said, "Had I heard them in church ..." Obama lied.
He listened to Wright's sermons for 20 years.
These two men, Obama and Wright, are two peas in the same pod.
And, please notice the congregation in that video. They are going
nuts during Wright's preaching. All of them believe this "evil
white man" crap and eat it up.
The whole bunch of them are the worst kinds of hateful racists -- and
remember, Wright's congregation is composed of successful, educated
African-Americans.
Obama now says Rezko played a bigger fundraising role.
Indicted Chicago businessman Antoin "Tony" Rezko was a more significant
fundraiser for presidential candidate Barack Obama's earlier political
campaigns than Obama has previously admitted. Rezko raised as much
as $250,000 for the first three offices Obama sought, the senator told
the Tribune on Friday.
Obama also said for the first time that his private real estate
transactions with Rezko involved repeated lapses of judgment. The
mistake, Obama said, was not simply that Rezko was under grand jury
investigation at the time of their 2005 and 2006 dealings. "The
mistake was he had been a contributor and somebody involved in
politics," he said.
And this from a guy who is running for office based upon his judgment.
3/15/08
Will Obama deny he was
in attendance at the controversial Chicago church when the pastor
referred to "white arrogance" and "the United States of White America"
on July 22, 2007, accompanied by his Secret Service detail.
Wright laced into America's establishment, blaming the "white arrogance"
of America's Caucasian majority for the woes of the world, especially
the oppression suffered by blacks. To underscore the point he
refers to the country as the "United States of White America."
Many in the congregation, including Obama,
nodded in apparent agreement as these statements were made.
3/30/08
The University of Chicago released a
statement Thursday saying Sen. Barack Obama "served as a professor"
in the law school -- but that is a title Obama, who taught courses there
part-time, never held, a spokesman for the school confirmed on Friday.
"He did not hold the title of professor of law," said Marsha Ferziger
Nagorsky, an assistant dean for communications and lecturer in law at
the school.
Another university spokesman, Josh Schonwald, said the Obama campaign
did not request that the statement be issued and that it was posted
because reporters were calling the school with questions about Obama's
status.
The university statement said, "From 1992 until his election to the U.S.
Senate in 2004, Barack Obama served as a professor in the Law School."
The school probably did not mean to imply that Obama became a University
of Chicago professor a year out of law school. But the word
"served" is key -- Nagorsky said Obama carried out, or served, a
function of a professor -- teaching a core curriculum course -- while at
the same time not holding down that rank.
At issue in a Clinton memo was Obama's claims -- most specifically on
several direct mail pieces produced for his 2004 U.S. Senate race --
that said he was a law professor at the university.
Obama graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991. He was a lecturer
at the U. of C. law school between 1992 and 1996. During that
time, he was an attorney at the law firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland.
In his first years of teaching, he had only one course.
He was promoted to senior lecturer in 1996, and his teaching load
eventually increased to three courses a year, less than the load of a
professor.
Obama won a state Senate seat in 1996. He maintained his senior
lecturer post from 1996 to 2004, when he took a leave to run for the
U.S. Senate.
Nagorsky said there is a major distinction between a lecturer and senior
lecturer, though neither is a full-time position. She said the
status of a senior lecturer is "similar" to the status of a professor
and that Obama did teach core courses usually handled only by
professors. Obama's appointment was not part of an academic search
process, and he did not have any scholarly research obligations.
3/31/08
The Obama campaign has made
political points over Hillary Clinton’s dishonest comments about
coming under "sniper fire" in Bosnia, but Obama also has some
opportunistic lies for which to account. The
Washington Post calls it "overstating," but make no mistake; this is
a flat-out lie: Obama Overstates Kennedys’ Role in Helping His Father.
Addressing civil rights activists in Selma, Ala., a year ago, Sen.
Barack Obama traced his "very existence" to the generosity of the
Kennedy family, which he said paid for his Kenyan father to travel to
America on a student scholarship and thus meet his Kansan mother.
The Camelot connection has become part of the mythology surrounding
Obama’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. After
Caroline Kennedy endorsed his candidacy in January, Newsweek commentator
Jonathan Alter reported that she had been struck by the extraordinary
way in which "history replays itself" and by how "two generations of two
families -- separated by distance, culture and wealth -- can intersect
in strange and wonderful ways."
It is a touching story -- but the key details are either untrue or
grossly oversimplified.
Contrary to Obama’s claims in speeches in January at American University
and in Selma last year, the Kennedy family did not provide the funding
for a September 1959 airlift of 81 Kenyan students to the United States
that included Obama’s father. According to historical records and
interviews with participants, the Kennedys were first approached for
support for the program nearly a year later, in July 1960. The
family responded with a $100,000 donation, most of which went to pay for
a second airlift in September 1960.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton acknowledged yesterday that the senator from
Illinois had erred in crediting the Kennedy family with a role in his
father’s arrival in the United States. He said the Kennedy
involvement in the Kenya student program apparently "started 48 years
ago, not 49 years ago as Obama has mistakenly suggested in the past."
3/31/08
Obama
distorts McCain’s
"100 years in Iraq" comment again
Shocking! Not that he’d distort it; that’s politics. What’s shocking is
the fact that the reporter presses him on it and clarifies what McCain
meant (which Obama already knows, natch), backing him into the very
stupid assertion that Maverick wants a Germany/Japan-type occupation of
Iraq that’s somehow going to cost us $150 billion a year for decades and
decades and decades. "It’s seldom that you see such a dirty lie," said
Krauthammer of this subject not long ago. Prepare yourselves to see it
again and again and again.
Exit question: He wants to know how Bush and McCain define victory. How
does he define it?
4/1/08
Last week, Obama aired a
television ad in Pennsylvania called "Nothing's Changed" that
outlines his energy proposals while declaring, "I don't take money from
oil companies or Washington lobbyists, and I won't let them block change
anymore."
The Clinton campaign last week accused Obama of "false advertising."
"Senator Obama says he doesn't take campaign contributions from oil
companies but the reality is that Exxon, Shell, and others are among his
donors," Clinton spokesman Phil Singer said.
THE FACTS: True enough, Obama does not take money from oil companies.
No candidate does. It is illegal for corporations to give money to
politicians. Corporations, however, do have political action
committees that collect voluntary donations from employees and then
donate them to candidates. Obama doesn't take money from PACs.
He also doesn't take money from lobbyists.
But he does accept money from executives and other employees of oil
companies and two of his fundraisers are oil company executives.
As of Feb. 29, Obama's presidential campaign had received nearly
$214,000 from oil and gas industry employees and their families,
according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive
Politics. Clinton had received nearly $307,000 from industry
workers and their families and Republican Sen. John McCain, the likely
GOP presidential nominee, received nearly $394,000, according to the
center's totals.
Two of Obama's fundraisers are Robert Cavnar, the chairman and chief
executive of Houston-based Mission Resources Corp., and George Kaiser,
the president and CEO of Tulsa-based Kaiser-Francis Oil Co.
In January and February alone, Obama received nearly $18,000 from Exxon
Mobil workers, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Most of the donations were of $250 or less; the money came from workers
ranging from executives to engineers to geologists to shift supervisors.
Overall, he has raised about $34,000 from Exxon Mobil workers since the
beginning of his campaign. Exxon Mobil employees have given
Clinton about $16,000 since the beginning of last year.
4/8/08
Despite his
previous pledge to enter into the public financing system should he
be the Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has
recently been reluctant to re-commit to entering the system.
This reluctance has coincided with his primary, caucus, and fundraising
successes. For that reluctance, Obama has been hammered as hypocritical
by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., not to mention impartial observers.
Tonight at a fundraiser in Washington, D.C., at the National Museum of
Women in the Arts -- at a $2,300-per-person event for 200 people held
before a $1,000-per-person reception for 350 people -- Obama previewed
his argument to justify this possible future discarding of a principle.
"We have created a parallel public financing system where the American
people decide if they want to support a campaign they can get on the
Internet and finance it, and they will have as much access and influence
over the course and direction of our campaign that has traditionally
been reserved for the wealthy and the powerful," Obama said.
In Levittown, Penn., today, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, was asked
about his church’s magazine giving an award to Rev. Louis Farrakhan.
"This was done by a magazine that was connected to the church," Obama
explained. "I would have never done it. It was primary
focused on the rehabilitation work that they do for ex-offenders in
Chicago. That doesn’t excuse it, that just explains it."
The first time Obama said this, I could believe he was misinformed
[update: indeed, the first time he said this, he only said he "assumed"
this was the reason]. The second time, perhaps that he was caught
off guard and didn’t have his story straight. Now, I can only
conclude that he is intentionally choosing to blatantly lie about this,
hoping that no one will notice and call him on it.
Let’s recall the facts: The magazine explicitly explained in the video
it prepared for the banquet at which Farrakhan was honored that it was
honoring Farrakhan for his purported dedication to "truth, education,
and leadership." [Surprise, surprise, the video seems to have been
pulled from YouTube.] Obama's spiritual mentor Rev. Wright,
meanwhile praised Farrakhan in the magazine for his "astounding and
eye-opening" analysis of the "racial ills of this nation," a
"perspective" that is "helpful and honest." I even got hold of the
interview the magazine did with Farrakhan. No mention was made in
any of these sources of "rehabilitation work for ex-offenders."
4/14/08
April 14th -- Obama has pledged to end the
influence of lobbyists, but that doesn’t keep him from
fundraising at the offices of one of the most notoriously corrupt
lobbyists in years.
Newsday reported over the weekend that Obama took about $125,000 from
Greenberg Traurig employees at their Miami offices last October.
The firm made headlines when its biggest lobbyist, Jack Abramoff,
admitted to several counts of corruption and was sentenced to prison.
4/17/08
Both the McCain and Clinton campaigns are
accusing Obama of giving a misleading answer to Charlie Gibson about
whether his handwriting was on a questionnaire that reported him as
favoring a complete ban on handguns. The Obama campaign has said
that a staffer "mischaracterized" the senator's views while filling up
answers to the questionnaire without Obama's input. You can see
the questionnaire
here. Obama's handwriting is on the first page, but tonight he
said flatly, "no, my writing was not on that particular questionnaire."
There were, in fact, two versions of the questionnaire, filed under
Obama's name in 1996 when he was running for the Illinois State Senate.
One version has Obama's handwriting on it, one does not. Obama
spokesman Tommy Vietor
subsequently told Politico that the senator scribbled a few notes on
the first page of the questionnaire, but did not read the response to
the question about banning handguns, on a subsequent page.
Either way, it seems a rather lame explanation.
4/17/08
Following Obama's recent dumb comment about small town Americans
clinging to guns and religion, he defended himself by claiming that the
notion of elitist is absurd because of his poor upbringing. He
said that his mother was on food stamps, so how could he be an
elitist in his upbringing?
Here is the Time article written by Joe Klein in 2006, long before
Obama decided to run for president. Back then, he was seen as the
rising star within Democratic Party, and he didn't worry about critics
breathing down his neck.
Here is the key excerpt from the article:
"For example, I was going to a fancy prep school, and my mother was
on food stamps while she was getting her Ph.D."
That is what Obama said. He went to a fancy private school that
today costs $15,000 per -- and his mother was studying for a Ph.D.
Students often receive food stamps as part of
the educational-financial-government-money package -- doesn't mean "they
are poor."
Re-reading the above, it occurred to me that a double-divorcee and her
son, in these circumstances, were doing quite well -- doing some dancin'
-- but doing well -- they certainly had futures.
4/18/08
Lies within lies.
In the last post from yesterday, Obama defended himself of charges that
he was an elitist by saying,
"For example, I was going to a fancy prep school, and my mother was
on food stamps while she was getting her Ph.D." as a defense.
I got curious to know when Anna received her Ph.D. Here is the Wikipedia entry:
In 1992 she earned a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of
Hawai'i with a dissertation titled Peasant blacksmithing in Indonesia:
Surviving and Thriving Against All Odds.
That was thirteen years after Obama graduated from his "fancy prep
school."
Obama consciously conflated these two events to produce a defense he
knows to be untrue.
4/20/08
An e-mail
from a reader said that, while Hillary Clinton tells lies, Barack
Obama is himself a lie.
That is becoming painfully apparent with each new revelation of how
drastically his carefully crafted image this election year contrasts
with what he has actually been saying and doing for many years.
Obama's election year image is that of a man who can bring the
country together, overcoming differences of party or race, as well as
solving our international problems by talking with Iran and other
countries with which we are at odds, and performing other miscellaneous
miracles as needed.
There is, of course, not a speck of evidence that Obama has ever
transcended party differences in the United States Senate. Voting
records analyzed by the National Journal show him to be the furthest
left of anyone in the Senate. Nor has he sponsored any significant
bipartisan legislation -- nor any other significant legislation, for
that matter.
Sen. Obama is all talk -- glib talk, exciting talk, confident
talk, but still just talk.
4/26/08
At a town hall meeting in Kokomo, IN, Obama,
responding to a question, referred to the time last October, when a
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, TV reporter asked him why he didn’t wear a flag pin.
"Then I was asked about this in Iowa," Obama said. "And
somebody said 'Why don’t you wear a flag pin?' I said, well,
sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. I said, although I will say
that sometimes I notice that they’re people who wear flag pins but they
don’t always act patriotic. And I was specifically referring to
politicians, not individuals who wear flag pins, but politicians who
you see wearing flag pins and then vote against funding for veterans,
saying we can’t afford it."
Obama then proceeds, in a magnificent example of hypocritical chutzpah,
to call bloggers who accurately reported his words liars.
"So I make this comment. Suddenly a bunch of these, you know,
TV commentators and bloggers (say) 'Obama is disrespecting people who
wear flag pins.' Well, that’s just not true. Also, another way
of saying it is, it’s a lie."
Obama’s two radically different versions of his reasons for not wearing
the pin are there for you to read. You decide who’s telling the truth.
4/29/08
PROOF POSITIVE THAT
REZKO AND OBAMA ARE BUSINESS PARTNERS.
Examine the Cook County land records:
The deed for the house that the Obama’s purchased for $300k less than
the asking price is from Frederic Wondisford and his wife, Sally Radovic,
to the Obama’s Northern Trust Company Land Trust #10209 (established as
such for "confidentiality") is dated 15 June 2005 and is recorded 21
June 2005 as Document #0517233010. Declared value is
$1,650,000.00.
The deed for the vacant lot is from Wondisford/Radovic to Rita M. Rezko.
This deed is dated 15 June 2005 and recorded a day earlier, on 20 June
2005 as Document #0517133004. Declared value is $625,000.00.
Examination of the Cook County records very clearly indicates that Rita
M. Rezko conveyed the entire lot to Obama’s Northern Trust Company Land
Trust #10209 on 11 January 2006 and recorded 16 February 2006 as
Document #0604733162. Declared value is $104,500.00.
VERY IMPORTANTLY, thorough and careful examination of all Cook County
land records fails to locate a deed back to Rita M. Rezko from the
Obama’s Northern Trust Company Land Trust #10209.
There is a "wild deed" indicated from Rita M. Rezko to "5050 S.
Greenwood LLC." This is an Illinois limited liability corporation
with the same address as Rezmar Corporation that is registered to the
indicted Tony Rezko. (This deed is considered "wild" because it is
not supported by any ownership deed from the Obama’s Land Trust.)
Furthermore, Tony Rezko’s registered corporation, 5050 S. Greenwood LLC,
then pledges the entire vacant lot in favor of a mortgage THAT IS STILL
OPEN with Fifth Third Bank for the amount of $375,000.00. This is
Document #0703357023 recorded 2 February 2007.
THUS, THE ENTIRE VACANT LOT IS TITLED TO SEN. BARACK AND MICHELLE OBAMA
(IN THEIR LAND TRUST FOR CONFIDENTIALITY) AND ALLOWED BY SENATOR BARACK
AND MICHELLE OBAMA TO BE PLEDGED BY A TONY REZKO CORPORATION TO SECURE A
LOAN.
This is contrary to what has been stated by Senator Obama; contrary to
what has been stated by Senator Obama’s campaign staff: and contrary to
what has been reported.
It must be noted that a seemingly intelligent Harvard educated attorney
does not make such unknowing errors as stated above. The above is
obvious intent not "oversight".
4/29/08
Obama
indicated that he could indeed disown
his long standing Uncle Wright...even though just a few weeks ago he
said he could never do that.
Even though it stretches credibility to think that after 20+ years and
so much close history together...after all, it was Obama who called
Wright his mentor and spiritual advisor...that Obama could not have
really "known" the real Jeremiah Wright, let's take him at his
word that he did not.
My questions then are simple.
If, after 20+ years of a close relationship where it was clear to
everyone else who Jeremiah Wright was, if after that long you so
terribly misjudged the man...then please tell me Mr. Obama, who else
have you misjudged so completely?
Who on your campaign staff? Who of your contributors? Who
amongst your other close associates and friends?
More telling yet, Mr. Obama, Who will you so wholly misjudge in
the future?
What leaders of nations? What members of your cabinet?
What Judges you nominate?
The list could go on and on -- AND, he STILL remains committed to the
church.
In an
interview that aired Friday on PBS's "Bill Moyers' Journal," Wright
used similar terms to explain why Obama, who has been a member of his
church for two decades, felt compelled to denounce some of Wright's
statements.
"It went down very simply," Wright told Moyers. "He's a
politician, I'm a pastor. We speak to different audiences.
And he (Obama) says what he has to say as a politician. I
say what I have to as a pastor. Those are two different worlds."
"I do what I do. He does what politicians do" -- and that's
why Obama's words don't change anything and this item is archived in
"Obama's Lies."
5/12/08
Obama's
Inability to Hire Good Help Rears Its Head … Again.
Jake Tapper started covering Sen. Barack Obama's inability to hire good
staffers in June 2007, when he blamed staffers for some opposition
research trying to link Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, to outsourcing in
India; for injecting some venom in the David Geffen/Hillary Clinton
fight; and for missing an event with firefighters in New Hampshire.
In December, we noted again that Obama was blaming the answers on a 1996
questionnaire on a staffer; and was blaming his touring with "cured"
ex-gay gospel singer Donnie McClurkin (which antagonized gays and
lesbians) on bad vetting by his staff.
Those five buck-passing incidents were apparently not enough.
All-in-all, Tapper identifies 14 instances of Obama buck-passing.
5/27/08
LAS CRUCES, N.M -- Despite
not having served in the military himself, Barack Obama used his
Memorial Day remarks to speak about his family’s service. "My
grandfather marched in Patton’s army, but I cannot know what it is to
walk into battle like so many of you," he told a small group of veterans
here.
And speaking of his typical white grandmother, he said -- "My
grandmother worked on a bomber assembly line, but I cannot know what it
is for a family to sacrifice like so many of yours have."
Obama also spoke about his typical white uncle, who was part of the American
brigade that helped to liberate Auschwitz. He said the family
legend is that, upon returning from war, his uncle spent six months in
an attic.
First lie! --
Wow! Very dramatic! The
problem is that
Auschwitz of course is in Poland. It was liberated by the Red Army
on January 27th, 1945. Poland, on most maps is usually placed to
the east of Germany, although we may need to investigate the geography
textbooks the Obamessiah used as a child.
The Allies were wrapping up the battle of the bulge in late January of
1945 -- the Rhine crossings were still well into the future when
Auschwitz was liberated.
Either Obama’s uncle served in the Red Army, or he’s spinning
Clintonesque lies about Auschwitz to sell his government programs. Hey,
it’s for a good cause…but it’s not enough for him. It has to be
personal. It has to be all about him.
Second lie!
-- Obama has no uncles.
His mother Anna was an only child, and Obama Sr. had two sisters.
Oh, it's not a lie, his campaign says he made a
mistake -- he just made another gaffe in the growing collection of
documented Obama's gaffes -- it was his great-uncle and it was a
sub-camp of Buchenwald, but who cares about these little details, right?
AGAIN? -- well, it turns out that he's
told this tale before,
in 2002 -- except he identifies his typical white grandfather as the liberator.
"My grandfather signed up for a war the day after Pearl Harbor
was bombed, fought in Patton’s army. He saw the dead and dying
across the fields of Europe; he heard the stories of fellow troops who
first entered Auschwitz and Treblinka. He fought in the
name of a larger freedom, part of that arsenal of democracy that
triumphed over evil, and he did not fight in vain."
Third lie!
-- Obama's grandfather enlisted on
June 18, 1942.
Fourth lie! -- In his
autobiography, "Dreams of My Father," Obama states his grandfather never
engaged in combat. "Gramps returned from the war never having seen
real combat, and the family moved to California, where he enrolled at
Berkeley under the GI bill." --
Berkeley??????
6/4/08
Responding to the Rezko verdict: Guilty on four of first five
counts; guilty on 16 of 24 counts involving mail/wire fraud, money
laundering, and corrupt solicitation charges, Obama
said,
"This isn’t the Tony Rezko I knew."
"I know nothing!
Obama has known Rezko since his Harvard days --
about the same time he began his close relationships with the Revs.
Wright and Pfleger -- and he denies he knew who they are and what they
do -- Obama is a bold-faced liar.
6/5/08
But why tell one lie when you can tell more?
Earlier this year, three-fourths of the Senate voted in favor of the Kyl-Lieberman
Amendment, designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)
as a terrorist organization. Among those who voted for the
resolution were Hillary Clinton, Richard Durbin, Harry Reid, and Chuck
Schumer.
Obama voted against it, effectively standing with the IRGC.
Yesterday at the AIPAC conference, however, Obama
expressly stated that the IRGC was a terrorist organization.
His campaign explained his opposition to the resolution naming the IRGC
a terrorist entity by claiming that the resolution contained language
about military action -- but Joe Lieberman, the
bill's author, said bluntly, "It has none of that."
In his speech Wednesday before the American-Israel Public Affairs
Committee, Obama said the military option is "on the table" for dealing
with Iran's nuclear program in stark contrast to his earlier statements.
During a debate last summer, he said he would be willing to meet with
Iranian leaders and other American adversaries "without preconditions"
during the first year of his presidency.
Now, he says, "[A]s president of the United States, I would be willing
to lead tough and principled diplomacy with the appropriate Iranian
leaders at a time and place of my choosing, if and only if it can
advance the interest of the United States. That is my position.
I want to be absolutely clear."
Yo, Obama, "...if and only if it can advance the
interest of the United States," is a
PRECONDITION.
Obama campaign officials, believing the
electorate is stupid and knowing the press won't question Obama,
insisted the presumptive Democratic nominee has not changed his
position.
6/12/08
"I don’t want a timetable for withdrawal" (00:28)
From Obama's official campaign website:
"Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He
will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat
brigades out of Iraq within 16 months. Obama will make it clear that we
will not build any permanent bases in Iraq. He will keep some troops in
Iraq to protect our embassy and diplomats; if al Qaeda attempts to build a base
within Iraq, he will keep troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the region to carry out
targeted strikes on al Qaeda."
Yo, Obama, removing one to two combat brigades each month, and ... all of our
combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months, is a timetable.
6/13/08
Barack Obama repeatedly attacks his opponents for taking lobbyists
money or having lobbyists on their campaign staff.
What he doesn't tell you is that he has raised $264,492,301 from 358
bundlers and 14 lobbyist bundlers, himself.
Barack Obama announced last Thursday that he has begun a web site to
fight 'rumors,'"
Andy Martin
states. "To be sure, some of what is said about Obama is
exaggerated or untrue. I refuse to publish a great deal of
anti-Obama material that crosses my desk. But much of what Obama
characterizes as 'rumor' is true. Obama has been lying about his
family and his religious past his entire life. This time he will
not get away with his lies."
"Obama says in large print and underlines 'Senator Obama has never been
a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian," Martin
states. "Two thirds of that claim are bald-faced lies.
The last third, about Obama's Christianity, has never been adequately
documented. Most people who are baptized have a Baptismal
Certificate. I call on Obama to release his Baptismal Certificate
or record. Many Americans do not believe that sitting in the pews,
listening to Reverend Jeremiah Wright's racist jeremiads for two decades
qualifies anyone to be a 'committed Christian.'" Committed racist
and America-hater, maybe.
I have corresponded with three Chicago-area
journalists, inquiring about a baptism. There is NO record,
anywhere, of Barack Hussein Obama ever having been baptized. He is
only a Christian because he says so -- although I don't believe the
Trinity UCC church is a Christian Church -- it is a Black African church
and their website is very clear about that. From the Trinity UCC
website:
The vision
statement of Trinity United Church of Christ is based upon the
systematized liberation theology that started in 1969 with the
publication of Dr. James Cone’s book, Black Power and Black Theology.
Black theology is one of the many theologies in the Americas that became
popular during the liberation theology movement. They include Hispanic
theology, Native American theology, Asian theology and Womanist
theology.
That stuff isn't theology -- it's politics!.
6/16/08
When reading
this article, please keep in mind that Obama received the following
presidential contributions -- Exelon employees $236,211 (Source:
OpenSecrets -- The
Center for Responsive Politics): note, Exelon employees also gave
over $270,000 to Obama's State Senate campaign, total over $500,000.
Obama scolded Exelon and federal regulators for inaction and introduced
a bill to require all plant owners to notify state and local authorities
immediately of even small leaks. He has boasted of it on the
campaign trail, telling a crowd in Iowa in December (2007) that it was,
"the only nuclear legislation that I've passed. I just did that
last year," he said, to murmurs of approval.
But, contrary to Obama's comments in Iowa, the bill died amid
parliamentary wrangling in the full Senate.
The history of the bill shows Obama navigating a home-state controversy
that pitted two important constituencies against each other and tested
his skills as a legislative infighter. On one side were neighbors
of several nuclear plants upset that low-level radioactive leaks had
gone unreported for years; on the other was Exelon, the country's
largest nuclear plant operator and one of Obama's largest sources of
campaign money.
IN TRUTH, Mr. Obama told the Iowan's that he PASSED nuclear legislation,
"just last year (2007)."
IN TRUTH, Mr. Obama LIED -- his nuclear legislation bill NEVER PASSED!
This was a KEY Issue that swayed the Iowa Caucus in his favor, as the
folks of Iowa were facing similar issues regarding nuclear power plants,
and they mistakenly were "hoodwinked and boondoggled" by a slick
Chicago politician, who was willing to tell them anything to get their
votes, even lying about his legislative record.
Mr. Obama in his 3+ years in the US Senate has sponsored ONLY TWO pieces
of legislation that have become law:
1.
A bill to promote democracy in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
2.
A bill to name a post office.
6/18/08
"Country I Love" TV Ad (01:02)
JCM directs us to
this video, in which Obama says, "That's why I
passed laws moving people from welfare to work(1), cut taxes for
working families(2) and extended health care for wounded troops
who'd been neglected(3)."
(1) State of Illinois, Public
Act 90-0017, as HB0204 6 sponsors (of which Obama was one) and 16
co-sponsors.
First, the law in question wasn't dreamed up out of
thin air by its sponsors, is was to comply with the new Federal law
that had already passed. It was the follow-up to the FEDERAL welfare
reform act, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity
Act, that President Clinton signed on Aug. 26, 1996. That law gave
states the ability to design their own welfare programs as long as
they met certain federal requirements, including limits on how long
recipients could get benefits.
Second,
Obama was against the 1996 federal legislation which precipitated
the caseload reduction. "I am not a defender of the status quo with
respect to welfare," Obama said on the floor of the Illinois state
Senate on May 31, 1997. "Having said that, I probably would not have
supported the federal legislation, because I think it had some
problems." The bill that Obama cosponsored was Illinois' version.
(2) State of Illinois, Public Act
91-0700, as HB3939 7 sponsors and 41 co-sponsors (of which Obama was
one).
Fact: Obama did not sponsor/co-sponsor
this law, and was
"not present" when it passed, 91-3.
6/19/08
In an interview with Fortune to be featured in the magazine's
upcoming issue, the presumptive Democratic nominee
backed off his harshest attacks on the free trade agreement and
indicated he didn't want to unilaterally reopen negotiations on NAFTA.
"Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified,"
he conceded, after I reminded him that he had called NAFTA "devastating"
and "a big mistake," despite nonpartisan studies concluding that the
trade zone has had a mild, positive effect on the U.S. economy.
Does that mean his rhetoric was overheated and amplified?
"Politicians are always guilty of that, and I don't exempt myself," he
answered.
I suppose it's a positive step when Obama moves
past his denials and admits he lied, but I wouldn't expect him to stop.
6/19/08
The flip -- On Wednesday, June 4th, Obama, appearing in front of the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee,
said Jerusalem should be Israel's undivided capital, saying,
"Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain
undivided."
The flop -- Well, on Thursday, the 5th, Palestinian leaders reacted with
anger and dismay to this statement, so Obama immediately flip-flopped on
his support for Israel's stance on Jerusalem, saying Palestinians and
Israelis had to negotiate the future of the holy city.
The flip -- Yesterday, June 18th, Obama
said he would want to bring Osama ben Laden to justice "in a way
that allows the entire world to understand the murderous acts that he's
engaged in and not to make him into a martyr."
The flop -- Today, Obama
implied that
he would kill bin Laden without a trial, saying, "First of all, I think
there is an executive order out on Osama bin Laden's head. And if
I'm president, and we have the opportunity to capture him, we may not be
able to capture him alive."
Of course, there is no known Presidential Executive Order "out on Osama
bin Laden's head."
If Obama is unwilling to say kill Osama bin Laden, he cannot hide behind
an Executive Order that does not exist, mumbo jumbo about how he never
threatens, or the need for diplomacy.
And, watch Obama flip-flop his way around free trade and the FISA bill.
He makes John Kerry look like the Rock of Gibraltar.
Obama has no position on anything he'll
flip-flop all day long -- hell, he even makes stuff up as he goes along.
This guy will say absolutely anything he thinks people want to hear.
6/20/08
Is it just one more flip-flop, or one more lie? Either
way, it is more proof that Obama's word isn't worth squat, and he and
the truth are complete strangers.
When the Obamamessiah campaign started 17 months ago, Obama
said he'd pursue public financing "aggressively." He
committed to it in a written questionnaire. He even said,
repeatedly, that he would meet personally with Senator John McCain to
discuss a deal.
On February 8th, 2007, MSNBC
reported that,
""Senator Obama has long been a proponent of public financing of
campaigns and we are asking the FEC to take a step that could preserve
the public financing option for the party's nominees," said Obama
spokesman Bill Burton.
Yesterday, Obama
abandoned his pledges to accept public financing for his presidential
campaign.
This flip-flop, or lie, makes Obama the first presidential candidate to opt out
of the current system since it was put in place after the Watergate
scandal and a complete hypocrite.
Don't tell me words don't matter. (00:48)
This is obviously "change we can believe in."
Obama is proving that he will say and do anything that will get him
elected to office -- he makes the Clintons look positively trustworthy
by comparison.
Here's a question to ponder -- how many of Obama's contributions,
pouring in to his website, are coming in from outside of the country, in
violation of the law?
6/21/08
Mark Shields
didn’t mince words on PBS about Barack Obama’s decision to opt out
of public financing. Appearing as the progressive balance with
David Brooks on Judy Woodruff’s show, Shields ripped into Obama, calling
him unprincipled and suggesting that his latest video message painted
him as a "hostage" who couldn’t pass a polygraph.
6/23/08
Barack Obama released his first general election
ad on Friday,
which seems aimed above all to answer some early concerns about his
biography and experience. It's a well made ad, but it also offers
an example of the kind of brazen padding of the resume that Obama will
inevitably need to engage in, and which will carry serious risks for
him.
About 46 seconds into the ad, we are told that Obama passed laws that
extended healthcare for wounded troops who'd been neglected, and in the
usual manner of these political commercials we are given a little
citation at the bottom. The citation reads Public Law 110-181
1/28/08. That law is the only federal legislation cited in the ad
the other two items mentioned were from the Illinois legislature and
referred to other issues raised in the ad.
Public Law 110-181 was the 2008 defense authorization bill. It
passed the Senate by 91 to 3 in January, with six Senators not
voting. Among those six absentees was Barack Obama.
So he cites a bill he didn't even vote for. Did he contribute to
it in some way that might be reasonably referred to as extending
healthcare for wounded troops who'd been neglected? It certainly
doesn't seem that way, as even Obama supporters at the
Daily Kos discovered when they tried to answer some of the bloggers
who pointed to Obama's citation of the bill. They found that Obama
had tried to insert an amendment that had to do with screenings for
service members returning from deployments, and one that would ease the
discharge of service members found to have personality disorders, but
neither amendment passed. Another part of the bill, calling for
inspector general reports about hospital facilities, had come from a
different bill Obama had sponsored.
Even under the most generous reading imaginable could any of that count
as passing legislation that extended health care for wounded troops?
The Chicago Tribune
noted the problem on its blog last week but defended Obama by
pointing out that John McCain didn't vote for the bill either.
That would be an interesting piece of information if John McCain had
cited this bill as among his chief legislative accomplishments.
The Obama teams desire to pad the resume is understandable its awfully
slim after all. But this kind of dishonesty will catch up with
them, or at least it should.
6/24/08
"JCM" also pointed us to this article, "All Obama Promises Expire." It's Just a Question of When.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton on
October 24, 2007: To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of
any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications
companies.
Barack Obama,
June 20, 2008: Given the legitimate threats we face, providing
effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is
too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so
with a firm pledge that as president, I will carefully monitor the
program.
All Barack Obama statements come with an expiration date. All of
them.
6/25/08
Reader, "JCM," suggests reading this
article (requires login), and please keep in mind that Obama received
the following Presidential contributions -- Exelon employees $236,211
(Source: OpenSecrets,
The Center for responsive Politics) :note, Exelon employees also gave
over $270,000 to Obama's State Senate campaign, total over $500,000.
Mr. Obama scolded Exelon and federal regulators for inaction and
introduced a bill to require all plant owners to notify state and local
authorities immediately of even small leaks. He has boasted of it
on the campaign trail, telling a crowd in Iowa in December (30, 2007)
that it was the only nuclear legislation that I've passed.
"I just did that last year," he said, to murmurs of approval.
But, contrary to Mr. Obama's comments in Iowa, it
ultimately died amid parliamentary wrangling in the full Senate.
The history of the bill shows Mr. Obama navigating a home-state
controversy that pitted two important constituencies against each other
and tested his skills as a legislative infighter. On one side were
neighbors of several nuclear plants upset that low-level radioactive
leaks had gone unreported for years; on the other was Exelon, the
country's largest nuclear plant operator and one of Mr. Obama's largest
sources of campaign money.
IN TRUTH, Mr. Obama told the Iowan's that he PASSED nuclear legislation,
"just last year (2007)."
IN TRUTH, Mr. Obama LIED, LIED, LIED-his nuclear legislation bill NEVER
PASSED!!!
This was a KEY Issue that swayed the Iowa Caucus in his favor, as the
folks of Iowa were facing similar issues in regards to nuclear power
plants, and they mistakenly were "hoodwinked and boondoggled" by a
slick Chicago politician, who was willing to tell them anything to get
there votes, even lying about his legislative record.
Mr. Obama in his 3+ years in the US Senate has sponsored ONLY TWO pieces
of legislation that have become law:
A bill to promote democracy in the Democratic Republic of Congo
A bill to name a post office
6/25/08
Terrific set of videos documenting Obama's "all over the place"
positions on public financing!!!
Talk about opponents who become masters at gaming this (broken) system.
Excellent "walk back" over last two years. "Change you can('t)
believe in."
This guy is way, way, way beyond flip-flop.
He'll just say anything, at anytime, to anybody. He knows the
media will jus ignore his mendacity.
6/26/08
"One of my favorite tasks of being a senator is hosting town hall
meetings." (00:50)
Obama knows he would have his head handed to him if he
were to share the stage with John McCain. Without his teleprompter and 4 X
5 cards, Obama is clueless -- check out the video below.
The affirmative action candidate on the hustings -- without the teleprompter
(00:40)
6/26/08
Another Obama statement reaches its expiration date, this one on
guns.
The Heller decision came down today from the Supreme Court, striking
down the Washington, D.C. gun ban.
With the Supreme Court ruling, the Obama campaign is disavowing what it
calls an "inartful" statement -- Obamese for lie -- to the Chicago
Tribune last year, and are blaming an "unnamed aide" characterized Obama
as believing that the D. C. ban was constitutional.
"That statement was obviously an inartful attempt to explain the
Senator’s consistent position," Obama spokesman Bill Burton tells ABC
News.
Obama took a question about the constitutionality of the gun ban from
WJLA's Leon Harris during the Potomac Primary, and didn't dispute the
characterization that he believes the ban is constitutional.
LH: "One other issue that is of great importance to the people of the
district here, is gun control. You said in Idaho here, recently,
that "I have no intention of taking away folks’ guns." But you
support the D.C. handgun ban, and you’ve said that it’s constitutional.
How do you reconcile those two positions?"
BO: "Because I think we have two conflicting traditions in this
country. I think it’s important for us to recognize that we’ve got
a tradition of handgun ownership and gun ownership generally. And
a lot of people -- law-abiding citizens use if for hunting, for
sportsmanship, and for protecting their families."
"We also have a violence on the streets that is the result of illegal
handgun usage. And so I think there is nothing wrong with a
community saying we are going to take those illegal handguns off the
streets, we are going to trace more effectively, how these guns are
ending up on the streets, to unscrupulous gun dealers, who often times
are selling to straw purchasers. And cracking down on the various
loopholes that exist in terms of background checks for children, the
mentally ill. Those are all approaches that I think the average
gun owner would actually support. The problem is, that we’ve got a
position, often times by the NRA that says any regulation whatsoever is
the camel’s nose under the tent. And that, I think, is not where
the American people are at. We can have reasonable, thoughtful gun
control measure that I think respect the Second Amendment and people’s
traditions."
"When Obama says, "we are going to take those
illegal handguns off the streets," I wonder if it ever occurred to him
to "take the damned criminals off the streets?"
Also, how can Obama claim "I have always believed that the Second
Amendment protects the right of individuals to bear arms" when, as
a director of the Joyce Foundation,
he steered $15 million to the self-described "most aggressive group
in the gun control movement?" That group published a book
entitled, "Every Handgun is Aimed at You: The Case for Banning
Handguns."
And, remember, on April 3rd, in the run-up to a Democratic presidential
debate scheduled on the one-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech
shootings, Obama
said:
"I am not in favor of concealed weapons," Obama told the
Pittsburgh Tribune. "I think that creates a potential atmosphere
where more innocent people could (get shot during) altercations."
Obama's new TV ad
says
he "worked his way" through college and law school. His campaign
says he had two summer jobs.
Obama’s latest ad repeats an often-stated claim, saying he "worked his
way through college and Harvard Law." We know Obama took out loans
to get himself through school. But the campaign provided
information on just two jobs Obama had in those years, and they were
both in the summer.
The ad begins with the announcer telling us that Obama "worked his way
through college and Harvard Law." Actually, Obama took out loans
to get himself through college, as we heard in a 60-second ad his
campaign began running last month. We don't know how much
assistance his family provided.
But "worked his way" through college and law school? The only
back-up the campaign provided for this claim was a quote from Obama's
book "Dreams from My Father" having to do with a construction job he had
one summer while he was in college, and an article mentioning his job as
a summer associate one year at a big Chicago law firm (where he first
met Bernadine Dohrn, the terrorist). We asked campaign spokesman
Tommy Vietor if Obama held jobs during the school year, or other summer
jobs, but he said only, "He had the two jobs I told you about."
Unless Obama had a good bit more employment than his spokesman was able
to describe for us, it's a real stretch to claim he "worked his way"
through school.
7/2/08
Obama traveled Monday to Independence, Missouri,
to proclaim his patriotism in an appearance linked to the Fourth of
July holiday. He said: "I will never question the patriotism of
others in this campaign, and I will not stand idly by when I hear others
question mine."
The patriot, Obama, does the crotch salute during the National Anthem. (video)
Obama is a damned, sneaky bastard. He knows he doesn't have to question the patriotism of others,
meaning John McCain, of course, because he has a core group of surrogates that
have been
performing this nasty "artful" work for some time.
On July 8th, George McGovern
argued that John McCain's war experience was not a qualification for
the White House, saying, "But I don't recall ever saying that experience
as a bomber pilot equipped me to be very strong on how to run a war, how
to command the armed forces. Of course, John McCain never said it
was either.
In June,
Wesley Clark
dismissed the import of McCain’s military background in the current
race. "I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is
a qualification to become president," Clark sniffed. The real
issue, according to Clark, was that McCain was "untested and untried."
Again, John McCain never said it was.
But CNN's, John Roberts,
pointed out the most glaring contradiction in Clark's theory of
military experience: his enthusiastic endorsement of the treacherous
John Kerry, whose strategic command experience was nowhere near
McCain's.
Jim Webb didn't have any problem
using his military service to run against George Allen, but now he
says, "Let's get the politics out of the military, take care of our
military people, or have our political arguments in other areas."
Rand Beers, a former Clinton White House aide, was appearing at the
McCain University, a day-long symposia attacking Senator McCain hosted
by John Podesta's Center for American Progress, and he, too,
went after
Senator McCain for his service with an equally outrageous statement.
Beers attacked Senator McCain, saying that he was isolated during the
Vietnam years, causing him to miss all the social revolutions going on
in the 1960s. Yes, he was isolated. He was in a prison cell
in North Vietnam. And he said because he was captured,
