Monday morning after the historic vote in the House, Arizona health care supporters wasted no time thanking their members of Congress for supporting health care reform. In the Congressional Districts of Rep Ed Pastor, Rep Harry Mitchell and Rep Raúl Grijalva, supporters headed over to their member’s offices to personally show their appreciation.
Armed with smiles and homemade thank you cards, supporters met with Congressional staffers and expressed their deepest gratitude.
Congressional staffers were very receptive as well, and took some time to talk with the health care supporters and explain the upcoming legislative process.
CLICK HERE to find upcoming Thank You events. CLICK HERE to write a letter to the editor and make your voice heard.
On Wednesday morning, OFA volunteer Shasta McManus organized a blood drive in Pima County. Over 40 health insurance reform supporters, including County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez, City Councilwoman Nina Trasoff, and Karin Uhlick, came out to give blood to the Red Cross. Each supporter gave a pint of blood and on average a pint of blood saves three lives. Congressman Grijalva also joined the group to donate blood.
The blood drive provided a perfect opportunity for OFA community organizer, Veneranda Aguirre, to present Congressman Grijalva with a portion of the tens of thousands of health care declarations OFA has collected throughout Arizona. Congressman Grijalva was very gracious saying, “For decades, we have endured a broken system that restricts and denies coverage when individuals need it most. I want to thank Organizing for America for this blood drive, to help remind others that health care reform is urgent and we need it now."
Wednesday’s blood drive and pledge presentation is just one of the many events we are having all across Arizona to show that Arizonans support President Obama and health insurance reform now! Please join us for an upcoming event by clicking here.
Since the White House’s Reality Check site launched, we’ve seen incredible response from individuals eager to get the facts about health insurance reform and pass them along to family and friends.An ironic development is that the launch of an online program meant to provide facts about health insurance reform has itself become the target of fear-mongering and online rumors that are the tactics of choice for the defenders of the status quo.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/An-Update-on-Reality-Check/
The Indian Health Service will be fine and Native Americans will benefit
Kimberly Teehee, Policy Advisor for Native American Affairs at the White House Domestic Policy Council, debunks myths being spread about how health insurance reform will affect the Indian Health Service. To the contrary, reform will allow Native Americans to keep the care they have now and has benefits for every American.
Watch the Video
Reform will eliminate insurance discrimination against the disabled
Mike Strautmanis, Chief of Staff for Valerie Jarrett and father of a child with a disability, addresses the myth that health insurance reform will mean children with disabilities will not get the care they need. To the contrary, reform will make insurance more affordable, provide more options, and eliminate discrimination in purchasing health insurance so families won't be turned down if a parent or child has a pre-existing disability or other health condition.
The return of the viral email
There are quite a few "viral emails" floating around, making outlandish claims about health insurance reform and pretending to be careful analyses of the bills moving through Congress. Drafted to appear as if they are written by concerned citizens, more often the information comes from organizations with a strident agenda to protect the status quo. White House Health Reform Director Nancy-Ann DeParle takes on one of the most prevalent emails directly.
Reform will stop "rationing" - not increase it
Kavita Patel, who works with Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett and who worked for years before as a physician, debunks the myth that reform will mean a "government takeover" of health care or lead to "rationing." To the contrary, reform will forbid many forms of rationing that are currently being used by insurance companies.
The "euthanasia" distortion on help for families
Melody Barnes, the President's Director of the Domestic Policy Council, debunks the malicious myth that reform would encourage or even require euthanasia for seniors.
Vets' health care is safe and sound
Matt Flavin, Director of Veterans and Wounded Warrior Policy, explains that nothing in health insurance reform will affect veterans' access to the care they get now. To the contrary, the President's budget greatly expands coverage for veterans who have been denied access in the past.
Reform will benefit small business - not burden it
Christina Romer, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, debunks the myth that health insurance reform will hurt small businesses. To the contrary, reform will ease the burdens on small businesses and help level the playing field with big firms who pay much less to cover their employees on average.
Your Medicare is safe, and stronger with reform
Robert Kocher of the National Economic Council debunks the myth that Health Insurance Reform would be financed by cutting Medicare benefits. To the contrary, reform would simply eliminate waste and unnecessary subsidies to insurance companies.
You can keep your own insurance
Linda Douglass of the White House Office of Health Reform debunks the myth that reform will force you out of your current insurance plan or force you to change doctors. To the contrary, reform will expand your choices, not eliminate them.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Taking-Questions-on-Health-Reform-in-New-Hampshire/
The President hosted a town hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on health insurance reform, telling the crowd, "I don't think government bureaucrats should be meddling, but I also don't think insurance company bureaucrats should be meddling. That's the health care system I believe in." The President was introduced by Lori, a woman who can’t find coverage because of her medical condition. We all know someone like Lori who has been discriminated against because of pre-existing conditions, and can't receive the care they need. This is a personal issue for the President, who recounted his mother's battle with insurance companies as she battled with cancer in the last months of her life.
The President outlined how his plan will end these unfair, and often deadly, practices:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cqQl3lZzzE
We launched www.WhiteHouse.gov/realitycheck this week to knock down the rumors and lies that are floating around the internet. You can find the information below, and much more, there. For example, we've just added a video of Nancy-Ann DeParle from our Health Reform Office tackling a viral email head on.
President Obama, in my view, needs to stop being so centralist and start to fully embrace an FDR policy of job creations. I love Obama, but he is too Centralist. Of course, Obama is A MILLION times better than ANY Republican view I have ever heard; and I will still eagerly campaign for President Obama even if his views are a bit more centralistic than mine:
President Obama's grades, in my book:
Foreign Policy: A+
Torture: A
economy: B- (he talks the right talk but doesn't do enough walk)
Health care reform: B (the right track; but more needs to be done. Equal access for all and throw out the greedy and leech like health insurance companies that have no purpose outside of exploitation; get rid of the greed and start to heal the sick; Public education, which is VERY socialistic, was rejected by many as 'wasteful' spending; However, the advantages of a literate society with innovation and business/math skills has proven very beneficial to society; Public Health Care ought to be equally accessable. Education and Health Care are socially advantagous in a socialisitic form, giving Americans the OPPORTUNITY for the American Dream. If we listened to Republicans, the only American Dream would be for those who are born healthy and wealthy).
The only people who complain in a public health system are those who are beyond filthy rich who believe that health care, like everything else in life, should be handed to them on a silver plater; people who believe that just because they were born into wealth they are somehow magically more deserving of a heart transplant than someone who is 'beneath' them. The middle class and the moderately wealthy (early millionaires) would see no major differences in treatment between a public and a completely private system if it could be run properly and ethically.
The economy is like blood circulation. It needs to be circulated effectively through all parts of the body (society) in order for it to be healthy. In a society where it takes over 1.5 BILLION dollars to be in the wealthiest 400, while wages remain relatively low and jobs outsource to exploit cheap labor elsewhere, and there are NO jobs left while the rich become richer than ever before - the blood circulation ends. Causing wealth to effectively circulate in society is NOT socialism.
Capitalism itself is created through regulation - capitalism cannot exist without some form or shape which it was regulated into. The only form of 'free market/trade' is a system of barter. The creation and establishment of our economic structure necessarily entails shape/form/regulation on some level. We created/shaped the rules in a previous epoch, and we can change the rules to address a new more globalized epoch.
After all, I firmly believe people ought to get the wealth they DESERVE. But lets face it, how many billionaires or millionaires do activities worth that kind of money? How many merely exploit the economic structure for personal greed?
Sorry, Republicans, trickle down theory is false: The wealth needs to be circulating effectively in all parts of society; not merely 'trickling down' but rather 'flowing' up and down.
PS Change is not going to happen unless we the people step to the plate and make the changes. President Obama cannot make the changes alone. Even if we have some disagreements, we have a similiar goal. If we do not act in unity to bring about change, nothing will happen. And before we know it we will have another disasterous Republican/neocon like Bush in office.
Now is the time. This is the place. Together, change can happen. The only thing which could stop it is our own lack of motivation.
If I lived closer to Arizona, I would start a protest to this? Utter disrespect, and I am surprised, because didn't we "WIN" Arizona? Anyway, I wish I could ask our current administration, to use their contact list, and ask that every single resident, voter, student, donor, anyone remotely associated with the State Of Arizona, to write to your Managing Editors, of local News Papers, contact Orgs, that donate money, send out E-Mails to other Obama supporters about this.
Whatever your heart tell you to do.
My understanding is that it is not O.K. to trash the standing President, especially in times of War, because you will also be disrespecting our troops. I didn't care for Bush, but never went on a rampage, because of this little understood proticol. Why has everything changed, in regarding RESPECT, when it comes to our new Prez.
Please read, and do what you wish, with this info.
http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=83121442645&h=frt3O&u=1MNMr&ref=mf
N.Mc.
Dr. King's Gift
Dedicated to the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
He used his voice to win over a nationLetting everyone know that we are all God's CreationAlthough his life was cut short Freedom was a fight that we could not abort He left the charge for us to carry onTo never forget why we were bornFor we are the glorious manifestations Sent from Celestial StationsWe did not know what next we would faceUntil 2008's electoral race So his legacy we esteem Because his is now our DreamTo the end of Slavery Drama As we welcome our new President…Barack Obama
Copyright ©2009 Chakula Johnson
I'm annoucing my first online radio broadcast. This one on the "Obama Inauguration". The idea is to have a one-stop, hour-and-a-half tallk show on "How to attend the Inauguration." To that end, I'm inviting people hosting special events to be guests call-ins. Please send an email -- my email is listed at the bottom -- or call at the number below.
I'm also sending a guest invite for those involved in event planning or hotel marketing to call in as a guest. Please email or call me me if you're interested.
Here's the show link, or you can go to http://www.zennie62.com and click on the link there. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Zennie62
Thanks,Zennie Abraham, Jr.Chairman and CEO zennie@sportsbusinesssims.com Sports Business Simulations 510-387-9809 SBS Online Marketing at http://www.sbson.com
Am I to believe this wonderful news???
I am fighting tears to write this!!! We did it! Obama is our President. I only wish that my Great Grandma was here to see this. She always instiled in me that we could do anything that we put our mind to do, all we had to do was start moving toward our goal!
God Bless Obama and Biden and God Bless America!!!
"If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress." -Barack Obama
Obama ~ Leadership for the 21st Century, written by best-selling author Victoria C. DePaul, is now available for a limited time as an Ebook download at no charge. This book will be available as a pdf download or readers can view it online via Scribd. The book is available at www.ebookobama.com .
Note: The book will be available in hard copy in 2009. The author is still looking for quotes from citizens for inclusion in this project. If you have a statement that you would like to be added to this work please enter your thoughts in the Comments section found on the Contact Us Page at www.ebookobama.com.
www.barackobama.com
http://www.cctvcambridge.org/node/4611
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amukRM9SSoo
Monday, 20th October 2008
Chicago, Illinois
All across the country, thousands of people are already voting for Barack Obama. More than a dozen states have early voting this year, where voters can cast their ballots early and avoid the long lines on Election Day. Today is the kickoff of early voting in Florida, Arizona, Colorado, Texas and Alaska. These states can help put Barack over the top and win on November 4.
Early voting is good for everybody. It helps more people get to the polls, it means our supporters will be free to help others get to the polls on election day, and – most importantly – it locks in your vote for Barack. Many of our supporters have already voted and told us a little bit about their experience.Tony from Wisconsin:
My wife and I voted for Obama this morning in Wisconsin … two votes down, millions to go!
BJ from Chicago, Illinois:
I voted on Monday, and I am still smiling!
Andrea from Pensacola, Florida:
I voted for Barack Obama this week here in Florida via absentee/mail-in ballot.I am so proud to vote for the Barack Obama/Joe Biden ticket because I know they will look out for the middle class and working families of America!We need to keep voting running smoothly. We can decrease the number of people at the polls by many of us voting for Obama via absentee or mail-in ballots!
Doreen from Davenport, Iowa:
Hey you guys -- my 19-year-old, 21-year-old, 22-year-old, and I have all voted for our next President! We are very happy and proud. Now it’s your turn!
Vanessa from Austin, Texas:
Early voting starts today here in Texas. I can’t wait to vote for Obama/Biden!
Ty, an Army Officer stationed in Iraq:
I voted for Obama. And not only that -- after I voted I helped numerous soldiers here vote via Write In/Absentee Ballot because they hadn't received their actual ballot yet.
Tina in Franklin, North Carolina:
In about two hours I will cast my vote for Obama here in North Carolina. Can't wait!
Sin in Tennessee:
I went to Early Voting this morning, its first day in Tennessee. I arrived before the voting station opened to find that some voters had camped out over night to be sure they were among the first to vote. I waited in a line for an hour and a half to get to cast my vote for Obama/Biden. Tennessee may not be a player in this election, but it is very important for all of us to vote. For the remainder of the week, young people are taking parents and grandparents to the polls early. We will be working in Georgia with friends as soon as this week is over.
Veronica in Albuquerque, New Mexico:
I just voted early in New Mexico. Make me proud Barack. WIN BIG.
Be one of the millions of Obama supporters around the country voting early and standing up for change. Don’t wait until November – make a difference today. Vote.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barry-michael-cooper/when-politics-became-the_b_134733.html
The definition of Hip Hop has always been a political one: at the heart of democracy lies the aorta of free speech. Be it George Orwell, V.I. Lenin, Karl Marx, or Donald Oliver Soper shooting the gift (of gab) in London at Speaker's Corner of Hyde Park, or KRS-One and Chuck D voicing their opposition to Reaganomics and a Dickensian New York in the late '80s, or Jay-Z, Puff, and Kanye describing theirBrave Rich World from Gulfstream-V windows 40,000 feet above Monaco in rhythmic iambic pentameter, Hip Hop is the vox of the common man speaking to power.
FDR was Hip Hop: "There is nothing to fear but fear itself."
MLK was Hip Hop: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
JFK was Hip Hop: "And so my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."
RWR was Hip Hop: "The past few days when I've been at that window upstairs, I've thought a bit of the "shining city upon a hill"....And how stands the city on this winter night? More prosperous, more secure, and happier than it was eight years ago."
Bill Clinton is Hip Hop, too, but George Walker Bush embodies the flatline of Gangsta Rap: "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised...Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours. Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict, commenced at a time of our choosing."Barack Obama is the greatest MC of all time. The DNC's Master of Ceremony's skills of Moving the Crowd have never been more evident than on the night of August 28th, 2008 in Denver's Invesco Stadium. It was the night Barack Obama fulfilled Martin Luther King's dream, and accepted the Democratic National Party's nomination for President. I wonder what went through his mind before he took the stage that night. Was it Jigga, as Obama mentally scrolled through his list of detractors in the media and politics, who tried to clown him by deifying him?: "I never claimed to have wings on/I get my/by any means on/when there's a drought/get your umbrellas out/that's when I brainstorm."
Maybe it was Rakim in the earbuds of Obama's iPod: "I'm not a regular competitor/ first rhyme editor/ Melody arranger, poet, etcetera/ Extra events, the grand finale like bonus/I am the man they call the microphonist."
Or maybe it was just Barack Obama being Barack Obama on this most historic night, transforming rap into epos: "We cannot turn back. America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with so many children to educate. And so many veterans to care for. Not with an economy to fix. And cities to rebuild, and farms to save. Not with so many families to protect, and so many lives to mend. America we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone...in America, our destiny is inextricably linked."I don't know if John McCain is Hip Hop. I don't know if he or the Republican Party understands that it is the culture of Hip Hop that has directly -- and indirectly -- fueled the youth movement behind Barack Obama. Many have made this connection between Obama and Hip Hop, including the great New York Times columnist, Maureen Dowd, to a young Baltimore, Md. journalist by the name of Timothy Cooper.
Even Robin Williams said on Letterman a few weeks ago:
Obama running is wonderful. It's-initially it was very interesting with people being kind of afraid of going, 'You know, he's a very eloquent black man'. And some folks in Conneticut going, 'Well, he's a tan Kennedy'. But...what was their fear, though? Are they afraid that this very eloquent man will be elected President, and all of a sudden he takes the oath of office and goes, 'Yo what's up?!! (Williams grabbing his crotch in the b-boy style) Yo-yo-yo! Yo gonna keep it real! I'ma bring it home right now, no more of that Urkel stuff! I wanna introduce some members of my cabinet: this is Lil' Ray-Ray, Skinny G, Colin Powell, because he's bad! Keepin' it real!
The Gen-Y'ers have truly made the connection between Barack Obama and Hip Hop. They are his advance team on Facebook, My Space, and Friendster, an army of Millennials that has assisted the Obama campaign in raising hundreds of millions of dollars online. For this new paradigm--young white kids (and Asian, Latino, African-American, and multi-racial kids, too)--the culture of Hip Hop allowed them to embrace a black man without fear, suspicion, or loathing. These same Gen-Y'ers will go to a Jay-Z concert and know all the words to "Regrets" or "Lost Ones." Michael Phelps motored Beijing's Olympic blue cube -- stoked by the fires of Lil' Wayne lyrics playing in his head -- en route to a record eight gold medals. These same Millennials are also educating their parents around the breakfast and dinner table, letting them know that the Baby Boomer version of the American Dream, the Woodstock, flower power, peace, love, and Haight-Ashbury, has grown up in Eminem's 8 Mile of Detroit, Snoop Dogg's Long Beach, and Common's South Side of Chicago. Their world may not be a ghetto, but the Millennials have broadbanded it into their very own 3-G global 'hood. Which, incidentally, is Obama's hood, too.
So I don't know if John McCain is Hip Hop. Last week, with McCain and Sarah Palin -- the Charli Baltimore of the G.O.P. -- and their operatives flashing the political gang signs to their conservative base ("Terrorist", "Ayers", "Who is the real Barack Obama"?), The Straight Talk Express derailed into lyrics of David Bowie's "Candidate": "I'll make you a deal, like any other candidate/we'll pretend we're walking home 'cause your future's at stake...I'm having so much fun with the poisonous people/ spreading rumours and lies and stories they made up."
John McCain may be more Rock and Roll than Hip Hop, which --along with R&B-- was the Hip Hop of the '60s and '70s. The raison d'etre of John McCain seems to trapped between a pair of Bowie bookends: The Man Who Fell To Earth who joins forces with The Man Who Sold The World. No matter how much distance this heroic fighter pilot and former POW tries to put between George W. Bush -- who is on an unswerving, abominable path towards presiding over the most calamitous administration in American history -- McCain cannot escape the connection nor the facts. Wall Street continues to collapse. The ranks of the unemployed swell to hundreds of thousands every month. The war in Iraq, Afghanistan, and an increasingly unstable Pakistan seem to have no end in sight. Those are the facts, and so is this: life as we know it in this country is slowly rotting away. And that's not Hip Hop. That's the discord of an apocalypse. And -- quite possibly -- as Sen. John S. McCain may find out at the end of the last and final debate with Barack Obama on Wednesday at Hofstra University, his campaign's swan song.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/us/politics/13martin.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print
The most persistent falsehood about Senator Barack Obama’s background first hit in 2004 just two weeks after the Democratic convention speech that helped set him on the path to his presidential candidacy: “Obama is a Muslim who has concealed his religion.”
That statement, contained in a press release, spun a complex tale about the ancestry of Mr. Obama, who is Christian.
The press release was picked up by a conservative Web site, FreeRepublic.com, and spread steadily as others elaborated on its claims over the years in e-mail messages, Web sites and books. It continues to drive other false rumors about Mr. Obama’s background.
Just last Friday, a woman told Senator John McCain at a town-hall-style meeting, “I have read about him,” and “he’s an Arab.” Mr. McCain corrected her.
Until this month, the man who is widely credited with starting the cyberwhisper campaign that still dogs Mr. Obama was a secondary character in news reports, with deep explorations of his background largely confined to liberal blogs.
But an appearance in a documentary-style program on the Fox News Channel watched by three million people last week thrust the man, Andy Martin, and his past into the foreground. The program allowed Mr. Martin to assert falsely and without challenge that Mr. Obama had once trained to overthrow the government.
An examination of legal documents and election filings, along with interviews with his acquaintances, revealed Mr. Martin, 62, to be a man with a history of scintillating if not always factual claims. He has left a trail of animosity — some of it provoked by anti-Jewish comments — among political leaders, lawyers and judges in three states over more than 30 years.
He is a law school graduate, but his admission to the Illinois bar was blocked in the 1970s after a psychiatric finding of “moderately severe character defect manifested by well-documented ideation with a paranoid flavor and a grandiose character.”
Though he is not a lawyer, Mr. Martin went on to become a prodigious filer of lawsuits, and he made unsuccessful attempts to win public office for both parties in three states, as well as for president at least twice, in 1988 and 2000. Based in Chicago, he now identifies himself as a writer who focuses on his anti-Obama Web site and press releases.
Mr. Martin, in a series of interviews, did not dispute his influence in Obama rumors.
“Everybody uses my research as a takeoff point,” Mr. Martin said, adding, however, that some take his writings “and exaggerate them to suit their own fantasies.”
As for his background, he said: “I’m a colorful person. There’s always somebody who has a legitimate cause in their mind to be angry with me.”
When questions were raised last week about Mr. Martin’s appearance and claims on “Hannity’s America” on Fox News, the program’s producer said Mr. Martin was clearly expressing his opinion and not necessarily fact.
It was not Mr. Martin’s first turn on national television. The CBS News program “48 Hours” in 1993 devoted an hourlong program to what it called his prolific filing of frivolous lawsuits. He has filed so many lawsuits that a judge barred him from doing so in any federal court without preliminary approval.
He prepared to run as a Democrat for Congress in Connecticut, where paperwork for one of his campaign committees listed as one purpose “to exterminate Jew power.” He ran as a Republican for the Florida State Senate and the United States Senate in Illinois. When running for president in 1999, he aired a television advertisement in New Hampshire that accused George W. Bush of using cocaine.
In the 1990s, Mr. Martin was jailed in a case in Florida involving a physical altercation.
His newfound prominence, and the persistence of his line of political attack — updated regularly on his Web site and through press releases — amazes those from his past.
“Well, that’s just a bookend for me,” said Tom Slade, a former chairman of the Florida Republican Party, whom Mr. Martin sued for refusing to support him. Mr. Slade said Mr. Martin was driven like “a run-over dog, but he’s fearless.”
Given Mr. Obama’s unusual background, which was the focus of his first book, it was perhaps bound to become fodder for some opposed to his candidacy.
Mr. Obama was raised mostly by his white mother, an atheist, and his grandparents, who were Protestant, in Hawaii. He hardly knew his father, a Kenyan from a Muslim family who variously considered himself atheist or agnostic, Mr. Obama wrote. For a few childhood years, Mr. Obama lived in Indonesia with a stepfather he described as loosely following a liberal Islam.
Theories about Mr. Obama’s background have taken on a life of their own. But independent analysts seeking the origins of the cyberspace attacks wind up at Mr. Martin’s first press release, posted on the Free Republic Web site in August 2004.
Its general outlines have turned up in a host of works that have expounded falsely on Mr. Obama’s heritage or supposed attempts to conceal it, including “Obama Nation,” the widely discredited best seller about Mr. Obama by Jerome R. Corsi. Mr. Corsi opens the book with a quote from Mr. Martin.
“What he’s generating gets picked up in other places,” said Danielle Allen, a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University who has investigated the e-mail campaign’s circulation and origins, “and it’s an example of how the Internet has given power to sources we would have never taken seriously at another point in time.”
Ms. Allen said Mr. Martin’s original work found amplification in 2006, when a man named Ted Sampley wrote an article painting Mr. Obama as a secret practitioner of Islam. Quoting liberally from Mr. Martin, the article circulated on the Internet, and its contents eventually found their way into various e-mail messages, particularly an added claim that Mr. Obama had attended “Jakarta’s Muslim Wahhabi schools. Wahhabism is the radical teaching that created the Muslim terrorists who are now waging jihad on the rest of the world.”
Mr. Obama for two years attended a Catholic school in Indonesia, where he was taught about the Bible, he wrote in “Dreams From My Father,” and for two years went to an Indonesian public school open to all religions, where he was taught about the Koran.
Mr. Sampley, coincidentally, is a Vietnam veteran and longtime opponent of Mr. McCain and Senator John Kerry, both of whom he accused of ignoring his claims that American prisoners were left behind in Vietnam. He previously portrayed Mr. McCain as a “Manchurian candidate.” Speaking of Mr. Martin’s influence on his Obama writings, Mr. Sampley said, “I keyed off of his work.”
Mr. Martin’s depictions of Mr. Obama as a secret Muslim have found resonance among some Jewish voters who have received e-mail messages containing various versions of his initial theory, often by new authors and with new twists.
In his original press release, Mr. Martin wrote that he was personally “a strong supporter of the Muslim community.” But, he wrote of Mr. Obama, “it may well be that his concealment is meant to endanger Israel.” He added, “His Muslim religion would obviously raise serious questions in many Jewish circles.”
Yet in various court papers, Mr. Martin had impugned Jews.
A motion he filed in a 1983 bankruptcy case called the judge “a crooked, slimy Jew who has a history of lying and thieving common to members of his race.”
In another motion, filed in 1983, Mr. Martin wrote, “I am able to understand how the Holocaust took place, and with every passing day feel less and less sorry that it did.”
In an interview, Mr. Martin denied some statements against Jews attributed to him in court papers, blaming malicious judges for inserting them.
But in his “48 Hours” interview in 1993, he affirmed a different anti-Semitic part of the affidavit that included the line about the Holocaust, saying, “The record speaks for itself.”
When asked Friday about an assertion in his court papers that “Jews, historically and in daily living, act through clans and in wolf pack syndrome,” he said, “That one sort of rings a bell.”
He said he was not anti-Semitic. “I was trying to show that everybody in the bankruptcy court was Jewish and I was not Jewish,” he said, “and I was being victimized by religious bias.”
In discussing the denial of his admission to the Illinois bar, Mr. Martin said the psychiatric exam listing him as having a “moderately severe personality defect” was spitefully written by an evaluator he had clashed with.
Mr. Martin, who says he is from a well-off banking and farming family, is clearly pleased with his newfound attention. But, he said, others have added to his work in “scary” ways.
“They Google ‘Islam’ and ‘Obama’ and my stuff comes up and they take that and kind of use that — like a Christmas tree, and they decorate it,” he said. For instance, he said, he did not necessarily ascribe to a widely circulated e-mail message from the Israeli right-wing activist Ruth Matar, which includes the false assertion, “If Obama were elected, he would be the first Arab-American president.”
He said he had at least come to “accept” Mr. Obama’s word that he had found Jesus Christ. His intent, he said, was only to educate.
Kitty Bennett contributed reporting.
As the 2008 campaign enters the final sprint toward the November 4th finish line, both campaigns are framing their final arguments to voters. As McCain's poll numbers in key states across the country continue to erode, we've seen his campaign tactics change. They have gone into 100 percent negative attack mode - literally 100 percent as far as I can tell - as that is currently the percentage of their ads that are negative. They are aimed at tearing down Obama personally and betting on the fact that they can raise doubts in enough swing voters minds' in key states like Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, New Hampshire and Colorado that they can tip the electorate over the next couple weeks. They are doing this through "guilt by association" politics. They don't want this final phase of the campaign to be about the economy or the other issues, that much is clear from their own strategists quotes in the press. They want it to be about Obama's relationships with people like William Ayers and Jeremiah Wright.
First, let me say that this is nothing new in politics. For as long as Presidential campaigns have been waged, both sides of always tried to accused their opponents of "sleeping with the enemy" or having connections to people who are not upstanding folks. As I'm sure many of you remember, we spent a lot of time defending Clinton against these types of attacks during the 1992 race. However, John McCain and Sarah Palin are going far further, and far nastier, with this tactic than any campaign in memory.
Our side should not let the McCain campaign drive this debate without pointing out their hypocrisy, and we should hold the traditional media accountable when they cover McCain's wild accusations without exploring any of the associations in McCain and Palin's careers. So I decided to put together a list of people with frightening beliefs and/or criminal backgrounds that McCain and Palin are tied to. My criterion is that I looked for people that are or were in fact closer to McCain or Palin than Ayers. I think we should all push to make the traditional media really dig into these relationships.
12. Pastor John Hagee. You all remember when the Pastor Hagee scandal broke a couple months ago. Since then, McCain has distanced himself from the Pastor, but it's still important to remember this relationship and to note that while Obama has also distanced himself from Rev. Wright, the McCain campaign, along with GOP operatives continue to tie the two to each other and it's expected that Wright's name will make a return to the debate during next week's debate in New York.
In February of 2008, Hagee endorsed McCain's candidacy, calling him a, "man of principle, [who] does not stand boldly on both sides of any issue." For his part, McCain said that he was "very honored by Pastor John Hagee's endorsement." Unfortunately, Hagee has a litany of statements in the public record that are not only troubling, they are downright offensive and radical. ThinkProgress has more on Hagee's past comments. For starters, Hagee once referred to Catholicism as "The Great Whore," and in talking about U.S. foreign policy he said, "The United States must join Israel in a pre-emptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the West... a biblically prophesied end-time confrontation with Iran, which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation, and Second Coming of Christ."
McCain has denounced some of these more radical statements, but the mere fact that he actively sought Hagee's endorsement for a year means that he should be held to account for Hagee's radical views - if Wright remains on the political table, Hagee should be there right next to him.
11. Thomas Muthee. Sarah and Todd Palin have another Pastor problem. His name is Thomas Muthee and he is an evangelist and witchdoctor, who Sarah Palin has credited with helping her to win her governorship in 2006. Hannah Strange from the Times Online has more on the Muthee-Palin relationship.
At a speech at the Wasilla Assembly of God on June 8 this year, Mrs Palin described how Thomas Muthee had laid his hands on her when he visited the church as a guest preacher in late 2005, prior to her successful gubernatorial bid. In video footage of the speech, she is seen saying: "As I was mayor and Pastor Muthee was here and he was praying over me, and you know how he speaks and he's so bold. And he was praying "Lord make a way, Lord make a way.""And I'm thinking, this guy's really bold, he doesn't even know what I'm going to do, he doesn't know what my plans are. And he's praying not "oh Lord if it be your will may she become governor," no, he just prayed for it. He said "Lord make a way and let her do this next step. And that's exactly what happened."
In video footage of the speech, she is seen saying: "As I was mayor and Pastor Muthee was here and he was praying over me, and you know how he speaks and he's so bold. And he was praying "Lord make a way, Lord make a way."
"And I'm thinking, this guy's really bold, he doesn't even know what I'm going to do, he doesn't know what my plans are. And he's praying not "oh Lord if it be your will may she become governor," no, he just prayed for it. He said "Lord make a way and let her do this next step. And that's exactly what happened."
Just like the Wright sermons, there are tons of YouTube clips that highlight this guy's sermons. The Palins' association with this guy really brings into question some serious issues - for example -does she believe that Muthee's spiritual hand helped seal her election in Alaska? Had this guy preached in front of Obama or his congregation, can you imagine what the outrage from the Right would be? Moreover, Muthee has made anti Catholic statements. He was once quoted as saying, "Brazil is occupied by Catholics... but people are being saved anyway!"
10. Mustafa Abu Naba'a. A while back, McCain also had another fundraising scandal involving one of his big bundlers from Florida, who also has close ties to Gov. Charlie Crist. This man is Mustafa Abu Naba'a, who is a dual citizen of Jordan and the Dominican Republic. He was tasked with collecting checks for McCain bundler Harry Sargeant III. His contribution to McCain was returned because the donations were solicited by a foreign national and may have been collected in violation of federal election laws. Matthew Mosk of the Washington Post has more on this fundraising scandal and it's implications - needless to say, this bundler wasn't doing things above-board and the fallout should be scrutinized - this is not the kind of person a presidential campaign or a potential President of the United States wants to have hanging around.
9. Ali Jawad. As the McCain campaign and RNC research team comb through the Obama campaigns donation history looking for ties to foreign donors and those presumably with Arab sounding names trying to draw some connection, it's important to remember that John McCain has had some issues in the recent past receiving donations from shady people that he later had to return.
One of those people was Ali Jawad, a member of McCain's Michigan Finance Committee. Jawad is president of Armada Oil & Gas Company and founder of the Lebanese American Heritage Club. According to Jake Tapper at ABC News:
In this 2002 story, Jawad is quoted saying he "rejects talk that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization that should be shunned by the United States and other governments. 'Killing innocent people -- we reject that,' he said. 'Hezbollah does not fit this category. It has protected its people."
The article goes on to say:
In 1997 he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor insurance fraud. Prosecutors accused him of submitting names of non-employees to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan to receive health insurance benefits and claims. He received two years of probation and he paid approximately $6,000 in fines and restitution.
8. Oliver North, John Singlaub and U.S. Council for World Freedom. A couple days ago, the Associated Press detailed the relationship between John McCain and The U.S. Council for World Freedom. AP:
The U.S. Council for World Freedom aided rebels trying to overthrow the leftist government of Nicaragua. That landed the group in the middle of the Iran-Contra affair and in legal trouble with the Internal Revenue Service, which revoked the charitable organization's tax exemption. The council created by retired Army Maj. Gen. John Singlaub was the U.S. chapter of the World Anti-Communist League, an international organization linked to former Nazi collaborators and ultra-right-wing death squads in Central America. After setting up the U.S. council, Singlaub served as the international league's chairman.
The council created by retired Army Maj. Gen. John Singlaub was the U.S. chapter of the World Anti-Communist League, an international organization linked to former Nazi collaborators and ultra-right-wing death squads in Central America. After setting up the U.S. council, Singlaub served as the international league's chairman.
What's more?
In two interviews with The Associated Press in August and September, Singlaub said McCain became associated with the organization in the early 1980s as McCain launched his political career. McCain was elected to the U.S. House in 1982.
Launched his political career? Sound familiar?
The Council was notorious for its affiliation with white supremacists, etc. Also, remember that Oliver North played a large role during the Iran-Contra and was convicted in 1989 of shredding documents, accepting an illegal gratuity, and aiding and abetting in the obstruction of Congress. On February 12, 2008, the McCain campaign circulated a column that North wrote in the Washington Times touting, "extolling the senator's virtues, under the heading "In Case You Missed It: Oliver North on John McCain."
Sam Stein at the Huffington Post has a great piece about McCain's connections with the U.S. Council for World Freedom. You can read it here.
7. Charles Keating. For many younger voters, the name Charles Keating might not have meant anything until early this week. However, for those of us who have been around for a while and have been deeply involved in politics, the Keating Five Scandal is still very much in our memories. This week, the Obama campaign hit McCain hard on the Keating issue - producing a 13-minute documentary on the scandal and tying McCain's actions back then to the crisis we face today in our economy. They hit him on judgment and they want to re-introduce Charles Keating to the American people, and rightly so. Keating was a close friend of the McCain's. McCain and his family vacationed with Keating, on Keating's buck and the favors that McCain helped to curry for Keating during the 1980's helped to bring about the fall of the Savings and Loan industry, one of the largest economic calamities of the 20th century. Just this past week, ThinkProgress dug up a letter correspondence between McCain and Keating - which punctuates their friendship and loyalty.
The Washington Times reports that in 1986, John McCain wrote a note on House stationery to Charles Keating, chairman of a failed savings and loan association who went to prison in the late 1980s. In the letter, McCain apologized for listing Keating as part of his Senate campaign finance committee. Keating wrote in response: "You can call me anything, write anything or do anything. I'm yours till death do us part."
If public service is about watching who you keep as company, then Charles Keating is still very much on the table. For years since the scandal, McCain has written and talked about how the Keating Five Scandal changed his life and how he would be forever transformed by the incident. However, in a conference call with reporters last week, John Dowd, the lawyer who represented McCain during the Senate Ethics Committee investigation spoke of the investigation as a "classic political smear job" and professed that "John had not done anything wrong." This alone re-opens the entire incident and the press should now be asking John McCain if he too believes the investigation was a "smear job" and that he had "done nothing wrong." Keating is a classic example of the company you keep coming back to haunt you.
6. G. Gordon Liddy. Liddy has been a name in national politics for many years. However, many piece of his biography have been forgotten. If a candidate for President of the United States is presumed guilty for the company that he keeps, then McCain's relationship, both financial and personal, with G. Gordon Liddy is very troublesome. Oliver Willis has more in a recent Media Matters report that lays out this relationship:
As Media Matters for America has noted, Liddy served four and a half years in prison in connection with his conviction for his role in the Watergate break-in and the break-in at the office of the psychiatrist of Daniel Ellsberg, the military analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers. Liddy has acknowledged preparing to kill someone during the Ellsberg break-in "if necessary"; plotting to murder journalist Jack Anderson; plotting with a "gangland figure" to murder Howard Hunt to stop him from cooperating with investigators; plotting to firebomb the Brookings Institution; and plotting to kidnap "leftist guerillas" at the 1972 Republican National Convention -- a plan he outlined to the Nixon administration using terminology borrowed from the Nazis. (The murder, firebombing, and kidnapping plots were never carried out; the break-ins were.) During the 1990s, Liddy reportedly instructed his radio audience on multiple occasions on how to shoot Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agents and also reportedly said he had named his shooting targets after Bill and Hillary Clinton. Liddy has donated $5,000 to McCain's campaigns since 1998, including $1,000 in February 2008. In addition, McCain has appeared on Liddy's radio show during the presidential campaign, including as recently as May. An online video labeled "John McCain On The G. Gordon Liddy Show 11/8/07? includes a discussion between Liddy and McCain, whom Liddy described as an "old friend." During the segment, McCain praised Liddy's "adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great," said he was "proud" of Liddy, and said that "it's always a pleasure for me to come on your program."
Liddy has donated $5,000 to McCain's campaigns since 1998, including $1,000 in February 2008. In addition, McCain has appeared on Liddy's radio show during the presidential campaign, including as recently as May. An online video labeled "John McCain On The G. Gordon Liddy Show 11/8/07? includes a discussion between Liddy and McCain, whom Liddy described as an "old friend." During the segment, McCain praised Liddy's "adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great," said he was "proud" of Liddy, and said that "it's always a pleasure for me to come on your program."
5. Kemper Marley. Kemper Marley was a wealthy liquor distributor and Arizona rancher who had close ties to the Hensley family, namely Cindy McCain's father. He was long suspected of being involved in the bombing and murder of Don Bolles, an investigative reporter for The Arizona Republic who specialized in crime reporting. According to Marley's 1990 obituary in the New York Times, "John Harvey Adamson, the only person whose conviction in the slaying has been upheld, said in court documents that he had been hired by Max Dunlap, a wealthy contractor who had been reared by Mr. Marley, to kill Mr. Bolles for writing articles damaging to Mr. Marley."
A Phoenix-area newspaper did a story during McCain's 2000 Presidential bid about the Hensley family history and their associations with shady characters. According to the Phoenix News Times, "The Hensley saga, meanwhile, swirls with bygone accounts of illicit booze, gambling, horse racing, deceit and crime. James Hensley embarked on his road to riches as a bootlegger."Kemper's money, along with the Hensley family, helped John McCain get where he is today. It's important that questions are asked about McCain's knowledge of Kemper Marley and what involvement and impact he had on McCain's early political career.
4. Don Diamond. Then, there is Don Diamond. In April, 2008, the New York Times did a detailed story on Diamond's relationship with McCain and the favors that McCain curried for Diamond, who wanted to develop land in California on the site of a closed Army base.. In their lede, they write, "For Mr. McCain, the Arizona Republican who has staked two presidential campaigns on pledges to avoid even the appearance of dispensing an official favor for a donor, Mr. Diamond is the kind of friend who can pose a test."
Here's more from the Times:
Donald R. Diamond, a wealthy Arizona real estate developer, was racing to snap up a stretch of virgin California coast freed by the closing of an Army base a decade ago when he turned to an old friend, Senator John McCain. When Mr. Diamond wanted to buy land at the base, Fort Ord, Mr. McCain assigned an aide who set up a meeting at the Pentagon and later stepped in again to help speed up the sale, according to people involved and a deposition Mr. Diamond gave for a related lawsuit. When he appealed to a nearby city for the right to develop other property at the former base, Mr. Diamond submitted Mr. McCain's endorsement as "a close personal friend." Writing to officials in the city, Seaside, Calif., the senator said, "You will find him as honorable and committed as I have." Courting local officials and potential partners, Mr. Diamond's team promised that he could "help get through some of the red tape in dealing with the Department of the Army" because Mr. Diamond "has been very active with Senator McCain," a partner said in a deposition.A longtime political patron, Mr. Diamond is one of the elite fund-raisers Mr. McCain's current presidential campaign calls Innovators, having raised more than $250,000 so far. At home, Mr. Diamond is sometimes referred to as "The Donald," Arizona's answer to Donald Trump -- an outsized personality who invites public officials aboard his flotilla of yachts (the Ace, King, Jack and Queen of Diamonds), specializes in deals with the government, and unabashedly solicits support for his business interests from the recipients of his campaign contributions.
When Mr. Diamond wanted to buy land at the base, Fort Ord, Mr. McCain assigned an aide who set up a meeting at the Pentagon and later stepped in again to help speed up the sale, according to people involved and a deposition Mr. Diamond gave for a related lawsuit. When he appealed to a nearby city for the right to develop other property at the former base, Mr. Diamond submitted Mr. McCain's endorsement as "a close personal friend."
Writing to officials in the city, Seaside, Calif., the senator said, "You will find him as honorable and committed as I have."
Courting local officials and potential partners, Mr. Diamond's team promised that he could "help get through some of the red tape in dealing with the Department of the Army" because Mr. Diamond "has been very active with Senator McCain," a partner said in a deposition.
A longtime political patron, Mr. Diamond is one of the elite fund-raisers Mr. McCain's current presidential campaign calls Innovators, having raised more than $250,000 so far. At home, Mr. Diamond is sometimes referred to as "The Donald," Arizona's answer to Donald Trump -- an outsized personality who invites public officials aboard his flotilla of yachts (the Ace, King, Jack and Queen of Diamonds), specializes in deals with the government, and unabashedly solicits support for his business interests from the recipients of his campaign contributions.
3. Marylin Shannon. Over the past couple days you've heard the line about Obama "palling around with terrorists" come out of Sarah Palin's mouth on numerous occasions and with relative ease. Well, it's important to note that John McCain's friend, Marilyn Shannon, a Republican official from Oregon, once praised a woman who was convicted of attempted murder in the shooting of an abortion clinic doctor. According to Raw Story:
McCain and Shannon appeared together at a fundraiser for the Oregon Citizens Alliance in 1993, a gathering of Christian right extremists that even fellow Republicans advised McCain not to attend because the group was so far outside the mainstream. Speaking before McCain, Shannon offered some kind words for Shelley Shannon, who was accused and later convicted of shooting an abortion doctor: "I'm not related to Shelly Shannon, but I think she's a fine lady," the vice chairwoman of the state Republican Party said. McCain apparently said nothing to contradict that judgment, and less than three months later he voted against a bill that would make abortion clinic bombings a federal crime.Author and journalist Frederick Clarkson has written extensively about the Army of God, the radical Christian organization that trained Shelley Shannon and others like her to bomb abortion clinics and attack abortion providers. He provides some more details on Shannon. She was eventually convicted of the attempted murder of a Wichita, Kan., doctor and of committing a spree of abortion clinic arsons across the west.
Speaking before McCain, Shannon offered some kind words for Shelley Shannon, who was accused and later convicted of shooting an abortion doctor: "I'm not related to Shelly Shannon, but I think she's a fine lady," the vice chairwoman of the state Republican Party said. McCain apparently said nothing to contradict that judgment, and less than three months later he voted against a bill that would make abortion clinic bombings a federal crime.
Author and journalist Frederick Clarkson has written extensively about the Army of God, the radical Christian organization that trained Shelley Shannon and others like her to bomb abortion clinics and attack abortion providers. He provides some more details on Shannon. She was eventually convicted of the attempted murder of a Wichita, Kan., doctor and of committing a spree of abortion clinic arsons across the west.
Keep in mind that Shannon was a delegate for McCain to this year's Republican National Convention in Saint Paul. The McCain campaign showed no oversight in allowing her to attend. Moreover, as ThinkProgress points out - when asked by the CBS Early Show to respond to an article where accusations were made that McCain had palled around with someone who held these radical and dangerous views, McCain-Palin campaign spokesperson Nancy Pfotenhauer said, "The article also concluded is that if Senator McCain had hung out with somebody who had bombed abortion clinics, no one would consider [raising the issue] illegitimate.
So, what Pfotenhauer is saying is that this issue is legitimate and that McCain should have to respond. Let's see if he does.
2. Alaska Independence Party - Joe Vogler, Mark Chryson and Steve Stoll. As the GOP continues to parse and amplify the words of Jeremiah Wright, mind you, not his words on peace and spiritual matters, but rather the passages where he was critical of America on racial and foreign policy issues, it's important that we make sure Americans know about Joe Vogler, the founder of AIP. In some cases, his words are nearly identical to Rev. Wright's, and in many cases they are worse. Vogler has been quoted as saying, "the fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government" and "I won't be buried under their damn flag..."I'll be buried in Dawson. And when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home." Vogler even went so far as to renounce his allegiance to the United States, which is far more extreme than anything that came out of Rev. Wright's mouth. In the course of denouncing Federal regulation over land, he said, "And then you get mad. And you say, the hell with them. And you renounce allegiance, and you pledge your efforts, your effects, your honor, your life to Alaska." TPM has a great piece with all of these quotes, along with audio of Vogler's interview.
There's also Mark Chryson and Steve Stoll, both AIP members and close political associates of Sarah Palin. Here's Salon's write-up on these two and their association with Palin's run for Mayor of Wasilla.
Though Chryson belongs to a fringe political party, one that advocates the secession of Alaska from the Union, and that organizes with other like-minded secessionist movements from Canada to the Deep South, he is not without peculiar influence in state politics, especially the rise of Sarah Palin. An obscure figure outside of Alaska, Chryson has been a political fixture in the hometown of the Republican vice-presidential nominee for over a decade. During the 1990s, when Chryson directed the AIP, he and another radical right-winger, Steve Stoll, played a quiet but pivotal role in electing Palin as mayor of Wasilla and shaping her political agenda afterward. Both Stoll and Chryson not only contributed to Palin's campaign financially, they played major behind-the-scenes roles in the Palin camp before, during and after her victory. Palin backed Chryson as he successfully advanced a host of anti-tax, pro-gun initiatives, including one that altered the state Constitution's language to better facilitate the formation of anti-government militias. She joined in their vendetta against several local officials they disliked, and listened to their advice about hiring.
The Salon piece that I quote from above has some really ripe, detailed information on the AIP, as well as its more shady members. Palin has not renounced these men or to the best of my knowledge, even addressed their associations with them.
1. Todd Palin. The "first dude" has gotten pretty much a free ride from the traditional press over the past six weeks. He's done a couple softball interviews on FOX News and has pretty much sat in the background as his wife has been introduced on the national stage. Not much attention has been paid to the fact that Todd Palin was a member, for eight years, of the Alaska Independence Party, a radical group that advocates for Alaskan secession from the United States of America and is linked with radical secessionist groups, militias, and white supremacists groups from all over the country. We don't know the full extent of Todd Palin's beliefs when it comes to AIP and their radical views, but the problem is - no one is really asking. As Ambinder puts it in a post he did on October 4:
Todd Palin, a former member of the Alaska Independence Party, might well have seen America unlike his wife did -- that is, an America that one can secede from. He was comfortable belonging to and being associated with a political party whose founder seemed to delight in denouncing the principles that hold our union together.
If there is even a remote chance that this guy is going to be living in the Vice President's house or White House for the next 4 or 8 years, we deserve to know the truth about his radical views of America, especially given how much Gov. Palin has clearly relied on him for policy-making help while Governor of Alaska.
Over John McCain's long political career, he has made many "friends." It's evident in the short time that the country has known Sarah and Todd Palin that they also had a bunch of friends - all who should be causing trouble for them in the closing weeks of this campaign. If the McCain-Palin ticket wants to constantly remind voters about Obama's "friends," it's imperative that we do the same.
I offer this list to reporters, bloggers and muckrakers of all kinds. To be fair in this campaign, if we're going to be hearing a lot about Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright, we should be hearing about all of these people as well. In fact, all of them are far closer to McCain or Palin than Ayers ever was to Obama. And while Obama has denounced the actions of Ayers and the words or Wright, most of the people on this list have never been denounced by John McCain or Sarah Palin. As McCain and company go more and more negative and trumpet Obama's past associations, it's important that we push these stories and make sure the American people know that this "guilt by associations" politics cuts both ways.
This video is from Barack and explains the Bill Ayers issue. It is clear that McCain, Palin and the RNC are planning to paint Ayers as a terrorist and try to link him tightly with Barack.These are the facts. Barack was 8 when Ayers was participating in some deplorable acts during the Vietnam Era which was a time when there were a lot of radical movements and things happening. I am not defending Bill Ayers but this happened during a terrible time in our history and it was 40 years ago.Barack served on a board with Ayers which was appointed by a Republican. There is nothing here but we know they are going to try and make this look bad.On the other hand, McCain voted twice against stopping DOMESTIC TERRORISM. Watch this terrible video.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDlpWfLyYssI guess he feels it was okay to BOMB medical clinics and kill doctors and patients! TERRORISM is terrorism and if the McCain camp wants to go there then I think we should bring this up. Just because McCain does not approve of a Women's Right to Choose does not mean it is OKAY to BOMB clinics and KILL doctors and patients. So, does the McCain camp really want to go here? They will and they will get away with it unless We all say ENOUGH and let him know WE know about his votes to stop actual terrorism HERE in the US.Come on Obama supporters. Barack and Joe need our help and full support in these final days! Both of them have the integrity and intelligence to lead us through this Crisis facing all of us. We have the power to stop this nonsense and we have the TRUTH and the FACTS on our side. Let's use them! Thanks,LuAnn in Indiana
This video is from Barack and explains the Bill Ayers issue. It is clear that McCain, Palin and the RNC are planning to paint Ayers as a terrorist and try to link him tightly with Barack.These are the facts. Barack was 8 when Ayers was participating in some deplorable acts during the Vietnam Era which was a time when there were a lot of radical movements and things happening. I am not defending Bill Ayers but this happened during a terrible time in our history and it was 40 years ago.Barack served on a board with Ayers which was appointed by a Republican. There is nothing here but we know they are going to try and make this look bad.On the other hand, McCain voted twice against stopping DOMESTIC TERRORISM. Watch this terrible video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDlpWfLyYss
I guess he feels it was okay to BOMB medical clinics and kill doctors and patients! TERRORISM is terrorism and if the McCain camp wants to go there then I think we should bring this up.
Just because McCain does not approve of a Women's Right to Choose does not mean it is OKAY to BOMB clinics and KILL doctors and patients.
So, does the McCain camp really want to go here? They will and they will get away with it unless We all say ENOUGH and let him know WE know about his votes to stop actual terrorism HERE in the US.
Come on Obama supporters. Barack and Joe need our help and full support in these final days! Both of them have the integrity and intelligence to lead us through this Crisis facing all of us.
We have the power to stop this nonsense and we have the TRUTH and the FACTS on our side. Let's use them! Thanks,LuAnn in Indiana
Thanks,LuAnn in Indiana
