Organizing for America | SoCal Jews for Obama

SoCal Jews for Obama

For the Southland Jewish community to show its support for Senator Obama. Our group picture is of the old Breed Street Shul in Boyle Heights, currently being converted into a community center after years of neglect. Quite a fitting analogy for this campaign, don't you think? Visit our MySpace page: http://groups.myspace.com/socaljews4obama

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Nobel Peace For President Obama

By Sanjaya Kannath - Oct 9th, 2009 at 5:43 am EDT

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9th October 2009

President Obama has won Nobel Peace for 2009, for giving the world "hope for a better future", we give the President our best wishes and heartiest congratulations. President Barack Obama has been rated as the finest Statesman the world has seen, in the recent years by leading political analysts. His economic policies has seen, the US economy as well as the world economy cool down, from the free fall it has been witnessing. President Obama's climate change initiatives will be creating more job oppurtunity, than any industrial or green revolutions has created so far.

Lets also seek in earnest, pursual of Ethical Governance, i.e Ethics based policymaking and management that addreses performance issues, in business, government, politics, international relations, health care and beyond. The compromise in these, has seen financial woes in major institutions, nations being depraved and fleeced by corrupt practices. Lets seek active support and cooperation for Ethical Governance, locally and globally, to save the world from financial meltdowns, terrorism, corrupt politicians and bureaucrats and gross misuse of power and government machinaries, by despotic rulers, to make this world a better place to live in. (http://ethicalgov.co.cc)

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YES WE DID, YES WE MUST

By Carla Mays - Jan 23rd, 2009 at 10:18 am EST

Also listed in: 10 groups

YES WE DID! YES WE MUST:

Þ Protect him from harm both verbal & phyiscal

Þ Stay "FIRED UP" by staying active

Þ Work Bi-Partisan to bring "Change" together

Þ Don't just bitch, get active and stay engaged

Þ Start and join a local "Change" group

Þ Be philanthropic, serve your community, state and nation

Þ Stick by Obama, STOP smears on the Right & the Left!!!! Hold yourself responsible as you hold Barack!

Join the future of this movement!!

http://change.gov/joinus

http://www.communityorganize.com

http://www.ourpresidency.com

http://www.usaservice.org

http://www.whitehouse.gov

Barack's DNC 2004 Speech

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWynt87PaJ0&feature=PlayList&p=B1939005B8A4D4ED&index=188

Barack's DNC 2008 Speech

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ato7BtisXzE&feature=channel

Barack’s Election Acceptance Speech

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wJ-2Zu_Iic&feature=channel

Barack’s Inauguration Speech

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjnygQ02aW4

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Please Vote Team Change in CDP Delegates Caucuses

By Carla Mays - Jan 1st, 2009 at 3:51 pm EST

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What is Team Change?

Obama community activists, artists, farmers, organizers, educators, doctors, veterans and business leaders wanting to bring hope, change and action to the California Democratic Party, because change brings with us! We are continuing the advocacy of the Obama campaign with a strong and personal commitment to our communities and our issues. With Team Change, You get more than a votes, you get PROVEN & EFFECTIVE WORKER BEES FOR POSITIVE CHANGE!!!

What does Team Change stand for?

¨ Single payer/universal healthcare

¨ Federal & State Funded Stem Cell Research

¨ Fully funding education

¨ Protecting the environment and our natural resources

¨ Equality for all

¨ Taking care of our veterans and their families by honoring our commitments, providing highest level quality programs and services and capacity building to new veterans needs

¨ Greening of business, green energy and products through incentives and regulations

¨ Growing our economy through WPA like programs, small businesses and get Californians back to work with living wages and benefits

¨ Community and national service

¨ Affordable housing, increasing homeowership, government intervention to help individuals and families from foreclosures

¨ Bring more programs and services to our Region

Why come to the Caucuses and vote for Team Change?

To continue the advocacy of the Obama campaign with the leaders who made our movement so successful here locally and nationally. Team Change activists and organizers did not stop on November 4, they continue the fight for positive change everyday in their personal lives, careers, community and philanthropic endeavors. It is important to have these leaders lead the fight for change at the state-level. That’s why we respectfully ask for your vote! This vote is just as important as Nov. 4th, because President Obama will need strong leaders and worker bees for change inside the California Democratic Party to move our Platform foreward!

Where to vote for Team Change?

AD 73 – South Orange County & Oceanside – Saturday, January 10 at 10 am

San Clemente Community Center – Fireside Room

100 N. Calle Seville

San Clemente, 92672

AD 74 – North County San Diego – Sunday, January 11 at Noon

CWA Local 9511

1525 Simpson Way, Escondido, 92029

AD 75 – Central San Diego – Sunday, January 11 at 11 am

SpringHill Suites – Scripps Room

12032 Scripps Highlands Drive

San Diego, 92131 (Scripps Ranch)

AD 76 – Downtown San Diego & Beaches – Saturday, January 10 at 9 am

Belmont Park Community Room

3115 Mission Blvd

San Diego, 92109 (Mission Beach)

How to vote for Team Change?

Pre-register for the Caucus at www.cadems.org on the right side of the page. Come to the Caucus meet Team Change delegate candidates and they will hand you a slate card. Then proceed to the Registration Table to get your ballot.

Team Change Delegate Candidates

AD 73

Erin Gilligan-Morin

Raad Ghantous

Anna-Maria Mannino

AD 74

Benjamin Bates

Martha Sullivan

Rachel Rott

Carla Mays

Charles “Charlie” Imes

Fabio Marchi

Gabriel Mendez

Nanci Oeschle

Rebecca Leo

Rick Hall

AD 75

Michael "Mickey" & Holly Foster

Drs. Robert and Yvonne Frisby

Maurice and Roma Weaver

Gerold Firl

Gerry Senda

AD 76

Dr. Michael McQuarry

Gail Mackler

Mike Russell

Larry and Donna Dawson

Greg Bolian

Brian Polejes

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Post Election Thoughts, Inauguration, Military and Veterans Outreach

By Carla Mays - Dec 18th, 2008 at 1:54 pm EST

Also listed in: 10 groups

My concerns are that the military families and veterans that have worked so hard, may not be able to participate in the inauguration that they made possible! It upsets me that I have NOT heard back from Brian Bilbray, Senator Feinstein or any other representatives that I have contacted regarding tickets. We have made various request for volunteer opportunities, discounted and free tickets to balls and events, and we are still in a wait and see pattern. It is very costly and bureaucratic, and I fear that the group may not be able to attended this most historic event, that again they made possible. As we wait for information, housing and airfare become more difficult and out of reach. But, I am hopeful that we will find sponsors to sponsor our local military families and veterans to the inauguration. We currently are in need of air miles and lodging sponsors. We currently have a proposal into the Earl Stafford Foundation for inaugural travel assistance for our 32 member OC (Orange County) and San Diego Military and Veterans for Obama, a local group of Blue Star Military Families and Veterans for Obama. Which I serve as lead organizer for, and founded this summer.
We are extremely excited about attending the Obama Inaugural after traveling to 37 states and Puerto Rico, hosting over 180 events and raising over $25,000 collectedly for the campaign and for philanthropic organizations. The group finished the campaign in Florida, where we worked with Obama organizers deliver all 27 electoral college votes for Obama!
I am also very upset that local party organizers are not making inaugural parties affordable to students, seniors, the disabled or military families and veterans! It is very sad to see that even theSan Diego County Democratic Inaugural Party is out of reach for most at $85/$100 per ticket! This is NOT the Obama way! We are a movement of inclusion, not exclusion based on socioeconomic status. I personally have helped get plane tickets and organized travel for over 850 students, veterans, military family members, unemployed folks and those who could not afford to be a part of this movement, but wanted to volunteer. It is the roll of us as organizers to be mindful of the current economic conditions and plan events accordingly. We have to work on getting underwriters and sponsors for underrepresented groups.

As a 33 year old recent graduate school graduate, I understand all to well about the struggles of trying to find a job in this economy and trying to make ends meat. And this campaign trail, has given me much to be thankful for and to work toward. As a young black woman, I often was brought to tears thinking of my mother (who died of pancreatic cancer in 2005) would be saying or the shear enjoy of my grandparents to see this day come to come to pass, when not color but charisma, brilliance, political savvy and philanthropy motivated the Nation to elect the 44th President of the United States of America! And I feel that same way in being elected delegate in my congressional district where blacks make up only about 2% of the population! That is was I felt an obligation to fundraise and take San Diego's Finest with me!
My proudest moment in this campaign was being elected the National Delegate from the 50th Congressional District to the Democratic National Convention and taking a Military Families and Veterans Delegation of 26 with me! The best event of the whole week was working with the group to packing boxes for our troops at Camp Pendleton with Michelle Obama, her daughters, her mother and her brothers! I cried when we (Benjamin Bates, my fiance, managed the Delegation while I was on the floor of the Convention) were able to get all the families and their extended families into the Invesco Field for the ending ceremonies! This is what the Obama campaign and movement is all about philanthropy and service.
The group is focusing our attention on on the California Democratic Party's Assembly District Delegates races, where we are running our Blue Stars and Veterans in the their AD's to represent military families and veterans issues on the state level. We are working to establish military family members and veterans as a strong lobby with the CDP thru the Veterans Caucus and appointments to various committees with in the CDP. Our group has now found a home in the La Jolla Democratic Club. We are very excited to be joining forces with such an active and well established Democratic Club. The new president, Dr. Michael McQuarry has been a great advocate of our work and is helping us develop Democratic Military and Veterans outreach and assist us with our philanthropic work. Here in San Diego we are working with philanthropic organizations by volunteering, hosting events or raising money.
I am very interested in changing Democrats and Progressives feelings and views on the military and veterans. I believe we have much to do on the local level to constituency build among military families and veterans. San Diego County is a military county, and we must work with them, advocate for them and provide them a seat at the policy table. I see this is my new role in the movement. The military families and veterans are our pride and enjoy, and are what makes San Diego "America's Finest City." But thru out the nation it is NOT only our duty to work to end the war, but to support the military families and veterans that were innocently caught up in this conflict also!!! For to long Democrats have been sleeping at the wheel on outreaching to military families, troops and veterans. They overwhelming supported Obama this is our opportunity. It will not be easy because we have been MIA so long, and letting Republicans set the agenda. If you want a real rewarding challenge join us in helping and working with our troops, military families and veterans! Being Democrat, progressive or liberal does NOT mean anti-military, military families or veterans!!! Pro-Obama, Pro-Military!!!!!

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Band Wagon Voters

By Ali Seaton - Dec 1st, 2008 at 10:54 pm EST

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You know I am a real GOD fearing man and all but, I just am not down with the people who really didn't want to see Barack Win.

They all were not for him and hated on him.

I don't think band wagon voters are about change and then people want to go find anyone who is black to talk about how exited they are.

I was exited in April 2007 cause I know he was going to WIN because GOD showed me a sign.

People think they are really about change and they are not.

They still hate but, ok if you are really about change then roll up your sleaves and help Barack

cause Yes We Won but we won a very twisted world.

We still need to weed out those fake and hatred people.

I would had rather them vote for someone else then vote for a race they hate.

I love everyone but, lot's of people hate me because of my skin and for no other reason than that.

I hold my head High and ready to die for the truth, so tell it why don't you.

Just keep it real.

People look at me all different now like they are shocked.

I tell them be shocked at yourself and go to GOD for a pure heart he forgives, ya know?

GOD Bless You

Ali

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FROM AN AMERICAN PHILOSOPHER IN LONDON, ENGLAND

By The Original NYC Free Advice Man - Nov 5th, 2008 at 9:47 am EST

Also listed in: 6 groups

Dear President-Elect Barack Obama,

My sincere condolences and deepest sympathy upon the passing of your beloved grandmother.

As The Original New York City Free Advice Man I would like to congratulate you, your wonderful family, friends and all our fellow supporters, true Democrats, real Republicans, sensible Independents and others, for getting you elected the next President of Our United States of America! I am exceedingly grateful to you and Vice-President-Elect Joe Biden, whom I consider a friend, for putting up with all the senseless garbage and difficulties that our opponents threw at us during this long, testing and tiring campaign. You can count on me to provide you, your administration and our government any and all Quality Free Advice, Objective Criticism, Critical Insight and Foresight needed to help insure that the coming four years or more will be successful, especially in restoring Our American image and reputation abroad and our Constitution at home.

Having been a specific target of those who have unscrupulously, severely damaged our country I hope to have the opportunity to meet you and/or my friend Joe Biden (who was my preference until you’re very promising Iowa Caucus victory) and briefly discuss my very unpleasant experiences these past seven plus years. I also hope my YouTube endorsement video (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejts46Ll1Nk ) helped a little bit, and that all my other efforts at home (Maryland/DC) and here in London contributed to our success. Should you ever need the views/ideas/opinions of someone who truly thinks way outside of ‘the box’, then remember that The Free Advice Man is fully at your service. Consider me one of your National Philosophical Advisors!

Respectfully yours, best, J

ean-Pierre Ady Fenyo

Philosopher-at-Large

The Original New York City Free Advice Man ( www.infinitysociety.org/FREEADVICEMAN )

November 3, 2008 Edgware, London, England, UK Europe

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McCain VS Obama

By La Susa - Nov 2nd, 2008 at 4:26 pm EST

Also listed in: 9 groups

Im not in favor of McCain because he wants to cheat workers, and give more money to the extreamly rich that make 250,000.00 or more! Yo no estoy en favor al McCain por que el quire enganiar a los trabajadores y dar mas dinero a los ricototes, la cual que hacen 250,000.00 y mas!

Im not in favor of McCain because he is too old, 72 years old, and placed Palin as VP. Poor Palin dosn't know much about the world, much less about how to run Our Nation. Yo no estoy en favor al McCain por que ya esta muy viejo, 72 anos, y puso a la Palin de VP. La pobre Palin no sabe mucho del mundo, menos como correr nuestro Nacion!

Im not in favor of McCain because he says he knows how to do everything, but really what has he done in, practicly nothing in 20 years. Yo no estoy en favor al McCain por que el dice que el sabe como hacer de todo, pero a la deveras no ha hecho casi nada en 20 anos.

Im not in favor of McCain because he lies too much! There are so many lies I cannot place them all here, it is an embarrasment! Yo no estoy en favor al McCain por que miente demaciado! Hay tantas mentiras que no los puedo ponerlos todos aqui, es una veruenza!

I voted for Senator Obama because he wants to help those workers who pay way too much in taxes. He wants the rich that make 250,000.00 or more to pay taxes as it was during the years of President Clinton. Yo Vote por Senador Obama por que el qiere ayudar a aquellos que trabajan y pagan demacido taxes. El quiere que los ricos que hacen 250,000.00 y mas que ellos pagan taxes como era en los anos del Presidente Clinton.

I voted for Senator Obama because he realized when his mom was ill that the insurance companies didn't want to pay the bills because her illness before she died being cancer was considered 'pre-existing'. And she sadly died with the worries of the bills. Yo Vote por Senador Obama por que el se dio cuenta que cuando su mama estaba enferma las companias de seguranza no querian pagar los cuentos por que querian decir la cual que la enfermedad que cancer que tenia su mama antes de murir que era 'pre-existing'. Y la pobre murio con penas de los cuentos!

I voted for Senator Obama because he knows what it is like to live in poverty, for when he was a child he and his mom were on foodstamps. And his manerism is one of humility. Yo Vote por Senador Obama por que el sabe como es vivir pobre, cuando el era nino, su mama y el estaban es las estampas. Y tiene un modo de ser que es humide.

I voted for Senator Obama because he knows what it is like to live without a dad. His dad left when he was only two years old. And he knows that there are many mothers with children who are alone and suffering with mounting bills. Yo Vote al Senador Obama por que el sabe como es vivir sin un papa. El papa de el se fue, cuando el no mas tenia dos anos de edad. Y sabe que hay muchas madres con ninos que estan solas y sufiendo con biles demasiados.

I voted for Senator Obama because he wants to give many jobs to the people! Yo Vote al Senador Obama por que el quiere a dar muchos trabajos a la gente!

I voted for Senator Obama because he wants all students to have the opportunities to go to collage, not just the rich! Yo Vote al Senador Obama por que el quiere que todos estudiantes tengan la oportunidad a ir al colejio, no, no mas los ricos!

I voted for Obama because he knows we have to stop the war in Iraq, and look for that man Bin Ladden who killed nearly 4 thousand people here in the United States on September 11, 2001. Yo Vote al Obama por que el sabe que tenemos que parrar la guierra en Iraq y buscar al hombre ese Bin Ladden; que mato ha casi 4 mil personas aqui en Los Estados Unidos en Septiembre 11 del 2001.

I voted for Senator Obama because he dose not want American companies to leave to China, and he wants them to stay here in the Untited States. Yo Vote por el Senador Obama por que el no quiere que las companias Americanas se van para China, el quiere que se esten aqui en Los Estados Unidos.

I voted for Senator Obama because he wants to help companies make new inventions, so that we will not be dependant on other nations for oil. Yo Vote al Senador Obama por que el quiere ayudar a las companias hacer invenciones nuevas, para no estemos dependidas en otros Naciones para el aceite.

The tax calculator: El calculador de taxes:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stateupdates/gGgFgH

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Acuerdencen! Remember!

By La Susa - Nov 2nd, 2008 at 2:18 pm EST

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Acuerdencen al los ancianos y gente debiles a llevar sillas para que se descansan cuando voten en el dia 4 de Noviembre, por que se me hace que va a ver mucha gente!

Remember to remind the elderly and weak to bring chairs so that they can rest, when they go vote on November 4, because I belive that there will be a lot of people!

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McCain Lieing Again!!!!!

By La Susa - Nov 1st, 2008 at 1:35 pm EDT

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McCain says Obama wants to re-distribute the wealth!

Who has been burdened by taxes the last 8 years? The Middle Class, because the million and billionaires have enjoyed a tax break, that McCain wants to make permanent!!!!!!!

Obama wants to tax the million and billionaires, and belive me, those folks are not small businesses!!!!!!!!

McCain is using fearmongering to sway votes in his favor!

Who was with Bush on the 'Privatizing of Social Security'? McCain?

When Sen McCain claims to have been tested to be United States President; in 1962 when he sat in a plane cockpit, during the Cuban missle Crisis, why didn't McCain run for USA President way back then? It's only been 46 years ago.

McCain says he knows how to win wars, what wars has he won?

McCain says he knows how to fix corruption, what corruption has he fixed?

McCain says he knows how to fix Wallstreet, when has McCain ever fixed Wallstreet?

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Yo, Arnold R-Gov of Calif.

By La Susa - Nov 1st, 2008 at 12:05 pm EDT

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We can take your 'skinny legs' insults, but we cannot take four more years of McCin-Bush economics!!!!!! Was it not you Arnold R-Gov of Calif. that asked for a bail out for the State of Calif. a few days after the AIG bail out? So you want the hard working middle class to bail out Calif., because you don't know how to balance a budget? And allow the billion and millionaires to get richer and richer?

Do the math!!!!!! See Barack's Tax Calculator!

http://www.my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stateupdates/gGgFgH

Get Educated! Use the Brain Muscle! Look it up in the dictionary!!!!!!!

The insults and fear mongering has gotten way out of hand! Just because Sen Barack Obama wants to make healthcare affordable for everyone, dose not mean a socialistic government! Way too many of our working families are going bankrupt because of the sky rocketing costs of healthcare! And those who don't have healthcare, are often treated when it is too late, driving up the costs of healthcare for all of us!!!!!!! Of all develped countries in the world, the USA is lagging far behind, with high infant mortality rates etc. etc.! The past 8 years the middle class has payed above and beyond their fare share, while the rich get richer! Now the middle class are loosing jobs left and right, they need a break! And I don't think it's too much to ask the million and billionaires to pitch in their fare share! Our economy depends on the middle class! they are the buying power of America! Small buisnesses fall under the catagory of middle class people because they earn far less than 250,000.00 dollars a year!!!!!!!!

Socialism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the means of ...
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism

Democracy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system. It is derived from the Greek ...
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy

Capitalism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Capitalism is the economic system in which the means of production are distributed to openly competing profit-seeking [1] private persons and where ...
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism

Marxism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Any political practice or theory that is based on ...
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxist

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Exxon Record Profits!

By La Susa - Oct 31st, 2008 at 3:32 pm EDT

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Exxon Oct. 30, 08 record profits 14.8 billion! Bush McCain economics!

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Every Vote Counts!

By La Susa - Oct 31st, 2008 at 3:01 pm EDT

Also listed in: 9 groups

Vote Early, take friends and relatives with you!

Before and on Nov. 4, if one can help to bring people to the polls! If one has folding chairs, mark with your name and phone number and offer to help our seniors, and those with disbilities sit down while waiting in expected long lines!

Remind folks to sign their names on paper ballots!

In some areas one cannot wear political T-Shirts or pins!

If one has no car, is disabled and cannot be out and about, still vote early, call all of your friends and relatives and encourage them to vote!

We cannot afford to believe the polls! Every Vote Counts!!!!!!

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Joe the Plumber.....

By La Susa - Oct 31st, 2008 at 11:51 am EDT

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Joe the plumber said yesturday "I will vote for McCain the real American." 'The real American', wonder what he means by that? Or what is he implying by that statement? Unless one has Native American ancestry as dose Sen Barack Obama, I cannot see the connection to 'real American'. I personally find the comment offensive... Should Sen McCain win this election, what cabnet position will Joe the Plunger have, or did I hear wrong?

Poor Joe the Plumber, if he had studied small business (or at least googled it) he would know that overhead, payroll, utilities and a host of other expenses are deducted before talling up the total profit from business income on Schedule C of the Federal Tax Forms... It's sad to see gulable American people lied to, in such a decptive fashion! I wonder if Joe the Plumber is jumping for joy because EXON-MOBIL again anounce hudge profits! Will Joe the Plumber get any cash from EXON-MOBIL as McCain has implied that the rich will somehow benifit the poor and middles class?

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McCain-Palin Small Business LIES, BUSH-ECONOMICS, DECEPTIONS!!!!

By La Susa - Oct 31st, 2008 at 10:36 am EDT

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McCain's Small-Business BunkJuly 14, 2008He claims 23 million small-business owners would pay higher tax rates under Obama. He's wrong. The vast majority would see no change, and many would get a cut.SummaryMcCain has repeatedly claimed that Obama would raise tax rates for 23 million small-business owners. It's a false and preposterously inflated figure.

We find that the overwhelming majority of those small-business owners would see no increase, because they earn too little to be affected. Obama's tax proposal would raise rates only on couples making more than $250,000 or singles earning more than $200,000.

McCain argues that Obama's proposed increase is a job-killer. He has a point. It's true that increasing taxes on those at the top would leave them less money for other purposes, including investment and hiring in the case of business owners. But the number of business owners who would see their rates go up would be only a small fraction of what McCain says. Many would see their taxes go down.
AnalysisSen. John McCain has been making this false claim over and over, starting with a July 7 speech announcing his "jobs for America" plan:

McCain, July 7: Senator Obama's tax increases will hurt the economy even more, and destroy jobs across this country. If you are one of the 23 million small-business owners in America who files as an individual rate payer, Senator Obama is going to raise your tax rates.

He repeated it in an address to the League of United Latin American Citizens the next day:

McCain, July 8: Keeping individual rates low isn't intended as a favor to wealthy Americans. 23 million small-business owners pay those rates, and taking more money from them deprives them of the capital they need to invest and grow and hire.

He said it again at a campaign event July 9:

McCain, July 9: If you are one of the 23 million small-business owners in America who files as an individual rate payer, Senator Obama is willing to raise your tax rates.

And he repeated it in the first of a planned series of radio addresses July 12:

McCain, July 12: If you are one of the 23 million small-business owners who files as an individual rate payer, watch out – because as your business grows, my opponent proposes to raise your taxes.

But repeating a falsehood doesn't make it true. McCain's 23 million claim is a bogus figure.

Outdated, Inflated, Inapplicable

To justify the 23 million figure, McCain spokesman Brian Rogers referred us to a press release by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which refers to "23 million small business owners" without citing a source. That is actually an outdated count of all the businesses in the United States, produced by the U.S. Census for 2002, when the Economic Census counted a total of 23,343,821 business firms of all sizes. Of those, 16,845 firms employed 500 persons or more, which still leaves just over 23.3 million classified as "small" by the widely accepted definition that we will use here.

That figure is six years out of date. The U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy estimates the total number of "small" firms with fewer than 500 workers reached 26.8 million in 2006. That's the most recent estimate. But it is also inflated. Since the total U.S. population was just under 300 million in 2006, it would mean that one in every 11 Americans – men, women and children – is a "small-business owner."

It turns out, SBA's estimate includes more than 20 million "nonemployer" firms, an unknown number of them sideline or hobby businesses run by persons who actually make their living some other way. Census and SBA count as a "small business" anyone who reported as little as $1,000 of business receipts. By that very broad definition, John McCain himself is a "small-business owner," because his tax return shows Schedule C income from book royalties. For that matter, Barack Obama would also be a small-business owner, by virtue of his book income. As would President Bush and Vice President Cheney, as we pointed out in 2004. Of the 26.8 million that SBA counts as "small businesses," fewer than 6 million are actually "employer firms" with any payroll.

From this, we must conclude that to arrive at his 23 million figure, McCain is counting mostly "business owners" with no workers, including those who simply report small amounts of income from sideline or freelance work. McCain is arguing that Obama's tax increase would "destroy jobs," but he's counting mostly firms that don't produce any.

That in itself is seriously misleading. If McCain wants to focus on the effects of Obama's plan on employment, he would do better to confine his count to employers – the just under 6 million firms that actually have workers. And even that figure wouldn't be applicable because Obama's tax increase wouldn't fall on all employers, only on those in the top two income tax brackets.

McCain Campaign's Statement

1. These small businesses are subject to Sen. Obama's pay or play health care plan: The tax will either be in the form of health insurance to
workers or cash to the government.

2. Further, even giving Obama the benefit of the doubt, if they make
over $250,000 and file as individuals or have capital gain or dividends, their taxes go up, as Obama has promised.

Note US Chamber cites 23 million figure: "The U.S. Chamber is proud to pay special tribute to some of its most valued constituents: America's
23 million small business owners"McCain's Non-explanation

McCain cannot justify his 23 million claim. We asked McCain spokesman Brian Rogers for substantiation and received the statement that we reprint here. We find it simply won't do.

Rogers starts by saying that Obama's health care proposal to provide coverage for uninsured workers would amount to a "tax," either in the form of higher costs for covering employees or "cash to the government." But McCain was talking about income tax rates, not higher business costs. That's not justifying McCain's claim; that's trying to change the subject.

Furthermore – as we've just seen – the vast majority of those that McCain is counting as small-business owners have no employees and wouldn't encounter any added costs for covering workers. Obama's plan wouldn't apply to every small employer, either. It says: "Small employers that meet certain revenue thresholds will be exempt." Also, after Rogers sent his message, Obama announced July 13 that he is proposing to grant $6 billion per year in tax credits for small businesses that provide health insurance plans, covering up to half the cost of premiums paid to cover employees.

As for actual income tax rates, which is what McCain keeps talking about, Rogers says "if they make over $250,000 and file as individuals ... their taxes go up." But this leaves out all but a very small fraction of those McCain counts as small-business owners. Rogers also says taxes will go up if small-business owners "have capital gains or dividends," but Obama's proposal would not increase rates on capital gains or dividends for couples making under $250,000, or singles making under about $200,000, regardless of whether they are classified as small-business owners or not.

How Many Would Actually Pay More?

McCain is right about one thing. Many small-business owners would indeed see their taxes go up if Obama is elected and raises the top income-tax rates. According to a survey from the National Federation of Independent Businesses, about eight out of 10 small-business owners responding to the poll report that they are organized legally in a way that would require them to pay taxes on their business income as individuals, rather than as a corporation. But since Obama's plan wouldn't affect those making less than $250,000 for couples, or about $200,000 for singles, we need to estimate how many would fall into those high-income categories.

Obama's plan, according to his economic policy director Jason Furman, would return the top two federal income-tax rates to what they were before Bush lowered them. In addition, Obama would adjust the income-tax brackets to ensure that no married couple making under $250,000 or single filer making under $200,000 would pay the top rates.

The actual number of business owners who would be affected turns out to be well under a million, and the number of employers would be even less. Based on the number of taxpayers who now report any sort of business income on their returns, the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center projects that 663,608 taxpayers with business income, or business losses, will fall into the top two tax brackets in 2009, when any Obama tax changes would first take effect. Not all of those can properly be called "small-business owners," however. Some are farmers. Many are lawyers, accountants or other professionals who get some of their income in the form of partnership distributions. Others may be passive investors in real-estate partnerships or similar investment arrangements and not really persons who own and manage a business.

It is also not clear how many who report business income actually employ any workers. In 2004, the Tax Policy Center found that hundreds of thousands of individual taxpayers who had business income from partnerships or subchapter-S corporations (whose owners pay taxes as individuals) did not claim any tax deductions for employee expenses. For all these reasons we judge that the actual number of small-business employers who would face higher tax rates under Obama is probably far below 663,608, and certainly a far cry from McCain's ridiculously inflated 23 million figure.

Lower Taxes for Many

While Obama's plan would raise rates at the top, it also would grant what he calls a “Making Work Pay” tax credit of up to $500 per person, or $1,000 per working family. Since this credit would not begin to phase down for couples making less than $150,000, we judge it likely that many, if not most of the 23 million that McCain counts as "small-business owners" would likely get tax reductions.

An Echo of Bush

McCain's claim struck us as wildly improbable the first time we heard it because we debunked a much less expansive claim that President Bush made about John Kerry in 2004. Bush ran a TV ad saying that Kerry's proposal to raise taxes on persons making more than $200,000 a year would affect 900,000 small-business owners. We found Bush's number to be far too high. We noted that Bush was counting as a "small-business owner" anyone who reported even $1 of business or partnership income, regardless of how the taxpayer made their living. At that time, the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center estimated that a total of 471,000 small-business employers could be affected.

– by Brooks Jacksonhttp://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/mccains_small-business_bunk.html

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More McCain-Palin "Unethical" LIES, MISLEADING, FALSE!

By La Susa - Oct 30th, 2008 at 11:16 am EDT

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'Unethical?'

October 27, 2008

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/unethical.html

A McCain-Palin/RNC ad claims Obama 'rewards his friends with your tax dollars.' It's off the mark.SummaryAn ad released jointly by the McCain-Palin campaign and the RNC claims Obama "rewards his friends with your tax dollars" and calls his actions "unethical." Some of what the ad says is false or misleading. Here are the facts:

The ad claims that Obama supporter and Chicago real estate developer Allison Davis received $20 million in taxpayer money. That's false. Davis didn't get this money. Instead, the federal grant went to the Chicago Housing Authority, replacing money it had already put forward for a mixed-income housing project on which Davis was a developer. The grant didn't go to Davis, nor did it help him pocket any additional funds.

The ad says Obama gave Tony Rezko $14 million of taxpayer money. That's misleading. It's true the housing project Rezko was working on cost $14 million in taxpayer cash. Rezko and his partner netted $855,000 in fees.
Obama worked to get Kenny Smith a $100,000 grant to build a park, which Smith later failed to complete. Smith has since caught the attention of the state attorney general. But, according to reports, Obama isn't under investigation for helping Smith get the grant.

The RNC and McCain may consider Obama's actions to be "unethical"; that's a matter of opinion. But the fact is, as far as these three incidents are concerned, Obama has not been officially accused of any wrongdoing, and there's been no report that his actions are the subject of any official investigation.
AnalysisThe joint ad from the McCain-Palin campaign and the Republican National Committee accuses Sen. Barack Obama of being "unethical," citing instances in which individuals connected to Obama received federal or state funds. Sen. John McCain's campaign and the RNC have spent $5.9 million so far airing the ad in 17 states, including Pennsylvania, where $1.2 million has been spent on the ad, and North Carolina, where it has aired a total of 1,629 times, according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group of TNS Media Intelligence. The ad started airing on Oct. 14.

RNC/McCain-Palin Ad:
"Unethical"

Announcer: Obama rewards his friends with your tax dollars. Tony Rezko, fourteen million. Allison Davis, twenty million. Kenny Smith, one hundred thousand. That's unethical. Congressional liberals promise to raise your taxes to reward their friends with wasteful pork. Taxes for you. Pork for them. Who's gonna' stop 'em? Congressional liberals? Or him.

McCain: I'm John McCain and I approve this message. $20 Million? Try Zero

The ad claims that real estate developer Allison Davis received $20 million of taxpayer money thanks to Obama. But that's false. Davis didn't get any of this money. The ad cites a story from The Washington Times, but the article says that "city housing authorities confirmed" that the "grant money won't go to Mr. Davis or his company."

According to documentation provided by the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), a letter was ghostwritten for Obama, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and others by the CHA in support of a project called Stateway Gardens – an urban revitalization effort to transition crime-ridden high-rises into mixed-income housing. The letter was sent to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in an effort to acquire a fiscal year 2008 grant of $20 million to support the project, of which Davis, a supporter of Obama, was one of the developers.

We spoke with Housing and Urban Development (HUD) spokeswoman Donna White, who told us that the money was not awarded to Davis, but to the Chicago Housing Authority:

Donna White, spokeswoman for HUD: The Chicago Housing Authority competed for [the Hope VI] grant. The housing authority applies for the funding, they select a developer. ... It's common for congressional members to submit letters of support when they know that a housing authority in their jurisdiction is competing for a grant.

We also spoke with William Little, executive vice president of development for CHA, who reiterated that the HUD grant was not awarded to Davis, but to the CHA, and that the grant allowed the CHA to reallocate funds it had already directed to the Stateway project. Davis did not see a profit as a result of the HUD grant, according to Little, nor did the budget for the Stateway project increase. When we asked Little about the charge in the ad that Obama "reward[ed]" Davis with $20 million, he told us:

William Little, CHA: That's totally false. HUD awarded CHA $20 million in a Hope VI grant, which allows CHA to reallocate funds it had previously earmarked for that particular project to other projects. The overall budget for the project did not increase. Allison Davis gets none of it.

A portion of the Stateway development is devoted to market-priced housing, and Davis stood to profit from the sales of those homes. But he did not pocket any of the HUD grant, which went to construction of low-income units.

Tony Rezko (Again)

The ad also claims that Tony Rezko got "fourteen million," because of Obama. But he didn't.

A 2007 report from The Chicago Sun-Times is the source, but the article goes over territory we've addressed before: that Obama wrote letters to state officials supporting a low-income senior housing complex Rezko was trying to have built. Both men say Rezko did not solicit the letters. The Sun-Times quoted Obama spokesman Bill Burton as saying Obama didn't write the letters as a favor but "in the interests of the people in the community who have benefited from the project."

Regardless, the ad is wrong to imply Rezko pocketed millions. The project cost $14 million of taxpayer money. But, as we've reported, Rezko and his partner, who was Allison Davis, received $855,000 in fees. It's not peanuts, but it's not $14 million either.

Kenny Smith's $100,000 Garden

The ad then claims Kenny Smith received $100,000 in taxpayer money as a "reward" from Obama. This claim holds more water than the rest, but it's still a leaky vessel.

The ad cites a New York Post report that details how Obama, then a state senator in the midst of a race for a congressional seat, worked on Smith's behalf in 2000 in an effort to raise $1.1 million in state funding for the "Englewood Botanic Garden Project." Smith, head of the nonprofit Chicago Better Housing Association and a volunteer for Obama's congressional campaign, planned to rehabilitate a plot of land in a Chicago neighborhood. He was awarded a $100,000 state grant to do so, a far cry from the $1.1 million he had hoped to receive.

But Smith never built the park. And, according to a report from The Chicago Sun-Times, state Attorney General Lisa Madigan, a Democrat who backs Obama, has started to look into whether or not taxpayer money was mishandled. While questions have been raised about how Smith spent the money, according to the Sun-Times, the paper notes that "neither Smith nor his wife are accused of any wrongdoing." The Post report cited by the ad said that "officials in Madigan's office said Obama's actions in giving out the member item aren't under investigation."

Democrats "Promise to Raise Your Taxes"

The ad swings away from the taxpayer hand-outs and claims: "Democrats promise to raise your taxes to reward their friends with wasteful pork." That linkage doesn't sound like a promise any sane politician would make.

The ad cites a Nov. 2007 article from The Washington Times, which chronicles a bill introduced by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.). The bill would have amended the tax code to repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax and limit deductions that could be claimed by taxpayers making more than $250,000 a year, among other measures. But Rangel's bill, introduced a year ago, never cleared the Ways and Means Committee.

As for the "wasteful pork" claim, the fact is that securing earmarks is a popular practice among both Democrats and Republicans. Two oft-cited earmark recipients are longtime Sens. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.) and Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). Both were listed in Porkbusters.org's "Hall of Shame" in 2006 and have been singled out as "Porker of The Month" more than once over the last eight years by the organization Citizens Against Government Waste – proof that, promise or not, Democrats and Republicans send money home for projects whether taxes go up or down.

– by Emi Kolawole

from www.factcheck.org a non-partisan watch dog group!!!!!!!!

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"A License to Kill" Email and TV Adds LIES, FALSE!!!!!!

By La Susa - Oct 30th, 2008 at 10:18 am EDT

Also listed in: 9 groups

A License to Kill

October 28, 2008

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/a_license_to_kill.html

A new anti-Obama group runs a bunk-filled ad implying he'd give a driver's license to Mohammed Atta. SummaryAn upstart group calling itself the "National Republican Trust PAC" mixes a pile of false claims and the image of 9/11 mastermind Mohammed Atta to create one of the sleaziest false TV ads of the campaign.

The spot falsely claims Obama has a "plan" to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. In fact, Obama has said quite specifically, "I am not proposing that that's what we do."
The ad implies such licenses would enable terrorist attacks. In fact, Atta wouldn't have needed one to carry out his attacks.

It claims that Obama's health care plan will apply to illegal immigrants. But Obama has stated quite clearly that his plan "does not" cover illegal immigrants.

The ad falsely claims that Obama's plan "gives illegals Social Security benefits," which is also flatly untrue.

AnalysisDespite its name, the National Republican Trust has no formal connection to the Republican Party. It is an independent group with ties to the conservative Web site Newsmax. It sprang into being barely a month ago and has reported spending more than $900,000 to attack Obama through e-mail messages and, now, TV ads.

Its TV spot first showed up on the air in Columbus, Ohio, Oct. 26, and it has also received considerable circulation on the Web. It attempts to link Sen. Barack Obama to the 9/11 hijackers. The link? A spurious claim that Obama plans to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. NRT PAC, which is headed by a former writer for the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Insight magazine, says it plans to air the ad in other swing states.

Update, Oct. 29: Newsmax distributed a new NRT PAC fundraising e-mail today in which NRT boasts of having now raised "over $3 million." A postscript states that the group's ads are now running "in 5 battleground states."

National Republican Trust PAC Ad: "Social Security for Illegals"

Announcer: Millions of illegal aliens in the U.S. Barack Obama’s plan gives a driver’s license to any illegal who wants one.

But that’s not all.

Obama’s plan gives illegals Social Security benefits and raises taxes for his health care plan to cover them. Who pays? You do.

Driver’s licenses and government benefits for illegals. Higher taxes for us. That’s Obama’s plan. Obama. Too radical. Too risky.

The National Republican Trust PAC is responsible for the content of this advertisement. Drive Like a Maniac

The ad begins with the ominous warning that "Barack Obama's plan gives a driver's license to any illegal who wants one." More alarmingly, the ad flashes a picture of a Florida driver's license featuring 9/11 mastermind Mohammed Atta. The ad then goes on to claim that Obama's "plan" provides illegal immigrants with Social Security and health care benefits and would raise taxes to pay for it.

Hardly a word in the ad is true.

Let's start with the incendiary implication that Obama's "plan" would somehow enable terrorists like Atta. That's ridiculous. It's true that Atta did use a Florida driver's license to board the plane he hijacked. It's also irrelevant. Atta entered the U.S. legally, using a tourist visa, so laws about licenses for illegal immigrants wouldn't have affected him anyway. What's more, Atta could just as easily have boarded the plane with his Egyptian passport. The Transportation Security Administration lists foreign government-issued passports as acceptable identification for boarding a U.S. flight. For that matter, The Cato Institute's Jim Harper, who advises the Department of Homeland Security on data privacy, describes NRT PAC's claim as "despicable" and says that it is "terror-pandering of the highest order."

Plan? What Plan?

Furthermore, NRT PAC's claim that Obama has a "plan" to give driver's licenses to "any illegal [immigrant] who wants one" is just false. Obama has no such plan. "Plan" implies a worked out, formal policy. But NRT rests its claim entirely on comments Obama made during two Democratic primary debates. All candidates were asked whether they supported then-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's plan to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. Obama hedged, but when pressed, admitted that he agreed with states granting licenses, and requiring insurance. Here's part of the exchange:

CNN's Wolf Blitzer (Nov. 15, 2007): Barring, avoiding, assuming there isn't going to be comprehensive immigration reform, do you support or oppose driver's licenses for illegal immigrants?
Obama: I am not proposing that that's what we do. ... I have already said I support the notion that we have to deal with public safety and that driver's licenses at the state level can make that happen. But what I also know, Wolf, is that if we keep on getting distracted by this problem, then we are not solving it.

We take no position on the wisdom of Spitzer's proposal. But it's false to puff up Obama's comments into a "plan" when he quite specifically said, "I am not proposing that that's what we do." That sounds to us to be the opposite of a plan. The group would have been correct had it said Obama supported Spitzer's plan, but only in the absence of a federal effort to fix the immigration mess.

Health Care and Taxes. Again.

It is simply untrue that Obama plans to provide health care for illegal immigrants. To the contrary, in an exchange with CNN's Joe Johns during a January debate in South Carolina, Obama explicitly ruled out coverage for illegal immigrants:

Johns (Jan. 21, 2008): Senator Obama, we all know what universal health care is, as Senator Clinton just said, sort of the idea that everybody deserves health care. And I have not been able to sort of zero in on your position on this one question: Does your plan cover the estimated 12 million or so illegal immigrants in the country?
Obama: It does not.
Johns: Why not?
Obama: Well, because I think we've got limited resources. And it is important for us that, when we've got millions of U.S. citizens that aren't yet covered, it's important for us to make sure that they are provided coverage.

That sounds pretty clear to us. Furthermore, as we've said more times than we care to count now, Obama's plan raises taxes only on people making more than $200,000 ($250,000 for a couple). That's true for income taxes, capital gains taxes and payroll taxes.

Social Security Bunk That Won't Die

Just for good measure, the ad recycles some two-year-old bunk, too. The claim that Obama "plans" to grant Social Security benefits to illegal immigrants is nowhere to be found on his Web site. NRT PAC bases this claim on Obama's vote on an amendment to a 2006 immigration bill. But that amendment would not have granted Social Security benefits to any illegal immigrants, not unless they became U.S. citizens or legal immigrants first. We debunked this attack back in 2006 when it was a Republican favorite. The passing years haven't made it any truer.

Under current law, an illegal immigrant who later gets legal status can claim credit for any Social Security taxes he or she paid while still illegal. The 2006 amendment would have ended that practice. The bill failed 50 - 49, with Obama joining the majority to vote against it. Many illegal immigrants pay Social Security taxes even while working illegally. In 2006, for example, the Social Security Administration collected about $7 billion in taxes that couldn't be credited to specific workers.

Again, we take no position on the merits of the amendment. But it's a serious distortion to say that it would have granted Social Security benefits to illegal immigrants.

End-Game Sleaze

The National Republican Trust PAC came into being Sept. 26, when it first registered with the Federal Election Commission. By Oct. 15 it had reported raising $463,000 for its anti-Obama campaign. (Update: In an e-mail to supporters on Oct. 29, the group said it had raised more than $3 million.) It has reported spending a total of $902,604 to attack Obama, according to the most recent report filed Oct. 26. It has reported spending substantial sums to the conservative Web site Newsmax and to other vendors for "email communication" opposing Obama's election, and to a Virginia company called Integram for "direct mail." It has also listed expenditures for "media production" and a "media buy."

Its Web site lists its executive director as Scott Wheeler, who also writes articles for Newsmax, which the NRT PAC pays to distribute anti-Obama e-mail messages, many of which are little more than fundraising pleas.

It's not uncommon for the final weeks of the presidential campaign to bring out some of the most deceptive ads of the cycle. We thought it would be tough to top the whoppers we've seen already, but it looks as if some of the third-party ads are out to prove us wrong. If this gem from the National Republican Trust PAC is any indication, we'd best brace for a blizzard of balderdash.

– by Joe Miller

from www.factcheck.org

A non-partisan watch dog group!

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Marxism, Socialism and Spreading the Wealth?

By La Susa - Oct 29th, 2008 at 5:46 pm EDT

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McCain and Palin can't seem to even understand "Marxism," " Socialism," nor the concept of "spreading the wealth!" Do they not understand that the Federal Income Tax payers of America have been the Middle Class for the last 8 years! And I guess somehow shifting the tax burden from the middle class to the wealthiest is what? Marxism? Socialism? Spreading the wealth? Oh yea I forgott, McCain and Palin want to make permanent Tax breaks for the most wealthy, what's that called?????

McCain and Palin are misleading the American public about small business income, implying that businesses that earn 250,000.00 will be liable to pay federal income taxes, not understanding that businesses have to subtract all of their expenses; payroll, insurance, cars, rents, etc. etc. before they can conclude their total earnings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

See Link below and compare one's income tax savings it's amazing!!!!!!!http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stateupdates/gGgFgH

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Why I Voted For Sen Barack Obama

By La Susa - Oct 24th, 2008 at 2:56 pm EDT

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I voted for Sen Barack Obama because I feel that I was misled about Weapons of Mass Destruction and our reason for going war in Iraq. And by going to war with Iraq, Bin Ladden was given a free pass to do as he pleases after killing nearly 4,000 civilians.

I voted for Sen Barack Obama because he has an eye on the future of our Nation, and knows that unless our children excell in Math and Science we as a Nation will fall. For we have to be the inventors of the future, we have to have the opportunities to go to collage!

I voted for Sen Barack Obama because he knows we have to independant of fossil fuels that are contaminating our entire planet! And he will promote Solar and Wind power that we so desparately need! We cannot be held hostage in the oil markets anymore!

I voted for Sen Barack Obama because he knows what it is like to pay off a student loan, and knows first hand how difficult it is for the middle class to struggle with paying bills. And as a child he saw his mom struggle and survive on foodstamps, he knows what it is like to go without.

I voted for Sen Barack Obama because he stands in opposition to giving permanent tax breaks to oil comanies i.e. the 5 per-cent of the wealthiest Americans, and instead would give a tax break for working Americans, who can bearly make it, as it is. And he will extend the unemployeement benifits knowing that our nation is currently in a financial crisis.

I voted for Sen Barack Obama because he has good ideas on how to create new jobs for Americans by giving tax incentives to those companies who stay in America, and also tax incentives to companies who take the time to invent new alternatives to fosil fuel!

I voted for Sen Barack Obama because he recognises how important and influencial the United States is globally, and that we need to preserve and improve our image abroad.

I voted for Sen Barack Obama because I know he knows where me and my family come from, and will be able to voice our concerns in US Government.

I voted for Sen Barack Obama because he has character, and dose not make rash decisions based on poll numbers. He thinks before making important decisions, and is able to maintain cool while being lied about and defend his position firmly.

I voted for Sen Barack Obama even though I don't agree with him on every issue, but I do know that he has the substance and moral character to make the nessasary changes we need in government like 'transperancy'. Furthermore as a former civil rights attorney he is well informed about my civil rights as an American citizen, and I know he will uphold The American Constitution!

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McCain Lies About Obama and ACORN

By La Susa - Oct 23rd, 2008 at 5:04 pm EDT

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ACORN AccusationsOctober 18, 2008McCain makes exaggerated claims of "voter fraud." Obama soft-pedals his connections.SummaryThe McCain-Palin campaign accuses ACORN, a community activist group that operates nationwide, of perpetrating "massive voter fraud." It says Obama has “long and deep” ties to the group. We find both claims to be exaggerated. But we also find Obama has understated the extent of his work with the group.

Neither ACORN nor its employees have been found guilty of, or even charged with, casting fraudulent votes. What a McCain-Palin Web ad calls "voter fraud" is actually voter registration fraud. Several ACORN canvassers have been found guilty of faking registration forms and others are being investigated. But the evidence that has surfaced so far shows they faked forms to get paid for work they didn’t do, not to stuff ballot boxes.
Obama’s path has intersected with ACORN on several occasions – more often than he allowed in the final debate.

AnalysisWe've received scores of e-mails asking us about Obama's connection to the community activist group Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, or ACORN. A McCain-Palin ad released on the Web accuses Obama of having ties to the organization, which it says engages in "intimidation tactics," "massive voter fraud" and "pressuring banks to issue risky loans."

Destroying Democracy?

The McCain ad accuses ACORN of "massive voter fraud." In the final presidential debate, John McCain added that ACORN "is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy." Sounds scary, but is it true?

McCain-Palin Web Ad: "ACORN"

McCain: I'm John McCain and I approve this message.

Announcer: Who is Barack Obama? A man with "a political baptism performed at warp speed." Vast ambition. After college, he moved to Chicago. Became a community organizer. There, Obama met Madeleine Talbot, part of the Chicago branch of ACORN. He was so impressive that he was asked to train the ACORN staff.

What did ACORN in Chicago engage in? Bullying banks. Intimidation tactics. Disruption of business. ACORN forced banks to issue risky home loans. The same types of loans that caused the financial crisis we're in today.

No wonder Obama's campaign is trying to distance him from the group, saying, "Barack Obama Never Organized with ACORN." But Obama's ties to ACORN run long and deep. He taught classes for ACORN. They even endorsed him for President.

But now ACORN is in trouble.

Reporter: There are at least 11 investigations across the country involving thousands of potentially fraudulent ACORN forms.

Announcer: Massive voter fraud. And the Obama campaign paid more than $800,000 to an ACORN front for get out the vote efforts.

Pressuring banks to issue risky loans. Nationwide voter fraud. Barack Obama. Bad judgment. Blind ambition. Too risky for America. There's no evidence of any such democracy-destroying fraud. Here's what is true: In recent years, ACORN employees have been investigated multiple times for voter registration fraud. ACORN workers have been convicted of submitting false voter registration forms in Colorado Springs in 2005, Kansas City, Mo., in 2006 and King County, Wash., in 2007. ACORN's Las Vegas office was raided by a state criminal investigator on Oct. 7, 2008. ACORN workers are also the subjects of ongoing investigations in Wisconsin, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana. The Indiana investigation started in early October and may involve thousands of fraudulent registration forms.

On Oct. 16 The Associated Press quoted two "senior law enforcement" officials as saying that the FBI is investigating ACORN seeking "any evidence of a coordinated national scam." The following day the Obama campaign's lawyer, Robert Bauer, sent a seven-page letter to the attorney general claiming that federal law enforcement officials were being improperly used to help McCain by suppressing the vote through "unsupported, spurious allegations of vote fraud." He asked that the investigation be transferred to the special prosecutor investigating the U.S. attorney firing scandal. The McCain campaign issued a statement in which spokesman Ben Porritt called Bauer's letter "outrageous" and "absurd" and a "heavy handed tactic of attempting to criminalize political discourse."

But so far ACORN itself has not been officially charged with any fraud. Aside from the heated charges and counter-charges, no evidence has yet surfaced to show that the ACORN employees who submitted fraudulent registration forms intended to pave the way for illegal voting. Rather, they were trying to get paid by ACORN for doing no work. Dan Satterberg, the Republican prosecuting attorney in King County, Wash., where the largest ACORN case to date was prosecuted, said that the indicted ACORN employees were shirking responsibility, not plotting election fraud.

Satterberg: [A] joint federal and state investigation has determined that this
scheme was not intended to permit illegal voting.

Instead, the defendants cheated their employer, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (or ACORN), to get paid for work they did not actually perform. ACORN's lax oversight of their own voter registration drive permitted this to happen. ... It was hardly a sophisticated plan: The defendants simply realized that making up names was easier than actually canvassing the streets looking for unregistered voters. ...

[It] appears that the employees of ACORN were not performing the work that they were being paid for, and to some extent, ACORN is a victim of employee theft.

The $8-an-hour employees were charged with providing false information on voter registration forms, and in one case with making a false statement to a public official. Five of the seven who were charged pleaded guilty. ACORN was fined for exercising insufficient oversight, but it was not charged with masterminding any kind of deliberate fraud.

ACORN pays canvassers by the hour, not by the form, but it does ask them to meet certain registration goals. In ACORN's Las Vegas office, one employee who admitted to submitting fraudulent registrations said that she did so because she found ACORN's requirement of 20 registrations per day to be too steep to meet, according to an affidavit by a Nevada state criminal investigator. Local news reports at the time also said that some of the ACORN offices under investigation paid bonuses for each registration, or a higher hourly rate to those who brought in more applications. ACORN's deputy political director, Kevin Whelan, denies that this is ACORN policy.

What ACORN Says

In its defense, ACORN says that only a few of its 13,000 paid canvassers turned in any faked forms. "[T]here are always some people who want to get paid without really doing the job, or who aim to defraud their employer," the group said in an Oct. 10 statement on its Web site. "Any large department store will have some workers who shoplift."

ACORN also says it cannot simply discard suspicious forms on its own, but is required by law in most states to submit to local election officials all the forms its canvassers bring in. ACORN's Whelan told us that its own legal counsel strongly advises that the group do the same in states that don't explicitly require it, because "only election officials are legally able to determine the validity of a voter registration application." But ACORN says that it first flags all suspicious registrations. Staffers call the phone numbers written on completed registration forms to make sure they're valid and also take note of incomplete or duplicate forms. The group says that it alerts election officials to forms that look fishy when it sends them in.

However, it's not clear whether or not those procedures were followed in Nevada prior to a highly publicized raid by state officials on Oct. 7. According to an affidavit by Colin Hayes, a criminal investigator for the secretary of state's office, a probe began July 2 after the county registrar reported receiving a number of suspicious registration forms from ACORN. Hayes did not state whether or not those suspicious forms had been flagged by ACORN before being turned in. Later, during a July 18 meeting, ACORN's lawyer told local and state officials that the group had identified a number of suspicious registrations and "would be willing to provide such information" for further investigation. On Aug. 7, at the request of the county registrar, ACORN supplied copies of documents related to 33 ACORN workers who had been fired for "suspicious" voter registration activities.

Investigator Hayes followed up, confirmed that many registrations were faked, and found a former ACORN worker who confessed to faking most of her forms. After obtaining a warrant based on the affidavit, state officials seized records and computers. Secretary of State Ross Miller was quoted as saying the faked forms included names from the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys.

While ACORN says that such raids are part of "a systematic partisan agenda of voter suppression," it is worth noting that in this case, Secretary of State Miller is a Democrat.

Whelan told us that ACORN's national management staff trains local directors and travels extensively to supervise offices, but the 2007 Washington state prosecution makes it clear that quality control is lacking in at least some outposts. Prosecutor Satterberg wrote: "We believe that ACORN’s internal quality control procedures were not just deficient but entirely non-existent when it came to the latter stages of their operation in Tacoma." He fined the group $25,000 for failing to exercise sufficient oversight.

How Common Is Fraud?

Election fraud does exist, but hasn't been shown to be widespread. The New York Times reported in 2007 that a five-year crackdown on such fraud by the Bush administration's Justice Department had produced 70 convictions at the federal level, including 40 campaign workers or government workers convicted of vote-buying, intimidation or ballot forgery, and 23 cases of multiple voting or voting by ineligible voters. But the Times described these as unconnected incidents and said the Justice Department had turned up no evidence of "any organized effort to skew federal elections."

Bush administration officials have pushed hard to find such evidence, too hard in one case, according to an investigation by the Department of Justice's internal watchdogs, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR). Their report into the firing of nine United States attorneys concluded that the "real reason" for the firing of New Mexico's U.S. Attorney David Iglesias was "complaints about Iglesias’s handling of voter fraud and public corruption matters." The complaints included gripes by state Republican Party officials who believed that widespread fraud by Democrats had prevented George Bush from winning the state in the 2000 presidential election. Iglesias launched a task force that worked with the FBI but found that "there was insufficient evidence in any of the cases the Task Force reviewed to support criminal prosecution by the [U.S. Attorney's Office] or state authorities," according to the report of the OIG and OPR. These included cases involving ACORN workers. Republicans charged that Iglesias was showing insufficient rigor in prosecuting the cases.

ACORN and the Housing Crisis

The McCain ad says that ACORN in Chicago engaged in "bullying banks. Intimidation tactics. Disruption of business" and "forced banks to issue risky home loans." In support of these statements, the McCain campaign cites conservative opinion pieces, including a column by Mona Charen posted by the National Review Online, titled "Guilty Party: ACORN, Obama and the Mortgage Mess."

It is true that ACORN has led demonstrations on a number of issues nationwide – predatory lending, immigration reform, neighborhood violence, utilities shut-offs, minimum wage increases. Sometimes the group's tactics are confrontational, veering into civil disobedience. For instance, in the late 1980s, ACORN activists in a number of cities, including Chicago, seized abandoned houses and encouraged "squatting" by homeless people, in an attempt to force local governments to salvage abandoned properties and convert them into low-income housing. The targets of ACORN's protests sometimes describe the activists as intractable or even aggressive. Other ACORN protests are less confrontational; Sen. McCain himself spoke at an ACORN rally on illegal immigration in 2006.

It stretches the facts, however, to say that ACORN "forced" banks to make risky loans, though it has certainly applied pressure on banks to make loans to minority and low-income borrowers. ACORN also has worked directly with banks in a joint effort to increase such lending. In Chicago these efforts date back at least to 1992, after a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston showed that minorities in that city were two to three times as likely to be denied mortgage loans as white applicants, and that high-income minorities were more likely to be turned down than low-income whites. Chicago ACORN then started a mortgage assistance program, in cooperation with five local banks, to help minority and low-income borrowers get mortgage loans.

The mortgages that ACORN worked out with the banks did have lower underwriting standards than were customary. They allowed a higher percentage of a family's income to go to debt repayment, and counted rent and utility payments, not just credit card payments, as evidence of ability to pay back a loan. The loans were also more forgiving of past credit problems, as long as the recipient was making a proven effort to address them. But ACORN provided loan deals only to people who went through counseling on budget and credit issues. In 1992, First Nationwide Bank Vice President Neal Halleran told the Chicago Tribune: "Transaction by transaction, [loans from the ACORN program] would appear to be performing no worse than our portfolio overall." According to the Tribune, First Nationwide had contacted ACORN to initiate the lending program.

Obama: Burying ACORNs

The ad says that "Obama's ties to ACORN run long and deep" – that he "taught classes" for the group, paid a "front" $800,000 for get-out-the-vote efforts, and was endorsed by ACORN for president. That last one's true – ACORN's political action committee did offer an Obama endorsement. It's also true that Obama has worked with the group in the past. In 1995, Obama helped represent ACORN in a successful lawsuit to require the state of Illinois to offer "motor voter" registration at DMV offices. Obama has said that this is his only association with ACORN, but that's not the case – he has had other, though less direct, interactions with the organization.

When Obama was on the board of directors of the Woods Fund, the foundation gave grants of $75,000 in 2001 and $70,000 in 2002 to ACORN's Chicago office. The McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee cite an additional grant of $45,000 in 2000. The Woods Fund has not responded to our calls about their 2000 grants.

The Obama campaign also paid Citizens Services Inc., a group affiliated with ACORN, more than $800,000 for get-out-the-vote (not voter registration) efforts during the primary election. The nature of CSI's services was initially misrepresented on the Obama campaign's disclosures to the Federal Election Commission, which the campaign describes as an oversight. The Obama campaign says it has not been involved with ACORN during the general election.

In addition, after law school, Obama may have had contact with ACORN when he directed a Chicago registration drive for Project Vote in 1992. According to Sanford Newman, who was the program’s national director at the time, ACORN may have been one of dozens of organizations that participated in registration drives that year with Project Vote personnel like Obama. But Project Vote didn’t begin contracting exclusively with ACORN until after Obama worked for the group in 1992. “Working for Project Vote at the time was by no means working for ACORN," Newman told us. ACORN had no influence on Project Vote policy and no representation on its board.

As for "teaching classes" for the group, the McCain campaign cites a March 2008 Newsday article, which says that ACORN organizer Madeleine Talbot "initially considered Obama a competitor" when both were working to get asbestos insulation removed from a Chicago housing project, but that "she became so impressed with his work that she invited him to help train her staff." Newsday does not say whether Obama accepted the invitation. An article by Chicago alderman Toni Foulkes says that "we [ACORN] have invited Obama to our leadership training sessions to run the session on power every year" between 1992 and 2004, when the article was written. The Obama campaign says that Obama participated in two, one-hour trainings in a volunteer capacity. Foulkes could not be reached for comment.

Neither ACORN's Chicago office nor CSI has been accused of voter registration irregularities.

–by Jess Henig, with Ronald Lampard

Update, Oct. 21: We originally said that Project Vote works closely with ACORN, implying that Obama would have had contact with the group when he directed a voter registration drive for Project Vote in 1992. We have since learned that Project Vote and ACORN may or may not have worked together in Chicago that year. The group didn’t contract with ACORN exclusively back then. We have corrected the story to reflect this.http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/acorn_accusations.html

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NRA TV Add -FALSE- from FactCheck.org

By La Susa - Oct 23rd, 2008 at 2:56 pm EDT

Also listed in: 9 groups

The Rifle Association's 'True Story'October 23, 2008A misleading NRA ad claims Obama voted "to deny citizens the right of self-protection." SummaryThe National Rifle Association's misleading attacks on Obama continue. A new ad shows a terrified woman grabbing a gun after an intruder smashes his way into her home. It accuses Obama of voting repeatedly for a measure that would "make you the criminal" in such cases, and voting to "deny citizens the right of self-protection."

The NRA says the incident depicted is "a true story." Not quite.

The actual 2003 burglary didn't involve a woman, and it didn't become violent until the male homeowner went downstairs and started firing before calling police.
The ad fails to mention that the issue was a local handgun ban that made the homeowner's gun illegal to keep in the house.
What Obama voted for was not any general repeal of the right of self-defense, but to uphold enforcement of the local gun ban, a "petty offense" that carried a maximum penalty of a $750 fine

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