Animal Rights Advocates for Obama

New Obama Group Forming 'AmericaNOchange'

Al Boek — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 10:42:29 EST

Fellow President Obama Supporters and Former Ones"

AS the founder of the Obama Group named YESWECANSOLVEIT...

I have taken the liberty of forming still another group called

AmericaNOchange. I doubt this one gets approved.

Thought I'd better hurry and write this and send it to all groups that

I am still a member of before I am banned here forever. Why would

that happen? you ask. Because I just formed a new group with a little

kid yelling "Hey You" while flipping off the viewer. Hope the president

and his staff gets the message.

The esculation of the war in Aftganistan is the last straw. Three strikes

your out!

First, he keeps the same people on the payroll that got us into this

financial disaster. He let's Bush and Cheney walk scot-free. He continues

to bail out the banks, "all too big to fail" why they screw us in every way.

And tonight on national tv he will try to convience us all that the way to

end the war in Aftganistan is to exculate it. This did not work in Vietnam,

I know, because I volunteered to go there, and it will not work in Aftganistan.

To add insult to injury. The powers that be, the ones backing McCain in

my city in Northern California, are all meeting to determine what the same

good ole boys get to do with local stimulus funds...So my question is?

WHAT THE HELL HAS CHANGED IN AMERICAN PRESIDENT OBAMA?

I am so damned mad right now, I swear, if I could afford it, I'd trade in

my next presidential ballot for a passport.

Al Boek, Ex-Supporter of a One-Term President

earlallenboek@yahoo.com

530-549-4315

Redding, California

Can you help me?

melania — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:02:11 EST

I want buy a mug in ofa store, but I have a problem: I live in Italy, so, I don't understand what I must do.. Can I pay with euro money? Can I buy something in ofa store? Can merchandise come here, in Italy?

Thanks to everybody!!!

Need Help Caring for Your Critters?

The Planned Animal Lovers Community — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:53:24 EDT

Me, too.

Just think...

As disabled or elderly folks, we can't always do everything we'd like - or need - to do for our critters. If we lived in a community of other animal lovers, we would have neighbors who understood our plight and could help us. Conversely, we could help them when they need it.

That's what community is all about.

Wouldn't it be great to know that, if you had to go in the hosptal, or just caught a bad cold and needed to rest for a few days, that there would be someone close by who is familiar with the care and feeding of your pets?

Most Americans don't connect climate change with human activity

Harold & Mary — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:35:03 EDT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/09/climate-change-debate-human-activity

Those who haven't made the connection between climate change and human activites haven't read enough about it. Also, the oil companies propaganda has probably influened them. Propaganda is most effective when the originators have hiden where it is coming from. The Rush Limbaugh ditto heads have been given the words to say and the permission to say them. Informed people need to keep speaking up. The debate has not been won.

Disabled?

The Planned Animal Lovers Community — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:37:37 EDT

Just a little disclaimer and some more info about us here...

First, if you think, looking at the picture of me and my horse, that I don't look disabled, think again. That picture is nearly 10 years old, and if you look closely, I was wearing a back brace then. Since then I have had 3 cervical discs replaced with "spacers" (the FDA has not yet approved the actual disc replacements yet - see the next paren), and been diagnosed with 5 herniated lumbar discs (awaiting FDA approval of surgical techniques successfully used in Europe for years), emphysema, arthritis and a myriad of other health problems, including a TBI (traumatic brain injury) that affects my cognitive abilities.

My poor old horse ain't gettin' any younger, either. He was mildly foundered years ago, and has an arthritic shoulder from a fall we took. The last time I was on his back was to ride him to the polls, fully tricked out in banners and flags for our candidate, on Election Day 2006 to vote for Texas Governor. The 5 mile round trip was about all either of us could manage. Both our tails were dragging by the time we got home - but we made our statement!

Second, I am not noted for my tact nor my political correctness. Just to support that statement, I'll say that Jack Nicholson and Bill Mayer are two of my favorite celebrities. That should tell you something! So, if you're easily offended, you can leave - don't go away mad, just go away. Don't complain; I do enough of that all by myself!

On the other hand, if you're serious about helping elders and disabled persons obtain better living conditions, then you'll just have to overlook my abrasive personality, and look at the beauty of this plan. Yes, of course, this is a self-serving enterprise, but if I can help myself AND help others at the same time, I can die peacefully, knowing I have left a legacy of good.

Http://savingtails.blogspot.com only outlines the PAL Community; I have published more details of the plan in other places, but I'll be darned if I can remember where ... I guess I'll have to re-write it. (A mind is a terrible thing to lose.)

Finally, I am in serious need of organizational help for this project! If you have the skills and/or funds necessary to help us obtain 501c3 status, funding, grant writing, advertsing, lobbying, or just want to help by being a supporter, please join my team in groups, blogs, causes, or wherever you find me. I may post on Facebook (see Critter Link), MySpace, Twitter, and wherever else I am.. Meanwhile, you may be able to find PAL by Googling "savingtails" , "critterlink", "Critter Link" or "PAL Community".

Addendum: My keyboard is worn out and sticky, and I'm a lousy typist, so I make lots of typos that i don't always catch. Please pardon me; I do the best I can.

Mitakuye Oyasin (We are all related),

CritterLink

United States Global Change Research Program

Harold & Mary — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:39:06 EDT

http://www.globalchange.gov/

13 United States Agencies agree: humans are causing global climate change.

We did Bo proud at the "Health Care Has Gone to the Dogs" Dogwalk!

Marjorie — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:09:50 EDT

We had a wonderful National Health Care Service Day together, raised $105 plus a waist-high box full of precious supplies for Casa De Los Ninos (a local children's transitional crisis housing center with a warm, supportive environment), saw adorable dogs sporting their Obama gear and shared from the heart about our health care stories and why we care so much!

Bo, the President's new furry companion, would have been proud of his canine brothers in Reid park!

Great job everyone! I cannot thank you enough for making this a wonderful event!

Go Julius!

Harold & Mary — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 01:08:57 EDT

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Genachowski

Anoxic Event

Harold & Mary — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:54:57 EDT

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anoxic_event

We are probably headed for another anoxic event unless we intervene.

HR 1760 Black Carbon Emmission Act

Harold & Mary — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:54:56 EDT

The Black Carbon Emission Act regulates soot. When soot lands at the poles it speeds up the melting of the ice caps. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-1760 It also causes health problems. Please write your rep to suppot passage of it out of the energy committee.

The First Dog: OUR.BO

Lynda Woolard - New Orleans — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:41:47 EDT

Having been involved in grassroots animal welfare/rescue/rights for 20+ years, I was one of those people who eagerly and anxiously awaited news on what Barack and Michelle were going to do in regards to adopting a puppy for Sasha and Malia. I was a lead dog, if you will, in pushing the idea that they should adopt a rescue and preferably a shelter dog. I was heartened by Barack's comments that HE really wanted to get a rough and tumble shelter dog. But! as usual I was careful to not just hear what I wanted to hear. I was acutely aware of the other issues President Obama laid out when discussing the new family member.

First, during the campaign, Barack always stated that he had promised the girls a puppy. A puppy. P.U.P.P.Y. Right off the bat, we knew this was going to rule out a whole lot of rescue dogs who tend to be older. This is fair enough for young girls getting their first dog. I got a puppy as a kid, too. There's something about being young and getting a young animal. You can relate to it. And you can grow up together. By the time I was 30, I started liking the idea of adopting adult dogs. They come pre-trained and you miss all that puppy teething, high energy bother.

Secondly, and really importantly, Malia has allergies, so her parents wanted to be sure she had a pet she could be close to and comfortable with. I won't argue whether or not hypo-allergenic breeds truly exist. Let's just agree that some breeds cause less allergic reactions than others. I know, for instance, that I am allergic to some cats. Not many. But occasionally I run across one that just makes me miserable. Anyway, this issue was a key issue in selection of the dog and rightly so. Consider if they chose a dog to find out later that it made Malia sick. One of three things would happen here and none of them good: Malia would have to suck it up and be miserable OR the dog would just have to not spend time with the family when Malia was present OR the dog would have to find a new home. This is a scenario that is not uncommon and all too often the dog ends up in a shelter or a back yard. (In fact, I know animals that were left behind in Katrina because a family member in the evacuation vehicle was allergic.)

Now, because of my involvement with the animal community and my involvement with the Obama campaign, people who are unhappy with the choice of Bo have felt it necessary to take this issue up with me and I have received a range of reactions from "I'm very disappointed" to "Obama broke another promise and killed a shelter dog". Well. As one who was calling for them to adopt a shelter dog, I understand a little disappointment. But I got over that pretty quickly. Look. The little guy, in my mind, IS a rescue. He didn't fit in with his first family, so he ended up with THE First Family. I hear all sorts of conspiracy theories about how this is a set up and the dog was really bred for the Obamas. I don't really buy that, but even if it were true... to harp on that would be to miss our opportunity as members of the animal welfare community. We can scream about conspiracy because we wanted a different outcome or because it feels good, but what message then are we sending when we have the platform to send a message... that this person most of our country really admires tricked us all so he could get a purebred... and if you're going to emulate him, well, then it's your turn to fake a need to get a purebred?

OR shall we point out to people the many things the first family did right in adopting a dog?

They planned ahead and waited to adopt until the family had time to train it and take care of it. They prepared the children for the responsibility that they all would need to share as they welcomed a new family member into their home. They did their research and found a breed that would suit their needs... regarding allergy issues, trainability, disposition, personality, space requirements and energy levels. They didn't go shopping around to breeders, but instead adopted an already 6 month old dog - which means half its puppihood has already passed. And they found the dog through a friend with whom they have a really close personal connection... and who has health issues of his own such that he may not be around for too long.

The standard put on this president for adopting a dog is beyond anything any other president has had to live up to pet-wise. He never promised to adopt a shelter dog, he said he hoped to get one. He advocated against puppy mills and by all accounts, this dog is not from a puppy mill. It appears to be from a responsible breeder. I won't argue whether or not responsible breeders truly exist. We will never get rid of "breeds" altogether. Dog people are forever going to like certain breeds or even need them for utilitarian purposes.

The pet overpopulation problem is not caused by breeders or breed lovers or President Obama. It is caused by unmanaged stray populations, puppy mills, irresponsible breeders and owners who do not spay/neuter their pets for reasons ranging from ignorance to laziness. Period. Dogs and cats are euthanized in the hundreds of thousands in this country because people don't know about the existing holocaust, or don't care, or because they let their animals roam freely thus allowing them to reproduce indescriminantly or land themselves with the dog catcher (which "displaces" whatever dog was previously in that kennel... a euphemism for euthanasia).

The Obamas did their due diligence and did the best they could... and didn't do half bad, I think. Give them a break. They are first time pet owners. They will learn more as they go. Like we all have had to do.

Let's shine a light on all the things they did RIGHT. Let's use this as a teaching moment instead of yet another time that the animal rights folks look like crazy zealots. I've lost enough battles and animals to know the pain of the trade. I face it everyday. But I won't blame our president for that. His family got a second hand dog that won't make their daughter sneeze or itch and made a donation to the Washington Humane Society. End of.

Welcome to your new home, Bo. May you live long and know great love.

Now let's let the president get back to solving this whole war/economy/environment thing... wherein human and non-human animals suffer and die everyday.

2,600 UN delegates applaud Obama's climate change delegation

Harold & Mary — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:30:41 EDT

Here is a quote from the USA delegation!

"We are very glad to be back. We want to make up for lost time, and we are seized with the urgency of the task before us," Stern said to loud applause from the 2,600 delegates to the U.N. negotiations.

Proud of President Obama and proud to be an American! Go Obama!

Gaza Holocaust survivors search for justice

Unknown user — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:22:55 EDT

I wish them the best... this world has not clue about what is the meaning of justice

please watch the report here

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

5 outdoorwood burners =1 Coal fired electric plant

Harold & Mary — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:14:36 EDT

According to the Linn County Iowa Health Dept. five outdoor woodburning boilers produce as much particulate matter as one coal fired electric plant at ADM. ADM has scrubbers. OWB's have no filters and they produce incomplete combustion. Linn Co has 200 of these. That is equivelant to 40 coal fired plants. The coal fired plants put out more CO2.

This cannot be called anything but 'A New Holocaust'

Unknown user — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:08:25 EDT

If you hate reading just watch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGITh9HPJ7g

ISRAEL ADMITS GAZA WAR CRIMES

JERUSALEM — An increasingly disturbing picture of the Israeli Defense Forces' (IDF) misconduct in the Gaza invasion has emerged as confessions from Israeli troops describe wanton destruction of Palestinian homes, humiliation of civilians, and loosened rules of engagement that resulted in high civilian casualties.

An Israeli defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to make the information public, said the IDF used 120-mm mortar rounds, among the largest, on a large group of civilians who had taken refuge for safety in a hospital. At least five blast patters indicating direct hits were found on the hospital floors.

Revelations of the IDF Gaza crimes have set off alarms in a nation where the military is revered. They also confirm Palestinian allegations that the IDF did not distinguish between civilians and combatants, and the admissions also confirmed international human rights groups' contention that Israel deliberately violated the humanitarian laws of war.

Israel launched the Gaza offensive on Dec. 27, 2008 in what it explained was an effort to end Palestinian rocket attacks in which four Israeli citizens were hit. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which conducted casualty count, reported a total of 1,417 people killed during the offensive, including at least 930 civilians.

Israel originally denied the findings, saying the most of the dead were legitimate targets, but offered no evidence to back up that allegation.

The Israeli government has insisted it did everything it could to prevent civilian casualties. But the IDF has now ordered a criminal inquiry into its own soldiers' reports that IDF troops deliberately targeted civilians, including children, by shooting them or by calling in air strikes, confident that the Israeli relaxed rules of war would protect them.

The inquiry is based on postwar testimony from IDF soldiers who were involved in the Israeli offensive and who were eye-witnesses. The findings were published in a military institute newsletter and leaked to two Israeli newspapers. The Haaretz daily published additional details. A transcript of the IDF soldiers' confessions was obtained by The Associated Press.

According to one account, an Israeli sniper killed a Palestinian woman and each of her two children after they misunderstood another soldier's shouted order and turned in the wrong direction. The sniper was not told that the family had just been released, and so he opened fire on them as they walked toward him.

In another account, an elderly woman was shot dead while walking alone on a road. The soldier who described the incident, identified only as "Aviv," said the woman was not a threat. "I simply felt it was murder in cold blood," Aviv said, according to the transcript. "The order was to take that woman out the moment you see her."

Aviv admitted in another instance his unit was sent to take over a house by bursting in, going up floor by floor and shooting to death anyone they saw alive.

"I call this murder," he said. "...they told us it was permissible because anyone who remained in the sector and inside Gaza City, was in effect condemned to death as a terrorist, because they hadn't yet fled." In the end, he said he managed to change the order so residents would be given five minutes to leave their homes, drawing protests from other soldiers. "Anyone who's in there is a terrorist, that's a known fact!" he quoted another soldier as saying.

(Note: The borders were closed and tenants had no place to flee to/ blogger)

In another incident, a large group of Palestinian civilians were herded into a school building and forced to stay inside "for their own safety." A few minutes later, Israeli artillery strikes were called in on the building.

Some 15,000 Palestinians packed the UN's 23 Gaza schools because their homes were destroyed, or they were designated a safe haven from the fighting. The UN had provided the IDF with GPS coordinates for all of them so they could be avoided.

The IDF reported the shelling of the school - the deadliest single episode in the first two weeks of the IDF invasion of Gaza - was a response to mortar fire from within the school building, and that Hamas militants were using the civilians as cover. The IDF had no additional comment.

During the fighting, the military acknowledged it loosened the rules of engagement aiming to reduce casualties among IDF troops.

At one point, six hundred Palestinian civilians were trapped under fire when Israeli forces refused to allow them to leave Gaza in safety.

Another soldier, "Ram", described what appeared to be a rift between secular and religious soldiers. "What I do remember in particular at the beginning was the feeling of an almost religious mission," he said.

"Their message was very clear: 'We are the Jewish people, we came to this land by a miracle. God brought us back to this land and now we need to fight to expel the gentiles who are interfering with our conquest of this holy land,'" he said.

(This kind of talk about God I find it funny/ blogger)

Earlier the IDF "severely reprimanded" an officer for distributing a religious booklet urging soldiers to show no mercy to their enemies. The army said the chief military rabbi had not yet approved it.

The published accounts revealed debate and soul-searching among the soldiers. Discussing the death of the old woman, one soldier, Zvi, said the shooting could be understood in the context of the battle zone. "Logic says she should be there," he said.

(Another funny remark about LOGIC!/ blogger)

IDF trooper Yossi said his unit was forced to clean up a home it had occupied on the same day that a Palestinian rocket wounded a mother and baby in an Israeli city. He said soldiers were unhappy, but they complied. "In the end, I was convinced it was the right thing to do," Yossi added.

(I thought Hamas' problem is that it fires rockets... it seems the real problem is that HAMAS DO NOT FIRE ROCKETS ENOUGH/ blogger)

Danny Zamir, the head of the military institute, called the discussion "instructive," but also "dismaying and depressing. You are describing an army with very low norms of value," he said.

The heavy Palestinian civilian casualties and widespread destruction during the three-week war provoked international outcry against Israel, which ceased fire on 18 Jan. 2009.

EPA halts permits for mountain top mining!!!

Harold & Mary — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:50:16 EDT

http://www.alternet.org/water/133200/breaking%3A_epa_halts_mountaintop_removal_permits/

GO OBAMA!!!! And the EPA!

Don't doubt Obama!!!!

Dioxins were the toxic ingredient in Agent Orange

Harold & Mary — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 18:37:40 EDT

Dioxins are produced by outdoor woodburning and woodburning boilers. Dioxins were the toxic ingredient in Agent Orange. Please inform yourself and take appropiate action. http://www.ejnet.org/dioxin/

Dove shooting legislation fails in Iowa AGAIN

Harold & Mary — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 23:37:07 EDT

Dove shooting legislation fails in Iowa again, WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS.

Being on the side of the doves is the right place to be.

feed the animals, it's free

Duane Kuehn — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:54:00 EDT

Hi All,

Terri S. sent me this link to give spread around. I hope everyone will visit it and pass the link.

All you have to do is visit the animal rescue site and click on the box. They will donate a small amount of food to rescued animals for each click they get, and they are not getting enough clicks right now.

Please help them help animals. It's simple, quick and free, and does a world of good. Please pass on to others that might be interested in helping.

Thanks,

Terri S.

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=3

Loveya,

Duane

Marshalltown Iowa Coal Plant Stopped!

Harold & Mary — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:17:25 EST

Dear Harold,

Today Alliant Energy, parent company of Interstate Power & Light, announced it was canceling plans to build a massive coal-fired power plant in Marshalltown. The stunning announcement is a huge victory for environmental and other organizations that have been organizing for two years in an effort to halt the project.

Read our news release (pdf).

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources received more than 700 requests from people like you to extend the 30-day comment period and to require more than two hearing sites. DNR responded to this overwhelming outcry by extending the comment period to 90 days and adding five hearing sites. Facing the prospect of a long and drawn out comment period while the federal government is moving forward on carbon dioxide regulation pushed the project over the edge and onto the scrap heap of abandoned coal plant proposals.

A very big thank you for protecting Iowa - messages from Sierra Club activists like you delivered today's victory.

THANK YOU!

Neila Seaman
Iowa Chapter Director

Obama reverses Bush on species protection measure

Terri S. — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 02:17:51 EST

By Juliet Eilperin Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 4, 2009; Page A04

In a move that will subject a number of government projects to enhanced environmental and scientific scrutiny, President Obama is restoring a requirement that U.S. agencies consult with independent federal experts to determine whether their actions might harm threatened and endangered species.

The presidential memorandum issued yesterday, which marks yet another reversal of former president George W. Bush's environmental legacy, will revive a decades-old practice under the Endangered Species Act that calls for agencies to consult with either the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on whether their projects could affect imperiled species. On Dec. 16, the Bush administration allowed agencies to waive such reviews if they decided, on their own, that the actions would not harm vulnerable plants and animals.

Obama, who visited the Interior Department to commemorate its 160th anniversary, said he had instructed Interior and Commerce Department officials to review the Bush rules. In the meantime, according to the memorandum, officials should "follow the prior longstanding consultation and concurrence practices" that call for independent reviews. "The work of scientists and experts in my administration, including here at the Interior Department, will be respected," Obama said. "With smart, sustainable policies, we can grow our economy today and preserve the environment."

Obama overturns Bush endangered species rule

☮ CR ❤ — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:27:07 EST

3/3/09 Washington- CNN

President Obama on Tuesday overturned a last-minute Bush administration regulation that many environmentalists claim weakened the Endangered Species Act.

The regulation, issued a few weeks before George W. Bush left office, made it easier for federal agencies to skip consultations with government scientists before launching projects that could affect endangered wildlife.

By overturning the regulation, Obama said during an enthusiastic reception at the Interior Department, he had restored "the scientific process to its rightful place at the heart of the Endangered Species Act, a process undermined by past administrations."

Under the Bush administration rule, there was no need for a federal agency to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Services if that agency determined that no harm would come to an endangered species as a result of its project.

But the determination of what "no harm" meant rested with agency bureaucrats instead of scientists.

Obama issued a memorandum that effectively suspends the regulation while ordering a review to determine whether it promotes "the purposes of the [Endangered Species Act]."

"The work of scientists and experts in my administration, including right here in the Interior Department, will be respected," Obama said. "For more than three decades, the Endangered Species Act has successfully protected our nation's most threatened wildlife, and we should be looking for ways to improve it, not weaken it."

Environmental groups were quick to praise Obama's action.

"President Obama's announcement will allow [the Endangered Species Act] to do what it was intended: protect our nation's endangered plants and animals," said Andrew Wetzler, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Endangered Species Program.

"Reversing the Bush administration's midnight action will restore protections for our last wild places and species."

Obama also helped celebrate the 160th anniversary of the Interior Department on Tuesday.

"Throughout our history, there's been a tension between those who've sought to conserve our natural resources for the benefit of future generations and those who have sought to profit from these resources," he told department employees.

"But I'm here to tell you this is a false choice. With smart, sustainable policies, we can grow our economy today and preserve the environment for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren."

we must stand up with Obama now as he takes on the lobbyist infested Congress.

Harold & Mary — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 19:01:02 EST

If not now, when? We must stand up now and drown out the lobbyist infested congress with the voices of the people. We must not lose this fight to get our budget passed. Make as as many cantacts as you can to support the President's budget. He is taking on big oil, big insurance, big drugs, big banks, big agriculture and big polluters all at the same time. He needs all the help he can get.

Show me the international law

Unknown user — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:54:17 EST

In the name of God
The Lord of all human beings

The authors of this document are a group of youth who do not belong to a political trend or party, and do not have any ethnic, racist, or religious agenda. We uphold humanity and the right of all humans to live with dignity and peace regardless of religion, color, race, political beliefs, ethnicity, and nationality.
We announce our full respect of all principles and creeds, and our support to righteousness and justice against oppression, suppression, murder, usurpation of rights, and distortion of facts.As advocates for human rights and values, we believe in dismantling what is internationally recognized as “the state of Israel”.
This document states our legitimate and humanitarian arguments.
First: Israel is not a state according to the international definition.The definition of a state is: “A state is a political association with effective sovereignty over a geographic area and representing a population.”
In reference to the above definition, we can construe that:
- Israel is not a political association; it is a religious-ethnic racist association.
- Israel is not a sovereign state, it depends entirely on US political, economical, and militarily support, making it an American colony, rather than a sovereign state.
Consecutive US administrations unremittingly state its commitment to Israeli security. According to international norms, every state is committed only to its own security, and no state on earth is committed to another state’s security, except the United States of America which is committed to Israeli security.
It would be more realistic and precise if Israel is recognized as a US colony.
Second: Israel is an internationally outlawed entity and must be prosecuted.
Although Israel is the creation of the United Nations — created after Zionist terrorist groups assassinated Folk Bernadette, the Count of Weisberg, who acquired legal proofs to avert the foundation of Israel — yet, Israel, from its very inception, was a deviant entity that never conformed to international laws or UN Security Council resolutions, relying on the US veto.

1- Israel was founded by terrorist groups prosecuted of bombing civilians in hotels, cinemas, and markets: Lehi, Stern, Revisionist Zionist group, Irgun, and Haganah.
2- Israel has violated 35 UN Security Council resolutions and, protected by the US veto, has not been prosecuted.
3- Israel maintains occupation, deliberately targets civilians, reporters, and doctors, and it prevents the arrival of aid to the injured.
4- Israel has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel develops weapons of mass destruction, nuclear weapons, and deliberately targets civilians with internationally prohibited weapons.
5- Israel violates the political and civil rights of its own citizens despite its claims of being a democracy. Israel has banned a number of Israeli political parties from nomination in the late elections because members of these parties are from Arab origins. This decree was issued according to discriminating and racist measures which are against international law and are reminiscent of the obsolete South African apartheid system.
Israeli officials announce openly that they believe in the “purgation” of the “Jewish State” from non-Jewish citizens. Tzipi Livni said that in the case of founding the Palestinian state, all Israelis from Arab origins would have to leave Israel to the Palestinian state in order to “purify” Israel.
Third: Zionism contradicts articles of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.

1- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Articles breached by Israel:
Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colors, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

- Zionism is based mainly on discrimination. It is rooted in the idea of the “Chosen People”. Such a misinterpretation for the Torah explains the discrimination practiced by Israel against Palestinians and Arab-Israeli citizens as seen in occupation, blockade, targeting civilians, land confiscation, building an apartheid wall, and deprivation of political, social, and economical rights. All these atrocities are directed to Arabs because of their ethnicity and religions.
- N.B.: Such violations are totally condemned by religious Jews, and as human beings we believe that Zionism and Israel are the greatest anti-Semites in the world as they defame Judaism, distort the Jewish image, and monopolize what they think is the right interpretation of Judaism, which is completely rejected by anti-Zionist Jews.
Article 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.

- From the moment Israel was founded, it was mainly based on depriving people from their rights of life, liberty and security. It started with the Deir Yassin massacre, which was executed by the Zionist terrorist groups. This massacre was the seed of the Zionist state. Immediately after the foundation of Israel, several massacres against civilians took place. As there is no space to mention all of them here, so we will mention only a few of them: al-Dawayma massacre (1948), Kafr Kassem massacre (1965), and the most recent massacre took place in Gaza (2008/2009). Israel officials stated frequently that they deliberately target civilians to put pressure on groups that resist them.
- Israel bombed UN buildings and staff several times in Lebanon and Palestine.
- Israel targets civilians and UN buildings with internationally prohibited weapons.
- Israel refused to receive the UN deputy after the Jenin massacre (2002).
Article 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

- Israel practices unrelenting torture and degrading treatment of Palestinian prisoners, civilians seized at checkpoints, children on their way to schools, and civilian inhabitants of the Occupied Territories.
- Israeli soldiers handcuff and blindfold civilians and children seized at checkpoints. They also take children as human shields to protect themselves from the rocks thrown by other children.
- Palestinian homes are also subject to daily incursions by Israeli soldiers directing their rifles toward children and women to terrify them.
Article 9.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

- Israel from its very beginning expelled Palestinians from their lands, demolished their homes. As a result, Palestinians are now living as refugees in different countries.
- Israel denies the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland.
- Israel is imprisoning thousands of Palestinians, many of whom are children and women.
- Reports as well as eyewitnesses assert that during the recent aggression on Gaza (2008/2009), Israel arrested more than one thousand Palestinians over the age of 16 and placed them in dangerous areas, often using them as human shields.
- During the war on Gaza (2008/2009), the Israeli army arrested injured civilians and deliberately left them bleeding, preventing medical crews from reaching them.
- Witnesses assert that during the war (2008/2009), the Israeli army used injured civilians as human shields by placing them in holes dug right in front of tanks, jeopardizing their lives by placing them on the line of fire.
- Witnesses testify that Israeli soldiers used a number of families as human shields during breaking into homes in Gaza (2008/2009).
- The Israeli army used homes in Gaza as military observation points and military bases, detaining families in these homes to use them as human shields.
- Till now, there are more than 200 citizens under the custody of the Israeli army, some of whom were subjected to direct investigation, torment, and extortion.
- The Israeli army refused to cooperate with the Red Cross, Palestinian authorities, and human rights organizations which demanded that Israel reveal the numbers and names of the arrested. Such rejection of cooperation arouses intense apprehension in relation to the safety of the arrested.
Article 13.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

- Israel deprives Palestinians from their right to freedom of movement and residence by seizing them at checkpoints for long periods of time that may reach twenty hours or more.
- Israel prevents refugees from returning to their homeland.
- Israel restricts the residence of a huge number of Palestinians and stops them from leaving the country without stating reasons.
Article 14.
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

- Israel bombs Palestinian cities and stops Palestinian civilians from leaving dangerous spots by the closure of borders and blockade (war on Gaza 2008/2009).
Article 15.
(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
- Israel grants its nationality to any Jew in the world on a religious basis, while it threatens some Arab-Israelis with the revocation of their nationality, because they adopt certain political views that Israel does not agree with.
- After exiling Palestinians from their lands, Israel refuses to grant them the right of return.
- Israel imposes Israeli nationality on residents in the Golan Heights and practices all kinds of intimidations on those who refuse the Israeli nationality.
Article 17.
(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

- Israel confiscates Palestinian lands, expels Palestinians, and banishes them in order to build its own settlements on occupied territories.
- Israel, for decades, uproots and destroys tens of thousands of olive trees, as well as citrus and grape groves. They all belong to the Palestinians for centuries.
- Israel built an apartheid wall on confiscated Palestinian land and divided Palestinian villages into unviable cantons.
Article 21.
(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

We have already pointed out that Israel has denied Arab-Israeli parties participation in elections and exercising their democratic rights because of their ethnic background. Israel refuses, suppresses, and undermines all democratic options of the Palestinian people at the territories under the Palestinian Authority’s rule. It detains democratically elected ministers, deputies, and representatives, and suppresses their freedom without trials or with formal military trials. Detainees do not enjoy the most basic civil rights as individuals and as representatives of the people.
Article 22.
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

- Israel closes border crossings and denies Palestinians access to humanitarian aid as has been the ongoing situation in Gaza.
- Israel exploits Palestinian workers and makes them work for lower wages. Palestinian workers do not enjoy any legal rights inside Israel, further exposing them to ill-treatment and being fired at any time without having any legal rights.
Article 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Israel is violating all these articles by putting restrictions on Palestinian workers, detaining them for long hours at the crossings and checkpoints. Israel is also politically exploiting most of them by asking them to reveal security information to its intelligence agency about Palestinian officials and citizens in order to kill or arrest them, in exchange for the workers’ wages and rights.
Israel has made the humanitarian situation and living conditions of Palestinians a living hell.
Many Palestinian pregnant women give birth at the crossings and checkpoints in the open. The Israeli army does not offer any assistance or facilities to transport pregnant women and patients.
Hundreds die annually at the crossings after having been denied access to hospitals and aid. Palestinian children are born and grow up under bombardment and blockade, and among scenes of death and destruction, depriving them of their most basic rights as children.
Israel imposes on children a life in an environment of perpetual war, depriving them from their rights to learn and to go safely to schools.
Schools have been bombed many times, and the proportion of dead Palestinian children is the highest in modern wars. Among these children many infants are shot dead at point-blank range.
Israel breaches most, if not all, the articles of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political rights in relation with its conduct to Palestinians and residents in the occupied Golan Height’s.
PART 1

Article 1
1- All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.
2- All peoples may, for their own ends, freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources without prejudice to any obligations arising out of international economic co-operation, based upon the principle of mutual benefit, and international law. In no case may a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence.
3- The States Parties to the present Covenant, including those having responsibility for the administration of Non-Self-Governing and Trust Territories, shall promote the realization of the right of self-determination, and shall respect that right, in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.

- Israel is occupying Palestinian territories and the Golan heights, refusing to conform to Security Council resolutions stating that Israel must retreat from the occupied lands.
- Israel denies Palestinians and tenants of the Golan's their right of self-determination, and denies their rights of freedom in determining their political status, pursuing their economic, social and cultural development, and uses fierce and illegal force to prevent them from practicing the mentioned rights.
- Israel targets prominent Palestinian cultural figures. In 1970, Israel assassinated the prominent Palestinian literary figure Ghassan Kanafani. In 1987, Israel assassinated the prominent Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al-Ali.
- Israel prevents Palestinians from reaching their schools, and prevents them from joining universities, and when they try to acquire grants abroad, it stops them from traveling.
PART II
Article 2
Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to respect and to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the present Covenant, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
Where not already provided for by existing legislative or other measures, each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to take the necessary steps. in accordance with its constitutional processes and with the provisions of the present Covenant, to adopt such legislative or other measures as may be necessary to give effect to the rights recognized in the present Covenant.
Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes:
To ensure that any person whose rights or freedoms as herein recognized are violated shall have an effective remedy, notwithstanding that the violation has been committed by persons acting in an official capacity; to ensure that any person claiming such a remedy shall have his rights thereto determined by competent judicial, administrative or legislative authorities, or by any other competent authority provided for by the legal system of the State, and to develop the possibilities of judicial remedy;
To ensure that the competent authorities shall enforce such remedies when granted.
- Israel breaches this article. Arab citizens in Israel are denied all the rights that are granted to any Jewish Israel. Jews in Israel are allowed to own and carry weapons, practice rituals of their religion — even if those rituals include extremist or racist activities like cursing other religions and races — and Jews are allowed to point their weapons at any non-Jewish citizens walking in the streets. Such acts are not illegal according to Israeli law.
- Non-Jewish citizens are forced to join the army, placed in the line of fire, and their lives are jeopardized deliberately, while Jews serving in the army are highly protected.
- Non-Jewish citizens are compelled to serve in the army in Arab districts, and forced to attack their own people. If they refuse, they face imprisonment.
- Israel deprives non-Jewish citizens from practicing rituals of their religions frequently, and if they allow them, the army sieges the church or the mosque.
- Israel prevents men under the age of fifty to pray in Al-Aqsa Mosque and force them to pray in the streets surrounded by tanks and rifles.
- Arabs arrested by Israel are denied all their rights, exposed to torment and receive fake trials in which the judge deals with the prisoner according to religion and race, not according to the legal situation.
- More than ten thousand Arabs are incarcerated in Israeli prisons because of their political views. Many of them have not undergone any trials.
Article 4
In time of public emergency which threatens the life of the nation and the existence of which is officially proclaimed, the States Parties to the present Covenant may take measures derogating from their obligations under the present Covenant to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation, provided that such measures are not inconsistent with their other obligations under international law and do not involve discrimination solely on the ground of race, color, sex, language, religion or social origin.
No derogation from articles 6, 7, 8 (paragraphs 1 and 2), 11, 15, 16 and 18 may be made under this provision.
Any State Party to the present Covenant availing itself of the right of derogation shall immediately inform the other States Parties to the present Covenant, through the intermediary of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, of the provisions from which it has derogated and of the reasons by which it was actuated. A further communication shall be made, through the same intermediary, on the date on which it terminates such derogation.

Israel violates all these points in the above article. Under the pretext of protecting Israeli security, Israel divests all Arab citizens from security.
Protected by US veto, Israel never complies with UN Security Council resolutions.
Article 9
Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedure as are established by law.
Anyone who is arrested shall be informed, at the time of arrest, of the reasons for his arrest and shall be promptly informed of any charges against him.
Anyone arrested or detained on a criminal charge shall be brought promptly before a judge or other officer authorized by law to exercise judicial power and shall be entitled to trial within a reasonable time or to release. It shall not be the general rule that persons awaiting trial shall be detained in custody, but release may be subject to guarantees to appear for trial, at any other stage of the judicial proceedings, and, should occasion arise, for execution of the judgment.
Anyone who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take proceedings before a court, in order that that court may decide without delay on the lawfulness of his detention and order his release if the detention is not lawful.
Anyone who has been the victim of unlawful arrest or detention shall have an enforceable right to compensation.
Palestinians under Israeli occupation do not enjoy any security. Israeli forces break up homes and subject civilians to arbitrary arrest. They are deprived of their freedom without any legal pretext and without even knowing the reason of their arrest.
They receive inhumane treatment during their arrest.
After arresting one Palestinian, frequently, Israeli army bulldozes his or her home, and abuses his or her family.
After arrest, Palestinians are subjected to fierce torture.
Israeli courts do not apply the law on the Palestinians. They take a prior hostile position toward the prosecuted according to race and religion. Article 10
All persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person.
Accused persons shall, save in exceptional circumstances, be segregated from convicted persons and shall be subject to separate treatment appropriate to their status as unconvicted persons;
Accused juvenile persons shall be separated from adults and brought as speedily as possible for adjudication.
The penitentiary system shall comprise treatment of prisoners the essential aim of which shall be their reformation and social rehabilitation. Juvenile offenders shall be segregated from adults and be accorded treatment appropriate to their age and legal status.
- Any Palestinian or Arab arrested by Israeli forces is treated with indignity and inhumanely.
- Every Palestinian arrested by Israeli forces is subjected to torture.
- Palestinians arrested for political reasons are put in the same cells with criminals.
- Palestinian juvenile persons are put in the same cells with criminal adults.
- More than ten thousand Palestinians and Arabs are imprisoned and subjected to inhumane conditions. Many of them are children, women, and pregnant women.
- Pregnant Arab women imprisoned in Israeli jails give birth in the prison, and the babies are not allowed to go to relatives' custody outside the prison.
Article 12
Everyone lawfully within the territory of a State shall, within that territory, have the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence.
Everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his own.
The above-mentioned rights shall not be subject to any restrictions except those which are provided by law, are necessary to protect national security, public order (ordre public), public health or morals or the rights and freedoms of others, and are consistent with the other rights recognized in the present Covenant.
No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country.
- Israel deprives millions of refugees from returning to their country from which they were expelled by force.
- Israel arbitrarily deprives Palestinian youths from leaving the country to receive an education abroad. It also deprives them from receiving education in their country.
Article 14
All persons shall be equal before the courts and tribunals. In the determination of any criminal charge against him, or of his rights and obligations in a suit at law, everyone shall be entitled to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law. The press and the public may be excluded from all or part of a trial for reasons of morals, public order (ordre public) or national security in a democratic society, or when the interest of the private lives of the parties so requires, or to the extent strictly necessary in the opinion of the court in special circumstances where publicity would prejudice the interests of justice; but any judgment rendered in a criminal case or in a suit at law shall be made public except where the interest of juvenile persons otherwise requires or the proceedings concern matrimonial disputes or the guardianship of children.
Everyone charged with a criminal offence shall have the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law.
In the determination of any criminal charge against him, everyone shall be entitled to the following minimum guarantees, in full equality:
To be informed promptly and in detail in a language which he understands of the nature and cause of the charge against him;
To have adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defense and to communicate with counsel of his own choosing;
To be tried without undue delay;
To be tried in his presence, and to defend himself in person or through legal assistance of his own choosing; to be informed, if he does not have legal assistance, of this right; and to have legal assistance assigned to him, in any case where the interests of justice so require, and without payment by him in any such case if he does not have sufficient means to pay for it;
To examine, or have examined, the witnesses against him and to obtain the attendance and examination of witnesses on his behalf under the same conditions as witnesses against him;
To have the free assistance of an interpreter if he cannot understand or speak the language used in court;
Not to be compelled to testify against oneself or to confess guilt.
In the case of juvenile persons, the procedure shall be such as will take account of their age and the desirability of promoting their rehabilitation.
Everyone convicted of a crime shall have the right to his conviction and sentence being reviewed by a higher tribunal according to law.
When a person has by a final decision been convicted of a criminal offence and when subsequently his conviction has been reversed or he has been pardoned on the ground that a new or newly discovered fact shows conclusively that there has been a miscarriage of justice, the person who has suffered punishment as a result of such conviction shall be compensated according to law, unless it is proved that the non-disclosure of the unknown fact in time is wholly or partly attributable to him.
No one shall be liable to be tried or punished again for an offence for which he has already been finally convicted or acquitted in accordance with the law and penal procedure of each country.
- Every single item in this article is violated by Israel when it comes to Palestinians and Arabs.
- Israeli courts defuse the action of Israeli law when it deals with Palestinians and Arabs. They are found guilty before they even step into the courtroom.
- Israeli courts often dismiss attorneys assigned by the accused and assign other ones who are known of their prejudice against Arabs as a race.
Article 17
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honor and reputation.
Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
Israel violates this article under international cover. Israeli forces storms into Palestinian homes without any respect for privacy, abuses families, especially children.
Concerning the unlawful attacks on a person’s honor and reputation:
During the past years there have been constant attacks against Muslims and Arabs that are known as "Islamophobia" and "Arabo-phobia". Such an organized denigration, depicting Muslims and Arabs as "terrorists", "backwards", and "uncivilized" people was meant to give excuses and justify all illegal military atrocities waged against Arab and Muslim population, starting with Israeli massacres, the US invasion of Afghanistan, the illegal occupation in Iraq and ending with the most notorious prisons in the world: Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.
Such a campaign caused a great damage to all Muslim and Arab population worldwide. May Muslims, Arabs and even some Sikhs and Hindus (because they resemble Middle Eastern Muslims in color and features) were subjected to persecution, job loss, arrest and racist homicides.
Many Arab and Muslim nations were damaged economically, politically and militarily with the full support of both states and mobs.
Inhuman crimes and internationally prohibited acts were directed to Muslims and Arabs, collectively and individually word wide.
International media, relentlessly, broadcasts materials contains hate speech against Muslims and Arabs. FOX news persistently broadcasts materials arouse hatred towards Muslims, International News papers….etc).
Now, after taking steps toward closing Guantanamo Bay and retreating from Iraq, we demand the following:
1- Official apology from all those who convicted actions of material and moral atrocities against Muslims and Arabs which cause them great damages collectively and individually.
2- The immediate cease of any kind of hatred action whether militarily, economically or speech hatred.
3- Legal international condemnation of all offensives against Muslims and Arabs.
4- This spread hatred policies were meant to be a cover for inhuman war crimes executed by Israel and the world powers. Such policies have to be internationally condemned with official declaration and new legislations to protect Muslim and Arab subject from persecution.
5- Arabs are Semites, yet, they are not allowed to resort to the anti-Semite international law when they are attacked, therefore, it is essential to issue a new law to protect Arabs and Muslims.
6- Suitable financial, political and moral compensations for Arabs and Muslims have to be attributed immediately.
Article 20
Any propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law.
Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law.
Israeli politicians lead war propaganda and use it in election campaigns in which they repeatedly echo the call for war using racist tones against Arabs and threatening them with genocide.
By monitoring the Israeli politicians' statements since the foundation of Israel until now, we find constant campaigns led by politicians and religious leaders waged against Arabs, describing them with the most racist descriptions inciting soldiers to kill them for racist, religious, and security reasons.
Article 25
Every citizen shall have the right and the opportunity, without any of the distinctions mentioned in article 2 and without unreasonable restrictions:
To take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely chosen representatives;
To vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors;
To have access, on general terms of equality, to public service in his country.
Palestinians do not enjoy any political rights under the occupation. Israel does not respect the election results of the Palestinian people, and does not recognize the Palestinian people's representatives. Moreover, Israel arrests elected Palestinian MPs with disregard to their parliamentary immunity.
Arab-Israelis are not allowed to occupy leading posts no matter how qualified they are.
In employment, Jews have the priority over any Arab, even if the Arabs are more qualified.
Article 27
In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, or to use their own language.
Israel violates this article as mention above in the document.
Israel breaches all items of Part IV of the Covenant. It does not permit the establishment of any international human rights committees to follow up the rights of people under occupation, or assist in the prosecution of criminals who take part in killings, genocide, arrest and imprisonment against the people. The United Nations and the international community are responsible for this part, but cannot prosecute Israel, its leaders, officers or soldiers. At the same time, Israel prevents the work of any international inquiring committee, whatever its reasons and goals are.
This part is not recognized or practiced by Israel, nor practiced at all on Israel by any international organization.
It is obvious to any researcher that Israel has clearly violated all international documents, charters and treaties. It is very strange indeed that Israel and its officials had never been prosecuted or held accountable for their actions.
As for the economic part of the International Covenant, below we show how Israel deals with this aspect:
Article 1
1. All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.
2. All peoples may, for their own ends, freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources without prejudice to any obligations arising out of international economic co-operation, based upon the principle of mutual benefit, and international law. In no case may a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence.

- We have mentioned earlier in the civil and political covenants how Israel violates this article by occupying Palestinian land, building the separation wall, placing Gaza under siege, and building settlements on Palestinian land whose owners have documents of ownership, deploying barriers between cities and villages, and stopping Palestinians for long hours on these barriers, including the workers who lose their jobs because of permanent delay.
- Israel has seized all fresh water resources in the West Bank and Golan Heights. It is establishing settlements on fertile land after the expulsion of its inhabitants and confiscation of the land. It builds its army camps near freshwater resources.Israel also had and is still cutting off hundreds of thousands of olive and citrus trees which belong to Palestinians, destroying their orchards and vineyards and confiscating them to construct the separation wall and build settlements or military barracks.
PART III
Article 6
1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right to work, which includes the right of everyone to the opportunity to gain his living by work which he freely chooses or accepts, and will take appropriate steps to safeguard this right.
2. The steps to be taken by a State Party to the present Covenant to achieve the full realization of this right shall include technical and vocational guidance and training programs, policies and techniques to achieve steady economic, social and cultural development and full and productive employment under conditions safeguarding fundamental political and economic freedoms to the individual.
- Most of the Palestinian youth are unemployed due to harassment at Israeli checkpoints. They are delayed for long hours and asked to provide information about their own people in order to facilitate their transit to work. At the same time, Israel has bombed most factories in Gaza after a suffocating siege where it denied Gaza the entry of any raw materials or spare parts for machines. Israel bombards small workshops, continuously pounding them to the ground and claiming that the resistance fighters are using them to manufacture explosives. These claims have often proved to be untrue because these workshops are very small and do not have any facilities for manufacturing any explosives or the like.
- All these items are not available in Gaza or the West Bank because of the policies of the occupation. No efficiency or technology is available in schools and educational institutes because of the poverty, siege, and restrictions. A Palestinian worker can not find a decent job except in Israel and most employed workers lose their jobs for the reasons mentioned earlier (delaying at checkpoints or being questioned by Israeli intelligence).
Article 7
The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of just and favorable conditions of work which ensure, in particular:
(a) Remuneration which provides all workers, as a minimum, with:
(i) Fair wages and equal remuneration for work of equal value without distinction of any kind, in particular women being guaranteed conditions of work not inferior to those enjoyed by men, with equal pay for equal work;
(ii) A decent living for themselves and their families in accordance with the provisions of the present Covenant;
(b) Safe and healthy working conditions;
(c) Equal opportunity for everyone to be promoted in his employment to an appropriate higher level, subject to no considerations other than those of seniority and competence;
(d) Rest, leisure and reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay, as well as remuneration for public holidays

Such conditions cannot be obtained under the constraints mentioned earlier as a result of the occupation. Palestinian women work in very bad conditions under the occupation in dilapidated old factories. Palestinian women working as teachers are always vulnerable to danger and stop working as schools often close for security reasons. Workers do not get paid often because Israel denies the entry of money to Gaza and prevents the entry of private banking remittances of employee salaries. Gaza often witnesses strikes because workers do not receive their salaries for months, therefore, they do not have the minimum requirements of employments and payments. They cannot get paid most of the year.
Article 10
The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize that:
1. The widest possible protection and assistance should be accorded to the family, which is the natural and fundamental group unit of society, particularly for its establishment and while it is responsible for the care and education of dependent children. Marriage must be entered into with the free consent of the intending spouses.
2. Special protection should be accorded to mothers during a reasonable period before and after childbirth. During such period working mothers should be accorded paid leave or leave with adequate social security benefits.
3. Special measures of protection and assistance should be taken on behalf of all children and young persons without any discrimination for reasons of parentage or other conditions. Children and young persons should be protected from economic and social exploitation. Their employment in work harmful to their morals or health or dangerous to life or likely to hamper their normal development should be punishable by law. States should also set age limits below which the paid employment of child labor should be prohibited and punishable by law.

- There is no protection for an individual or family under the Israeli occupation. Almost every Palestinian family is divided in several countries because of the displacement, and each Palestinian house has victims because of the Israeli bombardment. This article and many others cannot even be applied on Palestinians under the relocation, displacement, killings, bombings, and intimidation.
- Many Palestinian mothers, whether working or not, have given birth at checkpoints and on the way to hospitals because of the restriction policy at the crossings, and long waits with no distinction between patients and pregnant women or ordinary people.
- Palestinian children are exposed to death in the streets and on the way to schools. Many of them are forced to leave schools and work to support their families due to the death of the father or the mother, or because of extreme poverty caused by the continuous blockade and the starvation policy imposed on Gaza by Israel.
Article 11
1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. The States Parties will take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right, recognizing to this effect the essential importance of international co-operation based on free consent.
2. The States Parties to the present Covenant, recognizing the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger, shall take, individually and through international co-operation, the measures, including specific programs, which are needed:
(a) To improve methods of production, conservation and distribution of food by making full use of technical and scientific knowledge, by disseminating knowledge of the principles of nutrition and by developing or reforming agrarian systems in such a way as to achieve the most efficient development and utilization of natural resources;
(b) Taking into account the problems of both food-importing and food-exporting countries, to ensure an equitable distribution of world food supplies in relation to need.
- We have stated previously and it is well known that the Israeli blockade makes the application of such articles impossible. Israel has bombed relief warehouses, even those belonging to the UNRWA, as happened in Gaza recently.
- Israel has been imposing a suffocating siege, shelling relief agencies and warehouses, and preventing Palestinians from importing goods, food and medicines from abroad.
Article 12
1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
2. The steps to be taken by the States Parties to the present Covenant to achieve the full realization of this right shall include those necessary for:
(a) The provision for the reduction of the stillbirth-rate and of infant mortality and for the healthy development of the child;
(b) The improvement of all aspects of environmental and industrial hygiene;
(c) The prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other diseases;
(d) The creation of conditions which would assure to all medical service and medical attention in the event of sickness.

- Palestinian hospitals and clinics have no modern equipment, and there is no electricity most of the time because Israel prevents fuel and gas from reaching Gaza. It also prevents the import of medical equipment. Palestinian patients often die because of simple medical causes which can easily be cured, as a lot of medicines are not available and cannot be imported because of the blockade.
- We've described previously the situations in hospitals and how babies are born in primitive conditions on crossings which cause their death due to the lack of basic conditions of life that the newborn needs and the requirements of special monitoring and care at hospitals.
In addition to the foregoing reasons, Israel has bombed populated Palestinian areas with internationally prohibited weapons such as phosphorus bombs, and this poses a threat to people's health as well as the environment in general.
Israel has bombed ambulances and paramedics were killed and prevented from reaching victims who die as a result. This has happened in all Israeli wars in southern Lebanon, the West Bank, Jenin, and Gaza recently.
In all wars Israel targeted ambulances and paramedics; the archives of these wars are available.
Article 13
1- The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to education. They agree that education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity, and shall strengthen the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. They further agree that education shall enable all persons to participate effectively in a free society, promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations and all racial, ethnic or religious groups, and further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
In addition to the previously mentioned status of Palestinian schools and students, Israeli curriculums are full of racial lessons, songs and stories inciting hatred against Arabs, showing them as primitive criminals who deserve to be killed, displaced and abused. This may be the most dangerous thing in the world facing children, to teach them the culture of hatred and racism. These children will not make peace in the future nor will they have any mercy on those whom they consider enemies. They grow up and learn that the "other" deserves to be killed. Israeli curriculums which contain a lot of this racism can be checked for details. Photos have also been published by international news agencies that show how young Israeli children were signing their names on the missiles of the Israeli army in Lebanon war in July 2006. It should be noted here that Israel has breached and violated most of the Geneva Convention items relating to people's status and how to deal with them during wars and conflicts. All the violations that have been mentioned earlier in this document are explicit violations of the provisions of this treaty which is known to all countries and human rights and international organizations.

From the above mentioned, we find it clear that the so-called state of Israel, is a racial entity not entitled to live. It prevents decent living and peace for all its neighbors and those under its control, specifically non-Jews. It is an entity that is not governed by any basis of legal or ethical standards like the rest of the world.
Israel is a criminal entity based on murder and destruction, and poses a danger to humanity, environment, and all forms of life.
Hereby, as we place this document in front of all mankind, we express our clear resentment and rejection of the obvious silence of most international and humanitarian organizations, and even the bias of some of these organizations against the victim and their support of the aggressor. We put this responsibility before everyone who believes in humanity, and people's rights to enjoy all the noble standards of civilization.

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Obama and the Dept of Interior cancel oil leases and shelve coastal drilling

Harold & Mary — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 00:00:26 EST

" this month, the Interior Department withdrew oil and natural gas drilling leases near two national parks in Utah. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29017638/ And it shelved a draft plan to open much of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to drilling." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29119940/

Go Obama! So much for "drill baby drill".

Frank Rich can clear the picture up.

Harold & Mary — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 13:40:13 EST

Op-Ed Columnist They Sure Showed That Obama By FRANK RICHPublished: February 14, 2009

AM I crazy, or wasn’t the Obama presidency pronounced dead just days ago? Obama had “all but lost control of the agenda in Washington,” declared Newsweek on Feb. 4 as it wondered whether he might even get a stimulus package through Congress. “Obama Losing Stimulus Message War” was the headline at Politico a day later. At the mostly liberal MSNBC, the morning host, Joe Scarborough, started preparing the final rites. Obama couldn’t possibly eke out a victory because the stimulus package was “a steaming pile of garbage.”

ed Less than a month into Obama’s term, we don’t (and can’t) know how he’ll fare as president. The compromised stimulus package, while hardly garbage, may well be inadequate. Timothy Geithner’s uninspiring and opaque stab at a bank rescue is at best a place holder and at worst a rearrangement of the deck chairs on the TARP-Titanic, where he served as Hank Paulson’s first mate.

But we do know this much. Just as in the presidential campaign, Obama has once again outwitted the punditocracy and the opposition. The same crowd that said he was a wimpy hope-monger who could never beat Hillary or get white votes was played for fools again.

On Wednesday, as a stimulus deal became a certainty on Capitol Hill, I asked David Axelrod for his take on this Groundhog Day relationship between Obama and the political culture.

“It’s why our campaign was not based in Washington but in Chicago,” he said. “We were somewhat insulated from the echo chamber. In the summer of ’07, the conventional wisdom was that Obama was a shooting star; his campaign was irretrievably lost; it was a ludicrous strategy to focus on Iowa; and we were falling further and further behind in the national polls.” But even after the Iowa victory, this same syndrome kept repeating itself. When Obama came out against the gas-tax holiday supported by both McCain and Clinton last spring, Axelrod recalled, “everyone in D.C. thought we were committing suicide.”

The stimulus battle was more of the same. “This town talks to itself and whips itself into a frenzy with its own theories that are completely at odds with what the rest of America is thinking,” he says. Once the frenzy got going, it didn’t matter that most polls showed support for Obama and his economic package: “If you watched cable TV, you’d see our support was plummeting, we were in trouble. It was almost like living in a parallel universe.”

For Axelrod, the moral is “not just that Washington is too insular but that the American people are a lot smarter than people in Washington think.”

Here’s a third moral: Overdosing on this culture can be fatal. Because Republicans are isolated in that parallel universe and believe all the noise in its echo chamber, they are now as out of touch with reality as the “inevitable” Clinton campaign was before it got clobbered in Iowa. The G.O.P. doesn’t recognize that it emerged from the stimulus battle even worse off than when it started. That obliviousness gives the president the opening to win more ambitious policy victories than last week’s. Having checked the box on attempted bipartisanship, Obama can now move in for the kill.

A useful template for the current political dynamic can be found in one of the McCain campaign’s more memorable pratfalls. Last fall, it was the Beltway mantra that Obama was doomed with all those working-class Rust Belt Democrats who’d flocked to Hillary in the primaries. The beefy, beer-drinking, deer-hunting white guys — incessantly interviewed in bars and diners — would never buy the skinny black intellectual. Nor would the “dead-ender” Hillary women. The McCain camp not only bought into this received wisdom, but bet the bank on it, pouring resources into states like Michigan and Wisconsin before abandoning them and doubling down on Pennsylvania in the stretch. The sucker-punched McCain lost all three states by percentages in the double digits.

The stimulus opponents, egged on by all the media murmurings about Obama “losing control,” also thought they had a sure thing. Their TV advantage added to their complacency. As the liberal blog ThinkProgress reported, G.O.P. members of Congress wildly outnumbered Democrats as guests on all cable news networks, not just Fox News, in the three days of intense debate about the House stimulus bill. They started pounding in their slogans relentlessly. The bill was not a stimulus package but an orgy of pork spending. The ensuing deficit would amount to “generational theft.” F.D.R.’s New Deal had been an abject failure.

This barrage did shave a few points off the stimulus’s popularity in polls, but its approval rating still remained above 50 percent in all (Gallup, CNN, Pew, CBS) but one of them (Rasmussen, the sole poll the G.O.P. cites). Perhaps the stimulus held its own because the public, in defiance of Washington’s condescending assumption, was smart enough to figure out that the government can’t create jobs without spending and that Bush-era Republicans have no moral authority to lecture about deficits. Some Americans may even have ancestors saved from penury by the New Deal.

In any event, the final score was unambiguous. The stimulus package arrived with the price tag and on roughly the schedule Obama had set for it. The president’s job approval percentage now ranges from the mid 60s (Gallup, Pew) to mid 70s (CNN) — not bad for a guy who won the presidency with 52.9 percent of the vote. While 48 percent of Americans told CBS, Gallup and Pew that they approve of Congressional Democrats, only 31 (Gallup), 32 (CBS) and 34 (Pew) percent could say the same of their G.O.P. counterparts.

At least some media hands are chagrined. After the stimulus prevailed, Scarborough speculated on MSNBC that “perhaps we’ve overanalyzed it, we don’t know what we’re talking about.” But the Republicans are busy high-fiving themselves and celebrating “victory.” Even in defeat, they are still echoing the 24/7 cable mantra about the stimulus’s unpopularity. This self-congratulatory mood is summed up by a Wall Street Journal columnist who wrote that “the House Republicans’ zero votes for the Obama presidency’s stimulus ‘package’ is looking like the luckiest thing to happen to the G.O.P.’s political fortunes since Ronald Reagan switched parties.” There hasn’t been this much delusional giddiness in these ranks since Monica Lewinsky promised a surefire Republican sweep in the 1998 midterms.

Not all Republicans are so clueless, whether in Congress or beyond. Charlie Crist, the moderate Florida governor who appeared with the president in his Fort Myers, Fla., town-hall meeting last week, has Obama-like approval ratings in the 70s. Naturally, the party’s hard-liners in Washington loathe him. Their idea of a good public face for the G.O.P. is a sound-bite dispenser like the new chairman, Michael Steele, a former Maryland lieutenant governor. Steele’s argument against the stimulus package is that “in the history of mankind” no “federal, state or local” government has ever “created one job.” As it happens, among the millions of jobs created by the government are the federal investigators now pursuing Steele for alleged financial improprieties in his failed 2006 Senate campaign.

This G.O.P., a largely white Southern male party with talking points instead of ideas and talking heads instead of leaders, is not unlike those “zombie banks” that we’re being asked to bail out. It is in too much denial to acknowledge its own insolvency and toxic assets. Given the mess the country is in, it would be helpful to have an adult opposition that could pull its weight, but that’s not the hand America has been dealt.

As Judd Gregg flakes out and Lindsey Graham throws made-for-YouTube hissy fits on the Senate floor, Obama should stay focused on the big picture in governing as he did in campaigning. That’s the steady course he upheld when much of the political establishment was either second-guessing or ridiculing it, and there’s no reason to change it now. The stimulus victory showed that even as president Obama can ambush Washington’s conventional wisdom as if he were still an insurgent.

But, as he said in Fort Myers last week, he will ultimately be judged by his results. If the economy isn’t turned around, he told the crowd, then “you’ll have a new president.” The stimulus bill is only a first step on that arduous path. The biggest mistake he can make now is to be too timid. This country wants a New Deal, including on energy and health care, not a New Deal lite. Far from depleting Obama’s clout, the stimulus battle instead reaffirmed that he has the political capital to pursue the agenda of change he campaigned on.

Republicans will also be judged by the voters. If they want to obstruct and filibuster while the economy is in free fall, the president should call their bluff and let them go at it. In the first four years after F.D.R. took over from Hoover, the already decimated ranks of Republicans in Congress fell from 36 to 16 in the Senate and from 117 to 88 in the House. The G.O.P. is so insistent that the New Deal was a mirage it may well have convinced itself that its own sorry record back then didn’t happen either.

Slave Labor - Israel's Construction Industry

Unknown user — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:22:17 EST

Israel is a Western-style democracy in which the rights of all individuals are protected by law. If you believe that, guess again! Like many other Western democracies, Israel has relied on a slave class to do the hard labor to create a society in which the "decent people" can enjoy a comfortable standard of living.

It wouldn't be fair to single Israel out for its shortcomings; even the United States turned a blind eye and allowed slavery from the time of its founding and denied a sizeable segment of the population rights under the Constitution that was designed to ensure those rights to all persons living within the borders of the country. However, it is also far from praiseworthy for a society to assume a facade of being a democracy when it continues to build its economy on the backs of men -- and only men -- who provide slave labor to build the country while the "good Israelis" regard the tasks that these men perform as beneath their dignity.

Nowhere is slave labor more obvious than in the construction industry. This problem was not born when the young state was created, as comedian Dudu Topaz pointed out in his Slip of the Tongue routine in the 1980's; one of his jokes included a man telling his grandson about how he helped build so many buildings in Tel-Aviv, which prompted his grandson's question: "Grandpa, were you an Arab?" In truth, one of the legacies of the 1967 Six Day War was a large Arab population living under Israeli military rule in the occupied territories; the male residents of these territories, anxious to profit from the new political realities, were only too willing to enter Israel to seek work, and Israeli employers, who knew that the spending power in the territories would enable Arab laborers to work for competitively low wages, were prepared to take the risk of hiring workers whose political sentiments might be hostile in order to build up their empires within Israel.

For close to two decades, this arrangement worked for the most part; all over the country, areas that became known as the "slave markets" sprang up, where Arabs from the territories stood and waited for Israeli entrepreneurs in need of laborers to come by to offer them work, whether on a daily or weekly basis. Technically, every Arab laborer was supposed to be registered with the Israeli government to be allowed to work within Israel; in practice, not always did the employers go through the trouble to register their fly-by-night hires. Because not all the Arab laborers regarded the Israeli-Arab dispute as something they wanted to forget, violent clashes often occurred; just as often, Israeli employers, fearful of such reprisals that could harm or incriminate them, saw fit to lock the Arab workers inside their temporary sleeping quarters. This latter practice could, and did, result in tragedy if a fire or other hazard broke out; the male slave laborers were helpless to flee the danger.

The intifada brought this arrangement to an end rapidly. Contractors, suddenly faced with a glaring lack of workers to complete their construction projects, made a desperate attempt to encourage young Israelis looking for career vocations to turn back to the construction industry in the hopes of solving both the problem of the labor shortage and the risk that employing residents of hostile areas had posed. This attempt, while well intended, did not gain sufficient popularity to return the construction industry to a "respectable" status in the eyes of Israelis; to them, construction was still too lowly for them to allow their children to do.

Faced with no alternatives locally, building contractors turned abroad to look for men desperate to feed their families to offer them contracts for work in Israel. In Romania, Israeli contractors found a sizeable audience of men who could not make a living in their own country. The contractors made arrangements to pay for their passage to Israel, to pay their wages, to provide them with living quarters, and to pay for their return passage at the completion of the work. All the laborers worked according to a contract properly drawn up, so the arrangements looked acceptable.

Unfortunately for the men who came to work in Israel, soon they were to learn the meaning of what Israelis call "Israbluff". Soon, they learned that the employers would confiscate their passports to prevent them from abandoning the project once they discovered that they would be living in conditions unfit for human habitation, that they would have meager quantities of food shoved into their quarters under doors or through bars, as if they were in a cage in a zoo, and that they would receive what was written in their contracts minus several onerous deductions about which the employers had not mentioned a word at the time the contracts were signed. Worse yet, they would soon learn that while the Israeli media would put them on display as subjects for stories, nobody would come to their assistance; either they were "those foreigners" or they were "stealing jobs from Israelis." Either way, nobody cared enough to fight for the rights of these men.

It must be noted that only men fall into this category; women are noticeably absent. Part of the reason for the indifference of the Israeli public towards the plight of these men is because they are men and not women; these men are expected to accept slave labor conditions graciously because otherwise they would not be able to support their families and, consequently, would fail as men. Of the few Israeli politicians who have shown empathy with the plight of these slave laborers, the absence of female politicians is even more conspicuously absent. The message is clear: men are beasts of burden to Israelis, creatures who are on the earth just to spawn children, work until exhausted to provide for others, be locked away like animals at any time someone sees fit to do so to them, and to jump on live grenades to prove that they are "heroes." Any man who deviates from this stereotype is not worthy of being called a man -- which may explain why women do not try to compete!

The slave labor trade in Israel will continue to exploit men unless men speak up to stop the slavery. Before they do that, they have to redefine manhood and to seek their own liberation from the slavery that every man faces in a world that seeks to "put men in their place." It is easy to say, "It's not my problem," just because a man isn't a Romanian locked in some hovel while he works to support a family in Timisoara; the truth is that it is every man's problem, because the original problem would never have occurred if men were freed of their role as slaves to their families who can desert them the moment that they are no longer able to produce any more.

All the ills that affect men living in Israel can be seen in the case of these foreign laborers: exploitation, denial of human rights and dignity, denial of the right to travel freely, and the worst nemesis of them all: public apathy towards the plight of men in general. How about it, men? Who'll pick up the glove?

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Noam Chomsky advises Obama

Unknown user — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 01:54:37 EST

Obama on Israel-Palestine
Noam Chomsky
chomsky.info, January 24, 2009
Barack Obama is recognized to be a person of acute intelligence, a legal scholar, careful with his choice of words. He deserves to be taken seriously -- both what he says, and what he omits. Particularly significant is his first substantive statement on foreign affairs, on January 22, at the State Department, when introducing George Mitchell to serve as his special envoy for Middle East peace.
Mitchell is to focus his attention on the Israel-Palestine problem, in the wake of the recent US-Israeli invasion of Gaza. During the murderous assault, Obama remained silent apart from a few platitudes, because, he said, there is only one president -- a fact that did not silence him on many other issues. His campaign did, however, repeat his statement that "if missiles were falling where my two daughters sleep, I would do everything in order to stop that." He was referring to Israeli children, not the hundreds of Palestinian children being butchered by US arms, about whom he could not speak, because there was only one president.
On January 22, however, the one president was Barack Obama, so he could speak freely about these matters -- avoiding, however, the attack on Gaza, which had, conveniently, been called off just before the inauguration.
Obama's talk emphasized his commitment to a peaceful settlement. He left its contours vague, apart from one specific proposal: "the Arab peace initiative," Obama said, "contains constructive elements that could help advance these efforts. Now is the time for Arab states to act on the initiative's promise by supporting the Palestinian government under President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad, taking steps towards normalizing relations with Israel, and by standing up to extremism that threatens us all."
Obama is not directly falsifying the Arab League proposal, but the carefully framed deceit is instructive.
The Arab League peace proposal does indeed call for normalization of relations with Israel -- in the context -- repeat, in the context of a two-state settlement in terms of the longstanding international consensus, which the US and Israel have blocked for over 30 years, in international isolation, and still do. The core of the Arab League proposal, as Obama and his Mideast advisers know very well, is its call for a peaceful political settlement in these terms, which are well-known, and recognized to be the only basis for the peaceful settlement to which Obama professes to be committed. The omission of that crucial fact can hardly be accidental, and signals clearly that Obama envisions no departure from US rejectionism. His call for the Arab states to act on a corollary to their proposal, while the US ignores even the existence of its central content, which is the precondition for the corollary, surpasses cynicism.
The most significant acts to undermine a peaceful settlement are the daily US-backed actions in the occupied territories, all recognized to be criminal: taking over valuable land and resources and constructing what the leading architect of the plan, Ariel Sharon, called "Bantustans" for Palestinians -- an unfair comparison because the Bantustans were far more viable than the fragments left to Palestinians under Sharon's conception, now being realized. But the US and Israel even continue to oppose a political settlement in words, most recently in December 2008, when the US and Israel (and a few Pacific islands) voted against a UN resolution supporting "the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination" (passed 173 to 5, US-Israel opposed, with evasive pretexts).
Obama had not one word to say about the settlement and infrastructure developments in the West Bank, and the complex measures to control Palestinian existence, designed to undermine the prospects for a peaceful two-state settlement. His silence is a grim refutation of his oratorical flourishes about how "I will sustain an active commitment to seek two states living side by side in peace and security."
Also unmentioned is Israel's use of US arms in Gaza, in violation not only of international but also US law. Or Washington's shipment of new arms to Israel right at the peak of the US-Israeli attack, surely not unknown to Obama's Middle East advisers.
Obama was firm, however, that smuggling of arms to Gaza must be stopped. He endorses the agreement of Condoleeza Rice and Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni that the Egyptian-Gaza border must be closed -- a remarkable exercise of imperial arrogance, as the Financial Times observed: "as they stood in Washington congratulating each other, both officials seemed oblivious to the fact that they were making a deal about an illegal trade on someone else's border -- Egypt in this case. The next day, an Egyptian official described the memorandum as `fictional'." Egypt's objections were ignored.
Returning to Obama's reference to the "constructive" Arab League proposal, as the wording indicates, Obama persists in restricting support to the defeated party in the January 2006 election, the only free election in the Arab world, to which the US and Israel reacted, instantly and overtly, by severely punishing Palestinians for opposing the will of the masters. A minor technicality is that Abbas's term ran out on January 9, and that Fayyad was appointed without confirmation by the Palestinian parliament (many of them kidnapped and in Israeli prisons). Ha'aretz describes Fayyad as "a strange bird in Palestinian politics. On the one hand, he is the Palestinian politician most esteemed by Israel and the West. However, on the other hand, he has no electoral power whatsoever in Gaza or the West Bank." The report also notes Fayyad's "close relationship with the Israeli establishment," notably his friendship with Sharon's extremist adviser Dov Weiglass. Though lacking popular support, he is regarded as competent and honest, not the norm in the US-backed political sectors.
Obama's insistence that only Abbas and Fayyad exist conforms to the consistent Western contempt for democracy unless it is under control.
Obama provided the usual reasons for ignoring the elected government led by Hamas. "To be a genuine party to peace," Obama declared, "the quartet [US, EU, Russia, UN] has made it clear that Hamas must meet clear conditions: recognize Israel's right to exist; renounce violence; and abide by past agreements." Unmentioned, also as usual, is the inconvenient fact that the US and Israel firmly reject all three conditions. In international isolation, they bar a two-state settlement including a Palestinian state; they of course do not renounce violence; and they reject the quartet's central proposal, the "road map." Israel formally accepted it, but with 14 reservations that effectively eliminate its contents (tacitly backed by the US). It is the great merit of Jimmy Carter's Palestine: Peace not Apartheid, to have brought these facts to public attention for the first time -- and in the mainstream, the only time.
It follows, by elementary reasoning, that neither the US nor Israel is a "genuine party to peace." But that cannot be. It is not even a phrase in the English language.
It is perhaps unfair to criticize Obama for this further exercise of cynicism, because it is close to universal, unlike his scrupulous evisceration of the core component of the Arab League proposal, which is his own novel contribution.
Also near universal are the standard references to Hamas: a terrorist organization, dedicated to the destruction of Israel (or maybe all Jews). Omitted are the inconvenient facts that the US-Israel are not only dedicated to the destruction of any viable Palestinian state, but are steadily implementing those policies. Or that unlike the two rejectionist states, Hamas has called for a two-state settlement in terms of the international consensus: publicly, repeatedly, explicitly.
Obama began his remarks by saying: "Let me be clear: America is committed to Israel's security. And we will always support Israel's right to defend itself against legitimate threats."
There was nothing about the right of Palestinians to defend themselves against far more extreme threats, such as those occurring daily, with US support, in the occupied territories. But that again is the norm.
Also normal is the enunciation of the principle that Israel has the right to defend itself. That is correct, but vacuous: so does everyone. But in the context the cliche is worse than vacuous: it is more cynical deceit.
The issue is not whether Israel has the right to defend itself, like everyone else, but whether it has the right to do so by force. No one, including Obama, believes that states enjoy a general right to defend themselves by force: it is first necessary to demonstrate that there are no peaceful alternatives that can be tried. In this case, there surely are.
A narrow alternative would be for Israel to abide by a cease-fire, for example, the cease-fire proposed by Hamas political leader Khaled Mishal a few days before Israel launched its attack on December 27. Mishal called for restoring the 2005 agreement. That agreement called for an end to violence and uninterrupted opening of the borders, along with an Israeli guarantee that goods and people could move freely between the two parts of occupied Palestine, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The agreement was rejected by the US and Israel a few months later, after the free election of January 2006 turned out "the wrong way." There are many other highly relevant cases.
The broader and more significant alternative would be for the US and Israel to abandon their extreme rejectionism, and join the rest of the world -- including the Arab states and Hamas -- in supporting a two-state settlement in accord with the international consensus. It should be noted that in the past 30 years there has been one departure from US-Israeli rejectionism: the negotiations at Taba in January 2001, which appeared to be close to a peaceful resolution when Israel prematurely called them off. It would not, then, be outlandish for Obama to agree to join the world, even within the framework of US policy, if he were interested in doing so.
In short, Obama's forceful reiteration of Israel's right to defend itself is another exercise of cynical deceit -- though, it must be admitted, not unique to him, but virtually universal.
The deceit is particularly striking in this case because the occasion was the appointment of Mitchell as special envoy. Mitchell's primary achievement was his leading role in the peaceful settlement in northern Ireland. It called for an end to IRA terror and British violence. Implicit is the recognition that while Britain had the right to defend itself from terror, it had no right to do so by force, because there was a peaceful alternative: recognition of the legitimate grievances of the Irish Catholic community that were the roots of IRA terror. When Britain adopted that sensible course, the terror ended. The implications for Mitchell's mission with regard to Israel-Palestine are so obvious that they need not be spelled out. And omission of them is, again, a striking indication of the commitment of the Obama administration to traditional US rejectionism and opposition to peace, except on its extremist terms.
Obama also praised Jordan for its "constructive role in training Palestinian security forces and nurturing its relations with Israel" -- which contrasts strikingly with US-Israeli refusal to deal with the freely elected government of Palestine, while savagely punishing Palestinians for electing it with pretexts which, as noted, do not withstand a moment's scrutiny. It is true that Jordan joined the US in arming and training Palestinian security forces, so that they could violently suppress any manifestation of support for the miserable victims of US-Israeli assault in Gaza, also arresting supporters of Hamas and the prominent journalist Khaled Amayreh, while organizing their own demonstrations in support of Abbas and Fatah, in which most participants "were civil servants and school children who were instructed by the PA to attend the rally," according to the Jerusalem Post. Our kind of democracy.
Obama made one further substantive comment: "As part of a lasting cease-fire, Gaza's border crossings should be open to allow the flow of aid and commerce, with an appropriate monitoring regimeÉ" He did not, of course, mention that the US-Israel had rejected much the same agreement after the January 2006 election, and that Israel had never observed similar subsequent agreements on borders.
Also missing is any reaction to Israel's announcement that it rejected the cease-fire agreement, so that the prospects for it to be "lasting" are not auspicious. As reported at once in the press, "Israeli Cabinet Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who takes part in security deliberations, told Army Radio on Thursday that Israel wouldn't let border crossings with Gaza reopen without a deal to free [Gilad] Schalit" (AP, Jan 22); ÔIsrael to keep Gaza crossings closed...An official said the government planned to use the issue to bargain for the release of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier held by the Islamist group since 2006 (Financial Times, Jan. 23); "Earlier this week, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said that progress on Corporal Shalit's release would be a precondition to opening up the border crossings that have been mostly closed since Hamas wrested control of Gaza from the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority in 2007" (Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 23); "an Israeli official said there would be tough conditions for any lifting of the blockade, which he linked with the release of Gilad Shalit" (FT, Jan. 23); among many others.
Shalit's capture is a prominent issue in the West, another indication of Hamas's criminality. Whatever one thinks about it, it is uncontroversial that capture of a soldier of an attacking army is far less of a crime than kidnapping of civilians, exactly what Israeli forces did the day before the capture of Shalit, invading Gaza city and kidnapping two brothers, then spiriting them across the border where they disappeared into Israel's prison complex. Unlike the much lesser case of Shalit, that crime was virtually unreported and has been forgotten, along with Israel's regular practice for decades of kidnapping civilians in Lebanon and on the high seas and dispatching them to Israeli prisons, often held for many years as hostages. But the capture of Shalit bars a cease-fire.
Obama's State Department talk about the Middle East continued with "the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and PakistanÉ the central front in our enduring struggle against terrorism and extremism." A few hours later, US planes attacked a remote village in Afghanistan, intending to kill a Taliban commander. "Village elders, though, told provincial officials there were no Taliban in the area, which they described as a hamlet populated mainly by shepherds. Women and children were among the 22 dead, they said, according to Hamididan Abdul Rahmzai, the head of the provincial council" (LA Times, Jan. 24).
Afghan president Karzai's first message to Obama after he was elected in November was a plea to end the bombing of Afghan civilians, reiterated a few hours before Obama was sworn in. This was considered as significant as Karzai's call for a timetable for departure of US and other foreign forces. The rich and powerful have their "responsibilities." Among them, the New York Times reported, is to "provide security" in southern Afghanistan, where "the insurgency is homegrown and self-sustaining." All familiar. From Pravda in the 1980s, for example.

"I don't think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen," Chu

Harold & Mary — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:38:24 EST

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-warming4-2009feb04,0,7454963.story

Chu understands global warming. Please listen to his warnings. Study the oceans and how they work. This is where the ultimate threat will come from. In the meantime, we have immediate problems from global warming. The politicians are way too timid in their plans to cope with global warming. We have a chance now with Obama as President and Chu in the Dept. of Energy to turn that around.

Was George Washington a terrorist?

Unknown user — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 08:03:10 EST

George Washington

1- His grandfather was a British militia captain in a colony of Virginia.

2- He wiped out British colonization though his grandfather was brought by it.

3- He was mainly defending economical interests.
4- He attacked civilians who were loyal to the monarchy.
5- He received support from France which was an imperialist power also, taking advantage of the political conflict between France and Great Britain.
6- He used the guerrilla technique.
7- He was popular among the revolutionaries.

8- He fought residents whom he called anti revolutionaries.

Hamas and Hizbollah members

1- Any Hamas or Hizbollah member’s ancestors belong to the region hundreds or maybe thousands years ago.
2- They are fighting Israeli occupation which expelled their grandfathers from their own lands.
3- They are defending their mere existence.
4- They attack militants or settlers who occupy their lands.
5- They receive support from countries that share with them culture and history and not imperialists by any means.

6- They use the guerrilla technique.
7- They are popular among their people: Hamas was elected; Hizbollah has the full support of the majority.
8- They negotiate with the minority who are anti resistance.
Conclusion:
a- George Washington is a hero.
b- Hamas and Hizbollah are terrorist groups.

THAT IS QUITE A LOGIC
Is there any need for the resurection of Aristotle here?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHky4yAwUtU

Solve the Economy crisis

Unknown user — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:31:45 EST

Find your money here

Right Action.. right NOW...

Leonard — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:11:56 EST

I would surely propose.. that part of 'Right Action' ..would include emulating the actions of effective leadership.
Barack Obama did not surround himself with YesPeople... he welcomes the open and spirited debate! Since joining this site, I have only seen spirited action on the part of those who want to silence diverse opinion.
I challenge all those who subscribe to this list... JOIN IN ON THE DISCUSSION!!! Discuss what you are doing in your area to effect change for the benefit of animals. What WORKS?..what problems have you encountered?? What parties are open for dialogue? Which are resistant and why?
These are the elements of change...

...to those who would insulate themselves in a comfort zone of self-rightous complacency..I say YOU ARE A COWARD.. and worse... your opinions will not be heard.. and Democracy.... will suffer.
Leonard Matusik; Lenoir NC

Brent Turner on Slate for Change in AD 19

Brent Turner — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 20:49:36 EST

I’m a motivated President elect Obama supporter interested in seeing his platform implemented in San Mateo County, CA. Candidate Statement –I am glad to serve the Democratic Party as a delegate. As a lifelong party member and supporter, I promise to uphold the finest traditions while advocating our progressive state platform. I am a tireless worker for election reform, and have successfully championed open source election reforms within the party. I am also involved with civil rights, homelessness and children's welfare issues. I am a board member for the Coastside Democratic Club, and an early supporter / volunteer for President elect Obama I appreciate your consideration- Brent Turner Endorsed by ( partial list ) -Christine PelosiCA Democratic Party Platform Chair Alicia Wang CA Democratic Party Vice ChairJohn Lynch Coastside Democrat Alec Bash President- DemocracyAction John Moseley Cabrillo USD Elected Board Member Jennifer Longley President - California Young Democrats The Statewide Obama Community Action NetworkRebecca Prozan Elected Obama Delegate to the Democratic National Convention, 2008 Owen Byrd Co-Manager- Silicon Valley for Obama

See my FaceBook page “ Elect Turner Delegate AD 19 “- There are three new videos regarding open source / paper ballot elections http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=681639154#/group.php?gid=70588271424&ref=ts There will be many slates at the delegate election- Let’s support the change we have been waiting for-

Thanks again- Brent Turner

It's up to you now!

Cavazos from South Texas — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:15:57 EST

Barack Obama and Joe Biden can lead our country and improve our lives through better employment, education and health care. However, we all need to cooperate with each other to make it happen!

Sewer Gas

Harold & Mary — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:34:18 EST

The geologists have been puzzled for years about what caused the "big one" 251 million years ago. The evidence didn't fit the mold of any of the other four major extinctions. It looks like they have figured it out. The reasons don't make it look good for the future. I have shared the methane bubbling up in the arctic . This was caused by burning fossil fuels which raised the temperature in Siberia and the Arctic by 9 degrees. (4 degrees Celsius.) The next step in the scenario is raising the entire oceans temperature. The oxygen surface producers are killed and the Hydrogen sulfide producers come up. The sewer gas that is emitted eventually kills off nearly all if not all living things. http://www.alternet.org/environment/107852/did_greenhouse_gases_cause_the_earth%27s_greatest_mass_extinction_/ What a way to go. [edit] H2S implicated in mass extinctions

"Hydrogen sulfide has been implicated in some of the several mass extinctions that have occurred in the Earth's past. The Permian mass extinction (sometimes known as the "Great Dying") may have been caused by hydrogen sulfide. Organic residues from these extinction boundaries indicate that the oceans were anoxic (oxygen depleted) and had species of shallow plankton that metabolized H2S. The formation of H2S may have been initiated by massive volcanic eruptions, which emitted CO2 and methane into the atmosphere which warmed the oceans, lowering their capacity to absorb oxygen which would otherwise oxidize H2S. The increased levels of hydrogen sulfide could have killed oxygen-generating plants as well as depleted the ozone layer causing further stress. Small H2S blooms have been detected in modern times in the Dead Sea and in the Atlantic ocean off the coast of Namibia.[3] " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_sulfide

" In waterways that are anoxic beyond a certain depth, like today?s Black Sea, oxygen-dependent organisms live near the surface and oxygen-avoiding microbes live deeper. Scientists call the boundary between them the "chemocline." Organisms below the chemocline "breathe" sulfates, not oxygen. Just as oxygen-dependent organisms exhale CO2, these bacteria give off hydrogen sulfide, a gas toxic in high concentrations to many life forms, including plants and animals. The gas neatly explains one of the mysteries of the Permian die-off: how an extinction event that began at sea could have decimated life on land.

Scientists find molecular "signatures" of anaerobic organisms at what was the water?s surface in end-Permian times. Lack of oxygen let sulfate-breathers rise from the ocean deep and spew hydrogen sulfide directly into Earth?s atmosphere.

Hydrogen sulfide would have also eaten holes in the earth?s protective ozone layer. Plants and animals either suffocated directly ? atmospheric oxygen levels plummeted to 15 percent (it?s about 21 percent today) -- or succumbed to the combination of long-term stresses. http://www.alternet.org/environment/107852/?page=2 "

What we can be thankful for at thanksgiving? We can be thankful that we are living at a time when the earth is still inhabitable.

Methane Release

Harold & Mary — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:33:58 EST

Warmer water is now draining into the Artic Ocean from the melting permafrost on land. This is accelerating the melting of the ice on the ocean floor. The ice on the ocean floor has been a lid on what is underneath for the last 11,000 years, since the last ice age. Now that the ice on the ocean floor is starting to melt, methane and other greenhouse gases are rising to the surface. The broad outlines of this are just becomeing known. The first estimates are that there is more carbon based greehouse gases stored there than what is in all the coal worldwide. There are millions of square miles involved in this. The temperature in the artic needs to be lowered 4degrees celsius as soon as possible. That is easier said than done but that is what needs to be done. All burning of fossil fuels and all burning in general needs to be halted as soon as possible. This is an emergency situation whether people appreciate that or not.

Getting Obama into office is the first giant step in trying to minimize this problem. The prospect of our children and grandchildren having their lungs dissolved by sulfuric acid is not a plesant prospect.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/exclusive-the-methane-time-bomb-938932.html

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/008702.html

Inauguration Song-Change We Can Believe In

Patricia Tyson — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:21:20 EST

I am so excited to present a song that I composed, "Change We Can Believe In"! It was inspired by President-Elect Barack Obama's campaign theme, and will be sung at the Inauguration Choral Festival in Washington, DC in January 2009. I have taught it to 2 high school choirs in Chicago, IL: Morgan Park HS (who is invited to the Inauguration Choral Festival), and to King College Prep (my alma mater-class of 1974). What a privilege it is to give back to the community, and my hope is that this song will encourage the singers, as well as the listeners, to pursue a more excellent way.

Here is the link to Morgan Park choir: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=755vrFw4vSo They are singing to the cd instrumental track.

There is a live version, with me on the piano, as sung by King College Prep: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S3XLqKAJh8

Front Line of Fighting Hate

Harold & Mary — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:19:05 EST

http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2008/11/12/steel-toed-boots-help-splc-make-case-against-klan-group/?splcnewsletter=dnewsgen-111308

SPL Center is suing one of the biggest Klu Klux Klans.

How does this relate to the Obama presidency? Know our enemy.

Racial Identity and Pedigree

4u2love — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:33:31 EST

Obama's comment about a shelter dog being a mutt created some commentary at Racialicious about racial identity and representation

Courage

Harold & Mary — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:48:32 EST

We are lucky to have people of courage to fight injustice and hate. Obama is certainly in this catagory. He lives under the conditions of death threats every day. Here is another example:

Subj: Klan trial this week

Nov. 10, 2008

Dear Friend,
I'm writing to you from Brandenburg, Kentucky, where I'll be going to court Wednesday against the leader of Imperial Klans of America (IKA) to win justice for a teenage boy who was brutally beaten by IKA members.
Led by Imperial Wizard Ron Edwards, the IKA is one of the largest and most dangerous Klan organizations in the country. Each year, Edwards hosts a "white-power" rally at his compound, where he indoctrinates followers in hate and violence through speeches, music and the display of violent, racist imagery. They even bring little children to this festival of hate.
You may recall that our client, Jordan Gruver, was attacked by Klansmen who had attended one of Edwards' white-power rallies and were recruiting for the IKA at a county fair. They thought Jordan was, in their words, an "illegal spic." Jordan, who's a U.S. citizen, suffered serious injuries, including a broken jaw.
I wish you could be in the courtroom with us, but it's not wise. We've received numerous threats since we filed the suit.
I'm deeply grateful to you for helping us seek justice for Jordan and, hopefully, put these hate-mongers out of business.
SPLC President Richard Cohen, who is here with me, will be updating you on our progress throughout the trial.
Sincerely,

Morris Dees

conact us online.

Or by mail:
Southern Poverty Law Center
400 Washington Ave.
Montgomery, AL 36104

AOL Search: Your one stop for directions, recipes and all other Holiday needs. Search Now.

Change.gov - The Official Website of the U.S. Presidential Transition

Jill 4 Obama — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 06:37:08 EST

Very interesting. Launched at amazing speed! Change.gov is a website launched by the Obama team's Presidential Transition Project which documents the transition into power and solicits ideas from the public. Change.gov

Change.gov - The Official Web Site of the The U.S. Presidential Transition

"Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today." - President-Elect Barack Obama
Change.gov - The Official Web Site of the The U.S. Presidential Transition

Thursday, November 06, 2008 | 75 Days Until Inauguration

Obama & Biden in Grant Park

The Newsroom Wednesday, November 5, 2008 04:09pm EST / in Blog Change has come to America Last night, President-Elect Barack Obama delivered the final speech of a presidential campaign that promised change in Washington. Open Government It's Your America: Share Your Ideas

The story of the campaign and this historic moment has been your story. Share your story and your ideas, and be part of bringing positive lasting change to this country.

GSA Transition Directory

The Transition Directory was developed to introduce Presidential nominees, appointees, and members of the President-elect's Transition Team to the operation of the Federal government and to the resources available to help them begin their service in the new Administration.

http://change.gov/

~::~ YES WE CAN !!! *** YES WE DID !!! ~::~

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:09:46 EST

~::~ YES WE CAN !!! *** YES WE DID !!! ~::~

OUR BARACK OBAMA IS OUR NEW PRESIDENT !!!! CHANGE IS HERE !!! NOW !!! FINALLY !!!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Transition Webpage!

ODEH ODEH — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 08:57:02 EST

Please check out the Office of the President Elect transition webpage and make continue to make the difference.

http://www.change.gov/

God bless USA

God bless Obama & Biden

Condradulations President Elect Barack Obama!

La Susa — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:47:34 EST

Congradulations President Elect Barack Obama!

Congradulations To All Of Us, We Won!

It has been a long and hard race!

A Special Thanks To Everyone Here!

And with hope in our future, I am finnally at ease!

If there is one thing that I have learned throughout all of this, and that is, to expect more of myself, especially in the face of adversity. Thank you President Elect Barack Obama!

Obama knows what is important

Harold & Mary — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:00:16 EST

No matter how old or sick some ones parent or grandparent is, when they die, it shakes ones foundation. Obama was strong today to be able to go on with the campaign and maintain his composure. I'm sure he didn't feel much like it. I expect the deep feelings he was experiencing today further contrasted the petty and trivial attacks being made on him by the Republicans. Deaths of loved ones put things into perspective and enhance what is really important. Obama knows what is important. This helps him go on. I hope after this election is over that people will put down their petty and negative trivia and get serious about solving the incredible probems we are facing and contribute everything they can to the solutions.

My heartfelt sympathy

Kelly — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:03:42 EST

On my way home this evening, as I heard on NPR that Barack Obama's grandmother had passed away. I pulled over and cried, overwhelmed by grief that I could not quite understand. As I thought about it more once I was home, I called my friends and family and tried to explain my connection/grief to and for Senator Obama. I said prayers to my higher power and asked to relieve him of his sorrow, give grace in the next life to his grandmother, as I hope my grandmother and grandfather have, and, as I have done for some time now, prayed to wrap him with a sheild of protection from those who would choose to harm him.

I have not been a spiritual person in years. I am agian, and truly, now.

God protect and bless him.

Count your vote, Make it count

Duane Kuehn — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 13:00:38 EST

Hi All,

     Election Day is upon us, then we can go back to regular commercials on television.
     Congratulations, it appears that everyone's hard work will surely "pay-off".

    Unfortunately, one major problem remains unaddressed and appears to be worse this year, more widespread, than the 2004 election. Vote Fraud. Not, mind you, voter fraud, but computer dysfunction, hacking, and even built in "flip" voting.

     Do we remember the 2004 election? All the networks declared John Kerry the winner, except Fox News. As the very important Florida votes came in, Fox News declared George Bush the winner. The other networks checked their own figures and "gosh darn" George Bush was the winner. How did that happen, all the other networks somehow had the wrong figures, or more exactly, suddenly those figures "flipped".

     Later, December 2004, a man named Clint Curtis testified under oath before the House Judiciary Committee on vote fraud.

      http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/465.html

     Mr. Curtis testified that he worked for Yang Enterprises Incorporated (which proudly proclaims on its site, "To provide high quality engineering and computer services for both the government and private industries"). Clint Curtis testified under oath that he was approached to create and did create a program that would “flip” a percentage of the votes to the other candidate. I hope you will click the link and watch the full video (from a movie insert but apparently the true testimony)

     The House Judiciary Committee did find vote "flipping" in the Presidential election of 2004. One "hint" of this happening is the flicker on the screen. The program which Curtis mentions, however, does not "flip" as the individual votes, a person flips a specific percentage of the votes after the voting is finished. Did the 2004 Florida vote “flip” at the last minute? We the People should be very worried.

     Already, some machines are showing flickers, many called “over or under sensitive screen problems etc. This is not some programmer or screen-maker error. This could easily be resolved in programming, why was it not done. We like to believe in honesty, especially in the election process, however, it is just no longer feasible to believe this.

     Like it or not, we need to take back our country, "change from the ground-upward" as we have been told. Our politicians will do nothing to address this problem but "We the People" will, in order to KEEP this more perfect Union more perfect!

     Election Day, Tuesday November 4, 2008, I plan to go to my appointed voting place, vote and stay there, all day if I must.

     I will take with me a large cardboard box having a hole cut in the top. I will take thousands of slips of scratch paper and a gang of pencils. Staying at least 25 feet from the building entrance, I will ask voters to please write "M" or "McCain or "O" or "Obama" on a slip and put it, unseen, into the box.

     Explaining that this is an anonymous gathering of the votes to check with the computer totals at this precinct to make sure there is no large difference between the ballots cast inside and the intended receiver of that individual vote. The ballot is the private business of the individual voter but the total of votes cast and for whom is important to keep the system honest.

     I will wear no campaign materials, this is not for campaigning, supporters are to take the day off, says Obama. You deserve that.

     This situation, however, demands our time. We are doing this for the honesty of this election and the protection of future elections in this country. If the other candidate wins in our individual districts, one need not be happy but we know that we are able to accept what comes.

     We are much stronger than to tamper with the paper trail we are creating in our individual districts. Tampering, with our own totals, will only do us harm and is out of the question. This is for the future voting rights of all Americans.

     I am inviting anyone to volunteer for this with me. Regardless of political affiliation, color, creed, etc. This is for the nation at large, not for our individual egos. Wherever you live, gather and do your individual precincts.

     I hope you will join me in this. Some may scoff at me but I do not care, this very Democracy deserves my time. Be it alone all day, I wholly plan to do this.
     I hope that you will do the same at your precincts. We have come too far to trust this election to others. Nobody will watch out for us, We must take action. If the results are true, then great. If the results are incorrect and we have done nothing, we get what we get, like it or not.

     For input or more information please contact me at   de-wah@usa.com
Loveya,
Duane Kuehn

A call to duty

ODEH ODEH — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 06:22:06 EST

"If you will stand with me and fight by my side, then I promise you this: We will not just win Ohio, we will win this general election, and together, you and I, we're going to change this country, and we will change the world," he said. "A rising is coming."

(http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama3-2008nov03,0,5782264.story)

From the above reference, it is indeed very necessary for those who are yet to decide whether to vote for hope and change or remain with the status quo to please make up their mind.

My family and I have responded by making sure that within the horizon of our capacity we have supported Obama in the most capable manner ever envisaged.

God bless USA

God Bless Obama

PBS Poll

Jane from Phoenix, AZ — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 04:40:07 EST

Lauri

Subject: FW: PBS Poll on Palin

If you're so inclined..........

PBS has an online poll posted asking if Sarah Palin is
qualified. Apparently the right wing knew about this
in advance and are flooding the voting with YES votes.

The poll will be reported on PBS and picked up by
mainstream media. It can influence undecided voters
in swing states.

Please do two things -- takes 20 seconds.

1) Click on link and vote yourself.

Here's the link:
http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html or

http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html<http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html>

2) Then send this to every single Obama-Biden voter
you know, and urge them to vote and pass it on.

The last thing we need is PBS saying their viewers
think Sarah Palin is qualified.

Obama gives me hope

Harold & Mary — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 21:42:55 EST

I am back to my original reason for supporting Barack Obama. Obama gives me hope.

I called an elderly lady in Virgina with a very frail voice before the primarys. We talked about the weather for a moment and then she volunteered that she had just gotten back from church and she was reading the bible when I called. Then she asked; do you know why I am voting for Obama? She answered her own question in a slow, frail but in a very determined way. She said: Obama gives me hope. This brought tears to my eyes and I will never forget this call. I couldn't respond. Then she said, I will be voting for Obama on Tuesday. I regained my composure and thanked her.

Let's not let her down. We are going to win this election for her and millions of other people like her. Yes we can! Keep on working!

Mandate, Iowa poll, Obama 54, McCain 37

Harold & Mary — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 21:16:13 EST

The latest Des Moines Register poll gives a 17 point lead to Obama.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20081101/NEWS09/81101014/-1/iowapoll08

That is a MANDATE TO GOVERN!

Keep working, we want the best mandate we can get.

Obama VS McCain

La Susa — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:42:37 EST

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

Acuerdencen! Remember!

La Susa — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 13:39:29 EST

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!

McCin on Judgement, Knowlage?

La Susa — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 12:10:41 EST

McCain is what 72 years old? Will Sarah Palin and her husband Todd Palin be able to run the Whit House? Why hasn't Todd Palin been veted? Are people not aware that Christian women tend to follow scripture and 'be submissive to their husbands'?

If McCain was in deed tested to be President of The United States in 1962, why didn't he run for office way back then?

Why dose McCain proclaim he knows how to fix the economy, the war, the stock market? What exactly has he done that proves he really dose know how to fix all of these complex problems?

VP Dick Cheney

La Susa — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 16:05:49 EDT

VP Dick Cheney campaning in Wyoming today praising McCain!

sourse CNN

McCain Tested in 1962?

La Susa — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 15:59:40 EDT

McCain says he was already tested; in 1962......... Has anyone reminded him that our world has changed remakably since then? What makes Sen John McCain so confident that he won't be tested? How about Sarah Palin? When was she tested? Aw, this all sounds like a bunch of BS!

ECONOMY

La Susa — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 14:52:32 EDT

Economy Obama's Stance on the Economy

Barack Obama has offered a detailed plan to get America’s economy back on track, by creating new jobs and easing the burden on hardworking Americans by offering middle-class tax cuts three times the size of McCain’s.

Plan to Strengthen the EconomyThe Problem

Wages are Stagnant as Prices Rise: While wages remain flat, the costs of basic necessities are increasing. The cost of in-state college tuition has grown 35 percent over the past five years. Health care costs have risen four times faster than wages over the past six years. And the personal savings rate is now the lowest it's been since the Great Depression.

Tax Cuts for Wealthy Instead of Middle Class: The Bush tax cuts give those who earn over $1 million dollars a tax cut nearly 160 times greater than that received by middle-income Americans. At the same time, this administration has refused to tackle health care, education and housing in a manner that benefits the middle class.

Learn More

McCain's Stance on the Economy

John McCain’s economic policy is the same as George Bush’s. It ignores middle class Americans, giving $200 billion in tax cuts to corporations, including $4 billion in tax breaks to Big Oil, while leaving over 100 million middle-class Americans with no relief. Economists say McCain’s plan will add $3.4 trillion to the national debt.

McCain Lieing Again!!!!!!!!

La Susa — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 12:59:31 EDT

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?

"Three Days!"

La Susa — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 12:41:27 EDT

Yes We Can!!! Obama live on Fox News

McCain-Palin-Bush Lieing Game

La Susa — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 12:20:05 EDT

The lying game

Like George W. Bush, McCain and Palin have to lie. Because if they told the truth about their policies, they'd lose the election.

By Alan Wolfe

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/09/18/lies/

Yo, Arnold R-Gov of Calif.

La Susa — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 10:56:08 EDT

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!!!!!!

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

Look it up in the dictionary!!!!!!!

About 'socialism' look it up in the dictionary! 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 skyrocketing 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.!

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 ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism

Democracy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaDemocracy 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 ...
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 ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism

service the voter lines on tuesday

ben — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 02:17:09 EDT

im asking everyone who reads this to help service the elderly who will be standing in the long lines

on election day. you can do this by caring some extra water, cookies, snacks etc.. this will help them be able to deal with the wait better...

thank you.. Ben

Obama won his bet

Harold & Mary — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 21:59:37 EDT

Obama bet on the good will and the spirit of the American people and he won the bet. Obama also was the most skillful in bringing out that spirit and good will. He appeals in the best in in people. He tapped into the spirit of America that has been submerged for the last eight years. It's almost impossible now to remember what it was like before Obama came on the scene. He didn't invent the spirit of America, he recognized it, brought it out and stepped in front of it. America's spirit and good will is on the move again.

For Those Tax Questions See

La Susa — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:49:49 EDT

For those with Tax savings questions see the Tax Calculator:

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

Exxon Record Profits

La Susa — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:59:40 EDT

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

Every Vote Counts!

La Susa — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:01:57 EDT

Vote Early, take friends 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!

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

Joe The Plumber....

La Susa — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:20:47 EDT

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?

McCain-Palin Small Business LIES, MISLEADING, DECEPTIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

La Susa — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:55:57 EDT

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.

McCain-Palin "Unethical" Smears Against Obama FALSE, LIES

La Susa — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:27:54 EDT

'Unethical?'October 27, 2008http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/unethical.htmlA 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 Kolawolefrom www.factcheck.org a non-partisan watch dog group!!!!!!!!

Gator Fan Issues Challenge to Noles

VeganBikerBabe — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:19:49 EDT

Little did I ever know that this Die Hard Gator Fan would be joining forces with a bunch of Nole Fans, but we are in this together, so PLEASE HEED MY WARNING! In 2000, Gore was winning FL by a landslide (and yes, we all know he really did win FL), but because of the broadcasts on CNN and other major networks, Dems in the pan handle took this for granted and sat their butts at home because they didn't think Gore needed their vote: WRONG! The same is true in this election. I PROMISE YOU, Obama is going to take a very early lead in the state, and while we're all voting like crazy and driving everyone to the polls in Gainesville, you'll be hearing in the news about the FL Landslide for Obama. Don't forget 2000! As a Gator Fan, I DARE you to beat our turn out! Now, I already know the Gators are gonna kick your asses, but I'm begging you to beat us in this in this challenge: PLEASE PEOPLE, THIS IS NOT A GAME! Take my challenge to heart and get every single Obama supporter in Nole Country to get out there and VOTE!
GO GATORS, GOBAMA, and Please... rub it in my face on election day with a big GO NOLES: EARN YOUR BRAGGING RIGHT AT THE POLLS!!!! If I can do anything to help from Gainesville, I'm at your service!

"A License To Kill" Email and Adds FALSE! LIES!

La Susa — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:49:28 EDT

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

Polls and voter lines

Harold & Mary — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:50:43 EDT

There are opinion polls of people with land lines and then there are lines of people , many with cell phones, waiting to vote. I will rely on the lines of people waiting to vote to predict what is happening. So far in Iowa 52% of the people lined up to vote are Democrats and 28% of them are Republicans. If we are generous and split the Independents 50/50 that would make Obama 62 and McCain 38. Not many of them looked like they had $150,000 wardrobes. My pet peeve used to be that people did not vote for their own best interests. Not this time! There are people showing up that are not on anyone's list to call. Polls sample what they define as likely voters based on past elections. Throw that model out. The people standing in lines to vote are unlikely voters. No one polled them and no one called them. I am really encouraged! The new people are showing up! I hope it looks the same way where you are! Keep them coming! Yes we can! Don't stop working.

Marxism, Socialism, Spreading the Wealth?

La Susa — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:38:28 EDT

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

Sarah and John and Joe and Barack

Leeza — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:18:24 EDT

When John asked Sarah to be his running mate,

She did not blink, she did not wait.

Did Sarah so charm John McCain

That he failed to think and think again?

A presidential hopeful, old and sick,

Needed to make a smarter pick.

Sarah's rise to fame was rapid;

She's better dressed, but no less vapid.

The GOP has, thus, become

The party of the confused and dumb.

For a lot less chaos and a lot less drama:

Vote for Joe Biden and Barack Obama.

"Outside Issues - A Political Blog" by Leeza Coleman

Leeza — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:50:46 EDT

Please come to my blog and tell me what you think. "Outside Issues - A Political Blog" by Leeza Coleman is widely read on MySpace. I plan to continue to blog during Barack's presidency, too.

Come visit, share your opinions, tell me if you think I have gotten something wrong. Help me make this blog true to Barack Obama's vision for our nation.

If hope for the future is infectious, please pass it around.

URL: http://myspace.com/leezacoleman

John McCain Trying to Scare People Who Don't Understand Small Buisnesss

La Susa — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:18:57 EDT

McCain trying to scare people who don't know about 'tax write off's' that are subtracted from the total earnings in small buisnesses. Very Sad....

McCain Says He's Aready Been Tested....

La Susa — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:41:23 EDT

McCain Says He's Already Been Tested? Just curious what exactly is he refering to; being a POW in the 60's? Being A part of the S and L Scandle? Dis I miss something in American History? Was he President in the White House during 9-11?

McCain Lies About Obama And ACORN

La Susa — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:30:43 EDT

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

Why Are The Palin's in a CookCoon?

La Susa — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:46:52 EDT

Heavan forbidd but if McCain, a 73 year old is elected and passes away while in office; will Todd and Sarah Palin be able to 'pass the international test?' Considering we the American people have been denied knowing the Palins, and the press denied access to interview them, our knowlage of them is extreamly narrow.... Hocky, Mom, Lipstick, Mayor Palin of a town with 5,000 residents for 8 years, Mayor Palin builds Sports Stadium on property that dose not have a clear title and is still in litigation, Mayor Palin increases sales tax on residents, Mayor Palin leaves office with town in debt millions of dollars, Governor Palin's 'Bridge to Know Where, accets earmarks, with questionable ties to 'ethics'.

Tod Palin former member of radical anti-american AIP group for 7 years..... This same AIP group allegedly helped Sarah Palin win for mayor and governor? I belive we the American People need to know more About the Palins, furthermore I belive it is our Right. Why have they been so sheltered, and off limits to the media? Is there anything else that they are hiding?

It just seems so odd to me that Sarah Palin can a out right accuse Barack Obama of having spoken with Bill Ayers, and yet, Sara's connection, her husband's sevan year membership with the AIP is like not even being covered by the main stream media... The office of Presidency is not a beauty contest, it's serious, and McCain is old... Just look at the last eight years of Bush...

NRA TV Add Fack Check--False!!!!!!!

La Susa — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:24:01 EDT

The Rifle Association's 'True Story'

October 23, 2008

A misleading NRA ad claims Obama voted "to deny citizens the right of self-protection."

Summary

The 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.

–by Brooks Jackson FULL STORY Analysis

Exploit or save?

Harold & Mary — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:45:17 EDT

We need a president who understands what we must must do to save the planet. We have had enough of exploitation as public policy. Our global ecosystems are facing collapse.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6077798.stm

Obama Economic Plan VS McCain

La Susa — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:26:54 EDT

McCain plan is very simple to understand, tax the middles class as it is, allow the middle class to shoulder all of the TAX burden, and give tax breaks to the Wealthiest American's! Sounds Great yea, how has it worked out so far? Corporations move out of the USA and Americans loose their jobs; Corporations Downsizing; Corporate Curruptions. It's as simple as one plus one, equals two.

Obama's plan is to rescue the middle class from the current tax burdens and shift them to the Weathiest American's who can afford it, in these most difficult times! For the middle class can no longer shoulder ALL of the tax burden, because they Are Loosing Their Jobs!!!!!! We need the middle class to be able to climb out from under the burdends they've been carrying for years. The middle Class are the engine of America, they are the one's who buy new cars, homes, hire plumbers, contractors, carpenders, etc.

Factcheck.org --McCain Lie's Yet Again "Obama's Welfare"!!!!!!!!

La Susa — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:55:13 EDT

From FactCheck.org

McCain calls Obama's refundable tax credits "welfare," but calls his own "reform."

SummaryThe McCain campaign has taken to denigrating some of Obama's tax proposals as "welfare" rather than tax cuts. And it continues to mislead about who would see a tax increase.

A new McCain-Palin Web ad characterizes Obama's proposed refundable tax credits as "welfare." But McCain himself proposes refundable tax credits, too, as part of his health care plan, and calls them "reform."
The ad also says "hard-working families" and "seniors" would pay higher taxes. But – need we say this again? – that would be true only for the affluent few, not for the many.

AnalysisThe "welfare" argument appears, among other places, in the McCain-Palin campaign Web ad released Oct. 16.

McCain-Palin 2008 Web Ad: "Joe the Plumber"

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

Announcer: Americans are catching on ...

Joe Wurzelbacher: Your new tax plan is going to tax me more.

Obama: It's not that I want to punish your success. ... I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody.

Announcer: Everybody? Leading papers call Obama's taxes "welfare" ... "government handouts." Obama raises taxes on seniors, hard-working families to give "welfare" to those who pay none. Just as you suspected, Obama's not truthful on taxes. "Not Truthful?"

The ad says, "Leading papers call Obama's taxes 'welfare' ... 'government handouts'." It says he would "raise taxes on seniors" and "hard-working families" and "give 'welfare' to those who pay none." It concludes, "Obama's not truthful on taxes."

This ad, however, is short of truthful itself.

As we've said any number of times, what Obama proposes would not raise taxes on any "hard-working families" unless they make more than $250,000 a year, a very small fraction of families. Independent analysis has shown than 95 percent of families with children would see federal income taxes go down.

As for "seniors," most of them would not see any increase in their federal income taxes either. In fact, Obama proposes to reduce federal income taxes to zero for persons 65 and over who make less than $50,000 a year. No other seniors would see an increase in what they pay to the IRS unless their income is $250,000 for a couple, or $200,000 for a single filer. It's true, as the McCain campaign likes to point out, that seniors who make less would be adversely affected by Obama's proposal to close down billions of dollars in tax preferences for corporations, which independent analysts calculate would flow through to owners of stocks and bonds in the form of lower dividend payments and reduced profits from capital gains. But while experts at the Congressional Budget Office and the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center tally this reduced income as "tax increases" for purposes of analyzing how proposed tax policies would affect different groups, it would not show up as an increased tax bill for any individual taxpayer, whatever their age."Welfare" or "Reform"?

The "welfare" claim rests on the argument, made in an Oct. 13 editorial in the Wall Street Journal, about refundable tax credits. Obama proposes to grant a number of refundable tax credits to low- and middle-income workers. For example, he would give a $500 tax credit ($1,000 for a couple) for workers, which would phase out for single workers making $75,000 or for couples making $150,000 per year. As the Journal editorial says: "You can receive these checks even if you have no income-tax liability." That's true enough. Whether or not that makes them "welfare" is a matter of interpretation, however. As the Journal editorial also says in its headline, "It depends on what the meaning of 'tax cut' is."

Fair enough. But McCain himself is proposing refundable tax credits of up to $2,500 a year for individuals, or $5,000 for families, as part of his health care plan. McCain doesn't call his credits a "tax cut" but he doesn't call them "welfare" either. He does call it tax "reform," right there on his own Web site:

McCain Web site: John McCain Will Reform The Tax Code . . . [E]very family will receive a direct refundable tax credit - effectively cash - of $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families to offset the cost of insurance.

McCain makes his tax credit refundable to make it worth just as much to low-income workers as to high-income workers. If it were not refundable, it would be worth $0 to anyone who makes too little to pay any federal income taxes. A non-refundable credit would be worth the full amount only to individuals who owe at least $2,500 in federal income taxes, or couples who owe at least $5,000. Obama makes his tax credits refundable for the same reason – so they will benefit workers who earn too little to pay federal income tax.

Who's a "Taxpayer"?

Furthermore, the Journal's editorial misstated a key fact in its "welfare" argument. It said that anyone who doesn't pay federal income taxes is not a "taxpayer," which is simply incorrect. Here's what the editorial said:

Wall Street Journal editorial, Oct. 13: [Refundable credits] are an income transfer – a federal check – from taxpayers to nontaxpayers. Once upon a time we called this "welfare." ... Mr. Obama's genius is to call it a tax cut.

The fact is, a worker can be a "taxpayer" whether or not they owe any income tax. Just about every worker is subject to federal Social Security and Medicare taxes totaling 7.65 percent on every dollar of earnings, up to $102,000 per year. (For earnings over $102,000, only the 1.45 percent Medicare tax applies.) Low-income workers, and retired and jobless persons as well, also pay federal excise taxes whenever they buy gasoline or pay a telephone bill, for example. Obama and other Democrats argue that for low-income workers, refundable tax credits are not “welfare” but, in effect, a reduction in their overall federal tax burden, counting payroll taxes.

Congressional Budget Office figures show that even those in the lowest-earning fifth of households pay an effective federal tax rate, on average, of 4.3 percent of their income, despite benefiting from existing federal refundable tax credits to a major degree. This group had average income of $15,900 in 2005, the most recent year for which CBO has done the calculations. But despite receiving "a federal check" through the income tax system that boosted income by an average of 6.5 percent (this shows up as a negative tax rate in the CBO tables), they still paid an average of $600 in federal taxes. That's true even after subtracting the effects of refundable tax credit "welfare."

"Leading Newspapers"

Finally, the McCain ad's reference to "leading newspapers" is worth examining. All three are known for their conservative editorial opinions, and two are under the same ownership. The ad cites two others besides the Wall Street Journal. One is an editorial in the New York Post, which does not make the "welfare" argument directly but refers briefly to the Journal editorial of the previous day. The other is the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, which made similar arguments and used similar figures in an editorial that appeared the day after the Journal's ran.

The Journal and the Post both are owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., which last year purchased Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the Journal. And the Tribune-Review is owned by Richard Mellon Scaife, who has funded many conservative crusades over the years.

As for the star of this ad, Joe Wurzelbacher (a.k.a. Joe the Plumber): He told ABC News, among other news organizations, that he makes much less than $250,000, in which case he'd get a tax cut under Obama's plan. But, he said, he hopes to make that kind of money one day.

For now, Joe would certainly qualify for a tax cut under Obama's plan. According to his hometown newspaper, the Toledo Blade, publicly available divorce court proceedings show that he made $40,000 in 2006. And according to the Tax Policy Center's analysis, 93.5 percent of those making between $40,000 and $50,000 a year would see a tax cut under Obama's plan, averaging $1,124 for the year in 2012.

Correction, Oct. 20: As originally posted, we said that Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes totaling 7.65 percent are paid on earnings up to $102,000 a year. That's true of the 6.2 percent Social Security tax, but the 1.45 percent Medicare tax also is paid on earnings over that amount. We have added a line noting that.

—by Brooks Jackson
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/obamas_welfare.html

MICHEAL MOORE ON LARRY KING TONITE!!!!

Jack Truman — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 09:12:09 EDT

I just got this email from Mike, and wanted to share it with some of you:

Michael Moore will be Larry's sole guest for the majority of the hour. Michael will be interviewed live on location with a group of plumbers who support Barack Obama.

Don't miss Mike with "Plumbers for Obama" on Larry King Live tonight (Thursday, October 23rd) at 9:00 PM ET/6:00 PM PT on CNN (replay at midnight ET/9:00 PM PT and 3:00 AM ET/midnight PT).

Tune in tonight and plumb the vote on November 4th.

Yours,

Michael Moore

Looking forward to seeing this!!!!

Maybe Even Racists will vote for OBAMA!!!!! Yay!!!!!

Jack Truman — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 17:25:39 EDT

I'll tell you....

I'm a liberal, vegan filmmaker here in the Bible belt in SW Missouri....and it never ceases to amaze me the ignorance of these redneck racists here in this area that I have grown up in and spent most of my adult life....I thank God that most of the country is not like the majority here in SW Missouri....conservative, ultra-redneck, racist, bible-thumpin' hunters....and I could go on....

However, it's looking very good that even Obama may pick up major votes down here....I have yet to see an Obama group in my hometown country down here, but there are groups nearby in Springfield and Joplin, and my conservative friends are talking more and more negative about McCain and Palin; down here, when it comes to their pocketbooks, that's what counts....and I really think it is making a difference.

I think what Bill Maher said the other night on Larry King is very true...the 'phenomenon' of the 'Anti-Bradley effect' is true, and very alive and kickin'....I think alot of the these racist rednecks that meet down here in their local Moose lodge or VFW hall, when they get in the ballot booth, they'll look around to make sure the curtain's closed, and say to themselves, 'Is anyone lookin'? Can anyone see me?' Then look at the ballot. They'll say to themselves, 'well, I can't vote for a black guy, but he's got the best health plan for my kids and grandkids. And my Social Security. And my retirement and my house. No one's lookin'? Okay....I'll mark Obama".

I truly think with all my heart this is going to happen here in the boonies. And in other redneck places around the country. Times are too tough. And Obama will win in a landslide.

Powell said things best today when he announced his endorsement of Obama too.

What do you think?

Jack

Mayor Sarah Palin Pro Guns in Schools, bars, hospitals etc.

La Susa — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 16:46:54 EDT

Mayor Sarah Palin and Chryson Pro-Guns Everywhere!

Meet Sarah Palin's radical right-wing pals

The following year, when Carney proposed a local gun-control measure, Palin organized with Chryson to smother the nascent plan in its cradle. Carney's proposed ordinance would have prohibited residents from carrying guns into schools, bars, hospitals, government offices and playgrounds. Infuriated by the proposal that Carney viewed as a common-sense public-safety measure, Chryson and seven allies stormed a July 1997 council meeting.

With the bill still in its formative stages, Carney was not even ready to present it to the council, let alone conduct public hearings on it. He and other council members objected to the ad-hoc hearing as "a waste of time." But Palin -- in plain violation of council rules and norms -- insisted that Chryson testify, stating, according to the minutes, that "she invites the public to speak on any issue at any time."

When Carney tried later in the meeting to have the ordinance discussed officially at the following regular council meeting, he couldn't even get a second. His proposal died that night, thanks to Palin and her extremist allies.

"A lot of it was the ultra-conservative far right that is against everything in government, including taxes," recalled Carney. "A lot of it was a personal attack on me as being anti-gun, and a personal attack on anybody who deigned to threaten their authority to carry a loaded firearm wherever they pleased. That was the tenor of it. And it was being choreographed by Steve Stoll and the mayor."

Asked if he thought it was Palin who had instigated the turnout, he replied: "I know it was."

Source:

By David Neiwert

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/10/10/palin_chryson/index2.html

Tod Palin's Past Political Association's A Likely Security Clearance Disqualifier

La Susa — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 14:08:26 EDT

Source:

The Huffington Post

Todd Palin's Past Political Associations A Likely Security Clearance Disqualifier

By Frank Naif

Above all, honesty is the rule for anyone filling out an SF 86 -- do you think CIA or DoD will want to hire or retain someone who lied on a security form?

Which gets us back to Todd Palin. From the security officer's perspective, Todd Palin the hypothetical applicant should be truthful and disclose his former association with AIP on the SF 86 in Section 29, Association Record. And because AIP has been associated with the Revolutionary Government of Iran, he probably should also disclose his AIP membership on Section 20, Foreign Activities.

How would government security officials who administer the security clearance process view the facts of Todd Palin's association with AIP? The answer is not clear cut, but his involvement in a secessionist party with foreign and violent connections would inject serious doubts about his security suitability. At best, the AIP association would raise questions that might be resolved favorably with further investigative work. However, many security officials would likely view the AIP association negatively -- especially the Iranian connection -- and deny Todd Palin a clearance.

Source:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-naif/todd-palins-alaska-indepe_b_134793.html

Roll up your pant legs, its too late to save your shoes

Harold & Mary — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 12:41:08 EDT

At this point in the campaign it is apropo to say: "Roll up your pant legs, its too late to save your shoes". We will keep our positive mission and goals priority in our minds and we will keep doing what needs to be done to win. Stay on offense. We got them on the ropes. Lets go for the knock out. My motivational spirit has not been dampened. I hope yours has not either.

Desert Storm: War for OIL?

VeganBikerBabe — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:07:05 EDT

RE: Presidential Debate, Oct. 15 2008

In response to the question of Joe Biden being qualified McCain says “I think Joe Biden is qualified in many respects…but I do point out that he’s been wrong on many foreign policy and national security issues which is supposed to be his strength. He voted against the first Gulf War. He voted against it and obviously we had to take Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait or it would have threatened the middle eastern oil supply.”

Woah, did I hear that right? Desert Storm wasn’t about helping the people in Kuwait?

Again, what McCain (not "my friend") said:

“OBVIOUSLY WE HAD TO TAKE SADDAM HUSSEIN OUT OF KUWAIT OR IT WOULD HAVE THREATENED THE MIDDLE EASTERN OIL SUPPLY.”

OOPSIE! McCain let one slip out...

Spoken like a true Republican

Harold & Mary — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 01:27:05 EDT

McCain spoke like a true Republican in the third debate as well. The middle class is outside his experience. He tried to pass off his platitudes as legitimate policies. The trouble with that is if McCain got into power, he would try to institute his platitudes. Also, it's difficult to carry on a dialog with someone who is only capable of a monolog. I thought Obama did extremely well considering who he had to deal with. No subtle intelligent nuances here There was no reflective thought to work with. There were also so many other dynamics going on that it made any discussion difficult. The more intelligent person has to accommodate the less intelligent person in any conversation because the less intelligent person cannot accommodate the more intelligent person. That was the case tonight. Obama speaks in eloquent well organized paragraphs with his points numbered. McCain speaks in jerky disorganized sentences. That reminds me of a racists joke. The reason a racists joke is so short is so a racists can understand it. Obama will make the best president.

Meet Ssrah Palin's radical right-wing pals

La Susa — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:25:36 EDT

Meet Sarah Palin's radical right-wing pals

Extremists Mark Chryson and Steve Stoll helped launch Palin's political career in Alaska, and in return had influence over policy. "Her door was open," says Chryson -- and still is.

Editor's note: Research support provided by the Nation Institute Investigative Fund. For Salon's complete coverage of Sarah Palin, click here.

By Max Blumenthal and David Neiwert

Pages 1 2 3

Read more: Alaska, Politics, News, 2008 election, Sarah Palin

Video: Interview with former Alaskan Independence Party chairman Mark Chryson

Oct. 10, 2008 | PALMER, Alaska -- On the afternoon of Sept. 24 in downtown Palmer, Alaska, as the sun began to sink behind the snowcapped mountains that flank the picturesque Mat-Su Valley, 51-year-old Mark Chryson sat for an hour on a park bench, reveling in tales of his days as chairman of the Alaska Independence Party. The stocky, gray-haired computer technician waxed nostalgic about quixotic battles to eliminate taxes, support the "traditional family" and secede from the United States.

So long as Alaska remained under the boot of the federal government, said Chryson, the AIP had to stand on guard to stymie a New World Order. He invited a Salon reporter to see a few items inside his pickup truck that were intended for his personal protection. "This here is my attack dog," he said with a chuckle, handing the reporter an exuberant 8-pound papillon from his passenger seat. "Her name is Suzy." Then he pulled a 9-millimeter Makarov PM pistol -- once the standard-issue sidearm for Soviet cops -- out of his glove compartment. "I've got enough weaponry to raise a small army in my basement," he said, clutching the gun in his palm. "Then again, so do most Alaskans." But Chryson added a message of reassurance to residents of that faraway place some Alaskans call "the 48." "We want to go our separate ways," he said, "but we are not going to kill you."

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.

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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. She attempted to name Stoll, a John Birch Society activist known in the Mat-Su Valley as "Black Helicopter Steve," to an empty Wasilla City Council seat. "Every time I showed up her door was open," said Chryson. "And that policy continued when she became governor."

When Chryson first met Sarah Palin, however, he didn't really trust her politically. It was the early 1990s, when he was a member of a local libertarian pressure group called SAGE, or Standing Against Government Excess. (SAGE's founder, Tammy McGraw, was Palin's birth coach.) Palin was a leader in a pro-sales-tax citizens group called WOW, or Watch Over Wasilla, earning a political credential before her 1992 campaign for City Council. Though he was impressed by her interpersonal skills, Chryson greeted Palin's election warily, thinking she was too close to the Democrats on the council and too pro-tax.

But soon, Palin and Chryson discovered they could be useful to each other. Palin would be running for mayor, while Chryson was about to take over the chairmanship of the Alaska Independence Party, which at its peak in 1990 had managed to elect a governor.

The AIP was born of the vision of "Old Joe" Vogler, a hard-bitten former gold miner who hated the government of the United States almost as much as he hated wolves and environmentalists. His resentment peaked during the early 1970s when the federal government began installing Alaska's oil and gas pipeline. Fueled by raw rage -- "The United States has made a colony of Alaska," he told author John McPhee in 1977 -- Vogler declared a maverick candidacy for the governorship in 1982. Though he lost, Old Joe became a force to be reckoned with, as well as a constant source of amusement for Alaska's political class. During a gubernatorial debate in 1982, Vogler proposed using nuclear weapons to obliterate the glaciers blocking roadways to Juneau. "There's gold under there!" he exclaimed.

Vogler made another failed run for the governor's mansion in 1986. But the AIP's fortunes shifted suddenly four years later when Vogler convinced Richard Nixon's former interior secretary, Wally Hickel, to run for governor under his party's banner. Hickel coasted to victory, outflanking a moderate Republican and a centrist Democrat. An archconservative Republican running under the AIP candidate, Jack Coghill, was elected lieutenant governor.

Hickel's subsequent failure as governor to press for a vote on Alaskan independence rankled Old Joe. With sponsorship from the Islamic Republic of Iran, Vogler was scheduled to present his case for Alaskan secession before the United Nations General Assembly in the late spring of 1993. But before he could, Old Joe's long, strange political career ended tragically that May when he was murdered by a fellow secessionist.

Hickel rejoined the Republican Party the year after Vogler's death and didn't run for reelection. Lt. Gov. Coghill's campaign to succeed him as the AIP candidate for governor ended in disaster; he peeled away just enough votes from the Republican, Jim Campbell, to throw the gubernatorial election to Democrat Tony Knowles.

Despite the disaster, Coghill hung on as AIP chairman for three more years. When he was asked to resign in 1997, Mark Chryson replaced him. Chryson pursued a dual policy of cozying up to secessionist and right-wing groups in Alaska and elsewhere while also attempting to replicate the AIP's success with Hickel in infiltrating the mainstream.

Unlike some radical right-wingers, Chryson doesn't put forward his ideas freighted with anger or paranoia. And in a state where defense of gun and property rights often takes on a real religious fervor, Chryson was able to present himself as a typical Alaskan.

He rose through party ranks by reducing the AIP's platform to a single page that "90 percent of Alaskans could agree with." This meant scrubbing the old platform of what Chryson called "racist language" while accommodating the state's growing Christian right movement by emphasizing the AIP's commitment to the "traditional family."

"The AIP is very family-oriented," Chryson explained. "We're for the traditional family -- daddy, mommy, kids -- because we all know that it was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. And we don't care if Heather has two mommies. That's not a traditional family."

Chryson further streamlined the AIP's platform by softening its secessionist language. Instead of calling for immediate separation from the United States, the platform now demands a vote on independence.

Yet Chryson maintains that his party remains committed to full independence. "The Alaskan Independence Party has got links to almost every independence-minded movement in the world," Chryson exclaimed. "And Alaska is not the only place that's about separation. There's at least 30 different states that are talking about some type of separation from the United States."

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/10/10/palin_chryson/index.html

The Palin's association to Radical Group AIP

La Susa — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:28:23 EDT

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/alaskan-independence-part_b_133261.html

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.Posted October 9, 2008 | 11:28 AM (EST) Alaskan Independence Party: The Last Refuge of a Scoundrel

AIP's creation was inspired by the rabidly violent anti-Americanism of its founding father Joe Vogler, "I'm an Alaskan, not an American," reads a favorite Vogler quote on AIP's current website, "I've got no use for America or her damned institutions." According to Vogler AIP's central purpose was to drive Alaska's secession from the United States. Alaska, says current Chairwoman Lynette Clark, "should be an independent nation."

Vogler was murdered in 1993 during an illegal sale of plastic explosives that went bad. The prior year, he had renounced his allegiance to the United States explaining that, "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government." He cursed the stars and stripes, promising, "I won't be buried under their damned flag...when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home." Palin has never denounced Vogler or his detestable anti-Americanism.

Palin's husband Todd remained an AIP party member from 1995 to 2002. Sarah can be described in McCarthy-era palaver as a "fellow traveler." While retaining her Republican registration, she attended the AIP's 1994 convention where the party called for a draft constitution to secede from the United States and create an independent nation of Alaska. The McCain Campaign has reluctantly acknowledged that she also attended AIP's 2000 Convention. She apparently found the experience so inspiring that she agreed to give a keynote address at the AIP's 2006 convention and she recorded a video greeting for this year's 2008 convention. In other words, this is not something that happened when she was eight!

So when Palin accuses Barack of "not seeing the same America as you and me," maybe she is referring to an America without Alaska. In any case, isn't it time the media start giving equal time to Palin's buddy list of anti-American bombers and other radical associates?

Sarah Palin

In 2004, America's malleable mainstream media allowed itself to be manipulated by artful Republican operatives into devoting weeks of broadcast attention and drums of ink to unfairly desecrating John ... In 2004, America's malleable mainstream media allowed itself to be manipulated by artful Republican operatives into devoting weeks of broadcast attention and drums of ink to unfairly desecrating John ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MODT4y90k90

McCain Threatens Legal Action for Oct. 14, 08 Rick Sanchez Report!

La Susa — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:01:30 EDT

Oct. 14, 2008 Rick Sanchez reported on the Palin and AIP anti-American radical group connection. McCain threatens Legal Action!

A Must See Video You-Tube Rick Sanchez Report

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/14/151519/61/145/630389

Who is Todd Palin?

La Susa — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:36:12 EDT

A vote for McCain is a vote for Sarah Palin, a vote for Sarah Palin is a Vote for Tod Palin.

Who is Todd Palin?

Why did he chose to join The AIP? A political party that wanted to Attack the United States Government? What will he tell her to do, if she becomes president of the USA?

McCain refuses to allow himself or Palin to be on CNN, why, what are they hiding? Will they if elected refuse to speak with the American People?

-A Must Watch Rick Sanchez news Anchor on CNN Tonight on Todd's involvement with the AIP.

CNN's Rick Sanchez A Must See Tonight! Alaka Independent Party-Who is Todd Palin?

La Susa — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:47:52 EDT

I could not belive what I was hearing when this aired! This Alaka Independent Party AIP is similar to other malitia's. No wonder Sarah Palin lowered poroperty tax while mayor, and increaced sales tax, no wonder she is so pro gun... People may say what is the relavance? I say some Christian women do exactly what their husband tell them to do, because it is written in the Holy Bible "wives be submissive to your husbands", this is why it is so important to know who Todd Palin is.

Sorry folks I can't find the transcript link, but hope it will be up soon!

FactCheck.org- McCain Ad Lies Again "About Being Liberal?"

La Susa — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:12:00 EDT

'Lying' About Being Liberal?October 13, 2008A McCain-Palin ad twists Obama's words.SummaryA McCain-Palin ad claims Obama was rated the "most liberal" U.S. senator, which was true only for 2007 but not for his entire Senate career. He was rated 10th and 16th in his two previous years.

The ad also misquotes Obama. It says he defended himself against the "most liberal" rating by saying "they're not telling the truth" and "folks are lying." Actually, Obama said McCain and Palin weren't truthful about the "Bridge to Nowhere," and he was correct. And his "folks are lying" remark referred to anti-abortion groups that accuse him of favoring "infanticide" because of votes he cast in the Illinois state Senate.

After twisting Obama's words, the ad accuses him of being "not presidential."AnalysisThe McCain-Palin ad "Folks" was released Oct. 8 to run nationally.

McCain-Palin 2008
TV Ad: "Folks"

Announcer: Who is Barack Obama? The National Journal says he's the Senate's most liberal.

How extreme. But when pressed, how does he defend himself?

Obama: They're not telling the truth.

I hate to say that people are lying, but here's a situation where folks are lying.

Announcer: Mr. Obama, we all know the truth.

Obama: Folks are lying.

Announcer: Not presidential.

McCain: I'm John McCain and I approve this message.Not Telling the Truth

An announcer asserts of Sen. Barack Obama, "the National Journal says he's the Senate's most liberal." The ad then says Obama defended himself by saying, "They're not telling the truth ... [F]olks are lying." The announcer says Obama's response is "not presidential."

The ad is misleading regarding the "most liberal" claim, and simply false in the way it twists Obama's own words.

It is true that the National Journal rated Obama "the most liberal senator" in 2007, based on 99 votes in the Senate that year. But in his previous two years, Obama was rated 10th and 16th most liberal. So his career voting record is far from "most liberal." The McCain ad is misleading about that.

And it is downright false when it implies that Obama accused the McCain campaign of lying about the "most liberal" rating. He did not. He accused Sen. John McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin of "not telling the truth" about the so-called Bridge to Nowhere, and he accused independent, anti-abortion groups of "lying" when they accused him of favoring "infanticide." The ad takes Obama's words completely out of their context.

Bridge to Nowhere

The first comment from Obama quoted in the ad comes from an interview that the senator did for MSNBC's "Countdown" with Keith Olbermann that aired Sept. 8. He was discussing a new ad from the McCain-Palin campaign that claimed Palin "stopped the 'Bridge to Nowhere.' " After video of the ad "Original Mavericks" played on screen, Olbermann noted that Palin had actually supported the project at first, before canceling it long after it became a target of criticism by McCain and others. Here's the exchange:
Keith Olbermann, MSNBC's "Countdown" (Sept. 8): What are Senator McCain and Governor Palin doing in this new commercial, do you think?

Obama: They’re not telling the truth. You know, I mean, it’s — I think we’ve all gotten accustomed to being able to spin things in politics. But when you’ve got somebody who was for a project being presented as being against it, then that, you know, stretches the bounds of spin into new areas.
We agree with Obama about that ad. We called it "old bunk" in an item on the FactCheck Wire on Sept. 9. Palin's misleading claim about the bridge is something we've noted on more than one occasion.

"Infanticide"

The second Obama quote comes from an interview that he did with David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network, and it was not directed at either the McCain campaign or the National Journal. Obama was attempting to clarify his position on "born alive" legislation in Illinois. This is how that part of the conversation went:

David Brody, CBN News (Aug. 16): Real quick, the born alive infant protection act. I gotta tell you that's the one thing I get a lot of emails about and it's just not just from Evangelicals, it about Catholics, Protestants, main — they're trying to understand it because there was some literature put out by the National Right to Life Committee. And they're basically saying they felt like you misrepresented your position on that bill.

Obama: Let me clarify this right now.

Brody: Because it's getting a lot of play.

Obama: Well and because they have not been telling the truth. And I hate to say that people are lying, but here's a situation where folks are lying. I have said repeatedly that I would have been completely in, fully in support of the federal bill that everybody supported — which was to say — that you should provide assistance to any infant that was born — even if it was as a consequence of an induced abortion.

For the record, we wrote about the back and forth between the National Right to Life Committee and Obama, regarding his votes against "born alive" legislation during his time in the Illinois state Senate. More Misrepresentation

The McCain-Palin press release announcing the TV spot is wrong, too. It claims that "the ad highlights Barack Obama's defense of his extreme liberal voting record by accusing others of lying," which is untrue. Obama and his campaign have disputed the National Journal's 2007 rating by saying that he missed too many votes while campaigning for the rating to be representative, and that some of the votes (particularly one in favor of stricter ethics rules) should not properly be seen as either liberal or conservative. But he has never said the Journal was "lying" or "not telling the truth."

For the record, the National Journal did not offer a rating of McCain's votes for 2007, because he missed more than half the votes that would have figured into the rating, even more than Obama missed.

by D'Angelo Gore

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

www.factcheck.org

A non partisan group!

Bush-Home ownership up by 50 per-cent in 2005

La Susa — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:18:50 EDT

National Homeownership Month, 2006
A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

White House News

Owning a home is an important part of the American dream. During National Homeownership Month, we raise awareness of homeownership and encourage more Americans to consider the benefits of owning their own home.

Nearly 70 percent of Americans enjoy the satisfaction of owning their own home, and my Administration continues to promote an ownership society where the promise of America reaches all our citizens. The American Dream Downpayment Act of 2003 is helping thousands of low to moderate income and minority families with downpayment and closing costs, which represent the greatest barrier to homeownership. Since 2002, when I announced our goal to help 5.5 million minorities become homeowners by the end of this decade, the rate of minority homeownership has climbed above 50 percent, and more than 2.5 million minority families have become new homeowners. My Administration will continue to provide counseling and assistance for new homebuyers and expand homeownership opportunities for all Americans.

During National Homeownership Month and throughout the year, we applaud the men and women who work to achieve the dream of homeownership, and we are grateful for those who provide counseling, lending, real estate, construction, and other services to these individuals. The hard work, financial discipline, and personal responsibility of our country's homeowners help transform neighborhoods throughout our Nation and reflect the best qualities of America.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim June 2006 as National Homeownership Month. I call upon the people of the United States to join me in building a more hopeful society and recognizing the importance of expanding the ownership of homes across our great Nation.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fourth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirtieth.

GEORGE W. BUSH

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/05/20060524-6.html

Jobs And Health Care

mollykay — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:56:30 EDT

Iam Disabled And I Just Want To No If There Will Be Jobs? And Health Care I Lost My Job Because Of George Bush Sending Everyone To War. After 911. I Havent Worked In A Year And A Half. I Almost Lost My Benifits Also. I Have A Siezure Disorder And If I Loose My Benifits I Cant Get My Medications That Are Needed. I Just Got A Job After A Year And A Half Of Not Working.=========See You In The White House In January.

Must See Links for Animal Lovers Who Vote

VeganBikerBabe — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 23:42:17 EDT

Obama’s Plan to Adopt:

http://network.bestfriends.org/obamafamilydog/news/29375.html

The Truth About Sarah Palin:

http://www.grizzlybay.org/SarahPalinInfoPage.htm

Humane Legislative Fund:

https://community.hsus.org/humane/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=27497157

McCain Oct. 10 TV Add "He Lied" About Bill Ayers?

La Susa — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 10:42:39 EDT

From Factcheck.org "He Lied" About Bill Ayers?October 10, 2008McCain cranks out some false and misleading attacks on Obama's connection to a 1960s radical.AnalysisSen. John McCain has dialed up his attacks on Sen. Barack Obama's past association with former Weather Underground activist Bill Ayers. He released a 30-second TV spot Oct. 10 claiming Obama "lied" about Ayers. A day earlier he announced a 90-second Internet ad claiming that Obama and Ayers "ran a radical education foundation together" and suggesting Obama was being untruthful.

McCain-Palin Ad
"Ambition"

Announcer: Obama's blind ambition. When convenient, he worked with terrorist Bill Ayers. When discovered, he lied.

Obama. Blind ambition. Bad judgment.Congressional liberals fought for risky sub-prime loans.

Congressional liberals fought against more regulation. Then, the housing market collapsed costing you billions.

In crisis, we need leadership, not bad judgment.

McCain: I'm John McCain and I approve this message.
Groundless, False, Dubious

We find McCain's accusation that Obama "lied" to be groundless. It is true that recently released records show half a dozen or so more meetings between the two men than were previously known, but Obama never denied working with Ayers.

Other claims are seriously misleading. The education project described in the Web ad, far from being "radical," had the support of the Republican governor and was run by a board that included prominent local leaders, including one Republican who has donated $1,500 to McCain's campaign this year. The project is described by Education Week as reflecting "mainstream thinking" about school reform.

Despite the newly released records, there's still no evidence of a deep or strong "friendship" with Ayers, a former radical anti-war protester whose actions in the 1960s and '70s Obama has called "detestable" and "despicable."

Even the description of Ayers as a "terrorist" is a matter of interpretation. Setting off bombs can fairly be described as terrorism even when they are intended to cause only property damage, which is what Ayers has admitted doing in his youth. But for nearly three decades since, Ayers has lived the relatively quiet life of an educator. It would be correct to call him a "former terrorist," and an "unapologetic" one at that. But if McCain means the word "terrorist" to invoke images of 9/11, he's being misleading; Ayers is no Osama bin Laden now, and never was.

McCain-Palin Web Ad
"Ayers"

Announcer: Barack Obama and domestic terrorist Bill Ayers. Friends. They've worked together for years.

But Obama tries to hide it. Why?
Obama launched his political career in Ayers' living room. Ayers and Obama ran a radical "education" foundation, together.

They wrote the foundation's by-laws, together. Obama was the foundation's first chairman. Reports say they "distributed more than $100 million to ideological allies with no discernible improvement in education."

When their relationship became an issue, Obama just responded, "This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood."

That's it?

We know Bill Ayers ran the "violent left wing activist group" called Weather Underground. We know Ayers' wife was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list. We know they bombed the Capitol. The Pentagon. A judge's home.

We know Ayers said, "I don't regret setting bombs. .... I feel we didn't do enough." But Obama's friendship with terrorist Ayers isn't the issue.

The issue is Barack Obama's judgment and candor. When Obama just says, "This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood." Americans say, "Where's the truth, Barack?"

Barack Obama. Too risky for America.

McCain: I'm John McCain and I approve this message.
Who's Misleading?

McCain is not accurate when he says – as he does in the Web ad – "When their relationship became an issue, Obama just responded, 'This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood.' " McCain is using the same line in personal appearances, too. He said on Oct. 9 at a campaign rally in Waukesha, Wis.:

McCain: Look, we don't care about an old washed-up terrorist and his wife, who still, at least on Sept. 11, 2001, said he still wanted to bomb more. ... The point is, Senator Obama said he was just a guy in the neighborhood. We need to know that's not true.

Obama never said Ayers was "just" a guy in the neighborhood. The quote is from a Democratic primary debate on April 16 in Philadelphia, and Obama actually was more forthcoming than McCain lets on. Obama specifically acknowledged working together with Ayers on a charitable board, and didn't deny getting some early political support from him. Here's the exchange:

ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, April 16: An early organizing meeting for your state senate campaign was held at his house, and your campaign has said you are friendly. Can you explain that relationship for the voters, and explain to Democrats why it won't be a problem?

Obama: George, but this is an example of what I'm talking about.

This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English in Chicago, who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He's not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis.

And the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values, doesn't make much sense, George.

Sen. Hillary Clinton then said, "I also believe that Senator Obama served on a board with Mr. Ayers for a period of time, the Woods Foundation," and predicted that "this is an issue that certainly Republicans will be raising."

Obama responded, "President Clinton pardoned or commuted the sentences of two members of the Weather Underground, which I think is a slightly more significant act than me ... serving on a board with somebody for actions that he did 40 years ago."

We wrote back then that Clinton had gone too far by suggesting that "people died" as a result of Ayers' actions. And nothing Obama said then has since been shown to be false. It is true that he did not bring up his work with Ayers on a second project, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, where Obama was board chairman and Ayers was an early organizer, and where the two were together for half a dozen or so meetings. But neither Clinton nor Stephanopoulos asked him about that project. McCain could fairly accuse Obama of not volunteering the information, but it is false to claim he "lied."

"Pal Around"

The first to begin using the new line of attack against Obama was McCain's running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, after a lengthy article appeared Oct. 3 in the New York Times about Obama and Ayers:

Palin, Oct. 5: Our opponents see America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who would bomb their own country.

She's repeated the charge again and again at different campaign stops since then, citing the Times. What the Times article actually says, however, is this: "[T]he two men do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers." The Times says its review of documents and interviews with key players "suggest" that Obama "has played down his contacts with Ayers," but describes their paths as having crossed "sporadically" since their first meeting in 1995.

And far from palling around with Ayers, the two haven't spoken by phone or exchanged e-mail messages since Obama came to the Senate in January 2005, according to an Obama spokesman. He said the two last saw each other more than a year ago, when they accidentally met on the street in their Hyde Park neighborhood.

Obama addressed Palin's claim on Oct. 8, when questioned by ABC News' Charlie Gibson:

Obama, Oct. 8: This is a guy who engaged in some despicable acts 40 years ago when I was eight years old. By the time I met him, 10 or 15 years ago, he was a college professor of education at the University of Illinois. ... And the notion that somehow he has been involved in my campaign, that he is an adviser of mine, that ... I've 'palled around with a terrorist', all these statements are made simply to try to score cheap political points.

Stormy Weather, UndergroundBill Ayers' notoriety dates from the radical, anti-Vietnam War group he helped to start in 1969, splintering off from the activist Students for a Democratic Society. The members of the new group, the Weather Underground, favored shows of violence to further their cause. On March 6, 1970, though, three of them blew themselves up in a Greenwich Village townhouse during a bomb-making session gone badly awry. Ayers and his fellow Weathermen, as they were called, soon dropped out of sight.
Barack Obama, who was born Aug. 4, 1961, was 8 years old at the time.The Weather Underground continued setting off bombs, including one in a men's lavatory in the Capitol building in 1971 and another in a women's restroom in the Pentagon in 1972. Nobody was killed, due to evacuation warnings the Weathermen sent out in advance.

After the Vietnam War ended, the group's activities petered out. In 1980 Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, another member, surfaced and turned themselves in to police. Because of illegal federal wiretaps, pending charges against Ayers for allegedly inciting a riot and conspiring to bomb government sites had been dropped. Dohrn pleaded guilty to separate charges of aggravated battery and jumping bail; she was fined $1,500 and given three years' probation. Ayers and Dohrn, who had had two children together while in hiding, married in 1982.

Several other Weather Underground alums, including Kathy Boudin, along with some members of a group calling itself the Black Liberation Army, were involved in a bungled 1981 robbery of a Brinks truck in Nanuet, N.Y., in which a security guard and two policemen were killed. Ayers and Dohrn have never been publicly tied to the incident, which took place after they had turned themselves in. Dohrn was jailed for seven months for refusing to provide a handwriting sample to the grand jury investigating it.

Dohrn is now a clinical associate professor of law at Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago. Ayers is a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Locally, Ayers' radical past hasn't been much of an issue. Chicago Sun-Times columnist Lynn Sweet wrote last spring that it "was no big deal, or any deal, to any local political reporters or to the editorial boards of the Sun-Times or [Chicago] Tribune." Ayers was named a Chicago citizen of the year in 1997 for his efforts in the field of education.

In Chicago, Ayers is seen less as a "terrorist" and more as a prodigal son of the local establishment. His father was a prominent corporate executive and civic leader. Thomas G. Ayers was president and chief executive of Commonwealth Edison, the electric utility that lights Chicago and northern Illinois. There is a residence hall named for him at Northwestern University, where he was a trustee for 30 years. Bill's brother John Ayers, according to Education Week, headed a school-reform group called the Leadership for Quality Education, which represented business leaders’ interest in schools. John is now a senior associate of the Chicago-based National Association of Charter School Authorizers.

Despite the fairly mainstream life he lives now, though, Bill Ayers' image took a hit with an article that appeared in the New York Times on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Ayers was quoted in the lead paragraph as saying, ''I don't regret setting bombs'' and "I feel we didn't do enough." The interview had been conducted earlier, in connection with the publication of Ayers' memoir of his years as a fugitive. But when the quotes appeared on the same day thousands died at the World Trade Center and elsewhere, they enraged his critics.

Ayers called the story a deliberate distortion of his views. In a response on his blog, Ayers wrote:

Ayers: My memoir is from start to finish a condemnation of terrorism, of the indiscriminate murder of human beings, whether driven by fanaticism or official policy. ...
I said I had a thousand regrets, but no regrets for opposing the war with every ounce of my strength.

That's hardly an apology, referring as it does to the U.S. role in the Vietnam War as "terrorism." Ayers has maintained a public silence since then, refusing all requests for interviews.

Even so, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley had kind words for him recently:

Daley (New York Times, Oct. 3, 2008): He’s done a lot of good in this city and nationally. ... This is 2008. People make mistakes. You judge a person by his whole life.

FactCheck.org and the “Annenberg Challenge”

Contrary to suggestions we've seen in some conservative blogs, there is no connection between the Chicago Annenberg Challenge and FactCheck.org, save for the fact that both received funding from the Annenberg Foundation. The foundation supports a wide variety of charitable causes – a total of 5,200 grants during its first 15 years of operation. It was founded in 1989 by Walter H. Annenberg, a newspaper and magazine publisher who died in 2002.

FactCheck.org is funded by, and is a project of, the Annenberg Public Policy Center, which was established by the Annenberg Foundation with a $20 million endowment in 1993. The Annenberg Foundation also made additional grants to support our work. We also receive funding from the Flora Family Foundation to help support our educational offshoot, FactCheckED.org. We receive no other outside funding.

FactCheck.org came into being in late 2003. Director Brooks Jackson states: "Our mission is to be as neutral and nonpartisan as humanly possible. Annenberg supports that, and nobody at the Annenberg Foundation has ever tried to influence anything we've written."

For the record, the Annenberg Foundation's president and chairman is Leonore Annenberg, the founder's widow. Public records show she's given $2,300 to the McCain campaign, which announced on Oct. 8, that she has endorsed him for president.
We Have Contact!

According to an Obama spokesman, the two men first met in 1995, when Obama was tapped to chair the board of the newly formed Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Ayers had been instrumental in creating the organization, which was to dispense grants for projects that would improve Chicago's schools.
The Challenge was one of 18 projects supported by a $500 million grant announced at a White House ceremony Dec. 18, 1993, by the Annenberg Foundation, founded four years earlier by Philadelphia publisher Walter Annenberg. It was the largest single gift ever made to public education in America. The Chicago project received a $49.2 million grant in 1995, and officials administering the grant funds at Brown University announced at the time that the Chicago proposal was developed through discussions among “a broad-based coalition of local school council members, teachers, principals, school reform groups, union representatives and central office staff” convened by three educators – one of whom was Ayers. Mayor Richard M. Daley, a Democrat, and Gov. Jim Edgar, a Republican, took part in a ceremony announcing the grant.

There are other connections between Obama and Ayers: The same year the two men met through the Annenberg Challenge, Ayers hosted a meet-and-greet coffee for Obama, who was running for state Senate and who lived three blocks away from him. Obama and Ayers also were on the board of an antipoverty charity, the Woods Fund of Chicago, where their service overlapped from 2000 to 2002. And Ayers contributed $200 to Obama's campaign for the Illinois state Senate on March 2, 2001.

In addition, Obama told the Chicago Tribune in 1997 that a book Ayers wrote about the juvenile court system was "a searing and timely account." This is sometimes billed by Obama's critics as a "book review." Actually, a reporter simply asked three Chicagoans for a sentence about whatever they were reading at the time.

The Annenberg Challenge connection has drawn the most attention recently, though, mainly because of articles written by Stanley Kurtz, a conservative contributor to the National Review, the publication founded by the late William F. Buckley. Kurtz first suggested on Aug. 18 that there was a "cover-up in the making" when he was unable to gain access to 132 boxes of project records housed at the University of Illinois. Records were released nine days later, along with all records held by the Annenberg Foundation itself.

The Chicago Tribune, after examining the records, said they showed Ayers and Obama "attended board meetings, retreats and at least one news conference together as the education program got under way." It also said Obama and Ayers "continued to attend meetings together during the 1995-2001 operation of the program." The story played on page 2. According to the New York Times, the documents show the two attended just six board meetings together, Obama as chairman and Ayers to inform the board on grantees and other issues. (In a press release, the McCain campaign puts the number of meetings at seven, five of them in 1995, one in 1996 and one in 1997.) Ayers was an "ex officio" member of the board for the first year of the project.

United Press International summed up the reaction to the contents of the group's archives with a story headlined "No 'smoking gun' in Obama relationship":

UPI, Aug. 27: Reporters reviewing records in Chicago have so far found nothing startling in documents linking Sen. Barack Obama to 1960s radical William Ayers.

Where news reporters found little of note, though, Kurtz – the conservative writer who initially suggested a "cover-up" – cast it differently. After combing through the Annenberg records, he published an article in the opinion pages of The Wall Street Journal saying he found that Obama and Ayers acted as "partners" and together "poured more than $100 million into the hands of community organizers and radical education activists." He said money went to groups that "focused more on political consciousness, Afrocentricity and bilingualism than traditional education." A "Radical" Foundation? Hardly.

What Kurtz – and McCain in his Web ad – considers "radical," other observers see differently, however. Veteran education reporter Dakarai I. Aarons, writing in Education Week, says the Chicago Annenberg Challenge actually "reflected mainstream thinking among education reformers" and had bipartisan support:

Education Week (Oct. 8): The context for the Chicago proposal to the Annenberg Foundation was the 1988 decentralization of the city’s public schools by the Republican-controlled Illinois legislature, a response to frustration over years of teachers’ strikes, low achievement, and bureaucratic failure. ... The proposal was backed by letters of support to the Annenberg Foundation from Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar, a Republican, local education school deans, the superintendent of the Chicago public schools, and the heads of local foundations.

Among the mainstream Chicago luminaries on Obama's board was Arnold R. Weber, a former president of Northwestern University, who in 1971 was appointed by Republican President Richard Nixon as executive director of the Cost of Living Council and who later was tapped by Republican President Ronald Reagan to serve on an emergency labor board. More recently, Weber has given $1,500 to John McCain's presidential campaign this year.

Others on Obama's supposedly "radical" board included Stanley Ikenberry, a former president of the University of Illinois system; Ray Romero, a vice president of Ameritech; Susan Crown, a philanthropist; Handy Lindsey, the president of the Field Foundation of Illinois; and Wanda White, the executive director of the Community Workshop for Economic Development.

Kurtz originally claimed that Ayers somehow was responsible for installing Obama as head of the board, speculating in his "cover-up" article that Obama "almost certainly received the job at the behest of Bill Ayers." But after days of poring over the records, he failed to produce any evidence of that in his Wall Street Journal article. To the contrary, Ayers was not involved in the choice, according to Deborah Leff, then president of the Joyce Foundation. She told the Times, and confirmed to FactCheck.org, that she recommended Obama for the position to Patricia Graham of the Spencer Foundation. Graham told us that she asked Obama if he'd become chairman; he accepted, provided Graham would be vice-chair. The bipartisan board of directors, which did not include Ayers, elected Obama chairman, and he served in that capacity from 1995 to 1999, awarding grants for projects and raising matching funds. Ayers headed up a separate arm of the group, working with grant recipients. According to another board member, Ayers "was not significantly involved with the challenge after Obama was appointed." One possible reason had little to do with Obama himself, but instead was related to cautions about conflicts of interest; the group was funding some of Ayers' own alternative school projects.

In any case, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge failed to bring about improvement in students' test scores, classroom behavior or social competence. An independent consortium of educators concluded in 2003 that “Annenberg schools did not achieve an overall effect on student outcomes” compared with schools that received no support from the project. Education Week quoted some project supporters as saying it succeeded in raising interest in helping failing schools.

Conclusion

Voters may differ in how they see Ayers, or how they see Obama’s interactions with him. We’re making no judgment calls on those matters. What we object to are the McCain-Palin campaign’s attempts to sway voters – in ads and on the stump – with false and misleading statements about the relationship, which was never very close. Obama never “lied” about this, just as he never bragged about it. The foundation they both worked with was hardly “radical.” And Ayers is more than a former "terrorist," he’s also a well-known figure in the field of education.

– by Viveca Novak and Brooks Jackson

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