This is the response I sent to an editorial that appeared in my local Newspaper, The La Crosse Tribune. Hopefully it will be published but I fear it is too long to make it. None the less I submitted it for consideration.
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A little fact finding goes a long way!
After reading Faith Blum's, "The truth about Obama" - I came to one conclusion - Faith Blum doesn't know much about doing research and nothing about fact checking. ---------- For the purposes of this rebuttal FB wrote: will refer to Faith Blum's supposed facts, RE: will refer to my rebuttal.
FB wrote: I’ll start with his buzz word, "change."FB wrote: Dr. Jerome Corsi’s book, "The Obama Nation," and specifically Saul Alinsky, the father of community organizing, for the definition of the word "change".
RE: According to www.factcheck.org (Jerome Corsi's "The Obama Nation" is a mishmash of unsupported conjecture, half-truths, logical fallacies and outright falsehoods.)
RE: Additionally, in March 2008 Corsi reported in WorldNetDaily that a "Muslim terrorist group with ties to criminal drug networks and "al-Qaida" has given "strong support" to John McCain. (This guy is a total crackpot!)
RE: However, in this case Corsi is correct that Saul Alinsky, the father of community organizing, did use the word "change' in describing the political practice of organizing communities to act in their own common self-interest. Alinsky is sometimes said to have coined the term "think Globally, act locally."
RE: As to whether Saul Alinsky was a radical or taught radicalism is wholly a matter of perspective. Saul Alinsky was the labor (union) organizer that fought for worker rights during the 1930s in the Chicago meat packing district and stock yards. The horrific working conditions of those people were made famous in the Upton Sinclair novel, "The Jungle." I am sure the meat packing industry that was forced to pay a fair working wage and limit child labor among other things considered Alinsky to be very much a radical reformer, but I doubt the many workers whose lives he saved or made drastically better would agree..
RE: I assume that Raila Odinga's name is mentioned here because during a visit to Kenya in 2006, Obama and his wife, Michelle, arranged to take an AIDS test to publicly demonstrate the test's safety. While there, Obama spoke to the assembled crowd. Raila Odinga, one of the two candidates running for president, was on the stage when Obama spoke. In fact, MSNBC reported that during that same trip, Obama also met with Mwai Kibaki, who was Odinga's opponent in that election, as well as with opposition leader Uhuru Kenyatta.
FB wrote: While I am talking about Obama’s radical ties, I’ll mention a few more briefly. Tony Rezko, a Chicago slumlord, helped finance Obama in five elections. He also gave money to a man closely associated to Saddam Hussein.
RE: Obama did have a past relationship with real estate developer Tony Rezko, but he is no longer Obama's "money man." Obama hasn't been associated with him since his indictment for wire fraud, bribery, money laundering and attempted extortion, and Obama donated all of the disgraced businessman's previous campaign contributions ($11,500) to charity. Rezko's trial has ended and no criminal links to Obama were unveiled, though links of corruption were made to other politicians.
RE: Additionally, Rezko and his associates funded multiple political campaigns on both sides of the aisle, as is common in the business world. Among the more prominent are WJ Clinton and GW Bush.
FB wrote: Sam Graham-Felsen, a self-proclaimed student of Karl Marx and one of Obama’s official bloggers, proudly displays a Russian communist flag in his dorm room at Harvard.
RE: Not sure how you verified that, not sure I want to know - Oh yes, another Jerome Corsi reference. You really need to stop watching FOX news so much.
FB wrote: According to Obama’s autobiography, Malcolm X, a leader of the Black Muslims, and Frantz Fanon, an African psychiatrist who was influential in shaping the political left of the ’50s and ’60s, both had an impact on Obama’s intellectual development.
RE: No argument here, lots of non-radical people of all races and religions have read and been influenced by the writings of and about Malcolm X. As for Frantz Fanon, he was influential in the field of post-colonial studies and was perhaps the pre-eminent thinker of the 20th century on that issue (hardly makes him a radical).
FB wrote: David Axelrod, Obama’s campaign strategist, specifically selects clients where he can promote a cult of personality with an emphasis on lofty themes rather than content.
RE: Untrue, Obama's campaign prefers to offer the complete details on its policy agenda on their website, because they have learned from monitoring past Presidential elections that the main stream media can not be trusted to disseminate information accurately. For details on any of Barack Obama's proposed policy, head to:
www.barackobama.com/issues/
Besides whom the candidates associate with, I also look at where they stand on the issues.FB wrote: Obama is pro-abortion to the extreme. He has a 100 percent score from NARAL, and Obama voted against the Born Alive Infant Protection four times in the Illinois Legislature.
RE: Barack Obama is pro-choice, but is outspoken about the need for pregnancy prevention and personal responsibility. Barack Obama did vote against the Born Alive Infant Protection bill because it would have changed the wording on an existing Born Alive Infant Protection bill that Illinois had on its books in a way that might make reversing Rowe V Wade more likely. Barack explained this in the Presidential debate, you should have listened.FB wrote: Obama is for universal health care. He would mandate that everyone purchase his health care. However, Sen. Hillary Clinton charged that Obama’s proposal would not work because of the mandates.
RE: Barack Obama's healthcare plan is not what is normally considered Universal Health care, though it would increase the number of people that are covered by insurance. He does not mandate that everyone purchase his healthcare, in fact as he stated multiple times throughout the debates - if you have healthcare through your employers you need do nothing, but he will attempt to lower your premium through insurance company negotiations - if you do not have insurance you will be able to purchase insurance through the same plan that members of the US Senate get theirs. If you can not afford the insurance and want coverage a program will be made available to offset the part you can not pay, this will be income dependent. If you chose not to be insured, that is your choice. The only mandatory coverage is for children and that will be handled through expansion of existing child care programs. His plan will work with insurance companies to secure preventive care, care for people with pre-existing condition and lowering drug costs for medicare and medicaid through negotiations and competition. For a greater understanding of his proposed healthcare go to:
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/FB wrote: Obama’s proposed Global Poverty Act (or tax) would cost the United States $845 billion over and above what we already spend. Where will the taxation and spending stop in an Obama administration?
RE: The Global Poverty Act is a bill currently in the U.S. Congress. The bill is co-sponsored by 84 representatives and 30 senators. It does not allocate any funding.
RE: The Global Poverty Act would require the U.S. President to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to further the United States foreign policy objective of promoting the reduction of global poverty, the elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the United Nations Millenium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day.
RE: Barack Obama made it clear in the third debate that some of his proposed foriegn spending would need to be curtailed until the economy recovers. Additionally, the Congretional Budget Office has reviewed both candidates economic proposals - including all taxes cuts and increases and spending cuts and increases and determined that John McCain's plan will leave increase the national debt more substantially.
RE: As Barack Obama stated in the third Presidential debate most of his spending increases are off-set by specific spending reductions set out in his overall policy plan. Again go to www.barackobama.com/issues/ for more info.
RE: On the other side: Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the country can't afford $3.3 trillion of tax cuts proposed by Republican presidential nominee John McCain without corresponding spending reductions. - Good luck with that, its a lot of reductions to find in the US Budget.
FB wrote: Finally, Obama is against the Iraq war, even though it is working, and right now, we are basically just on a peacekeeping mission in Iraq. The 4,000-plus soldiers who have lost their lives in the five years since this war started is a very small amount compared to previous wars. The Iraq war is working, why quit now?
RE: Thats an easy one to answer. The UN mandate has expired and the US Government has no reason to be in Iraq, as such the current Administration is working closely with the Iraqi Government on a nearly completed withdrawal agreement that will begin to draw troops down in June or July of 2009, all troops will be out by 2011 conditions allowing. John McCain would need to break this agreement to remain in Iraq, which would make us an occupying army rather than a liberating or defending one. Doing that would only serve to increase tensions in the Middle East.FB wrote: People need to look beyond the rhetoric and lofty ideas and be informed about what it all really means.
RE: I couldn't agree more, perhaps you should try it with a little more of an open mind!FB wrote: Is the "change" that Obama advocates change that will bring us freedom or socialism?
RE: We are already free, I believe what Barack Obama will bring to this country is prosperity for all its people.FB wrote: I personally don’t want to wait to find out.
RE: I can hardly contain myself - we are headed for a brighter future under a President Barack Obama! YES WE CAN!
References include:
www.factcheck.com www.barackobama.com www.politifact.com www.bloomberg.com www.cbo.gov
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