‘I Am a Big Believer in Not Just Words, But Deeds and Works’

Right on brother - The devil is laughing & clapping and we are dancing to his tune.Enter Your Comment

This country and his people will elect a good black president.

because we as a nation are way to prejudical?!?! we're no way near ready!!! to think otherwise is NAIVE!

Here's one more story about "honest" Obama. According to the LA Timest, even though Illinois ethics disclosure forms are designed to reveal possible financial conflicts by lawmakers, on disclosure forms for 2001 and 2002, Obama did not specify that one company (EKI, owned by Blackwell) that provided him with the bulk of the private-sector compensation he received. Instead, he hid that fact by attaching a multi-page list of all the law firm's clients, which included EKI among hundreds. Illinois law does not require more specific disclosure.

Stanley Brand, a Washington lawyer who counsels members of Congress and others on ethics rules, said he would have advised a lawmaker in Obama's circumstances to separately disclose such a singularly important client and not simply include it on a list of hundreds of firm clients, even if the law does not explicitly require it. "I would say you should disclose that to protect and insulate yourself against the charge that you are concealing it," Brand said.

Obama's tax returns show that he made no money from his law practice in 2000, the year of his unsuccessful run for a congressional seat. But that changed in 2001, when Obama reported $98,158 income for providing legal services. Of that, $80,000 was from Blackwell's company.

In 2002, the state senator reported $34,491 from legal services and speeches. Of that, $32,000 came from the EKI legal assignment, which ended in April 2002 by mutual agreement, as Obama ceased the practice of law and looked ahead to the possibility of running for the U.S. Senate. .

Obama's spokesman said that listing all clients was appropriate and that doing so allowed the public to see any and all potential conflicts for Obama and his law firm colleagues. "He was especially mindful of this responsibility as a leader of ethics reform," said Gibbs, his chief campaign spokesman.

A few months after receiving his final payment from Blackwell's company, EKI, Obama sent a request on state Senate letterhead urging Illinois officials to provide a $50,000 tourism promotion grant to another Blackwell company, Killerspin.

Though Obama's formal efforts consisted of writing a letter and a proclamation, the nitty-gritty of obtaining state grants fell to a former state Senate and campaign aide to Obama, Dan Shomon.

Shomon, working part time for Obama's campaign and for Killerspin, helped prepare Killerspin's initial grant application in 2002. Still working part time with Obama, Shomon helped Killerspin secure a $200,000 grant for its 2003 tournament and a $100,000 grant for its 2004 tournament.

Nice return on Blackwell's "investment" in Obama. So much for Obama's sense of ethics and transparency.

Here's another story about "honest" Obama.

In a campaign influenced by Walmart, instead of backing the pro-labor candidate, Obama backed a "Walmart tool."


There was little surprising about Obama's endorsement given his self-interested allegiances to the politically powerful City Hall regime of Chicago's Mayor Daley, with whom Obama shares the same big money campaign super-consultant (David Axlerod) and numerous big money sponsors.

For the first time Mayor Daley had vetoed an ordinance by his normally obedient City Council, a measure widely supported by citizens, community organizations, and labor unions in Chicago's black, Latino, and working-class wards, and he did not want the council to bring the measure up again. It was originally passed by the council under pressure from a remarkable grassroots campaign, and would have required giant retail corporations like Wal-Mart, Target, Lowes, and Home Depot to pay workers a modest minimum wage of ten dollars an hour by 2010.

Wal-Mart and Target announced that they were putting a number of "big box" retail developments on hold in Chicago, and launched a preemptive public relations strike, threatening to disinvest in the city unless a "favorable business climate" was restored. Daley made a special point of wrapping his veto in the flag of racial justice, claiming it was required to permit the flowering of economic development in the city's abandoned ghetto neighborhoods.

Pat Dowell, the recipient of significant support from the Service Employees' International Union (SEIU), was running against Tillman, and Dowell had strongly criticized Tillman for siding with Daley and Wal-Mart.

Obama needed the support of the powerful campaign finance magnet Daley, and endorsed Tillman, over labor-backed Dowell.

Obama's wife Michelle then received $51,200 in 2006 for attending a few board meetings of TreeHouse Foods, a giant firm that relied heavily on its close business relationship with Wal-Mart. The granting of high-pay/do-little board posts to the spouses of politicians is a longstanding tool of the "old," corporate-dominated politics that Senator Obama claims to reject. This is not like Clinton's placement on the board of Walmart as the result of an effort to address sex discrimination in Walmart's employment practices.



Mrs. Obama resigned from her position with TreeHouse in the summer of 2007, citing "increased demands on her time" in connection with her husband's presidential campaign.



It isn't surprising that she cut her politically damaging ties to a notoriously anti-labor company that her husband was attacking Clinton about in his speeches.

Real honest?

He's a Chicago trained pay to play politician.

One of Obama's top supporters, James Crown, serves on the board of General Dynamics, a military contractor. Crown is a member of Obama's campaign finance committee and a big superbundler for Obama. He is also on Obama's Illinois campaign committee.

Obama secured $1.3 million of an $8 million earmark request in 2006 for a program that was overseen by General Dynamics.Obama also secured $750,000 of a $3 million request for renovation of a space center named for Crown's grandfather, Henry Crown, at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

Obama also secured several million dollars for a project at Chicago State University. Emil Jones Jr., the president of the Illinois State Senate and an early and powerful political benefactor of Obama's, has been a dogged champion of Chicago State, and one of Senator Obama's closest friends.

Obama also requested a million dollar earmark for the hospital where his wife works and which gave his wife a huge raise.

How is any of that honest? The taxpayers wouldn't even know about it if it weren't for John McCain's work to make sure these earmarks are public information. McCain has never requested earmarks, because he thinks all requests for taxpayer money must be processed the same way, not given special secret treatment to keep the taxpayers in the dark.

don't blame me,i'm just telling a fact,are the democrats naive? you have to be NAIVE to believe we're ready to vote for a black president! LOOKS LIKE 4 MORE FOR THE REPUBLICANS! ITS JUST BAD STRATEGY!

Reaganite: Ronald Regan approved abortion legislation in California, then flip-flopped for political reasons when running for President. Pres. Bush also flip-flopped. Will McCain flip-flop "again" on the abortion issue?