The Vices of Their Virtues

This is a well written and informative article that helps you see who the real Obama is behind his facade. Definitely worth the read as it unravels a story of his early years in the political arena.

Barack Obamas Lost Years
by Stanley Kurtz
08/11/2008, Volume 013, Issue 45

The senators tenure as a state legislator reveals him to be an Old-Fashioned, Big government, Race-conscious Liberal.

Barack Obamas neighborhood newspaper, the Hyde Park Herald, has a longstanding tradition of opening its pages to elected officials-from Chicago aldermen to state legislators to U.S. senators. Obama himself, as a state senator, wrote more than 40 columns for the Herald, under the title Springfield Report, between 1996 and 2004. Read in isolation, Obamas columns from the state capital tell us little. Placed in the context of political and policy battles then raging in Illinois, however, the young legislators dispatches powerfully illuminate his political beliefs. Even more revealing are hundreds of articles chronicling OBAMAs EARLY POLITICAL AND LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITIES in the pages not only of the Hyde Park Herald, but also of another South Side fixture, the Chicago Defender.

Obama moved to Chicago in order to place himself in what he understood to be the de facto CAPITAL of black America. For well over 100 years, the Chicago Defender has been the voice of that capital, and therefore a paper of national significance for African Americans. Early on in his political career, Obama complained of being slighted by major media, like the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. Yet extensive and continuous coverage in both the Chicago Defender and the Hyde Park Herald presents a REMARKABLE RESOURCE for understanding WHO OBAMA IS. Reportage in these two papers is particularly significant because Obamas early political career - the time between his first campaign for the Illinois State Senate in 1995 and his race for U.S. Senate in 2004-can fairly be called the LOST YEARS, the period OBAMA seems LEAST EAGER TO TALK ABOUT, in contrast to his formative years in Hawaii, California, and New York or his days as a community organizer, both of which are recounted in his memoir, Dreams from My Father. The pages of the Hyde Park Herald and the Chicago Defender thus offer entrée into Obama's heretofore hidden world.

Full article:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/386abhgm.asp?pg=

People generally tend to assert that the democrats are the party of economics whilst the republicans are better equipped to handle the security issue. But name me one foreign policy under the current administration that has actually been succesful (and don't say the surge, since it was merely a fixing of an earlier, obviously disastrous strategy). Does anyone actually believe that John McCain is more fit to tackle foreign policy issues than Barack Obama? Why is that? Because he's a republican? Guess that one's out the window... Because he's more experienced? The incumbent president has been in office for nearly 8 years (undoubtedly a great place to accumulate experience, one would think), yet I'm not certain he has the ability to make better or more effective decisions than Bill Clinton after one week in office, on the contrary. The notion that democrats somehow are less equipped to deal with security issues is just downright silly. Barack Obama, a member of the senate foreign relations committee and a person with personal experience and understanding of other cultures - that is an ASSET combined with his achievements on US soil - and Joe Biden, chairman of the same committee, are of course as well-equipped as anyone to handle vital security issues. So where does that leave the Republicans? Well, where has the last 8 years left YOU?

For an interesting article purporting to detail Barney Frank???s long history with Fannie Mae, See http://www.businessandmedia.org/printer/2008/20080924145932.aspx

The last link below describes how some in Congress tried to use the original version of the bailout bill to divert money eventually recovered to groups like ACORN. See:

http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=16&artnum=1&issue=20080918

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

http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=M2QwNDhkZTg2OGYzZjkzM2E2NDEwM2U5OGVkNTc0YzU=

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E3D6123BF932A2575AC0A9659C8B63

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE7DB153EF933A0575AC0A96F958260

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122247015469280723.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Obama is getting a bump out of the economic mess because people are not being reminded of history where the economy is concerned, and who did what when. Call it bias by omission. The media simply says that the economy is Obama???s strong issue, but never discusses the facts in detail. If the simplistic ???party in power??? model were true, then the Democrats would not have needed the House Republicans when they tried to pass the bailout bill, as Democrats have the majority in both houses and there is no threat of a veto. Obviously, it is not so simple and the media does the voter a disservice by doing little more than reinforcing the error. As an aside, the media also misleads regarding the "Clinton economy" when they fail to mention that it ended in a recession, requiring the first round of Bush stimulus checks when he first took office.

The first link below contains a purported list of the top 25 in Congress who got contributions from the folks at Fannie and Freddie. Obama is listed third, after Dodd and Kerry, even though Obama is just a junior Senator. Obama is followed next Clinton. Barney Frank is on the list as well.

Do Obama and the Democrats deserve a lift in the polls as a result of the financial and mortgage problems? The answer from history is a clear "NO." Here's the lead of a New York Times story on September 30, 1999 ???Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending??? [link below]. That's 1999 folks.

Here's the lead of a New York Times story on Sept. 11, 2003: "The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago." [see link below]

McCain said in co-sponsoring the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, "If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system and the economy as a whole."

What was Barney Frank and fellow Democrats saying at the time of these attempted reforms? According to reports, Representative Barney Frank(D-MA) claimed of the thrifts "These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis, the more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing." Representative Mel Watt (D-NC) added of the reforms "I don't see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing." [ See Community Reinvestment Act, link below w/ history]

please vote for John McCain...there is no way this world is going to "work" with Obama as our president! I just can't see it happening. It is bad enough as it is and with all his fake promises and from the debate (not knowing what he is talking about and stuttering through EVERY answer)...how can he possibly run a country? HE CAN'T! I am not a huge fan of McCain either, but he is the more qualified candidate of the two!!!

All I am going to say is during the last depression the president that got us out of it was a democrat. Republicans have done nothing for this country but dig it deeper into a hole.

Vote Obama/Biden or Die!

Thoughtful pausing and speaking clearly are great attributes. What a refreshing way to start 09--a President who thinks before speaking. I pray each day Senator Obama becomes our next President.

ConservativeChick, you are delusional and ignorant.

A thoughtful pause is not the same as an incoherent string of gibberish. Obama stutters or stumbles occasionally, but he always delivers informed, insightful wisdom. It is becoming increasingly obvious that Sarah Palin is simply in over her head. No one is trying to "intimidate" her, we're all just watching and learning more about what she knows and what she has to offer. If it's "required educational material" she needs, she should do that on her own time.

You're being passive-aggressive with your use of Barack Obama's middle name, Hussein. He doesn't go by that name. Why else would you use it except as an attempt to suggest he and Saddam Hussein have something in common, without actually backing that assertion up with some evidence?

Your claim that Obama has "only worked for the betterment of blacks" is racist and pathetic.

The success of the Obama campaign is evidence that humanity is evolving. Wisdom and authenticity should be the norm in an advanced society. I'm hopeful that some day the small-minded, competitive attitude shown in your comments will be a thing of the past.

don't worry, folks...

john mc cain and his evangelist supporters will save america.

all we need is another war to solve all our problems.

john mc cain will deliver.

hallelujah!

ha,ha,ha.

In a few weeks we will make a choice that will decide our future. I follow a economist named bob proctor who has called the top and bottom of every market crash since the 70s correctly. He perfectly predicted the current real estate market meltdown ,and the picture he paints about what will happen in the next couple years Is terrifying. He thinks it will be worse then the great depression. Banks in the US are going under one after the other. Country wide the largest morgage bank in the world Bear Stearns and Lehman brothers , and Merrill Lynch which are 3 out of the top 5 wall street firms. And now Fanny and Freddy which hold 50 percent of the home loans in the United States. The goverment took them over because they are essentially bankrupt. If they didn't the entire financially system would virtually shut down, the stock market would crash And we would suffer beyond what any of us have seen before The future of these companies will fall into the hands of our next president
Bush just like Mcain doesn't understand the economy.

That not just my opinion its his own words. Not only does he not understand how to fix it
He does not understand exactly what is broken. Its no surprise that he doesnt. The people that make up these
securities use complex math models very few people understand.
Bush and mccain both can take the credit for this mess since they helped deregulate the laws that were protecting us.


Bush's economic advisor Phil Graham wrote the deregulation bill that allowed banks take risks with all of our future.
Now Phil Graham is the head of mccains economic policy ,and mccain wants to make him the next secretary of the treasury.
No one in this country can afford for that to happen. The last time bush met with his economic advisors was in march. He either didnt realize or didnt care that anything was wrong. Phil Graham had the guts to say we are in a mental recession after he helped create the worst economy in our lifetime.
It will take the best and brightest minds in the world to get us out of this nightmare. As bad as bush has done mccain would be
incredibly worse because things are in much worse shape. The next president will not inherit a surplus like bush did but a tanking economy and a 11,600,000,000,000 deficit. Most of Bush created and it will take decades to pay it back.
If you do what you have always done then you will do get what you have always __________

When it comes to policy bush and mccain are the same 90 percent of the time.
So why are the polls even close then ?

The chairman of mcains campaign recently said that people don't vote on issues

they vote on a personality composite which means. He is trying to sell you personality instead of results.
He believes people will vote against there own self interests.

Lets teach him we are smarter then that .
Hold them accountable now while it will still help
Elect Obama Biden 2008

The only things that matter are
1) Universal Healthcare
2) American Jobs (Green High)
3) Community Policing (Crime is still bad in Hartford CT)
4) Crime on poverty
5) Education
6) Social Security
7) Alternative Fuel Resources (Yes solar wind and nuclear can completely cut our usage of oil and natural gas)
8) Public Transportation ( The cheapest way to do this is with buses. Trains would be to expensive with all of the infrastructure requirements, but a possiblity)

I am more interested in articals written that dont favor either side. Only the facts. Yes facts are written here, however to one side. If negative and positive facts or opinions are going to be added. They need to be equal. The negatives of one side are lighted to show less weaknesses. The wording is cleaver but not convincing. If you had done it equally on both parts I would have admired it more. When any one side does what is done here it is not true unbias media in which our country is in desperate need of.

Would it not be a grand awakening if writers of political articles simpley wrote the fact, Nonembelished and leave it to the public to decide for themselves.

Another sad case. Problem is everyone had an agenda. I wish one well known media source only gave facts without opinions.