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Showing posts with label Barack. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barack. Show all posts
6/19/2009
2/29/2008
"Where common hopes and common dreams still live.”
Entering the presidential nomination process as a distinct underdog, his expressed views were seen as more moderate than those of rivals. Other contenders, especially those with more governmental experience, had acquired enemies within the party and were weak in the critical states. As a freshman House member, he was not a particularly powerful or influential figure. However, he spoke out against the War. I'm not talking about the Iraq War, I'm talking about the Mexican-American War. And the person I am describing is not Barack Obama, it is Abraham Lincoln. The other tall skinny guy from Illinois (I know Lincoln was born in Kentucky-Obama was born in Hawaii). I know that one was a Republican and one is a Democrat, but the Republican Party then resembles more of what the Democratic party does today. Somewhere along the way they switched ideals. I am aware of the differences, but chose instead to highlight the similarities. For one simple reason; and that's to show that it can be done. Of course I hope for a better ending to Obama's presidency than old Abe's, I believe the legacy they leave will be on par. This is history in the making folks and not in a Gorge Bush way. I work in a bar (more or less), after work I sit down to have a few drinks and often get into discussions with random people about the merits of Sen. Obama. The first argument often thrown up is his lack of experience. Like Obama, Lincoln didn't have much experience before becoming president and leading the nation through a turbulent era. I am by far not the first one to draw these comparisons, just Google the two names and see for yourself. Obama himself kicked of his campaign on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield Illinois where Lincoln served as a House Representative. He even said, ”That is why, in the shadow of the Old State Capitol, where Lincoln once called on a house divided to stand together, where common hopes and common dreams still live.”
| BARACK OBAMA | ABRAHAM LINCOLN |
|
| |
| Illinois lawyer | Illinois lawyer |
|
| |
| 8 years in Illinois State Senate | 8 year in Illinois State House of Representatives (1834-1842) |
|
| |
| 2 years in U.S. Senate | 2 years in U.S. House of Representatives |
|
| |
| Speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention on – among other things - similarities of people in the “red” and “blue” states. | Speech in 1860 at Cooper Union on – among other things - similarities of people in the northern and southern states |
2/19/2008
Strike Back!
Hillary is on the attack! Wait for it, she just may cry again. After the water-works trick worked so well in New Hampshire, she tried it again before Super Tuesday, and I suspect we'll see more tears before Texas and Ohio. She's holding up boxing gloves and accusing Barack of everything from stealing speech lines to copying her economic plan. Her campaign has contacted CNN and complained that she's being unfairly scrutinized while Obama is getting a free ride. These juvenile tactics aren't going to work. Does she really think we're that gullible, or is she simply that desperate? According to a February 12th New York Times article, “She has to win both Ohio and Texas comfortably, or she’s out,” said one super-delegate who has endorsed Mrs. Clinton, and who spoke on condition of anonymity to share a candid assessment. “The campaign is starting to come to terms with that.” Campaign advisers, also speaking privately in order to speak plainly, confirmed this view. So this is it, the final stretch. After losing eight straight contest in a row the great Clinton machine is showing signs of breaking down. The campaign is shaken and visibly so. Clinton's deputy campaign manager has stepped down, key super delegates have expressed interest in jumping over to the Obama side, and she can't get an endorsement out of Edwards. Yet we can't count out the Clinton's just yet. If anything they atre fighters and dirty fighters at that. Out of desperation, the Clinton campaign is lobbying the Democratic Party to reverse its prior decision and count the Florida and Michigan delegates in the final delegate count, despite their earlier disqualification. Before the primary season began the Democratic Party reached an agreement with its potential presidential candidates that they would not campaign in Florida or Michigan and that the delegates from those states would be meaningless. All the candidates agreed, which in effect, made the Florida and Michigan primaries a moot point, since none of their delegates could be used by any of the candidates vying for the nomination. The Clinton campaign was the main advocate for this “ban”, because at the time they felt that they were invincible and would have little competition from the other candidates. The cold hard truth is now Hillary is in danger of losing the nomination. Despite the fact that she went against her word by campaigning (and winning the non-races) in Florida and Michigan. The result of Super Tuesday (for the Clinton camp), was a loss of momentum over the last few weeks. Which has led to less money being raised, less positive talk in the news media, less volunteer sign-ups, and a lot less energy than Obama. She shook up her campaign by removing (or forcing the resignation of) her deputy campaign manager.
What Hillary fails to see is that this isn't just about Barack Obama, this is a movement for change. Obama's victories are both greater in number, and magnitude than Clinton's victories. The percentage in all contests as of now shows Obama performing much better on average. Obama's median percentage is 48.5% to Clinton's 32%. The disparity reflects Clinton's inability to perform well in smaller states, especially those holding caucuses. The average margin of victory in caucus states is even greater for Obama. There are hundreds of thousands of us who are tired of the same old bullshit! We're tired of the government revolving around the establishment elite. She wants to tout herself as experienced well what has she truly accomplished with all her years? How come things aren't better because of what ever it is she claims to have done? How has her experience helped shape the world so far? She failed at health care in the nineties even though she wasn't actually an elected official and should never have been involved in the process to begin with. As a Senator she has side with Bush on the War and on Tax cuts for the rich. She has signed her name on nearly ever bill that John McCain has. How will the two of them debate on the national scale? Obama's average vote share is not only high due to his strong performance in caucus states. He has also shown the ability to eat away at Clinton's lead in states that she was expected to dominate. For example, her margin of victory in her home state of New York and neighboring New Jersey was half that of Obama's margin in his own home state of Illinois. Perhaps as important as anything else in this non-election period, Hillary Clinton and her team have done a better job than anyone in modern political history at creating a narrative they want with the press corps. The media then writes and re-writes that story until it becomes (magically) conventional wisdom. With a campaign based in DC and a huge number of operatives who have twenty years of personal relationships with the national political press corps, it's no wonder that the national punditry has written of her brilliance in defusing the Iraq War issue and her inevitability in becoming the Democrats' nominee. No other candidate has that kind of lobbying power with the media -- they dine together, vacation together, work together -- and it has paid off. There will be a CNN debate on Thursday between Clinton and Obama, and my money is on some mud being slung-big time!
Why the focus shifts from Super delegates to eleged plagiarism, the Clinton camp can not escape the fact that Barack Obama’s campaign is on track to raise more than $30 million in February, while Hillary Clinton’s had to loan her own campaign $5 million. “Obama’s financial superiority is straining the Clinton campaign at this point. That’s reflected in how he spread the field on her in Super Tuesday. His ability to advertise in more states than she did, to put more resources on the ground than she did,” gave Obama an edge, said Anthony Corrado, an expert on campaign finance at Colby College. This is something that the super delegates will look at. Can you really hang your hat on a nominee who can't even raise enough money to compete in the primaries, when you have a candidate who people are more than willing to trow money at. It's because Barack Obama unites progressives, independents and Democrats, and discourages rather than unifies Republicans. He unites independents, the young, minorities, and progressives alike. And unlike Hillary, he will not unify the GOP, and indeed will take Republican votes. I have a friend who said that her mother whom has voted Republican for twenty-years voted for Barack Obama in the primaries here in Missouri. This is incredible, it has nothing to do with momentum this is a national surge for change and the people are saying that they are tired of politics as usual. In the polls Barack Obama can beat John McCain, Hillary can not.
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2/01/2008
That's why I'm in it!
*Previously in this blog
I've tried to highlight the achievements of one Barack
Obama. I have detailed his accomplishments in the Illinois State
Senate and the Us Senate. Now I would like to highlight his plan for
America and how this country would be better off, under his bold
vision. It would be long and nearly impossible to read if I simply
repeated his plan as posted on his website.
But feel free to go over and read it all yourself in detail. I highly
recommend you download each of his PDFs
and see for yourself the great stuff he's got planned. The only way
its going to happen though is if we stop Hillary and Obama receives
the Democratic nomination. Edwards
dropped
out this morning so now it's down to two.
Super
Tuesday is
next week and if you live in one of the ST states I hope you will be
voting and letting your voice be heard. Change is possible if you
have hope-the man says.
What I can do is give those of you too lazy to read
for yourself a slight overview of the plan and highlight the major
talking points. There are some truly radical things included, like
fixing the Drug Code1
and ending the disparity between crack and powdered cocaine
sentencing, and reforming mandatory minimums. That's mainly for us
colored folks though. There's tons of stuff on equal rights and
increasing opportunities for women and minorities. But lets start at
the beginning. This weeks hot topic-the economy. Now, I now most of
you don't own your own hoe or have mortgages but there are bigger
things at stake than whether suburban dads can keep their credit
scores up. I've put together a quick run down of what could be, if
you have the courage to elect the only candidate ready for real
change. What we don't need are more typical empty promises. Barack
has a practical plan, and not just hallow rhetoric like some other
candidate.
On economy; Obama plans to cut income taxes by $1000, for
working families. Unlike the Bush tax cuts which gave cuts only to
individuals earning over $1 million a year. Obama will provide over
150 million workers (like you and me), the tax relief we need.
Obama wants to create a
“Making Work Pay”
tax credit. Similar to the $100 million Earned Income Tax Credit,
he passed while in the Illinois Senate. The bill provided each
individual taxpayer a credit against the Illinois Tax Act in an
amount equal to 5% of the federal income tax credit allowed.
Increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit, will make sure that
full-time workers earn a living wage that allows us to raise our
families and pay for basic needs. Along side of that Obama plans to
raise the minimum wage, and index it to inflation. He stated
November 10, during a speech in Des Moines, Iowa that; “I'm
in this race to take those tax breaks away from companies that are
moving jobs overseas and put them in the pockets of hard working
Americans who deserve it. And I won't raise the minimum wage every
en years-I will raise it to keep pace so that workers don't fall
behind. That is why I am in it. To protect the American worker. To
fight for the American worker.” This applies to the rest
of us, for those of us lower on the totem pole. Barack also plans
to ensure our freedom to unionize., fight attacks on workers rights
to organize, and protect striking workers. Obama co-sponsored the
Employee
Free Choice Act,
a bipartisan effort to assure that workers can exercise their right
to organize. Obama has fought the Bush Administrations National
Labor Relations Board
, and their efforts to strip workers of their right to organize.
Obama also plans to expand the Family
and Medical Leave Act.
This will provide low-income families with a refundable tax
credit to help with their child-care expenses, and encourage
flexible work schedules. Strengthening the economy only begins with
the worker it also extends to trade, technology, bankruptcy reform,
credit cards and this weeks buzz topic home ownership. Obama plans
to fight for fair trade not just free trade. He plans for a trade
policy that opens up foreign markets to support American jobs. He
will use trade agreements to spread positive labor and environmental
standards around the world. He stands firm against bad agreements
like the Central
American Free Trade Agreement,
that failed at these important standards. Obama believes that 2
and it's potential were oversold to the American public and he will
work to fix NAFTA so that it works for American workers. Obama
also wants to improve transition assistance by extending it to the
service industries where I work. Creating flexible education
accounts to help workers retrain before they lose their jobs.
Barack Obama also suports job creation, he plans to double federal
funding for basic research. And make the research and development
tax credit permanent, to help create high-paying, secure jobs. Obama
plans to make long term investments in education, training, and
workforce development. He wishes to invest in US. Manufacturing,
create new job training programs for clean technologies, boost the
renewable energy sector and create new jobs. Obama genuinely wants
to restore strength to our ailing economy. The current hot topic in
the media is housing crisis. Obama plans to create a universal
mortgage credit. A 10% credit to provide tax relief to homeowners
who do not itemize. This credit will provide an average of $500 to
10 million homeowners, the majority of whom earn less than $50,000 a
year. This is more than the band-aide currently being attempted. The
current bill in debate calls for one-time tax rebates to go
primarily to individuals making less than $75,000 and to married
couples making less than $150,000. It does not as Obama would have
call for accountability in the sub-prime mortgage industry. He has
introduced comprehensive legislation over a year ago to fight
mortgage fraud, and protect consumers against abusive lending
practices. His Stop
Fraud Act
provided the first federal definition of mortgage fraud, increasing
funding for federal and state law enforcement programs. He's created
new criminal penalties for mortgage professionals found guilty of
fraud, and requires industry insiders to report any suspicious
activity. Obama also plans to close the bankruptcy loopholes for
mortgage companies, create funds to help homeowners avoid
foreclosures, and mandate accurate loan disclosures.On Health Care; Now I admit to me this
is one of the most important topics. I haven't been to a doctor
since I was in prison, and much of that is due to the fact that I
simply can not afford it. Health care comes at a price that most of
us can not afford. Health insurance premiums have risen four times
faster than wages in the past six years. Nearly 11 million of those
with insurance , last year ended up spending a quarter of their
salary on health care. The increasing co-pays and deductibles
threaten acces to health care for any but the wealthy. Over half of
all personal bankruptcies are caused by rising medical bills.
There's a lot of hype surrounding the issue, and as the two
candidates slug it out over their respective plans. I've broken down
the talking points of Senator Obama's and stood them next to
Hillary's so you be the judge. First just how “universal”
can we expect either of their health-care plans to be? Obama's plan
creates various mechanisms to make sure that both private and public
insurance is more available. Clinton's plan sort of does the same
thing, but it also creates a “individual mandate”. She
would require that every one buy health insurance. Obama also
creates a mandate, but only for children. Under Obama's plan we
would remain free to buy insurance or not. The main argument here is
that how would one enforce a insurance mandate. Would not having
insurance be punishable by jail time? Or would you get a ticket for
walking with out insurance (much like driving with out it)? Obama's
resistance to the “individual mandate” makes perfect
sense. Hillary has no outline for how she would even enforce her
mandate, which in itself make s me both nervous and suspicious as to
how committed she actually is. There is a lot of debate as to
whether the government can mandate that you have health-care.
Forcing people to pay for health care will be hard enough. The most
obvious and logical solution is to make health insurance a function
of the government, as it is for the poor and elderly. There's
nothing odd about the government collecting insurance premiums in
the form of taxes for Medicare or Medicaid. Yet this presents
Republicans with the argument that “Big Government”
will steal your wages if you don't buy insurance! And they would be
right, but what's more important here is the question. Public health
is an issue that effects us all. There's nothing I hate more than
being on the bus with people sneezing and coughing all around me, or
riding the train touching poles that good knows what has been wiped
on. Clinton and Obama both have plans that would steadily enlarge
the role of government in health insurance. These are accommodations
to the political reality. Senator Clinton advocates incremental
reform. The best argument there is that it probably won't work and
that's when the federal government would step in and take over. Her
plan consist not of one big idea but several small ones, most of
them familiar. Hillary purposes a competition between private plans
and a public plan. Senator Obama would establish a National
Health Insurance Exchange that would create “rules
and standards for participating insurance plans”. Meaning that
anyone could buy private health insurance through the NHIE, and be
guaranteed a certain price (on a sliding scale) with a certain bit
of coverage. The participating insurers would not be permitted to
exclude customers with pre-existing medical conditions. Oddly enough
this is based partly on the Massachusetts health-care plan that was
signed into law by former Governor
Mitt Romney, himself on the presidential trail. The hazard,
however, with regulatory services in general is that the more
complex they are the more they are susceptible to pressure from
lobbyist. The cost of Hillary's plan is around $110 billion while
Barack's stands at $50 to$65 billion. Which is the biggest
difference between the two. Both Senators plan to pay for their
respective plans by allocating the funds from the Bush tax cuts that
expire at the end of 2010. Obama would also invest $50 billion over
five years to accelerate the adoption of electronic health records,
a vital and necessary reform that would reduce medical errors and
hopefully save lives. It would also save money by avoiding needless
duplication. Such as blood test that are preformed more than once
because of lost paper work. Obama and Hillary both cite a Rand
Corporation study that predicts saving up to $77 billion a year. A
similar proposal from the two would allow Medicare to negotiate
prescription drug prices, producing savings as high as $30 billion
annually. Implementing Obama's plan though would cost employers only
if they refused to provide health-care for their workers. It would
require them to contribute a percentage of payroll to the new public
health plan. Obama would however limit the liability of small
businesses for “catastrophic” care expenses. Obama care
would be great for employers because the public insurance part
would take care of providing care to their employees. Obama also
wants to invest in prevention, support disease management programs,
coordinate and integrate care, and require full transparency about
quality and cost. The most important and least talked about part of
Obama's plan is the public insurance part, because it's portable.
You can remain in the plan even if you change jobs.
I'm going to have to save my third talking point
the Iraq situation! For another time I'm running long and have to get
to work. Pray I don't get hit by a bus I still don't have health
care!
1The
'National Drug Code' (NDC) is a universal product identifier used in
the United
States
for drugs intended for human
use. The Drug Listing Act of 1972[1]
requires registered drug establishments to provide the Food
and Drug Administration
(FDA) with a current list of all drugs manufactured, prepared,
propagated, compounded, or processed by it for commercial
distribution. Drug products are identified and reported using the
NDC
2The
North American Free Trade Agreement
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
eliminated the majority of tariffs on products traded among the
Canada,
United
States
and Mexico,
and gradually phases out other tariffs
over a 10-year period. Restrictions were to be removed from many
categories, including motor
vehicles,
computers,
textiles,
and agriculture.
The treaty
also protects intellectual
property rights
(patents, copyrights, and trademarks), and outlines the removal of
investment
restrictions
among the three countries. The agreement is trilateral in nature
(that is, the terms apply equally to all countries) in all areas
except agriculture,
in which stipulations, tariff reduction phase-out periods and
protection of selected industries, were negotiated on a bilateral
basis. Provisions regarding worker and environmental protection were
added later as a result of supplemental agreements signed in 1992.
NAFTA was an expansion of the earlier Canada-US.
Free Trade Agreement
of 1988. NAFTA is a treaty under international law, though under
United States law it is classed as a congressional-executive
agreement
rather than a treaty.
1/25/2008
This is not prophecy, but description
Recently it was brought to my attention that I have spent too much time expounding on the reasons you shouldn't vote for Hillary. Not enough time telling you why you should vote for Barack. In an effort to correct this I have compiled a list of his accomplishments garnered from around the world wide web. I will follow this with a look at his plans for a better America. "America is woven of many strands; I would recognize them and let it so remain. It's 'winner take nothing' that is the great truth of our country or of any country. Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat. Our fate is to become one, and yet many -- This is not prophecy, but description."1
To start with, he was born in Hawaii in 1961, his father was a Kenyan student who met his American mother while they attended the same university. His father left his mother when he was but two years old. He later died in a car accident in 1982. Barack himself, graduated from Columbia University in 1983. After college he worked briefly for the Business International Corp. and something called the NYPIRG, before moving to Chicago to take a job as a community organizer. He became the director of the Developing Communities Project. There he worked with low-income residents in Chicagos public housing developments. “No body else running for president has jumped off the career track for three or four years to actually help people” says Jerry Kellman, who first hired Obama as a community organizer. In 1988 he left Chicago for Harvard where he would go on to become the first black president(foreshadowing), of the Harvard Law Review in it's 104 year history. He graduated magnum cum laude from Harvard in 1991. Obama then returned to Chicago to direct a voter registration drive. An effort that added tens of thousands of people to the rolls. the bills though he took an associate attorney position with the firm Miner, Barnhill and Galland from 1993 to 96. There he represented community organizers, discrimination claims, and voting rights cases. Obama also worked on a case of a young whistle-blower who lost her job after exposing waste and corruption in a medical research project. That whistle-blower won a $5 million settelment. He also found time to lecture constitutional law at the University of Chicago from 1993 up until his election to the US. Senate in 2004. Obama also suffered the loss of his mother to Ovarian Cancer in 1995. The same year he published his first best selling memoir “Dreams of My Father”.
In 1996 Barack was elected to Illinois State Senate, when Democrats where a minority. He was reelected in 1998 and 2002 resigning in 2004 following his election to the US. Senate. His Illinois Senate accomplishments have been largely ignored. By the kind of Washington snobbery that doesn't take state legislatures seriously. As a state legislator he gained bipartisan support for legislation he sponsored. Obama's accomplishments are more substantial and varied than Hillary Clinton would dare suggest. He has a longer record in elected office than she does as a second term New York Senator. He helped pass complicated measures in the Illinois State legislature on death penalty, racial profiling, health care, and more. He particularly had success in passing legislation that sharply restricted the gifts that Illinois politicians could accept from lobbyist. The Gift Ban act was the first major new restriction in Illuinois notoriously weak ethics laws since Watergate. When the Dems gained majority in the Senate, Obama's political mentor, Senate President Emil Jones, gave him high profile assignments, including continuous issues involving police videotaping interrogations and racial profiling. Obama proposed requiring that interrogations and confessions be videotaped. The police proved to be his biggest opponents, but by showing officers that he shared many of their concerns, even going as far as helping to pass other legislation that they wanted, he was able to silence any fears they had. The bill passed both houses by 35 to 0. He played a major role in passing many other bills, including the state's first earned-income tax credit to help the working poor. One Republican State Senator remarked that “Barack had a way both intellectually and in demeanor that defused skeptics.”
Obama began as only a part-time state Senator in that he served in the Illinois legislature at the same time he practiced law. He became a full time state lawmaker in 1997, a full four years before Hillary's entrance into “elected” office. The health-care legislation, in which Obama helped shepherd through the Illinois Senate helped expand coverage to 70,000 children and 84,000 adults. It also made permanent Illinois' Kid Care program, raisining the eligibility rate from 185% to 200% of the federal poverty level. He was the chief sponsor of the Hospital report Card Act, a bill that provides requirements for staffing level nurses to ensure that the number of nurses is consistent with the types of nursing care needed and the capabilities of the staff. The bill also contained requirements for orientation, training, whistle blower protection and requires hospitals to prepare a quarterly report detailing specific information as a condition of licensor. Obama said “If I wanted to go eat out in a restaurant, I can go online and find out details about the number and type of health code violations a restaurant has been cited for...But if I need to go to a hospital for open heart surgery I can't find out what the surgical infection rate has been in that hospital. I'd say a lot more is at stake when I go for surgery than when I go out to diner.” Along with his Law on video taping interrogation, he also passed a overhaul of the Death penalty in Illinois. Obama was the Chief cosponsor of a bil that let judges rule out the death sentence for someone convicted solely on the testimony of a jail house informant, accomplice, or single witness. It also aloud the State Supreme Court to overturn a death sentence that is ruled fundamentally unjust, and reduces the crimes eligible for the death penalty by focusing on “Inherently violent” offenses. The bill also expands defendants access to genetic evidence used against them, and bans police officers from the force if they commit perjury in a murder case. It also requires juries to consider the defendants history of abuse or mental illness before imposing a death sentence. Along with those two he also was the chief sponsor in a bill that requires law enforcement in Illinois to record the race, age, and gender of all drivers they stop for traffic violations. To be analyzed by IDOT for evidence of racial profiling and then sent to the Governor. The Bill also incorporated the racial and ethnic sensitivity training for all law enforcement personnel.
In 2003 Obama began his run for the US. Senate and in November he received 70% of the vote, the largest electoral victory in Illinois history. Obama wrote and delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts while serving as a state legislator. The speech was his introduction to America as a whole. It's enthusiastic reception gave him instant celebrity status. He was sworn in as a Senator on January 4, 2005. Only the fifth African American Senator in United States History, and the third to be popularly elected. He is currently the only African American currently serving in the US. Senate. During his campaign he received the endorsement of the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police whom had been some of his toughest opponents.
When Obama was elected to the US. Senate, he said he wished to get things done rather than grab headlines, and cited Hillary Clinton as the sort of “workhorse” he wanted to be. Barack sponsored 152 bills and resolutions brought before the 109th Congress in 2005 and 2006, and cosponsored another 427. He took a active role in the drive for improved border security and immigration reform. Beginning in 2005 he cosponsored the “Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act”, introduced by Republican Presidential hopeful, Senator John McCain. He later added three amendments to the “Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act” sponsored by Senator Arlen Specter. In September 2006 Obama supported a related bill called “The Secure Fence Act”, authorizing construction of fencing and other improvements in border security. President Bush signed the Secure Fence Act into law in October of 2006. Obama successfully introduced two initiatives bearing his name. “Lugar-Obama” bill expands the cooperative threat reduction concept to conventional weapons, including shoulder-fired missiles and anti-personnel mines. The “Coburn-Obama Transparency Act” provides for a web site, managed by the Office of Management and Budget, listing all organizations receiving Federal funds from 2007 onward. It also provides breakdowns by the agency allocating the funds, the dollar amount given, and the purpose of the grant or contract. As a member of the Senate foreign Relations Committee, Obama made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle east, and Africa. In August 2005, he traveled to Russia, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan. The trip focused on strategies to control the world's supply of conventional weapons, biological weapons, and weapons of mass destruction as a first line of defense against potential terrorist attacks. Following meetings with US military in Kuwait and Iraq in January 2006, Obama visited Jordan, Israel, and Palestine. At a meeting with Palestinian students two weeks before Hamas won the legislative election, he warned that “the United States will never recognize winning Hamas candidates unless the group renounced its fundamental mission to eliminate Israel.” In December of 2006, President Bush signed into law the first federal legislation to be enacted with Barack Obama as its primary sponsor, the “Democratic Republic of Congo Relief, Security, And Democracy Promotion Act”.
In the very first month of the newly Democrat controlled 110th Congress, Barack worked to eliminate gifts by lobbyist to members of Congress, and require disclosure of campaign contributions under the “Honest Leadership and Open Government Act.”. Which was signed into law in September 2007. He also sponsored a bill to criminalize deceptive practices in federal elections, including fraudulent flyers and automated phone calls, as was the case in the 2006 midterm elections. Environmentalist welcomed his sponsorship with John McCain of a climate change bill that would reduce greenhouse gas emmisons up to two-thirds by 2050. Obama was an early opponent of the Bush administrations policies on Iraq. In the Fall of 2002, (before the start of the Iraq War), he addressed an anti-war rally in Chicago, saying: “I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars.”2 Obama also introduced the “Iraq War De-Escalation Act”, a bill to cap troop levels in Iraq, and begin phased redeployment. The bill would also remove all combat brigades from Iraq before April 2008. Later in 2007, Obama sponsored an amendment to the 2008 “Defense Authorization Act” adding safe Guards for military discharges, and calling for a review by the Government Accounting Office, following reports that the procedure had been used inappropriately. He sponsored the “Iran Sanctions Enabling Act”, supporting divestment of state pension funds from Iran's oil and gas industry. And joined Republicans in introducing legislation to reduce risk of nuclear terrorism. A provision from the Obama-Hagel bill was passed by Congress in December 2007 as an amendment to the State-Foreign Operations appropriations bill. Obama also sponsored a Senate amendment to the State Children's Health Insurance Program, to provide one year of job protection for family members caring for soldiers with combat related injuries. After passing both houses of Congress with bipartisan majorites, SCHIP was vetoed by President Bush in early October of 2007, a move Obama said “...shows a callousness of priorites that is offensive to the ideals we hold as American.” The experience Obama brings to the table has already enabled him to surpass the US. Senate accomplishments of both Hillary and John Edwards combined. It's a record of success in bridging differences in the very same moving vein as his speeches.
1From the Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison; Epilogue, pg. 577
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