*Got a law passed that required that police interrogations be video-taped.
*He is said to have played a major role in getting an Earned Income Tax Credit passed in Illinois to help the poor.
*Helped Pass a campaign ethics and campaign finance reform law, Illinois first one in 25 years.
*He co-authored the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act (S. 2180) which would require an elected official or staff to wait two years before going to work as lobbyists, and would require them to report when negotiation began.
*The bill would also open conference committee meetings to the public and require that all bills be posted on the Internet for 24 hours before they can be voted on by the Senate.
*Finally, the bill would end all lobbyist-funded gifts, meals, and travel and strengthen the Senate office that monitors lobbyist disclosure forms.
*He proposed the The Congressional Ethics Enforcement Commission Act (S. 2259) which would create an outside ethics commission to receive complaints from the public on alleged ethics violations by members of Congress, staff, and lobbyists.
*The Transparency and Integrity in Earmarks Act (S. 2261) limiting the out-of-control use of earmarks.
That's only a 10th of what he has done.
Though it's true that maybe legislation isn't like real work.
For months, countless voices of reason have pointed out time and again, Obama is an empty suit (the cartoon is from March 2007 so don’t act surprise that Obama is devoid of substance). Obama is a fraud. He lacks experience. He has no relevant qualifications. He has no conviction other than his own political welfare.
His past behaviour is troublesome. He threw Alice Palmer and four others off the ballot. His rise through the labyrinth of Chicago politics took him down some worrisome alleys and forged alliances with a cast of characters include Louis Farrahkan, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the Reverend James Meeks, Antonin Rezko, Rashid Khalidi, William Ayers, and Bernardine Dohrn. Now he pals around with Donnie McClurkin, Father Michael Pfleger, and Jodie Evans.
For months committed liberals like Paul Krugman, in column after column, demonstrated how his proposals weren’t that progressive or even centrist. Obama has lobbyist connections and ties to the oil, gas, coal and nuclear industries.
The fact is that Senator Obama voted for the Bush-Cheney Energy Policy. The Washington Post called it “a piñata of perks for energy industries.” John McCain did not vote with his party. Hillary Clinton did not cross the aisle.
You were mired in a speech that Obama gave in 2002. I hope that speech keeps you warm the next four years because that’s is the extent of his progressive record, a speech. His real record is far more centrist (that reach out across the aisle and ream someone kind of record), or perhaps corporatist is a better choice of words. Six billion dollars in subsidies to the oil & gas industry and $12 billion in subsidies to nuclear power industry.
One has to wonder if he photocopied his energy plan from Dick Cheney and Charles Grassley. His health care plan is a misnomer, it’s an insurance plan. The beneficiary is the insurance industry. His votes in the Senate were more pro-Bush than Hillary’s, than Biden’s, than Dodd’s, than Edwards’. Progressive Punch ranked Obama the 42nd most progressive member of the Senate. There are 49 Democrats and one Socialist and one “Independent” in the Democratic Caucus. Forty-second out of 51. Funny how that is. Laughing yet?
Now, you are upset that he is backtracking. News flash: he says what he thinks will please his audience at the moment and then he does whatever he thinks will advance his career the most. And what a career it is. Zero legislative accomplishments. Zip. Name one. He has missed 42% of the votes in the Senate this year. Over the comparable period, Hillary missed 30%. That’s over a quarter more votes missed. Not trivial and by design. He and his handlers don’t want him to have a record to run on.
You think his vote on FISA was shocking. Really? He is the candidate of corporate interests, the candidate of the anti-Clinton Democratic establishment. You’re voting for Obama but getting Tom Dashcle. There’s a winner for you. You’re voting for Obama and getting Jesse Jackson, Jr. Another soulless Chicago politician.
Instead you left the ace of the Democratic Party in the dugout. You fools. Stop your crying and either attempt to salvage the situation or prepare yourselves for a McCain Presidency which from my point of view is preferable to an Obama one. Better the devil that I know than the devil that I don’t. I know what to expect from McCain.
But how can I trust that shiftless soulless hypocrite who with each passing day changes yet another of his positions? It’s backtracking with Barack. So far he’s trampled on the Fourth Amendment, a women’s right to choose, the health care of all Americans and now the cornerstone of what brung him to the dance in the first place, that magical speech in 2002 that had to be re-recorded so it could be replayed again and again and use your opposition to a fruitless war as his springboard to power.
But you will see McCain run as some cross between a Ford Republican and Reagan Republican. You are beginning that change now. McCain is taking energy policy, Obama is talking flag pins. And when Obama does try to talk policy, he ends up “revising” earlier statements. Not too clever this very junior Senator from Illinois. Obama is on his way being defined as well, let’s just say he is part Carter, part Dukakis and part Kerry and all Barack and not one iota of Clinton.
He is unelectable even before the 527s get started. Those will point to the Reverend Wright. How does he run from a twenty year association with Reverend Wright? The Wright of 1991 is no different than the Wright of 2001 or 2008. He’s the same man and the tapes are ready to go. Twenty years of Barack at Trinity ready to hit your television screens.
How does he run from William Ayers, an unrepentant terrrorist? How does he run from Jodie Evans, a wealthy divorcee who thinks it’s funny to sabotage Army recruiting centers? How does he run from that Bush-Cheney Energy Policy vote? Or his countless oil and gas connections? He is in the uneviable position of being attacked from both the left and the right and some of the center to boot. He has his cult and his handlers. That may be all he has in the end.
Do’h! We cudda hadda John Edwards! Yeah. But you let a stupid $400 haircut story in the media undo him. Yeah, well Clinton was the working class Democrat. So was Edwards. So was Kucinich. And Biden wasn’t bad either. Choices you had. Even as late as May.
We have a winner, ladies and gentleman. I have been saying this since January. It was evident then and it has been parcel post part of his campaign throughout. or Did you just WAKE UP from a 6 month hibernation?
Sad. Yeah, that’s the word. You’re despairing? Despair if he becomes President. That’s truly what must be avoided. When we have reached the point that John McCain is the sane choice, I am afraid despair is pointless. That line was crossed long ago.Obama is nothing but duplicitous.
Treating the electorate as grown-ups? What, by telling fairy tales in the land of hope and change? By telling you that you were the ones you had been waiting for. That was shameless flattery. Also out of Lenin’s playbook.
You have been deceived. You have been lied to. WAKE UP and doing something about it. Senator Biden, who is likely the most knowledgeable US Senator on both sides of the aisle on Iraq, told us that Obama didn’t have a plan, he had a dream. Senator Clinton had the endorsement of nearly 40 retired top members of the US Armed Forces, including two former Chief of Staffs because they knew she understood what it would take to do the groundwork so we can exit Iraq.
Obama's comments on Jerusalem at AIPAC would have set off riots in the Middle East and put both American lives and interests across the globe in jeopardy had he been President at the time. Words matter. Nuance matters. Precision is important and now he’s puzzled by how the media reads his every word. Unless you want to be the Hugo Chavez of the United States who spouts like some uncontrollable geyser, words need to be measured. But Obama is such a panderer that off the cuff he will fly and into the abyss we will go.
What Obama is proposing is a PARTNERSHIP between the government and private institutions to get a job done? What Obama is propsoing is a giveaway of taxpayer money to private institutions that proselytize. Government is in the business of assisting people in their lives. Churches are in the business of saving souls. The two are not complimentary. There is a Constitutional separation between Church and State. Your framing is blind acceptance of utter folly.
The KOOL-AID is strong in this one. Anyone who supports him now is blind to the dangers that Obama poses to civil liberties and human progress. And BLIND men are at their BLINDEST when they suddenly think that they can see.
The leader of the free world should instill confidence & inspire people as well as look & ACT presidential...Obama does this, McCain absolutely does NOT...Oh & BTW, McCain's positions change daily, (anything to try to win an election I guess), so the link below is usually updated - that is if they're fast enough..Have to move at breakneck speed to keep up w/McCain's flip-flops...
I just can't see for the life of me how the hell you can have any confidence in someone like John W McCain who is THE THIRD BUSH TERM....Yeah, I've repeated that, because it is TRUE...
Hopefully, unlike 2004, people won't vote against their own self interests this time....
Stop, take breadth and smell the coffee or whatever. McCain is at least realistic about problems facing us. Obambi's energy solution is biofuels (taking food of your table) and Wind (blowing up your ass).
Can't you conservatives come up with anything other than the kool-aid rhetoric - quite the stones to talk about kool-aid when your side gets its talking points from people like Limbaugh & Coulter..
Face it, Obama is a better candiate than John "Reagan-economically challenged, Sunni-Shia what's the difference, poster boy for anger management, I was against Rev. Falwell before I was for him" McCain....
It's true, he looks good in a suit, and he acts, (key word=act) like he thinks a president would, and he inspires confidence in people who know nothing. He's your man if you just want to feel good while you go down the drain.
There is no doubt McCain sucks as a candidate. I really wish the Dems would nominate an adult. It would be nice to have a decent choice.
it did'nt mean shit cuz he was a nobody at the time, but MORE importantly, he made his decision without having much of the facts. And they say Bush wings it????
And now fastforward a few years, he says he's going to Iraq to talk with the commanders on the ground and if necessary, he'll change his postion.
Of course the HumBamaCrats crap thier pants thinking this makes him smart. But what it really reveals is, once again, he's talking about stuff he knows nothing about.
And he has been ALL ALONG!!!
Why else would he be going to Iraq to learn what's going on?
...get nekkid and start the sexin' with his BBC. That would be the prudent course of action right now. It would certainly separate him from McCain sissy faccidity. Bar(eb)ack's all nice rigid member, all veiny and engorged with blood flow. Not to mention a dark complexion of about 50% Cacao.
BBC is an acronym for Big Black Cock, for those of you unfamiliar with cuckold speak. Republicans need no explanation, that's just the way they roll naturally. But you Dems need closed captioning when it comes to extended families. Don't player hate.
What should be do? They're over, can't be retracted, and they were the longest most expensive ever, with more information available to the public than ever before.
I'll remind you that McCain isn't his party's fittest candidate either. We can't make the primaries any longer, and we can't get people any more information than what's available now.
I heard the words "empty suit" in some unexpected places to start with. Its explosion now leads me to think it's the Republican Meme of the Month. Probably it's the Meme of the Season. I heard it first from independents-- from friends, who are susceptible to conservative info-viruses. Interesting how it becomes a main subject now.
I was the one who told fellow democrats that Obama was a pragmatist, just before they threw me off their board. Given his inexperience, I should hope he moves carefully, especially on what he does in Iraq.
You won't keep me from the polls by composing second-guesses over decisions. I don't despair at all about Obama. With all of this "you could have had Edwards, you could have had Hillary . . ." junk: Hillary's lie about ducking bullets on the tarmac disqualified her from contention. It messes up the meme to remind people of that, but obviously, we'd be reminded of it now if she were the nominee, with or without endorsements of 40 top military commanders, which I somehow think wouldn't be mentioned in a swiftboat op-ed like this.
"I was the one who told fellow democrats that Obama was a pragmatist, just before they threw me off their board. Given his inexperience, I should hope he moves carefully, especially on what he does in Iraq."
Even your fellow lefties didn't want you around. That is just too funny. ROFLMFAO
...Since most of Obama's legislation was enacted in Illinois, most of the evidence is found there -- and it has been largely ignored by the media in a kind of Washington snobbery that assumes state legislatures are not to be taken seriously.
Consider a bill into which Obama clearly put his heart and soul. The problem he wanted to address was that too many confessions, rather than being voluntary, were coerced -- by beating the daylights out of the accused.
Obama proposed requiring that interrogations and confessions be videotaped. This seemed likely to stop the beatings, but the bill itself aroused immediate opposition. There were Republicans who were automatically tough on crime and Democrats who feared being thought soft on crime. There were death penalty abolitionists, some of whom worried that Obama's bill, by preventing the execution of innocents, would deprive them of their best argument. Vigorous opposition came from the police, too many of whom had become accustomed to using muscle to "solve" crimes. And the incoming governor, Rod Blagojevich, announced that he was against it. Obama had his work cut out for him.
The police tried to limit the videotaping to confessions, but Obama, knowing that the beatings were most likely to occur during questioning, fought -- successfully -- to keep interrogations included in the required videotaping.
Then he talked Blagojevich into signing the bill, making Illinois the first state to require such videotaping. --------- Obama noted that he sponsored successful death-penalty-reform legislation as a lawmaker in Springfield. That legislation, among other things, required the videotaping of homicide interrogations, and he promised to advocate for similar reforms on a national scale.
He backed federal legislation that would ban citizens from carrying weapons, except for law enforcement. He cited Texas as an example of a place where a law allowing people to carry weapons has "malfunctioned" because hundreds of people granted licenses had prior convictions.
said mandatory sentencing laws should be overturned to give judges more discretion and provide more equitable treatment for minorities. http://www.icadp.org/page236.html
See link below for much more. Warning: it's a very long read, hardly sparse accomplishments.
He voted against life saving measures for babies that managed to survive an abortion and be born alive. Your man BO wanted to have doctors just watch while the baby died.
... that the survival rate for a fetus born prior to the 23rd week is less than one percent. As I understand, there are also NO documented cases of a premie fetus living prior to the 22nd week. But a fetus that young could "survive" an abortion, but in the same sense that RFK "survived" being shot in the head.
Now, being informed of this, if I were a legislator seeing that bill, I would look very carefully at who is going to be paying hundreds of thousands of dollars of futile effort because the fetus might have drawn breath. Is it the taxpayer, the doctor, the clinic, the hospital, or the woman seeking the abortion?
that would ban citizens from carrying weapons, except for law enforcement." Well, the bastard can kiss my ass. I am sure he totally believes that the government owns my life and most pinko libs would agree with him but they can all kiss my ass. Does his "weapons" include fists and feet too? How about the fleet of foot, should they be shackled so that his jungle thugs don't have to exert themselves too much in running down their prey. How about the elderly, are they just an easy mark for his goons? What a piece of shit Osama Hussein is. My life belongs to me, not Hussein or his ilk.
He backs the total ban of handguns in our nations capital, he is against law abiding citizens carrying firearm for self defense, Where would I ever get the idea that Obama is an anti gunner?
You can't really think those are accomplishments, do you? Ban handgun carry, give me a break I have many friends that have licenses to carry and I certainly feel safe when I am with them.
Barbacks greatest accomplisment is that he has avoided indictment... no small feat considering the company that he keeps.
He did work and he did accomplish things; conservative disagreements with his accomplishments shouldn't be played as being no accomplishments.
Not only is it untrue, but there's a good practical self-interested reason Republicans shouldn't do this. You might make the mistake that Obama lacks a work ethic. It supports the fallacy that he's an empty suit. The more Republicans believe this the worse they are going to do because their strategy countering him is going to be totally wrong.
Michael Dukakis was an empty suit. Walter Mondale was an empty suit. Not Obama.
This guy hasn't done shit in his life other than hook up with Rezco and make some money. Another crooked politician from Cook County. Just think if Sam Giancana & Daley had not fixed the 1960 election where would we be today?
I'm not into alternate histories, but I tend to think that anything that might have put Richard Nixon into the Presidency eight years sooner would not have come out well. But then JFK, might still be alive, after serving eight years from '64 to '72. To be followed by his brother Robert, and then of course, good ol' Teddy. I don't think you'd savor that outcome.
*Got a law passed that required that police interrogations be video-taped.
*He is said to have played a major role in getting an Earned Income Tax Credit passed in Illinois to help the poor.
*Helped Pass a campaign ethics and campaign finance reform law, Illinois first one in 25 years.
*He co-authored the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act (S. 2180) which would require an elected official or staff to wait two years before going to work as lobbyists, and would require them to report when negotiation began.
*The bill would also open conference committee meetings to the public and require that all bills be posted on the Internet for 24 hours before they can be voted on by the Senate.
*Finally, the bill would end all lobbyist-funded gifts, meals, and travel and strengthen the Senate office that monitors lobbyist disclosure forms.
*He proposed the The Congressional Ethics Enforcement Commission Act (S. 2259) which would create an outside ethics commission to receive complaints from the public on alleged ethics violations by members of Congress, staff, and lobbyists.
*The Transparency and Integrity in Earmarks Act (S. 2261) limiting the out-of-control use of earmarks.
That's only a 10th of what he has done.
Though it's true that maybe legislation isn't like real work.
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