http://sweetness-light.com/archive/cpusa-and-obama-platforms-are-identical
Forget for the moment about Bill Ayers and Obama’s other Communist friends and mentors of the distant past.
Just behold the current ‘Election 2008′ brochure from the Communist Party Of The United States
Election 2008
Help Make History
Turn Our Country Around
A new day is dawning. Our country is at a turning point. This is a time of great possibility.
Issued as a public service by the Communist Party USA
The choice is clear. Stay with the Bush-McCain race to the bottom or raise up the whole country with a landslide defeat of the Republican ultra-right on November 4.
A new day is dawning. Our country is at a turning point. This is a time of great possibility. Across the land, people are coming together to reshape our nation’s priorities to make government “of, by and for the people” a reality.
From the Midwest to the South, from coast to coast, in big cities and rural communities voters have turned out in record numbers for change.
A landslide vote on November 4 can open the way to recovery from the very deep wounds of the Bush administration and decades of corporate right-wing control.
There is a crisis in every critical area of national life. Profits at the top are record high, but families can’t make ends meet. Trillions are squandered in Iraq, but 45 million are without health care. Billions are spent on tax breaks to the super rich, but working families are losing their homes and young people can’t afford higher education.
Working people want bold new policies to end war restore democratic traditions and create green living wage jobs, affordable housing, healthcare and quality education for everyone.
Republican John McCain, the candidate of the military industrial complex, will continue the Bush agenda. “100 years” in Iraq, Social Security privatization, and tax cuts for the rich. His Republican partners in Congress have blocked, stalled or gutted every bill that benefits working people since they lost majority control in 2006.
Although the ultra-right is weakened and divided, they continue to push fear, division, racism and anti-immigrant bigotry in this year’s elections, aided and abetted by the corporate media. These multi-pronged poisonous tactics can only be overcome with unbreakable unity.
The choice is clear. Stay with the Bush-McCain race to the bottom or raise up the whole country with a landslide defeat of the Republican ultra-right on November 4.
Voters are demanding a new kind of politics to rebuild our country for the common good. A democratic spirit of unity and hope is inspiring millions to get involved.
During the Great Depression of the 1930’s, unemployed workers and their allies marched and organized until public works jobs, Social Security and New Deal programs were won. In the 1960’s the great civil rights movement won the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.
In 2008, union members, African Americans, Latinos, youth and women, seniors, environmental and peace voters are forging a powerful new all encompassing movement that makes great changes possible.
Help make history. Talk with co-workers, neighbors, friends and family. Volunteer to knock on doors, make calls, get online to turnout a landslide defeat of the Republican ultra-right on November 4, and keep the movement going.
EMERGENCY PROGRAM TO REPAIR, RENEW AND REBUILD
We offer these proposals as a contribution toward the bold policy changes necessary to meet the immediate needs of working people, eliminate poverty and move our country forward with a new President and Congress. Funding to come from monies now being spent on the Iraq war, military budget and tax breaks to the super rich.
1. Immediate Relief
A moratorium on foreclosures and evictions. Reset mortgages so payments are affordable. No bail outs for banks.
Extend unemployment compensation, increase payments and eligibility. Increase food stamps, WIC, children’s health insurance, and low income energy assistance.
Assist deficit-ridden state and local governments so they can preserve services and jobs. Fund “ready-to-go” infrastructure projects.
EMERGENCY PROGRAM TO REPAIR, RENEW AND REBUILD
2. A Peacetime, Green Jobs Economy for All
Enact massive public works job creation to make existing buildings energy efficient, construct new schools, hospitals, affordable housing, mass transit and bridges. Priority to areas hurt by loss of manufacturing, loss of family farms and highest unemployment areas including the Katrina-devastated Gulf Coast.
Major clean, affordable energy development project for solar, wind and biomass electricity generation. Immediate program to cut greenhouse gas emissions and for environmental cleanup. Restore Federal energy regulation and encourage public ownership of utilities.
Enact the Employee Free Choice Act to enable workers to form unions without intimidation and win higher wages and benefits, dignity and respect.
Enact HR 676 the US National Health Insurance Act to provide universal health insurance with single-payer financing. Fully fund public education from pre-school through higher education and technical training. No privatization of Social Security or Medicare. Expand and improve benefits.
3. Restore Civil Rights, the Bill of Rights and Separation of Powers
Restore Civil Rights Act enforcement, affirmative action in employment, education, and housing. End the “school to prison” pipeline. Outlaw hate crimes. Preserve Roe v. Wade.
Pass immigration reform with legalization, a path to citizenship, due process, no militarization of the borders, and no exploitative guest worker programs. No human being is illegal.
Repeal Patriot Act. Restore Habeas Corpus rights. No more torture. Investigate and prosecute Bush administration violations of the Constitution.
Expand voting rights. Enact publicly financed elections, same day registration, voting rights for ex-felons, verifiable voting equipment, and instant runoff voting. Restore Fairness Doctrine in media.
4. Strength through Peace
Withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq with no bases or U.S. corporations left behind. Full care for returning veterans. No war on Iran or expansion of troops in Afghanistan. Assistance to Iraqi people to rebuild their country.
Adopt a new foreign policy of diplomacy and respect for all nations, instead of preemptive war for corporate interests. Renew commitment to UN peace role.
End trade policies that enrich corporations while destroying jobs. Ratify Kyoto Treaty and other climate change agreements.
Enforce nuclear non-proliferation, work to abolish nuclear weapons. Cut Pentagon spending in half, close down US bases around the world.
Vote November 4 as if your life, and your future, depend on it!
Defeating the right wing is the first step in the struggle to end exploitation, poverty, racism and war inherent in capitalism.
The Communist Party USA and Young Communist League participate in today’s movements confident that they set the stage for more fundamental change tomorrow.
Throughout our 88-year history we have defended the interests of the working class, fighting for unity and democratic rights. Today we are guided by our motto, “People and Nature Before Profits.”
Our vision is a socialist USA, that opens the way for equality, world peace, real democracy, a society in which people control their own destinies in a sustainable world.
For our full program visit http://www.cpusa.org
We invite you to join us. Issued as a public service by the Communist Party USA
For comments or more information call: 212-989-4994 or e-mail: politicalaction@cpusa.org
Young Communist League http://www.yclusa.org
Peoples Weekly World / Nuestro Mundo http://www.pww.org
Political Affairs http://www.politicalaffairs.net
In case anyone is confused about the ultimate goals of the CPUSA, they have been kind enough to post online their “Program Of The Communist Party USA.”
Maybe we should offer a prize to anyone who can find one scintilla of divergence between what the CPUSA want and what Obama and the rest of the Democrats want.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Biden Bill to Blame for Foreclosure Crisis
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/biden-bill-to-blame-for-foreclosure-crisis
Should Biden Share Blame for Foreclosure Crisis?
Experts: Many Americans Lost Homes Due to a Bill Championed by Biden
By JUSTIN ROOD
August 28, 2008—Experts say hundreds of thousands of Americans may have lost their homes due to a bill championed by Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., Barack Obama’s vice-presidential running mate.
At least two studies have concluded that the United States’ foreclosure crisis was exacerbated by a 2005 law that overhauled the nation’s bankruptcy law. That conclusion is echoed by other experts, although the banking and credit industry disputes it.
Congressional Republicans drove the effort to pass the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) of 2005. But Biden who has enjoyed hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from credit industry executives endorsed the measure early on and worked to gather Democratic support for it.
Biden’s early and vocal support was “essential” to the bill’s passage, said Travis Plunkett of the Washington D.C.-based advocacy group Consumer Federation, which opposed the measure. Biden “went out of his way to undermine criticism of the legislation,” and his efforts helped convince other Democrats to support the bill.
“Biden was a fairly strong proponent of that bankruptcy bill,” said Philip Corwin, a consultant for the American Bankers Association, which represents banks and lenders. However, Biden was “not in our pocket in any way,” he added.
Biden’s Senate office did not provide comment for this story.
Asked if the Obama/Biden campaign was concerned Biden’s record was a liability when discussing economic security, David Wade, a spokesman for the Obama/Biden campaign, said, “Barack Obama and Joe Biden have real solutions for struggling families in danger of losing their homes because of the Bush economy and abusive lending practices.”
BAPCPA “is directly responsible for the rising foreclosure rate since the end of 2005,” concluded a 2007 study by Credit Suisse. The law “increased foreclosures and the number of homes for sale,” echoed a July 2008 study by U.S. Treasury researcher David Bernstein. That study estimated the law had pushed foreclosures or forced sales on 200,000 homeowners since it went into effect, but noted that was a rough, “back-of-the-envelope” calculation…
The bill was backed by banks and credit card companies including MBNA, which is headquartered in Delaware, Biden’s home state. They wanted the bill because it would make it harder for Americans to use bankruptcy to avoid repaying credit card debt. MBNA executives had been Biden’s single largest source of campaign donations, and MBNA has employed Biden’s son Hunter as a company executive, lobbyist and consultant. The Obama campaign has said Hunter Biden did no work for MBNA on the bankruptcy bill. MBNA has since been bought by Bank of America.
Over the past two years, sub-prime mortgage borrowing and a weakening economy have pushed increasing numbers of Americans into dire financial straits. Under the old rules, many could have declared bankruptcy, shed much of their debt, restructured their mortgages and held onto their homes, according to experts and the two reports.
But the 2005 law Biden championed made it more expensive and more difficult to declare bankruptcy, experts conclude. That forced hundreds of thousands of distressed homeowners to sell their homes, or default on their mortgages, after which the bank would sell their former home, according to the studies. That flood of homes going up for sale in an already-weakening market further depressed home prices, according to the two reports, snowballing into the current crisis.
BAPCPA “increased home foreclosures, increased the dollar value of financial assets in default, and put additional downward price pressure on real estate markets,” concluded the Bernstein report. Bernstein conducted the report as an individual, not as a representative the Treasury Department.
You can bet that this errant report from ABC is the first and last we will ever hear about this.
Should Biden Share Blame for Foreclosure Crisis?
Experts: Many Americans Lost Homes Due to a Bill Championed by Biden
By JUSTIN ROOD
August 28, 2008—Experts say hundreds of thousands of Americans may have lost their homes due to a bill championed by Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., Barack Obama’s vice-presidential running mate.
At least two studies have concluded that the United States’ foreclosure crisis was exacerbated by a 2005 law that overhauled the nation’s bankruptcy law. That conclusion is echoed by other experts, although the banking and credit industry disputes it.
Congressional Republicans drove the effort to pass the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) of 2005. But Biden who has enjoyed hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from credit industry executives endorsed the measure early on and worked to gather Democratic support for it.
Biden’s early and vocal support was “essential” to the bill’s passage, said Travis Plunkett of the Washington D.C.-based advocacy group Consumer Federation, which opposed the measure. Biden “went out of his way to undermine criticism of the legislation,” and his efforts helped convince other Democrats to support the bill.
“Biden was a fairly strong proponent of that bankruptcy bill,” said Philip Corwin, a consultant for the American Bankers Association, which represents banks and lenders. However, Biden was “not in our pocket in any way,” he added.
Biden’s Senate office did not provide comment for this story.
Asked if the Obama/Biden campaign was concerned Biden’s record was a liability when discussing economic security, David Wade, a spokesman for the Obama/Biden campaign, said, “Barack Obama and Joe Biden have real solutions for struggling families in danger of losing their homes because of the Bush economy and abusive lending practices.”
BAPCPA “is directly responsible for the rising foreclosure rate since the end of 2005,” concluded a 2007 study by Credit Suisse. The law “increased foreclosures and the number of homes for sale,” echoed a July 2008 study by U.S. Treasury researcher David Bernstein. That study estimated the law had pushed foreclosures or forced sales on 200,000 homeowners since it went into effect, but noted that was a rough, “back-of-the-envelope” calculation…
The bill was backed by banks and credit card companies including MBNA, which is headquartered in Delaware, Biden’s home state. They wanted the bill because it would make it harder for Americans to use bankruptcy to avoid repaying credit card debt. MBNA executives had been Biden’s single largest source of campaign donations, and MBNA has employed Biden’s son Hunter as a company executive, lobbyist and consultant. The Obama campaign has said Hunter Biden did no work for MBNA on the bankruptcy bill. MBNA has since been bought by Bank of America.
Over the past two years, sub-prime mortgage borrowing and a weakening economy have pushed increasing numbers of Americans into dire financial straits. Under the old rules, many could have declared bankruptcy, shed much of their debt, restructured their mortgages and held onto their homes, according to experts and the two reports.
But the 2005 law Biden championed made it more expensive and more difficult to declare bankruptcy, experts conclude. That forced hundreds of thousands of distressed homeowners to sell their homes, or default on their mortgages, after which the bank would sell their former home, according to the studies. That flood of homes going up for sale in an already-weakening market further depressed home prices, according to the two reports, snowballing into the current crisis.
BAPCPA “increased home foreclosures, increased the dollar value of financial assets in default, and put additional downward price pressure on real estate markets,” concluded the Bernstein report. Bernstein conducted the report as an individual, not as a representative the Treasury Department.
You can bet that this errant report from ABC is the first and last we will ever hear about this.
Hollywood Celebrities For Obama...
If you're not convinced about voting for McCain-Palin, click on this link and see what the intellectual brainpower of Hollywood have to say about this year's election.
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/suggested-mccain-ad-question-authority
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/suggested-mccain-ad-question-authority
Obama's Little Red Schoolhouse (The Audacity of Socialism, Part 8)
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, August 11, 2008 4:20 PM PT
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=303347424914951
Schools: While Obama's children enjoy the best education money can buy, he wants to deny inner-city children the education change we can believe in — school choice. He prefers cradle-to-diploma collectivist education.
When Barack Obama collected the endorsement of the American Federation of Teachers, he told the teachers that support for alternatives to the education monopoly amounted to "tired rhetoric about vouchers and school choice."
He recently told an interviewer that he opposes school choice because "although it might benefit some kids at the top, what you're going to do is leave a lot of kids at the bottom."
Not being left behind are Obama's daughters, who attend the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. There, tuition ranges from $15,528 for kindergarten to $20,445 for high school. When asked about it during last year's YouTube debate, Sen. Obama responded that it was "the best option" for his children. They had a choice Obama would deny others.
Obama has been completely silent about the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.
The D.C. School Choice Act of 2003 established the federally funded voucher program that provides vouchers of up to $7,500 for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. It lets students attend one of 60 participating nonpublic schools.
But it was funded only through the 2008-09 school year. Democrats such as D.C.'s delegate to Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton, want to kill the successful program, which shows that money is not the root of a good education.
Norton and Obama seem oblivious to the fact that District school spending is at $13,400 per student — third-highest in the nation. Yet in 2007, D.C. public schools ranked last in math scores and second-to-last in reading scores for all urban public school systems in the U.S., according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Norton is leading the charge to block a mere $18 million in funding for the 2009-10 school year. This demonstration program serves some 1,900 students. A recent Education Department report found that nearly 90% of Opportunity scholarship students had higher reading scores than peers who didn't receive a scholarship.
Not surprisingly, there are five applicants for every opening.
April Cole-Walton's daughter attends St. Peter's Interparish School thanks to an Opportunity Scholarship. "If I could talk to Sen. Obama," she says, "I would say, 'Give me a choice and give my daughter a chance.' "
Fat chance. Obama instead offers support for things like universal preschool, based on the idea that the earlier the government gets its hands on our children, the better off they will be. The nanny state will spend more money and pay for more teachers.
Obama also wants to create something called the American Opportunity Tax Credit to provide a "free" college education by ensuring that the first $4,000 of college tuition is covered for students from lower-income families. Each student will be required to put in 100 hours of "voluntary" national service a year to get the money.
Obama's buddy, former Weatherman terrorist William Ayers, has plans for the same captive student audiences Obama wants to keep captive. Now a tenured Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Illinois, Chicago, Ayers works to educate teachers in socialist revolutionary ideology, urging that it be passed on to impressionable students.
One of Ayers' descriptions for a course called "Improving Learning Environments" says a prospective K-12 teacher needs to "be aware of the social and moral universe we inhabit and . . . be a teacher capable of hope and struggle, outrage and action, teaching for social justice and liberation."
For his course "Urban Education," Ayers writes: "In a truly just society, there would be a greater sharing of the burden, a fairer distribution of material and human resources."
All of this sounds like Obama's plans for "economic justice" and redistribution of the nation's wealth.
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley has employed Ayers as a teacher trainer for the city's public schools. On his Web site, Obama describes Ayers as a "tenured professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a 'respected advisor to Mayor Daley on school reform.' "
And a future secretary of education, perhaps?
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=303347424914951
Schools: While Obama's children enjoy the best education money can buy, he wants to deny inner-city children the education change we can believe in — school choice. He prefers cradle-to-diploma collectivist education.
When Barack Obama collected the endorsement of the American Federation of Teachers, he told the teachers that support for alternatives to the education monopoly amounted to "tired rhetoric about vouchers and school choice."
He recently told an interviewer that he opposes school choice because "although it might benefit some kids at the top, what you're going to do is leave a lot of kids at the bottom."
Not being left behind are Obama's daughters, who attend the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. There, tuition ranges from $15,528 for kindergarten to $20,445 for high school. When asked about it during last year's YouTube debate, Sen. Obama responded that it was "the best option" for his children. They had a choice Obama would deny others.
Obama has been completely silent about the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.
The D.C. School Choice Act of 2003 established the federally funded voucher program that provides vouchers of up to $7,500 for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. It lets students attend one of 60 participating nonpublic schools.
But it was funded only through the 2008-09 school year. Democrats such as D.C.'s delegate to Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton, want to kill the successful program, which shows that money is not the root of a good education.
Norton and Obama seem oblivious to the fact that District school spending is at $13,400 per student — third-highest in the nation. Yet in 2007, D.C. public schools ranked last in math scores and second-to-last in reading scores for all urban public school systems in the U.S., according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Norton is leading the charge to block a mere $18 million in funding for the 2009-10 school year. This demonstration program serves some 1,900 students. A recent Education Department report found that nearly 90% of Opportunity scholarship students had higher reading scores than peers who didn't receive a scholarship.
Not surprisingly, there are five applicants for every opening.
April Cole-Walton's daughter attends St. Peter's Interparish School thanks to an Opportunity Scholarship. "If I could talk to Sen. Obama," she says, "I would say, 'Give me a choice and give my daughter a chance.' "
Fat chance. Obama instead offers support for things like universal preschool, based on the idea that the earlier the government gets its hands on our children, the better off they will be. The nanny state will spend more money and pay for more teachers.
Obama also wants to create something called the American Opportunity Tax Credit to provide a "free" college education by ensuring that the first $4,000 of college tuition is covered for students from lower-income families. Each student will be required to put in 100 hours of "voluntary" national service a year to get the money.
Obama's buddy, former Weatherman terrorist William Ayers, has plans for the same captive student audiences Obama wants to keep captive. Now a tenured Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Illinois, Chicago, Ayers works to educate teachers in socialist revolutionary ideology, urging that it be passed on to impressionable students.
One of Ayers' descriptions for a course called "Improving Learning Environments" says a prospective K-12 teacher needs to "be aware of the social and moral universe we inhabit and . . . be a teacher capable of hope and struggle, outrage and action, teaching for social justice and liberation."
For his course "Urban Education," Ayers writes: "In a truly just society, there would be a greater sharing of the burden, a fairer distribution of material and human resources."
All of this sounds like Obama's plans for "economic justice" and redistribution of the nation's wealth.
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley has employed Ayers as a teacher trainer for the city's public schools. On his Web site, Obama describes Ayers as a "tenured professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a 'respected advisor to Mayor Daley on school reform.' "
And a future secretary of education, perhaps?
Reparations By Another Name (The Audacity of Socialism, Part 7)
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=303088377885894
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Friday, August 08, 2008 4:30 PM PT
Election '08: Barack Obama says Washington shouldn't just offer apologies for slavery, but also "deeds." Don't worry, he says, he's not talking about direct reparations. Relieved? Don't be.
'I consistently believe that when it comes to . . . reparations," Obama recently told a gathering of minority journalists, "the most important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer words, but offer deeds."
A few days later, he clarified his remarks, saying he's not calling for direct cash payments to descendents of slaves, but rather indirect aid in the form of government programs that will "close the gap" between what he sees as white America and black America.
He says government should offer "universal" programs — such as universal health care, universal mortgage credits, college tuition, job training and even universal 401(k)s — that "disproportionately affect people of color."
In other words, reparations by another name.
Obama knows that if he pushes too hard on reparations, he might scare off white voters. So he couches race-specific welfare as "universal" social programs that appeal to broad-based political coalitions — "even if they disproportionately help minorities," he confides in his book, "Audacity of Hope."
Obama has a name for his scheme: "universal strategies."
"An emphasis on universal, as opposed to race-specific, programs isn't just good policy," he wrote. "It's also good politics."
Maybe so. But not all his plans for reparations are roundabout. His book and Web site outline a separate plan calling for essentially a government bailout of the inner cities. Among other things, he proposes:
• Doling out faith-based grants "targeting ex-offenders."
• Subsidizing supermarket chains that relocate to the inner city to deliver "fresh produce" to blacks, helping wean them off unhealthy fast food.
• Imposing "goals and timetables for minority hiring" on large corporations whose work forces are deemed too white.
• Continuing to fund the Community Development Block Grant program, Head Start and HUD public housing subsidies.
• Funding Small Business Administration loans for minority businesses who train ex-felons, including gangbangers, for the "green jobs" of the future, such as installing extra insulation in homes.
• Doubling the funding for federal after-school programs such as midnight basketball.
• Subsidizing job training, day care, transportation for inner-city poor, as well as doubling the funding of the federal Jobs Access and Reverse Commute program.
• Expanding the eligibility of the earned income tax credit to include more poor, and indexing it to inflation.
• Adopting entire inner-city neighborhoods as wards of the federal government.
• Spending billions on new inner-city employment programs, including prison-to-work programs.
This is just a down payment on the "economic justice" Obama has promised the NAACP — financed by "tax laws that restore some balance to the distribution of the nation's wealth," he says in his book.
And the indirect aid he's proposing now could quickly turn into cash transfers once Obama is safely ensconced in the White House.
Claiming "blacks were forced into ghettos," Obama is certainly sympathetic to the idea of reparations. His church has actively petitioned for them for decades. And he's strongly suggested there's a legal case to be made for them.
"So many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow," he said. "We still haven't fixed them."
He assumes the economic gap is a legacy of discrimination and largely unrelated to personal responsibility. He also makes it seem things haven't gotten better for blacks.
In this, Obama is intellectually dishonest. In his book, he cites statistics showing a 70% rise over the past two decades in the number of "Latino families considered middle class," but never cites one stat showing the even more impressive gains of the black middle class. He complains about low black wages, but never mentions the quantum leap in black home-ownership rates.
Why? Such stats would undermine his case for roundabout reparations. Even if it were true, he says, "better isn't good enough."
"The problems of inner-city poverty arise from our failure to face up to an often tragic past," Obama said.
Now it's payback time.
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Friday, August 08, 2008 4:30 PM PT
Election '08: Barack Obama says Washington shouldn't just offer apologies for slavery, but also "deeds." Don't worry, he says, he's not talking about direct reparations. Relieved? Don't be.
'I consistently believe that when it comes to . . . reparations," Obama recently told a gathering of minority journalists, "the most important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer words, but offer deeds."
A few days later, he clarified his remarks, saying he's not calling for direct cash payments to descendents of slaves, but rather indirect aid in the form of government programs that will "close the gap" between what he sees as white America and black America.
He says government should offer "universal" programs — such as universal health care, universal mortgage credits, college tuition, job training and even universal 401(k)s — that "disproportionately affect people of color."
In other words, reparations by another name.
Obama knows that if he pushes too hard on reparations, he might scare off white voters. So he couches race-specific welfare as "universal" social programs that appeal to broad-based political coalitions — "even if they disproportionately help minorities," he confides in his book, "Audacity of Hope."
Obama has a name for his scheme: "universal strategies."
"An emphasis on universal, as opposed to race-specific, programs isn't just good policy," he wrote. "It's also good politics."
Maybe so. But not all his plans for reparations are roundabout. His book and Web site outline a separate plan calling for essentially a government bailout of the inner cities. Among other things, he proposes:
• Doling out faith-based grants "targeting ex-offenders."
• Subsidizing supermarket chains that relocate to the inner city to deliver "fresh produce" to blacks, helping wean them off unhealthy fast food.
• Imposing "goals and timetables for minority hiring" on large corporations whose work forces are deemed too white.
• Continuing to fund the Community Development Block Grant program, Head Start and HUD public housing subsidies.
• Funding Small Business Administration loans for minority businesses who train ex-felons, including gangbangers, for the "green jobs" of the future, such as installing extra insulation in homes.
• Doubling the funding for federal after-school programs such as midnight basketball.
• Subsidizing job training, day care, transportation for inner-city poor, as well as doubling the funding of the federal Jobs Access and Reverse Commute program.
• Expanding the eligibility of the earned income tax credit to include more poor, and indexing it to inflation.
• Adopting entire inner-city neighborhoods as wards of the federal government.
• Spending billions on new inner-city employment programs, including prison-to-work programs.
This is just a down payment on the "economic justice" Obama has promised the NAACP — financed by "tax laws that restore some balance to the distribution of the nation's wealth," he says in his book.
And the indirect aid he's proposing now could quickly turn into cash transfers once Obama is safely ensconced in the White House.
Claiming "blacks were forced into ghettos," Obama is certainly sympathetic to the idea of reparations. His church has actively petitioned for them for decades. And he's strongly suggested there's a legal case to be made for them.
"So many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow," he said. "We still haven't fixed them."
He assumes the economic gap is a legacy of discrimination and largely unrelated to personal responsibility. He also makes it seem things haven't gotten better for blacks.
In this, Obama is intellectually dishonest. In his book, he cites statistics showing a 70% rise over the past two decades in the number of "Latino families considered middle class," but never cites one stat showing the even more impressive gains of the black middle class. He complains about low black wages, but never mentions the quantum leap in black home-ownership rates.
Why? Such stats would undermine his case for roundabout reparations. Even if it were true, he says, "better isn't good enough."
"The problems of inner-city poverty arise from our failure to face up to an often tragic past," Obama said.
Now it's payback time.
Another shameful democratic snub, led by the disgraceful Nancy Pelosi
Palin's Foreign-Policy Chops
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, September 22, 2008 4:20 PM PT
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=306978458113642
Leadership: If anything shows how Democrats are beneath their office, it's how they snubbed the visiting leader of Colombia on his current trip. Sarah Palin, by contrast, shows respect.
Based on their treatment of President Alvaro Uribe, who is here to plead for a free trade pact, it's almost as if Democrats don't want the U.S. to have allies. Uribe made a rare visit to Washington, and shamefully few Democrats agreed to meet him.
Uribe didn't come asking for much — only that Congress keep its word on an agreement that will drop tariffs on American goods sold in Colombia and help his country develop and prosper as a bulwark of democracy in a battered region.
"We consider that in the coming years if the free-trade agreement were approved . . . the main economic result could be the increase in investments in our country," Uribe told the Brookings Institution.
"And the more we increase legal investments in our country, the less difficult our task to defeat terrorist groups, to defeat illegal drugs."
Uribe also heads a country that last July put its own men in harm's way to free three innocent Americans held hostage by FARC Marxist terrorists. The rescue came off without a hitch or a shot being fired.
For that alone, Uribe should get his trade pact — with maybe a ticker tape parade thrown in for good measure.
But what he's getting from the Washington establishment is a lot less. President Bush did extend a warm welcome on Saturday, and Uribe also met with Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and some CEOs in Atlanta.
But Democrats did all they could to slight him, generally hiding and making lame excuses for doing so.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who arbitrarily iced Colombia's free trade deal last April, refused to meet Uribe and didn't acknowledge a White House invitation to an event in his honor. Later, her staff regally complained that Uribe didn't call her.
This is part of a pattern. For years, Pelosi has insulted, slighted, road blocked and now ignored Uribe, the most valuable ally the U.S. has ever had in Latin America. Her motives are constantly shifting.
One minute she's complaining about human rights abuses in Colombia, despite an 86% drop in the murder rate of union activists. Then she says it's all about passing stimulus packages first. The common thread is serving Big Labor special interests at election time.
This is what passes for Democratic leadership these days. Uribe urged nonpartisanship in considering Colombia's case for free trade, but lesser Democrats were just as craven and irresponsible as Pelosi.
Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama only grudgingly permitted Uribe to talk with him by telephone, afterward disclosing no news about why he still opposes cutting tariffs on American goods to Colombia as the free trade pact provides. Nor did he make any public statements, seemingly to make the call go unnoticed.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who's fond of junketing to the luxury locales in South America, had no time to repay the hospitality to Uribe. And two Democrats held out as Latin experts, Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, couldn't give Uribe the time of day.
Some pro-free-trade Democrats, including Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, were notable exceptions and did welcome Uribe. But none of the Democrats billed as foreign-policy heavy hitters could see that the implications of snubbing Colombia send a message to the region that it pays more to be America's enemy than its friend.
Into the vacuum, however, has stepped in Gov. Sarah Palin. The supposedly foreign-policy-challenged vice presidential candidate asked to meet with Uribe on Tuesday in New York to support our ally.
As chief executive of Alaska, Palin knows what it's like to deal with a Congress that dismisses her state as distant, lectures it on ecological virtue and then denies its citizens development. She understands perfectly how it must feel to be Uribe, who's gotten the exact same treatment from a Washington establishment.
Palin's reception of Uribe is a far more serious statement than Obama's visits to the tourist spots of Europe that he chalked up as foreign policy experience.
Palin's meeting with Uribe shows a commitment to American interests over Washington politics. Thank goodness Palin knows how to act when an important leader and true friend comes calling.
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, September 22, 2008 4:20 PM PT
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=306978458113642
Leadership: If anything shows how Democrats are beneath their office, it's how they snubbed the visiting leader of Colombia on his current trip. Sarah Palin, by contrast, shows respect.
Based on their treatment of President Alvaro Uribe, who is here to plead for a free trade pact, it's almost as if Democrats don't want the U.S. to have allies. Uribe made a rare visit to Washington, and shamefully few Democrats agreed to meet him.
Uribe didn't come asking for much — only that Congress keep its word on an agreement that will drop tariffs on American goods sold in Colombia and help his country develop and prosper as a bulwark of democracy in a battered region.
"We consider that in the coming years if the free-trade agreement were approved . . . the main economic result could be the increase in investments in our country," Uribe told the Brookings Institution.
"And the more we increase legal investments in our country, the less difficult our task to defeat terrorist groups, to defeat illegal drugs."
Uribe also heads a country that last July put its own men in harm's way to free three innocent Americans held hostage by FARC Marxist terrorists. The rescue came off without a hitch or a shot being fired.
For that alone, Uribe should get his trade pact — with maybe a ticker tape parade thrown in for good measure.
But what he's getting from the Washington establishment is a lot less. President Bush did extend a warm welcome on Saturday, and Uribe also met with Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and some CEOs in Atlanta.
But Democrats did all they could to slight him, generally hiding and making lame excuses for doing so.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who arbitrarily iced Colombia's free trade deal last April, refused to meet Uribe and didn't acknowledge a White House invitation to an event in his honor. Later, her staff regally complained that Uribe didn't call her.
This is part of a pattern. For years, Pelosi has insulted, slighted, road blocked and now ignored Uribe, the most valuable ally the U.S. has ever had in Latin America. Her motives are constantly shifting.
One minute she's complaining about human rights abuses in Colombia, despite an 86% drop in the murder rate of union activists. Then she says it's all about passing stimulus packages first. The common thread is serving Big Labor special interests at election time.
This is what passes for Democratic leadership these days. Uribe urged nonpartisanship in considering Colombia's case for free trade, but lesser Democrats were just as craven and irresponsible as Pelosi.
Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama only grudgingly permitted Uribe to talk with him by telephone, afterward disclosing no news about why he still opposes cutting tariffs on American goods to Colombia as the free trade pact provides. Nor did he make any public statements, seemingly to make the call go unnoticed.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who's fond of junketing to the luxury locales in South America, had no time to repay the hospitality to Uribe. And two Democrats held out as Latin experts, Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, couldn't give Uribe the time of day.
Some pro-free-trade Democrats, including Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, were notable exceptions and did welcome Uribe. But none of the Democrats billed as foreign-policy heavy hitters could see that the implications of snubbing Colombia send a message to the region that it pays more to be America's enemy than its friend.
Into the vacuum, however, has stepped in Gov. Sarah Palin. The supposedly foreign-policy-challenged vice presidential candidate asked to meet with Uribe on Tuesday in New York to support our ally.
As chief executive of Alaska, Palin knows what it's like to deal with a Congress that dismisses her state as distant, lectures it on ecological virtue and then denies its citizens development. She understands perfectly how it must feel to be Uribe, who's gotten the exact same treatment from a Washington establishment.
Palin's reception of Uribe is a far more serious statement than Obama's visits to the tourist spots of Europe that he chalked up as foreign policy experience.
Palin's meeting with Uribe shows a commitment to American interests over Washington politics. Thank goodness Palin knows how to act when an important leader and true friend comes calling.
Barak Obama, his brother's keeper
Are you really sure you want this guy?
George Obama, Start Packing
by Dinesh D'Souza
http://townhall.com/columnists/DineshDSouza/2008/09/22/george_obama,_start_packing
So isn't it interesting that we keep hearing about Sarah Palin's peccadilloes while the major media continues to ignore the George Obama scandal? Here is a guy living in Third World poverty and his half-brother is the leading candidate to become the next president of the United States. Are the networks and major newspapers so exhilarated at the prospect of an African American president that they have become cheerleaders for the Obama campaign? Fortunately the McCain campaign is making the media an issue, and I hope the American people are smart enough to see through the news charade.
Here are the facts about George Obama. He’s in his twenties. He lives in a slum in a hut. He wants to become a mechanic but doesn’t have the money. He reports that he gets by on a dollar a month. He met George Obama in 2006 for a few minutes and said it was like talking to a “total stranger.” He said when people notice he has the same name as Barack Obama, he denies they are related because he is “ashamed.” The Democratic presidential candidate, who made $4 million last year, hasn’t lifted a finger to help his half-brother.
My modest campaign to assist George Obama has been coming nicely. Sean Hannity mentioned it on his show on the Fox News Channel, and I appeared on a handful of radio shows to talk about the idea. Interestingly the George Obama Compassion Fund was reported on by Kenya's leading newspaper "The Nation." So far I have received more than $1,000 in small contributions. With my kickoff contribution of $1,000, that's upwards of $2,000 for George Obama.
This is not a huge sum, but I specifically asked people to send gifts of $5, $10 and $25. The reason is that even a relatively modest sum by American standards is a considerable sum by Kenyan standards. George Obama has said that he is living on a dollar a month. This seems an impossible sum to survive on, so I checked the poverty line in Kenya. According to United Nations estimates, it’s around $100 a year. By this measure, our little fund has provided for George for 20 years. Alternatively, George can move out of his 6 foot-by-10-foot hut and into a more comfortable dwelling. He can also get the training he needs to become a mechanic.
The reporter for "The Nation" thought he had me cornered when he asked, "Are you doing this to embarrass Barack Obama?" To which I answered, "Absolutely. He deserves to be embarrassed." The reporter went on to ask me: since when have you developed this great interest in African poverty? I responded that I had only very little interest in African poverty. I happen to come from a very poor country, India, so my philanthropic work is directed there. I only took up the George Obama cause when I heard what a jerk and a hypocrite Barack Obama is being about his sibling. One Obamoron emailed me to say, "Why don't you use your money to help your own impoverished relatives in India?" The answer is that my relatives don't live in huts!
Here are some donor comments which I'll be forwarding to George along with the funds. "This is for the poor brother long forgotten." “A brother is a terrible thing to waste.” "I wish I had a brother, or even a step-brother. George is not my relative and not my race or religion but I still want to contribute to his welfare." "When Obama said that not taking care of the least of our brothers is our greatest moral failure, who knew that he was talking literally about the least of his brothers?" "I never thought I'd be writing a check to anyone named Obama, but I do want to be a true Christian and help this man in his shameful situation." "I'd send more, but I make $9.10 per hour." "I'm unemployed, but I can spare $5 for the Obama Compassion Fund."
I hear a lot from atheists, but interestingly no self-identified atheist contributed a penny. This seems in keeping with sociologist Arthur Brooks’ data showing that secular people are much less generous, both with money and time, than religious people. As Brooks might have predicted, most of my donations came from self-identified Christians, some of them in difficult circumstances themselves. Thanks to this generosity, Barack Obama's half-brother can look forward to the prospect of a better life. George Obama, start packing!
George Obama, Start Packing
by Dinesh D'Souza
http://townhall.com/columnists/DineshDSouza/2008/09/22/george_obama,_start_packing
So isn't it interesting that we keep hearing about Sarah Palin's peccadilloes while the major media continues to ignore the George Obama scandal? Here is a guy living in Third World poverty and his half-brother is the leading candidate to become the next president of the United States. Are the networks and major newspapers so exhilarated at the prospect of an African American president that they have become cheerleaders for the Obama campaign? Fortunately the McCain campaign is making the media an issue, and I hope the American people are smart enough to see through the news charade.
Here are the facts about George Obama. He’s in his twenties. He lives in a slum in a hut. He wants to become a mechanic but doesn’t have the money. He reports that he gets by on a dollar a month. He met George Obama in 2006 for a few minutes and said it was like talking to a “total stranger.” He said when people notice he has the same name as Barack Obama, he denies they are related because he is “ashamed.” The Democratic presidential candidate, who made $4 million last year, hasn’t lifted a finger to help his half-brother.
My modest campaign to assist George Obama has been coming nicely. Sean Hannity mentioned it on his show on the Fox News Channel, and I appeared on a handful of radio shows to talk about the idea. Interestingly the George Obama Compassion Fund was reported on by Kenya's leading newspaper "The Nation." So far I have received more than $1,000 in small contributions. With my kickoff contribution of $1,000, that's upwards of $2,000 for George Obama.
This is not a huge sum, but I specifically asked people to send gifts of $5, $10 and $25. The reason is that even a relatively modest sum by American standards is a considerable sum by Kenyan standards. George Obama has said that he is living on a dollar a month. This seems an impossible sum to survive on, so I checked the poverty line in Kenya. According to United Nations estimates, it’s around $100 a year. By this measure, our little fund has provided for George for 20 years. Alternatively, George can move out of his 6 foot-by-10-foot hut and into a more comfortable dwelling. He can also get the training he needs to become a mechanic.
The reporter for "The Nation" thought he had me cornered when he asked, "Are you doing this to embarrass Barack Obama?" To which I answered, "Absolutely. He deserves to be embarrassed." The reporter went on to ask me: since when have you developed this great interest in African poverty? I responded that I had only very little interest in African poverty. I happen to come from a very poor country, India, so my philanthropic work is directed there. I only took up the George Obama cause when I heard what a jerk and a hypocrite Barack Obama is being about his sibling. One Obamoron emailed me to say, "Why don't you use your money to help your own impoverished relatives in India?" The answer is that my relatives don't live in huts!
Here are some donor comments which I'll be forwarding to George along with the funds. "This is for the poor brother long forgotten." “A brother is a terrible thing to waste.” "I wish I had a brother, or even a step-brother. George is not my relative and not my race or religion but I still want to contribute to his welfare." "When Obama said that not taking care of the least of our brothers is our greatest moral failure, who knew that he was talking literally about the least of his brothers?" "I never thought I'd be writing a check to anyone named Obama, but I do want to be a true Christian and help this man in his shameful situation." "I'd send more, but I make $9.10 per hour." "I'm unemployed, but I can spare $5 for the Obama Compassion Fund."
I hear a lot from atheists, but interestingly no self-identified atheist contributed a penny. This seems in keeping with sociologist Arthur Brooks’ data showing that secular people are much less generous, both with money and time, than religious people. As Brooks might have predicted, most of my donations came from self-identified Christians, some of them in difficult circumstances themselves. Thanks to this generosity, Barack Obama's half-brother can look forward to the prospect of a better life. George Obama, start packing!
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