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Here's my letter: Hi everyone! I decided to send some information about the present presidential campaign to let you know where I stand and how I hope you feel as well. Let it be known that I fully support Barack Obama and Joe Biden to get in the White House on January 20, 2009. The race is really getting ugly as well as the economy appears to be in uncharted waters. Here's some information to consider: Discredited Republican voter-suppression expert Ken Blackwell has gone on TV lately with some wild accusations against Barack about a non-existent connection with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, also known as ACORN. The accusations have no basis in fact. The truth is that Barack was never a community organizer or trainer for ACORN, and he was never employed by ACORN in any other capacity. ACORN was not part of the historic voter registration drive that Barack led. Get more information and help spread the truth about Barack Obama: http://my.barackobama.com/acornrumorHere's more: BARACK WAS PRAISED FOR COMPLETING PROJECT VOTE; ACORN WAS NOT INVOLVED Obama’s Voter Registration Drive Registered 150,000 New Voters, The Highest Number of a Single Local Effort. In 1993, Crain’s Chicago wrote of Obama’s effort to register voters for Bill Clinton’s election, “Last year, Barack Obama galvanized Chicago’s political community, as no seasoned politico had before. The director of Illinois Project Vote orchestrated an unwieldy band of 10 staff members and 700 volunteers to the tune of 150,000 new voters for the general election — the highest number registered in a single local effect. ‘Under Barack’s leadership, we had the most successful, cost-effective and orderly voter registration drive I’ve ever been involved with,’ says Alderman Sam Burrell of the West Side’s 29th Ward.”
Chicago Magazine: Obama Headed “Most Effective Minority Voter Registration Drive.” Chicago Magazine reported, “None of this, of course, was accidental. The most effective minority voter registration drive in memory was the result of careful handiwork by Project Vote!, the local chapter of a not-for-profit national organization. "It was the most efficient campaign I have seen in my 20 years in politics," says Sam Burrell, alderman of the West Side’s 29th Ward and a veteran of many registration drives. At the head of this effort was a little-known 31-year-old African-American lawyer, community organizer, and writer: Barack Obama.”
National Project Vote Director Sandy Newman: Obama Did “One Hell of a Job.” Chicago Magazine reported, ““Project Vote! is nonpartisan, strictly nonpartisan. But we do focus our efforts on minority voters, and on states where we can explain to them why their vote will matter. Braun made that easier in Illinois.” So Newman decided to open a Cook County Project Vote! office and went looking for someone to head it. The name Barack Obama surfaced. “I was asking around among community activists in Chicago and around the country, and they kept mentioning him,” Newman says. Obama by then was working with church and community leaders on the West Side, and he was writing a book that the publisher Simon & Schuster had contracted for while he was editor of the law review. He was 30 years old. When Newman called, Obama agreed to put his other work aside. “I’m still not quite sure why,” Newman says. “This was not glamorous, high-paying work. But I am certainly grateful. He did one hell of a job.”
Obama Trained Registrars And Ran Media Saturation Campaign. Chicago Magazine reported, “Within a few months, Obama, a tall, affable workaholic, had recruited staff and volunteers from black churches, community groups, and politicians. He helped train 700 deputy registrars, out of a total of 11,000 citywide. And he began a saturation media campaign with the help of black-owned Brainstorm Communications.”
Close Daley Advisor: “Barack Ran This Superbly.” Chicago Magazine reported, “Some of Daley’s closest advisers are similarly impressed. “In its technical demands, a voter-registration drive is not unlike a mini-political campaign,” says John Schmidt, chairman of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority and a fundraiser for Project Vote! “Barack ran this superbly. I have no doubt he could run an equally good political campaign if that’s what he decided to do next.””
Project Vote Credited With Voter Registration Surge. The Wall Street Journal reported, “Voting experts at the Democratic National Committee point to surging registration in several big cities, such as Detroit, Chicago and Philadelphia. Most of that work has been done by the nonpartisan Project Vote, a voter participation organization based in Washington, D.C. Its director, Sandy Newman, says his group has helped to register 150,000 new voters, almost all of them black, in Pennsylvania; 110,000 in Chicago; 70,000 in Michigan; 40,000 in Ohio; and 160,000 (with the help of the New York Public Interest Research Group) in New York City. With the exception of New York, where Mr. Clinton holds a big lead, these are all battleground states, and most of these voters will cast their ballots for Mr. Clinton.”
Chicago Sun Times Headline: “‘Project Vote’ Brings Power to the People.” The Chicago Sun-Times reported, “Project Vote, a collectivity of 10 church-based community organizations dedicated to black voter registration, is off and running. Project Vote is increasing its rolls at a 7,000-per-week clip. Just last Saturday it registered 2,000 during the Chicago Defender’s annual Bud Billiken Parade.”
BARACK REPRESENTED ACORN IN A VOTER RIGHTS CASE AS AN ATTORNEY
Obama And Other Attorneys Represented ACORN In Their Suit Against The State Of Illinois To Force It To Implement The 1993 Motor Voter Law. In 2007, the AP reported, “Representing the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), Obama and other attorneys sued the state of Illinois, forcing it to implement federal ‘Motor Voter’ legislation that makes it easier for the poor and minorities to register to vote.” According the U.S. Court Of Appeals, 7th Circuit docket for ACORN v. Edgar, “Appellees, United States and others, sought to force appellant State of Illinois to comply with the provisions of the National Registration Act of 1993 (motor voter law)…The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted the United States an injunction that compelled the State of Illinois to enforce the motor voter law. The State of Illinois appealed…On appeal, the State of Illinois argued that Congress could not force state governments to administer a federal program that facilitated the registration of voters in federal elections. The court stated that Congress had the power to regulate federal elections under the powers granted by mandated the states to initially set up the system of federal elections within their own jurisdiction, subject to the whims of Congress. The court found that these powers and mandates implicitly extended to voter registration as well.
Ø Obama Was One Of Three Miner Barnhill Attorneys To Represent ACORN When The Illinois State Board Of Elections Attempted To Dismiss The U.S. District Court’s Order In ACORN v. Edgar In Late 1995. Miner Barnhill Attorneys Obama, Judson Miner, and Jeffrey Cummings were listed as Counsel for ACORN when the Illinois State Board Of Elections attempted to dismiss the U.S. District Court’s order in ACORN v. Edgar in November 1995. On January 26, 1996, the U.S. Court Of Appeals denied the Board’s motion. According to the court’s opinion, “The court dismissed the appeal of defendant governor and other state officials because the district court had not issued a final order from which an appeal could be brought.
Ø Obama Was Listed As The Lead Attorney For ACORN In Court Proceeding Regarding Illinois Motor Voter Implementation Plans; Deval Patrick Was The Lead Attorney For The U.S. Department Of Justice. “For United States of America: Deval L. Patrick, Assistant Attorney General, James B. Burns, United States Attorney, Elizabeth Johnson, Barry H. Weinberg, Tricia A. Tingle, Peter A. Hernandez, Attorneys, Voting Section, Civil Rights Division, Department of Justice, Washington, DC….For Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, Barack Obama, Esq., Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, Chicago, Illinois, Steve Bachmann, Esq., ACORN, Granger, Indiana.”
1995: Obama Received The IVI-IPO Legal Eagle Award For IVI-IPO For His Work In Bringing Illinois Into Compliance With The Motor Voter Law. “In 1993, Obama was named by Crain’s Chicago Business as one of “40 under 40” outstanding young leaders in the city of Chicago. He is the recipient of the 1995 Legal Eagle Award from IVI-IPO for his work in bringing Illinois into compliance with the National Voter Registration Act (Motor-Voter). His commentaries have been heard on National Public Radio and his memoir Dreams of My Father was published by Random House in August 1995.”
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Right-wing smear groups have tried using guilt-by-association to connect Barack Obama to Professor William Ayers.
Smears like this often spread as part of a broader, shadowy strategy to scare people who aren't very familiar with Barack by spreading false information.
Here’s the truth: the smear associating Barack to Ayers is “phony,” “tenuous,“ – even “exaggerated at best if not outright false.” Ayers and Barack barely know each other. They served together on the boards of local charities, but do not know each other well.
Ayers is now a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Barack has publicly denounced the acts Ayers committed in the 1960’s (when Barack was only 8 years old).
You can get more details and help spread the truth about these shameful attacks:
http://my.barackobama.com/AyersSmear
The New York Times: Obama And Ayers “Do Not Appear To Have Been Close.”
A review of records of the schools project and interviews with a dozen people who know both men, suggest that Mr. Obama, 47, has played down his contacts with Mr. Ayers, 63. But the two men do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers, whom he has called “somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.”
Read this Article
The Associated Press: Obama And Ayers Relationship Is “Exaggerated At Best If Not Outright False:”
Her reference to Obama’s relationship with William Ayers, a member of the Vietnam-era Weather Underground, was exaggerated at best if not outright false. No evidence shows they were “pals” or even close when they worked on community boards years ago and Ayers hosted a political event for Obama early in his career. Obama, who was a child when the Weathermen were planting bombs, has denounced Ayers’ radical views and actions.
Read this Article
CNN: Palin’s Claim That Obama Is Palling Around With Terrorists Is “False.”
CNN Fact check wrote about Palin’s claim that Obama is palling around with terrorists, “Verdict: False. There is no indication that Ayers and Obama are now “palling around,” or that they have had an ongoing relationship in the past three years. Also, there is nothing to suggest that Ayers is now involved in terrorist activity or that other Obama associates are.”
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I'm hoping the McCain campaign can actually try to show us how to change what John McCain has voted for over the past eight years with George Bush and talk about the issues honestly and fairly.
With TV ads here in Wisconsin by McCain offering only 100% negative messages at this point, some might understand the ugly, pathetic desperation and hostility from the McCain campaign, from which many were well-paid lobbyists for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. McCain is no stranger to corporate and banking corruption with his participation with the Keating Five. He followed the merry tale that Reagan sold to everyone that deregulation was what the banking industry needed. Look at your 401k to see how great that worked out.
If McCain wants to play the "guilt by association" game, he might have to explain his ties to anti-semite Reverand Hagee, convicted criminal G. Gordon Liddy and how he, his wife and her father prospered from being part of the Keating Five, which cost taxpayers billions on dollars.
The McCain campaign know they lost and appear to have no shame. Many conservatives wonder what has gotten into John McCain and he has been fortunate the the same people who lied about John Kerry in 2004 have not done the same to him this year.... yet (http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnmccain.com/)...
As for phonies like Sarah Palin, she is petrified to actually sit down with a lightweight like Tom Brokaw and have some questions answered on Meet The Press. Why is she so frightened? Could it be that she wouldn't be able to withstand the utter corruption she engaged in with many scandals and her and her husband's ties to the secessionist Alaskan Independence Party? She will be a mere footnote to what is perhaps an even worse campaign than Hillary Clinton's tirades.
The poor woman could barely get by an interview with Katie Couric, one of the biggest lightweights in the history of television journalism. She sure loves to whine though and accuse Obama by inference of being a "terrorist". It's no surprise that conservatives like David Brooks recently called her a "cancer on the Republican Party" and George Will said she is “obviously not qualified to be President."
One can only imagine if Michelle Obama had a pregnant daughter on stage at the Democratic Convention. Imagine what filth like Limbaugh or Hannity would have said about her as a mother. She has been very lucky so far and has actually been a great way for grassroots Obama efforts to get more engaged.
Consider my email as something I felt I need to share. Agree or disagree, hopefully our country is going to come out of this recent economic and political mess to be an even greater country... one that gets back respect from the rest of the World. I hope all are well in these times.
Love,
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