Just Because They Say it Doesn't Make it So

Has anyone else out there in Obamaland been as frustrated as I am that Barack’s record and really his entire history has either been distorted or mocked unmercifully? It came out of the mouth of Fred Thompson, Joe Lieberman and Rudy Giuliani, and since their speeches last week, McCain and Palin just repeat the same lies over and over again, with impunity and without the slightest challenge to their veracity of some absolutely unbelievable assertions.

So for my benefit and for everyone else who needs a few quick facts to call upon when someone out there repeats one of the lies or misrepresentations that we know is just not true, we can simply cite the truth and frankly feel pretty good about doing so.

Yes, Barack was a community organizer from 1985 to 1988. He was the director for the Developing Communities Project, a church-based organization on Chicago’s South Side. Unlike the accusations that he has never had a real job or went from school to the US Senate, this organization that he headed expanded to a staff of thirteen, and their annual budget grew from $70,000 to $400,000.

After that, he entered into legal practice in 1992 as an attorney with Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development. During that same period, he became a professor of law at the prestigious University of Chicago Law School and taught constitutional law. Barack held both positions until 2004.

As if that wasn’t enough, halfway through his law career in 1997 Barack ran for the Illinois Senate and won. He supported legislation which included gaining bipartisan support for ethics reform and healthcare. Barack sponsored a law increasing tax credits for low income workers, negotiated welfare reform and promoted increased subsidies for childcare. He was co-chairman of the Joint Committee of Administrative Rules and was chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee.

In 2004, he was elected to the United States Senate. The legislation that he sponsored and supported includes the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act. The Lugar-Obama Act served to keep weapons of mass destruction out of terrorists’ hands. The Coburn-Obama Act established a web search engine to monitor government spending with follow-up legislation called Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008.

Barack also was the primary sponsor on the Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security and Democracy Promotion Act. He also sponsored the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, the Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007, the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, an amendment providing one year of job protection for family members caring for soldiers with combat-related injuries.

Committees that Barack sits on include the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Senate Committee on Veteran’s Affairs, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

I for one will not sit back and watch Barack’s positions, record and history be distorted by people who specialize in being in attack mode while at the same time remaining completely silent on what their own positions are and what their own record and history is. Let’s use our own mouths and our own brains to counteract the disingenuous rhetoric and the Palinization of this entire country. A little over one week ago, John McCain was the world’s most prolific flip-flopper, was promising to govern exactly like the Bush-Cheney regime and had become the master of the gaffe and was demonstrating a complete lack of preparedness to be president.

Let’s not lose sight of who Barack Obama is running against, who will be president if Barack isn’t and go after him with tenacity, honesty and a great amount of spirit with the knowledge that we feel thoroughly confident in our choice for president and vice-president, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.