Not Baracktly!
Sep. 6th, 2008 03:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
burnunitThe internets are furiously busy forwarding some stuff and of course I've got the "fuck all this email bullshit" bug. So here's some more in that vein. You might have seen or know someone who forwarded the "Terry Anderson, Black LA Talk Radio host listed the following "Not Exactlys" regarding many of Obama's claims..." email. I love that email because it's so perniciously sleazy!
Regarding Obama's "Not Exactly's" I offer some research. Not all of this is my own, but I have attempted to contribute to the conversation, as well as editing for readability. The list is amusing, and quite rhetorically over the top. There's some wonderful places to read up on these many claims including: http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/kenya.asp
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/50lies.asp
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/images/02/19/obama.pdf
I plan to hit the inestimable http://www.factcheck.org/ regularly over the next 60 days.
Responses to the list of "Not Exactly's" from around the web. Let's call them "Not Baracktly's" because they sure don't tell the truth about Barack!
1.) Selma Got Me Born - Not exactly, your parents felt safe enough to have you in 1961 - Selma had no effect on your birth, as Selma was in 1965
This criticism is based on an interpretation of Barack Obama's 2007 speech in Selma, Alabama. Here's what Barack actually said: "Yet something happened back here in Selma, Alabama. Something happened in Birmingham that sent out what Bobby Kennedy called, "Ripples of hope all around the world." Something happened when a bunch of women decided they were going to walk instead of ride the bus after a long day of doing somebody else's laundry, looking after somebody else's children. When men who had PhD's decided that's enough and we're going to stand up for our dignity. That sent a shout across oceans so that my grandfather began to imagine something different for his son. His son, who grew up herding goats in a small village in Africa could suddenly set his sights a little higher and believe that maybe a black man in this world had a chance."
and also: "What happened in Selma, Alabama, and Birmingham also stirred the conscience of the nation. "
The whole of the speech drew a thruline between the entire Civil Rights movement and its impact on blacks around the world. This movement didn't start in Selma, and because Senator Obama's speech was inclusive of multiple locations within Alabama—including the 1955 bus boycott which well preceded his birth. Interesting.
Here's some attribution, which the original claim lacks: http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/saywhat.asp
Incidentally, it's also well established in Dr. King's writings that global notice of civil rights actions predates the 1960s. In his September 1960 speech "The Rising Tide of Racial Consciousness" Dr. King says "For all men of good will, May 17, 1954 came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of enforced segregation. (...) the new sense of dignity on the part of the Negro has been the awareness that his struggle for freedom is a part of a worldwide struggle." There was interchange and exchange of inspiration among the civil rights movements here and abroad, before Barack Obama was born.
2.) Father Was A Goat Herder - Not exactly, he was a privileged, well educated youth, who went on to work with the Kenyan Government.
Interesting. Well, why not BOTH? In fact, it was both. In fact, in Barack Obama's own words in his book--not exactly hidden anywhere--he says the following:
"[My father] was as African, I would learn, a Kenyan of the Luo tribe, born on the shores of Lake Victoria in a place called Alego. The village was poor, but his father — my other grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama — had been a prominent farmer, an elder of the tribe, a medicine man with healing powers. My father grew up herding his father's goats and attending the local school, set up by the British colonial administration, where he had shown great promise. He eventually won a scholarship to study in Nairobi; and then, on the eve of Kenyan independence, he had been selected by Kenyan leaders and American sponsors to attend a university in the United States."
3.) Father Was A Proud Freedom Fighter - Not exactly, he was part of one of the most corrupt and violent governments Kenya has ever had.
The "not exactly" here is pretty straightforward: this is "NOT EXACTLY" something Barack ever said. (Heh heh. You're going to see me repeat that riff a lot in the following paragraphs. I can't help it. ) He never said dad was a freedom fighter. In fact, he called his father a "bitter drunk" and "a defeated, lonely bureaucrat." More than once!
4.) My Family Has Strong Ties To African Freedom - Not exactly, your cousin Raila Odinga has created mass violence in attempting to overturn a legitimate election in
Raila Odinga and Nicholas Rajula have both made unsubstantiated claims that they are related to Barack Obama. Barack has not claimed these relationships. Furthermore, though unsubstantiated, Obama's uncle and Odinga's mother were from the same area, so I suppose there is a possibility they share some genes.
Interesting side bit about the presumed rhetorical intent about these guys, and Abongo. My full brother is an NRA member and Libertarian who admires Ayn Rand. That means I do too, right? My sister is some kind of neo-pagan syncretistic spiritualist. I must have a magick pentagram in my back yard someplace. Oh. Wait. I don't. Huh, maybe because relatives are different people.
5.) My Grandmother Has Always Been A Christian - Not exactly, she does her daily Salat prayers at 5am according to her own interviews. Not to mention, Christianity wouldn't allow her to have been one of 14 wives to 1 man.
Well, yeah. Everyone with a mother and a father has two sets of grandparents. (Okay, not Cain n' Abel's kids I guess.) In any case, Senator Obama was speaking of his maternal grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, not his paternal grandmother.
6.) My Name is African Swahili - Not exactly, your name is Arabic and 'Baraka'
"Barack" is in fact a Swahili name that entered the language via historical trade and cultural ties with Arabia. I read about this theory of words originating in other languages one time. Yeah, I was sitting in a cafe. We were going to order sushi but they only vended tacos. My lawyer pal paid for the meal. He was working on a writ of habeas corpus for this very chic model who once worked as a valet. He paid for it with a Visa card. I asked if we could have coffee later, and he consented.
What was I saying? OH! Also the source on this is pretty good! ArcadeAtHome.com. It's very handy to get my news from someplace I can also go when I want to download some ROMs for my various video game emulators. I prefer MAME, of course. But it's good to have a site that presents lies as news AND information on so many virtual video game platforms.
7.) I Never Practiced Islam - Not exactly, you practiced it daily at school, where you were registered as a Muslim and kept that faith for 31 years, until your wife made you change, so you could run for office
Senator Obama's mother definitely approached religion in an anthropological sense: he described her in his own words as "dragging" him along to church, to Chinese New Year, to Shinto shrines, and to Hawaiin sacred sites.
In 2004 the Chicago Sun-Times, which is to say an actual newspaper, interviewed Mr. Obama and he noted that he had begun a serious relationship with the church in 1985 and participated in an altar call at the Trinity United Church of Christ. The article says it was "about sixteen years ago." Since that was written in 2004, a little quick math would show that this happened was when he was 27.
Now I'll warrant, as a Lutheran, the "altar call" has a lot of theological problems for me. As a person with a basic understanding of mathematics and the English language, I think I can parse quite clearly that Senator Obama was not much of a "practicing" Anything for many years; and furthermore he dates his personal relationship with Jesus Christ to his 27th year, which is obviously before he was 31.
8.) My School In Indonesia Was Christian - Not exactly, you were registered as Muslim there and got in trouble in Koranic Studies for making faces
Senator Obama's mother (presumably dragging, again) took him to more than one school over the course of their five years in Indonesia. One of those was a Catholic school.
9.) I Was Fluent In Indonesian - Not exactly, not one teacher says you could speak the language.
Actually Senator Obama has not made this claim. He appears to have a passing acquaintance with Bahasa which is spoken in Indonesia and Malaysia. At least, that's what Parnohadiningrat Sudjadnan said in 2007. Mr. Sudjadnan is the Indonesian ambassador to the United States.
10.) Because I Lived In Indonesia , I Have More Foreign Experience - Not exactly, you were there from the ages of 6 to 10, and couldn't even speak the language. What did you learn, how to study the Koran and watch cartoons.
Indeed, Barack Obama did live in Indonesia for five years. He has not said he has more foreign experience.
11.) I Am Stronger On Foreign Affairs - Not exactly, except for Africa (surprise) and the Middle East (bigger surprise), you have never been anywhere else on the planet and thus have NO experience with our closest allies.
Well, Senator Obama has traveled to a number of countries, including places other than "Africa and the Middle East". That's pretty well established fact. I seem to recall something about Europe, earlier in his life as well as more recently. As one of the most-traveled freshman senators during the time of his first term, his travels have included Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan in Asia, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, the Palestinian Territories, Chad, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Africa.
He has made the claim he is stronger on foreign affairs, but not strictly because of where he's been. He has been critical of the foreign affairs doctrines of the current Bush administration and the proposed approach of the McCain campaign, that much is true.
Such differences are, of course, fairly common among competing candidates who are making their case to the public.
12.) I Blame My Early Drug Use On Ethnic Confusion - Not exactly, you were quite content in high school to be Barry Obama, no mention of Kenya and no mention of struggle to identify - your classmates said you were just fine.
We'd all sure like some citation on this! Senator Obama has not said this. What he did actually say in his biography was that drugs were "...something that could push questions of who I was out of my mind, something that could flatten out the landscape of my heart, blur the edges of my memory." In 2006 he spoke to TIME and said dope was "...reflective of the struggles and confusion of a teenage boy. Teenage boys are frequently confused."
It's also... pointless. Well frankly it's one of the stupidest things I have ever heard. Everyone reading this is a little dumber for you having repeated it.
13.) An Ebony Article Moved Me To Run For Office - Not exactly, Ebony has yet to find the article you mention in your book. It doesn't, and never did, exist.
This is not in Senator Obama's books. Maybe we could find a link or something to a recording of a speech where he actually said that?
14.) A Life Magazine Article Changed My Outlook On Life - Not exactly, Life has yet to find the article you mention in your book. It doesn't, and never did, exist.
In Dreams From My Father, Obama wrote:
"Eventually I came across a photograph of an older man in dark glasses and a raincoat walking down an empty road. I couldn't guess what this picture was about; there seemed nothing unusual about the subject. On the next page was another photograph, this one a close-up of the same man's hands. They had a strange, unnatural pallor, as if blood had been drawn from the flesh. Turning back to the first picture, I now saw that the man's crinkly hair, his heavy lips and broad fleshy nose, all had this same uneven, ghostly hue."
Perhaps he misremembered which actual magazine. There is no documentation that Life has made any effort to find the article and failed. Perhaps YOU haven't been able to find it—I haven't.
In the book's introduction, Obama also wrote "I'm mindful that my recollections might not be precise, that to compress this book i've made composites of real people i've known in my life."
15.) I Won't Run On A National Ticket In '08 - Not exactly, here you are, despite saying, live on TV, that you would not have enough experience by then, and you are all about having experience first.
Senator Obama never stated categorically that he would not run on a national ticket in 2008. He at one time said that he had "no plans" to run for national office in 2008, the standard response virtually all politicians give to press inquiries when they have not yet formulated (or do not wish to reveal) their plans for upcoming elections.
16.) Voting 'Present' is Common In Illinois Senate - Not exactly, they are common for YOU, but not many others have 130 NO VOTES.
The "present" vote IS common in the Illinois state legislature and is sometimes requested by legislative leaders. When legislators vote, they use buttons on their desks that register their choices electronically. A red button is for "no," a green button is for "yes," and a yellow button is for "present."”
17.) Oops, I Misvoted -Not exactly, only when caught by church groups and Democrats, did you beg to change your misvote.
What?
No seriously. What?
18.) I Was A Professor Of Law - Not exactly, you were a senior lecturer ON LEAVE.
Barack Obama was a professor at the University of Chicago's Law School, a fact verified by that institution itself because The Law School got many media requests about Senator Obama, especially about his status as "Senior Lecturer."
From 1992 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004, Barack Obama served as a professor in the Law School. He was a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996. He was a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004, during which time he taught three courses per year. Senior Lecturers are considered to be members of the Law School faculty and are regarded as professors, although not full-time or tenure-track. The title of Senior Lecturer is distinct from the title of Lecturer, which signifies adjunct status. Like Obama, each of the Law School's Senior Lecturers has high-demand careers in politics or public service, which prevent full-time teaching. Several times during his 12 years as a professor in the Law School, Obama was invited to join the faculty in a full-time tenure-track position, but he declined.
Turns out the institution itself actually prefers Senator Obama's reading of the situation and defends his status:
http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/was_barack_obama_really_a_constitutional_law.html
19.) I Was A Constitutional Lawyer - Not exactly, you were a senior lecturer ON LEAVE.
Well, we've already established the senior lecturer issue, and the subject he taught was in fact constitutional law. Senator Obama actually hasn't claimed to be a constitutional law lawyer, but at civil rights lawyer. Between 1993 and 2002, Barack Obama worked as a civil rights lawyer with the Chicago law firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland.
20.) Without Me, There Would Be No Ethics Bill - Not exactly, you didn't write it, introduce it, change it, or create it.
Neither I nor anybody else seems to know when/where he allegedly said this. There's no record he said this. Now, as an Illinois State Senator, Obama did help pass a major ethics reform bill. That and the 110th U.S. Congress passed the Legislative Transparency and Accountability act, which drew from provisions in a bill that Senators Obama and Feingold had originally introduced.
21.) The Ethics Bill Was Hard To Pass - Not exactly, it took just 14 days from start to finish.
He never said this.
22.) I Wrote A Tough Nuclear Bill - Not exactly, your bill was rejected by your own party for its pandering and lack of all regulation - mainly because of your Nuclear donor, Exelon, from which David Axelrod came.
In the Illinois senate, Obama DID write a tough nuclear bill—although it eventually did not pass. Exelon was, however, a donor to his state senator campaign… not to his senate or presidential campaigns, it would appear.
23.) I Have Released My State Records - Not exactly, as of March, 2008, state bills you sponsored or voted for have yet to be released, exposing all the special interests pork hidden within.
He never said "I have released my state records" (I have removed the extra capital letters out of respect for the English language)
On November 14, 2007, an Associated Press article quoted Obama as saying, "I don't have -- I don't maintain -- a file of eight years of work in the state Senate because I didn't have the resources available to maintain those kinds of records." Records of state bills and the votes of senators, however, are available from the Illinois state legislature.
24.) I Took On The Asbestos Altgeld Gardens Mess - Not exactly, you were part of a large group of people who remedied Altgeld Gardens . You failed to mention anyone else but yourself, in your books.
I am nonplussed at the outrage over an author making himself the main character in a personal memoir. However, here's some statements from people who worked with Senator Obama in Altgeld:
Yvonne Lloyd: “He always stayed in the background...behind the scenes.” Yvonne Lloyd, a mother of 11 who was the basis for the character “Shirley” in Dreams of My Father, worked with Obama during the effort to remove asbestos from the Altgeld Garden apartments. She remembers that Obama “trained us to be leaders...I would come to him with an issue and he would help us figure it out [but] he always stayed in the background. And we used to say to him, ‘Barack, come on and do this,’ and he would say no. Even when we took pictures, he always stayed behind the scenes, because it was our community.” Lloyd attended the meetings with the Chicago Housing Authority described in Dreams from My Father and remembers working with Obama on the issue, saying that he “helped us make presentations, but he never scripted us. Because that’s [scripting] not telling the truth. And if I’m telling the truth, I can tell it anywhere.”
Linda Randle, A Community Organizer In The Ida B. Wells Project, worked with Obama and says: “He didn’t take credit for anything.” Linda Randle worked in the Ida B. Wells housing project, which also had problems with asbestos, as a community organizer.
She filed a complaint with the EPA and worked with Martha Allen, a reporter for the Chicago Reporter, to bring the public’s attention to the issue. Randle, who knew Obama through his work in Altgeld, said “Barack and I would get together and we would talk... When he was having problems [with the work], we would talk about it – he would ask, ‘What do I need to do to open up my head to hear what they’re saying to me?’...But he didn’t take credit for anything.” This was published in the Chicago Reporter, June 1986 as well.
25.) M y Economics Bill Will Help America - Not exactly, your 111 economic policies were just combined into a proposal which lost 99-0, and even YOU voted against your own bill.
There's no place Obama said this. There's NOT EXACTLY anything specific in your claim. Which, uh, proposal was this that lost 99-0?
26.) I Have Been A Bold Leader In Illinois - Not exactly, even your own supporters claim to have not seen BOLD action on your part.
No one else can find when he allegedly said this.
27.) I Passed 26 Of My Own Bills In One Year - Not exactly, they were not YOUR bills, but rather handed to you, after their creation by a fellow Senator, to assist you in a future bid for higher office.
Wait, what? He worked with another senator in the senate, a well known gathering of senators who work on things together? They did all pass, after all. Hm.
28.) No One on my campaign contacted Canada about NAFTA - Not exactly, the Canadian Government issued the names and a memo of the conversation your campaign had with them.
This is disputed and confused with a NAFTA story about Hillary Clinton—where one of her staffers did contact the Canadian embassy to give reassurances about NAFTA. “On March 3 the Canadian embassy in Washington said it "deeply regrets" the affair, and that "there was no intention to convey, in any way" that Obama was being inconsistent about NAFTA”
29.) I Am Tough On Terrorism - Not exactly, you missed the Iran Resolution vote on terrorism and your good friend Ali Abunimah supports the destruction off Israel .
Where’s there a reference that Abunimah is his ‘good friend’? In November, 2007, Obama introduced a Senate resolution that said that President Bush did not have authority to use military force against Iran. Though, sure enough, he did miss one vote on Iran while he was on the campaign trail in Sept, 2007!
30.) I Want All Votes To Count - Not exactly, you said let the delegates decide.
Well, turns out that even when Obama was behind in the delegate count, he publicly agreed with the Clinton campaign that this was a delegate race. He never changed that position. A reference to your version of events simply cannot be found.
Obama did express that he hoped the superdelegates would reflect the will of the people/voters. Clinton, who you may recall was the person who moved on the convention floor to nominate Barack Obama by acclimation, did once advocate for the superdelegates to decide for themselves.
31.) I Want Americans To Decide - Not exactly, you prefer caucuses that limit the vote, confuse the voters, force a public vote, and only operate during small windows of time.
Obama has never actually stated that he ‘prefers caucuses’. Though he did win a lot in those states, which might make a person feel pretty good about them and even have a preference for the caucuses this year, considering how many he won. A common argument against caucuses is the way it often benefits ‘established candidates’ and indeed, most analysts thought Clinton—not Obama--would more typically benefit from caucuses. (I can tell you that the political insiders I know at the county level were shocked that both Obama and Franken prevailed in our MN caucuses….They were not considered to be the insider-favorites in any way.)
32.) I passed 900 Bills in the State Senate - Not exactly, you passed 26, most of which you didn't write yourself.
This never happened. This appears to Quite Exactly lack any citation to prove this, nor record of such a statement.
33.) I Believe In Fairness, Not Tactics - Not exactly, you used tactics to eliminate Alice Palmer from running against you.
Where did we hear this quote? As for Alice Palmer reference, Obama did use the existing rules. Ms. Palmer did not have enough qualifying signatures to get her name on the ballot. …Not exactly underhanded.
34.) I Don't Take PAC Money - Not exactly, you take loads of it.
Senator Obama didn't say that has never accepted money from political action committees. For example, he used PAC money in his previous U.S. Senate and Illinois state Senate races. He pledged that he would not accept PAC money for his 2008 presidential bid, a pledge that he has upheld.
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/pac-ing_heat.html
Obama has not accepted PAC money since making his pledge…NO PAC donations have been accepted since making this public pledge.
35.) I don't Have Lobbysists - Not exactly, you have over 47 lobbyists, and counting.
That's not something we have any record of him actually saying. Plus, do you even know what it means? What's it mean to say that Obama “has” lobbyists?
He stated that he does not employ federally registered lobbyists, and that if he were elected President his administration would not include any such lobbyists.
…..McCain on the other hand has some in the highest levels of his camp.
36.) My Campaign Had Noth ing To Do With The 1984 Ad - Not exactly, your own campaign worker made the ad on his Apple in one afternoon.
Have you seen the 1984 ‘ad’? It doesn’t say anything false. It was not created by Obama’s campaign worker, but by someone who once worked on the Sherrod Browne campaign and who now works for Blue State Digital. Here, check it out: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/who-created-hillary-1984_b_43978.html
37.) I Have Always Been Against Iraq - Not exactly, you weren't in office to vote against it AND you have voted to fund it every single time.
Obama didn’t weigh in on the ‘initial vote’ and was not a US senator at the time. He was very publicly against the war from the beginning. He has since voted in the Senate to authorize funding for that war, for reasons he defended in a February 2008 Democratic debate:
"The two Democrats exchanged pointed words over each other's records on the war in Iraq, which contrast sharply even as economic and domestic concerns become dominant in the race. Clinton voted in 2002 to authorize the invasion, which Obama opposed from the start. After Obama again touted a high-profile antiwar speech he gave in Chicago before the war, Clinton pointed out that he, like her, had subsequently voted for war funding, and that their records on Iraq were similar since he came to the Senate in 2005.
"When it wasn't just a speech, but it was actually action, where is the difference?" she said. "Where is the comparison that would in some way give a real credibility to the speech that he gave against the war?"
Obama shot back: "Once we had driven the bus into the ditch, there were only so many ways we could get out."
I think we can all agree that this kind of thing is hardly a concern. Let's recall that in the realm of having difficult to grasp patterns in voting positions, Senator Obama's opponent voted against his own bill. And one time, he was against torture before he was for it. Huh. And if people are really upset that Barack Obama voted for war funding, they must be very anxious about how much money John McCain wants to spend there. What position is actually the problem here, again?
38.) I Have Always Supported Universal Health Care - NOT EXACTL Y, your plan leaves us all to pay for the 15,000,000 who don't have to buy it.
Obama’s healthcare plan is ‘universal’ in that it will be universally available to ALL Americans. There will not be restrictions on pre-existing conditions –or exceedingly high premiums due to pre-existing conditions-- and there will be payment assistance for lower and even middle incomes. It is estimated by some that 15 million Americans may not voluntarily sign up for a healthcare plan anyway. Obama and his team argue that while true universal healthcare (ie Hillary’s plan) would be great, there would not be enough support for the mandate plan for a variety of reasons. Obama’s plan makes health insurance universally available. It does not mandate everyone to buy insurance, so it won’t be true ‘universal’.
39.) My uncle liberated Auschwitz concentration camp - NOT EXACTLY, your mother had no brothers and the Russian army did the liberating
Actually, that was pretty weird. Until I found out that , you know what? Barack just made a mistake. His great uncle Charlie Payne was part of the 89th Infantry that liberated Buchenwald. Yeah. Buchenwald. Auschwitz is of course the most famous. And there's the fact it's called Auschwitz-Birkenau. Birkenau. Buchenwald. Regardless, he called it Auschwitz, which isn't Buchenwald and wasn't liberated by US forces. But seriously 18 hour days speaking and traveling... I think a slip of the tongue like this is forgivable. Unless you're a pack of ravenous slavering liars like the artless jackals who promulgate these emails.
Regarding Obama's "Not Exactly's" I offer some research. Not all of this is my own, but I have attempted to contribute to the conversation, as well as editing for readability. The list is amusing, and quite rhetorically over the top. There's some wonderful places to read up on these many claims including: http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/kenya.asp
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/50lies.asp
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/images/02/19/obama.pdf
I plan to hit the inestimable http://www.factcheck.org/ regularly over the next 60 days.
Responses to the list of "Not Exactly's" from around the web. Let's call them "Not Baracktly's" because they sure don't tell the truth about Barack!
1.) Selma Got Me Born - Not exactly, your parents felt safe enough to have you in 1961 - Selma had no effect on your birth, as Selma was in 1965
This criticism is based on an interpretation of Barack Obama's 2007 speech in Selma, Alabama. Here's what Barack actually said: "Yet something happened back here in Selma, Alabama. Something happened in Birmingham that sent out what Bobby Kennedy called, "Ripples of hope all around the world." Something happened when a bunch of women decided they were going to walk instead of ride the bus after a long day of doing somebody else's laundry, looking after somebody else's children. When men who had PhD's decided that's enough and we're going to stand up for our dignity. That sent a shout across oceans so that my grandfather began to imagine something different for his son. His son, who grew up herding goats in a small village in Africa could suddenly set his sights a little higher and believe that maybe a black man in this world had a chance."
and also: "What happened in Selma, Alabama, and Birmingham also stirred the conscience of the nation. "
The whole of the speech drew a thruline between the entire Civil Rights movement and its impact on blacks around the world. This movement didn't start in Selma, and because Senator Obama's speech was inclusive of multiple locations within Alabama—including the 1955 bus boycott which well preceded his birth. Interesting.
Here's some attribution, which the original claim lacks: http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/saywhat.asp
Incidentally, it's also well established in Dr. King's writings that global notice of civil rights actions predates the 1960s. In his September 1960 speech "The Rising Tide of Racial Consciousness" Dr. King says "For all men of good will, May 17, 1954 came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of enforced segregation. (...) the new sense of dignity on the part of the Negro has been the awareness that his struggle for freedom is a part of a worldwide struggle." There was interchange and exchange of inspiration among the civil rights movements here and abroad, before Barack Obama was born.
2.) Father Was A Goat Herder - Not exactly, he was a privileged, well educated youth, who went on to work with the Kenyan Government.
Interesting. Well, why not BOTH? In fact, it was both. In fact, in Barack Obama's own words in his book--not exactly hidden anywhere--he says the following:
"[My father] was as African, I would learn, a Kenyan of the Luo tribe, born on the shores of Lake Victoria in a place called Alego. The village was poor, but his father — my other grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama — had been a prominent farmer, an elder of the tribe, a medicine man with healing powers. My father grew up herding his father's goats and attending the local school, set up by the British colonial administration, where he had shown great promise. He eventually won a scholarship to study in Nairobi; and then, on the eve of Kenyan independence, he had been selected by Kenyan leaders and American sponsors to attend a university in the United States."
3.) Father Was A Proud Freedom Fighter - Not exactly, he was part of one of the most corrupt and violent governments Kenya has ever had.
The "not exactly" here is pretty straightforward: this is "NOT EXACTLY" something Barack ever said. (Heh heh. You're going to see me repeat that riff a lot in the following paragraphs. I can't help it. ) He never said dad was a freedom fighter. In fact, he called his father a "bitter drunk" and "a defeated, lonely bureaucrat." More than once!
4.) My Family Has Strong Ties To African Freedom - Not exactly, your cousin Raila Odinga has created mass violence in attempting to overturn a legitimate election in
Raila Odinga and Nicholas Rajula have both made unsubstantiated claims that they are related to Barack Obama. Barack has not claimed these relationships. Furthermore, though unsubstantiated, Obama's uncle and Odinga's mother were from the same area, so I suppose there is a possibility they share some genes.
Interesting side bit about the presumed rhetorical intent about these guys, and Abongo. My full brother is an NRA member and Libertarian who admires Ayn Rand. That means I do too, right? My sister is some kind of neo-pagan syncretistic spiritualist. I must have a magick pentagram in my back yard someplace. Oh. Wait. I don't. Huh, maybe because relatives are different people.
5.) My Grandmother Has Always Been A Christian - Not exactly, she does her daily Salat prayers at 5am according to her own interviews. Not to mention, Christianity wouldn't allow her to have been one of 14 wives to 1 man.
Well, yeah. Everyone with a mother and a father has two sets of grandparents. (Okay, not Cain n' Abel's kids I guess.) In any case, Senator Obama was speaking of his maternal grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, not his paternal grandmother.
6.) My Name is African Swahili - Not exactly, your name is Arabic and 'Baraka'
"Barack" is in fact a Swahili name that entered the language via historical trade and cultural ties with Arabia. I read about this theory of words originating in other languages one time. Yeah, I was sitting in a cafe. We were going to order sushi but they only vended tacos. My lawyer pal paid for the meal. He was working on a writ of habeas corpus for this very chic model who once worked as a valet. He paid for it with a Visa card. I asked if we could have coffee later, and he consented.
What was I saying? OH! Also the source on this is pretty good! ArcadeAtHome.com. It's very handy to get my news from someplace I can also go when I want to download some ROMs for my various video game emulators. I prefer MAME, of course. But it's good to have a site that presents lies as news AND information on so many virtual video game platforms.
7.) I Never Practiced Islam - Not exactly, you practiced it daily at school, where you were registered as a Muslim and kept that faith for 31 years, until your wife made you change, so you could run for office
Senator Obama's mother definitely approached religion in an anthropological sense: he described her in his own words as "dragging" him along to church, to Chinese New Year, to Shinto shrines, and to Hawaiin sacred sites.
In 2004 the Chicago Sun-Times, which is to say an actual newspaper, interviewed Mr. Obama and he noted that he had begun a serious relationship with the church in 1985 and participated in an altar call at the Trinity United Church of Christ. The article says it was "about sixteen years ago." Since that was written in 2004, a little quick math would show that this happened was when he was 27.
Now I'll warrant, as a Lutheran, the "altar call" has a lot of theological problems for me. As a person with a basic understanding of mathematics and the English language, I think I can parse quite clearly that Senator Obama was not much of a "practicing" Anything for many years; and furthermore he dates his personal relationship with Jesus Christ to his 27th year, which is obviously before he was 31.
8.) My School In Indonesia Was Christian - Not exactly, you were registered as Muslim there and got in trouble in Koranic Studies for making faces
Senator Obama's mother (presumably dragging, again) took him to more than one school over the course of their five years in Indonesia. One of those was a Catholic school.
9.) I Was Fluent In Indonesian - Not exactly, not one teacher says you could speak the language.
Actually Senator Obama has not made this claim. He appears to have a passing acquaintance with Bahasa which is spoken in Indonesia and Malaysia. At least, that's what Parnohadiningrat Sudjadnan said in 2007. Mr. Sudjadnan is the Indonesian ambassador to the United States.
10.) Because I Lived In Indonesia , I Have More Foreign Experience - Not exactly, you were there from the ages of 6 to 10, and couldn't even speak the language. What did you learn, how to study the Koran and watch cartoons.
Indeed, Barack Obama did live in Indonesia for five years. He has not said he has more foreign experience.
11.) I Am Stronger On Foreign Affairs - Not exactly, except for Africa (surprise) and the Middle East (bigger surprise), you have never been anywhere else on the planet and thus have NO experience with our closest allies.
Well, Senator Obama has traveled to a number of countries, including places other than "Africa and the Middle East". That's pretty well established fact. I seem to recall something about Europe, earlier in his life as well as more recently. As one of the most-traveled freshman senators during the time of his first term, his travels have included Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan in Asia, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, the Palestinian Territories, Chad, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Africa.
He has made the claim he is stronger on foreign affairs, but not strictly because of where he's been. He has been critical of the foreign affairs doctrines of the current Bush administration and the proposed approach of the McCain campaign, that much is true.
Such differences are, of course, fairly common among competing candidates who are making their case to the public.
12.) I Blame My Early Drug Use On Ethnic Confusion - Not exactly, you were quite content in high school to be Barry Obama, no mention of Kenya and no mention of struggle to identify - your classmates said you were just fine.
We'd all sure like some citation on this! Senator Obama has not said this. What he did actually say in his biography was that drugs were "...something that could push questions of who I was out of my mind, something that could flatten out the landscape of my heart, blur the edges of my memory." In 2006 he spoke to TIME and said dope was "...reflective of the struggles and confusion of a teenage boy. Teenage boys are frequently confused."
It's also... pointless. Well frankly it's one of the stupidest things I have ever heard. Everyone reading this is a little dumber for you having repeated it.
13.) An Ebony Article Moved Me To Run For Office - Not exactly, Ebony has yet to find the article you mention in your book. It doesn't, and never did, exist.
This is not in Senator Obama's books. Maybe we could find a link or something to a recording of a speech where he actually said that?
14.) A Life Magazine Article Changed My Outlook On Life - Not exactly, Life has yet to find the article you mention in your book. It doesn't, and never did, exist.
In Dreams From My Father, Obama wrote:
"Eventually I came across a photograph of an older man in dark glasses and a raincoat walking down an empty road. I couldn't guess what this picture was about; there seemed nothing unusual about the subject. On the next page was another photograph, this one a close-up of the same man's hands. They had a strange, unnatural pallor, as if blood had been drawn from the flesh. Turning back to the first picture, I now saw that the man's crinkly hair, his heavy lips and broad fleshy nose, all had this same uneven, ghostly hue."
Perhaps he misremembered which actual magazine. There is no documentation that Life has made any effort to find the article and failed. Perhaps YOU haven't been able to find it—I haven't.
In the book's introduction, Obama also wrote "I'm mindful that my recollections might not be precise, that to compress this book i've made composites of real people i've known in my life."
15.) I Won't Run On A National Ticket In '08 - Not exactly, here you are, despite saying, live on TV, that you would not have enough experience by then, and you are all about having experience first.
Senator Obama never stated categorically that he would not run on a national ticket in 2008. He at one time said that he had "no plans" to run for national office in 2008, the standard response virtually all politicians give to press inquiries when they have not yet formulated (or do not wish to reveal) their plans for upcoming elections.
16.) Voting 'Present' is Common In Illinois Senate - Not exactly, they are common for YOU, but not many others have 130 NO VOTES.
The "present" vote IS common in the Illinois state legislature and is sometimes requested by legislative leaders. When legislators vote, they use buttons on their desks that register their choices electronically. A red button is for "no," a green button is for "yes," and a yellow button is for "present."”
17.) Oops, I Misvoted -Not exactly, only when caught by church groups and Democrats, did you beg to change your misvote.
What?
No seriously. What?
18.) I Was A Professor Of Law - Not exactly, you were a senior lecturer ON LEAVE.
Barack Obama was a professor at the University of Chicago's Law School, a fact verified by that institution itself because The Law School got many media requests about Senator Obama, especially about his status as "Senior Lecturer."
From 1992 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004, Barack Obama served as a professor in the Law School. He was a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996. He was a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004, during which time he taught three courses per year. Senior Lecturers are considered to be members of the Law School faculty and are regarded as professors, although not full-time or tenure-track. The title of Senior Lecturer is distinct from the title of Lecturer, which signifies adjunct status. Like Obama, each of the Law School's Senior Lecturers has high-demand careers in politics or public service, which prevent full-time teaching. Several times during his 12 years as a professor in the Law School, Obama was invited to join the faculty in a full-time tenure-track position, but he declined.
Turns out the institution itself actually prefers Senator Obama's reading of the situation and defends his status:
http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/was_barack_obama_really_a_constitutional_law.html
19.) I Was A Constitutional Lawyer - Not exactly, you were a senior lecturer ON LEAVE.
Well, we've already established the senior lecturer issue, and the subject he taught was in fact constitutional law. Senator Obama actually hasn't claimed to be a constitutional law lawyer, but at civil rights lawyer. Between 1993 and 2002, Barack Obama worked as a civil rights lawyer with the Chicago law firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland.
20.) Without Me, There Would Be No Ethics Bill - Not exactly, you didn't write it, introduce it, change it, or create it.
Neither I nor anybody else seems to know when/where he allegedly said this. There's no record he said this. Now, as an Illinois State Senator, Obama did help pass a major ethics reform bill. That and the 110th U.S. Congress passed the Legislative Transparency and Accountability act, which drew from provisions in a bill that Senators Obama and Feingold had originally introduced.
21.) The Ethics Bill Was Hard To Pass - Not exactly, it took just 14 days from start to finish.
He never said this.
22.) I Wrote A Tough Nuclear Bill - Not exactly, your bill was rejected by your own party for its pandering and lack of all regulation - mainly because of your Nuclear donor, Exelon, from which David Axelrod came.
In the Illinois senate, Obama DID write a tough nuclear bill—although it eventually did not pass. Exelon was, however, a donor to his state senator campaign… not to his senate or presidential campaigns, it would appear.
23.) I Have Released My State Records - Not exactly, as of March, 2008, state bills you sponsored or voted for have yet to be released, exposing all the special interests pork hidden within.
He never said "I have released my state records" (I have removed the extra capital letters out of respect for the English language)
On November 14, 2007, an Associated Press article quoted Obama as saying, "I don't have -- I don't maintain -- a file of eight years of work in the state Senate because I didn't have the resources available to maintain those kinds of records." Records of state bills and the votes of senators, however, are available from the Illinois state legislature.
24.) I Took On The Asbestos Altgeld Gardens Mess - Not exactly, you were part of a large group of people who remedied Altgeld Gardens . You failed to mention anyone else but yourself, in your books.
I am nonplussed at the outrage over an author making himself the main character in a personal memoir. However, here's some statements from people who worked with Senator Obama in Altgeld:
Yvonne Lloyd: “He always stayed in the background...behind the scenes.” Yvonne Lloyd, a mother of 11 who was the basis for the character “Shirley” in Dreams of My Father, worked with Obama during the effort to remove asbestos from the Altgeld Garden apartments. She remembers that Obama “trained us to be leaders...I would come to him with an issue and he would help us figure it out [but] he always stayed in the background. And we used to say to him, ‘Barack, come on and do this,’ and he would say no. Even when we took pictures, he always stayed behind the scenes, because it was our community.” Lloyd attended the meetings with the Chicago Housing Authority described in Dreams from My Father and remembers working with Obama on the issue, saying that he “helped us make presentations, but he never scripted us. Because that’s [scripting] not telling the truth. And if I’m telling the truth, I can tell it anywhere.”
Linda Randle, A Community Organizer In The Ida B. Wells Project, worked with Obama and says: “He didn’t take credit for anything.” Linda Randle worked in the Ida B. Wells housing project, which also had problems with asbestos, as a community organizer.
She filed a complaint with the EPA and worked with Martha Allen, a reporter for the Chicago Reporter, to bring the public’s attention to the issue. Randle, who knew Obama through his work in Altgeld, said “Barack and I would get together and we would talk... When he was having problems [with the work], we would talk about it – he would ask, ‘What do I need to do to open up my head to hear what they’re saying to me?’...But he didn’t take credit for anything.” This was published in the Chicago Reporter, June 1986 as well.
25.) M y Economics Bill Will Help America - Not exactly, your 111 economic policies were just combined into a proposal which lost 99-0, and even YOU voted against your own bill.
There's no place Obama said this. There's NOT EXACTLY anything specific in your claim. Which, uh, proposal was this that lost 99-0?
26.) I Have Been A Bold Leader In Illinois - Not exactly, even your own supporters claim to have not seen BOLD action on your part.
No one else can find when he allegedly said this.
27.) I Passed 26 Of My Own Bills In One Year - Not exactly, they were not YOUR bills, but rather handed to you, after their creation by a fellow Senator, to assist you in a future bid for higher office.
Wait, what? He worked with another senator in the senate, a well known gathering of senators who work on things together? They did all pass, after all. Hm.
28.) No One on my campaign contacted Canada about NAFTA - Not exactly, the Canadian Government issued the names and a memo of the conversation your campaign had with them.
This is disputed and confused with a NAFTA story about Hillary Clinton—where one of her staffers did contact the Canadian embassy to give reassurances about NAFTA. “On March 3 the Canadian embassy in Washington said it "deeply regrets" the affair, and that "there was no intention to convey, in any way" that Obama was being inconsistent about NAFTA”
29.) I Am Tough On Terrorism - Not exactly, you missed the Iran Resolution vote on terrorism and your good friend Ali Abunimah supports the destruction off Israel .
Where’s there a reference that Abunimah is his ‘good friend’? In November, 2007, Obama introduced a Senate resolution that said that President Bush did not have authority to use military force against Iran. Though, sure enough, he did miss one vote on Iran while he was on the campaign trail in Sept, 2007!
30.) I Want All Votes To Count - Not exactly, you said let the delegates decide.
Well, turns out that even when Obama was behind in the delegate count, he publicly agreed with the Clinton campaign that this was a delegate race. He never changed that position. A reference to your version of events simply cannot be found.
Obama did express that he hoped the superdelegates would reflect the will of the people/voters. Clinton, who you may recall was the person who moved on the convention floor to nominate Barack Obama by acclimation, did once advocate for the superdelegates to decide for themselves.
31.) I Want Americans To Decide - Not exactly, you prefer caucuses that limit the vote, confuse the voters, force a public vote, and only operate during small windows of time.
Obama has never actually stated that he ‘prefers caucuses’. Though he did win a lot in those states, which might make a person feel pretty good about them and even have a preference for the caucuses this year, considering how many he won. A common argument against caucuses is the way it often benefits ‘established candidates’ and indeed, most analysts thought Clinton—not Obama--would more typically benefit from caucuses. (I can tell you that the political insiders I know at the county level were shocked that both Obama and Franken prevailed in our MN caucuses….They were not considered to be the insider-favorites in any way.)
32.) I passed 900 Bills in the State Senate - Not exactly, you passed 26, most of which you didn't write yourself.
This never happened. This appears to Quite Exactly lack any citation to prove this, nor record of such a statement.
33.) I Believe In Fairness, Not Tactics - Not exactly, you used tactics to eliminate Alice Palmer from running against you.
Where did we hear this quote? As for Alice Palmer reference, Obama did use the existing rules. Ms. Palmer did not have enough qualifying signatures to get her name on the ballot. …Not exactly underhanded.
34.) I Don't Take PAC Money - Not exactly, you take loads of it.
Senator Obama didn't say that has never accepted money from political action committees. For example, he used PAC money in his previous U.S. Senate and Illinois state Senate races. He pledged that he would not accept PAC money for his 2008 presidential bid, a pledge that he has upheld.
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/pac-ing_heat.html
Obama has not accepted PAC money since making his pledge…NO PAC donations have been accepted since making this public pledge.
35.) I don't Have Lobbysists - Not exactly, you have over 47 lobbyists, and counting.
That's not something we have any record of him actually saying. Plus, do you even know what it means? What's it mean to say that Obama “has” lobbyists?
He stated that he does not employ federally registered lobbyists, and that if he were elected President his administration would not include any such lobbyists.
…..McCain on the other hand has some in the highest levels of his camp.
36.) My Campaign Had Noth ing To Do With The 1984 Ad - Not exactly, your own campaign worker made the ad on his Apple in one afternoon.
Have you seen the 1984 ‘ad’? It doesn’t say anything false. It was not created by Obama’s campaign worker, but by someone who once worked on the Sherrod Browne campaign and who now works for Blue State Digital. Here, check it out: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/who-created-hillary-1984_b_43978.html
37.) I Have Always Been Against Iraq - Not exactly, you weren't in office to vote against it AND you have voted to fund it every single time.
Obama didn’t weigh in on the ‘initial vote’ and was not a US senator at the time. He was very publicly against the war from the beginning. He has since voted in the Senate to authorize funding for that war, for reasons he defended in a February 2008 Democratic debate:
"The two Democrats exchanged pointed words over each other's records on the war in Iraq, which contrast sharply even as economic and domestic concerns become dominant in the race. Clinton voted in 2002 to authorize the invasion, which Obama opposed from the start. After Obama again touted a high-profile antiwar speech he gave in Chicago before the war, Clinton pointed out that he, like her, had subsequently voted for war funding, and that their records on Iraq were similar since he came to the Senate in 2005.
"When it wasn't just a speech, but it was actually action, where is the difference?" she said. "Where is the comparison that would in some way give a real credibility to the speech that he gave against the war?"
Obama shot back: "Once we had driven the bus into the ditch, there were only so many ways we could get out."
I think we can all agree that this kind of thing is hardly a concern. Let's recall that in the realm of having difficult to grasp patterns in voting positions, Senator Obama's opponent voted against his own bill. And one time, he was against torture before he was for it. Huh. And if people are really upset that Barack Obama voted for war funding, they must be very anxious about how much money John McCain wants to spend there. What position is actually the problem here, again?
38.) I Have Always Supported Universal Health Care - NOT EXACTL Y, your plan leaves us all to pay for the 15,000,000 who don't have to buy it.
Obama’s healthcare plan is ‘universal’ in that it will be universally available to ALL Americans. There will not be restrictions on pre-existing conditions –or exceedingly high premiums due to pre-existing conditions-- and there will be payment assistance for lower and even middle incomes. It is estimated by some that 15 million Americans may not voluntarily sign up for a healthcare plan anyway. Obama and his team argue that while true universal healthcare (ie Hillary’s plan) would be great, there would not be enough support for the mandate plan for a variety of reasons. Obama’s plan makes health insurance universally available. It does not mandate everyone to buy insurance, so it won’t be true ‘universal’.
39.) My uncle liberated Auschwitz concentration camp - NOT EXACTLY, your mother had no brothers and the Russian army did the liberating
Actually, that was pretty weird. Until I found out that , you know what? Barack just made a mistake. His great uncle Charlie Payne was part of the 89th Infantry that liberated Buchenwald. Yeah. Buchenwald. Auschwitz is of course the most famous. And there's the fact it's called Auschwitz-Birkenau. Birkenau. Buchenwald. Regardless, he called it Auschwitz, which isn't Buchenwald and wasn't liberated by US forces. But seriously 18 hour days speaking and traveling... I think a slip of the tongue like this is forgivable. Unless you're a pack of ravenous slavering liars like the artless jackals who promulgate these emails.