The Obama Timeline: 1961-2008

By 2004, Obama and ACORN are “old friends.” Over the years Obama receives campaign support and voter registration help from ACORN; in exchange, Obama helps obtain funding for ACORN via the Woods Fund, Joyce Foundation, and the legislature, and attempts to introduce “ACORN-friendly” legislation (like massive minimum wage increases, preventing the construction of new Wal-Mart stores, forcing banks to lend more to poor people and donate to voter turn-out drives, rolling back welfare reform, and forcing businesses that flee the city of Chicago to pay “exit fees”). [243]

While serving as director of the Joyce Foundation board, Obama gave millions of dollars to gun control organizations like the Council Against Handguns and the Violence Policy Center. [346]

The Chicago Communist Party endorses Obama for the U.S. Senate; he receives volunteer support from the Young Communist League. [101]

In April of 2004, Iraqi-born billionaire Nadhmi Auchi attends a dinner party held in his honor at the home of Tony Rezko. In 2005, Auchi lends Rezko $3.5 million, three few weeks before Rezko’s wife pays full price ($625,000) for an empty lot adjacent to a $1.95 million mansion Obama buys on the same day – at a $300,000 discount, for $1.65 million. [296]

In June of 2004, leftist billionaire George Soros (who bankrolls the radical web site moveon.org) hosts a fundraiser in New York for Obama’s Senate campaign; Soros chips in $60,000; the total “take” for the evening is unknown. [239]

On July 27, 2004, Obama gives the keynote address at the Democrat National Convention which nominates John Kerry for President.

On July 28, 2004, Obama tells in Boston that the United States has an “absolute obligation” to remain in Iraq long enough to make it a success. “The failure of the Iraqi state would be a disaster,” he then says at a Christian Science Monitor luncheon. “It would dishonor the 900-plus men and women who have already died. It would be a betrayal of the promise that we made to the Iraqi people, and it would be hugely destabilizing from a national security perspective.” Needless to say, Obama later changed his tune. [346]

Obama’s Republican opponent in the fall campaign for the U.S. Senate is Jack Ryan, a handsome, articulate, and wealthy investment broker with three Ivy League degrees. The press works to get Ryan’s sealed divorce documents unsealed (his ex-wife is actress Jeri Lynn Ryan), and an embarrassed Ryan withdraws from the race. The Republicans field a last-minute replacement, Alan Keyes, a black, anti-abortion, fiery speaker who is ridiculed by the press and never taken seriously. (The ultra-conservative Keyes does not help his case saying things like “Jesus Christ himself would not vote for Barack Obama.”) Obama wins easily. [102,103,359]

In 2004, the “Code Pink” anti-war group delivers $600,000 in cash and supplies to Iraq – not to American soldiers, but to the terrorists who are fighting them in Fallujah. Jodie Evans, co-founder of Code Pink, later donates $2,300 to the Obama Presidential campaign. Evans said in a June, 2008 interview that Osama bin Laden had a “valid argument” for the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 [104,355]

In 2004, Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi (who lives in London) flies to Chicago in a private jet and meets at the Four Season Hotel with Tony Rezko, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, and Obama. At this point, both Blagojevich and Obama are aware that Rezko is already under investigation for illegal activities involving kickbacks for political favors. [249]

In November of 2004, before he is even sworn in as a United States Senator, Obama has “toe in the water” conversations with close associates about his running for President in 2008. Publicly, however, Obama says “I can unequivocally say I will not be running for national office in four years, and my entire focus is making sure that I’m the best possible senator on behalf of the people of Illinois.” [210,239]

2005

After Obama is elected to the U.S. Senate, he tells reporters who ask if he will run for President that is “a silly question.” He continued, “I’ve never worked in Washington. I can unequivocally say I will not be running for national office in four years, and my entire focus is making sure that I’m the best possible senator on behalf of the people of Illinois.” [351]

In early 2005, the mass media adopts its long-term “suck up to and cover up for Obama” posture, with Time Magazine naming Obama one of “The World’s Most Influential People.” (MSNBC’s Chris Matthews will later say of Obama, “He seems to have the answers. This is the New Testament.” A starry-eyed Oprah Winfrey will gush that Obama’s “tongue (is) dipped in the unvarnished truth,” and author Deepak Chopra will predict that an Obama Presidency will “represent a quantum leap in American consciousness.”) [239,351,358]

Obama buys more than $50,000 stock in two companies whose major investors include his biggest political donors. One of the companies is developing a drug to treat avian flu. Two weeks after buying shares in the company, Obama pushes for federal spending to battle the disease; the fear of the diseases is hyped way out of proportion by the media, with incessant scare stories not backed up by facts. Obama also buys stock in a satellite communications business backed by four friends and donors who had raised $150,000 for him. [351]

In June, 2005, Obama purchases a mansion in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, for $1.65 million ($300,000 less than the asking price), with the help of friend, fundraiser, and political “fixer” Tony Rezko; Rezko’s wife, who earns $37,000 per year, purchases the empty lot adjacent to the Obama house for the full price of $625,000, with a down payment of $125,000. Obama’s 5.625 per cent mortgage is for $1.32 million, through the Northern Trust Bank. At the time of the purchase, it is already widely known that Rezko is under investigation; Obama deals with him anyway. Three weeks before the purchase, $3.5 million is loaned to Rezko by Nadhmi Auchi, a wealthy Iraqi who lives in England. (Rezko is convicted in 2008 of receiving kickbacks for political favors.) Mrs. Rezko then sells a 10-foot strip of the empty lot to Obama, for $104,500. (The transaction leaves Rezko with an unusable empty lot with no street access.) Rezko later asks Obama to help Auchi obtain a visa to travel in the United States in 2005; the State Department refuses – partly because Auchi, a member of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party and former high-ranking official in his oil Ministry, had been found guilty of corruption charges in France. [105,106,249,329]

Living within a few blocks of Obama’s mansion are Louis Farrakhan, William Ayers, and Toni Preckwinkle. Preckwinkle in Chicago’s 4th Ward Alderwoman [329]

The Syrian-born Rezko’s money ties to Iraq may go back decades, and to Saddam Hussein. Nadhmi Auchi, who is apparently Rezko’s main money man, dealt with Hussein as early as 1959 and in a failed assassination attempt on Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qasim. [249]

In May of 2005, a Panamanian company, Fintrade Services, lends money to Obama fundraiser Rezko. On Fintrade’s board of directors is Ibtisam Auchi, wife of Nadhmi Auchi. [249,351]

One of Auchi’s companies helps finance a power plant in Iraq, working with Rezko and Aiham Alsamarrae; Alsamarrae is a Chicago resident with dual (U.S. and Iraqi) citizenship, and is accused of graft with Iraqi construction projects; Alsamarrae is imprisoned for four months in Iraq in a $2 billion corruption case. Obama is thus a critic of the War in Iraq at the same time he is receiving political favors and contributions from Rezko, who is, in turn, dealing with Iraqis and kickback schemes. [249]

In April of 2005, while Alsammarae is Iraq’s Minister of Electricity, a $50 million contract is negotiated with “Companion Security” to train Iraqi security guards in Illinois; Companion Security is run by Daniel T. Frawley and a partnership between Tony Rezko and Daniel Mehru. [249]

In 2005, Virginia officials reject 83 per cent of ACORN’s Project Vote new voter registrations as fraudulent. [204]

Obama votes against the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, which would prevent minors from being taken across state lines without the consent of the parents in order to have an abortion. [108]

In 2005, Obama votes for an energy bill that includes billions of dollars in subsidies for oil and natural gas production. [109]

During 2004 and 2005, the FBI takes note of repeated visits by Obama and Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to the offices of Rezmar Corporation, a joint business venture of Daniel Mahru and Tony Rezko. The purpose of the visits is unclear. [207]

Suggesting he cares less about the letter of the law and more about the status of the litigants, Obama argues against the nomination of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, saying that the role of the justice is to favor the weak over the strong; “I hope he will recognize who the weak are and who the strong are in our society.” [344]

2006

Obama’s second book, “The Audacity of Hope,” is published. The book’s title is inspired by Obama’s controversial pastor, Reverend “Jeremiah “God Damn America” Wright. [137]

Obama pushes for a $1 million earmark for the University of Chicago Hospitals; his wife, Michelle Obama, is promoted to “Vice President of Community and External Affairs” for the hospitals; her salary jumps from $121,900 to $316,962; her main responsibilities, in promoting an “Urban Health Initiative,” are to encourage the poor, uninsured to go to neighborhood clinics rather than diminish hospital profits by using the hospital emergency rooms; assisting her with the public relations nightmare is David Axelrod. [110,111,112]

The Board of Trustees of Chicago’s Adler Planetarium raises $250,000 for Obama’s Presidential campaign; Obama then obtains a $3 million earmark for the planetarium; $300,000 had been sought by the Trustees to upgrade a projector system. [113]

In April of 2006, Companion Security (run by Frawley, Rezko, and Mehru) works with Governor Rod Blagojevich to lease an Illinois military facility for training Iraqi security guards. In August of 2006, Frawley works with Obama’s Senate staff to complete the deal. [249]

Obama is Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Europe, but never convenes the committee for a meeting. [114]

On May 5, 2006, John McCain and 19 other Republican Senators send a letter to the Senate Majority Leader urging the passage of Senate Bill S190, which is intended to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (and could possibly have reduced the likelihood of the economic crisis in 2008). Obama does not sign the letter of support. The bill is not approved. When McCain introduces it again in 2007, it is blocked by Senator Chris Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and his fellow Democrats, and the bill never makes it to the Senate floor for a vote. [278]

McCain’s letter — signed by nineteen other senators — said that it was “…vitally important that Congress take the necessary steps to ensure that (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac)…operate in a safe and sound manner. More importantly, Congress must ensure that the American taxpayer is protected in the event that either…should fail.” [278]

In the summer of 2006, homes in Obama’s Chicago neighborhood are reassessed for property tax purposes. Houses surrounding Obama’s are reassessed for, on average, 28 per cent more. Obama’s house is assessed at six per cent more, saving him a considerable amount in property taxes. [329]

The federal government, in 2006, shuts down an Islamic charity called “KindHearts” because of its fund-raising for terrorist groups, including Hamas; the chairman of the organization, Hatem El-Hady, then directs his fund-raising efforts to Obama’s election. [115]

Obama proposes legislation prohibiting gun stores from operating within five miles of a school or a park; inasmuch as most communities have schools and parks scattered widely throughout their areas, the legislation would effectively ban gun stores. [339]

Obama visits Kenya in 2006, and gives support to Raila Odinga, a Muslim socialist candidate for President who has ties to both al Qaeda and Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi, and who hopes to get Sharia Muslim law established. (Odinga is a cousin of Obama; Odinga’s mother is the sister of Obama’s father; one source of that relationship allegation has been deleted from the web site, www.bbc.co.uk.) [294,329]

During his 2006 Kenya visit, Obama makes a speech to university students in Nairobi, in which he criticizes the existing pro-American Kenyan government, rallies the students against it, and talks of the need for change. This action is seen as an endorsement by Obama of Odinga, the Kenyan President’s opponent. By making his speech, supporting Odinga, and standing beside Odinga at rallies, Obama violates the stated conditions of his Official Government Visa (“to nurture relations between the (African) Continent and the United States”). The Kenyan government lodges an official protest of Obama’s passport abuse and misconduct. Obama’s actions are denounced by the U.S. State Department as being in direct opposition to U. S. National Security. After Odinga loses the election in December of 2007, his followers burn women and children alive – in a Christian church where they had sought refuge. Over 1,500 people are ultimately killed in riots, and Odinga is ultimately given the position of Prime Minister to placate his radical supporters and stop further bloodshed. [126,127,207,208,271,293,313,329]

In support of Odinga, Obama raises approximately $950,000. The cash for Odinga comes from private meetings in 2006 arranged for Odinga by Mark Lippert, a foreign policy advisor on Obama’s staff. Odinga visits Obama during three separate trips to Washington in 2004, 2005, and 2006. Odinga promises his supporters in Kenya that he will “rewrite the Constitution of Kenya to recognize Shariah as the only true law sanctioned by the Holy Quran for Muslim declared religion.” [313]

In early 2006, Lippert had been sent by Obama to Kenya, at taxpayer expense, on a “fact-finding” mission, and to do advance work for Obama’s later visit.

In a December 22, 2006 e-mail, Obama personally informs Odinga that “all our correspondence (should be) handled by Mr. Mark Lippert,” and using Lippert as their common contact would be for his (Obama’s) “…own security now and in future.” [313] These actions by Obama and Lippert may have been in violation of the Logan Act.

Note the following pledges of candidate Odinga, who received support from Obama: Re-write the Constitution of Kenya to recognize Muslim Sharia law for Muslim regions; facilitate the establishment of a Sharia court in every Kenyan divisional headquarters; order every primary school to conduct daily Madrassa classes; impose a total ban on open-air Christian gospel crusades; outlaw gospel programs on KBC; impose a total ban on the consumption of alcoholic beverages; and impose an immediate ban on women’s public dressing styles that are considered immoral and offensive to the Muslim faith. [329]

Alexi Giannoulias runs for Illinois State Treasurer in 2006 and receives a strong endorsement from Obama, who states Giannoulias is “…one of the most outstanding young men I could ever hope to meet” – despite the candidate’s youth (he is 29), total lack of experience, mob connections, and his family bank’s (Broadway Bank) financing of a Chicago crime figure; one year later Giannoulias raises $100,000 for Obama’s Presidential campaign. Giannoulias is elected, but very likely would not have won without Obama’s endorsement. Ten years earlier, the Giannoulias family had been rumored to have helped Obama with campaign financing, and also provided an alleged “sweetheart deal” mortgage for his Chicago townhouse (which he owned before Tony Rezko helped him buy his Hyde Park mansion). [116,117,281]

Giannoulias is the money-man for Michael “Jaws” Giorango, a Chicago thug with convictions for bookmaking and promoting prostitution. Giannoulias is so tainted by mob connections that the powerful Illinois Speaker of the House and State Democrat Party Chairman Michael Madigan refused to endorse Giannoulias for State Treasurer; the Democrat Party does not endorse Democrat Giannoulias in the November election; Obama endorses him anyway. Obama uses Giannoulias’ Broadway Bank for his personal business and his Senate campaign fund. [318,319]

Obama campaigns in Vermont for socialist Senator Bernie Sanders; Sanders calls rookie Senator Obama “one of the great leaders of the United States Senate;” by the 2008 Presidential election, Obama’s voting record is more to the left than that of socialist Sanders. [118]

Illinois’ Cook County Board President John Stroger becomes ill during the 2006 primary election campaign; Chicago Democrats keep his illness a secret until the deadline for candidate filings passes, and then manage to place the name of his son, Todd Stroger, on the ballot. Despite his total lack of experience and history as a corrupt, machine-style ward boss, Obama supports the young Stroger, calling him a “good, progressive Democrat.” More qualified Democrats are outraged, especially those who support reform of the corrupt and deficit-spending Cook County Board. As predicted by many, Stroger proves to be a disaster. [119]

In an article in the Jakarta Post of November 29, 2006, Julia Suryakusuma, a long-time friend of Obama’s mother and an outspoken feminist writer, states that Obama could run for President of Indonesia; it is assumed she means that Obama retains his Indonesian citizenship; because Indonesia does not allow dual citizenship, Obama cannot be an American citizen if he has not renounced his Indonesian citizenship. [120]

2007

In early 2007, Obama announces his candidacy for U. S. President; Obama’s main campaign strategist is David Axelrod (the “Karl Rove” of the Obama campaign). Two weeks before he launches his Presidential campaign, Obama pays $375-$400 for two decades worth of parking tickets received wile at Harvard Law School. (He manages to avoid the late fees and penalties a “normal” person would be charged.) [121,353,356]

Arguably (and putting his tremendous ego aside), Obama may have decided to run for President, rather than attempting first to be the Vice-President of the more likely candidate, Hillary Clinton, partly because he knows he would never make it through the VP vetting process.

At the time of his candidacy announcement, Obama had actually been present for work in the Senate a total of 143 days. Obama’s announcement includes this statement, “I know that I haven’t spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington. But I’ve been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change.” [349,351,353]

On January 24, the “Obama Exploratory Committee” releases this statement, “To be clear, Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the (Trinity) United Church of Christ in Chicago.” On March 14, that statement is clarified, as follows: “Obama was never a practicing Muslim.” Obama’s web site eventually includes this statement: “Obama Has Never Been A Muslim.” [353]

New York Times reporter Nicholas Kristof interviews Obama and writes, “Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated… Mr. Obama described the Muslim call to prayer as ‘one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.’” The interview has since been deleted from the New York Times web pages. (Interestingly, although Obama says he was never a Muslim and never practiced the religion, he is able to recite from memory something he learned in a school in Indonesia more than 30 years previously.) [122,353]

Robert Wolf, CEO of the American branch of the Swiss banking giant USB, collects more than $370,000 in campaign contributions for Obama; USB lies to the government and conceals the identities of over 19,000 clients in order to help them avoid paying U. S. income taxes. [123]

In 2007, the Obama campaign receives $32,000 from companies affiliated with Robert Blackwell. While an Illinois State Senator, Obama received $112,000 from Blackwell in monthly $8,000 retainers, funneled through the law firm where he had previously worked. Obama persuaded the Illinois legislature to award $320,000 in state grants to Blackwell’s company, “Killerspin.” (Killerspin is a company that promotes table tennis (“ping pong”) and sells equipment and apparel and promotes tournaments.) [207]

Note that the University of Chicago Medical Center, with Michelle Obama’s encouragement, had granted a $650,000 contract to a local contractor for upgrading the center’s intranet; that contractor was (Robert) Blackwell Consulting. [352]

In July, 2007, Obama says he would meet, without pre-conditions, the leaders of Iran, Syria, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela. [353]

On July 25, Obama tells media big-wigs and corporate CEOs in a meeting at the Time-Warner Center in Manhattan, “One thing I’m very confident about is my judgment in foreign policy is, I believe, better than any other candidate in this race, Republican or Democrat.” [353]

To raise money for her husband’s campaign, Obama’s wife charges $500 to have a photo taken with her. [124]

Obama gets Marshall Ganz to help train organizers and volunteers for his presidential campaign; employees and volunteers go through several days of intense training session, called “Camp Obama.” The sessions are led by Ganz and Mike Kruglik (one of Obama’s past fellow “community organizers”). Ganz, Krugli, and Obama all have long associations with ACORN and Alinsky-style activism and agitation methods. [284,287]

Five ACORN employees are convicted in Washington State in “the worst case of election fraud” in the state’s history. [240]

In 2007, Obama works to stop Hans von Spakovsky, an official in the Justice Department, from being named to the Federal Election Commission, because von Spakovsky had supported a Georgia photo I.D. law. Like his ACORN supporters, Obama opposes voter I.D. laws. ACORN also opposes welfare reform and the strengthening of U.S. border security. [255]

In an April, 2007 speech, Obama, paraphrasing a line from Saul Alinsky’s book, “Rules for Radicals,” says “We don’t care about the world as it is, we imagine the world as it might be.” [353]

In April, 2007, Obama endorses the idea of “comparable worth pay” by supporting a bill by Iowa Senator Tom Harkin. Under a “comparable worth” scheme, the federal government would define the value of every job in the United States, and then force employers to follow those rules. (A kindergarten teacher, for example, might be considered “worth” 82.7 per cent of a truck driver, while a truck driver might be considered to be “worth” 34.6 per cent of an electrical engineer. (The alleged “logic” of the plan is that it would eliminate “wage discrimination.” In practice, it would lead to substantially increased costs for all businesses, and introduce lawsuits into every aspect of wages and salary determinations.) [354]

In April, 2007, chief campaign strategist David Axelrod meets with Obama in Obama’s Senate office; Congressional ethics rules prohibit such use of federal office space for political and campaign activity. [356]

On April 30, 2007, in an interview with the New York Times, Obama’s half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, says, “My whole family was Muslim, and most of the people I knew were Muslim.” [353]

On May 8, Obama criticizes U.S. automakers for not making more hybrid vehicles, like those manufactured by Honda and Toyota; Obama drives a Chrysler 300C with a large V-8 engine. [353]

On May 24, 2007, Obama votes to cut off all funding of military efforts in Afghanistan; on the campaign trail Obama says more American troops need to be shifted from Iraq to Afghanistan. [125]

Despite a long history of corruption in the Teamsters Union, Obama tells the union he will end its federal oversight if he is elected. Obama receives substantial campaign donations from the Teamsters Union. Obama also promises to support legislation allowing unions to avoid secret ballots in organizing campaigns. [128,256]

On July 18, 2007, ABC News reports that Obama told Planned Parenthood that sex education for kindergartners is “the right thing to do.” [337]

In a Colorado campaign appearance, in a proposal worthy of Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro, Obama announces plans for a “civilian national security force.” After a flurry of inquiries about Obama’s intentions with his “security force,” the proposal is dropped from his speeches and all references to it are deleted from the campaign’s official web site. [129,276]

Obama tells friend Ali Abunimah, a Palestinian rights activist in Chicago, that he was sorry he wasn’t talking more about the Palestinian cause, but his primary campaign had “constrained” what he could say. Abunimah tells radio talk show “Democracy Now!” he knew Obama for many years and “when he used to attend events in the Palestinian community in Chicago all the time.” Abunimah responds to Obama’s sudden about-face and soft support of Israel during the campaign by remarking, “He is merely doing what he thinks is necessary to get elected and he will continue doing it as long as it keeps him in power.” 130,223,335]

Obama receives support from Zbigniew Bzrezinski (Obama’s Chief Foreign policy Advisor and Carter Administration re-tread), Robert O. Malley, Samantha Power (senior foreign policy advisor), General Merrill A. McPeak (senior military advisor, who believes the U.S. drive Iran to hate Israel and America), Joseph Cirincione (Obama’s advisor on nuclear threats, who denies the known fact that North Korea assisted Syria in the development of a plutonium plant), and Daniel Kurtzer (Middle East advisor) – all known for their anti-Israel views. [356]

Also advising Obama are Richard Clark (foreign policy advisor), who has said that if he is captured, Osama bin Laden should be allowed to appeal his case in U.S. courts, Wesley Clark (who commanded the military forces at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in which 76 people – including 21 children – were killed), Richard Danzig (national security advisor, who said the U.S. war on terrorism should follow a lesson from the pages of Winnie the Pooh), Sam Grahan-Felsen (Obama’s official “blogger,” who has written a socialist magazine), Austan Goolsbee (chief economic advisor who, in 2007, wrote a defense of sub-prime mortgage loans), Penny Pritzker (financial chairperson, and former head of Chicago’s Superior Bank, which failed because many of its assets were invested in sub-prime mortgages, resulting in $360 million in penalties), and Susan Rice (senior foreign policy advisor who, as assistant secretary of state under Bill Clinton, and with Richard Clark, persuaded Clinton not to accept Sudan’s offer to hand over Osama bin Laden to the U.S.). [356,360]

Obama ousts his campaign’s Muslim outreach director, Chicago lawyer Mazen Asbahi, when questions about his ties to a radical Muslim imam and the Muslim Brotherhood surface. [131]

On September 17, at a gathering in Indianola, Iowa, Obama is photographed holding his hands together below his waist, while primary opponents Bill Richardson and Hillary Clinton respectfully hold their right hand over their heart during the playing of the National Anthem. [353]

In September, Obama agrees to use public financing for his campaign; he breaks that promise. [353]

In October of 2007, Obama co-sponsors legislation, the “Helping Families Save their Homes in Bankruptcy Act of 2007,” which makes it easier for homeowners to protect themselves from losing their homes; the bill is written to also intentionally shield ACORN and other “middleman” groups from being charged for violations of the “Truth in Lending Act” in connection with obtaining mortgages for clients. [310]

The New York Times, on October 30, 2007, reports that “Obama has declined repeated requests to talk about his New York years, release his Columbia transcript or identify even a single fellow student, co-worker, roommate or friend from those years…”

Obama promises Planned Parenthood the first piece of legislation he will sign if elected will be the “Freedom of Choice Act,” which would overturn all state pro-life laws, including prohibitions against partial-birth abortions and parental notification requirements for minors seeking abortions. [132,133]

On November 1, Obama says, “We’ve got to make sure that people who have more money help the people who have less money.” [353]

In a November, 2007 speech to ACORN members, Obama brags that when he “…ran the Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it.” When, in 2008, critics connect Obama to ACORN and Project Vote, Obama disavows having working for or with the groups. [283]

Obama avoids voting on a November, 2007 resolution that declares the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, an elite part of the Iranian military, a terrorist organization. [351]

On December 1, 2007, Obama speaks to the “Heartland Democratic Presidential Forum,” at a gathering held exclusively for community organizers and members of the Gamaliel Foundation and ACORN; Obama tells the group that even before he is sworn in as President, “During the transition (period) we’re gonna be calling all of you in to help us shape the agenda,” and assures them that they will be actively involved in the first 100 days of his administration. [280]

In December of 2007, Donald Young, the gay choir director of Obama’s church is murdered, gangland style; the choir director “knew more,” according to a man named Larry Sinclair, who says he once shared drugs and homosexual “activities” with Barack Obama in the back of a Chicago cab. (It should be noted that Sinclair has a long arrest record, and has committed crimes involving fraud and deceit. Sinclair’s accusations may be true, or may be for the sole purpose of receiving donations from visitors to his web site; the media has chosen not to interview the cab driver, Paramjit Singh Multani.) [134,135,136]

During the Christmas service at Trinity United Church of Christ, Obama’s pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright says, “Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a process that is controlled by rich white men. Hillary can never know that, Hillary ain’t ever been called a nigger!” (Yes, he said that during a Christmas service.) Obama contends he never heard such remarks from Wright, or he would have condemned them. Apparently the allegedly church-going Obama (who was in Chicago at Christmas in 2007) failed to catch that part of Wright’s sermon. Note that Obama does not give presents to his children at Christmas. [357,361]

2008

Obama is one of the Illinois politicians cited in the indictment of his long-time friend and fund-raiser, Tony Rezko, for having received political contributions from Rezko’s kickback funds. Obama allegedly returns between $85,000 and $250,000 in political contributions received from Rezko. [138,139,207]

In 2008, ACORN feverishly registers new Democrat voters in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, and other states to boost Obama’s chances of winning the primaries and the general election. In Cuyahoga County, Ohio alone, ACORN registers more than 75,000 new voters; fraud is certainly involved, inasmuch as the voter rolls in that county already exceed the number of adult residents living there by 200,000. ACORN’s Project Vote activity has a tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the IRS code, which prohibits its involvement in partisan political activity; it’s workers consistently violate those laws when they pass out Obama literature and advocate his candidacy as they register new voters. [54,240]

During 2007 and 2008, Obama requests $860 million in “earmarks” (according to Taxpayers for Common sense); they include $1 million for his wife Michelle’s employer, $62 million for the “Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy,” $8 million for “Human Genome Expression,” $4.8 million for a “Light Emitting Diode Healing Program,” $2 million for a “Soybean Disease Biotechnology Center,” and money for projects linked to campaign donors. [140]

In January of 2008, Obama confirms that he supports drivers licenses for illegal immigrants (which his campaign refers to as “undocumented people”) and will take up immigration reform during his first year in office. [341]

In January, Obama tells “American Morning” host John Roberts that high taxes are in the best interest of the American economy. [ 53]

In January of 2008, Michelle Obama says, “…sometimes it’s easier to hold on to your own stereotypes and misconceptions. It makes you feel justified in your own ignorance. That’s America.” [352]

On January 30, 2008, Obama reiterates his support for drivers licenses for illegal immigrants. [353]

In February of 2008, the Obama campaign releases copies of his wife Michelle’s Princeton thesis on racial divisions (it had originally planned on keeping it secret until after the election). In the introduction to the thesis, Mrs. Obama writes, “It is possible that Black individuals either chose to or felt pressured to come together… because of the belief that Blacks must join in solidarity to combat a White oppressor.” The thesis also includes this statement, “By actually working with the Black lower class or within their communities as a result of their ideologies, a separationist may better understand the desparation (sic) of their situation and feel more hopeless about a resolution as opposed to an integrationist who is ignorant to (sic) their plight.” Critics who have read the thesis say it is the most sophomoric, non-scholarly piece of drivel ever, and claim it exposes a lack of academic rigor at Princeton. [352]

In February of 2008, Michelle Obama remarks at a rally in Milwaukee, “…for the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country.” The comment draws severe criticism and allegations that she is at least unappreciative of the wealth she has been able to accumulate, if not anti-American. [352]

On February 29, February 29th, Michelle Obama visits a daycare center in Zanesville, Ohio, where she complains about how difficult it is to survive financially in America, because she has to spend, for example, $10,000, on “piano and dance and sports supplements” and “summer programs and so on and so forth,” for her daughters. [352]

In February, a photo is released that show a Cuban flag adorned with the picture of communist murdered Che Guevara hanging on the wall of Obama’s Houston campaign office. [353]

In February, Obama denies that a member of his staff told the Canadian government he does not mean what he says publicly about opting out of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The Canadian government confirms that the statement was made. [353]

Obama names Penny Pritzker his national finance chairman; Pritzker is the former chairman of the board of the Superior Bank S&L, which went under because of irresponsible subprime mortgage lending in the 1990s. [353]

Obama defends his association with William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn with the statement, “The notion that…me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago… somehow reflects on me and my values doesn’t make much sense.” Dohrn once publicly praised Charles Manson and his followers for killing actress Sharon Tate. Dohrn’s words were, “Dig it. First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them. They even shoved a fork into a victim’s stomach! Wild!” In 2007, Ayers describes the United States as an “…incipient fascist country,” and talks about overthrowing capitalism, while Dohrn, at a reunion of the radical group Students for a Democratic Society, says that “…living in America constitutes living in the belly of the beast” and “the heart of the monster.” [141,142,143]

When further criticized for his friendship with William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, the Obama campaign issues a lengthy document trivializing their actions as 1960s radicals and defending them as “respectable fixtures of the mainstream in Chicago.” In a September 11, 2001 New York Times interview, Ayers says of the bombings history, “I don’t regret setting bombs; I feel we didn’t do enough.” In a memoir published by Ayers after 9/11, he wrote that America is “not a just and fair and decent place… it makes me want to puke.” The cover of Ayers’ book is a photograph of him trampling on an American flag. [143,144]

“Accountable America,” an organization which supports Obama, sends letters to nearly 10,000 citizens who often contribute to Republican causes, threatening them with potential legal problems if they finance conservative groups. [145,146,338]

Obama supports a Democrat housing bill that provides $200 million to community groups (including ACORN) for homeowner foreclosure counseling; ACORN pledges to spend $35 million in 2008 to register new Democrat voters. [147,148,149]

The audio book version of Obama’s “Dreams From My Father” is released; a line-by-line comparison with the print version shows that the audio version Obama recorded omits a substantial number of references that many white people might call controversial.

When Reverend Jeremiah’s controversial, anti-American sermons are brought up by the media, Obama says he knows nothing about such remarks, and adds, “I wasn’t in church that day.” [239]

Before the Ohio primary in 2008, Obama’s campaign gives ACORN $832,598, allegedly for get-out-the-vote activities; ACORN has a shameful track record of fraudulent and illegal activities. [240]

In March, 2008, Obama says of his controversial pastor, Jeremiah Wright, “I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community.” [150]

On March 3, 2008, in San Antonio, several Chicago reporters question Obama about his connections with Tony Rezko. Obama avoids the questions, saying “These requests, I think, could just go on forever. At some point, what we need to try to do is respond to what’s pertinent.” [249]

In March of 2008, Obama’s foreign policy advisor, Samantha Powers, resigns from his campaign after having been caught calling Hillary Clinton a “monster.” Powers nevertheless expects a top position in an Obama Administration, despite having publicly discussed the possibility of invading Israel to help create a Palestinian state. [233,234,235,236]

On March 18, Obama makes this remarkable comment, “All of the statements that have been the subject of controversy are ones that I vehemently condemn.” (In other words, “If anyone has ever said anything that offended you, then I’m against what he said!”) [353]

In April of 2008, Obama remarks that residents of small-town America, because of lost jobs, “…get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or (become) anti-immigrant.” His comment draws severe criticism from gun-owners and church-goers. [273,315]

On April 10, Obama says he favors repealing Bill Clinton’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” practice for gays serving in the military. [337]

In April of 2008, Michelle Obama addresses a Pennsylvania crowd; the rally is staffed by volunteers from Carnegie Mellon student organizations, including Carnegie Mellon Students for Barack Obama, Student Senate, AB Political Speakers, and College Democrats. Obama’s staffers made a special effort to control the seating of people who would appear on camera behind Mrs. Obama. Witnesses hear one coordinator say to another, “Get me more white people, we need more white people.” [352]

In a debate on April 17, Obama states, “I believe that the Constitution confers an individual right to bear arms. But just because you have an individual right does not mean that the state or local government can’t constrain the exercise of that right.” (While an Illinois State Senator, Obama voted four times against legislation that would allow citizens to use firearms to defend their homes and families.) [337]

Under political pressure, Obama, in May of 2008, half-heartedly disowns Reverend Jeremiah Wright and (at least temporarily) quits his controversial church. It is not clear if his wife and children still attend the church. [151]

When questioned about attempts by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to introduce legislation that would restrict conservative radio talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, Obama’s campaign press secretary, Michael Ortiz, says Obama supports “media-ownership caps, network neutrality” and more “public broadcasting.” [152]

A birth certificate purported to be Obama’s turns out to be that of his younger half-sister, Maya Kassandra Soetoro (1970 – ), which was altered to make it look like the candidate’s. [153,289]

On April 10, Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) introduces Senate Resolution S. Res. 511 to “recognize that John Sidney McCain is a natural born citizen.” The resolution is allegedly meant to clarify that McCain is eligible to be President even though he was born in Panama. Because McCain’s parents were both Americans and he was born in Panama because his father was stationed there while in the military, existing law already covers McCain and he is eligible to be President. McCaskill’s resolution thus serves no purpose – except that language is included to try and provide a “blanket cover” for other foreign born candidates without military backgrounds, in order to enable Obama to be eligible to be President. [301,303]

On April 29, Obama states, I still believe in affirmative action as a means of overcoming both historic and potentially current discrimination.” [337]

In a primary debate statement that reveals Obama’s hatred of capitalism, Obama tells ABC’s Charlie Gibson, “I would look at raising the capital-gains tax for purposes of fairness,” even though raising that tax would ultimately result in shrinking federal revenues. A higher capital gains tax typically means less tax revenue for the federal government, but Obama would raise it anyway – just to punish people who made money through the capitalist system. [265,295]

In May of 2008, the New York Times reports that Obama quietly dumps his anti-Israel advisor Robert Malley after the media learns he has regular contacts with the Iran-financed terrorist group Hamas.

On May 15, Obama blows off a female reporter, WXYZ’s Peggy Agar, by ignoring her question and calling her “Sweetie.” [353]

In a commencement address at Wesleyan University, Obama advises graduates not to pursue the American dream, but to serve others, saying, “You can take your diploma, walk off this stage and chase only after the big house and the nice suits and all the other things that our money culture says you should. But I hope you don’t.” In other words, “Do as Obama says, and not as he and his wife did.” [276]

In June, Obama tours a solar power plant in Nevada, where he says that renewable energy “isn’t some pie-in-the-sky, far off future, it is now… providing cheap alternatives to $140 per barrel oil.” That facility powers only 75 homes, and took ten years to build, at a cost of almost $300,000 per home. [154]

On June 4, 2008, Obama says, “I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.” [353]

By June of 2008, apparently in support of Obama, Google had sporadically restricted access to at least seven anti-Obama (mostly Hillary Clinton-supporting) web sites. [353]

A writer for “Online Journal,” Wayne Madsen, publishes an article on June 9, 2008 claiming a research team went to Mombassa, Kenya, and located a certificate of the Kenyan birth of Barack Obama, Jr. [248]

Fearing additional publicity of his links to radical socialists, Obama removes all of Mike Klonsky’s blogs from his official campaign web site; Klonsky, a political activist and leader of the New Communist Movement, was a 1960s radical in the Students for a Democratic Society, and an avid advocate of Maoism, who formed a pro-Chinese sect called the October League, which then evolved into a Beijing-recognized Communist Party. Klonsky, a disciple of Saul Alinsky, was chairman of the party. [155,201]

In an interview with the New Republic, Mike Kruglik, one of Obama’s early mentors in the fine art of community agitation, said of Obama, “He was a natural, the undisputed master of agitation, who could engage a room full of recruiting targets in a rapid-fire Socratic dialogue, nudging them to admit that they were not living up to their own standards. As with the panhandler, he could be aggressive and confrontational. With probing, sometimes personal questions, he would pinpoint the source of pain in their lives, tearing down their egos just enough before dangling a carrot of hope that they could make things better.” That modus operandi is what Obama follows on the campaign trail: quickly rattle off many things that people believe are wrong with America, get the crowd riled up and angry and feeling hopeless, and then present himself as the one who can save them from their problems – regardless of whether he can. [239,337]

Obama’s lawyers file a complaint with the Justice Department, in an effort to stop the broadcasting of an “American Leadership Project” campaign ad linking Obama to William Ayers. [157]

According to the State Department, Obama’s federal passport file was improperly viewed at least three times, at least once by someone sympathetic to his campaign. [158]

In June of 2008, Michelle Obama tells a crowd, “The truth is, in order to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more. [352]

In July of 2008, a complaint is filed with the Illinois Bar Association alleging that Obama should be disbarred as a result of lying on his bar application. His application conceals his felony drug use (cocaine) in New York, as well as approximately $400 in unpaid parking fines. (The bar application requires listing fines in excess of $200.) [217]

In a July speech, Obama says, “But understand this, instead of worrying whether immigrants should learn English, they’ll learn English, you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish.” It is not known if Obama can speak another language. [257]

Candidate Obama remarks about Hillary Clinton, “I am confident I will get her votes if I’m the nominee. It’s not clear she would get the votes I got if she were the nominee.” [159]

When discussing “slavery reparations” with a group of “minority journalists,” Obama states, “’I consistently believe that when it comes to . . . reparations, the most important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer words, but offer deeds.” Several days later, to calm fears of white taxpayers who read his remarks, Obama adds that he’s not calling for direct cash payments to descendents of slaves, but indirect aid through government programs to “close the gap” between white America and black America. The government programs will be “universal” – such as universal health care, mortgage credits, college tuition, job training, and even universal 401(k)s – programs that Obama feels “disproportionately affect people of color.” In other words, Obama does not dare propose a program to directly tax whites to give payments to blacks, so he instead offers “universal” programs for everyone, but will design them so that blacks will benefit disproportionately. [275]

Obama continues to oppose school voucher systems, including the extremely successful experimental program in the Washington, D.C. system (where students do better using $7,500 vouchers at private schools than they do at the $13,400 per-student public schools). To gain the endorsement of the American Federation of Teachers (union), Obama tells its members he won’t be swayed by “tired rhetoric about vouchers and school choice.” Obama’s own children attend the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, where tuition ranges from $15,528 for kindergarten to $20,445 for high school; in a YouTube debate, Obama says that was “the best option” for his children. [274]

Dr. Alveda King, a niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, remarks that Obama’s “…answer to the ills of society, of higher government spending, weaker national defense, continued tax dollars to Planned Parenthood, and support of gay marriage, are diametrically opposed to everything African Americans truly believe and an anathema to the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” [160]

Obama defeats Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the primaries to become the Democrat candidate for President of the United States. Obama arrives at the Democrat National Convention without having won enough delegates in the primaries to win the nomination, but manages to persuade enough “super delegates” to vote for him to win the nomination; the “persuasion techniques” include DNC Chairman Dean and his surrogates telling delegates they must vote for Obama or he will unseat them by funding primary challengers in their Congressional or local races. [161]

In an appearance at the Saddleback Church, Pastor Rick Warren asks Obama when he believes human life begins. Obama, not wanting to discuss his controversial abortion votes, avoids an answer by responding, “That’s above my pay grade.” [315]

Obama’s campaign accuses the McCain campaign of being fed in advance the questions asked Senator McCain by Pastor Rick Warren at the Saddleback Church appearance, and makes sure NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell repeats the unfounded charges on the evening news; Warren categorically denies the charge; no apology to Warren or McCain is issued. [162]

Reverend Leah Daughtry is named by Obama and DNC chair Howard Dean to be the Democrat convention chief; in Daughtry’s home-town “House of the Lord Church” in Brooklyn hangs a banner supporting slavery reparations, which reads, “They Owe Us.” [163]

Eric Holder, who was instrumental in persuading Bill Clinton to pardon members of the terrorist group FALN and fugitive financier Mark Rich, leads Obama’s team to select his Vice-Presidential running mate, and is rumored to be a potential Attorney General in an Obama Administration. Working with Holder on the selection committee is James Johnson, former CEO of Fannie Mae, who was found “cooking the books” at the mortgage giant to inflate its earnings and boost his executive bonus. Former CFO of Fannie Mae, Tim Howard, is a chief economic advisor to Obama. [164,353]

Among the groups supporting Obama is “Progressives for Obama,” founded by Mark Rudd (who had been trained by the KGB in Cuba); former Weather Underground member and close ally of William Ayers; Tom Hayden, former husband of actress Jane Fonda and principle founder of the radical Students for a Democratic Society, who traveled to North Vietnam to give support to the Viet Cong; Bill Fletcher, founder of the Marxist Black Radical Congress; Barbara Ehenreich, honorary chairman of the Democratic Socialists of America; and actor Danny Glover, recipient of $20 million from Venezuela’s dictator Hugo Chavez to make a movie about a Haitian communist revolutionary. Ayers is on the board of a Venezuelan government think tank tasked to bring Cuban-style education to Venezuela. [218,262]

During the campaign, in support of abortion, Obama remarks that if his daughters ever make a mistake and get pregnant, he wouldn’t “want them punished with a baby.” [165,315]

In May of 2008, Nevada issues an arrest warrant for Tony Rezko, for having written at least $450,000 in bad checks to Caesar’s Palace and Bally’s; he also allegedly owes $331,000 to the Bellagio casino. The checks are from Rezko’s account at Broadway Bank, which is run by the mob-connected Giannoulias family. The checks date back to 2006, when the bank’s vice-president, Obama-endorsed Alexi Giannoulias, was running for Illinois State Treasurer. [319]

Obama tells Jeffrey Goldberg of “The Atlantic” that Israel is a “constant sore” that “infects all of our foreign policy” [343]

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