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Causes of Homosexuality

2011-06-27T15:38:23Z

SethC:

[[File:70810564 64d3a67932.jpg|alt=Causes of homosexuality|right|275px|thumb|Homosexuality is rare in [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox Jews]]. For more information please see: [[Religious Upbringing and Culture Affects Rates of Homosexuality]].]]

The '''causes of [[homosexuality]]''' are attributable to man's sinful nature, nurture and environment, and personal choice. How important each factor is, though, is an issue that is debated. Those from the most [[liberal]] school usually assume a philosophy of determinism, treating homosexuality as an identity or orientation which one has no choice over, and which cannot be changed. This belief is then used to justify acting it out.<ref>Sylvia Thorson-Smith, ''Reconciling the broken silence'', p. 30</ref> The contrasting and warranted position is that homosexuality is a choice, that of yielding to ultimately harmful desires, and which choice is partly affected by nurture and environment.

==Causes of homosexuality - Biblical explanation ==

The [[Bible]], being the most comprehensive transcendent moral authority, abundantly deals with human nature and behavior and consistently manifests that the nature of man has not changed since [[the Fall]]. So the Bible is certainly the preeminent authoritative source when it comes to providing a framework when determining the causes of homosexuality. Man is shown to have been created as a perfectly made being (Gn. 1:31) - yet not as a robot - but as a being designed to be able to make choices, which thereby allowed him to distort his perfection. God from the beginning also joined male and female in life-long marriage, and placed a priority on the family, and provided laws, as needed, for its health and preservation and that of society, while aberrations result from failure to abide by them. ''For more information please see:'' [[Homosexuality and the Bible]] and [[Homosexuality and biblical interpretation]]''

===Nature of man and causes of homosexuality ===
In the beginning, man disobeyed his Creator, and as part of the punishment for so doing both mankind and that which he was given stewardship of was negatively affected. In addition to physical decay and the suffering and natural death of living creatures being introduced into the world, (Gn. 2:17; 3:17-19; Rm. 5:12,17; 6:23; ) the Fall resulted in the nature of man demonstrating a certain proclivity to sin. However, this does not determine that a man must practice a certain sin, nor does it justify man giving into this attraction to sin, as God also gave man ability to resist sin. (Gn. 4:7)<ref>http://www.sbts.edu/documents/tschreiner/Homosexuality.pdf</ref>

Certain negative physical effects of sin are also seen as being progressive, as with time more diseases and other aberrations seemed to have occurred, and laws against incest later became necessary. In addition, as men continued to act contrary to the basic moral laws which they knew innately and through creation, conscience and oral tradition, a formal body of law was given through [[Moses]], which detailed and codified the immutable morality God enjoins upon man. (Ex. 20; Dt. 4:8,9; Lv. 18; Gal. 3:19) Addition laws include ceremonial laws which the [[New Testament]] reveals were typological. ''For more information please see:'' [[Leviticus 18]].''

As regards homosexuality, from the beginning of the Bible and throughout, it consistently teaches that God only sexually joined opposite genders together, sanctifying them in marriage, having created men and women uniquely compatible and complementary.(Gn. 2:18-24; Mt. 19:4; 1Cor. 11:8-12)<ref>http://www.cbmw.org/Articles/</ref>

In contrast to what God had ordained by design and decree, homosexuality is one of many sins which are a result of man yielding to his sinful nature, and is a form of fornication, although a most perverse kind. The prohibition of it is given along with sexual relations with animals, (Lv. 18:23) and is clearly condemned wherever it is manifestly dealt with. (Lv. 18:22; 20:13; Mk. 7:21; Rm. 1:20-27; 1Cor. 6:9; 1Tim. 1:10)

The Bible, as well as history, also evidences that while there are three areas in which man sins, those of lust for pleasure, possessions and power, (1Jn. 2:16) individuals may differ as regards which type of sins present the greatest temptation for them, with genetics playing at least a part in that. That judgment upon a people who gave into a specific sin could result in a genetic predisposition to that same sin among their offspring may be speculated, but it is not proven.

===Environment===

The Bible provides a clear link between the adherence of a family or a nation to the laws of God and the moral choices of offspring. (Prov. 22:6) The Bible also positively examples close father-son and familial relationships, and may be seen to partially implicate detachment with rebellion. (Gn. 37-50; 2 Sam. 13-18) Studies today have shown that [[Religious Upbringing and Culture Affects Rates of Homosexuality|religious upbringing and culture can strongly affect rates of homosexuality]].

The record of [[Sodom]], as well as accounts of nations elsewhere, testify that living within the environment of people where [[iniquity]] abounds is conducive to furthering the same iniquity among succeeding generations, resulting in the necessity of Divine judgment when nations became given over to such. (Lv. 18:24; 20:22; Dt. 18:12; 28; Jer. 14:9,10; Rm. 2:2)

In Genesis 19, the city of Sodom is revealed as a place in which men sexually lusted after men, from which the term "sodomy" was derived (like as homosexuals use the term "gay", although this is contradictory in the end), and Jude 7 refers to Sodom and its region being given to fornication, including that of unnatural relations.

In Ezekiel 16:49 the general iniquity of Sodom and its "sisters" is given as "pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness" and general indifference to the needy. The next verse proceeds to inform that "the Sodomites were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good." The word for ''abomination'' here is ''tô‛êbah'', which is not the word often used for ritual uncleanness, but is often used for sexual sin, in particular sexual sins and including sodomy. (Lv.18:22; 26-27,29,30; 20:13; Dt. 23:18; 24:4 1Ki. 14:24; Ezek. 22:11; 33:26) Sodom is also associated more with sexual sins than with any other ''physical'' type of sin.

What the Bible, as well as secular history, reveals is that prevalent homosexuality is concomitant with pride, affluence, increased free time, and selfish indulgence and carelessness.<ref>[http://peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/Homosex_versus_the_Bible.html Homosexual relations and the Bible: see Genesis 19 to Ezekiel 16:49]</ref> Therefore, rebellion against God's laws and order and the resultant environmental factors are seen to be a cause in promoting sensuality and homosexuality.

===Idolatry and judgment===
[[Image:Martin destruction sodom640x422.jpg|thumbnail|300px|right|Destruction of [[Sodom]] by [[God]]]]

In [[Romans 1]], God, through the [[apostle Paul]], condemns both male and female homoeroticism, which, as a cultural practice, is shown to be a manifestation and a result of idolatry, in which man progressively acted contrary to that which God has revealed by creation, by design and normality. This is morality which is confirmed by written decree (the Law), as the next chapter declares. As a result of this continued rebellion, which was partly manifest in God being reduced to an image like unto corruptible creatures (like as today with homosexuals construing Christ to be homosexual, or sanctioning it, as well as nature effectively being worshiped), "God gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves." (v. 24)

It is also stated that a certain afflictive punishment(s) of the body were incurred by those men who engaged in relations with each other. (v. 27) Unless repentance takes place, worse consequences will follow. (Rv. 21:28)

While some seek to render this chapter as only condemning homosexual relations when done as part of idolatry, the condemnation is not due to its association with paganism, rather as it inherently contrary to that which God ordained, then it is a manifestation of false religion, regardless of its form, though in ancient times in which religion was an inseparable part of culture, then formal idolatry was what was more manifested. Romans 1 proceeds to show that homosexuality is not alone as a fruit of idolatry, but that this particular pernicious physical sin is one of many inherently evil things. (Rm. 1:28-32) ''For more information please see:'' [[Romans 1]].

In summary, God's eternal power is manifest in His [[creation]] (Romans 1:18-20). Nonetheless, certain people chose to worship the creature more than the Creator (Romans 1:21-25). Therefore, God gave them up to homosexuality and other sins and gave them over to a reprobate mind (Romans 1:26-32). As an example of the truth of this teaching, [[feminist]]s, wishing to deny the [[Women#New_Testament_statements_on_the_role_of_women|God-given role of women]], often engage in [[goddess]] worship and other forms of [[idolatry]]<ref>[http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/goddess.html "Probe Ministries: Goddess Worship," by Russ Wise]</ref> and as a consequence are often given up to lesbianism.<ref>[http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56458 Hetero woman: Feminism turned me into a lesbian], from [[WorldNetDaily]]</ref>

=== Conclusion of Biblical explanation ===

What is revealed in the Bible is that homosexuality is a practice due to man yielding to his sinful nature and disobeying the good laws of God, and misusing, among other things, his sexual abilities. This disobedience itself is idolatry (whatever holds your chief allegiance is your god, at least at that time), while continued idolatry results in homosexuality as a practice, as God delivers one over to perverse desires. In addition, individual and societal disobedience to the laws of God creates an environment which is conducive to perpetuating and further intensifying iniquity, which if continued, in time requires judgment. Studies today have shown that [[Religious Upbringing and Culture Affects Rates of Homosexuality|Religious upbringing and culture can strongly affect rates of homosexuality]].

== Modern studies concerning the causes of homosexuality ==

Some studies indicate environmental factors can be involved in persons becoming homosexuals. Stanton L. Jones, Mark A. Yarhouse state in ''Homosexuality: the use of scientific research in the church's moral debate'' (and a main source for this section),
<blockquote>
The origins of homosexuality are not clearly understood by scientists, and the topic is a subject of hot debate. Theories and and empirical studies, which often contrast sharply, abound. The theories about the [[etiology]] of homosexuality fall into two very large categories: theories that point to nature (that is, biological variables) and theories that point to nurture (that is, the influence of experience, of psychological variables." (p. 52).
</blockquote>

Those who emphasize nurture, sometimes known as the ''[[psychoanalysis|psychoanalytical theory]]'', see powerful psychological forces at work, shaping and molding children from their birth, while those who emphasize nature contend that early homosexual traits attest to a biological cause. (p. 53)

Despite many psychological studies which indicate that the parent-child relationship, early childhood development, early homosexual experiences, and childhood abuse foster homosexuality, liberals tend to reject the environmental aspect, and favor a biological influence.<ref>David G. Myers, ''A level of explanations view'', Psychology of Christianity: four views. pp. 54-83</ref> This is then used to render homosexuals to be slaves to genes, and justified in acting it out.

==Environment and nurture==
[[Image:325979 dna150.jpg|thumbnail|150px|left|[[Columbia University]] [[psychiatry]] professors Drs. William Byrne and Bruce Parsons stated: "There is no evidence that at present to substantiate a [[biology|biological]] theory. [T]he appeal of current biological explanations for sexual orientation may derive more from dissatisfaction with the present status of [[psychosocial]] explanations than from a substantiating body of experimental data".<ref>http://www.cwfa.org/images/content/bornorbred.pdf</ref>]]

That homosexuality is affected by environment and nurture has been the historical secular position.

In his 1980 work ''Overcoming Homosexuality'', Robert Kronemeyer writes: "With rare exceptions, homosexuality is neither inherited nor the result of some glandular disturbance or the scrambling of genes or chromosomes. Homosexuals are made, not born 'that way.' I firmly believe that homosexuality is a learned response to early painful experiences and that it can be unlearned. For those homosexuals who are unhappy with their life and find effective therapy, it is 'curable.'<ref>Robert Kronemeyer, ''Overcoming Homosexuality'', p. 7 (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1980)</ref>

Similarly, in a 1989 ''[[USA Today]]'' article, [[San Francisco]] State University professor of psychology John DeCecco, and the former editor of the 25-volume, ''Journal of Homosexuality'', stated, "The idea that people are born into one type of sexual behavior is entirely foolish". Homosexuality is "a behavior, not a condition," and something that some people can and do change, just like they sometimes change other tastes and personality traits."<ref>Kim Painter, ''A Biological Theory for Sexual Preference'', USA Today, 1 January 1989, p. 4D</ref>

===Parental relationships with offspring===

The psychoanalytical theory is the historical position, which implicates a detached, rejecting or absent father, often along with a close bond to the mother, as working, on the conscious and unconscious level, against a secure sexual identity. Also contributing to this can be a mother who has animosity toward the father, or men in general, and who works to present him negatively, and to make the child side with her.

One of the earliest studies supporting this position was that of Irving Bieber and associates.<ref>Bieber, ''Homsexuality: A psychoanalytical study of male homosexuality'' (1962)</ref> Comparison of 106 homosexuals with 100 male heterosexuals showed that mothers of the former had enmeshed seductive type relationships with their sons, while their fathers were detached, distant or rejecting. This study was contested by some who charged the researchers with bias, but a further study by Ray B. Evans, which also compared homosexuals with heterosexuals, reported similar results, this time among self-identified homosexuals who had never sought treatment.<ref>Ray b. Evans, "Childhood parental relationships of homosexual men", ''Journal of Consulting and clinical psychology'', 33. (1969), pp. 129-33.</ref>

Based upon his work with 200 male homosexuals, Gerard van den Aardweg stated that 79 percent described their mother as "overanxious", or "overconcerned" about them; their safety, health, and being overly sentimental when they met with some hardship, as well as manifesting other aspects of over-mothering. In addition, in 71 percent of homosexual cases, "the most important factor was the father's detachedness or nonparticipation in the son's upbringing. The fathers of 38 percent of the men were so hypercritical that the sons were made to feel either rejected and/or inferior. <ref>Gerard van den Aardweg, ''on the origins and treatment of homosexuality'' (1985), pp.184-85.</ref>

Another study of about 1500 homosexuals showed much less influence by the mother, while far more reported an unaffectionate or detached father, and approximately half of homosexuals reported they had negative feelings toward their fathers, versus 29 percent of heterosexuals.<ref>Bell, Weinberg, Hammersmith, ''Sexual preference: Its development in men and women'' (1981).</ref>

While these factors are conducive to homosexuality, it should be stressed that these do not ensure that children raised this way will become homosexual, nor are these factors alone in influencing it.

===Sexual abuse===

Childhood sexual abuse is well attested to demonstrate a correlation to the incidence of homosexuality among those affected by it. A large national survey of almost 35,000 Americans showed that more than three times as many men and women who had been sexually abused as children became homosexuals, versus that of heterosexuals.<ref>7.4 percent or homosexual men and 3.1 percent of females, versus 2.0 percent of heterosexual men and 0.8 percent women.</ref><ref>Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, and Michaels, ''The social organization of homosexuality:...'', (1994) p. 344</ref> Another study reported that 58 percent of male adolescents who later became homosexuals suffered sexual abuse as children, while 90 percent who did not suffer sexual abuse identified themselves as heterosexuals.<ref>Sheir and Johnson, ''Sexual victimization of boys:... (1988) pp. 1189-93</ref> In addition, 43 percent of male homosexuals reported sexual activity with another male during the ages of 10-12, versus 9 percent of heterosexuals.<ref>Manosevitz, "Early sexual behavior in adult homosexual and heterosexual males", ''Journal of abnormal psychology'', 76 (1970), 396-402.</ref>

===Educational indoctrination===
As part of the liberal ideology in modern [[education]], and as a result of psychological tactics used by homosexual [[activist]]s, schools have increasingly fostered the promotion of homosexuality, whether as part of official policy through homosexual activists working with or in schools. As a form of indoctrination which begins at the kindergarten level, homosexuality is treated as healthy and normal, with students at very impressionable ages sometimes being influenced to experiment with homosexual behavior. This is often done under the rubric of [[HIV]] instruction of preventing [[suicide]] by homosexuals, and preventing ''[[homophobia]]''. <ref>[http://www.cwfa.org/articles/12546/MEDIA/family/index.htm CWA: School Tells Kids to Hide Pro-‘Gay’ Propaganda From Parents], Concerned Women for America, 3/13/2007</ref><ref>[http://www.missionamerica.com/agenda.php Fighting the Gay Agenda in Schools Articles], Mission America</ref><ref>[http://www.chroniclewatch.com/2009/06/17/indoctrination-of-youth/ Roberto Santiago, The Indoctrination of our Youth],The Chronicle Watch, June 17, 2009</ref><ref>[http://www.missionamerica.com/oldagenda26.php GLSEN, Corruption and Crime], Mission America</ref> <ref>[http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=127050 'Hate' laws could label 5-year-olds 'offenders'] WorldNetDaily, March 05, 2010</ref><ref>[http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=126233 'Czar' sees transgender school goals in reach], WorldNetDaily, February 25, 2010</ref><ref>[http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54683 District gags 14-year-olds after 'gay' indoctrination], WorldNetDaily, March 13, 2007</ref>

==Biological research on the causes of homosexuality ==

''For more information please see:'' [[Genetics, Homosexuality, Evolutionary Paradigm, and Creation Science]] and [[Homosexuality and Genetics]].

The belief that homosexuality has a biological cause can be traced back to the preliminary findings of neuroscientist Dr. Simon LeVay. In 1991 LeVay's studied the brains of 41 cadavers which included 19 homosexual males, and claimed that "a tiny area believed to control sexual activity [the hypothalamus] was less than half the size in the gay men than in the heterosexuals."<ref>Charlene Crabb, ''Are Some Men Born to Be Homosexual?'', U. S. News & World Report, 9 September 1991, p. 58</ref><ref>S. LeVay, "A Difference in Hypothalamic Structure Between heterosexual and Homosexual Men," Science 253 (1991), pp. 1034-37</ref> This study was immediately seized upon by many as proof that homosexuality was biologically determined.

However, further scrutiny showed this hasty conclusion as lacking in warrant.

*1. The range of sizes of the hypothalamic region varied and was inconsistent. The region at subject was the same size in a few homosexual men as that of the heterosexuals, while in a few other heterosexuals this region was a small as that of a homosexual.
*2. The fact that all 19 of the homosexual men had died of [[AIDS]] could easily have accounted for or contributed to the differences.
*3. It has not been determined if the smaller hypothalamuses were the cause rather than the effect of homosexual activity. "Researchers have found that when people who become blind begin to learn Braille, the area of the brain controlling the reading finger actual grows larger."<ref>Reported in D. Gelman "Born or Bred?" Newsweek, 24 February 1992, pp. 46-53</ref><ref>http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/homotheo.html</ref>
*4. Levay's study was based study was based upon a supposed sexual functional correlation between the SDN-POA brain center in male rats and a brain center called INAH3 in humans, but which assumption was shown to be false.<ref>http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron4.html</ref>
*5. The sexual history of the "heterosexual" men was not known, and Levay's samples included 16 brains from men whose sexual orientation was unknown.<ref>[http://www.equip.org/PDF/DH055-1.pdf Joseph P. Gudel, ''HOMOSEXUALITY: Fact and Fiction'']</ref>
*6. And as William Byne noted, LeVay’s work "has not been replicated, and human neuroanatomical studies of this kind have a very poor track record for reproducibility. Indeed, procedures similar to those LeVay used to identify nuclei have previously led researchers astray".<ref>Byne, William (1994), “The Biological Evidence Challenged,” Scientific American, May, 1994, 270: p. 53</ref>.
*7. The conclusions were that which were sought by the researcher. Dr. LeVay, a homosexual himself, confessed that his study was not entirely a dispassionate scientific endeavor,<ref>Simon LeVay on The Phil Donahue Show, ''Genetically Gay: Born Gay or Become Gay?'', January 3, 1992</ref> He also later stated, "I did not prove that homosexuality is genetic, or find a genetic cause for being gay."<ref>Byrd, A. Dean, Shirley E. Cox, and Jeffrey W. Robinson (2001), ''Homosexuality: The Innate-Immutability Argument Finds No Basis in Science'', The Salt Lake Tribune</ref><ref>http://www.sltrib.com/2001/may/05272001/commenta/100523.htm</ref>

Two prominent geneticists, Paul Billings and Jonathan Beckwith, commenting on the quality of the LeVay research, stated that LeVay, "could not really be certain about his subject's sexual preferences, since they were dead", and that his "research design and subject sample did not allow others to determine whether it was sexual behavior, drug use, or disease history that was correlated with the observed differences among the subjects' brains." And in addition, it was very likely that LeVay's method of defining homosexuality would "create inaccurate or inconsistent study groups." <ref>P. Billings and J. Beckwith, "Born Gay?" Technology Review, July 1993, p. 60,61</ref>

Another study, published in ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America'', examined the ''anterior commissure'' (a structure that divides the left and right halves of the brain) of male heterosexuals and homosexual men, most of whom died of AIDS. The study shows that the anterior commissure was larger in women and in 27 of the 30 homosexual men than in heterosexual men.<ref>L. Allen, et al., ''Sexual Orientation and the Size of the Anterior Commissure in the Human Brain,'' Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America 89, no. 15 (1992), pp. 7199-7202</ref>.

Here again, how AIDS might have factored in this difference is an issue, and the findings of this study were overall in contradiction to another study published in 1988, which found, in part, that the anterior commissure was larger in men than in women.<ref>S. Demeter et al., "Morphometric analysis of the human corpus callosum and anterior commissure," Human Neurobiology 6 1988), pp. 219-26</ref>

A 1991 study of twins by Michael Bailey and Richard Pillard was also promoted as establishing biological determination of homosexuality, but which conclusion was also soon found to be lacking in warrant, and contrary to other studies.<ref>http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/homotheo.html</ref><ref>[http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron4.html Dr. Paul Cameron, ''Born WHAT Way?'']</ref>

That blood chemistry as well as brains can change over time in response to environment and lifestyle has been documented by studies.<ref>http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/narth/bioresearch.html</ref><ref>Dr. Jeffrey Satinover, ''The Biology of Homosexuality: Science or Politics?''</ref><ref>http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/narth/bioresearch.html</ref>

==Conclusions==

Sociologist Steven Goldberg, Ph.D. states,
<blockquote>
Virtually all of the evidence argues against there being a determinative physiological causal factor and I know of no researcher who believes that such a determinative factor exists...such factors play a predisposing, not a determinative role...I know of no one in the field who argues that homosexuality can be explained without reference to environmental factors.
</blockquote>

Goldberg also expressed, "Gay criticism has not addressed the classic family configuration"; it has merely "asserted away the considerable evidence" for the existence of family factors. Studies which attempt to disprove the existence of the classic family pattern in homosexuality are "convincing only to those with a need to believe." <ref>S. Goldberg, ''When Wish Replaces Thought: Why So Much of What You Believe is False'' (1994), Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books</ref>

Psychiatrists Friedman and Downey: "Despite recent neurobiological findings suggesting homosexuality is genetically-biologically determined, credible evidence is lacking for a biological model of homosexuality." <ref>R. Friedman, M.D. and J. Downey, M.D., ''Journal of Neuropsychiatry'', vol. 5, No. 2, Spring l993</ref>

Psychiatrist and author Jeffrey Satinover, M.D. concludes,
<blockquote>
Like all complex behavioral and mental states, homosexuality is...neither exclusively biological nor exclusively psychological, but results from an as-yet-difficult-to-quantitate mixture of genetic factors, intrauterine influences...postnatal environment (such as parent, sibling and cultural behavior), and a complex series of repeatedly reinforced choices occurring at critical phases of development.<ref>J. Satinover, M.D., ''Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth'', (1996). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books</ref></blockquote>

Drs. William Byne and Bruce Parsons, researchers at the New York State Psychiatric Institute,having carefully analyzed all the major biological studies of homosexuality, found none that definitively supported a biological theory of causation. "Human Sexual Orientation: The Biologic Theories Reappraised." Archives of General Psychiatry 50, no.3. (1993)

Other similarly express that nurture and choice factor as being mostly or wholly determinative.<ref>[http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/narth/homorig.html On the Origins of Homosexuality:
Is a Person "Born that Way"?]</ref>

===Indications of onset homosexuality===

Childhood manifestations of gender non-conformity such as consistent preference by a boy for the clothing, company and play things (dolls, etc.) of girls over that of boys is generally seen as predisposing such to homosexuality.<ref>Stanton L. Jones, Mark A. Yarhouse, ''Homosexuality: the use of scientific research in the church's moral debate'', pp. 52-92</ref>

==Homosexuality as a choice==
The Bible shows that while nurture and environment can make one more predisposed to certain types of behavior, man's sinful nature can also deceive one into believing that sinful behaviors are not sin, while yielding to sin reduces ones ability to resist it. Secular studies also indicate that most homosexuals have been attracted to the opposite gender.

A research project (2004) of Robert Goetze identified 84 articles or books that contain some relevance to the possibility of sexual orientation change. Of the data reported, 31 of the 84 studies showed a quantitative outcome of individuals able to change sexual orientation.<ref>http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/2553</ref>

===Former homosexuals===
[[Image:St Paul Preaching.jpg|left|thumb|200px|St. [[Paul]] defends his preaching (Giovanni Ricco)]]
''For more information please see'': [[Ex-Homosexuals]] and [[Overcoming Homosexuality]]

One of the earliest historical records of the existence of [[Ex-Homosexuals|ex-homosexuals]] is found in the letter of the [[Paul|Apostle Paul]] to the [[Corinth|Corinthian]] [[Christianity|Christian]] church (approx. 59 AD).
{{cquote|Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the [[Kingdom of God|kingdom of God]]? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such '''were''' some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the [[Holy Spirit|Spirit]] of our [[God]]. - I Corinthians 6:9-11 (KJV)}}

Today people still report leaving homosexuality and becoming heterosexual by being born again through repentance and faith in the Lord [[Jesus Christ]].<ref>http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56481</ref><ref>http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=19650</ref><ref>http://www.cwfa.org/articles/4216/CFI/cfreport/index.htm</ref><ref>http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.aspid=25145</ref><ref>http://www.witnessfortheworld.org/blkexgbks.html</ref> <ref>http://www.frontlinemin.org/wasgay.asp</ref><ref>http://www.charismamag.com/display.php?id=9019</ref><ref>http://www.apocalipsis.org/testimony.htm</ref><ref>http://www.baylor.edu/lariat/news.php?action=story&story=13784</ref>

[[Peter LaBarbera]] is the President of [[Americans for Truth]] which is a organization which counters the [[Homosexual Agenda|homosexual agenda]]. Peter LaBarbera stated the following regarding Christian ex-homosexuals who reported being transformed by the power of God:
{{cquote|Another factor from my experience as a close observer of the “ex-gay” phenomenon is that many former homosexuals do not linger in “[[Reparative Therapy|reparative therapy]]” programs, or participate in them at all. They attribute their dramatic and (relatively) rapid transformation to the power of God, and likely would not show up in a study of this kind. In fact, these “unstudied” overcomers would appear to be the most successful ex-homosexuals because they’ve moved on with their lives — as “reborn” Christians can move on after overcoming any besetting sin.<ref>http://www.americansfortruth.com/news/landmark-study-change-for-homosexuals-is-possible.html</ref>}}

==Additional sources concerning the causes of homosexuality ==

There has been much work done since the latter part of the 20th century. Below are some resources in regards to the various causes of homosexuality:

*[[Religious Upbringing and Culture Affects Rates of Homosexuality]]
*[[Sexual Abuse Being a Contributing Factor for Homosexuality]]
*[[Homosexuality and Choice]]
*[[Homosexuality and Genetics]]
*[[Homosexuality in animals myth]]
*[[Genetics, Homosexuality, Evolutionary Paradigm, and Creation Science]]

==See Also==
*[[Resources on becoming a Christian]]
* [[Homosexuality and the Bible]]
*[[Homosexuality and biblical interpretation]]
*[[Ex-Homosexuals]]
*[[Teenager Homosexuality]]
*[[Homosexuality Research]]
*[[Homosexuality Statistics]]

==External Links==
*[http://www.allaboutworldview.org/causes-of-homosexuality-faq.htm What are some of the causes of homosexuality?]
*[http://ankerberg.org/Articles/_PDFArchives/streams-of-life/SL2W0803.pdf What Causes Homosexuality] by Dr. John F. Ankerberg
* [http://www.godandscience.org/evolution/genetics_of_homosexuality.html Rich Deem, ''Genetics and Homosexuality: Are People Born Gay? The Biological Basis for Sexual Orientation]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}
{{homosexualityb}}

[[Category:Homosexuality]]
[[Category:Psychology]]
[[Category:Sociology]]

Rick Santorum

2011-05-26T17:33:55Z

SethC: Added references section

[[Image:Rick Santorum.jpg|right|thumb|Rick Santorum]]
'''Rick Santorum''' served as [[United States]] [[Senator]] from [[Pennsylvania]] from January, 1995 through January, 2007. During that time, Santorum was known for his [[conservative]] political views. A [[cult]]-like movement among [[liberals]], and particularly [[homosexual]] activists, vilified Santorum for his forthright and truthful statements. In the Senate, Santorum stood for traditional values, and fought for [[traditional marriage]]. His "Santorum Amendment" to the No Child Left Behind Act sought (albeit unsuccessfully) to support the teaching of [[intelligent design]] in [[public school]]s as a legitimate scientific theory.

In 2006 [[Bob Casey, Jr.]], the [[liberal]] son of a popular former Pennsylvania governor who had been [[pro-life]], defeated Santorum as part of a [[Democratic]] sweep in that election. Casey subsequently endorsed pro-[[abortion]] [[Barack Obama]] for president in 2008.

Currently Senator Santorum is on a lecture circuit decrying the dangers of terrorism and pointing out the obvious flaws of President Barack Hussein Obama's policy of negotiation with rogue states such as Libya or Iran.

==Liberal Obsession with Santorum==

[[Liberals]] became obsessed with Santorum, particularly after he stood up for traditional marriage and drew an analogy between support for [[homosexual marriage]] and other illegal forms of marriage and conduct. Rather than dispute the analogy, liberals were quick to [[liberal tricks|feign offense]]. They argued that because the other kinds of conduct are so universally repulsive, pointing out the parallels with [[homosexual act]]s and homosexual marriage unduly disparages homosexuals. But they knew the ugly truth -- that homosexuality is just one step away on the slippery slope towards many other disgustingly immoral proclivities. Since they had no legitimate arguments, they could only resort to [[liberal namecalling]] and personal attacks.

==2012 Presidential Race==

One June 6, Santorum will announce his intentions to run for President in 2012.<ref>http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55772.html</ref>

==References==
<references/>

{{DEFAULTSORT: Santorum, Rick}}
[[Category:Former United States Senators]]
[[Category:Republican Party]]

Rick Santorum

2011-05-26T17:32:46Z

SethC: 2012 presidential race

[[Image:Rick Santorum.jpg|right|thumb|Rick Santorum]]
'''Rick Santorum''' served as [[United States]] [[Senator]] from [[Pennsylvania]] from January, 1995 through January, 2007. During that time, Santorum was known for his [[conservative]] political views. A [[cult]]-like movement among [[liberals]], and particularly [[homosexual]] activists, vilified Santorum for his forthright and truthful statements. In the Senate, Santorum stood for traditional values, and fought for [[traditional marriage]]. His "Santorum Amendment" to the No Child Left Behind Act sought (albeit unsuccessfully) to support the teaching of [[intelligent design]] in [[public school]]s as a legitimate scientific theory.

In 2006 [[Bob Casey, Jr.]], the [[liberal]] son of a popular former Pennsylvania governor who had been [[pro-life]], defeated Santorum as part of a [[Democratic]] sweep in that election. Casey subsequently endorsed pro-[[abortion]] [[Barack Obama]] for president in 2008.

Currently Senator Santorum is on a lecture circuit decrying the dangers of terrorism and pointing out the obvious flaws of President Barack Hussein Obama's policy of negotiation with rogue states such as Libya or Iran.

==Liberal Obsession with Santorum==

[[Liberals]] became obsessed with Santorum, particularly after he stood up for traditional marriage and drew an analogy between support for [[homosexual marriage]] and other illegal forms of marriage and conduct. Rather than dispute the analogy, liberals were quick to [[liberal tricks|feign offense]]. They argued that because the other kinds of conduct are so universally repulsive, pointing out the parallels with [[homosexual act]]s and homosexual marriage unduly disparages homosexuals. But they knew the ugly truth -- that homosexuality is just one step away on the slippery slope towards many other disgustingly immoral proclivities. Since they had no legitimate arguments, they could only resort to [[liberal namecalling]] and personal attacks.

==2012 Presidential Race==

One June 6, Santorum will announce his intentions to run for President in 2012.<ref>http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55772.html</ref>

{{DEFAULTSORT: Santorum, Rick}}
[[Category:Former United States Senators]]
[[Category:Republican Party]]

Counterexamples to an Old Earth

2011-04-14T19:51:11Z

SethC: /* Geology */

It takes only one "counterexample" to disprove the theory of an [[Old Earth]].<ref>Most of the "evidence" for an [[Old Earth]] is based on claims that lack testability, as in [[radiometric dating]], and hence would not even satisfy minimum requirements for admissibility in court.</ref> As with any logical proposition, one contradiction disproves the proposed rule. If each of 33 counterexamples has merely a 10% chance of being valid -- an underestimate -- then the probability that the Earth is billions of years old is less than 3.8%. With the total of these counterexamples at 32, '''they demonstrate that the Earth must be young with a likelihood of greater than 96%'''.

''The motivation for [[atheist]]s to insist on falsely teaching that the Earth is old is to pull students away from [[God]]'s immediate presence, and to turn them away from [[Jesus Christ]]''.

== Counterexamples ==
The growing list of counterexamples to the theory of an [[Old Earth]] includes:

=== Astronomy ===
# The [[moon]] is receding from the [[Earth]] at a rate<ref>"Measurements show that the Moon is receding from Earth at a rate of about 3.8 centimeters per year." [http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhelp/ApolloLaser.html Measuring the Moon's Distance] ''Apollo Laser Ranging Experiments Yield Results'' by Fred Espenak, GSFC Planetary Systems Laboratory (LPI Bulletin, No. 72, August, 1994).</ref> that would have placed it too close to the Earth merely four billion years ago, causing instability in its orbit, tidal catastrophes on Earth, and other problems that would have prevented the Earth and the moon being as they are today.
# [[Spiral galaxies]] appear to be young, and only implausible proposals of the existence of [[dark matter]] can reconcile the spirals with a belief in an old universe.
# The planetary orbits in the solar system - including Earth's - are unstable and unsustainable over the long periods claimed by Old Earth believers.<ref>[http://www.newsweek.com/id/201582 Newsweek: "An embarrassing little secret of astronomy ...."]. (Newsweek has inexplicably taken down its article, but it is quoted by Google and other links)</ref><ref>[http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v459/n7248/full/nature08096.html Existence of collisional trajectories of Mercury, Mars and Venus with the Earth] by J. Laskar & M. Gastineau, ''Nature'' 459, 817-819 (11 June 2009). Believers in an Old Earth speculate that the instability would not result in problems in a billion years, but other computer simulations could be developed to demonstrate multi-body instability for the solar system far more recent than that.</ref>
# At least one [[spiral galaxy]] spins in the direction opposite to the spin of its tail, suggesting an age too young to have generated the tail and contradicting the theory that the tails of spiral galaxies were formed over a long period of time.<ref>[http://www.unisci.com/stories/20021/0207023.htm "Hubble Shows Galaxy Rotating In The Wrong Direction"]</ref>
# The primary reaction in the [[Sun]] is the fusing of [[hydrogen]] to make [[helium]], but the ratio of these remains is too high for the Sun to have been burning for millions of years.{{fact}}
# The [[Moon]]'s orbit is becoming increasingly and unexpectedly eccentric, suggesting a lack of long-term stability.<ref>http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.0212</ref>

=== Geology ===
[[Image:Stratigraphy_of_the_Grand_Canyon.png|right|thumb|300px|The Nonconformity is readily apparent in the [[Grand Canyon]] where foliage and ground cover do not obscure the rock face.]]
# The continued existence of fragile natural arches without having collapsed a short time period for erosion and stresses on them.<ref>http://www.naturalarches.org/big9.htm</ref>
# An extrapolation of time between the collapse of weaker arches<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/11/AR2008081102290.html</ref> with still-standing stronger arches supports a young earth age.
# The massive [[Great Lakes]] and freshwater lakes near the equator could not exist for millions of years, and several of these lakes are rapidly receding in volume.
# The existence of inland saltwater lakes, such as [[Mono Lake]] and the [[Great Salt Lake]], suggest a recent global [[flood]].
# The plentiful supply of high concentrations of underground well water, which would be expected based on familiar principles of [[entropy]] to dissipate over a long period of time.
# The relative purity of underground well water, which should be a muddy slurry had millions of years of erosion taken place.
# Earthquakes alter the Earth's rotation several times each century;<ref>http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/2010872/japan_quake_changed_earths_rotation/</ref> extrapolating by orders of magnitude in time would have resulted in the occurrence of much larger earthquakes that would have destabilized the rotation<ref>A similar analysis may be performed for the likelihood of devastating collisions with meteors as time is extrapolated by orders of magnitude.</ref>
# The lack of erosion between rock layers.<ref>http://www.amazon.com/review/R1WTZL8GG4H9K0</ref><ref>http://www.knowthebible.net/id115.html</ref>
# Levels of contamination in water are rising, as water proceeds through the [[water cycle]] it becomes progressively more contaminated. If earth (and life) had existed for billions of years, a limit would have long been reached where water (essential to life) was too contaminated for life to continue.
# [[Paraconformity]] and unconformity such as that seen at the [[Grand Canyon]] disprove the [[uniformitarianism (science)|uniformitarian]] view of earth history.
# All [[carbon dating]] of water supplies, even the most ancient and the deepest underground reservoirs, result in relatively young ages,<ref>http://www.betalabservices.com/PDF/Geyh.pdf</ref> and no water has been found suggesting an Old Earth.
# The ratio of strontium isotopes in seawater, which should change due to long-term erosion, has varied by only 0.35% throughout history. In fact, its value today is exactly the same as in the oldest samples, which are claimed to be from 500 million years ago.{{fact}}
# The interior of the earth is heated by decay of radioactive isotopes, which could not possibly still be persisting in sufficient quantities after 5 billion, or even half a billion, years.{{fact}}
# The relatively recent separation of the still-moving continents from one land mass -- denied for 100 years by [[atheist]]s before they accepted it -- suggest a young earth or at least a relatively recent cataclysmic event.
# Fresh tracks of motion by stationary rocks are still visible in some areas, which have baffled Old Earth scientists for more than 60 years; Old Earth magazines refer to them as "self-moving rocks."<ref>http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2011/02/18/rafting-for-rocks?s_cid=rss:rafting-for-rocks</ref>
# Beaches have long been eroding far too quickly for the Old Earth theory; "between 80 and 90 percent of the sandy beaches along America’s coastlines have been eroding for decades," sometimes by as much as 50 feet per year.<ref>http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-causes-beach-erosion</ref>
# Land is sinking into the oceans at a rate of at least 7 inches per century,<ref>http://www.app.com/article/20110319/NJNEWS/103190327/Global-warming-rising-seas-threaten-New-Jersey-expert-says</ref> which would have rendered most of the United States under water if the Earth were not young.

=== Biology ===
# The intelligence of humans is rapidly declining, whether measured by SAT scores,<ref>SAT scores have been rapidly decreasing in real terms.</ref> music, personal letters,<ref>E.g., Civil War letters.</ref> quality of political debates,<ref>E.g., contrast the Lincoln-Douglas debates with debates today.</ref> the quality of news articles,<ref>''The Federalist'' was written for the newspaper audience in the late 1780s, but is far too intellectual for newspapers today.</ref> or any other measure.
# The age of onset of [[puberty|sexual maturity]] is rapidly changing, suggesting that life is in a short-term rather than long-term equilibrium.<ref>For evidence of a rapidly changing age for sexual maturity in fish, see http://icesjms.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/46/3/235</ref>
# The high observed rate of [[extinctions of species]]<ref>[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-26/animals-face-extinction-threat-as-conservation-efforts-slow-report-says.html One in five species are at risk of extinction]</ref> and harmful [[genetic mutation]]s suggest a relatively short period for the existence of life rather than a long one.
# The age of onset of graying of hair or balding is rapidly decreasing, with many teenagers now experiencing baldness or premature graying ([[CNN]]'s [[Anderson Cooper]] began graying as a teenager and was fully gray long before age 40);<ref name="Graying">http://articles.sfgate.com/2006-06-18/living/17299704_1_hair-taylor-hicks-american-idol</ref> many celebrities (such as [[American Idol]] winner Taylor Hicks graying in his 20s)<ref name="Graying"/> and athletes (such as Cal Ripken, Jr. graying and balding in his mid-30s)<ref>"There's a man, close-cropped gray hair, looks older than 35": Sports Illustrated's description of Cal Ripken at 35. [http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1163438/index.htm#ixzz12ONbgydd] By age 50 he was bald too.</ref> increasingly experience premature graying or balding.
# The age of onset of [[cancer]] is markedly decreasing,<ref>http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/109865519/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0</ref> suggesting rapid changes inconsistent with an alleged long existence to life.
# The oldest direct evidence of life -- written documents, clothing, remnants of civilizations, tree rings, etc. -- is no older than about 3000 B.C.
# The number of natural, pure-bred bred dogs declines over time as dogs naturally crossbreed; a short period of time is suggested by the fact that there are over 100 different natural, pure breeds of dog thriving today.
# Lack of genetic diversity among the ''Homo sapiens'' species. Were evolution and the old earth true, the human population would show a much larger genetic variance.<ref>http://www.godandscience.org/evolution/descent.html#rpafAHIwKHS7</ref>
# Frequent occurrences of massive deaths of birds and fish, which if extrapolated over millions of years would result in little or no such life today.<ref>http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/technology&id=7884786</ref>

=== Science & Discovery ===
# A stalemate of significant and valid discoveries in the last several decades.<ref>Though there has been some progress in this timeframe, many of the "discoveries" are liberal propaganda, or are scientifically weak.</ref>

== External links ==
*[http://creation.com/age-of-the-earth Age of the earth -101 evidences for a young earth and universe] by [[Creation Ministries International]]

== Footnotes ==

<references/>

== See also ==

*[[Counterexamples to Evolution]]
*[[Counterexamples to the Bible]]
*[[Counterexamples to Relativity]]
[[Category:geology]]

Counterexamples to an Old Earth

2011-04-14T19:47:20Z

SethC: /* Astronomy */

It takes only one "counterexample" to disprove the theory of an [[Old Earth]].<ref>Most of the "evidence" for an [[Old Earth]] is based on claims that lack testability, as in [[radiometric dating]], and hence would not even satisfy minimum requirements for admissibility in court.</ref> As with any logical proposition, one contradiction disproves the proposed rule. If each of 33 counterexamples has merely a 10% chance of being valid -- an underestimate -- then the probability that the Earth is billions of years old is less than 3.8%. With the total of these counterexamples at 32, '''they demonstrate that the Earth must be young with a likelihood of greater than 96%'''.

''The motivation for [[atheist]]s to insist on falsely teaching that the Earth is old is to pull students away from [[God]]'s immediate presence, and to turn them away from [[Jesus Christ]]''.

== Counterexamples ==
The growing list of counterexamples to the theory of an [[Old Earth]] includes:

=== Astronomy ===
# The [[moon]] is receding from the [[Earth]] at a rate<ref>"Measurements show that the Moon is receding from Earth at a rate of about 3.8 centimeters per year." [http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhelp/ApolloLaser.html Measuring the Moon's Distance] ''Apollo Laser Ranging Experiments Yield Results'' by Fred Espenak, GSFC Planetary Systems Laboratory (LPI Bulletin, No. 72, August, 1994).</ref> that would have placed it too close to the Earth merely four billion years ago, causing instability in its orbit, tidal catastrophes on Earth, and other problems that would have prevented the Earth and the moon being as they are today.
# [[Spiral galaxies]] appear to be young, and only implausible proposals of the existence of [[dark matter]] can reconcile the spirals with a belief in an old universe.
# The planetary orbits in the solar system - including Earth's - are unstable and unsustainable over the long periods claimed by Old Earth believers.<ref>[http://www.newsweek.com/id/201582 Newsweek: "An embarrassing little secret of astronomy ...."]. (Newsweek has inexplicably taken down its article, but it is quoted by Google and other links)</ref><ref>[http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v459/n7248/full/nature08096.html Existence of collisional trajectories of Mercury, Mars and Venus with the Earth] by J. Laskar & M. Gastineau, ''Nature'' 459, 817-819 (11 June 2009). Believers in an Old Earth speculate that the instability would not result in problems in a billion years, but other computer simulations could be developed to demonstrate multi-body instability for the solar system far more recent than that.</ref>
# At least one [[spiral galaxy]] spins in the direction opposite to the spin of its tail, suggesting an age too young to have generated the tail and contradicting the theory that the tails of spiral galaxies were formed over a long period of time.<ref>[http://www.unisci.com/stories/20021/0207023.htm "Hubble Shows Galaxy Rotating In The Wrong Direction"]</ref>
# The primary reaction in the [[Sun]] is the fusing of [[hydrogen]] to make [[helium]], but the ratio of these remains is too high for the Sun to have been burning for millions of years.{{fact}}
# The [[Moon]]'s orbit is becoming increasingly and unexpectedly eccentric, suggesting a lack of long-term stability.<ref>http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.0212</ref>

=== Geology ===
[[Image:Stratigraphy_of_the_Grand_Canyon.png|right|thumb|300px|The Nonconformity is readily apparent in the [[Grand Canyon]] where foliage and ground cover do not obscure the rock face.]]
# The continued existence of fragile natural arches without having collapsed a short time period for erosion and stresses on them.<ref>http://www.naturalarches.org/big9.htm</ref>
# An extrapolation of time between the collapse of weaker arches<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/11/AR2008081102290.html</ref> with still-standing stronger arches supports a young earth age.
# The massive [[Great Lakes]] and freshwater lakes near the equator could not exist for millions of years, and several of these lakes are rapidly receding in volume.
# The existence of inland saltwater lakes, such as [[Mono Lake]] and the [[Great Salt Lake]], suggest a recent global [[flood]].
# The plentiful supply of high concentrations of underground well water, which would be expected based on familiar principles of [[entropy]] to dissipate over a long period of time.
# The relative purity of underground well water, which should be a muddy slurry had millions of years of erosion taken place.
# Earthquakes alter the Earth's rotation several times each century;<ref>http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/2010872/japan_quake_changed_earths_rotation/</ref> extrapolating by orders of magnitude in time would have resulted in the occurrence of much larger earthquakes that would have destabilized the rotation<ref>A similar analysis may be performed for the likelihood of devastating collisions with meteors as time is extrapolated by orders of magnitude.</ref>
# The lack of erosion between rock layers.<ref>http://www.amazon.com/review/R1WTZL8GG4H9K0</ref><ref>http://www.knowthebible.net/id115.html</ref>
# Levels of contamination in water are rising, as water proceeds through the [[water cycle]] it becomes progressively more contaminated. If earth (and life) had existed for billions of years, a limit would have long been reached where water (essential to life) was too contaminated for life to continue.
# [[Paraconformity]] and unconformity such as that seen at the [[Grand Canyon]] disprove the [[uniformitarianism (science)|uniformitarian]] view of earth history.
# All [[carbon dating]] of water supplies, even the most ancient and the deepest underground reservoirs, result in relatively young ages,<ref>http://www.betalabservices.com/PDF/Geyh.pdf</ref> and no water has been found suggesting an Old Earth.
# The ratio of strontium isotopes in seawater, which should change due to long-term erosion, has varied by only 0.35% throughout history. In fact, its value today is exactly the same as in the oldest samples, which are claimed to be from 500 million years ago!{{fact}}
# The interior of the earth is heated by decay of radioactive isotopes, which could not possibly still be persisting in sufficient quantities after 5 billion, or even half a billion, years.{{fact}}
# The relatively recent separation of the still-moving continents from one land mass -- denied for 100 years by [[atheist]]s before they accepted it -- suggest a young earth or at least a relatively recent cataclysmic event.
# Fresh tracks of motion by stationary rocks are still visible in some areas, which have baffled Old Earth scientists for more than 60 years; Old Earth magazines refer to them as "self-moving rocks."<ref>http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2011/02/18/rafting-for-rocks?s_cid=rss:rafting-for-rocks</ref>
# Beaches have long been eroding far too quickly for the Old Earth theory; "between 80 and 90 percent of the sandy beaches along America’s coastlines have been eroding for decades," sometimes by as much as 50 feet per year.<ref>http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-causes-beach-erosion</ref>
# Land is sinking into the oceans at a rate of at least 7 inches per century,<ref>http://www.app.com/article/20110319/NJNEWS/103190327/Global-warming-rising-seas-threaten-New-Jersey-expert-says</ref> which would have rendered most of the United States under water if the Earth were not young.

=== Biology ===
# The intelligence of humans is rapidly declining, whether measured by SAT scores,<ref>SAT scores have been rapidly decreasing in real terms.</ref> music, personal letters,<ref>E.g., Civil War letters.</ref> quality of political debates,<ref>E.g., contrast the Lincoln-Douglas debates with debates today.</ref> the quality of news articles,<ref>''The Federalist'' was written for the newspaper audience in the late 1780s, but is far too intellectual for newspapers today.</ref> or any other measure.
# The age of onset of [[puberty|sexual maturity]] is rapidly changing, suggesting that life is in a short-term rather than long-term equilibrium.<ref>For evidence of a rapidly changing age for sexual maturity in fish, see http://icesjms.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/46/3/235</ref>
# The high observed rate of [[extinctions of species]]<ref>[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-26/animals-face-extinction-threat-as-conservation-efforts-slow-report-says.html One in five species are at risk of extinction]</ref> and harmful [[genetic mutation]]s suggest a relatively short period for the existence of life rather than a long one.
# The age of onset of graying of hair or balding is rapidly decreasing, with many teenagers now experiencing baldness or premature graying ([[CNN]]'s [[Anderson Cooper]] began graying as a teenager and was fully gray long before age 40);<ref name="Graying">http://articles.sfgate.com/2006-06-18/living/17299704_1_hair-taylor-hicks-american-idol</ref> many celebrities (such as [[American Idol]] winner Taylor Hicks graying in his 20s)<ref name="Graying"/> and athletes (such as Cal Ripken, Jr. graying and balding in his mid-30s)<ref>"There's a man, close-cropped gray hair, looks older than 35": Sports Illustrated's description of Cal Ripken at 35. [http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1163438/index.htm#ixzz12ONbgydd] By age 50 he was bald too.</ref> increasingly experience premature graying or balding.
# The age of onset of [[cancer]] is markedly decreasing,<ref>http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/109865519/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0</ref> suggesting rapid changes inconsistent with an alleged long existence to life.
# The oldest direct evidence of life -- written documents, clothing, remnants of civilizations, tree rings, etc. -- is no older than about 3000 B.C.
# The number of natural, pure-bred bred dogs declines over time as dogs naturally crossbreed; a short period of time is suggested by the fact that there are over 100 different natural, pure breeds of dog thriving today.
# Lack of genetic diversity among the ''Homo sapiens'' species. Were evolution and the old earth true, the human population would show a much larger genetic variance.<ref>http://www.godandscience.org/evolution/descent.html#rpafAHIwKHS7</ref>
# Frequent occurrences of massive deaths of birds and fish, which if extrapolated over millions of years would result in little or no such life today.<ref>http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/technology&id=7884786</ref>

=== Science & Discovery ===
# A stalemate of significant and valid discoveries in the last several decades.<ref>Though there has been some progress in this timeframe, many of the "discoveries" are liberal propaganda, or are scientifically weak.</ref>

== External links ==
*[http://creation.com/age-of-the-earth Age of the earth -101 evidences for a young earth and universe] by [[Creation Ministries International]]

== Footnotes ==

<references/>

== See also ==

*[[Counterexamples to Evolution]]
*[[Counterexamples to the Bible]]
*[[Counterexamples to Relativity]]
[[Category:geology]]

Electoral College

2011-03-28T15:23:01Z

SethC: Spelling

[[Image:Electoralcollege2008.gif|thumb|300px|right|Electoral votes by state, click for larger image.]]
The '''Electoral College''' is the method by which the [[United States]] elects a [[president]] every four years. The [[Founding Fathers|Founders]] wanted Electors to gather in each state rather than in a common place, thereby minimizing intrigue and corruption. Each state then votes on the presidential candidate. The details are specified in the [[U.S. Constitution]], Article II, Section 1, Clause 3.

The electoral procedure is as follows:

*Political parties and independent presidential candidates select their electors.

*Political parties nominate presidential and vice presidential candidates.

*On the Tuesday following the first Monday of November, people choose the electors of their state depending on their presidential preference.

*On the Monday following the second Wednesday of December, electors of each state meet in their state capital to cast separate votes for the president and vice president. They are only allowed to cast votes for presidents and vice presidents of their own states.

*The ballots are than sealed and sent to the President of the Senate (the [[Vice President of the United States of America|Vice President]]), who opens them on January 6.

*Candidates who win the majority of ballots for president and vice president will then be declared the winners. If no one wins the majority of the ballots for president, then the [[House of Representatives]] makes the choice from among the top three contenders. In this situation, each state's delegation has one vote and the majority of the states will have to elect the president. If there is no winner for vice president the senate will select between the top two contenders.

*At noon, January 20, the new president and vice president will be sworn into office.

The number of electors from each state is determined as being the same as the combined number of that state's [[United States Senate|senators]] and representatives. As the number of senators is always two, and the number of representatives is roughly proportional to the state's population, this means that larger states have more electors than smaller states, but smaller states have a ''proportionately'' higher number of electors. This mechanism was devised by the Founding Fathers as a compromise between large states (who felt they should have a greater say than the smaller states) and small states (who feared a straight proportional number would leave them too little influence).<ref>http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/8176.html</ref>

Nearly all the states vote on a winner-take-all basis, such that whoever wins a [[plurality]] of the votes in that state then receives all of the Electoral College votes for that state. The only two exceptions are [[Maine]] and [[Nebraska]], which divide their electoral votes along congressional districts. Both states would therefore be able to split their share of votes between candidates. In practise however, this never happened until 2008, when [[Barack Obama]] won Nebraska's second congressional district, therefore winning one of Nebraska's five votes. The remaining four were won by [[John McCain]].

Elections in 1800 and 1824 required the House of Representatives to select a president, as no candidate won a majority. The 1824 vote leader, [[Andrew Jackson]], was later elected in 1828. In 1876, [[Samuel Tilden]] won the popular vote, but [[Rutherford B. Hayes]] won with the elector vote. No one since has won a majority of the popular vote and lost the election.

In 1888, [[Grover Cleveland]] got a plurality of the popular vote (by a margin of 110,476) but [[Benjamin Harrison]] won the electoral college vote, and became president. In 1960, [[Richard Nixon]] got a plurality of the popular vote, unles you count votes for [[John F. Kennedy]] that actually went to electors that were pledged to vote for someone else. In the 2000 election, [[Al Gore]] narrowly got a plurality of the popular vote, and [[George W. Bush]] narrowly won the electoral vote. After a careful recount of the election results in [[Florida]], [[George W. Bush]] was declared the 43rd President of the [[United States]].

==References==
{{Reflist}}
1. Bloom, Sol, and Johnson, Lars. ''The Story of the Constitution''. Christian Liberty Press, 2001.
 2. For an essay on attempts to abolish the '''Electoral College''', see [[Essay:Electoral College]].
[[category:United States]]
[[Category: Election Terms]]

Facebook

2011-03-25T00:56:26Z

SethC: Facebook feeds narcissism

[[Image:Newfacebooklogo3.jpg|right]]
'''Facebook''' is a social website originally started for the benefit of college students, but then commercialized for all with advertising and promotions. Users can waste their time on it in a variety of ways: by uploading pictures (typically of themselves), by gossiping about others, and by interfering with marriages and personal relationships.

Surveys show that Facebook feeds narcissistic tendencies.<ref>http://articles.cnn.com/2010-08-30/tech/facebook.narcissism.mashable_1_facebook-social-networking-status-updates?_s=PM:TECH</ref>

Studies show that the use of Facebook is associated with poorer performance in school. Facebook use is also associated with a substantial percentage of marital problems. The site is heavily promoted by [[liberal]]s, presumably because it is so unproductive or even counterproductive.

Anybody with an account can create an unlimited amount of unproductive pages, which can then be "like"d by other users.

Facebook is based in Palo Alto, [[California]]. The name of the site is based on the paper facebooks that many colleges give to incoming students, faculty, and staff depicting members of the campus community.<ref> [http://www.associatepublisher.com/e/f/fa/facebook.htm Facebook] </ref>

==Monetary Value==
It is rumored that Facebook generates around $1 million per week in revenue. <ref>[http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/04/26/facebook-goes-beyond-college-high-school-markets/ "Facebook goes beyond college and high school markets"]</ref>
In September 2006, [[Yahoo]] began talks to acquire Facebook for as high as $1 billion. In October, Google allegedly offered $2.3 billion.<ref>[http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2006/10/10/first-youtube-now-facebook-rumors-circulate "First Youtube, Now Facebook: Rumors Circulate"]</ref> All outside offers have been rejected. 2009 estimates put a net value of $6.5 billion. <ref>[http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10285409-36.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0 Facebook stock trading open; valuation $6.5 billion] CNET News, July 13, 2009</ref> 2010 estimates of the privately held company put the value at $14 billion dollars. <ref>[http://techcrunch.com/2010/01/20/facebook-valued-at-14-billion-on-secondmarket/ Facebook Valued At $14 Billion On SecondMarket, TechCrunch.com, January 20, 2010]</ref>

In 2011, [[Goldman Sachs]] invested $500 million in Facebook. It is speculated that Goldman Sachs may be put in charge of an initial public offering of Facebook stock in 2012. Valuations are speculated at between $10 and $50 billion. <ref>[http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2011/01/03/goldman-digital-sky-technologies-invest-facebook-report/?test=latestnews Is Facebook Worth $50B?, Fox Business, January 3, 2011]</ref>

==Origins==
Facebook was founded in February 2004 by [[Harvard]] sophomores [[Mark Zuckerberg]] and Eduardo Saverin, with help from Andrew McCollum. By December of 2004, after expanding the site to other universities, the number of registered users exceeded one million. In August 2005 Facebook obtained the domain name facebook.com and dropped the "the" from the site's name.

==2010==
A movie was made about the origins of Facebook, called ''[[The Social Network]]''. The film was number one in America for several weeks. Mark Zuckerberg was not involved in the creation of film and says that it was more Hollywood storyteling than reality.

It has been known among Silicon Valley technology companies that Facebook has been luring away [[Google]] employees to the extent that Google is now offering bonuses not to leave the company. On October 15, Facebook announced the release of a new email client. Internally referred to as Titan and the media has dubbed it Gmail Killer. Zuckerberg insists it is not a head-to-head competitor of Google's Gmail service and will be more of a instant messaging service. <ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/15/gmail-beware-facebook-unveils-e-mail-service/ E-MAIL WAR: Facebook Launches 'Gmail Killer' -- AOL Jumps In, Too, FOX News, November 15, 2010]</ref>
==Liberal Policies==
The world's largest online social network added civil unions and domestic partnerships to the list of relationships that its users can pick from to best describe their romantic status. The [[Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation]] had lobbied for the policy adoption and is only available to Facebook users in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France and Australia. <ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/02/18/facebook-adds-support-sex-civil-unions Facebook Adds Support for Same-Sex Civil Unions, Fox News, February 18, 2011</ref>

==Privacy Issues==
Compared to [[MySpace]], Facebook gives the user many more options for privacy controls. Under the default private settings, only Facebook users in the same network, or friends of the user, can access another user's profile. There are also separate privacy controls for each type of information (blogs, messages, address and telephone numbers, photos). A user in a completely different network will ''apparently'' have no access to another user's profile unless they are added as a friend.<ref> [http://en.allexperts.com/e/f/fa/facebook.htm Facebook on allexperts.com]</ref> Despite these controls, the same problems exist as with any other networking website:

* Many users post their full address, e-mail address, birthday, and telephone number, and these can be available to their entire network (and, in reality, anyone). This information in the wrong hands can be used for purposes of phishing, stalking, or even identity theft.
* Some universities have begun to use students' pages to investigate underage drinking and other violations of university policy. This is very possible, since university faculty and staff can sign up for the same network as their students through their campus e-mail account.<ref> [http://en.allexperts.com/e/f/fa/facebook.htm Facebook on allexperts.com]</ref>
*The so-called "news feed" has aroused some discomfort among Facebook users, as it collects all changes among one's friends and posts whenever a user logs in.
*The "wall" feature allows a user to send a message to another user which remains on their profile page. This posting is viewable to everyone who can view the page, and shows up on the news feed for all friends of both the sender and the recipient.
*As with Google ads, Facebook collects profile information, and places ads on the page that reflect the user's personal information.
*The privacy settings on Facebook give users a false sense of security and encourage people to post things they shouldn't. As with other social networks, Facebook refuses to admit that its privacy settings that apparently allow only "friends" to see certain information are completely bogus and can easily be cracked by people with little to no [[hacking]] experience. Instead, Facebook actually ''encourages'' young users to only allow "friends" to see certain information, rather than just warning them that what they post can be seen by the world and to not post what they wouldn't want people to see.

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Online social networking]]
[[Category:Websites]]

Barack Hussein Obama

2011-01-17T16:39:55Z

SethC: Removed <nowiki> tags

{{President
|image=President Barack Obama.jpg
|seq=44
|term_start=January 20, 2009
|term_end=Present
|party=Democratic
|vp=Joe Biden
|previous=George W. Bush
|next=
|birth_date=August 4, 1961
|age={{age|1961|8|4}}
|birth_place=
|death_date=
|death_place=
|spouse=[[Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama]]
|spouse2=
|religion=Described in this entry
}}
{{Officeholder
|name=Barack Hussein Obama
|party=[[Democrat]]
|spouse=[[Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama]]
|religion=
|offices=
{{Officeholder/senator
|state=Illinois
|terms=January 3, 2005 – November 16, 2008
|preceded=Peter Fitzgerald
|former=y
|succeeded=[[Roland Burris]]
}}
}}
'''Barack Hussein Obama II''' ('''aka Barry Soetoro''',<ref>''When Barry Became Barack'',
By Richard Wolffe, Jessica Ramirez and Jeffrey Bartholet, NEWSWEEK, Mar 31, 2008
[http://www.newsweek.com/id/128633/page/1]"It didn't happen overnight. But in college, the young Barry took to being called by his formal name. What this evolution tells us about him."</ref><ref>[http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Politics/13056.htm] israelinsider. 14 August 2008. Accessed 23 January 2010.</ref><ref>McGrew, Mark S. [http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/19-01-2009/106972-Barry_Soetoro-0 Barry Soetoro aka Barack Obama vs World Leaders]. ''[[Pravda]].ru. 19 January 2009. Accessed 23 January 2010.</ref> said to have been born in [[Honolulu]] August 4, 1961<ref>[http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=82033]</ref><ref>[http://www.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/birth_certificate_5.jpg Large, high-resolution picture of his birth certificate]</ref><ref>[http://www.kitv.com/politics/17860890/detail.html?rss=hon&psp=news KITV Honolulu report]</ref><ref>[http://www.newsmax.com/farber/Obama_birth_certificate/2009/04/06/200320.html]</ref><ref>Obama's [[African]] grandmother Sarah Hussein Obama says Barack was born in her presence in Kenya.[http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2104131/posts Obama Born In Kenya? His Grandmother Says Yes, Israeli News, October 12, 2008][http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=78931 Democrat: Obama's grandma confirms Kenyan birth, WND, October 23, 2008][http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b58_1225645143 Audio Conversation Link]</ref>) is the 44th President of the [[United States]], and the first President who is biracial. He has been associated with numerous fringe [[radical]] groups and causes<ref>[http://www.votesmart.org/bio.php?can_id=9490 President Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.] Retrieved from Project Vote Smart, 19 July 2010.</ref> and served less than four years as a first-term [[Democratic party|Democratic]] [[Senator]] from [[Illinois]] (2005-2008). In a highly controversial decision Obama was the recipient of the 2009 [[Nobel_Prize#Biased_Awards|Nobel Peace prize]].

The United States has recorded the highest [[Federal budget deficit|deficit]]s as a share of [[GDP]] since 1945 in Obama's first two years;<ref>http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/107xx/doc10708/11-06-mbr.htm</ref><ref>http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/118xx/doc11873/NovemberMBR.pdf</ref> correspondingly, [[poverty]]<ref>http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/incpovhlth/2009/pov09fig04.pdf</ref> and joblessness have increased markedly to record levels not seen in more than 50 years.<ref>http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2010-09-16-poverty-rate-income-numbers_N.htm</ref> One half million workers per week continued to lose their jobs well into the "[[Recovery Summer]]". The Unemployment Rate has stagnated in the 10% range <ref>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704476104575439172480870774.html?mod=googlenews_wsj</ref> with tens of millions more affected by Underemployment, long term disaffection, and loss of [[hope]] of finding a employment.<ref>[http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?data_tool=latest_numbers&series_id=LNS11300000&years_option=specific_years&include_graphs=true&to_month=1&from_month=2 United States Department of Labor], Bureau of Labor Statistics. Data extracted on: July 19, 2010 (4:31:11 PM).</ref> [[ObamaCare]], his signature legislative achievement later found to be [[unconstitutional]],<ref>http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-13/u-s-health-care-law-requirement-thrown-out-by-judge.html</ref> is cited as a major cause of [[unemployment]],<ref>http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=33220</ref> a drag on job creation,<ref>http://blog.heritage.org/2010/08/05/it%E2%80%99s-official-medicare%E2%80%99s-finances-shadowed-by-uncertainty/</ref> and risk of a Greek-style debt crisis.<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/28/AR2010032802353.html</ref><ref>http://www.thestreet.com/story/10703361/cramer-obamacare-will-topple-the-market.html</ref> After his "shellacking" at the polls in the [[2010 Midterm elections]], Obama has shifted his positions on tax policy and pledges to cooperate with the incoming Congress's new priorities focusing on job creation and economic growth.

While 'turning the page' on the War on Terror, the rate of terrorist attacks in the United States has gone from zero under President George W. Bush's<ref>During Bush's last year http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,335500,00.html</ref> to at least four per year<ref>http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-detroit-airline26-2009dec26,0,7673563,full.story</ref><ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/us/05explode.html?_r=1&ref=us</ref><ref>http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/05/25/2009-05-25_small_bomb_goes_off_outside_upper_east_side_starbucks.html</ref><ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/us/04recruit.html?_r=1&ref=us</ref><ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/us/politics/20hood.html</ref> and the Bipartisan Policy Center's National Security Preparedness Group reports [[Al-Qaeda]] leadership has become increasingly homegrown and ‘Americanized’ under U.S-based [[Islam]]ic radicals.<ref>http://www.bipartisanpolicy.org/news/press-releases/2010/09/bipartisan-policy-center-report-finds-homegrown-terrorism-presents-key-c</ref>

Then-Senator Obama and the [[110th Congress]], allowed the moratorium on offshore oil drilling in the [[Gulf of Mexico]]<ref>[http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0430/Gulf-of-Mexico-oil-spill-imperils-Obama-s-offshore-drilling-plan Gulf of Mexico oil spill imperils Obama's offshore drilling plan,] By Mark Clayton, ''Christian Science Monitor'', April 30, 2010.</ref> <ref>[http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE48N8NA20080924] By Tom Doggett, Reuters, Wed Sep 24, 2008</ref> to lapse and was later criticized by the Gulf Oil Spill investigatory commission for his lack of competence and misuse of data to mislead the public<ref>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101006/ap_on_sc/us_gulf_oil_spill;_ylt=AhD3nOSATgSQiErPjXGDsYFvzwcF;_ylu=X3oDMTJpNzluOGg1BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAxMDA2L3VzX2d1bGZfb2lsX3NwaWxsBGNwb3MDMwRwb3MDNwRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawNwYW5lbGdvdnRibG8-</ref> about the "[[Gulf oil spill disaster|worst environmental disaster]] in US history."<ref>[http://www.examiner.com/x-33986-Political-Spin-Examiner~y2010m4d29-Worst-environmental-disaster-in-US-history-Oil-slick-in-Gulf-of-Mexico-is-set-on-fire Worst environmental disaster in US history,] Maryann Tobin, ''Examiner'', April 29, 2010.</ref><ref>[http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/july-dec10/oilspill_10-07.html] Ray Suarez, PBS, October 10, 2010</ref> Obama declared,
{{Cquote|oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills. They are technologically very advanced."<ref>White House Press Release, [http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-a-discussion-jobs-and-economy-charlotte-north-carolina Remarks by the President in a Discussion on Jobs and the Economy in Charlotte, North Carolina,] Office of the Press Secretary, April 02, 2010. Retrieved from whitehouse.gov 3 May 2010.</ref><ref>''[http://members.greenpeace.org/blog/greenpeaceusa_blog/2010/04/30/president_obama_committed_to_endangering President Obama must reinstate moratorium on offshore drilling,]'' [[Greenpeace]] USA blogs, 30 Apr 2010.</ref><ref>http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/04/28/obama-katrina-spill/</ref>}}

Charles Chaput, the Catholic Archbishop of Denver, the city where Obama was nominated for president, criticized Obama as the "most committed" [[abortion]]-supporting candidate "since the ''[[Roe v. Wade]]'' abortion decision in 1973."<ref>http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=14088</ref> Obama said "the first thing I'd do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act."<ref>[http://christiannewswire.com/news/560716251.html]</ref> It "would invalidate virtually all state and federal limitations on abortion, and would make [[partial-birth abortion]] legal again."<ref>[http://www.lifenews.com/nat3961.html, Pro-Life Voters Must Work Overtime to Stop Pro-Abortion Barack Obama,] June 4, 2008. Indeed, Obama was upset with the decision of the [[United States Supreme Court|Supreme Court]] not to strike down the law passed by the [[United States Congress]] to prohibit partial-birth abortion, believing that partial-birth abortion is guaranteed right of the [[United States Constitution|Constitution]] and that there should be no ability to legislate against it.</ref>

==Early background==

Barack Hussein Obama II early life was outside the mainstream of Black America and had little in common with [[African-American]]s social, political, and cultural experiences. Obama reportedly was born in [[Honolulu]], Hawaii to [[Barack Obama Sr.]] and Stanley Ann Dunham in 1961, however claims have been made<ref>http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/14/the-jihadist-vote/</ref> he may have been born in Kenya. Obama's birth father was a [[Muslim]] who converted to [[Marxism]] and Obama's maternal family was rooted in the [[progressivism|progressive left]] and atheist traditions yet Obama made the rather ostensible claim to the ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'' religion editor Cathleen Falsani on April 5, 2004, "I'm rooted in the Christian tradition."<ref>http://www.suntimes.com/news/falsani/726619,obamafalsani040504.article</ref> Obama was reared in the Islamic faith while living with his mother and stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, in Jakarta, [[Indonesia]] in the mid-1960s until the early 1970s.<ref>[http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/pipes_obama_muslim/2008/10/09/138898.html Obama 'Lying' About Muslim Past, Expert Says] NewsMax, October 9, 2008</ref> It is believed Stanley Ann Dunham moved to Hawaii with the young Obama about 1970 or 1971 where he attended the elite Punahou School and graduated in 1979.
[[File:FrankMarshallDavis2.jpg|right|202px|thumb|'''Frank Marshall Davis, Communist Party Card No. 47544.'''<ref>[http://www.usasurvival.org/docs/Frank_Marshall_Davis_5.pdf FBI file Frank Marshall Davis], v.5 p. 58 pdf.</ref> The [[U.S. Congress]] found the Communist Party an "instrumentality of a [[conspiracy]]...the agency of a hostile foreign power."<ref>[http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode50/usc_sec_50_00000841----000-.html Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950], 50 U.S. Code Chapter 23 Subchapter IV Sec. 841</ref> The [[FBI]] placed Davis in its security index, meaning he could be detained in the event of a national emergency.<ref>[http://www.usasurvival.org/docs/Frank_Marshall_Davis_3.pdf FBI File 100-15799 Frank Marshall Davis], v. 3 p. 26.</ref> Davis was an early influence on Obama.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=HRCHJp-V0QUC&pg=PA220&dq=Frank%2Brecognizing+their+struggle+as+my+own#v=onepage&q=&f=false ''Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance''], By Barack Obama, Random House, 2007, pp. 89-91, 96-98, .</ref>]]
''[[Political Affairs]]'' magazine describes itself as "affiliated with the [[Communist Party USA]],"<ref>http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/static/17/1/3/</ref> (CPUSA) published a speech by Prof. Gerald Horne upon receipt of the CPUSA archives at the Tamiment Library at New York University on March 28 2007. Prof. Horne stated,
{{Cquote|an African-American poet and journalist by the name of [[Frank Marshall Davis]]...befriended another family – a Euro-American family – that had migrated to Honolulu...a young woman from this family eventually had a child with a young student from [[Kenya]] ...who retracing the steps of Davis eventually decamped to Chicago. In his bestselling memoir ''Dreams of my Father'', the author speaks warmly of an older black poet...as being a decisive influence in helping him to find his present identity as an African-American... At some point in the future, a teacher will add to her syllabus Barack’s memoir and instruct her students to read it alongside Frank Marshall Davis’ equally affecting memoir...when that day comes...a future student will ...examine critically the Frankenstein monsters that US imperialism created in order to subdue Communist parties..."<ref>[http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/5047/ Rethinking the History and Future of the Communist Party],By Gerald Horne, ''Political Affairs magazine, March 28 2007.</ref>}}
evoking the language in [[Chairman Mao]]'s ''Little Red Book'',
{{Cquote|unite and defeat the U.S. aggressors... Monsters of all kinds shall be destroyed.<ref>''Statement Supporting the People of the Congo (L.) Against U.S. Aggression'' (November 28, 1964), ''People of the World, Unite and Defeat the U.S. Aggressors and All Their Lackeys'', 2nd ed., p. 14. Cited in Quotations from Mao Tse Tung from: 1927 - 1964, Mao Tse Tung, [http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/red-book/ch07.htm Chapter 7 Dare to Struggle and Dare to Win], Peking Foreign Languages Press, 1966. Online Version: Mao Tse Tung Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2000.</ref><ref>Quoted in [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ccbh/souls/vol1no4/vol1num4art1.pdf ''Black Like Mao: Black Like Mao: Red China and Black Revolution''], Robin D.G. Kelley and Betsy Esche, ''Souls'' Volume 1, Number 4 Fall 1999, p. 11 in original (p. 7 pdf).</ref>}}

In the 1995 book, ''Dreams from my Father'', the author wrote Obama learned to respect Davis's struggles, "recognizing them as my own." Obama sought Davis's advise as he left for college.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=HRCHJp-V0QUC&pg=PA97&dq=manipulate+words+so+they+don%27t+mean+anything+anymore#v=onepage&q=manipulate%20words%20so%20they%20don't%20mean%20anything%20anymore&f=false ''Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance''], By Barack Obama, Random House, 2007, pp. 97, 220.</ref> Initially Obama attended Occidental College in Los Angeles, [[California]], before transferring to [[Columbia University]] in New York, [[New York]] and graduating without honors as a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in [[political science]]. Obama refuses to describe his academic performance at Columbia despite commenting about New York during this period and despite disclosures of the academic record for all other major-party presidential candidates since at least 2000.<ref>http://www.nysun.com/new-york/obamas-years-at-columbia-are-a-mystery/85015/</ref>

=== Birth Certificate Controversy ===

:''Main article: [[Barack Obama birthplace controversy]]
[[Image:Obamapullup2.JPG|325px|thumb|left|'''Candidate Obama cultivated an image''' of sportsmanship and competition; as President, Obama ridiculed disabled people who compete in the [[Special Olympics]]. The comments "set us back decades," according to the program's director. <ref>[http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2009/mar/20/local/chi-090320obama-special-olympics-react Special Olympics chief responds to Obama gaffe], Stacy St Clair, ''Chicago Tribune'', March 20, 2009]</ref>([http://www.necn.com/Boston/Politics/2009/03/20/Obamas-comment-sets-us-back/1237552251.html Video])
]]
During the democratic primaries the Clinton Campaign led a smear campaign against the validity of Barack Obama's Hawaii Birth certificate, claiming that it was false and that he was ineligible for Presidency. <ref>[http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTgxZmIwNTg0OWVhMWJkODNmZjI4ZjY4Mjg2OWRmNzI= http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTgxZmIwNTg0OWVhMWJkODNmZjI4ZjY4Mjg2OWRmNzI=]</ref> After initially refusing to produce a birth certificate in response to such rumors, the Obama campaign eventually endorsed a document posted on the Daily Kos as
authentic.<ref>[http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/12/11012/6168/320/534616 Obama's Birth Certificate]</ref> The response is split regarding the birth certificate. Some commentators, such as those at the ''National Review'', are satisfied with the document.<ref>[http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NWVjN2I1MjlhM2ZjZjRjYzBkODAxZjZkZGQyYWNkMDk= http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NWVjN2I1MjlhM2ZjZjRjYzBkODAxZjZkZGQyYWNkMDk=]</ref> However, some analysts claim that the birth certificate is false.<ref>[http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Politics/12939.htm http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Politics/12939.htm]</ref>

On August 21st, 2008, Factcheck.org published an article regarding the controversy.<ref>[http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html Born in the U.S.A.]</ref> The site stated, "FactCheck.org staffers have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate. We conclude that it meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship." In addition, the site posted high-resolution photographs of the birth certificate, which clearly showed the raised seal, stamp of Hawaii state registrar Alvin T. Onaka, and certificate number. The birth date corresponds to a birth announcement published in the ''Honolulu Advertiser '' on Sunday, August 13, 1961. <ref>http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html</ref>

A Philadelphia attorney, Phillip Berg, has filed a lawsuit against the DNC and Barack Obama. Berg maintains that Sen. Obama is not a natural born U.S. citizen or that, if he ever was, he lost his citizenship when he was adopted in Indonesia. Berg also cites what he calls "dual loyalties" due to his citizenship and ties with Kenya and Indonesia. The "dual loyalties" which have not been shown to exist do not violate any constitutional or legal precedents and would make Sen. Obama a poor choice for President, not an invalid choice.

Obama website Fight The Smears has confirmed that Obama was once a Kenyan citizen until 1982. Attorney Philips Berg's lawsuit is being challenged by the Obama Campaign. Instead of producing the original birth certificate in court and paying a number of legal fees and taking several days out of his busy campaigning schedule the Obama campaign had the case dropped on the grounds that it lacked any supporting evidence. <ref>http://neighbors.denverpost.com/viewtopic.php?t=10815605</ref> The fact that Mr. Berg's dual arguments were mutually contradictory may also have contributed.

The state of Hawaii announced that the "Certification of Live Birth" document is legitimate and official. Since the state of Hawaii is the issuing body, they have ultimate authority with regards to the matter.<ref>http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html</ref> Critics rightfully point out such documents actually were issued for children not born in the state, and his "Certification of Live Birth" has likewise been dismissed as a forgery. <ref>http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/07/atlas-exclusive.html</ref>

Adding fuel to the fire is Obama's persistent refusal to release documents that could provide answers. While his supporters cite an online version of a "Certification of Live Birth" from Hawaii. <ref>[http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=92810 Justice, Supremes confirm getting eligibility challenge] WND, March 24, 2009</ref>

Bob Schultz with the We The People Foundation said:

:"In the end, there is no practical reason why Obama refuses to produce his original birth certificate. He... has a duty to provide evidence that he meets the explicit requirements established by the Constitution."

Nancy Salvato with BasicsProject.org summarized:

:"What perturbs the rest of us is that President Obama has failed to produce a legitimate birth certificate. He has a team of lawyers who are opposing the examination of his sealed records in Hawaii. What he produced was a certificate of live birth... not a birth certificate. The rest of us are appalled at the lack of media examination surrounding the fact that there is no law requiring that a candidate for the highest office in our land produce an authentic birth certificate which proves natural citizenship."

In April 2010, the Arizona House approved a bill that would require presidential candidates to show his or her birth certificate in order to be on the state's ballot.<ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/22/arizona-house-oks-requiring-presidential-candidates-provide-birth-certificate/ Arizona House OKs Bill Requiring Presidential Candidates to Provide Birth Certificate], FOXNews.com, April 22, 2010.</ref> It would require U.S. presidential candidates who want to appear on the Arizona ballot to submit documents proving they meet the constitutional requirements to be president.<ref>Ashby Jones. [http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2010/04/22/arizona-house-to-obama-no-birth-certificate-no-ballot/ Arizona House to Obama: No Birth Certificate, No Ballot], ''The Wall Street Journal'', April 22, 2010.</ref> The Constitution says a person must be a "natural-born citizen" to be eligible for the presidency.<ref>[http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/ArizonaWantsObamaBirthProofforRun/2010/04/21/id/356375 Arizona Wants Obama Birth Proof for Run], ''Newsmax'', April 21, 2010.</ref>

=== Education ===
In 1983 and 84 while a senior undergraduate at Columbia University, Obama attended several annual sessions of the Socialist Scholars Conference<ref>http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/10/president_obama_and_the_radica.html</ref> held in New York's Cooper Union. It was here Obama first was exposed to [[Black Liberation Theology]] and [[community organizing]] and made the career choice to leave the field of foreign relations and nuclear disarmament to pursue community organizing.<ref>http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/251721/radosh-reviews-iradical-chiefi-stanley-kurtz</ref>

After working as a community organizer in New York City and Chicago, Illinois, Obama enrolled at [[Harvard]] Law School. He became a member of the ''Harvard Law Review'', which uses racial quotas, in 1989. He was then elected by popular vote as its first African American president in 1990, a story that was immediately promoted in the [[New York Times]].<ref>http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE2DC1631F935A35751C0A966958260&scp=3&sq=Obama%201990&st=cse</ref> He graduated ''magna cum laude'' with his J.D. in 1991, but did not serve in a clerkship. Federal clerkships are the typical post-graduate position for top law students. Obama has stated that his favorite professors in school were Marxists.

Obama has described himself as a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago.<ref>[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/03/30/politics/p132303D74.DTL&type=politics]</ref> He held the position of Lecturer, an adjunct position, from 1992 to 1996. He held the position of Senior Lecturer from 1996 until his election to the senate in 2004. Dan Ronayne, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, has pointed that Obama was only a senior lecturer and not a full professor. <ref>[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/03/30/politics/p132303D74.DTL&type=politics]</ref>The University states that Senior Lecturers are regarded as professors, although not full-time or tenure track.<ref>http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/was_barack_obama_really_a_constitutional_law.html</ref><ref>[http://www.law.uchicago.edu/media/index.html]</ref>
[[Image:Bernardine Dohrn.jpg|right|thumb|250px|'''Bernardine Dohrn formerly of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted''' enjoyed somewhat of a celebrity status among [[radical leftist]]s when she, along with her husband Bill Ayers, hosted a fundraiser for the relatively unknown Barack Obama in 1995; Dohrn issued the Weather Underground terrorist organization's Declaration of War Against the United States ([http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Weather_Underground_Declaration_of_a_State_of_War Full Text]) in 1970.]]
According to the White House website, White House Press Secretary [[Robert Gibbs]] responded to this to this question on April 14 2009,
<blockquote>
Q Why is the President blocking habeas corpus from prisoners at Bagram? I thought he taught constitutional law. And these prisoners have been there -- 

MR. GIBBS: You're incorrect that he taught on constitutional law.<ref>[http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Briefing-by-White-House-Press-Secretary-Robert-Gibbs-4-14-09/ Office of the Press Secretary], April 14, 2009, whitehouse.gov </ref></blockquote>

=== Radicalism ===

Following law school, Obama linked up with local communist networks in Chicago<ref>[http://newzeal.blogspot.com/2009/06/obama-file-78-smoking-gun-proof-that.html The Jarrett Connection. Proof That Obama’s Hawaii and Chicago Communist Networks Were Linked] Trevor Louden, June 01, 2009.</ref> and oversaw community organizing as director of Illinois Project Vote! Obama states he saw opportunism in Chicago after the election of Harold Washington as the city’s first black mayor. <ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/us/politics/07community.html</ref> John Bachtell, CPUSA Illinois district organizer, said at a special meeting on African American Equality, Building the Communist Party and the Young Communist League on September 30, 2007, "The historic election of Washington was the culmination of many years of struggle. It reflected a high degree of unity of the African American community and the alliance with a section of labor, the Latino community and [[Progressivism|progressive]] minded whites. This legacy of political independence also endures."<ref>http://www.cpusa.org/article/articleview/858/1/39/</ref>

Obama with [[Al Sharpton]] and [[Louis Farrakhan]] led the [[Million Man March]] on Washington in 1995.[http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/04/wright-obama-helped-organize-march-with.html][http://www1.chicagoreader.com/obama_reader/what_makes_obama_run/?q=012009K]

Obama states that he has consistently opposed the [[Iraq War]] since 2002. In his famous speech delivered at a rally organized by [[SDS]] veterans<ref>[http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/376/from_protest_to_politics/ ''From Protest to Politics:When war begins progressive work doesn’t end,''] Jeff Epton, ''In These Times,'' December 15, 2003. Retrieved March 15, 2010.</ref><ref>[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Barack_Obama's_Iraq_Speech Against Going to War with Iraq (2002)] by Barack Obama. Delivered on Wednesday, October 2, 2002 by Barack Obama, Illinois State Senator, at the first high-profile Chicago anti-Iraq war rally (organized by Chicagoans Against War in Iraq) at noon in Federal Plaza in Chicago, Illinois. Retrieved from Wikisource.com, March 15, 2010. </ref> [[Carl Davidson]] and Marilyn Katz in Chicago on October 2, 2002<ref>[http://www.barackobama.com/2002/10/02/remarks_of_illinois_state_sen.php Remarks of Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama Against Going to War with Iraq,] October 02, 2002. Retrieved from www.barackobama.com March 15, 2010.</ref> Even though Saddam had, in Obama's words, "developed [[weapons of mass destruction|chemical and biological weapons]]" Obama condoned the most hideous [[torture]]<ref>[http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/jackstraw1.html Saddam Hussein's Regime Methods of Torture]</ref> and dismissed Bush administration objectives of democratization and [[human rights]] as fighting a "dumb war." A commentator observed, "one would search long and hard for any words from this apostle of hope and change about the palpable benefits that [[democracy]] might bring to the Arabs and Muslims of the Middle East.<ref>[http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/obama-s-war-11263 Obama's War], Peter Wehner, ''Commentary'', April 2008.</ref>

== Early career ==

===Internship===

Michelle Robinson began employment at the Chicago Law firm of Sidley-Austin in 1988 where disbarred attorney and [[Weather Underground]] [[terrorist]] [[Bernardine Dohrn]] also worked.<ref>http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjY4YzdhMDBkZGQ3ZmU2MTUzYjdkMzc5ZjUzYmViZWM=</ref><ref>http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDIxMDJiNzU5M2Q1MTY3ZGI1YTdmOWY5MzkwN2QxYzg=</ref> Sidley-Austin is the legal advisor to [[ACORN]],<ref>[http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=84434 Michelle Obama's old law firm defends ACORN], ''WorldNetDaily, December 23, 2008.</ref> a group accused of facilitating tax fraud, ballot box stuffing, human trafficking and child prostitution.<ref>http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NmIzOTBmNGY3OGEwNzgwZWU1MjMzMjJkNWM4NzVkNmI=</ref> Barack Obama was hired a year later and appears to have misrepresented where he and future First Lady - Michelle Robinson Obama - first met.

In 1993 he was hired as an associate at the Chicago law firm Miner, Barnhill & Galland, P.C., and lectured at the University of Chicago. At this time he was also cited as being the author of ''Dreams from My Father'', an account his background, youth, early life influences, and education. ''Dreams'' was published in 1995.

===Engineers defeat of moderate Democrats ===

In 1992 as head of Illinois Project Vote, Obama was instrumental in [[subversion|subverting]] the reelection bid of a [[centrist]] Democratic Senator.<ref>[http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/January-1993/Vote-of-Confidence/ Vote of Confidence : A huge black turnout in November 1992 altered Chicago's electoral landscape—and raised a new political star: a 31-year-old lawyer named Barack Obama],
By Gretchen Reynolds, ''Chicago Magazine'', January 1993.</ref> Obama engineered the defeat of incumbent U.S. Senator Alan Dixon<ref>[http://articles.latimes.com/1992-03-18/news/mn-3844_1_gus-savage Veteran Illinois Senator Dixon Defeated - Congress], By Bob Sector, ''[[L.A. Times]]'', March 18, 1992.</ref> after Dixon voted in favor of placing a black man in a high federal office. The [[leftist]] website [[Daily Kos|dKosopedia]] reported "Dixon's vote to confirm [[US Supreme Court]] Justice [[Clarence Thomas]]" outraged the Braun forces.<ref>[http://www.dkosopedia.com/wiki/Carol_Moseley_Braun#Political_career Carol Moseley Braun], dkosopedia.com, retrieved October 25, 2009. Some sources state Moseley Braun's "outrage" was directed at the treatment of Anita Hill over her claims of sexual harassment by the nominee, however Moseley Braun voted to acquit President [[William Jefferson Clinton]] of charges stemming from a [[sexual harassment]] suit which Clinton settled by paying the aggrieved party $850,000 out of court to satisfy damage claims.</ref> With [[CPUSA]] and Obama organizing efforts,<ref>http://newzeal.blogspot.com/2008/10/obama-file-39-barack-obama-carol.html</ref> Braun's forces defeated the moderate incumbent in the Primary, 38% to 35%.

Sandy Newman, founder of Project Vote! told ''Chicago Magazine'', "I was asking around among community activists in Chicago and around the country, and they kept mentioning him (Obama)... He did one hell of a job." The magazine further reported, "To understand the full implications of Obama's effort, you first need to understand how voter registration often has worked in Chicago. The Regular [[Democratic Party]] spearheaded most drives," with Obama at the helm of Chicago's Project Vote!, those conditions had been reversed. "He helped train 700 deputy registrars, out of a total of 11,000 citywide." Joseph Gardner, the director of the steering committee for Project Vote! said the numbers of new voter registrations under Obama were "overwhelming."

== Illinois State Senate (1995-2005) ==

=== Radical and terrorist endorsements and associations ===

:''Main article see [[Weather Underground]]''
[[File:Youngobama2.jpg|320px|thumb|left|'''Dr. Quentin Young (left) is personal physician to Barack Obama (right) and [[Bernardine Dohrn]] (not shown)'''. Dr. Young was reimbursed by the [[KGB]] after he paid rent in advance on a storefront he used to treat injured rioters during the disruptions of the 1968 Democratic National Convention.<ref>[http://www.usasurvival.org/docs/Transcript_May_22_edited_version.pdf ''The Stealth Candidate''], Transcript, Cliff Kincaid and Herbert Romerstein, May 22 2008, p. 16.</ref><ref>House Committee on Un-American Activities, ''Subversive Involvement in Disruption of 1968 Democratic Party National Convention'', and ''Hearings Before the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations With Respect to Intelligence Activities of the United States'' Senate. Ninety-
Fourth Congress. First Session. Volume 6. Federal Bureau of Investigation. 1976, Exhibit 68-13., cited in ''Communism in Chicago and the Obama Connection'', Cliff Kincaid and Herbert Romerstein, usasurvival.org</ref> The ringleaders, principally [[Weather Underground]] terrorists, received urban guerrilla warfare training in Cuba from the [[DGI]] prior to the attacks.<ref>[http://www.usasurvival.org/docs/Cuban_DGI.pdf Final Talk to the Fourth Contingent, Julian Rizo DGI.]</ref> ]]
In 1995 a cadre of like minded individuals gathered in the home of [[Weather Underground]] (WUO) [[terrorist]]s [[Bernardine Dohrn]] and [[William Ayers|William "Bill" Ayers]]. According to Dr. [[Quentin Young]], "I can remember being one of a small group of people who came to Bill Ayers' house to learn that [[Alice Palmer]] was stepping down from the senate and running for Congress." Dohrn<ref>Georgie Anne Geyer and Keyes Beach "Cuba: School for U.S. Radicals", ''Chicago Daily News/Chicago Sun-Times'' five part series October 1970, excerpted in [http://foia.fbi.gov/filelink.html?file=/weather/weath1c.pdf FBI file Weather Underground Organization (Weatherman),] Part 1c pp. 5-7 pdf (113-115 in original). [http://therealbarackobama.wordpress.com/2009/06/07/clandestine-agents-of-the-cuban-government-ayers-dohrn-myers/]</ref> is a veteran of [[guerrilla warfare]] training in Cuba prior to the attacks on the 1968 Democratic National Convention. [[Carl Davidson]], webmaster of [[Progressives for Obama]], was told by [[Fidel Castro]] at the same time Castro believed the United States was ready for [[revolution]].

Dr. Young related Illinois State Senator Alice Palmer was choosing then Chicago city councilman Barack Obama as her successor.<ref>[http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8630.html Obama once visited '60s radicals.], Ben Smith, Politico, February 22, 2008.</ref> Palmer once served on the executive board of the [[U.S. Peace Council]], a [[KGB]] front organization<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=_PZy-U7G2EMC&pg=PA111&dq=U.S.+Peace+Council%2Bkgb&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q=%22U.S.%20Peace%20Council%22&f=false The Apocalyptic premise : Nuclear Arms Debated], By Ernest W. Lefever, E. Stephen Hunt, Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington, D.C., 1982, pp. 127-137.</ref> that actively opposed President [[Ronald Reagan]]'s defense program.
[[Image:Features ayers1.jpg|200px|thumb|right|'''Obama served on the Board of the Woods Fund of Chicago with [[Weather Underground]] [[terrorist|terrorist group]] co-founder Bill Ayers'''<ref>[http://foia.fbi.gov/weather/weath1a.pdf FBI file Weather Underground]</ref> '''at the time this photo appeared of Ayers stomping the American flag''' in ''Chicago Magazine'' in 2001. Ayers, Obama's boss at the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, contributes to Obama election campaigns and hosted an important fundraiser in Obama's early career to meet and greet Ayers contacts.]]

Ayers and Dohrn took credit, and have never denied, responsibility for a series of [[terrorist]] bombings which included the [[U.S. Capitol]], the [[Pentagon]] and the [[State Department]].

Ayers, Dohrn and Barack Obama's friendship and associations go back to the 1980s. The Ayers/Dohrn group lent notoriety among [[leftist]]s to launch Obama's career. Ayers, Dohrn and [[Jeff Jones]]<ref>[http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=106653 ''Obama's 'green jobs czar' worked with terror founder] Van Jones served on board of activist group where ex-Weatherman serves as top director'', By Aaron Klein, [[WorldNetDaily]], August 13, 2009.</ref> of the Apollo Alliance authored ''[[Bill_Ayers#Prairie_Fire_Organizing_Committee_and_Maoist_thought|Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-imperialism]],'' the title of which is taken from ''The Sayings of Mao Zedong,''<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/red-book/]</ref> "a single spark can set a prairie fire." The book declares "we are communist men and women."<ref>Harvey Klehr, ''Far Left of Center: The American Radical Left Today'' (Transaction Books, New Brunswick, 1988), 109.</ref> Obama Green Czar [[Van Jones]] is a founder of the Apollo Alliance. In response to the [[Gulf of Mexico]] oil spill disaster, Katrina Vanden Huevel of ''[[The Nation]]'' magazine suggested "we need a [[Manhattan Project]], an Apollo Alliance."<ref>[http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100007216&docId=l:1179238159&isRss=true ''This Week,''] [[ABC News]] Transcript, 2 May 2010. Retrieved from LexisNexis, 3 May 2010.</ref>

Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996 and served there for the next eight years.

President Obama is the first person having ties to a known former terrorist to gain control over America's nuclear weapons.<ref>http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/7127</ref><ref>http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/08/26/obama-associate-bill-ayers-unrepentant-for-acts-of-terror/</ref> Author and blogger Jack Cashill requisitioned a comparison of the writing style of [[Bill Ayers]]' 2001 memoir, ''Fugitive Days'', with Barack Obama's earlier 1995 book, ''Dreams From My Father'', and came to the conclusion that Obama's former boss, Bill Ayers, may have ghostwritten ''Dreams''.<ref>www.cashill.com, ''Who Wrote "Dreams From My Father"?'', by Jack Cashill, October 9, 2008, retrieved on 10/16/2008 [http://www.cashill.com/natl_general/who_wrote_dreams_from.htm] Cashill states that a computer comparison of Obama's so-called autobiography with that of the terrorist Bill Ayers, supports the theory that Ayers actually wrote parts of Obama's book; also he wrote "None of this, of course, proves Ayers' authorship conclusively, but the evidence makes him a much more likely candidate than Obama to have written the best parts of ''Dreams''". "In assessing the signature of sample passages from ''Dreams''," the experienced analyst found "a very strong match to all of the Ayers samples" that he processed. He did not address the possibility that Ayers had plagiarized from Obama's earlier book. A philosophy professor from England disagreed.[http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=77815]</ref> Ayers confesses to violent acts, planting bombs, says he has no regrets and feels he "should have done more."<ref>[http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/7127]</ref>

=== Candidate of the Marxist New Party ===
:''For the full article see '''[[New Party]]'''''
In 1995 Obama accepted the nomination, signed a contract,<ref>From the Chicago DSA website, "Candidates must be approved via a NP political committee. Once approved, candidates must sign a contract with the NP. The contract mandates that they must have a visible and active relationship with the NP. The political entourage included ...Barack Obama, chief of staff for State Sen. [[Alice Palmer]]. Obama is running for Palmer's vacant seat." Retrieved from [http://www.chicagodsa.org/ngarchive/ng42.html#anchor792932 Chicago New Party Update,]
by Bruce Bentley. Retrieved March 15,2010.</ref> and ran as a candidate of the openly [[Marxist]] New Party.<ref>[http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=7434 NEW PARTY (NP)], discoverthenetwork.org.</ref><ref>Rick Moran. [http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/06/obamas_alliance_with_marxists.html Obama's Alliance with Marxists], ''American Thinker'', June 03, 2008.</ref> The [[New Party]] was an electoral alliance that worked alongside [[ACORN]], formed by members of the Democratic Socialists for America (SPUSA and DSAUSA) and leaders of an offshoot of the [[Communist Party of the United States of America|Community Party USA]] (CPUSA).<ref>Aaron Klein. [http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=78945 Newspaper shows Obama belonged to socialist party], ''[[WorldNetDaily]]'', October 24, 2008.</ref> The New Party was funded by literally hundreds of leftist front-groups operating as special interest 527 organizations.<ref>JB Williams. [http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/13872 Obama’s Well Organized Community Is Falling Apart], ''Canada Free Press'', August 18, 2009.</ref>
[[File:O-2002-antiwar-rally-davidson.jpg|left|thumb|250px| Obama speaking at the October 2002 anti-war rally in Chicago organized by Carl Davidson. Davidson is a longtime [[Mao]]ist and champion of the ''Thought of Mao Tse Tung.''<ref>Davidson's anti-Trotskyite polemic, [http://www.wengewang.org/read.php?tid=10925 ''Left in Form, Right in Essence''] defends Maoist doctrine. Retrieved from 对当代托洛茨基主义的批判：英文论集百花齐放 - 中国文革研究网, March 15, 2010.</ref>]]

=== Opposition to the War on Terror ===

Obama established himself as a chief spokesperson in opposition to the [[War on Terror]] during an October 2002 rally at Federal Plaza in Chicago<ref>The rally was organized by Chicagoans Against War in Iraq (CAWI) later renamed Chicagoans Against War and Injustice. [http://www.noiraqwar-chicago.org/?page_id=2 About CAWI] by Carl Davidson, Nov 02 2006. Retrieved from Chicagoans Against War and Injustice, March 15, 2010.</ref> [[community organizing|organized]] by [[radical]] [[SDS]] veteran and later [[Progressives for Obama]] webmaster,<ref>[http://www.linkedin.com/in/carldavidson Carl Davidson,] LinkedIn.com, retrieved March 13, 2010.</ref> [[Carl Davidson]]. The speech was delivered before [[Operation Iraqi Freedom]] was authorized by the [[Democratic]] controlled [[U.S. Senate]]. Obama's speech was not recorded, nor an audiotape ever found, yet according to [[NPR]]'s Don Gonyea the [[Barack Hussein Obama 2008 Presidential campaign|2008 Obama Presidential campaign]] re-created portions of the speech for a television ad with Obama rereading the text and crowd noises added in a sound studio.<ref>http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88988093</ref>

== U.S. Senate (2004-2008) ==
Following a failed campaign for the House of Representatives, Obama ran for the open Senate seat from Illinois in 2004. Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He won a seat in the [[U.S. Senate]] after [[liberals]] obtained the release of confidential and personally embarrassing divorce records of his opponent, Jack Ryan, forcing him to resign from the race and be replaced by the out-of-state candidate [[Alan Keyes]].

===Radical endorsements, support and get out the vote efforts===

The ''[[People's Weekly World]]'' which describes itself as "the direct descendant of the ''[[Daily Worker]]'' " that enjoys "a special relationship with the [[Communist Party USA]], founded in 1919," and publishes its news and views,<ref>[http://www.pww.org/article/static/320 About the People's Weekly World] pww.org</ref> reported on Obama's 2004 Senate primary campaign: [[Image:Democrat Obama during the Pledge.jpg|325px|thumb|right|''Candidaate Obama stands with folded hands''during the Democratic primaries while [[Bill Richardson]] and [[Hillary Clinton]] honor the flag by placing their hands over their heart during the [[National Anthem]] in 2008. [http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Obama_doesnt_put_hand_over_heart_1022.html See Video] ]]
{{Cquote|Activists from Illinois were immersed in the campaign to elect Barak Obama to the U.S. Senate. Obama won a landslide victory in the March 16 Democratic primary.<ref>''A turning point election'', Joelle Fishman, People's Weekly World, 04/24/04.</ref>}} John Bachtell, Illinois Communist Party district organizer added,
{{Cquote|This was a historic victory. It was a victory for political independence and grassroots, coalition, and issue oriented politics over the machine and money.<ref>[http://www.pww.org/article/articleprint/5145/ The CPUSA fires up its members to ‘Dump Bush!’], By Tim Wheeler, Washington correspondent, People's Weekly World , 04/24/04.</ref>}} In June the ''People’s Weekly World'' carried a piece by Dee Myles, chair of the education commission of the Communist Party USA, eulogizing [[Frank Marshall Davis]]'s old colleague, [[Vernon Jarrett]]. Myles said,
{{Cquote|from his hospital bed, [Jarrett] wrote an article appealing to Black Chicago to turn out to vote for [[Barack Obama]] in the Illinois primaries. Obama astounded everyone with an incredible landslide victory as the [[Progressivism|progressive]], Black candidate for the [[Democratic Party]] nomination for the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois. From his sickbed, Vernon Jarrett issued a clarion call, and the people responded.<ref>[http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/5331/ Vernon Jarrett: a partisan journalistic giant], Dee Myles, [[People's Weekly World]] Newspaper, Jun 5, 2004.</ref>}}

===Senate career===
[[Image:obama.jpg|thumb|left|Senator Barack Obama]]

October 2008 crimes against Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson's family highlighted Obama's record against law and order, as he voted against making it a crime in Illinois "for convicts on probation or on bail to have contact with a street gang".<ref>[http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/obamas-crime-votes-are-fodder-for-rivals-2007-03-13.html]</ref><ref>The person of interest in the murders of Hudson's mother, brother, and 7-year-old nephew is the estranged husband of Hudson's sister and a convicted felon who had violated his parole conditions.[http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-julian-king-autopsy-1029,0,2752431.story]</ref> "'We've got 75,000 gang members - that's almost six gang members to one police officer,'" in Obama's hometown of Chicago.<ref>"More people have been murdered in Chicago this year than in New York - even though New York's population is three times greater. When Hudson's mother, brother and nephew were killed last month, they pushed the city's homicide total for the year to 436 and counting. New York has had 430 homicides." [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2008/11/01/2008-11-01_chicago_buried_in_murders.html]</ref>

A March 16th, 2005 AP article puts Senator Obama on record to ban oil drilling in the Alaska frontier known as ANWR <ref>http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0316-13.htm</ref>

In May 2007, Obama (and Sen. Hillary Clinton) voted against funding the Iraq War for the first time.<ref>[http://uspolitics.about.com/od/legislatio1/a/HR2206.htm HR 2206 - Emergency Appropriations], Kathy Gill, Your Guide to U.S. Politics: Current Events. May 26 2007.</ref><ref>[http://more.gov.mtopgroup.com/2007/05/votes-hr-2206-iraq-supplemental.html Votes - H.R. 2206: Iraq Supplemental], May 28, 2007. Retrieved from Deeper Inside the Mountain, June 4, 2007.</ref>

His 2007 voting record in the U.S. [[Senate]] makes him as its most [[liberal]] member. Among fellow Senate Democrats, he was further left than liberals like [[Ted Kennedy]], [[John Kerry]], [[Dianne Feinstein]], [[Charles Schumer]], [[Russ Feingold]], [[Carl Levin]], [[Joseph Biden]] and [[Harry Reid]].<ref>[http://nationaljournal.com/voteratings/sen/lib_cons.htm?o1=lib_composite&o2=desc]</ref> He has grown steadily more liberal since arriving at the Senate: the same analysis assessed him as 10th most liberal in 2006<ref>[http://www.nationaljournal.com/members/news/2007/voteratings/sen/lib_cons.htm?o1=lib_composite&o2=desc]</ref> and 16th most liberal in 2005.<ref>[http://www.nationaljournal.com/members/news/2007/voteratings/sen/lib_cons.htm?o1=lib_composite&o2=desc]</ref>

In late 2006, Obama's second book, ''The Audacity of Hope'', was published. Its title was supplied by the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., a minister who has stated that "racism is how this country was founded and how this country was run .... We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God."<ref>http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/03/14/obama_condemns_pastors_remarks.html</ref> The book contains more of Senator Obama's personal story including the roles of both family and politics. ''Audacity'' spent 30 weeks on the ''New York Times'' Nonfiction Best Sellers list.<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/27/books/bestseller/0527besthardnonfiction.html?_r=1&oref=slogin New York Times Best Sellers Non Fiction]</ref>

Senator Obama is the chairman of an important subcommittee that has oversight of our efforts in Afghanistan. He has not held a single hearing on Afghanistan even though American forces are risking their lives in a theater of war. Since joining Foreign Relations, Obama has missed three meetings on a "new strategy" in [[Afghanistan]], a country he only visited in 2008.<ref>[http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/obama-absent-at-afghanistan-hearings-2008-03-01.html</ref> Barack Obama clinched his party's nomination for President after 16 straight months of campaigning.

In June 2008, Obama voted with the Democratic party to kill the sunset provision of the [[Bush]] tax cuts. By letting these tax cuts expire, single mothers with two kids will pay an additional $1,800 annually. Married couples with incomes of $50,000 will pay an additional $2,180 annually. Elderly couples will pay an additional $2,000 annually and a family of four will pay 191% more per year in taxes. Barack Obama often claims to be for taxing the rich their fair share. By voting to eliminate the Bush tax cuts, Obama is taxing most middle class and blue collar families.

Obama and the Democratic-led Congress has voted for the upgraded GI Bill despite the opposition from the President, the Secretary of Defense, the Pentagon, the generals in combat zones and the GOP Presidential nominee. It was crafted to increase veteran benefits. Yet, the strain on our military is great.<ref>[http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/05/mccain_to_obama_dont_demagogue.php] http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/05/mccain_to_obama_dont_demagogue.php , McCain To Obama: Don't Demagogue The GI Bill, May 22, 2008</ref> The bill would cost $2.8 to $4 billion per month. Some argue that this bill depletes the US's volunteer military personnel by enticing them to leave service rather than be re-deployed.

As senator, Obama has requested nearly $936 million in earmarks which averages to $500,000. per day over four years, <ref>[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122108935141721343.html?mod=googlenews_wsj Obama Can't Win Against Palin] Wall Street Journal, September 11, 2008</ref> for which the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste has given him a rating of 10% in 2007 (18% lifetime).<ref>[http://councilfor.cagw.org/site/DocServer/2007_Senate_Ratings_Final.pdf?docID=3242 2007 Senate Scorecard]</ref> A score of 100% represents voting against all pork, and 0% represents voting ''for'' all pork. Democrats averaged 5% in 2007, whereas Republicans averaged 60%. <ref>[http://councilfor.cagw.org/site/News2?abbr=CCAGW_&page=NewsArticle&id=11590 CCAGW Releases ''2007 Congressional Ratings'']</ref>

According to a Fox News report on October 5th, Obama has taken more than $126,000. in campaign contribution from [[Fannie Mae]] in a little over three years. This ranks him second, only Chris Dodd has received more campaign contribution dollars from Fannie Mae.

===Use of filibuster and obstructionism ===

White House Communication Director Dan Pfeiffer described the frustration of an Administration having its legislative agenda delayed by [[filibuster]]s and obstructionism:

{{quotebox|If we're going to have a government that works for the American people, then we need to focus on the things that actually matter ...Every day we waste delaying votes on well-qualified public servants or obstructing progress on problems that need solving is a day we're not doing our jobs. [http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/02/03/needless-delays-and-filibusters-run-amok-a-case-study]}}
The ''[[Washington Post]]'' claims [[partisan]] obstructionism is "a legislative tactic [Obama] once practiced himself" :
:*In 2005, a year after his election to the Senate, Obama placed a hold on Susan Bodine to lead the Environmental Protection Agency office that oversees Superfund and emergency cleanup programs because the agency had missed a deadline on new regulations for lead paint exposure.
:*In September 2006, Obama and Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) blocked Robert L. Wilkie's nomination as a Defense Department assistant secretary over a long-delayed Pentagon report on Midwestern wind farms.
:*And Obama joined with other Democrats in October 2007 to block the nomination of Hans von Spakovsky to the Federal Election Commission. Von Spakovsky later withdrew; Wilkie and Bodine were eventually confirmed. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/03/AR2010020303801_pf.html]

=== Bills co-sponsored ===
Obama's principal legislation was S. 2433, which was an attempt to force the U.S. to increase its foreign aid by hundreds of billions of dollars under the guise of reducing global poverty, which was subsequently blocked by [[conservatives]].<ref>http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s110-2433</ref>

Obama did support and co-sponsor a bill championed by [[Tom Coburn]] and known as the Coburn-Obama Government Transparency Act of 2006, which was signed into law by President [[George W. Bush]] on Sept. 9, 2006. This law created a website that will list the federal government's grants and contracts.<ref> http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060926.html</ref>

Between Jan 13, 2007 and March 13, 2008, Sen. Obama has sponsored 120 mostly [[liberal]] resolutions and bills in the Senate.<ref>http://thomas.loc.gov/</ref> His supporters cite the following less liberal examples, but this list is not representative:

*S.117 : A bill to amend titles 10 and 38, United States Code, to improve benefits and services for members of the Armed Forces, veterans of the Global War on Terrorism, and other veterans, to require reports on the effects of the Global War on Terrorism, and for other purposes.

*S.133 : A bill to promote the national security and stability of the economy of the United States by reducing the dependence of the United States on oil through the use of alternative fuels and new technology, and for other purposes.

*S.453 : A bill to prohibit deceptive practices in Federal elections.

*S.713 : A bill to ensure dignity in care for members of the Armed Forces recovering from injuries.

*A bill to raise the [[minimum wage]]; Obama voted against the bill when it was later attached to an Iraq war supplemental bill to pay the troops.<ref>[http://uspolitics.about.com/od/legislatio1/a/HR2206.htm HR 2206 - Emergency Appropriations], Kathy Gill, Your Guide to U.S. Politics: Current Events. May 26 2007.</ref><ref>[http://more.gov.mtopgroup.com/2007/05/votes-hr-2206-iraq-supplemental.html Votes - H.R. 2206: Iraq Supplemental], May 28, 2007. Retrieved from Deeper Inside the Mountain, June 4, 2007.</ref>

=== Senate Foreign Relations Committee ===

Obama worked with Sen. Lugar writing legislation aimed at improving conventional and nuclear non-proliferation efforts. This legislation was signed by [[George W. Bush|President Bush]] in January 2008.

In June 2007 the Senate passed his resolution condemning violence by the [[Zimbabwe]] government. It also passed legislation co-sponsored by Obama that financed a Special Court for Sierra Leone to prosecute former [[Liberia | Liberian]] President [[Charles Taylor]]. <ref> http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/02/26/obamas_senate_foreign_relations_work/ </ref>

Barack Obama continued to collect money for a 2010 Senate re-election campaign as late as June 2008, and filed reports indicating money was still pouring into this fund. This is especially notable because it is an efficient way of sidetracking donations from his Presidential race. The website<obamasenate2010.gov> is now defunct.
[[File:OenEReuters.jpg|left|200px|thumb|In Egypt, June 2009.]]

=== Foreign policy experience ===

In his presidential campaign, Obama stated<ref>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/obama-says-no-to-foreign_b_95357.html</ref> that "foreign policy is the area where I am probably most confident" and then cited "having lived in Indonesia for four years, having family that is impoverished in small villages in Africa". He lived in Indonesia from age 6 to 10, and he later discovered that his father had some other children in Africa.

While campaigning, he has visited several foreign countries. In [[Russia]] and the former Soviet republics, he met with representatives of the International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute to discuss democracy in the former Soviet republics. He also met with Russian military officials and visited several nuclear and biological weapons destruction sites in Russia, [[Ukraine]], and [[Azerbaijan]] with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-IN). On the same tour, he visited London, UK, and met with [[Tony Blair]], sitting UK Prime Minister.

Obama visited South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Chad; he discussed his tour of Robben Island prison, met with U.S. troops, and visited refugee camps of the people fleeing Darfur. He also addressed Africa's growing [[AIDS]] epidemic.

During a ten-day-long tour of the Middle East, he talked with government leaders in Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, and Israel.
 
[[File:EndOfAnError.jpg|right|200px]]

== Presidential Election (2008) ==
:''See Main article'' : [[Barack Hussein Obama 2008 Presidential campaign]]
Obama and his running mate [[Senator Joseph Biden]] won the presidential election<ref>[http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/obama_wins_presidency/2008/11/04/147788.html?utm_medium=RSS]</ref> after 23 months of campaigning that spent over $700 million,<ref>http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/summary.php?cid=N00009638</ref> much of it raised from undisclosed or [[fraud]]ulent donors,<ref>"Obama’s finance team missed quite a few obviously troubling large donations, from such unsavory individuals as Mr. Jfggjjfgj, 'Mong Kong,' 'Test Person,' and 'Jockim Alberton,' who lives at a fictional address on a street that does not exist in Wilmington, Delaware. How many fictional characters might there be among the $220 million that Obama has collected in small, undisclosed contributions? Obama's small donors have all been recorded, and he could easily follow McCain’s lead by disclosing this major source of his campaign’s money."[http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTllNTk2MDNmNDk1YmQ0OWEzOTZmMTVmODUwZTQwY2E= "Fake Donors, Phony Pledge, ''National Review'' (Oct. 22, 2008)] Obama did not.</ref> [[bailout]] recipients<ref>http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cid=N00009638&cycle=2008</ref><ref>http://www.votesmart.org/finance.php?can_id=9490</ref><ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/10/14/business/14bailout.graphic2.html ''Beneficiary Banks'', New York Times. 2008-10-14.]</ref><ref>[http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20090219/FREE/902199983]''UBS fined $780 million in tax evasion scandal, Investment News, February 19, 2009.</ref> and big oil [[pollution|polluter]]s.<ref>http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0505/obama-biggest-recipient-bp-political-action-money-20-years Obama is biggest recipient of BP’s political action cash in the last 20 years,] John Byrne, 5 May 2010. Retrieved from rawstory.com 9 May 2010.</ref><ref>Jake Tapper, Political Punch, [[ABC News]], 5 May 2010. [http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/05/white-house-idea-that-bp-given-special-exemption-because-of-campaign-cash-to-obama-silly-and-ridiculous.html?cid=6a00d8341c4df253ef0134807669a3970c]</ref><ref>http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2010/04/on-thursday-oil-giant-bp.html</ref> Obama spent far more per vote than McCain did: Obama spent $7.39 per vote, while McCain spent only $5.78 per vote.<ref>http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/cancomsrs/?_08+00+PR</ref>

To announce his trip to [[Berlin]] in July 2008, Obama used posters which show a marked similarity to posters of [[Lenin]] and [[Che Guevara]].<ref>[http://andrightlyso.com/2008/07/24/obama-lenin-gaffe/ Obama's direct copy of a Lenin poster for his Berlin visit]</ref><ref>[http://michellemalkin.com/2008/05/31/the-la-times-looks-into-the-obama-che-iconcography-connection/ The LA Times looks into the Obama-Che iconography connection] by Michelle Malkin </ref>

Obama carried 52% of the popular vote and the states [[John Kerry]] won in 2004, in addition to Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Florida, and Indiana. Of the 127 million votes cast, Obama beat John McCain by 8 million total votes.<ref>http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/</ref> [http://images.newsmax.com/misc/2008_Election_Map.jpg See county breakdown map] <ref>[www.cnn.com/election]</ref>

The [[Association of American Physicians and Surgeons]] observed that Obama used techniques of [[mind control]] in his campaign, as in this speech: "a light will shine down from somewhere, it will light upon you, you will experience an epiphany, and you will say to yourself, 'I have to vote for Barack.'"<ref name="mind control">http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/0089 . The doctors observe that "Obama's logo is noteworthy. It is always there, a small one in the middle of the podium, providing a point of visual fixation ... [that] resembles a crystal ball, a favorite of hypnotists."</ref>

===Hamas endorsement===
Obama hired Robert Malley as a senior foreign policy adviser. Malley told the ''Times of London'' that he had been in regular contact with the [[terrorist]] organization [[Hamas]]. In April 2008 Hamas made its endorsement of Obama for President.<ref>[http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=61631 Hamas terrorists make 2008 U.S. presidential pick], WolrdNetDaily.com, April 14, 2008.</ref> Malley is the son of a key member of the Egyptian Communist Party.<ref>http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2310</ref>

== Presidency (2009-Present) ==
[[File:Obama-6th-grade-teleprompter.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Obama speaks to sixth grade students utilizing [[teleprompter]]s.]]
:''Main article:'' [[Obama Administration]]
Obama's budgets, stimulus, deficits, health care and regulatory "reform" have advanced his [[Socialism|progress liberal]] agenda of "'''spreading the wealth'''."<ref>"My attitude is that if the economy's good for folks from the bottom up, it's gonna be good for everybody. I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody." [http://www.nypost.com/seven/10152008/news/politics/obama_fires_a_robin_hood_warning_shot_133685.htm OBAMA FIRES A 'ROBIN HOOD' WARNING SHOT], N.Y. Post </ref>
<ref>John McCain quipped during the campaign, "He's running for Redistributor In Chief, I'm running for Commander In Chief."[http://news.chennaionline.com/newsitem.aspx?NEWSID=9fab8324-a1a1-4ad6-840f-76b04a405a65&CATEGORYNAME=INTER McCain Attacks Obama's Faith in Americans] Fox News, 10-31-2008. The slogan "from each according to their ability to each according to their need" is an idea originally proposed by [[Karl Marx]] and is the inspiration for the centrally [[planned economy]] Obama hopes to introduce to the US.</ref> Claimed by many to be a brilliant orator, Obama has been criticized by former Vice President [[Walter Mondale]] for depending on [[teleprompter]]s or "idiot boards,"<ref>http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1010/Mondale_to_Obama_Ditch_the_idiot_boards.html</ref> even when speaking in an elementary school.<ref>"President Barack Obama visited a sixth grade classroom in Falls Church, Virginia. What is particularly odd is Mr. Obama brought two teleprompters into the classroom along with the podium with the Presidential seal (video below)."[http://www.washingtontimes.com/weblogs/watercooler/2010/jan/24/compare-obamas-teleprompters-classroom-moment-2006/]</ref> Obama has pushed for establishing a Palestinian state over the objection of [[Israel]]'s Prime Minister,<ref>http://www.indianexpress.com/news/us-is-not-and-will-never-be-at-war-with-islam....-many-americans-have.../444572/</ref> inclusion of [[Turkey]] in the [[European Union]],<ref>http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6051268.ece</ref> against gay marriage and holding [[Guantanamo]] detainees indefinitely without trial.<ref>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/21/AR2009052104045.html Obama Endorses Indefinite Detention Without Trial for Some], Peter Finn, Washington Post, May 22, 2009. </ref>

===Class warfare and identity politics===
:''Main article:'' [[Class warfare]]
Several prominent [[Democratic]] pollsters and strategists have noted,
{{Cquote|Rather than being a unifier, Mr. Obama has divided America on the basis of race, class and partisanship.}} The commentators also note Obama's approach to governance has encouraged radical leftists to pursue a similar strategy on his behalf. Mary Frances Berry, former head of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, acknowledged that the [[Obama administration]] has taken to polarizing America around the issue of race as a means of diverting attention from other issues,
{{Cquote|Having one's opponent rebut charges of racism is far better than discussing [[Unemployment|joblessness]].<ref>http://www.politico.com/arena/perm/Mary_Frances_Berry_91E3D9D5-C40D-440C-9D48-1C50CBC60C87.html</ref>}} Patrick Caddell and Douglas Schoen who worked for President Carter and Clinton respectively further stated,
{{Cquote|Mr. Obama has also cynically [[class warfare|divided the country on class lines]]. He has taken to playing the populist card time and time again. He bashes Wall Street and insurance companies whenever convenient to advance his programs, yet he has been eager to accept campaign contributions and negotiate with these very same banks and [[corporation]]s behind closed doors in order to advance his political agenda... President Obama's divisive approach to governance has weakened us as a people and paralyzed our political culture.<ref>http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB10001424052748703700904575391553798363586.html</ref> }}
In just 18 months in office, Obama has been criticized for setting back race relations a generation.<ref>http://article.nationalreview.com/438474/the-new-racial-mess/victor-davis-hanson</ref><ref>http://townhall.com/columnists/RichGalen/2010/07/21/sorcerers_apprentice</ref><ref>http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66K6JN20100721</ref><ref>http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/22/opinion/la-ed-sherrod-20100723</ref> Gay rights activists similarly have expressed concern over Obama's handling of the [[Bill_Clinton#Don.27t_ask_don.27t_tell|Clinton-era "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy]] considered by many to be [[homophobic]]. James Pietrangelo II, a former Army infantryman and lawyer told ''[[TIME magazine|TIME]] magazine,
{{Cquote|[Obama's] a coward, a [[bigot]] and a pathological liar. This is a guy who spent more time picking out his dog, Bo, and playing with him on the White House lawn than he has working for equality for gay people. If there were millions of black people as second-class citizens, or millions of Jews or Irish, he would have acted immediately.<ref>http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1903545,00.html?imw=Y</ref>}}

===Tax increases on the poor and working class===
Although Obama campaigned on the promise to increase taxes on the rich, he extended tax cuts for the rich of President [[George W. Bush]] and, as ''[[CBS News]]'' reports, increased taxes on the working class, with the poor, the homeless, and the unemployed particularly the hardest hit.

=== Stimulus and health-care bill effects on high Unemployment ===
:''Main article:'' [[Barack Obama and United States Unemployment]]
[[File:Jobs_lost_since_2009_stimulus.png|right|400px|thumb|Job loss after President Obama's economic stimulus and healthcare bills passed. ''Source: U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.'']]
The United States unemployment rate was 9.7% in February of 2010.<ref>http://www.dsnews.com/articles/unemployment-rate-unchanged-at-97-2010-03-05</ref> In addition, on March 5, 2010, MarketWatch reported concerning U.S. unemployment, "The U6 alternative gauge of the unemployment rate, which includes discouraged workers and those forced to work part-time, rose to 16.8% from 16.5%."<ref>http://www.marketwatch.com/story/payrolls-fall-36000-jobless-rate-steady-at-97-2010-03-05?reflink=MW_news_stmp</ref>

A Kauffman Foundation study found that American entrepreneurs will limit hiring in 2010.<ref>http://www.gaebler.com/News/Small-Business-Finance/Entrepreneurs-will-limit-hiring-in-2010-19568840.htm</ref> According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, "Over a recent 15-year period, small businesses created some 65 percent of the net new jobs in the private sector."<ref>http://www.sba.gov/advo/press/10-03.html</ref> On February 12, 2010, an [[American]] small business owner published a piece in the ''American Thinker'' critical of President [[Obama]] entitled, ''Dear Mr. President: Why We Are Not Hiring '' that was reflective of anti-[[Obama administration]] policy sentiment among many United States small business owners. <ref>http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/02/dear_mr_president_why_we_are_n.html</ref> American businessman William H Watson also wrote a piece critical of President Obama policies entitled, ''Why is Small Business Not Hiring?''<ref>http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=2509637</ref> Given that small business owners are among the most respected individuals in the United States with a 94% approval rating among the U.S. public, small business owners speaking out against President Obama's policies likely contributes to his plunging approval ratings among the United States public.<ref>http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/general_business/september_2009/americans_now_view_congress_as_least_respected_job</ref> On March 6, 2010, a coalition of business people allied with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, announced they were going spend between 4-10 million dollars in ads criticizing ObamaCare. The ads will be focused on how ObamaCare will hurt companies by adding additional taxes and requirements plus it will not control medical costs.<ref>http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-10/obama-s-health-care-push-gets-challenge-from-business-coalition.html</ref>

Following the [[Recession of 2008]] Obama declared failure to pass his [[Economic stimulus]] for "shovel ready" public works projects would turn a "crisis into a catastrophe," and promised [[Unemployment]] would not rise above 7.8%.<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1910208,00.html Obama's Stimulus Plan: Failing by Its Own Measure,] Stephen Gandel, ''TIME'', July 14, 2009.</ref><ref>[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31165217/ Obama promises economic relief this summer], AP, 6/8/2009.</ref> During the [[Recovery Summer]] of 2010 another 400,000 jobs were lost.<ref>http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?request_action=wh&graph_name=CE_cesbref1</ref>Obama later was to admit "there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects," as Unemployment, government debt and spending spiraled out of control.<ref>http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20019468-503544.html</ref>

The ''Christian Science Monitor'' questions whether [[Obama]] is tough enough to help [[America]] break down foreign trade barriers which would create more American jobs.<ref>http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2010/0311/Jobs-jobs-jobs-For-Obama-they-lie-in-more-exports</ref>

=== Obama policies and return of stagflation concerns ===
In February of 2010, the ''[[Washington Times]]'' reported:
{{cquote|Prices rose 2.7 percent during 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' recent update of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). This is a worrisome fact because last year's unemployment rate averaged more than 9 percent. This trend may signal a return of "stagflation," a merger of stagnation and [[inflation]].

In the 1970s, stagflation shocked traditional [[Keynesian economics|Keynesian]] economists, whose models said the economy could not suffer from both high unemployment and rapid inflation at the same time. Unfortunately, the Keynesians were wrong, because an economy obviously can experience both evils simultaneously...

It seems every week the Obama administration announces some new tax or mandate that will further handicap businesses. Regardless of the official definitions of recession, the economy will remain sluggish for years to come. But if the [[Federal Reserve]] continues with its reckless policies, Americans will experience high inflation on top of high unemployment. As in the late 1970s, Americans will see that the pundits are wrong, because stagflation is very real.<ref>http://washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/19/setting-the-stage-for-stagflation/</ref>}}

=== Declining popularity ===
[[File:800px-Beer summit cheers.jpg|thumb|right|350px|center|President Obama toasts Henry Louis Gates Jr. The president told the nation at a prime time news conference Gates was a close personal friend. Gates is cited as the inspiration of the 1999 communist apologetic, ''Black Like Mao: Red China and Black Revolution.''<ref>[http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ccbh/souls/vol1no4/vol1num4art1.pdf ''Black Like Mao: Red China and Black Revolution''], Robin D.G. Kelley and Betsy Esche, ''Souls'' Volume 1, Number 4 Fall 1999, p. 39 in original (p. 34 pdf).</ref> ]]
:''Main article :'' [[Barack Obama approval ratings]]
President Obama’s approval rating for handling health care fell steadily after April 2009 and his overall approval ratings were lower than [[George W. Bush]] at the same point in the Bush presidency.<ref>[http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jOXgdP1BoxXRqTf4yf3BSFn2sa1Q Obama popularity lower than Bush's at six-month mark: poll]</ref> Despite poll after poll showing that Americans’ main priority was jobs, President Obama focused on passing a law to require all Americans to purchase health insurance.<ref>http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7043884.ece</ref> Shortly after the "Gates flap"<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/30/AR2009073004097.html</ref> polls revealed Obama's personal popularity declined significantly across the board, on every major subject among all demographic groups<ref>http://people-press.org/report/532/obamas-ratings-slide</ref> including independents and Democrats. A poll conducted by former [[Clinton]] advisers [[James Carville]] and Stan Greenberg in July 2010 found 55% of Americans viewed Barack Obama as "a socialist."<ref>http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/09/majority-likely-voters-agree-socialist-accurately-describes-obama/</ref>

=== Obama Administration Health Care Plan and Its Advocacy Methods ===
:''Main article'': [[Obamacare]]
Senior citizens are key Democratic party constituents that could kill [[Socialized medicine|Obama's socialistic health care plan]].<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsImVGsFlmA</ref> President Obama falsely claimed that the senior citizen group [[AARP]] endorsed his administration's health care plan when they never made such an endorsement.<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Zxf5ELaC4Q&feature=channel_page</ref> In addition, Barack Obama's "Disinformation Czar" (whose supposed job was to correct disinformation that others are spreading about the Obama administration's health care plan) was caught spreading misleading information.<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4HgDfNsH3M&feature=channel_page</ref> Skepticism is mounting concerning Obama's health care plan and Obama himself and the skepticism is growing for valid reasons.<ref>http://www.buffalonews.com/248/story/762324.html</ref> For example, the usually pro-Obama news organization the [[Associated Press]] recently published an article which was critical of Obama that was entitled ''FACT CHECK: Obama's health care claims adrift''?<ref>http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gayIiVSnEX8h2nbrvI2X4a9eo4qQD99K0NP00</ref>

The [[Association of American Physicians and Surgeons]] (AAPS) maintains there are no redeeming provisions of Obama's health care plan and offers a number of criticisms.<ref>http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/00377</ref> The AAPS maintains that Obama's plan will significantly increase the overall cost of health care to the United States public plus reduce the quality of care that the system provides.<ref>http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/00377</ref> Political analyst and commentator [[Dick Morris]] has asserted that Obama's health care plan will lead to the significant rationing of senior health care which will decrease the life span of senior citizens.<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsImVGsFlmA</ref>

==== Obama Administration Health Care Plan and Liberal Elitism ====

''See also:'' [[Barack Obama and liberal elitism]]

[[File:arrogant_obama.jpg|right|125px|thumbnail|Barack Obama ]]
In 2007, when Obama was running for the office of President of the United States, he promised Americans "health care that is as good as the health care that I have as a member of Congress."<ref>http://www.emaxhealth.com/10/18430.html</ref> However, recently when a newspaper reporter pressed Obama on whether he would commit to Americans having the same health care as congressmen, Obama repeatedly refused to commit to his previous promise of Americans having the same coverage as members of Congress.<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvzLDb2igKM</ref> President Obama merely claimed Americans would have health care coverage that would "largely match up" with what members of Congress have.<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvzLDb2igKM</ref> President Obama also stated he is constantly followed around by a personal physician.<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvzLDb2igKM</ref> The Obama administration's [[Liberal Elite|liberal elitism]] is not unusual when it comes to health care. For example, [[Belinda Stronach]], a former Member of the Canadian Parliament, chose to have a surgical treatment in the United States rather than be treated in Canada for her condition ([[Canada]] has a [[socialized medicine]] system of health care).<ref>http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/2007/09/14/canadian-official-refuses-canadian-health-care/</ref>

Obama's [[Socialized Medicine|health care plan]] forces individuals to purchase health care or pay fines and could force many into a poorly run single payer system.<ref>The socialization of health care will force taxpayers to pay for healthcare for those who refuse to or can not afford to purchase it themselves.</ref>

==== Obama's Medical Administrator ====
President Obama skipped the Senate confirmation process to make a controversial hire as his Medicare/Medicaid administrator: [[Donald Berwick]].<ref>[http://video.foxnews.com/v/4276563/ Obama Under Fire for Recess Appointment], FOXNews.com, July 09, 2010.</ref> Under a Recess Appointment, Donald Berwick has been tasked the position as the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as Obama's Medical administrator. Donald Berwick is a radical socialist with an [[Socialism|progressive liberal]] agenda that includes support for massive government rationing and support of using health care bureaucracy to redistribute wealth.<ref>Ben Domenech. [http://biggovernment.com/bdomenech/2010/05/13/how-donald-berwick-will-run-your-health-care/ How Donald Berwick Will Run Your Health Care], BigGovernment.com, May 13, 2010.</ref><ref>[[Glenn Beck]]. [http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/42727/ Glenn Beck: Obama forces through another socialist], ''The Glenn Beck Program'', July 08, 2010.</ref><ref>[[Rush Limbaugh]]. [http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_070710/content/01125106.guest.html What's So Shocking? The Regime Recess Appoints Another Marxist], RushLimbaugh.com, July 07, 2010.</ref> Donald Berwick strongly advocates redistributing America's wealth.<ref>[http://video.foxnews.com/v/4276343/ Who Is Donald Berwick?], FOXNews.com, July 08, 2010.</ref>

Donald Berwick has said this of America's need for [[ObamaCare|socialist health care]] policies:
{{Cquote|Sick people tend to be poorer and that poor people tend to be sicker and that any health care funding plan that is just, equitable, civilized, and humane must, must redistribute wealth from the richer among us to the poorer and the less fortunate. Excellent health care is by definition redistributional. Britain, you chose well.}}

==== Public relations and the enemies list ====
[[File:Maria-and-Che.jpg|thumb|right|275px|A community organizer poses in front of [[mass murder]]er [[Che Guevara]] poster during the 2008 campaign; [http://patterico.com/2009/08/14/roxana-mayer-invited-to-town-hall-by-obama-organizer-who-sported-che-guevara-poster-at-obama-campaign-office/] the same community organizer [http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/4r9wf] falsely represented herself as a physician during a Townhall meeting on [[healthcare reform]] in 2009.
[http://beltwayblips.dailyradar.com/story/roxana_mayer_im_not_a_doctor_but_i_play_one_at_town/] ]]
A webpage at whitehouse.gov entitled "Reality Check" claims that the president's program "would be fully paid for over 10 years, and it would not add one penny to the deficit."<ref>http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/faq</ref> The [[CBO]] is mandated to prepare cost estimates and to show how individual legislative proposals would change spending or revenue levels under current law.<ref>http://www.cbo.gov/aboutcbo/budgetprocess.shtml</ref> A July 15 2009 letter from the CBO made this assessment,
{{Cquote|enacting the proposal would result in a net increase in the federal budget deficits of about $1.0 trillion over the 2010-2019 period."<ref>http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/103xx/doc10310/06-15-HealthChoicesAct.pdf</ref><ref>http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=52306</ref>}}

In July 2009 suspicions arose over reports the Obama administration was creating a network<ref>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27655039/</ref> of domestic informants and began compiling an enemies list. In a letter to President Obama, U.S. Sen. [[John Cornyn]], R-Texas, expressed serious concern about the White House's new program requesting Americans to forward email chains and other communications opposing the President's [[socialized medicine|health care reform]] policies. Sen. Cornyn asked for assurances that the program was being carried out in a manner consistent with the [[First Amendment]] and America's tradition of [[free speech]] and public discourse.

Sen. Cornyn's letter also inquired about the collection of names, email addresses, IP addresses, and private speech of U.S. citizens that informants report, and raises the specter of a data collection program.
{{Cquote|I am not aware of any precedent for a President asking American citizens to report their fellow citizens to the White House for pure political speech that is deemed ‘fishy' or otherwise inimical to the White House's political interests. You should not be surprised that these actions taken by your White House staff raise the specter of a data collection program. As Congress debates health care reform and other critical policy matters, citizen engagement must not be chilled by fear of government monitoring the exercise of [[free speech]] rights.<ref>http://cornyn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ForPress.NewsReleases&ContentRecord_id=ebc2c77d-802a-23ad-4ae4-6ccf4c7a255c</ref>}}

Congressman Darrell Issa also expressed grave concern about the administration blurring the lines between political and official business by collecting data on administration critics.<ref>http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=8352544</ref>

===Regulatory failures and environmental disaster===
:''Main article:'' [[Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster]]
Five weeks into the "worst disaster in United States history," President Obama responded to critics of his administration's inability to stem the flow of oil from a sunken drilling rig into the [[Gulf of Mexico]]:{{Cquote|My job right now is just to make sure that everybody in the Gulf understands this is what I wake up to in the morning and this is what I go to bed at night thinking about: the spill.<ref>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704596504575272542364164212.html#printMode</ref>}}[[Democratic]] operative [[James Carville]] said of the inept and lackluster response,{{Cquote|[[Franklin Roosevelt]] would have jumped out of his wheelchair and run down here to be in the middle of this.<ref>[http://dev.www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Obama_s-dereliction-on-the-oil-spill-94934369.html Obama's dereliction on the oil spill,] Examiner Editorial, 27 May 2010. Retrieved from the washingtonexaminer.com 30 May 2010.</ref>}}
A Congressional investigating committee<ref>http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=11816570</ref> and a [[Department of Interior]] Inspector General's Report have cited the president's use of [[junk science]] to decieve the public about the true nature of the spill and resulting environmental damage.
<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/10/AR2010111002553.html</ref>

=== Obamunism ===
:''Main article'' : [[Obamunism]]
[[File:4135523219 e140763872 o.jpg|thumbnail|430px|A new study demonstrates Obama currently has dramatically fewer advisors who’ve made their living via the private sector than any other [[America]]n President in the last 108 years — since the turn of the 20th century when the business of America became business.<ref>http://www.redstate.com/erick/2009/12/01/obamas-achilles-heel/</ref><ref>http://blog.american.com/?p=7572</ref>]]
Critics of the Obama administration have coined the word "[[Obamunism]]" to describe Barack Obama's [[socialism|socialistic]] and "[[fascism]] light" [[economic planning]] policies ([[Benito Mussolini]] defined fascism as the wedding of state and corporate powers. Accordingly, trend forecaster [[Gerald Celente]] labels [[Obama administration corporate bailouts|Obama's corporate bailouts]] as being "fascism light" in nature).<ref>http://www.thebigmoney.com/articles/daily-intel/2009/07/20/obamunism-inc</ref><ref>http://www.smallbusinessadvocate.com/small-business-interviews/gerald-celente-6944</ref> Obamunism can also refer to Obama's [[Obama administration fiscal policy|ruinous fiscal policies]] and [[Obama administration monetary policy|reckless monetary policies]].<ref>http://seekingalpha.com/article/120883-monetary-policynot-obama-s-stimulusis-what-needs-watching</ref><ref>http://www.nypost.com/seven/05172009/postopinion/editorials/bams_wise_words_169731.htm</ref><ref>http://blog.heritage.org/2009/03/24/bush-deficit-vs-obama-deficit-in-pictures/</ref> In February of 2010, Jim Rogers, the world renowned investor, said concerning the [[Obama administration]]'s [[monetary policy]], that the [[European Union]], [[China|Chinese]], and [[Australia|Australian]] central bankers are more competent and honest than the [[Federal Reserve]].<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzTXaAXusiI</ref> Furthermore, Mr. Rogers asserted that Federal Reserve Chairman [[Ben Bernanke]], whom President Obama re-appointed to be the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, is "throwing gasoline on a fire" via his [[inflation|inflationary]] policies which are debasing the United States dollar.<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzTXaAXusiI</ref> Under President Obama the American government's share of the national gross domestic product has significantly increased.<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kABRyZdQXGw&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.breakingnews.com%2Fvideo%2Fdick-morris-obamas-waterloo&feature=player_embedded</ref>

[[Wall Street]] firms and banks that were bailed out were among Obama's biggest campaign supporters.<ref>http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid=N00009638</ref> Therefore, the Obama administration bailouts of corrupt, unproductive, and reckless Wall Street firms was hardly surprising, although it certainly was not helpful in making the United States economy more productive and prosperous. A 2005 study found that government corporate bailouts are often done for mere political considerations and the economic resources allocated exhibit significantly worse economic performance than resources allocated using purely business considerations.<ref>http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=676905</ref> Proponents of [[free market]] capitalism said Bernanke should not have bailed out failing firms and instead should have allowed free market capitalism to quickly recover as it did in the depression of 1920 without government intervention (free market capitalists assert that government intervention drags out economic recessions and depressions).<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzTXaAXusiI</ref><ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czcUmnsprQI</ref>

Top trend forecaster [[Gerald Celente]] predicts that the corrupt economic policies of the Obama administration will lead to a second [[Great Depression|great depression]] (Celente predicted the 1987 US stock market crash, the dot.com crash, the US 2008/2009 recession, and the collapse of the USSR in the early 1990s) and may lead to a "second [[American Revolution]]" (Celente predicted the [[Tea Party Movement|tax protests]] that are now occurring in America).<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MMX3SKzrfU&feature=channel_page</ref><ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy9bfw1ebgw&feature=response_watch</ref> Celente also asserts that the costly and inefficient temporary short term methods that the Obama administration is using to alleviate economic problems in the short term (which is causing massive increases in [[Obama administration deficit spending]]) is only making matters worse and will not prevent the worse economic depression in United States history from occurring.<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C8K7rWkGGw</ref><ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LBffdIW0XA&feature=response_watch</ref>

The Obama administration has been sharply criticized for [[Obama administration deficit spending|its massive deficit spending]] and [[Obama administration monetary policy|its reckless monetary policy]] via vast increases in the [[money supply]].<ref>http://seekingalpha.com/article/120883-monetary-policynot-obama-s-stimulusis-what-needs-watching</ref><ref>http://www.nypost.com/seven/05172009/postopinion/editorials/bams_wise_words_169731.htm</ref><ref>http://blog.heritage.org/2009/03/24/bush-deficit-vs-obama-deficit-in-pictures/</ref> Celente predicts that if a "second American Revolution" occurs in a peaceful and productive manner, it may include a [[Third Party System|third party movement]] of governance that will advocate a more [[free market]] [[capitalism]] approach to the American economy and a more strict interpretation of the [[United States Constitution|United States constitution]] as far as the authors' [[original intent]].<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MMX3SKzrfU&feature=channel_page</ref><ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy9bfw1ebgw&feature=response_watch</ref>

=== Obama administration and land ownership ===
In August of 2010, [[Hot Air]] declared:
{{cquote|The federal government, as the memo boasted, is the nation’s “largest land manager.” It already owns roughly [http://bigthink.com/ideas/21343 one of every three acres] in the United States. This is apparently not enough. At a “listening session” in New Hampshire last week, government bureaucrats trained their sights on millions of [http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9HGKEAG0.htm private forest land] throughout the [[New England]] region. Agriculture Secretary [[Tom Vilsack]] crusaded for “the need for additional attention to the Land and Water Conservation Fund — and the need to promptly support full funding of that fund.”

Property owners have every reason to be worried. The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) is a pet project of green radicals, who want the decades-old government slush fund for buying up private lands to be freed from congressional appropriations oversight. It’s paid for primarily with receipts from the government’s offshore oil and gas leases. Both Senate and House Democrats have included $900 million in full LWCF funding, not subject to congressional approval, in their energy/BP oil spill legislative packages.<ref>http://hotair.com/archives/2010/08/14/great-outdoors-initiative-a-federal-land-grab/</ref>}}

=== Barack Obama and American Conservatism backlash ===
In October of 2009, Niles Gardiner reported in the [[Britain|British]] newspaper ''The Daily Telegraph'':
{{cquote|This week’s striking [[Gallup]] poll on political ideology is further confirmation that the United States is in essence a [[conservative]] nation, which has ironically become even more conservative under Barack Obama. According to Gallup, 40 percent of Americans describe their political views as conservative, 36 percent as moderate and 20 percent as liberal. This is the first time conservatives have outnumbered moderates in America since 2004.<ref>http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100014891/barack-obama-has-failed-to-defeat-conservatism-in-america/</ref>}}

== Ideological views and affiliations ==
:''For the full article see [[Political positions of Barack Obama]]''
Although polls<ref>http://pewforum.org/A-Religious-Portrait-of-African-Americans.aspx#1</ref> reveal [[African-American]]s claim a Christian identity in larger numbers (78%) than the U.S. population as a whole, only one in three Americans believe Obama's contention that he is a Christian.<ref>Pew Research Center Poll, August 2010.</ref>
Obama's socio-political positions have been described as that of a [[Communism|“Marxist leftist".]]<ref>http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1753197/posts</ref> On numerous occasions Obama [[community organizer]]s have been found flaunting banners of the notorious [[Marxist]] [[guerrilla]] and [[murder]]er, [[Che Guevara]].<ref>[http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/2008/02/obama_workers_c.html Obama Workers' Che Guevara Poster Was No Fluke] from Moonbattery</ref> Former presidential candidate [[Alan Keyes]] calls Obama a "radical communist." <ref>[http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/keyes_obama_destroy_US/2009/02/23/184503.html Alan Keyes: Obama Will Destroy U.S.] NewsMax, February 23, 2009</ref>

===Obama and Islam===
[[Image:OBAMA MUSULMAN.jpg|right|thumb|'''Then-Senator Obama wearing traditional African garb''', a gift from his hosts while visiting Kenya<ref>[http://sweetness-light.com/archive/obama-wore-muslim-gear-during-kenya-trip]</ref>]]
More than a year and a half into Obama's presidency, a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center found a growing number of Americans believe the president is a [[Muslim]]. The poll found only about one-third of adults (34%) believe Obama is a [[Christian]], down sharply from 48% in 2009. Among Democrats, 46% said they think Obama is a Christian, down from 55% in March 2009.<ref>http://pewforum.org/Politics-and-Elections/Growing-Number-of-Americans-Say-Obama-is-a-Muslim.aspx</ref> The evidence that Obama is a Muslim may include:
*Obama declared in prepared remarks, "The United States has been enriched by '''Muslim Americans'''. Many other Americans have Muslims in their families or have lived in a Muslim-majority country - I know, because '''I am one of them'''."<ref>http://middleeast.about.com/b/2009/04/06/obama-in-turkey-at-the-gates-of-islam.htm</ref>
*Obama's wife Michelle does not accompany him to Muslim nations because [[Sharia law]] would apply to her there; on a presidential trip she was with him until France, but then returned home.
*Obama's background, education, and outlook are [[Muslim]], and fewer than 1% of Muslims convert to Christianity.<ref>http://www.religionnewsblog.com/17736/barack-obama-2</ref><ref>http://www.faithfreedom.org/oped/sina31103.htm. During the third and fourth grades, Obama learned about Islam for two hours each week in religion class, according to the LATimes. [http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.obama16mar16,0,1634059,print.story?coll=bal_news_nation_promo Campaign downplays his connection during boyhood in Indonesia, Baltimore Sun, March 16, 2007]</ref>
*Obama's middle name (Hussein) references '''Husayn''', who was the grandson of [[Muhammad]],<ref>A Brief History of The Fourteen Infallibles. Qum: Ansariyan Publications. 2004.</ref><ref>al-Qarashi, Baqir Shareef (2007). The life of Imam Husain. Qum: Ansariyan Publications.</ref> which most Christians would not retain.<ref>Only after Obama became politically ambitious did he declare himself to be a [[Christian]], yet he never replaced his [[Muslim]] name "Hussein" with a Christian one as most do when they undergo a religious conversion. For example, when the Italian journalist Magdi Allam recently converted to Christianity, he took a new name: "Cristiano".[http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=30814] When Saul became a Christian, he changed his name to "Paul"; when the famous boxer Cassius Clay converted to [[Islam]], he took the Muslim name of [[Muhammad Ali]]. "It is common for those converting to a new religion to change their name on conversion"[http://www.ukdp.co.uk/pages/religiousconversion.php] or adopt a Christian name at [[baptism]].[http://www.answers.com/topic/christian-name]</ref>
*Obama mentioned his religion as "[[my Muslim faith]]."<ref>Obama declared, "John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith."[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKGdkqfBICw]</ref>
*He has said that "Islam can be compatible with the modern world."<ref> [http://www.newsweek.com/id/145971 Barack Obama's Christian Journey | Newsweek Politics: Campaign 2008]</ref>
*Obama said the Muslim call to prayer is "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset," and recited "with a first-class [[Arabic]] accent" the opening lines: Allah is Supreme! ... I witness that there is no god but Allah ...."<ref>http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=78309</ref>
*Obama stated that the autobiography of Malcolm X, a Nation of Islam leader who became a Muslim, inspired him in his youth.<ref>For example, Obama writes in his own autobiography, "Only Malcolm X's autobiography seemed to offer something different. His repeated acts of self-creation spoke to me. The blunt poetry of his words, his unadorned insistence on respect, promised a new and uncompromising order, martial in its discipline, forged through sheer force of will. ... [E]ven as I imagine myself following Malcolm's call, one line in the book stayed with me. He spoke of a wish he'd once had, the wish that the white blood that ran through him, there by an act of violence, might somehow be expunged."[http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/04/does_obama_know_america.html]</ref>
*Obama raised nearly $1 million and campaigned for a [[Kenyan]] presidential candidate who had a written agreement with [[Muslim]] leaders promising to convert Kenya to an Islamic state that bans Christianity.<ref> [http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=78324] Text of the agreement, as three images: [http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=78323]</ref>
*Obama's claims of conversion to Christianity arose after he became politically ambitious, lacking a date of conversion or baptism.<ref>In his book, Obama oddly claims to have been baptized without giving his age or date, and later gave a date that postdates his political ambition (1992).</ref>
*In the book ''Obama,"Renegade"'' his friends say that "he actually really wasn't much of a churchgoer." <ref>[http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeff-poor/2009/06/16/wolffe-president-missed-rev-wright-s-racist-rants-because-he-wasn-t-much- Wolffe: President Missed Rev. Wright’s Racist Rants Because 'He Wasn’t Much of a Churchgoer'] NewsBusters.org, June 16, 2009</ref>
*On the campaign trail, Obama was reading "The Post-American World" by [[Fareed Zakaria]],<ref>http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=fa8cf1bf-2cc8-4d6e-b72d-a07d406e19ff</ref> which is written from a Muslim point-of-view.<ref>http://www.villagevoice.com/2005-08-09/news/the-interpreter/</ref>
*Contrary to [[Christianity]], the Islamic doctrine of [[taqiyya]] encourages adherents to deny they are Muslim if it advances the cause of Islam.
*Obama uses the Muslim Pakistani pronunciation for "Pakistan" rather than the common American one.<ref>Obama repeatedly pronounced "Pakistan" as "Pokiston" in the first presidential debate.</ref>
*Obama was thoroughly exposed to Christianity as an adult in Chicago prior to attending law school, yet no one at law school saw him display any interest in converting. Obama unabashedly explained how he became "churched" in a 2007 speech: "It's around that time [while working as an organizer for the Developing Communities Project (DCP) of the Calumet Community Religious Conference (CCRC) in Chicago] that some pastors I was working with came around and asked if I was a member of a church. 'If you're organizing churches,' they said, 'it might be helpful if you went to a church once in a while.' And I thought, 'I guess that makes sense.'"<ref>[http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=15363 Obama, ACORN, and the churches] SperoNews, October 7, 2008</ref>
[[File:Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi in Dimashq.jpg|left|175px|thumb|''"I really endorse and support the policies that he has adopted,"'' [[Libya]]n leader [[Muammar Gaddafi]] said of President Barack Obama as reported by the ''[[Washington Post]]''.<ref> [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/26/AR2010042604170.html ''Man's worst friend?''] By Dana Milbank, ''Washington Post'', April 27, 2010.</ref> ]]
*Obama is mentioned as helping to organize the 1995 million man march led by black [[Muslim]] leader [[Louis Farrakhan]] from the [[Nation of Islam]]. <ref>[http://www.nowpublic.com/world/obama-organized-farrakhan-s-million-man-march, Obama Organized Farrakhan’s ‘Million Man March’, NowPublic.com, April 2, 2008 </ref>
*Obama visited "more than one mosque" in Kenya while on a political trip there but did not visit any churches, although there are a large proportion of churches and even a National Temple in Kenya.<ref>http://islamizationwatch.blogspot.com/2010/01/kenyan-delegation-visits-sderot-israel.html</ref>
*Obama refuses to refer to the United States as "''our country''", "What I think we know separate and apart from this incident -- is that there is a long history '''in this country''' of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that's just a fact."[8]
*Obama has chosen the [[Secret Service]] code name "Renegade". "Renegade" conventionally describes someone who goes against normal conventions of behavior, but its first usage was to describe someone who has turned from their religion. It is a word derived from the [[Spanish]] ''renegado'', meaning "Christian turned Muslim."<ref>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/3452281/Renegade-and-Renaissance-Obama-to-replace-Trailblazer-and-Tempo-Bush-in-the-White-House.html</ref>
*Obama enjoyed a bigger increase in voter support in 2008 (compared to 2004) by Muslims than by any other voting group, including blacks;<ref>http://www.altmuslim.com/a/a/a/2873/</ref> "Muslim turnout in the U.S. elections reached 95 percent, the highest Muslim turnout in U.S. history."<ref>http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/islamsadvance/2008/11/is_obama_the_muslim_worlds_sup.html</ref>
*"President-elect [[Barack Obama]] has yet to attend [Sunday] church services since winning the [[White House]] earlier ..., a departure from the example of his two immediate predecessors."<ref>http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15902.html</ref><ref>http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-obama-religion26-2008dec26,0,1910913.story</ref>
*Obama used his Muslim middle name when sworn in as President.<ref>http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ET_Cetera/Obama_to_take_oath_using_middle_name_/articleshow/3813120.cms</ref><ref>http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/12/10/politics/main4660590.shtml?source=RSSattr=Politics_4660590</ref>
*Obama botched his public oath of office in which he placed his hand on a Bible, then chose not to use the Bible for his real, private oath.
*'''At the G20 summit in April 2009, Obama bowed deeply to Saudi King Abdullah, a Muslim who is also the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.'''<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEUif1--r38&feature=player_embedded Video of Obama bowing almost to King's waist]</ref> [[Image:Obamabow.jpg|thumb|right|250px|'''President Obama bowing to the King of Saudi Arabia''' - April 2009]]Never before in the history of the U.S. has a president displayed such shocking deference to a foreign official and Obama has not bowed to any other royal leaders. Obama later stated, "We have to change our behavior in showing the Muslim world greater respect."<ref>http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/07/barack-takes-a-bow/</ref> Obama's spin doctors and left-wing apologists dismissed the obviousness of the bow. One anonymous aide stated, "It wasn't a bow. He grasped his hand with two hands, and he's taller than King Abdullah."<ref>http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0409/White_House_No_bow_to_Saudi.html</ref> However, in video of the incident, Obama's left hand can clearly be seen staying at his side until after he had finished his bow.<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WlqW6UCeaY</ref> Additionally, Obama also met with Queen Elizabeth, who is much shorter than King Abdullah, but he did not bow when he shook her hand and neither he nor the queen appeared to have any difficulty.<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71N34K9EVLU</ref> (Many liberals and even a handful of conservatives have proposed that President Bush also bowed before King Abdullah.<ref>http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/33289_Bush_Bowed_Too</ref> However, there is a vast, inexorable difference between bending down to receive a medal as Bush did and bowing in deference to a foreign leader as Obama did.)
*Obama required that a religiously affiliated college take the extraordinary action of concealing with wood the monogram "IHS", which represents the name of Jesus, during a speech by Obama there<ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/04/16/georgetown-university-hid-religious-symbols-white-house-request/ Georgetown hides Jesus' name at request of Obama's White House]</ref>
*On more than one occasion, Obama verbally attacks the economic livelihood of Las Vegas for unknown reasons. The reason may be his contempt of gambling which is forbidden in the Koran. <ref>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2010/02/02/AR2010020203169.html Lawmakers upset over Obama's 2nd anti-Vegas remark, WashingtonPost, February 2, 2010]</ref>
*Americans of the Muslim faith give Barack Obama the highest job approval rating of any major religion. <ref>[http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/ct-talk-obama-muslims-0830-20100829,0,5457812.story Obama job approval highest among Muslim, Chicago Tribune, August 29, 2010]</ref>

Obama tries to downplay his [[Islamic]] background by claiming that his [[Kenya|Kenyan]] [[Muslim]] father was a "confirmed [[atheist]]" before Obama was born, but in fact less than 1% of Kenyans are atheists, agnostics, or non-religious.<ref>http://www.adherents.com/Na/Na_14.html</ref> There is apparently no evidence of any Christian activities or local church participation by Obama while he was in Massachusetts from 1988 to 1991, nor of Barack Obama's joining of a Mosque (The Islamic house of worship) at any time in his life. Finally, Obama abruptly left his radical Christian church in Chicago in 2008, when it became politically controversial, without first finding another church to join. On April 7, 2009, Obama visited a mosque in Istanbul, Turkey.<ref>http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.c2e3700ab4e271bc32827b0fccfe560b.421&show_article=1</ref>

=== Barack Obama and Liberal Elitism ===

''See also:'' [[Barack Obama and liberal elitism]]

Obama has consistently shown himself to be a [[Liberal Elite|liberal elitist]] who looks down on "ordinary" Americans. Asked while campaigning for the [[Pennsylvania]] primary to explain why small-town [[Democrats]] did not support him, Obama fumed "it's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." When Obama made this remark he was alluding to small-town people who had experienced long periods of joblessness. In response to predictable outrage when his remarks were unexpectedly publicized, Obama did not recant his statement but instead replied, I "didn't say it as well as I should have."<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7344532.stm</ref> Although many rural counties went for McCain, Obama carried the state with 54.6% of the vote, compared to 44.3% for John McCain.<ref>[http://www.electionreturns.state.pa.us/ElectionsInformation.aspx?FunctionID=13&ElectionID=28&OfficeID=1]</ref>

In an attempt to counter the view held by many of Obama's elitist and [[bourgeois]] lifestyle, he began running campaign ads claiming that he "worked his way through college and Harvard Law." This claim is at best an exaggeration, as Obama only held summer jobs while in college and law school<ref>http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/obamas_work_claim.html</ref>, and he would have likely benefited from special scholarships not available to most students.

====Obama's Charitable Giving====

''For more information please see'': [[Barack Obama and uncharitableness]]

[[File:Poor-woman.jpg|right|thumb|300px|In the years 2000 through 2004, before becoming a United States Senator and being in the public spotlight, Obama gave less than 2% of his earnings to charity even though he made about $250,000 per year (In the years 2000 to 2002, Barack Obama gave less than 1% of his income to charity).<ref>http://patterico.com/2008/10/31/obama-and-bidens-charitable-giving-they-dont-want-to-spread-their-own-wealth-around/</ref><ref>http://atangledweb.squarespace.com/httpatangledwebsquarespace/obamas-charitable-contributions.html</ref> For more information please see: [[Barack Obama and uncharitableness]] ]]
In the years 2000 through 2004, before becoming a United States Senator and being in the public spotlight, Obama gave less than 2% of his earnings to charity even though he made $250,000 per year. Since becoming a national figure, that amount has jumped to about 6%.<ref>http://patterico.com/2008/10/31/obama-and-bidens-charitable-giving-they-dont-want-to-spread-their-own-wealth-around/</ref>

Below is Obama's charitable giving expressed as percentage of his income for the years of 2000 to 2006 when he was earning about $250,000 per year:

*2000: 0.9%
*2001: 0.5%
*2002: 0.4%
*2003: 1.4%
*2004: 1.2%
*2005: 4.7%
*2006: 6.1%<ref>http://atangledweb.squarespace.com/httpatangledwebsquarespace/obamas-charitable-contributions.html</ref>

Obama's charitable giving pattern is not surprising given what we know about United States [[liberal]] politicians and charitable giving and also the charitable giving in the general population of liberals in the United States.<ref>http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1c5_1238044128&c=1</ref><ref>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/03/conservatives_more_liberal_giv.html</ref>

====Liberal politicians and uncharitableness ====
''For more information please see: [[Liberal politicians and uncharitableness]]''.

The political magazine the ''[[American Spectator]]'' declared:
{{cquote|The last two Democratic Party nominees for President have come up short on the charity scale. [[Al Gore]] has been famously stingy when it comes to actually giving his own money to charities. In 1998 he was embarrassed when his tax returns revealed that he gave just $353 to charity...

Senator [[John Kerry]] likewise has a poor record. In 1995 he gave zero to charity, but did spend $500,000 to buy a half stake in a seventeenth century painting. In 1993, he gave $175 to the needy. Later, of course, Kerry married the rich widow Theresa Heinz, and today is active in charitable causes using the Heinz foundation as his vehicle...

[Senator Ted] [[Ted Kennedy|Kennedy]]’s tax returns are obviously a closely guarded secret. But when he chose to run for President in the 1970s, he released some of them. With a net worth of more than $8 million in the early 1970s and an income of $461,444 from a series of family trusts, Senator Robin Hood gave barely 1 percent of his income to charity. The sum is about as much as Kennedy claimed as a write-off on his fifty-foot sailing sloop Curragh.<ref>http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1c5_1238044128&c=1</ref>}}

====Liberals and uncharitableness ====
''For more information please see: [[Liberals and uncharitableness]]''.

In March of 2008, [[George Will]] cited a study by Arthur C. Brooks, a professor at [[Syracuse University]], which indicated that American liberal households earn more than conservative American households but give less to charity.<ref>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/03/conservatives_more_liberal_giv.html</ref> In addition American conservatives donate more time and given more blood than American liberals.<ref>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/03/conservatives_more_liberal_giv.html</ref>

==== Barack Obama's Brother George Obama and Poverty ====
In August of 2008 the NY Daily News reported the following concerning Obama and his half-brother [[George Obama]]:
[[File:Barack Obamas Brother in Bengo-002.jpg|right|thumb|200px|[[George Obama]]]]
{{cquote|Barack Obama wants to live in the White House - but his youngest half-brother lives in the poorhouse.

George Obama, one of the candidate's seven living half-siblings, lives on pennies a month in a hut in Africa, the Italian edition of Vanity Fair revealed.

"No one knows who I am," George Obama, 26, told the magazine. "I live like a recluse, no one knows I exist."

He lives on the outskirts of Nairobi in a 65-square-foot shack decorated with posters of the Italian soccer clubs AC Milan and Inter, and a calendar of beaches.

"I live here on less than a dollar a month," he said....<ref>http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/08/20/2008-08-20_barack_obamas_povertystricken_halfbrothe.html</ref>

A spokesman for Barack Obama declined repeated requests for comment yesterday.

George Obama said he met his famous brother as a 5-year-old, and again in 2006 when Obama toured East Africa and visited Nairobi.

"It was very brief - we spoke for just a few minutes," he said.<ref>http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/08/20/2008-08-20_barack_obamas_povertystricken_halfbrothe.html</ref>}}
[[File:KenyaSlumR 468x301.jpg|right|200px|thumbnail|[[George Obama]]'s neighborhood]]
In September of 2008, [[National Review]] featured an article by [[Dinesh D'Souza]] which declared:
{{cquote|George Obama’s shack measures six feet by ten feet, and yet he says that Barack Obama has done nothing to reach out to him or to help him. “I live like a recluse. If anyone says something about my surname, I say we are not related. I am ashamed.”<ref>http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTk1OTc2ZGVlNjg2NmU1YTlkMGJjZjk5OGEzMzIxYjA=</ref>}}

A critic of Barack Obama's uncharitableness towards his brother wrote:
{{cquote|Well, they say charity begins at home, but it hasn't apparently in this case. Hearing about what George is going through, you can't help but wonder why his brother Barack won't send the guy $20? I mean it would double his annual income.<ref>http://www.zimbio.com/George+Hussein+Onyango+Obama/articles/3/George+Obama+Barack+Obama+Brother+Fights+Life</ref>}}

Asked by Harry Smith from CBS about Obama leaving the campaign to visit his ailing grandmother, Obama replied, "Yeah, well, the -- I think most people understand that if you're not caring for your family, then you're probably not the kind of person who's going to be caring for other people." <ref>[http://newsbusters.org/blogs/kyle-drennen/2008/10/23/cbs-s-smith-compares-obama-lincoln-obama-attacks-hannity CBS’s Smith Compares Obama to Lincoln; Obama Attacks Hannity] NewsBusters.org, October 23, 2008</ref>

==== Barack Obama's Treatment of George Obama and Barack Obama's Inaugural Speech ====

Barack Obama's treatment of George Obama is particularly ironic and hypocritical given Barack Obama's inaugural speech.

Barack Obama declared in his inaugural speech:
{{cquote|To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it."<ref>http://uk.oneworld.net/guides/guidesweek/obama-inauguration-speech-world-poverty</ref>}}
[[Image:CharlesDarwin.jpg|thumb|125px|right|[[Charles Darwin]] ]]

==== Barack Obama's Uncharitableness/Liberal Elitism and Social Darwinism ====
''See also'': [[Social effects of the theory of evolution]]

[[Barack Obama and uncharitableness|Barack Obama's recent pattern of charitable giving]] and [[Barack Obama and liberal elitism|Barack Obama's liberal elitism]] is consistent with Obama being a [[Narcissism|narcissist]] which is a charge that has often been made against Barack Obama.<ref>http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/09/obama_oprah_and_the_guru_malig_1.html</ref> However, it is also true that Barack Obama is an [[evolution|evolutionist]]. Barack Obama told the ''York Daily Record'' that "I believe in [[evolution]]...".<ref>http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1999910/posts</ref> Barack Obama's recent pattern of charitable giving and liberal elitism is also in accordance with someone who has a certain degree of [[Social Darwinism|social darwinistic]] thinking. In addition to [[Liberals and uncharitableness|American liberals giving less to charity]], it is also true that [[Theory of evolution and liberalism|American liberals are also more likely to believe in evolution]].

==== American Exceptionalism and Obama's Liberal Elitism ====
The [[tradition|traditions]] of America are less meaningful to those who do not experience [[American exceptionalism]], especially when growing up, as children, as a positive environmental influence on those who surround themselves with these patriotic values. These are values which inspire a love for country, and develops a patriotism which become instilled in Americans as they grow to become young adults. America's traditions and values are taught to young Americans through family experiences and in education as they grow from children to adults. A good example of past time patriotism in public education was seen in the once great tradition of children learning the [[pledge of allegiance]] and love of country in a classroom environment. As progressive liberals gained more power, the pledge of allegiance and the [[American Flag]] was removed from the classroom and replaced with democratic thought.

Still today, as children grow to become adults, experiences of their environment become less influential on their daily lives and on the development of human character as they grow older. Those who miss out on the opportunity to grow up in America ultimately lack the American values that created the greatest nation on earth. This lack of patriotism due to these variables are most visibly seen through the character of Barack Hussein Obama.

Barack Obama never experienced the greatness of America's traditions when growing up as a child. Starting at the young age of 6, Obama attended a Catholic school in [[Indonesia]]. At age 8, he attended a public school in Indonesia, nominally a [[Muslim]] school. At age 10, Obama left his mother and Muslim stepfather behind in Indonesia, moving to [[Honolulu]] to live with his Mom's parents. During the first and most crucial years for a child when growing up, which are the years of a child's life when environmental influences are most profound, Obama didn't learn what it meant to be an American with values that coincide with American exceptionalism; Obama became inspired by Muslim values, and his character developed along with the cultural experiences he learned to love in Indonesia.

The [[Boy Scouts of America]] is an example of a great tradition in America for over 100 years. The scout Oath, for instance, reads: "'''On my honor, I will do my best: To do my duty to God and my country, and to obey the [[Boy_Scouts_of_America#The_Scout_Oath_.26_Law|Scout Law]], To help other people at all times. To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.'''" Although the Scout Oath is a symbol of patriotic spirit in America, for a [[Progressivism|progressive]] person who may have grown up with Muslim values in Indonesia, the scout Oath sounds like nothing more than imperialist oppression with a lack of social justice. Intrinsic values of the Boy Scouts of America and the general character of American citizens who love their country does not coincide with values of those who are outsiders to America and have learned from experiences that do not match American exceptionalism. Barack Hussein Obama's distaste for the Boy Scouts can be seen in his lack of interest to take part in one of the greatest traditions of scouting: the Boy Scouts' National Jamboree, which in 2010 marked the group's 100th anniversary.

The Jamboree kicked off celebration at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia, where organizers had invited the president to speak to the 45,000 scouts in attendance. All three of Obama's predecessors have made it to one Jamboree while in office, which is an opportunity that only arises once every four years.<ref>http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/27/obama-missing-historic-boy-scout-jamboree-fundraisers-view-taping/</ref><ref>http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_072810/content/01125108.guest.html</ref> Instead of attending the event to honor the Boy Scouts of America, Barack Obama snubbed the scouts and opted to go to New York for a taping of the [[ABC News|ABC show]], as well as Democratic fundraisers and a stop in New Jersey. The White House said that the fundraisers, not the TV appearance, prevented the president from attending. After all, honoring America's traditions and past-time are a waste if Obama does not get paid to do so, and the values of the Boy Scouts do not match Obama's Muslin faith and socialist political philosophy.

=== Radical leftism and ACORN ===
:''Main article : [[ACORN]]''
[[File:1223acorn.jpg|thumb|241px|right|'''Obama was lead attorney for ACORN Housing prior to the subprime mortgage crisis''' and has extensive experience with the groups "community organizing" tactics.<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMQ20wNhB_M</ref> ACORN has been accused of voter fraud, facilitating tax fraud, human trafficking, and child prostitution.]]
Madeleine Talbot, a leader of the Chicago Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), was arrested along with ACORN members while pursuing direct action against the Chicago City Council. Talbot hired Obama to train her staff in organizing techniques. From 1992 to 2004, Obama ran leadership training sessions.<ref>[http://www.socialpolicy.org/index.php?id=838 Case Study: Chicago-The Barack Obama Campaign], By Toni Foulkes, ''Social Policy'', Winter 2003, Vol. 34, No. 2 Spring 2004, Vol. 34, No. 3.</ref> According to the ''Chicago Daily Herald'', Acorn demonstrators pushed over the metal detector and table used to screen visitors, backed police against the doors to the council chamber, and blocked late-arriving aldermen and city staff from entering the session.<ref>http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=NDZiMjkwMDczZWI5ODdjOWYxZTIzZGIyNzEyMjE0ODI=</ref>

In 1994 Obama represented ACORN in the ''Buycks-Roberson v. Citibank Fed. Sav. Bank'' suit against redlining. ACORN was the driving force<ref>http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/09/barack_obama_and_the_strategy.html</ref> behind a 1995 regulatory revision pushed through by the [[Clinton Administration]] that greatly expanded the [[Community Redevelopment Act]] (CRA). Obama represented ACORN before Clinton administration regulators in this effort. With the new regulations, ACORN used its subsidiary, ACORN Housing, and the threat of lawsuits under fair housing laws, to induce lenders to expand subprime lending, or so-called "toxic assets." A 2007 report by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis notes 50% of all subprime mortgages were in predominantly minority census tracks.<ref>http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/review/06/01/ChomPennCross.pdf</ref>
<ref>http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/feds/2008/200829/200829pap.pdf</ref><ref>http://www.frbsf.org/publications/community/cra/cra_lending_during_subprime_meltdown.pdf</ref>

In the weeks leading up to the [[2008 Presidential election]], [[MSNBC]] reported the [[FBI]] was looking into ACORN voter fraud in several states.<ref>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27220798/</ref> Obama's staff worked to delay investigations into Obama's former employer. In this way, hundreds of thousands, if not many more, votes may have been overcounted. [http://www.onenewsnow.com/Election2008/Default.aspx?id=297446]

=== The influence of Maoist thought ===
:''For more information, see [[Maoism]]''
A deep strain of Maoist thought has pervaded Barack Obama's influences throughout his life and has persisted in appointments he has made while serving as President.

SDS veteran and [[Progressives for Obama]] webmaster<ref>[http://www.linkedin.com/in/carldavidson Carl Davidson,] LinkedIn.com, retrieved March 13, 2010.</ref> [[Carl Davidson]] first met Barack Obama through the Chicago [[New Party]], whose endorsement and campaign workers Obama sought and accepted in his run for the Illinois state senate in 1996. Davidson organized the October 2002 rally at Federal Plaza in Chicago<ref>The rally was organized by Chicagoans Against War in Iraq (CAWI) later renamed Chicagoans Against War and Injustice. [http://www.noiraqwar-chicago.org/?page_id=2 About CAWI] by Carl Davidson, Nov 02 2006. Retrieved from Chicagoans Against War and Injustice, March 15, 2010.</ref> where Obama was established as a chief spokesperson for anti-US [[foreign policy]]. Davidson was a leading member of the October League (OL) and the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist), or CP(M-L)<ref>[http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/pen-l/2005w11/msg00045.htm Reply to Carl Davidson], 15 Mar 2005. Progressive Economists Network List (PEN-L) Internet discussion. The poster states, "Any investigation of the 1970s will reveal that the "New Communist Movement" evolved more than less outside the Soviet ideological polarity, with many clinging to their particular conception of ''Mao Ze Tung Thought.'' During the 1973-1975 period Mr. Davidson did conduct polemics against [[Trotsky]]ism in the pages of the [[Guardian (NY)|Guardian]] and this is perhaps the reason for the current continuing dispute. At that time I was a member of the Communist League in Detroit and Mr. Davidson was a leading member of the October League which sided with the China polarity in the "Sino-Soviet" split rather than taking marching orders from the [[Kremlin]]."</ref> hailed by [[Chinese Communist Party]] chairman [[Hua Guofeng]] at banquet for CP(M-L) leaders in [[Beijing]] in 1977 as the semi-official Maoist party in the United States. Hua Guofeng declared the founding of the CP(ML) a “new victory of the [[Marxist-Leninist]] Movement in the U.S.”<ref>[http://www.revolutionintheair.com/chron/chron4.html Chronology of Political Events, Part Four 1975-1980.] Max Elbaum. Retrieved from Revolution In The Air: Sixties Radicals Turn to Lenin, Mao and Che, March 16, 2010. Exerpted: '''1977-''' June 4-5: October League holds founding convention of Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) - CP(ML); [[Mike Klonsky]] is chair... August 12-18: Eleventh Congress of the [[Chinese Communist Party]]. Mao and the [[Cultural Revolution]] are given positive assessments but the Congress officially declares the Cultural Revolution ended. That same month, CPC chair [[Hua Guofeng]] and U.S. CP(M-L) chair Mike Klonsky exchange toasts at banquet for CP(M-L) leaders in [[Beijing]]; this is effective recognition of the CP(M-L) as the semi-official pro-China party in the U.S. The June founding of the CP(ML) had been hailed by a top CPC leader as a “new victory of the [[Marxist-Leninist]] Movement in the U.S.”... '''1979-''' Beginning of crisis and collapse of CP(ML)... In early 1979 there was also a trip to [[China]] by representatives of CP(ML), LRS, RWH, PUL, BACU and other “pro-China” collectives as part of the efforts to build unity among all those who supported the [[CCP|CPC]] and the Three Worlds Theory, but the Chinese do not press the groups to unite although they effectively withdraw the idea (as does CP(ML) itself) that the CP(ML) is “the” party in the U.S... '''[[U.S. Peace Council]]''', with CP activists in pivotal positions, is founded... </ref> Davidson is a longtime supporter of the [[VVAW]]<ref>[http://www.vvaw.org/veteran/article/?id=412 VVAW Letter of Support,] ''The Veteran'', Spring 2004 (Volume 34, Number 1).</ref> whose chief spokesman [[John Kerry]] charged American servicemen with [[war crimes]]. The VVAW worked in collusion with [[North Vietnam]] and the [[Vietcong]] to organize a domestic insugency<ref>[http://www.wintersoldier.com/staticpages/index.php?page=vcdirective Directive on the American Antiwar Movement] captured by US military forces in South Vietnam on May 12, 1972, is a communist Directive designed to motivate discussions within Vietnam about promoting the ongoing antiwar activities in the United States. The fifth paragraph of this document makes clear that the Vietnamese communists were utilizing for their [[propaganda]] purposes the activities of the [[Vietnam Veterans Against the War]]. The protest described as occurring from April 19 through April 22, 1971 coincides directly with the dates of Dewey Canyon III, the Washington, DC, protest led by John Kerry, during which John Kerry's testimony before Senator Fulbright's Foreign Relations Committee was a televised centerpiece. The description of the protest activities in the Directive even include the "return their medals" ceremony in which John Kerry and other VVAW members threw their medals and/or ribbons toward the steps of the US Capitol, with several shouting threats of violence against their government as they did so.Retrieved from www.wintersoldier.com, March 16, 2010.</ref> and the defeat of the United States in [[Vietnam]].<ref>[http://www.wintersoldier.com/staticpages/index.php?page=puppets ''John Kerry and the VVAW: Hanoi's American Puppets?] Newly discovered documents link Vietnam Veterans Against the War to Vietnamese communists,'' Jerome R. Corsi and Scott Swett. Retrieved from www.wintersoldier.com, March 16, 2010.</ref> In 2004 Davidson said, "the U.S government, at least over the past 50 years, has been the chief terrorist and sponsor of terrorism in the world."<ref>[http://www.zcommunications.org/the-2004-elections-by-carl-davidson ''The 2004 Elections'',] Carl Davidson, May 20, 2004. Retrieved from zcommunications.org, March 18, 2010.</ref>
[[File:Shepard-Fairey-imgs.JPG|right|thumb|250px|Shepard Fairey, designer of the official Obama hope and change logo, is more known for his anti-American and pro-communist themes. Here a Maoist revolutionary is depicted. [http://images.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-ContextMenu&rlz=1I7ACAW_en___US352&tbs=isch:1&q=Shepard+Fairey&sa=N&start=40&ndsp=20] ]]
[[ACORN]] founder Wade Rathke was an alumni of the Maoist dominated [[Students for a Democratic Society]] (SDS).<ref>[http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/11/a_tale_of_two_community_organi.html ''A Tale of Two Community Organizers,''] Elinor Lynn Warner, American Thinker, November 19, 2009.</ref> Obama told ACORN "during the transition, we're going to be calling all of you in to help us shape the agenda. We're going to be having meetings all across the country with community organizations so that you have input into the agenda for the next presidency of the United States of America."<ref>[http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=110131 ''Unearthed! Obama's twisted ACORN roots'',] Chelsea Schilling, ''WorldNetDaily'', Track timeline of president's ties to group immersed in scandals, September 18, 2009.</ref>

Obama appointee [[Van Jones]] was a founder<ref>[http://machete408.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/revolutionaries-in-high-places-van-jones/ Revolutionaries in High Places- Van Jones], by adamfreedom March 23, 2009.</ref> of the "often vulgar Maoist"<ref>
[http://newzeal.blogspot.com/2009/04/obama-file-72-obama-appoints-former.html Obama File 72 Obama Appoints "Former" Communist To White House "Green Job"], Trevor Louden, April 06, 2009.</ref><ref>[http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:9UyDTPx6dGEJ:machete408.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/revolutionaries-in-high-places-van-jones/+van+jones+demos&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=nz Machete 48]</ref> organization STORM. STORM's own literature describes the organization as laying a foundation to build "Third World communism." The group studied [[Lenin]]'s theories of the state, revolution, the party, and "the political ideas of Mao Tse-tung."<ref>[http://www.capitalresearch.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/stormsummation.pdf ''Reclaiming Revolution]: history, summation & lessons from the work of Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM)'', Spring 2004, p.15 pdf.</ref> According to the document, the "growing Maoist orientation" within the group was a factor contributing to internal strife and the group's eventual dissolution.<ref>Ibid, p. 23 pdf.</ref> The document states that in addition to "the basics of Marxism, including [[dialectical materialism]]," it conducted "a group reading of Mao's ''On Practice'' and ''On Contradiction''" and "pushed at or went beyond the limits of the traditional Marxist canon, studying such topics as revolutionary feminism, the Palestinian liberation struggle, transgender liberation, methods of evaluation, self-care for cadre and revolutionary mass [community] organizing."<ref>Ibid, p. 25 pdf.</ref> The group was extensively involved in the [[community organizing]] movement.<ref>Ibid, pp. 8, 10, 15 pdf.</ref> In 1992 the premier Maoist organization in the United States, the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP)<ref>[http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6197 Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP).] Retrieved from dicoverthenetworks.org, March 8, 2010.</ref> and offshoot of SDS was instrumental in fomenting riots in Los Angelas in which 58 people were killed, and more than 2,300 injured in the wake of the trial of four police officers charged with beating [[Rodney King]].<ref>[http://97.74.65.51/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=8939 ''Unholy Alliance: The "Peace Left" and the Islamic Jihad Against America,''] David Horowitz and John Perazzo, FrontPageMagazine.com, April 13, 2005. Retrieved March 11, 2010.</ref> Van Jones traveled from Connecticut to be on hand and was arrested in the aftermath.<ref>[http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-722-Conservative-Politics-Examiner~y2009m7d17-Van-Jones-Green-Jobs-Czar-a-selfdescribed-communist-arrested-during-Rodney-King-riots ''Van Jones, 'Green Jobs Czar', a self-described 'communist' arrested during Rodney King riots'',] Kathy Shaidle, July 17, 2009. Retrieved from examiner.com March 11, 2010.</ref> Van Jones is also a founding board member of Apollo Alliance for clean energy and so-called "green-collar jobs." [http://apolloalliance.org/blog/?tag=van-jones] [[Jeff Jones]] is the New York State director of Apollo Alliance. [http://apolloalliance.org/state-local/new-york-state/new-york-state-partners/] Jeff Jones was a member of the Maoist Action Faction of SDS and along with Ayers and Dohrn co-authored ''[[Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-imperialism]]'' based on the ''Sayings of Chairman Mao.''

Obama fundraiser, personal friend, and former employer Dr. [[Bill Ayers]]' teaching curricula relies heavily on material that use Mao Zedong, Josef Stalin, Vladimir Lenin, and Fidel Castro as authoritative sources.<ref>[http://www.academia.org/bill-ayers-unmasked/ Bill Ayers Unmasked,] Bethany Stotts, August 25, 2009, Accuracy in Academia. Retrieved February 15, 2010.</ref> Ayers has been a committed Maoist since at least 1969.<ref>Foreign Influence - Weather Underground Organization (WUO). FBI Chicago Field Office Report, August 20, 1976. Section I. Ideology D. [http://foia.fbi.gov/weather/weath1b.pdf ''Influence of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse-tung Thought'',] Pages 55-62 in original (pp. 18-25 pdf).</ref> Ayers is said to have ghost written part of Barack Obama's autobiography, ''Dreams From My Father.''<ref>[http://www.cashill.com/natl_general/who_wrote_dreams_from.htm, ''Who Wrote “Dreams From My Father"?'',] by Jack Cashill, October 9, 2008.</ref> Ayers was a leader in the [[SDS]]'s Maoist "Action Faction" which became the [[Weather Underground]] (WUO). Ayers, [[Jeff Jones]], and [[Mark Rudd]] of [[Progressives for Obama]] paid homage to [[Anna Louise Strong]], author of the ''The Thought of Mao Tse-tung,''<ref>[http://openlibrary.org/b/OL16335649M/thought_of_Mao_Tse-Tung ''The thought of Mao Tse-Tung,''] Anna Louise Strong, Published in 1947, ''[[Amerasia]]'' (New York).</ref> after purging deviationist elements from the SDS leadership in 1969.<ref>Foreign Influence - Weather Underground Organization (WUO). FBI Chicago Field Office Report, August 20, 1976, [http://foia.fbi.gov/weather/weath1c.pdf ''Influence of China''], Pages 144-145 in original (pp. 32-33 pdf).</ref>

Ayers wife, former FBI Top Ten Most Wanted terrorist [[Bernardine Dohrn]], worked in the Law Firm of Sidley Austin<ref>Of the nearly $700 million dollars Barack Obama raised in 2008 to run for President, Sidley Austin was the 9th largest donor to the campaign. [http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid=n00009638 Barack Obama (D) Top Contributors',] Center For Responsive Politics. Retrieved from opensecrets.org, March 2, 2010.</ref> in the late 1980s where Barack, Michelle Obama, and Dohrn first met. Dohrn participated in the purging of [[CPUSA]] elements from SDS leadership and declared the refurbished SDS leadership would be responsible for the correct Marxist-Leninist line and would exclude non-Maoist, "[[deviationist]]" views. Dohrn held the leadership position of Inter-Organizational Secretary in the SDS National Office. The Ayers/Dohrn faction of SDS formed the Weather Underground Organization. SDS Regional [[Community organizing|Community Organizer]] [[David Gilbert]] declared violent [[Third World]] revolution was the only way to achieve "world communism," the goal of WUO.<ref>Foreign Influence - Weather Underground Organization (WUO). [http://foia.fbi.gov/weather/weath2a.pdf FBI Chicago Field Office Report,] August 20, 1976. Page 202 in original (p. 17 pdf). Gilbert reiterated the WUO's founding statement from [http://foia.fbi.gov/weather/weath1a.pdf ''You Don't Need A Weatherman To Know Which Way The Wind Blows,''] ''New Left Notes,'' June 18, 1969, reprinted in the Chicago Field Office Report, Section I. Ideology. A. Major Political Statements, pp. 6-15 original (pp. 39-48 pdf), which reads in part, "The goal is the destruction of US imperialism and the achievement of a classless world: world communism. Winning state power in the US will occur as a result of the military forces of the US overextending themselves around the world..." (p.41 pdf).</ref>

The ''[[Koji_Ariyoshi#The_Honolulu_Record|Honolulu Record]]'', the newspaper Obama's mentor [[Frank Marshall Davis]] wrote for was accused of Maoist [[deviationism]] during the Sino-Soviet split by its CPUSA overlords.<ref>[http://www.archive.org/stream/scopeofsovietact411956unit#page/n248/mode/1up Scope of Soviet activity in the United States.] Hearing before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-fourth Congress, second session - Eighty-fifth Congress, first session. Washington, U.S. Govt. Print. Off. (1956), [http://www.usasurvival.org/docs/Scope_of_Soviet_Activity.pdf p. 2865 (p. 14 pdf).]</ref>

Obama Car Czar [[Ron Bloom]] declared himself in agreement with Chairman Mao and referred to the free market system as "nonsense."<ref>[http://www.breitbart.tv/obama-czar-agrees-with-mao-too-and-thinks-free-market-is-nonsense/ Speech delivered to the 6th Annual Distressed Investing Forum Union Club], New York, February 27-28, 2008, BriebartTV, Retrieved February 15, 2010.</ref>

Obama appointed [[Anita Dunn]] as White House Communications Office Director in April 2009. In June 2009 Dunn publicly declared herself, before a group of high students, to be a deep admirer of Chairman Mao's political philosophy. Mao is recognized as the largest mass murderer ever on the planet.<ref>[http://mises.org/daily/3796 ''Maoist in the White House,''] Dr. George Reisman,
Ludwig von Mises Institute, October 19, 2009.</ref>

=== Jeremiah Wright and liberation theology ===
[[Image:Barack Obama Jeremiah Wright.jpg|thumb|left|'''Obama and Jeremiah Wright.''' Despite Wright's rabid and sarcastic anti-American sermons, the Obama's regularly took their two small children to hear him speak. One Obama supporter remarked, "I cannot fathom allowing my children to hear filth from the pulpit."<ref>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barack-obama/on-my-faith-and-my-church_b_91623.html?show_comment_id=12042024#comment_12042024</ref> ]]
Obama and his wife (raised a Baptist) were members of the Trinity [[United Church of Christ]]<ref>http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1776246/posts</ref> in Chicago. The church embraces [[black liberation theology]] and its emphasis on empowering so-called "oppressed groups" against "establishment forces." This denomination was the first in America to ordain gays as ministers.<ref>http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/31079.html, Obama's church pushes controversial doctrines, March 20, 2008</ref> According to his sister, Obama was baptized at this church the same year.<ref>[http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/30/america/30obama.php?page=2 http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/30/america/30obama.php?page=2]</ref> Obama describes his conversion in ''The Audacity of Hope''. The title was inspired by one of Wright's sermons.
After 20 years of being an active member, in April 2008 candidate Obama made public statements poised to set him at odds with the man who conducted his wedding and baptized his children. With the negative publicity persisting, a month later Obama ended the friendship, left Wright's church, and blamed the media.<ref>[http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/05/31/obama-resigns-church-membership-in-chicago/], Obama Drops Church Membership in Chicago, May 31, 2008</ref> Obama claimed “It’s not fair to the other members of the church who seek to worship in peace...", and distanced himself from Wright's sermons as "a bunch of rants that aren't grounded in the truth."<ref>USA TODAY, ''Obama breaks with former pastor, Candidate cites rants on U.S. role in terror, AIDS'', by Kathy Kiely and David Jackson [http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080430/1a_offlede30_dom.art.htm]</ref><ref>''Obama Says He Is Outraged By Wright's "Rants"''[http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/bulletin/bulletin_080430.htm]</ref> Wright had been making inflammatory comments and posting his sermons online for sale. These include the statement "G-d damn America," and in describing the September 11th attacks, "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."<ref>[http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Story?id=4443788 Obama's Pastor: G-d Damn America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11]</ref> In addition, Rev. Wright blamed America saying "We supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians and branding anybody who spoke out against it as being [[anti-Semitic]]."

[[Daniel Pipes]] claims that Obama was raised a [[Muslim]] because he attended classes on the [[Koran]] while attending a Muslim school.<ref>[http://www.danielpipes.org/article/5286 Was Barack Obama a Muslim]</ref> Obama did attend a school administrated by Muslims but [[CNN]] reports that it was a non-religious public school attended by students of many faiths, not a [[madrassa]].<ref>http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/22/obama.madrassa/</ref>

{{QuoteBox|In Indonesia, I'd spent 2 years at a Muslim school, 2 years at a Catholic school. In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to tell mother I made faces during Koranic studies. In the Catholic school, when it came time to pray, I'd pretend to close my eyes, then peek around the room. Nothing happened. No angels descended. Just a parched old nun and 30 brown children, muttering words. Sometimes the nun would catch me, and her stern look would force my lids back shut. But that didn't change how I felt inside." <ref>Dreams from My Father, by Barack Obama, p.142 Aug 1, 1996 </ref>}}

Obama has described his upbringing as occurring in a non-religious environment.

{{QuoteBox|In sum, my mother viewed religion through the eyes of the anthropologist that she would become; it was a phenomenon to be treated with a suitable respect, but with a suitable detachment as well. Moreover, as a child I rarely came in contact with those who might offer a substantially different view of faith. My father was almost entirely absent from my childhood, having been divorced from my mother when I was 2 years old; in any event, although my father had been raised a Muslim, by the time he met my mother he was a confirmed atheist, thinking religion to be so much superstition.

And yet for all her professed secularism, my mother was in many ways the most spiritually awakened person that I've ever known. She had an unswerving instinct for kindness, charity, and love, and spent much of her life acting on that instinct, sometimes to her detriment. Without the help of religious texts or outside authorities, she worked mightily to instill in me the values that many Americans learn in Sunday school: honesty, empathy, discipline, delayed gratification, and hard work. She raged at poverty and injustice.<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1546579-4,00.html My Spiritual Journey] Time Magazine, October 2006</ref>}}

===Michelle Obama and Liberal Elitism===

''For more information please see:'' [[Michelle Obama and liberal elitism]]

==== Michelle Obama and Patient Dumping Allegations ====

[[Michelle Malkin]] and others allege that [[Michelle Obama]] created a [[Patient dumping|patient dumping]] scheme for a Chicago health care facility.<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80YK2o3kq0E</ref><ref>http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/03/michelle_obamas_patientdumping_1.html</ref><ref>http://hotair.com/archives/2009/07/23/video-did-michelle-obama-start-a-patient-dumping-program/</ref> In March of 2009, the ''[[American Thinker]]'' wrote:
{{cquote|Substantial coverage was given to a recent indictment of the program by the American College of Emergency Physicians. ACEP's president, Dr. Nick Jouriles, released a statement suggesting that the initiative comes "dangerously close to ‘patient dumping,' a practice made illegal by the Emergency Medical Labor and Treatment Act, and reflected an effort to ‘cherry pick' wealthy patients over poor."<ref>http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/03/michelle_obamas_patientdumping_1.html</ref>}}

==== Michelle Obama and Food Bank Incident ====
[[Image:Obama_Michelle.jpg|right|thumb|[[Michelle Obama]] is reported to have worn $540 shoes to a food bank.<ref>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/29/michelle-obama-wears-silv_n_193138.html</ref><ref>http://christwire.org/2009/05/michelle-obama-makes-fun-of-homeless-by-wearing-540-shoes-to-a-food-bank/</ref>]]
In May of 2008, the following was reported:
{{cquote|[[Michelle Obama]] continued to flaunt her money recently, as she made fun of homeless people by wearing $540 shoes to a food bank.

What a sick day and age we live in when millionaires endlessly gallivant around the globe in their jets and fancy clothes, but still make sure to remind the poor of just how little they have in pocket.

This is just more proof of how the progressive liberal elite live these extravagant lives and are not in touch with us common people. We do all the hard work of fighting wars and building up this country, while they enjoy the fruits of our labor and control all the wealth.

My stomach churns with disgust because of these types of liberal antics and disregard for human life. For just about $5 a day, you can feed a starving child in Africa. With $540, Michelle Obama could by a struggling American family a month’s worth of groceries.<ref>http://christwire.org/2009/05/michelle-obama-makes-fun-of-homeless-by-wearing-540-shoes-to-a-food-bank/</ref><ref>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/29/michelle-obama-wears-silv_n_193138.html</ref>}}

[[Powerline]] offers the following criticism of Michelle Obama:
{{cquote|She says that she and Barack were born to parents of modest means, not with "silver spoons" in their mouths. Nobody knows the trouble they've seen. The burden of paying for her undergraduate education at [[Princeton]] and her law school education at [[Harvard]] has scarred her. It remains a motif of her stump speech. No one is accorded a chance to ask her if she thought about attending the University of Illinois, or if she's grateful for any of the financial assistance that facilitated her and her husband's attendance at the finest institutions of higher learning in the United States.<ref>http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2008/05/020456.php</ref>}}

== Books ==

* ''Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.'' (B. Obama and, allegedly, William Ayers <ref>http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/who_wrote_dreams_from_my_fathe_1.html</ref>) ISBN 0307383415
* ''The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.'' (B. Obama) ISBN 0307455874
* ''Barack Obama in His Own Words.'' (B. Obama and Lisa Rogak) ISBN 0786720573
* ''Change We Can Believe In. Barack Obama's Plan to Renew America's Promise.'' (B. Obama)
* ''The Case Against Barack Obama. The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate. '' (David Freddso) ISBN 1596985666
* ''The Obama Nation. Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality.'' (Jerome R. Corsi) ISBN 1416598065
* ''Obama Unmasked. Did Slick Hollywood Handlers Create the Perfect Candidate?'' (Floyd Brown and Lee Trexler) ISBN 0936783591
* ''Obama: The Man Behind The Mask.'' (Andy Martin) ISBN 0965781240
* ''The Audacity of Deceit. Barack Obama's War on American Values.'' (Brad O'Leary) ISBN 1935071025

== Quotes ==
* Early in his campaign for president in 2007, Obama declared in an interview with the [[Chicago Tribune]], "I'm a [[Christian]]. And so, although I try not to have my religious beliefs dominate or determine my political views on this issue ... my religious beliefs say that [[marriage]] is something sanctified between a man and a woman."<ref>http://thehill.com/cheri-jacobus/obama-and-miss-california-2009-04-23.html</ref>
*"This country is going to honor our [[collective]] responsibility." [http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Weekly-Address-President-Obama-Announces-New-Initiatives-for-Retirement-Savings/]

== Also See ==
*[[Previous Breaking News/Barack Obama|Articles about '''Barack Obama''' from previous "Breaking News"]]
*[[Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)]]
*Birthplace of Barack Obama:
**[[Birthplace of Barack Obama]]
**[[Barack Obama birthplace controversy]]
**[[Obama birth certificate controversy]]
**[[Obama birth certificate lawsuits]]
**[[Essay:Born Outside the U.S.A.!]]
*[[Essay: The Special Interests Candidate]]
*[[Jobsgate]]
*[[Recovery Summer]]
*[[Lobbyists ties to the Obama administration]]
*[[New Party]]
*[[ObamaCare]]
*[[Obama doublespeak]]
*[[Obama inauguration]]
*[[Religion of Barack Hussein Obama]]
*[[The Honorable James David Manning]]
*[[Young Communist League]]

== Further reading ==

*[[Peter Hitchens|Hitchens, Peter]] [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=511901&in_page_id=1811 ''The Black Kennedy: But does anyone know the real Barack Obama?''] [[Daily Mail]]. Accessed 4 February 2008.
*James Simpson, [http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/09/barack_obama_and_the_strategy.html ''Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis''], American Thinker, September 28, 2008.
*[http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1901/witbd/ ''What Is To Be Done?] Burning Questions of our Movement'', [[Vladimir Ilyich Lenin]], Lenin’s Collected Works, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1961, Moscow, Volume 5, pp. 347-530.
*The Manchurian President: Barack Obama's Ties to Communists, Socialists and Other Anti-American Extremists (April 20, 2010) by Aaron Klein, Brenda J. Elliott ISBN 1935071874


== Sources ==

*[http://www.barackobama.com/ Official Obama for President Website]
*[http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/pfd2005/N00009638_2005.pdf Barack Obama Personal Financial Disclosures Summary: 2005], retrieved from opensecrets.org 17 June 2007.
*[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=O000167 Biographical Directory of the United States Congress]
*[http://www.law.uchicago.edu/faculty/obama/cv.html University of Chicago Law School] Faculty Listing
*[http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=12782369 Barack Obama Biography] from Biography.com
*[http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/barack_obama/index.html?inline=nyt-per New York Times Topics, Barack Obama]
*[http://youtube.com/watch?v=zUdjhKbImwE Documentary on Barack Hussein Obama]
*[http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=9490 Voting Record of Barack Hussein Obama]

==References==

{{reflist|3}}

==External Links==
*[http://www.antiobama.net/ Anti Obama.net]
*[http://www.dontvoteobama.net/ Don’t Vote For Obama.net]
*[http://nobamanetwork.com/ Nobama Network]
*[http://www.audacityofhypocrisy.com/ Audacity Of Hypocrisy]
*[http://therealbarackobama.wordpress.com/ The Real Barack Obama]
*[http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/6130/ The New Cult of Personality]
*[http://www.survivingobamunism.com/index.html Surviving Obamunism T-shirts]
*[http://www.barackobamaantichrist.blogspot.com/ Barack Obama the Anti-Christ ?]
*[http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/06/23/che-obama-and-the-revolutionary-agenda/ Che, Obama, and the Revolutionary Agenda]
*[http://www.audacityofhypocrisy.com/fashion-shows/ Obama Laundry List of Lies]
*[http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/09/americas-first-muslim-president/ GAFFNEY: America's first Muslim president?] Washington Times
*[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-l-esposito/barack-obama-and-islam_b_212519.html Barack Obama and Islam.] by [[John L. Esposito]].

{{DEFAULTSORT:Obama, Barack Hussein}}
{{USPresidents}}
{{2008 presidential candidates}}
{{Liberalism}}
[[Category: Barack Hussein Obama]]
[[Category:Socialists]]
[[Category:Socialism]]
[[Category:Former United States Senators]]
[[Category:Democratic Party]]
[[Category:Liberals]]
[[Category:Obama Administration]]
[[Category:Illinois]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Peace]]
[[Category:Featured articles]]

Steve Jobs

2011-01-17T16:38:00Z

SethC:

[[Image:Jobs.jpg|left|200px]]
'''Steve Paul Jobs''' (born 1955 Los Altos CA) is the CEO of [[Apple Inc.|Apple Inc.]], which he co-founded with [[Steve Wozniak]] in 1976. He also co-founded [[Pixar]] Animation Studios in 1986. Pixar merged with The [[Walt Disney Company]] in 2006 and Jobs now serves on Disney's board of directors. Jobs is one the very few persons who has been successful with many different business ideas (personal computer, then Macintosh, then Pixar, then [[Itunes]]). He also one of the [[adoption success stories]].

::''I love beautiful objects. I love creating them. Negative people upset me... Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.''

Steve grew up in the apricot orchards which later became known as [[Silicon Valley]], and still lives there with his wife and three children. <ref>http://www.geocities.com/franktau/History1.html</ref>

Jobs is a liberal who has donated over $150,000 in soft-money to causes related to the [[Democratic Party]].<ref>http://www.newsmeat.com/billionaire_political_donations/Steve_Jobs.php</ref> Jobs has been criticized for being a hypocrite who promotes liberal causes to further his own business agenda.<ref>http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2006/01/70072</ref>

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
*[http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/jobs.html Steve Jobs] Apple-Macintosh computers-iPods.
*[http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Jobs.html Steve Paul Jobs]
*[http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html "You've got to find what you love," Jobs says] Stanford Report, June 14, 2005.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jobs, Steve}}
[[Category:Apple Inc.]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Business People]]

Objectivism

2011-01-17T16:36:49Z

SethC:

[[Objectivism]] (Latin ''ob-'' out of and ''iacio'' I am throwing, and Greek '''-ισμος''' or ''-ismos'' the doing of a thing) is a school of philosophy developed by [[Ayn Rand]] that holds that things in the natural world exist independently of anyone's perception of them or efforts (or lack of effort) to understand them. Objectivism also holds that ''nothing'' is provably real that one cannot ''demonstrate'' independently of one person's perception of it.

== History of Objectivism ==
Objectivism as a formal discipline began with [[Ayn Rand]], a Russian-born émigrée to the United States. Ayn Rand attended The University of Petrograd where she studied philosophy and history. She graduated in 1924. In her work, showed more than a passing familiarity with the great philosophers of ancient Western civilization. The ancient philosopher she respected the most was [[Aristotle]].

By far the most complete expression of Objectivism in a single volume is in her novel, and most famous work, ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]''<ref name=Atlas>[[Ayn Rand|Rand, Ayn]]. ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]''. New York: Random House Publishers, 1957, 1168 pages, cloth. ISBN 0394415760</ref>. However, her philosophy found expression in innumerable essays, whichwere published in a number of newsletters and magazines that she edited from time to time, primarily ''The Objectivist Newsletter'', ''The Objectivist'', and ''The Ayn Rand Letter'', many of which have no been collected in ''The Letters of Ayn Rand''<ref>Rang, Berliner and Peikoff (1997), '''The Letters of Ayn Rand''', Plume Publishing</ref>. Many of her working notes have also been collated, edited and published in ''The Journals of Ayn Rand''<ref>Rand, Peikoff and Harriman (1999), '''The Journals of Ayn Rand''', Plume Publishing</ref>. These compilations have made it far easier for the aspiring student of philosophy to gain insight not only into Rand's revolutionary philosophy, but also into the formation of the philosophy, the question she asked and avenues she explored.

During her life she attracted as dedicated following of students, including such names as the former chairmen of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, Nathaniel Branden, a leading psychotherapist, the writer, Barbara Branden, and Leonard Peikoff, who went on to become a leading philosopher in his own right.

Since her death in 1982, other students of hers, most notably [[Leonard Peikoff]] have continued to support the development and study of Objectivism through the the Ayn Rand Institute, as well as through editing and publishing Rand's own works that would otherwise have been lost or hard to study. The Atlas Society performs a similar function, and counts Nathan Branden amongst it's most influential thinkers.

== The Fundamental Tenets of Objectivism ==
Objectivism attempts to be a "unified theory of everything worth thinking about." As such it addresses prominent issues in [[metaphysics]], [[epistemology]], [[ethics]], [[Political philosophy]], and [[aesthetics]].

=== The Central Axiom and its Corollaries ===
Objectivism starts with a simple [[axiom]]: ''existence exists''<ref name=Atlas/>, often summed up as the intentionally tautologous 'A=A'. To grasp that axiom is to realize two other, corollary axioms:

# Something exists that someone perceives.<ref name=Atlas/>
# Someone exists who possesses ''consciousness'', which is the faculty of perceiving what exists.<ref name=Atlas/>

=== Metaphysical Axioms and Theorems ===
Objectivism continues with a number of other corollaries:

# A is A.<ref name=Atlas/> This is also known as the Law of Identity and suggests a similar law in [[formal logic]]. But more than that, the Law of Identity holds that A has certain properties, or ''attributes'', that distinguish it incontrovertibly from B or C. If a thing has no attributes, then it is a nonentity--it does not and cannot exist.
# Consciousness exists--the Law of Consciousness. But consciousness implies something independent of consciousness. What one perceives, one does not invent--and furthermore, a thing exists whether one perceives it or not.

From these axioms, several [[theorem]]s necessarily follow, among them the Law of Non-Contradiction. Aristotle stated it thus: "the same attribute cannot at the same time belong and not belong to the same subject in the same respect." Objectivism states it more simply: ''contradictions do not exist.'' Therefore, if one encounters a contradiction, one should check the assumptions he has made, because at least one of them is false.

=== Epistemology ===
[[Epistemology]] (from [[Greek]] words roughly meaning "the word stands on something") deals with what a human being knows and how he knows it. Objectivism states that perception is only the beginning. Perception is sensation extended over time, and perception becomes knowledge only through ''measurement.'' On the other hand, one forms a ''concept'' of something by developing a list of attributes ''without'' the measurements of them. Apply the measurements, and instead of a concept one has an object that fits the concept.

One important result of pure Objectivism is that what one cannot perceive, one cannot know--and what no one has perceived, no one need admit the existence of. Indeed, [[Nathaniel Branden|Branden]]<ref name=BrandenBenHaz>[[Nathaniel Branden|Branden, Nathaniel]]. [http://www.nathanielbranden.com/catalog/articles_essays/benefits_and_hazards.html The Benefits and Hazards of the Philosophy of Ayn Rand]. Association for Humanistic Psychology, 1984.</ref> observed that Objectivism teaches that <blockquote>(A)ny form of irrationalism, supernaturalism, or mysticism, (and) any claim to a nonsensory, nonrational form of knowledge, is to be rejected.</blockquote>

This includes [[God]], a Concept that almost no Objectivist has ever accepted. This might be Objectivism's greatest weakness: that it will not admit that which one cannot perceive directly, but which has affected ''something else'' that one perceives, and that in a measurable way.

=== Ethics ===
[[Ethics]] is about values. What is value? From ''Atlas Shrugged''<ref name=Atlas/>:<blockquote>"Value" is what one acts to gain and/or keep; "virtue" is how one acts to gain or keep it.</blockquote>

The central contribution of Objectivism to ethics is the definition of morality. Again from ''Atlas Shrugged''<ref name=Atlas/>:<blockquote>"Value" presupposes an answer to the question, "Of value to whom, and to what?" "Value" presupposes a ''standard''...A code of values accepted by choice is a code of morality.</blockquote>

Objectivism then declares that the only moral code proper to man has ''man's life'' as its standard of value. Rand, Peikoff, and other students of Objectivism have always drawn a stark contrast between this standard and the standard of those they regarded as their opponents: "the greatest good for the greatest number."

However, most emphatically, this does '''not''' mean that Objectivism extols what most people mean by ''selfishness''. Objectivism regards that sort of "selfishness" as shortsighted and non-rational. Objectivism requires that a person ''choose'' to be rational in his thinking, and should work to enhance his self-interest ''after determining what that interest is through rational and logical analysis.''

Objectivism makes at least two definitions that non-adherents might find harsh and symptomatic of [[Logical fallacy#Overgeneralization|overgeneralization]]:

# "Sacrifice" is the giving away of a greater value in favor of a lesser value or a non-value.<ref name=Atlas/>
# "Altruism" is sacrifice, as defined above, for the sake of persons other than oneself.

Actually, what Objectivism calls ''sacrifice'', other schools of philosophy call ''waste''. Sacrifice, according to these other schools, is actually the giving of a great value for another, still greater value. Furthermore, the definition of ''altruism'' indicates that no man should be obliged, let alone forced, to care or act for the sake of other people.

In only one context does Objectivism lay any obligation on its adherents to act for the sake of another, and that is in an ''emergency'', that is, an immediate life-threatening casualty event or condition.

Rand, Peikoff, and other adherents to Objectivism held that their greatest objection was to the use of force in social relationships. This leads directly to the Objectivist theory of politics.

=== Politics ===
[[Political philosophy|Politics]] (from the [[Greek]] '''πολις''' a city, from the organization of [[Greece|Greek]] civilization around independent city-states) is the philosophy of [[government]]--the need for it, its proper sphere, and the obligations of its subjects. The central axiom of Objectivist politics is that<blockquote>Force is permissible ''only'' in retaliation and ''only'' against those who initiate its use.<ref name=Atlas/></blockquote>

This is the Law of Retaliation, or ''Lex talionis'' in [[Latin]].

Thus a government ought not compel charity--and in this context, ''compulsion'' is the application of force to induce another person toward an action he might not otherwise take. Nor should the government compel anyone to associate with those with whom he would prefer not to associate. Freedom of association is very important in Objectivist politics.

Objectivism holds that an individual has a fundamental right to life--but this "right to life" means the right to live one's life as his self-interest dictates, not the right to expect someone else either to protect his life or to guarantee his survival.

From these principles, the only economic system with which Objectivism has any sympathy is [[capitalism]], with its emphasis on the rights of the individual. Objectivism rejects the [[welfare state]] as an improper exercise of the government's police power. (But Objectivism also would object strenuously to the body of special tax incentives and other legal provisions and regulations often called "[[corporate welfare]]." Objectivism holds that every individual, and by extension every business, must stand or fall on his, her, or its own merits.)

However, Objectivism also holds that the government ought to reserve to itself a [[monopoly]] on the exercise of force, when necessary, in retaliation against the initiators of force. As a repeated theme in Rand's novels and essays, a government ought to confine itself to three major functions:

# The police power--to protect against criminals.
# The military power--to protect against invasion from without.
# The judicial power--to protect contracts from breach or fraud, and to provide a forum for the settlement of disputes without resort to force.

From the above, one may conclude that Objectivism rejects the [[code duello]] as an improper feature of society, and even as an attribute of [[anarchy]]. In fact, Rand herself specifically stated that government must be a [[monopoly]], because any "competitive [[economy]]" of government would inevitably lead to a state not much different from gang warfare.

However, Rand herself advocated many things the support for which, from a strict read of Objectivism, is doubtful. She repeatedly stated, in a number of essays and in at least one magazine interview, that <blockquote>Just as the [[United States]] had the right to invade [[Nazi]] [[Germany]], so the United States has the right to invade [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics|Soviet Russia]] or any other slave pen.</blockquote> She justified this aggressive foreign policy stance by drawing up a set of four evil policies that, if any country engaged in all of the same, would make it liable for invasion by a society that did not do these things:

# Execution without a proper, fair trial
# Detention without charge
# Denial of the right of dissatisfied subjects to emigrate
# Censorship

By "censorship" Rand meant not only restrictions on political speech, but in fact any restriction on any form of artistic expression--even on forms of expression that she explicitly despised and suggested that any rational being would despise.

By her theory, then, if people were at least free to leave a society that executed people without trial, then if they did not leave, no country ought to be obliged to relieve their suffering by invasion. But if they ''could not'' leave, then their country would be liable for invasion, because they could not rationally help themselves. The freedom of emigration follows from the freedom of association--and the obligation, such as it was, of other nation-states and their militaries to come to such people's aid follows from the Objectivist ethic of emergencies, defined above.

Of course, any country that invades or otherwise attacks another, either directly or through surrogates, lays itself open to a counterinvasion by the country so attacked. This follows from the principle of the Law of Retaliation defined above.

=== Aesthetics ===
[[Art]], according to Objectivism, serves a need to allow man to ''perceive'' directly that which normally he can only ''conceive''. Art, in short, makes things real. An [[artist]] is any person who presents abstract concepts in concrete ways.

Objectivism's take on art is simple: art should uplift, and present uplifting things. The favorite school of art among students of Objectivism is [[Romantic realism]], the name that Rand gave to a school of art that emphasizes human reason and ideals and primarily portrays people striving to do great deeds, rather than suffering great disasters--in short, being ''proactive'' rather than ''reactive''. Good art, in other words, celebrates that which Objectivism itself celebrates: the ideal rational man. Forms of art that which emphasized emotion over reason, and especially anything that divorced emotion from reason, earned the consistent disdain of Rand and her colleagues. Similarly, Objectivism decries any form of art that shows human beings being reactive and slaves to emotion.

Pornography excited an interesting reaction. Objectivists detested it, on the grounds that sex was too important an activity for public display. But they feared censorship even more, on the ground that a government that stopped prurient content could stop political speech all the more easily. (Neither [[Ayn Rand]] nor any of her associates ever commented on such strictly private efforts as the [[Hays office]].)

== Controversies ==
[[Nathaniel Branden]], Rand's closest-ever associate and confidant, set forth in 1984 a number of defects in Objectivist philosophy, or at least Rand's theory and practice of it:

# A tendency to confuse "reason" with "the reasonable," essentially a problem in informal logic.
# The encouragement of its students to repress all emotion as somehow unworthy, all in the name of being proactive rather than reactive.
# A tendency toward "moralizing," or condemning others for not adhering to a strict emotional discipline.
# The [[Logical fallacy#Conflation|conflation]] of "sacrifice" with benevolence.
# Emphasizing philosophical premises to an unhealthy degree, leading to an often unwarranted judgment of ''character'' by the criterion of ''belief''.
# A dogmatic, inflexible approach to philosophy and its various disciplines, leading to the inability to forgive a mistake in philosophical formulation or application.

In this last context, Branden specifically decried Rand's conclusion that "no woman should aspire to be [[President of the United States of America]]." Rand did say that, and her justification of that stance flowed directly, oddly enough, from her theory of sex.

(In this context, Rand had no patience with the proponents and practitioners of [[feminism]] that were contemporary to her. She once said of them, with questionable justice, that they complained about the sexual objectification of women, when those who complained the loudest were "clearly in no such danger." Yet on the other hand, she regarded homemakers as "uninteresting women," and then suggested that some of them were "[[monster]]s" for advocating, for example, the prohibition of [[abortion]] and restrictions on [[contraception]].)

Rand's surviving friends tend to dismiss Branden's criticism as [[Logical fallacy#Argumentum ad hominem|argumentum ad hominem]] (or perhaps more accurately, ''argumentum ad feminam'') arising out of the rather brutal break-up of Rand and Branden's eighteen-year association. But those arguments tend to commit the same [[logical fallacy]] whereof they accuse Branden. Branden's wife [[Barbara Branden|Barbara]] presents perhaps the most balanced treatment of the Rand-Branden Affair and the ensuing controversy.

Objectivism's unabashed advocacy of capitalism often led to repeated charges that Objectivism was the ally of "big business." (In fact, on the occasion of a 1980 political demonstration called "Big Business Day," ''The Objectivist Forum'' commented quite wryly on the irony of the spectacle of hundreds of anti-business conventioneers using the services of "big business" to attend an event intended to advocate increased regulation of the largest corporations merely because they ''were'' large.) But Branden said quite clearly that the executives of large business companies ''were not'' friendly to Objectivism, because Objectivism advocates a market completely free not only of onerous taxes but also of the myriad special protections that some businesses tended to win from [[Congress]] against their competitors.

For decades, Rand did not appear to excite much enduring controversy, mainly because those who did not hold to her philosophy, or to the political theory that flows from it, generally preferred to ignore her. An early exception was the famous (some say infamous) review of Rand's ''magnum opus'', ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'', by [[Whittaker Chambers]].<ref name=Chambers>[[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers, Whittaker]]. [http://www.nationalreview.com/flashback/flashback200501050715.asp Big Sister Is Watching You]. ''[[National Review]]'', December 28, 1957. Republished on [http://www.nationalreview.com/ National Review Online], January 5, 2005.</ref> Chambers "[[Atlas Shrugged (criticism)#Whittaker Chambers|panned]]" this novel severely and charged that Rand, and by extension Objectivism ''per se'', owed more to the harsh, "conquering-man" philosophy of [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] than to Aristotle. He also charged that Rand, in her relentless attack upon the [[Communism|Communist]] philosophy of [[Karl Marx]], had almost become that which she professed to despise. Specifically, he suggested that while Marx advocated a [[Socialism|socializing]] elite, Rand advocated a technocratic one, to which all less technically adept men must bow. Chambers' objections mirror those of Branden to the "moralizing" and dogmatic tone of much of Rand's material, in both that novel and her later essays.

But in light of the election and increasingly [[socialism|socialistic]] policy pronouncements and recommendations of [[Barack Obama]] and his administration, Rand's ideas are (as of April 2009) undergoing a serious re-examination. [[Tax Day Tea Party]] participants reported seeing signs saying, "Ayn Rand Was Right" and "Stop Spending, or Atlas Will Shrug." The Ayn Rand Institute reports that sales of ''Atlas Shrugged'' tripled in February 2009 as compared to February 2008. They attribute this brisk increase in sales directly to the recognition by many of Barack Obama and his associates as antitypes of the [[Literary type#Villain|villains]] in the novel, and of his policies as antitypes of some of the more egregious policies of [[Mr. Thompson]] and some of other characters. [[Directive 10-289]] springs especially to mind.

== Can Objectivism develop further? ==
This question is [[Conservapedia:Can Objectivism develop beyond Ayn Rand's original formulation?|debatable]]. Branden asserted that Objectivism was "flawed", but nonetheless found its emphasis on logic and of an independent reality important and beneficial. Applying the principles of Objectivist philosophy to ones own life offers undoubted advantages to physical and mental quality of life, which applying such principles to politics leads to economic growth, greater personal and economic freedoms and a more healthy society. Nonetheless, no philosophy can remain static, and with many greater American thinkers dedicated to advancing the philosophy of Objectivism, the field is extremely dynamic and constantly evolving, and the world provides new opportunities for applying Objectivist principles.

In regarding to life science, Rand correctly realised that the the theory of [[evolution]] as more than an hypothesis. She did not acept [[Creationism|creation]] as a fact, due to it not being directly percieavble and measurable, but Rand also refused to endorse evolution, because she believed she did not have the required scientific knowledge to make an informed judgment.<ref name=poisonwell>Hsieh, Diana Mertz, [http://www.dianahsieh.com/blog/2005/07/poisoning-well.html Poisoning the Well], 24 March 2007</ref>

== References ==
<references/>

== See Also ==
* [http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=objectivism_pobs Objectivism] from the [[Ayn Rand Institute]]
* [http://www.ios.org/ The Atlas Society -- home of The Objectivist Center]
* [http://wiki.objectivismonline.net/ The Objectivism Wiki]
* [http://www.importanceofphilosophy.com/ The Importance of Philosophy]
* [[Logic]]

[[Category:Philosophical systems]]

Aung San Suu Kyi

2010-11-13T20:59:12Z

SethC: Release from houes arrest, modified headings, included full name in "See Also"

[[File:Suu Kyi Outcry.jpg|thumb|240px|Outcry grows over Suu Kyi charges (May, 2009).]]
'''Aung San Suu Kyi''' (June 19, 1945, [[Rangoon]] - ) is the leader of the National League for Democracy in Burma and a famous [[prisoner of conscience]]. The daughter of [[Burma|Burmese]] national hero Aung San, Suu Kyi is a pro-[[democracy]] activist committed to non-violence and has been called the "[[Nelson Mandela]] of [[Asia]]". A [[Buddhism|Buddhist]], Suu Kyi won the Sakharov and Rafto Prizes for Freedom of Thought in 1990. In 1991, she also became a [[Nobel Peace Prize|Nobelist]] for her peaceful fight against a [[dictatorship]].

Largely influenced by the example of [[Mahatma Gandhi]], Suu Kyi entered politics to work on behalf of increased Burmese democracy, helping to set up the National League for Democracy on 27 September 1988. For this, she was placed under [[house arrest]] on 20 July 1989. The Burmese military junta offered to let her go into [[exile]], but she refused. Various international figures, from [[George W. Bush]] to [[Ban Ki-moon]], have called upon the junta leader General [[Than Shwe]] to release her, but as of yet, these requests have been ignored by the despotic regime.

She was released from house arrest by the military junta on November 13, 2010. <ref>http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/11/13/release-order-read-burma-democracy-leader/ Burma Junta Releases Democracy Leader Suu Kyi </ref>

==See Also==
* [http://www.dassk.com/index.php Aung San Suu Kyi's website]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Nobel laureates in Peace]]
[[Category:International Political Figures]]
[[category:Buddhists]]
[[Category:Dictatorships]]