3/30/04
Reverend Jesse Jackson has been a hero to members of this news team, and his endorsement of a pro-war classist for President is a stab in the back to all who support equal protection, due process, freedom and peace.  How could a great man like Jesse Jackson sink so low?  The Creative Youth News Staff still loves Reverend Jackson, but Jesse has some explaining to do.

Barack Obama has made it clear that he supports a missile strike on Iran.  His voting record proves he doesn't want to bring the troops home - despite his rhetoric.  In his short time in the Senate, Obama has voted to shaft the poor, blacks, immigrants, the sick and other groups that expect better from a candidate endorsed by Jesse Jackson.  Obama has supported nominees (such as through his cloture vote for Priscilla Owen) that make Alberto Gonzales look like a liberal Democrat.

Below is Obama's 2005 and 2006 voting record.  This was collected by a national liberal Democratic organizaion.  The news team at Creative Youth has thoroughly checked it out in Thomas.loc.gov and found it to be completely accurate.  Get out your vomit bags and see who Obama is and what he really stands for.

1/06/05:  Obama voted for Bush's Ohio electors. Roll Call 1

1/26/05: Obama voted to confirm Condoleezza Rice for Secretary of State.  Rice was largely responsible for 9/11, the Iraq War, threats of war against Iran, Syria,Venezuela and other nations. and for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent victims in unnecessary wars of her making.  Roll call 2

2/01/05:  Obama was part of a unanimous consent agreement not to filibuster the nomination of  lawless torturer Alberto Gonzales as chief law enforcement officer of the United States (U.S. Attorney General).  No roll call is available to view but the unanimous consent is noted in Thomas.loc.gov

2/10/05: Obama voted for an act known by liberals as The Class Action Extreme UnFairness Act of 2005 (S 5) that makes it much more difficult, if not impossible, for victims to seek and obtain damages in class action suits filed against  wrongdoers who have harmed multiple victims.   Roll call 9

2/15/05: Obama voted to confirm Michael Chertoff, a proponent of water-board torture, an individual connected to the financing of 9/11 and the man behind the round-up of thousands of people of Middle-Eastern descent following 9/11. By confirming him, Obama, in effect, endorsed terrorist attacks on America, water-board torture and racism.  One consequence of Obama's' vote to confirm Chertoff was the Katrina disaster.    Roll call 10.  (In May, 2005, Obama voted to give Chertoff the authority to waive all laws with no judicial review and no relief.  See below.)

4/21/05: Obama voted to make John "Death Squad" Negroponte the National Intelligence Director.  In Central America, John Negroponte was connected to death squads that murdered nuns and children in sizable quantities.    He is suspected of instigating death squads while in Iraq, resulting in the current insurgency.  Instead of calling for Negroponte's prosecution, Obama rewarded him by making him National Intelligence Director.  On 4/17/05, the California Democratic Party unanimously passed a resolution discussing the death squads and calling on Senators to reject the nomination of John Negroponte.    Roll call 107

4/21/05: Obama voted for HR 1268,  war appropriations in the amount of approximately $81 billion.a bill.  Much of this funding went to Blackwater USA and Halliburton and disappeared.  Roll call 109      [W FOR PRO-WAR VOTE]

5/10/05:  Obama voted to give the Secretary of Homeland Security, the power to waive all laws (inclusive of murder, kidnapping and rape and all other heinous crimes) with no judicial review and no relief, and to essentially eliminate the ability of refugees to seek political asylum in the United States.  This bill was was a combination of two bills (HR1268/HR418), both of which were harmful to life and freedom.  HR 1268 was an appropriations bill which gave profits to contractors who benefitted from wars.  HR 418 presumed to override Articles I,II and III of the U.S. Constitution.  This bill allowed Chertoff to legally commit any crime he wanted to commit in New Orleans, and elsewhere, with the result being the Katrina disaster.  It also set up the basis for a Nazi-style national ID Card, similar to the ones issued by Hitler's Regime.  Obama voted for all this in Roll Call 117.     [W]

5/24/05: Obama voted for cloture on Priscilla Owen for the 5th Circuit.  Torture-proponent Alberto Gonzales even called Owen extreme in her right-wing stances.  Her record shows that she is anti-environment, anti-labor, anti-civil rights, anti-human rights, pro-discrimination and pro-polluter.     Activists tried to stop cloture as the confirmation vote was a sure thing once the Senate voted for cloture.  Roll call 127

6/14/05: Obama further stabbed the women's movement in the back by voting to confirm Thomas B. Griffith to a lifetime appointment as a justice on the DC Circuit, a court often used as a stepping stone for the U.S. Supreme Court.  Griffith, who is not licensed to practice law in Utah (his home state), believes that equal opportunity for women violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.  In February, 2007, thanks to Obama's backing of Griffith, the DC circuit has now ruled that Guantanamo detainees have no right to habeas corpus. Roll call 136

6/23/05:  Obama voted for cloture on HR 6, considered by environmental groups to be a sellout of the environment to the nuclear, coal and automotive industries.  It  provides for rewards for unsafe, pollution-ridden fuel sources and car makers who wanted to continue making inefficient cars.   It also gave Bush the power to destroy the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge.  Roll call 152

6/28/05: Obama voted to pass HR 6, the sellout of the environment to the nuclear, coal-burning and automotive industries discussed above. Roll call 158

7/01/05: Obama voted for H.R. 2419, termed "The Nuclear Bill" by environmental and peace groups.  It provided billions for nuclear weapons activities, including nuclear bunker buster bombs.   It contains full funding for Yucca Mountain, a threat to food and water in California, Nevada, Arizona and states across America..    Roll call 172    [W]

7/20/05: Obama voted to punish countries opposed to the death penalty.  Under Roll Call196,  funds and assistance would no longer be made available to  any country which refused to extradite individuals to the United States because of a moral objection to the use, by the United States, of the death penalty.  The United States is essentially alone among Western nations in its use of the death penalty.    S. Amdt 1271 to HR 3057.

7/29/05:  Obama voted for the conference report on the Energy Bill (HR 6), which was a boon to Halliburton and subjected Americans to the risk of exposure to lethal levels of radiation and mercury poisoning. Roll call 213

9/15/05:  Obama voted to allow the use of low-cost foreign labor, in violation of labor laws, in New Orleans following Katrina.  He opposed the Dorgan Amendment to the appropriations for science, state, justice and commerce.   The amendment attempted to stop the use of appropriated funding for low-cost foreign labor in violation of labor laws to rebuild New Orleans.  Obama's vote stabbed American workers in the back and further damaged laborers hurt by the loss of their homes and businesses in New Orleans.  Obama's vote resulted in the importation of under-paid foreign laborers to displace American workers.   Roll call 232.   S Amdt 1665 to HR 2862.

9/26/05 & 9/28/05:  Obama failed and refused to place a hold on the nomination of John Roberts, a supporter of permanent detention of Americans without trial, and of torture and military tribunals for Guantanamo detainees.  John Roberts's  wife worked for Operation Rescue, an organization that uses extreme measures (including violence) to oppose women's doctors.  John Roberts has questioned the Constitutionality of the Violence Against Women Act and of the Endangered Species Act.  He has also expressed opposition to equal pay for women.  Roberts was responsible for a plan to disenfranchise tens of thousands of African-Americans in Florida in 2000.  Roberts was a personal pick of Pat Robertson, a man who has called for the assassination of the first world leader (of all world leaders, including our own) to offer aid to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. In his confirmation hearings, Roberts refused to say whether he would uphold legislation that overrode a presidential veto.  A unanimous consent agreement was necessary to take Roberts's nominatin to the floor, and Obama could have placed a hold on the nomination but would not do so despite the opposition of over 80% of the American public to the Roberts nomination.  

10/07/05:  Obama voted for HR2863, which appropriated $50 billion in new money for war.   Roll call 2   [W]

10/27/05:  Obama voted to confirm Susan Blake Neilson for the Sixth Circuit.  She had a history of being a judicial activist against plaintiffs in civil rights, employment, personal injury and government negligence cases and a tendency to dismiss claims that present triable issues of fact.  Both of her state Senators felt she was so extreme that they blue-slipped her.    Roll call 277

10/27/05:  Obama voted to slash funding for health care, education and other programs., such as those to help the uninsured by backing cloture on HR 3010 and then voted for the bill .  Roll calls 275 and 281

11/14/05: Obama voted again for "The Nuclear Bill" in Roll Call 321.  This was the vote on the Conference Report on the Nuclear Bill (HR 2419).  As the House had already approved the Conference Report, this was the last opportunity for anyone in Congress to say "no" to this disastrous bill which threatened California's water and food supply and provides billions of dollars for the kind of nuclear weapons activities violative of international law.   [W]

11/15/05:   Obama voted for continued war, again.   Roll call 326 was the vote on the Defense Authorization Act (S1042) which  kept the war and war profiteering alive, restricted the right of habeas corpus and encouraged terrorism.   Pursuant to his pattern, Obama voted for this.  [W]

12/21/05:  Obama confirmed his support for war by voting for the  Conference Report on the Defense Appropriations Act (HR 2863), Roll call 366, which provided more funding to Halliburton and Blackwater.   [W]

2/2/06:  Obama voted to extend the USA-PATRIOT's attack on the Constitution for five weeks to allow Congress time to  put together the support to adopt the renewal of USA-PATRIOT.  Roll call 11

2/16/06:  Obama voted for cloture on "USA PATRIOT Act Additional Reauthorizing Amendments Act of 2006," S2271.  The USA PATRIOT Act   The act still contained  the most objectionable provisions from 2001 and had a new provision allowing the government to collect lists of people and kids suffering from colds and allergies.   The renewal still allowed the government to do all the other really bad stuff it had been doing under the PATRIOT Act and it could still obtain library records (even though the public was misled into believing otherwise).  Those voting on the bill knew that it was worse than the original but worked to deceive the public about how much more freedom had been taken away.   This cloture vote guaranteed passage.  Roll call 22

3/1/06:  Obama voted to pass S2271, the USA PATRIOT Act. Reauthorizing Amendments Act of 2006, which strengthened and made worse the original  USA-PATRIOT Act.  Roll call 25

3/1/06: Obama voted for cloture on the USA-PATRIOT Act (HR 3199), Conference Report.  This was the last real chance to stop the Act.  It was known that there would not be enough votes to stop the act and so stopping cloture was the most important issue.  Obama voted for this.  Roll call 28

3/2/06:  Obama voted for the conference report on USA-PATRIOT, itself, made worse than the original by changes that removed more freedom from the American people and gave more power to agencies trying to deprive Americans of their Constitutional Rights and making most of the most intrusive provisions permanent.  This was the last chance to stop USA-PATRIOT.     Roll call 29.

3/27/06: Obama voted to confirm pro-nuclear war profiteer Dennis Spurgeon as Assistant Secretary of Energy.  Spurgeon's appointment will likely lead to Chernobyls in the U.S. and to more wars.   Roll call 76.

5/2/06:   Obama voted for money for more war by voting for cloture on HR 4939, the emergency funding to Halliburton, Blackwater and other war profiteers.     Roll call 103  [W]

5/4/06:  Obama, again, voted  to adopt HR4939 the emergency funding to war profiteers.  Roll call 112.   [W]

5/8/06: Obama didn't care enough about the sick to show up to vote on the cloture vote on S. 22, AKA the Legalize Medical Murder by Capping the Malpractice Damages Bill.    Roll call 115

5/16/06:  Obama voted to confirm Milan D. Smith to the 9th Circuit.  The appointment was part of an Bush's effort to turn the 9th Circuit from moderate to extreme right wing by adding justices to the Circuit who would support the Bush Agenda.  This directly damaged the chances of getting a fair trial on the West Coast.  Roll call 120

5/25/06:  Obama voted against immigrants by backing S 2611, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006, which was less fair to immigrants than the previous system or no bill at all..    Roll call 157.

5/25/06:  Obama voted for cloture on the nomination of Brett M. Kavanaugh to be a justice on the D.C.Circuit, placing him in line for a future Supreme Court nomination.  The trouble is that he is another right-wing extremist who will undercut human rights on the cases he judges. A result of his confirmation is the recent decision to deny Guantanamo detainees the right of habeas corpus.  Roll call 158 

5/26/06:  Obama, again, opposed environmentalists in voting for the cloture on anti-environmentalist Dirk Kempthorne, who was nominated for Secretary of the Interior Roll Call 161

6/13/06:   Obama voted to commend the armed services for a bombing that killed innocent people and children and reportedly resulted in the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a person unlikely ever to have existed and who was reported killed three times previously.  Michael Berg, whose son was reportedly killed by al-Zarqawi, condemned the attack and expressed sorrow over the innocent people and children killed in the bombing that Obama commended.   Roll call 168    [W]

6/15/06:  Obama voted for the conference report on HR4939, a bill that gave warmongers more money to continue the killing and massacre of innocent people in Iraq and allows profiteers to collect more money for scamming the people of New Orleans.  Roll Call 171    [W]

6/15/06:   Obama, again, opposed withdrawal of the troops, by voting to table a motion to table a proposed amendment would have required the withdrawal of US. Armed Forces from Iraq and would have urged the convening of an Iraq summit (S Amdt 4269 to S. Amdt  4265 to S2766). The result of Obama's vote is that the reported US death toll is now over 3000 and the reported civilian death toll is about 700,000.   Families of those who have died in Iraq since 6/15/06 can send their bills for the funeral expenses to Barack Obama.  Roll Call 174  [W]

6/19/06:  Obama voted to confirm Sandra Segal Ikutu, another opponent of human rights, to the 9th Circuit.  This was part of Bush's stacking of the 9^th Circuit in a seeming effort to turn the 9^th circuit from moderate to right-wing.  Roll call 175  

6/22/06:  Obama voted against withdrawing the troops by opposing the Kerry Amendment (S. Amdt 4442 to S 2766) to the National Defense Authorization Act. The amendment, which was rejected, would have brought our troops home, ended the fighting and forced the Iraqi people to take charge of their security.  Roll Call 181   [W]

6/22/06:   Obama voted for cloture (the last effective chance to stop) on the National Defense Authorization Act (S 2766), which provided massive amounts of funding to defense contractors to continue the killing in Iraq.  Roll Call 183  [W]

6/22/06:  Obama again voted for continued war by voting to pass the National Defense Authorization Act (S 2766) continued war funding.   Roll Call 186   [W]

6/29/06:    Obama voted to adopt  the United States - Oman Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act  (S. 3569), which  gave American jobs to foreign child slave laborers and eliminated environmental requirements for industries. Roll call 190

8/2/06:  Obama voted to use $1.8 billion to guild a fence along the Mexican border to satisfy a group of anti-immigrant racists. Roll call 220

8/3/06:   Obama voted to gut pensions of American workers in voting for HR4, AKA the Pension Destruction Act.  Roll Call 230

9/7/06:  Obama voted to give more money to profiteers for more war (H..R. 5631).  . Roll Call 239   [W]

9/19/06: Voted for United States-Oman Cut Jobs for American Workers and Send them to India Trade Implementation Act (H. R. 5684).  This and similar bills perpetuate the use of child slave labor and undercutting the environment while sending US jobs to foreign low-cost labor.  Roll Call 250

9/29/06: Obama voted vote for the conference report on more funding for war, HR 5631.  Roll Call 261   [W]

11/16/06:  Obama voted for nuclear proliferation in voting to pass HR 5682, a bill to exempt the United States-India Nuclear Proliferation Act from requirements of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954.  Roll Call 270  [W]

12/06/06:  Obama voted to confirm pro-war Robert M. Gates to be Secretary of Defense.  Gates is a supporter of Bush's policies of pre-emptive war and conquest of foreign countries.  Roll Call 272

12/07/06:  Obama voted for  cloture and confirmation of the confirmation of Andrew Von Eschenbach to be Commissioner of the FDA.   Eschenbach favors unlabeled use of genetically-modified and cloned food products,  Obama voted for cloture and confirmation (Roll Call 274). Roll Call 273 and 274.

12/8/06:  In Roll Calls 275 and 276, Obama voted for cloture and confirmation of another of Bush's right wing Circuit Court nominees, Kent A. Jordan

(A note about cloture: often, with the Republicans in a majority in 2005 and 2006, the only way to stop nominees or bills was through opposing cloture.  This frequently made Obama's votes for cloture worse than his vote for the bill itself .  In some cases there was no role call on cloture and only the roll call to confirm or adopt the bill or nominee is available.  Opposing cloture allows a minority party to stop a bill.)

Obama's voting record in 2007 establishes that he continues to be pro-war.  On March 28, 2007 and March 29th, 2007, he voted for cloture and passage of a bill designed to give Bush over $120 billion to continue the occupation for years to come (with a suspendable time table) and inclusive of funding that could be used to launch a war with Iran.  Roll calls 117 and 126.

Obama's record shows a minimum of 20 major pro-war votes.  After voting 20 times for war,  how dishonest is Obama when he claims to be for peace?

Barack Obama has been vetted and approved by the Bilderbergs and AIPAC, in part because of his strong stance in support of a military strike on Iran.

While Obama tries to pressure blacks into voting for him because part of his family is black, he is descended from white slave-owners.

Barack Obama stands against every principle the Reverend Jesse Jackson has ever advocated except one.  Jesse Jackson wanted to see a black President.  Apparently Jackson is willing to settle for the latest version of Clarence Thomas instead of reaching out to any supporter of African-American causes.

The Creative Youth News Team is very proud of the work by Bruce Dixon and Glen Ford of the Black Agenda Report.  This News Team recommends you read Black Agenda Report's articles in opposition to Barack Obama: "Barack Obama and the Winds of War," "Putting Black Faces on Imperial Aggression," "Barack Obama: the Mania and the Mirage," "Barack Obama: Hypocrisy on Health Care," "The Barack and Hillary Show Plays Selma," "Black America's Real Issue With Barack Obama," and "Barack Obama vs. Charles Hamilton Houston."

It is also recommended that anyone with any doubts that Obama is the rich white man's candidate, read  "The Obama Illusion."

Jackson's supporters expected Jackson to use better criteria than just race to decide which candidate to endorse.  Today is a sad day for the supporters of the Reverend Jesse Jackson.

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