Barack HUSSEIN Obama II (born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Kenya, August 4, 1961) is the 44th President of the United States. A Democrat, he is also apparently a devout Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, gay, atheist Martian Egyptian Antichrist.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]
Obama is the first self-identified African American to be elected to the presidency,[9] a turning-point marking the end of racism in the United States. Do You Believe That?[/size]
In October of 2009, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for his stunning success in not being George W. Bush.
A lot of Americans are wary of Obama as they do not believe - and may never believe - he is actually an American. This fear of an ethnic “other” is compounded by a fiery political climate in which some critics have called him a socialist or “Kenyan anti-colonialist,”[10] which one would think would be a good thing in a country founded on the idea that being a colony really sucks.
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Actions as President
President Obama’s term in office has been distinguished by starting with a deep recession that has left unemployment above 9% for more than a year, a political environment of steadily-increasing vitriol and obstructionism, and a general continuance of Bush-era policies in national security and trade. The largest shifts in actual policies that have occurred have been with foreign policy; while the U.S. did engage in military intervention in Libya, it was a markedly different style of attack when compared to the full commitment of Iraq and Afghanistan. This was of a piece with the inclusive rhetoric espoused by President Obama, as well as with his generally centrist (moderate-right by European standards) approach - we can’t see any socializmz there.
Obama has been criticized for getting the federal budget deficit to unprecedented levels. However, many people forget that the budget for 2009 was actually a series of continuing resolutions that kept spending at roughly the same as Bush’s era.[14] Keeping in mind the fact that Bush did not include war spending as part of his budgets, and the fact that the majority of debt is due to the recession, Obama has overall decreased the budget deficit, though it’s still present.
Fulfillment of campaign promises
While Obama’s presidency is an improvement from the previous Bush-era domestic and foreign policies, a large number of his campaign promises remain stalled or completely broken. Some examples:
On January 22, 2009, President Obama signed an executive order to close Guantanamo Bay within a year, and for those incarcerated within to be dealt with as quickly as possible.[15] No change has occurred, and Guantanamo continues with little reduction in inmates, due to a large amount of Republican states disapproving. Some abortive attempts at moving them to other states or countries have met with very limited success - essentially, no one wants them.
With regards to health care, President Obama extended the S-CHIP program, and enacted the Affordable Care Act (or “Obamacare”) on March 23, 2010, with the aid of united Congressional Democrats. The Act, a fairly balanced implementation of universal health care, has been widely criticized on the left for perceived failings (such as the lack of a public option, which Obama did not as enthusiastically support as he did in his campaign) while attacked hysterically from the right.
On the other hand, Obama has fulfilled many of his promises on other issues, mainly foreign policy and gay rights. Here are examples of some of his more major actions: On February 27, 2009: Obama set the date of the Iraq War’s end to be August 31, 2010.[16] As of December 2011, virtually all troops have left and the war is officially over. The number of troops in Afghanistan has sharply spiked, on the other hand, as Obama has pushed military spending to all-time highs, though after the death of Osama Bin Laden, troops are expected to withdraw soon. [17]
On January 30, 2009, the abortion funding “gag rule” (preventing any clinic anywhere in the world that receives US funding from mentioning the evil abortion word) was rescinded, along with other Bush-era executive orders.[18] This actions was shortly followed on February 9, 2009 by the lifting of restrictions on stem-cell research.[19]
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform bill signed on July 21, 2010, comprehensively regulated banks and insurance companies, ending the Bush-era financial bailouts and stopping “too big to fail” banks. This remains one of Obama’s most popular legislation, with over 60% of Americans approving. [20]
He has told his Attorney General to cease defending DOMA, even though the Republican lead Congress has said they would fund the defense of DOMA themselves.
In 2011, the restrictions in the DADT policy were eliminated, and gay and lesbian soldiers are allowed to serve openly. The military was even ordered to allow gay marriages in public buildings if straight marriages are allowed there.[citation needed]
Human rights record
Obama has mainly been criticized by the left for his somewhat disappointing actions concerning human rights in the wars in Afghanistan/Pakistan. Below are examples
- On January 23, 2009, a mere 72 hours after taking office, Obama authorized an armed strike against a village in the Tribal Areas of Pakistan — an ally of the United States (although the area being bombed, the tribal belt, is not under control of Pakistan’s government),[21] because the Pakistan Taliban Movement in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) had launched a campaign to discover local informants for the Central Intelligence Agency, and had killed 40 of them[21] — “According to the Pakistani press, the strike not only killed the four Arab fighters and a Punjabi militant, but also the Pashtun host and some of his family members. A few hours later, missiles slammed into another residence near the village of Wana in a nearby tribal agency, South Waziristan, killing 10. Pakistani sources disagreed over whether there had been any foreign fighters at all at the second target, with locals claiming that 10 family members, including women and children, were the only victims. Villagers in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt sometimes rent to the Arab fighters because they are sympathetic to their struggle, but sometimes they just need the money.”[21]
- On February 14, 2009, the United States, for the second time in a month, bombed a house in Pakistan that was being used as a hideout by the Taliban. Twenty-seven militants were killed.[22]
- On September 30, 2011, Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, both of whom were American citizens living in Yemen, were killed by a drone strike. Though both had been deemed terrorists, this action has been criticized for possibly violating the Fifth Amendment.
- On May 26, 2011, he signed an extension of the PATRIOT Act, which has been criticized by the left and civil libertarians as allowing violations of the Fourth Amendment.
- On December 31, 2011, he signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, which codifies the President’s authority to indefinitely detain terrorism suspects without trial (there is currently a dispute over whether it changes existing law or not, due to apparently contradictory passages in the bill on the matter).
**Various smear attempts
Islam**
Many people have tried to smear Obama by claiming he is a Muslim (which, as Colin Powell rightly pointed out, shouldn’t be a smear, but, alas, it is in practice), since his father (who was African) was (or perhaps he may have been an agnostic[23] or even an atheist).[24] However, Obama is a staunch Christian, and often injects Jesus and God into his speeches. The myth of Obama’s connections with Islam originated during his original campaign for the United States senate. Ironically, there was a Muslim member of Congress elected only two years later: Congressman Keith Ellison. The Religious Right happened to target the wrong man.[25]
Birthers
Main article: Obama citizenship denial
Additionally, many attempted to discredit the Obama campaign by claiming that he was not born in the U.S., a requirement for any U.S. president.[26] Given that there is no evidence for him being a Martian, Muslim, gay or Communist, this has been the last refuge of those who, frankly, just can’t stand that a black man with a foreign name won an election.
Marxism
Some of Obama’s more hysterical opponents attempt to make the supporter of capitalism look like a Marxist by quote mining him, completely ignoring such glaring counter-evidence as the fact that he advocated for bailing out certain large corporations instead of nationalizing them. This is the same stuff that FDR had to go through.
In his first run for the State Senate, he received (without so much as a by-your-leave, mind you[27]) the endorsement of the “New Party,” a highly obscure Marxist outfit that was aiming to reintroduce electoral fusion on a national level.[28] Of course, no one outside the moonbat community actually noticed this until the wingnut community, scraping the dregs for any excuse to use “Obama” and “communist” in the same sentence, happened upon it. Therefore, the New Party is most known today for the right-wing fit this nomination provoked. The nomination is so obscure that, by Wikipedia rules, it cannot be mentioned in the article on Obama. This prompted Conservapedia to call Wikipedia “fascist.”[29]
Lack of phony patriotism
Unlike many in the political arena, Obama does not routinely wear a flag pin in his lapel,[30] possibly because he can remember which country he’s President of without having to look at it every few minutes. However, he did wear one given to him by a veteran at one speech,[31] and has continued to wear one sporadically during his campaign, notably at major political events.
In yet another horrific public display, Obama was observed not putting his hand on his heart while the National Anthem was being sung.[32]
Vacations
Among a certain section of the country, it is widely believed that Obama has spent too much time on vacation, playing golf. It is an article of faith for some conservatives that this is yet another way in which he has been a demonstrably poor President. Unfortunately, Obama’s vacation days are half of Reagan’s (at this point in his presidency), and a third of the time George W. Bush spent on vacation at this point in his presidency.[33]
Abundance of melanin, etc.
His other major issues with winning over people include:
- His name terrifies illiterate rednecks:
** Barack (rhymes with Iraq, also means “blessed” in Swahili–derived from the same Semitic language root as Baruch in Hebrew)
** Hussein ('nuff said)
** Obama (spelled by Faux News as Osama)
*His skin color terrifies racist morons.
- His alleged use of mind-control terrifies quacks.
- His refusal to foam at the mouth or to cater to people’s worst hatreds and fears has failed to motivate the extreme left; he continues to blindly stick with this strategy even though his opponents successfully use such methods to motivate their base.
Several conservative blogs and commentators, suffering from a huge case of sour grapes over the election, have stated that Barack Obama is the first affirmative action President.[34] This quite idiotic and clearly bitter accusation is completely at odds with observed polling behavior related to race, known as the Bradley effect, where people of ethnic minorities get fewer votes in reality compared to polls. No one believes he is the second affirmative action President.[35]
Obama has been attacked because his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, while definitely being outspoken, has been quoted severely out of context in attempts to make him seem like an America-hating batshit crazy loon.[36][37]
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1.↑ http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/03/14/obama_condemns_pastors_remarks.html
2.↑ Barack Obama's Background Crosses Religious Boundaries
3.↑ The Seattle Times | Local news, sports, business, politics, entertainment, travel, restaurants and opinion for Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.
4.↑ http://www.qaya.org/blog/?p=555
5.↑ The Globe: Obama Has Gay Lover; Michelle Heartbroken - WENDYISTA
6.↑ Barack Obama's Background Crosses Religious Boundaries
7.↑ http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/10/obama_and_akhenaten.html
8.↑ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45878146/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/conspiracy-theory-obama-went-mars-teen/
9.↑ The Black Presidents of United States of America
10.↑ “How Obama Thinks,” Dinesh D’Souza. Forbes.
11.↑ Let’s Move!
12.↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdzCxvbe5Hg This is a clip from CBS News
13.↑ Edwards endorses Obama, praises Clinton - CNN.com
14.↑ How the Deficit Got This Big, The New York Times
15.↑ http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/ClosureOfGuantanamoDetentionFacilities/
16.↑ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090228/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_iraq
17.↑ “Obama seeks record $708 billion defense budget for 2011,” Reuters.
18.↑ http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing_room/PresidentialActions/
19.↑ http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Removing-Barriers-to-Responsible-Scientific-Research-Involving-Human-Stem-Cells/
20.↑ http://www.gallup.com/poll/142967/Among-Recent-Bills-Financial-Reform-Lone-Plus-Congress.aspx
21.↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/01/26/obama/index.html
22.↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7889950.stm
23.↑ Father Agnostic
24.↑ Father atheist
25.↑http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/04/27/president-obamas-long-form-birth-certificate
26.↑ Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution.
27.↑ “Fight the Smears: The Truth About Barack Obama and the New Party”
28.↑ New Party: October 1996 update.
29.↑ http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Examples_of_Bias_in_Wikipedia&diff=761880&oldid=761642img
30.↑ http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/10/05/obama-no-longer-wears-flag-pin/
31.↑ For One Day Only: Obama’s Flag Pin Returns
32.↑ Look at the picture and see where his hands are. His love for his country is apparent.
33.↑ http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/08/17/eveningnews/main20093801.shtml
34.↑ http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Affirmative_Action_President&oldid=380208
35.↑ Bill Clinton is the whitest person alive.
36.↑ http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/03/the-wright-post.html
37.↑ http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/03/wright-in-conte.html