Q-Notes releases N.C. primary ‘endorsement’
by Matt | April 18th, 2008 |We’ve released our North Carolina primary endorsement. Well — it isn’t quite an “endorsement.”
Over the last few weeks, we have been contacted by numerous parties representing the Democratic presidential contenders. They want to know if Q-Notes is making an endorsement for the upcoming N.C. primary, slated for May 6, and, if so, whether we are supporting Sen. Hillary Clinton or Sen. Barack Obama.
We’ve basically stalled them, waiting for the editorial staff to reach a consensus decision. However, after several meetings, the thing we’ve most come to realize is how remarkably tepid our support is for either candidate.
[…]
So, what are we saying exactly? Pick ’em! Vote your conscience and good luck to whomever wins.
However, once this political sideshow is over and the Democratic nominee is declared, get out there and work your rear end off for him or her. America cannot take another Republican administration — and, frankly, neither can we.
Read the full endorsement at the *NEW* Q-Notes Online.
And be sure to vote in our April 19 issue’s QPoll: Who will you be voting for in the May 6 N.C. primary?
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BARACK OBAMA: AN AUDACIOUS RISK
Barack Obama’s record has no history of genuine advocacy for the gay community. He “got religion” suddenly around 2004 when he ran for national office; still he spoke in extremely measured terms. Meanwhile, Obama surrounded himself with some of the most outspoken homophobes in the country. He is running on a record of words, not action.
Research into Obama’s record, the accuracy of his words, and some former close associates should put the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community on “red alert.” It seems that every week, a new piece of evidence suggests that Obama really is just another good politician, one who will say anything to advance his image and interest, even if his words clash with reality.
Before Obama ran for U.S. Senate in 2004, he was virtually unknown even in his own state. Polls showed fewer than 20 percent of Illinois voters had ever heard of Barack Obama. Yet just a little more than five years later, Senator Obama is well-poised to become out next president. He has managed to fend off the serious vetting applied to every other candidate in modern history while capturing and maintaining a growing base of supporters.
Chris Matthews, the MSNBC political pundit, recently grilled Texas State Senator Kirk Watson for supporting Obama despite knowing nothing about the candidate’s legislative record: “Can you name any — can you name anything he’s accomplished?”
Long silence
‘No, I’m not gonna be able to do that,’ Watson finally admitted.”
Review his record and decide if you believe Barack Obama is ready to become President of the United States in 2008.
I. RECORD AS ILLINOIS STATE SENATOR (1998-2004)
A. LGBT LEGISLATION: His legislative efforts included co-sponsoring three senate bills and one house bill that were introduced to amend the Illinois Human Rights Act to include the LGBT community. (Co-sponsoring a bill is a simple: you sign a form and return it. In general, it is used to signify who endorses the bill). None of the four bills he co-sponsored ever made it out of the Rules Committee.
A bill amending the Human Rights Act to include LGBT’s was passed and enacted into law during his last session. But Obama’s name was not on it. He resigned immediately after winning the race for U.S. Senate on November 4th, about two months before the session closed. A few days after he resigned, the skillful and persistent Senator Carol Ronen maneuvered an amendment banning discrimination against LGBT’s into another Human Rights Bill. She then was named primary sponsor of the bill, and it passed the Senate (with just a one-vote margin) and became law. It was a very close vote, and although Obama was in Washington, he could have taken the time to call and lobby his friends like the Reverend James Meeks and urge them to pass the bill. There is no indication that he did so. Meeks voted against it.
PUBLIC ADVOCACY: We found no evidence that Obama made any attempt to speak out publicly for LGBT causes. Despite a thorough search of Illinois state records, newspapers, magazines, blogs and other community media, we could not find a single instance of Obama speaking to or about the LGBT community. We even made a public request to the Chair of Obama’s LGBT Committee, asking for any evidence we may have missed. The campaign’s response did not contain any such evidence.
B. HIS MEAGER RECORD HAS BEEN GREATLY EMBELLISHED: The little effort he did manage to put forth has been hugely exaggerated by Obama and his campaign. For example, Obama was clearly not a co-sponsor of the bill that amended the law. He may have sponsored similar bills in the past, but he wasn’t around when the hard work of his former colleagues made it happen. That simple and clear fact, however, has not dissuaded him from claiming otherwise:
The Advocate, 10/07: “The human rights ordinance in Illinois that is the equivalent of what we’ve been attempting to do at the federal level and that I was a chief cosponsor of and then passed…”
LOGO Debate, 08/07: “If people are interested in ENDA at the federal level, they can look at who was the chief co-sponsor of Illinois’ version of ENDA, which we passed.”
Meet The Press, 11/07: “I was a co-sponsor of the human rights ordinance in Illinois that eliminated discrimination on the job, in housing and other areas for gays and lesbians in Illinois.
Note that in the first quote, he apparently felt the need to further embellish his lie and added the word “chief” to “co-sponsor.”
In another example, he speaks makes an audacious claim:
LOGO Debate, 08/07: “If people are interested in my stance on these issues, I’ve got a track record of working with the LGBT community…. And on this issue, I have been at the forefront of any of the presidential candidates.”
C. HIS ACHIEVEMENTS AS A LEGISLATOR ARE SUSPECT: Obama’s rise in the State Senate was not propelled by his own achievements. His legislative record during his first six years was unremarkable. However, Senate Leader Emil Jones believed that Obama had the charisma and background to make a run for the U.S. Senate. So Jones became Obama’s “kingmaker” by putting Obama’s name on high-profile work that was actually done by his colleagues. In fact, almost all Obama’s success, in terms of getting bills signed into law, came during his last two years - while he was campaigning nearly full-time for the U.S. Senate. Jones’ moves infuriated colleagues who had devoted enormous time and energy toward guiding the bills through the legislative process. But for Obama and Jones, the ends seem to have justified the means: Barack became a U.S. Senator. And his appetite for credit-grabbing seems to have increased.
Perhaps we should carefully consider what this means for our country: At best, it raises concerns about what Obama achieved through his own efforts. If the answer is “not so much,” the how many deals were made with the legislators whose work and potential careers were stolen in order to put a man in higher office? What will Emil Jones seek in return? How many and what sort of promises is Obama bound to?
II. RECORD AS U.S. SENATOR (2005-2008)
A. LEGISLATIVE RECORD: It’s inherently difficult to measure the performance of a first-term U.S. Senator. Obama has been in office for 39 months, 15 of which have been devoted to his presidential bid. His name is on a large amount of legislation relative to freshmen senators: According to the Congressional Record, he has sponsored 265 bills and co-sponsored 802. Just two have become law: one naming a post office and one supporting the Democracy of Congo.
He votes closely along party lines and therefore has been well aligned with the LGBT community. In 2007 he was named “The Most Liberal Senator” by the National Journal – maybe his heart was the purest or he simply followed the Party leaders straight down the line.
David Ignatius of the Washington Post summed up our research well in a March 2nd column:
“What I hear from politicians who have worked with Obama, both in Illinois state politics and here in Washington, gives me pause. They describe someone with an extraordinary ability to work across racial lines but not someone who has earned any profiles in courage for standing up to special interests or divisive party activists…[H]e also gained a reputation for skipping tough votes.”
B. PUBLIC ADVOCACY: Obama’s record of speaking publicly on LGBT issues began at the same time he snubbed the mayor of San Francisco over the city’s decision to allow same-sex marriages. Now, he speaks to LGBT issues frequently. Below is a timeline of his public comments on LGBT issues, beginning with his first, in 2004 and ending one year before the 2008 election:
•Being gay or lesbian is not a choice. (Nov 2007)
•Decisions about marriage should be left to the states. (Oct 2007)
•Homosexuality no more immoral than heterosexuality. (Oct 2007)
•Ok to expose 6-year-olds to gay couples; they know already. (Sep 2007)
•Has any marriage broken up because two gays hold hands? (Aug 2007)
•We need strong civil unions, not just weak civil unions. (Aug 2007)
•Legal rights for gays are conferred by state, not by church. (Aug 2007)
•Disentangle gay rights from the word “marriage”. (Aug 2007)
•Gay marriage is less important that equal gay rights. (Aug 2007)
•Gay rights movement is somewhat like civil rights movement. (Aug 2007)
•Let each denominations decide on recognizing gay marriage. (Jul 2007)
•Supports health benefits for gay civil partners. (Oct 2006)
•Opposes gay marriage; supports civil union & gay equality. (Oct 2006)
•Marriage not a human right; non-discrimination is. (Oct 2004)
NOTE HIS FIRST PUBLIC COMMENT on LGBT issues was “marriage is not a human right.” He made that announcement right around the time he snubbed San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom over the city’s decision to allow same-sex marriages: Former Mayor Willie Brown held a fundraiser for Obama’s campaign for U.S. Senate. The candidate had a request to Mayor Brown:
“And he said to me, he would really appreciate it if he didn’t get his photo taken with my mayor. He said he would really not like to have his picture taken with Gavin.”
Obama sent out his top gay staffer to spin this story away as ‘ridiculous’. City Hall insiders recall the incident and Mayor Newsom himself addressed the subject, albeit without calling names. Speaking to Reuters on Jan. 26, 2007, Newsom admitted he’d been hammered over the decision. “One of the three Democrats you mentioned as presidential candidates, as God is my witness, will not be photographed with me, will not be in the same room with me,” Newsom told Reuters, “even though I’ve done fundraisers for that particular person - not once, but twice - because of this issue.”
OBAMA’S PATTERN OF EXAGGERATING HIS RECORD IS NOT LIMITED TO THE LGBT COMMUNITY: On March 13th a Washington Post described several attempts of his attempts to embellish his record as a U.S. Senator:
APRIL 6th 2006: After weeks of arduous negotiations, a bipartisan group of senators emerged from a room just off the Senate chamber with a deal on new immigration policy. The group was headed to a press conference to announce their plan. On their way, they met Obama, who asked if he could “come along.” When they arrived, Obama joined them in line for the microphone, and after he took the microphone he said:
“I want to cite Lindsey Graham, Sam Brownback, Mel Martinez, Ken Salazar, myself, Dick Durbin, Joe Lieberman . . . who’ve actually had to wake up early to try to hammer this stuff out.” The staff members who had been arriving at 7 a.m. each morning for weeks were shocked. Those morning sessions had attracted just three to four senators a side, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) recalled, each deeply involved in the issue. Obama was not one of them.”
MARCH 13TH 2008: Just after the fall of Bear Stearns, Sen. Christopher Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank unveiled their legislative proposals to help homeowners facing foreclosure. Obama did not write or help formulate any of the bills. He did not attend the afternoon press conference. Nonetheless, the next day he sought top-billing on Dodd’s proposal: Obama announced to the press: “At this moment, we must come together and act to address the housing crisis that set this downturn in motion and continues to eat away at the public’s confidence in the market. We should pass the legislation I put forward with my colleague Chris Dodd…” Dodd, an Obama supporter, pulled the candidate aside and told Obama he was could not assign authorship to him – because he had not been involved. Translation: Sen. Dodd — who recently endorsed Obama — politely said that had Obama lied.
IV. RADICAL, ANTI-AMERICAN, RACIST, HATE-MONGERING RELIGIOUS LEADERS
OBAMA HAS FAR SCARIER “CLOSE SPIRITUAL ADVISORS” THAN PASTOR JEREMIAH WRIGHT:
How could he be so close to these radical homophobic religious leaders for so many years, yet utterly ignore the gay and lesbian community all the while?
Obama’s “close spiritual advisor,” close political strategist and supporter, and senate colleague is on a national “top ten” list of homophobic, hate-mongering religious leaders. The REVEREND AND ILLINOIS STATE SENATOR JAMES MEEKS (AND SUPERDELEGATE!) is the pastor of the combined 22,000-member Salem Baptist Church and House-of-Hope mega-church on Chicago’s South Side. In 2006 he ran for governor of Illinois. Meeks and Senator Obama are long-time friends. Obama describes THIS radical race-baiter that has declared homosexuality an “evil sickness” as one of his “closest religious advisors.”
Meeks was recently caught on video while discussing the topic of race. Meeks said: “You got some preachers that are house niggers. You got some elected officials that are house niggers. And rather than them trying to break this up, they gonna’ fight you to protect this white man!” When asked about his usage of the “N-word,” Meeks replied: “No one will be offended, except an individual that it applies to.”
Meeks’s sermons have also called white mayors “slave masters” and denigrated moderate black politicians with the “n” word. Nor is he backing away from those slimy views. He has reiterated and defended them in recent interviews with Chicago’s local news media.
REVEREND MEEKS AND OBAMA
Mar 04: Meeks’ church was Obama’s last stop on the night he won the Democratic primary election for U.S. Senate.4
Apr 04: Senate campaign Meeks appeared in televised campaign ads for Obama Senate campaign2 and Obama campaigned at Meeks’ Salem Baptist church2.
Jan 05: During the critical period in enacting Illinois’ ENDA-like law, Obama was apparently unable or unwilling to convince Meeks to at least not vote against the bill – which would have failed had it received one less vote.12
Nov 05: OBAMA APPOINTS MEEKS TO HIS EXPLORATORY COMMITTEE FOR THE PRESIDENCY.3
Jan 06: Meeks’ church choir performed at a rally for Obama the night he announced he would run for president.5
May 06: Obama delivers a fiery speech at Meek’s church: “I’ve had enough of folks not telling the truth. I’ve had enough of people manipulating intelligence, fudging numbers and distorting what’s happening,”
2008: Meeks is listed on Obama’s campaign website of influential black supporters.
REVEREND MEEKS AND HOMOPHOBIA
Mar 03: Black Illinois LGBT groups formed a protest at his office over his refusal to meet with them to discuss human rights legislation.10 Meeks insisted the bill would “lead to gay marriage.11
May 03: Chicago Sun-Times columnist Laura Washington described Meeks8: “Senator Meeks still serves as pastor of Salem Baptist Church…he has said that the bible says that gays should not marry or have sex. He has spoken about not wanting sissies in his church and that the women of his church should protect their men from the sissies.”
Ma 06: During his campaign for governor, Meeks announced13: “Come on with me, white churches. Call me and tell me to run for governor. You’ll have [Republican nominee], who believes in abortion and gay rights and [Democratic Gov.], who believes in abortion and gay rights. Theologically, politically, for the white conservative voter, I’m their guy. I have their philosophy.”
Mar 06: In a televised Sunday morning sermon, Meeks complained about “Hollywood Jews for bringing us Brokeback Mountain.”10
Oct 06: Meeks’ church sponsored a “Halloween fright night” which “consigned to the flames of hell two mincing young men wearing body glitter who were supposed to be homosexuals.”14
Feb 07: A newsletter by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) included “10 leading black religious voices in the anti-gay movement.” According to their profile of Obama’s “spiritual advisor:”9 “Last year, he ran for governor as a virtual single-issue candidate, drawing national support from Christian fundamentalists by boldly vowing to fight marriage equality at every turn.”
ILLINOIS STATE SENATE SPEAKER EMIL JONES: Obama’s second problem is his most important patron in Illinois politics: his “kingmaker,” Illinois State Senate Leader Emil Jones. Jones engineered Obama’s rise in state politics and into the U.S. Senate. Now that Obama is on the national stage, his ties to Jones raise uncomfortable questions about his years in Illinois politics. Jones is an old-fashioned, wheeler-dealer from the days of the Cook County Democratic machine.
Jones, a former sewer inspector for the city of Chicago, is an unabashedly old-fashioned politician. He has relatives on the state payroll, steers state grants to favorite organizations and uses his clout to punish enemies and bury inconvenient legislation. Obama supporters see the alliance as an example of his ability to get things done by working with all kinds of people. Critics see it as hypocrisy — Obama refusing to speak out against the kinds of abuse he claims to oppose.
Jones helped Obama prior to his run for the US senate by assigning high profile legislation to the candidate thus filling out his fairly pathetic record as a state senator. Most of Obama’s “accomplshments” in Springfield were the result of Jones allowing Obama a prominent role in getting legislation through the senate - legislation that in many cases had been introduced and championed over the years by other lawmakers.
At one point during Obama’s 2003 Senate campaign, Jones set out to woo two African-American politicians miffed by Obama’s presumption and ambition. One of them, Rickey “Hollywood” Hendon, a state senator, had scoffed that Obama was so ambitious he would run for “king of the world” if the position were vacant. When Jones secured the two men’s support, Obama asked his mentor how he had pulled it off. “I made them an offer,” Jones said in mock-mafioso style. “And you don’t want to know.”
Jones sought to unify black Chicago behind Obama in February 2007. Jones told black a large gathering of black Democrats they don’t “owe” anyone, alluding to, but not mentioning by name, Bill and Hillary Clinton. “Obama is our son,” said Jones.
Jones is now at the centre of a long row over his attempt to block proposed laws cracking down on his state’s “pay-to-play” tradition – whereby companies hoping to win government contracts have to contribute to the campaign funds of officials. Jones’s staff say he blocked the bill because he intends to produce something tougher. No proposals have appeared. That intensifying scrutiny may soon lead to Jones’s Illinois door, and to further uncomfortable insights into the unflattering political realities that accompanied Obama’s climb from obscurity.
NEW BLACK PANTHER PARTY LEADER MALIK ZULU SHABBAZZ — has endorsed Obama for president; an endorsement carried on Obama’s own website. These are the same Black Panthers who proclaim:
“We believe that Black People should not be forced to fight in the military service to defend a racist government that holds us captive and does not protect us. We will not fight and kill other people of color in the world who, like Black People, are being victimized by the white racist government of America. As our political objective, we want NATIONAL LIBERATION in a separate state or territory of our own, here or elsewhere, ‘a liberated zone’ (’New Africa’ or Africa), and a plebiscite to be held throughout the BLACK NATION in which only we will be allowed to participate for the purposes of determining our will and DIVINE destiny as a people. FREE THE LAND!”
DONNIE MCCLURKIN: McClurkin is one of three gospel acts performed on Obama’s “HOPE” tour in South Carolina. McClurkin says this about homosexuality: “I don’t believe that it is the intention of God and that we can simply pray away the gay.” Despite vocal protests from the LGBT community, including a personal phone call from Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, Obama refused to remove McClurkin from the tour. The three-stop tour was meant to shore up Obama’s position with black voters before South Carolina’s primary. Mr. Solmonese said: “There is no gospel in Donnie McClurkin’s message for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and their allies. That’s a message that certainly doesn’t belong on any presidential candidate’s stage.”
REV. KIRBYJON CALDWELL is the influential conservative black leader who has been a spiritual advisor to President Bush for seven years. Caldwell’s church offers his 14,000-member congregation a ministry to cure homosexuals (the church’s web page on the topic has been taken down). On Saturday, January 21st Obama picked up his endorsement. The very next day Obama went on to win countless LGBT hearts when he told Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church “We have scorned our gay brothers and sisters instead of embracing them.”
“People are confused,” said Wayne Besen, a gay activist and founder of Truth Wins Out, a New York organization aimed at countering the “ex-gay” movement. “We see one report of him saying powerful words. Then he is hanging out with some shady characters. People don’t know what to make of that.”
MINISTER FARRAKHAN - How close is he to Obama’s church, and his former Pastor of 20 years? Just months before Oprah endorsed Obama, the Church published an open letter by ALI BAGHDADI, Farrakhan’s Middle East adviser, to America’s richest woman in advance of her trip to Israel with ELIE WIESEL: “I must tell you that Israel was the closest ally to the White Supremacists of South Africa. In fact, South Africa allowed Israel to test its nuclear weapons in the ocean off South Africa. The Israelis were given a blank check: they could test whenever they desired and did not even have to ask permission. Both worked on an ethnic bomb that kills Blacks and Arabs.”
THE CLEVELAND DEBATE offered some genuine insight into the integrity between Barack and Hillary as well as the difficulties Obama will face regarding his past associations. Moderator Tim Russert asked Obama if he would repudiate the endorsement of his long-time constituent and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan’s has a long record of vicious racial attacks, from denigrating the Holocaust to accusing Jewish people of victimizing African Americans. Obama offered a hedged his words carefully: “I have been very clear in my denunciation of Farrakhan’s history of anti-Semitic remarks,” adding that Farrakhan is free to “say that he thinks I’m a good guy.”
Senator Clinton suggested Obama’s comments weren’t good enough, citing her record of rejecting controversial support. “There’s a difference between denouncing and rejecting,” she countered, “And I made it very clear that if I did not want their support, I rejected it,” she said, “I would not be associated with people” that make such comments. Only after being pressed in the spotlight, Obama buckled and said: “I would reject and denounce.”
V. “IS AMERICA SAFE WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA?”
Two of Obama’s most senior advisors, Samantha Power and Austin Goolsbee, have been forced to resign after explaining to foreign audiences that Obama doesn’t actually mean to follow through on what he says on the campaign trail. Every day more and more facts bring to light glaring inconsistencies between Obama’s image and his record. We may be just a few close votes away from handing the White House to an inexperienced, untested, overly ambitious candidate that has glossed over major flaws in his resume.
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1 http://www.barackobama.com
2 http://www.hillaryclinton.com/coalitions/lgbtforhillary/watchparties/lgbtrights.pdf
3 http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/lgbt.pdf
4 http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/ObamaBlueprintForChange.
5 http://www.lugar.senate.gov/services/pdf_crs/Introducing_a_Senate_Bill_or_Resolution.pdf1
6 http://www.ilga.gov/
7 http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid50021.asp
8 http://www.gop.com/News/NewsRead.aspx?Guid=6033e21b-b101-4e18-9ae9-b076c1ba4fab
9 http://www.thomas.loc.gov
10 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-02-28/news/barack-obama-screamed-at-me/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/23/AR2008032301706.html?sid%3DST2008032401106&sub=new
By JOHN NORRIS on Apr 22, 2008