What has your candidate done for Americans?

[Yeledaf]

Originally Posted by paperhouse

Hope. LOL. Change? LOL. What about actually doing something?

You and I differ on this issue. I prefer inspiration in a candidate. "Doing something" in the terms you describe involves deal-cutting, compromise, and piles and piles of cash.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ron Paul doesn't need money, hops over tall buildings, and his sh*t smells like ice cream.

Dream on.

I like my politicians to serve as metaphors, not gophers.

Unlike you, I'm a realist.

[bily4]

Here are a couple examples of Obama's ability to drive change.

The problem he wanted to address was that too many confessions, rather than being voluntary, were coerced -- by beating the daylights out of the accused.
Obama proposed requiring that interrogations and confessions be videotaped. There were Republicans who were automatically tough on crime and Democrats who feared being thought soft on crime. There were death penalty abolitionists, some of whom worried that Obama's bill, by preventing the execution of innocents, would deprive them of their best argument. Vigorous opposition came from the police, too many of whom had become accustomed to using muscle to "solve" crimes. And the incoming governor, Rod Blagojevich, announced that he was against it.

Obama proved persuasive enough that the bill passed both houses of the legislature, the Senate by an incredible 35 to 0. Then he talked Blagojevich into signing the bill, making Illinois the first state to require such videotaping.

He played a major role in passing many other bills, including the state's first earned-income tax credit to help the working poor and the first ethics and campaign finance law in 25 years (a law a Post story said made Illinois "one of the best in the nation on campaign finance disclosure").

Obama's commitment to ethics continued in the U.S. Senate, where he co-authored the new lobbying reform law that, among its hard-to-sell provisions, requires lawmakers to disclose the names of lobbyists who "bundle" contributions for them.

Charles Peters - Judge Him by His Laws - washingtonpost.com

[MamaBee]

Representative Ron Paul: Here's what my candidate has done for America

H.J.RES.15 : Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relative to abolishing personal income, estate, and gift taxes and prohibiting the United States Government from engaging in business in competition with its citizens.

H.R.153 : To restore the second amendment rights of all Americans.

H.R.487 : To repeal the Military Selective Service Act.

H.R.220 : To amend title II of the Social Security Act and the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to protect the integrity and confidentiality of Social Security account numbers issued under such title, to prohibit the establishment in the Federal Government of any uniform national identifying number, and to prohibit Federal agencies from imposing standards for identification of individuals on other agencies or persons.

H.R.616 : To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 with respect to the purchase of prescription drugs by individuals who have attained retirement age, and to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to the importation of prescription drugs and the sale of such drugs through Internet sites.

H.R.701 : To restore to the original owners certain lands that the Federal Government took for military purposes in 1940.

H.R.938 : To prohibit Federal payments to any individual, business, institution, or organization that engages in human cloning.

H.R.1146 : To end membership of the United States in the United Nations.

H.R.1247 : To ensure and foster continued patient safety and quality of care by exempting health care professionals from the Federal antitrust laws in their negotiations with health plans and health insurance issuers.

H.R.1287 : To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to make health care coverage more accessible and affordable.

H.R.1548 : To prohibit any Federal official from expending any Federal funds for any population control or population planning program or any family planning activity.


H.R.2778 : To abolish the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks, to repeal the Federal Reserve Act, and for other purposes.

H.R.4118 : To ensure that the courts interpret the Constitution in the manner that the Framers intended.

H.R.5236 : To prohibit the use of Federal funds for any universal or mandatory mental health screening program.

[MamaBee]

Now if only those could get out of committee!

[Manigault]

How many bills has Ron Paul nursed through to enactment? He's a libertarian and a little loony on foreign aid.

As to helping America, Obama, as an Ivy League graduate, was a community activist in Altgeld Gardens in Chicago. He wasn't lining his pockets doing that and it wasn't the best way to try to get into Harvard Law.

After Law School, he wasn't a judge's clerk for personal aggrandizement (as many of the law reviewers do) but he went to work in a firm which had lots of community credentials and whose name partner was the corporation counsel for Chicago Mayor Harold Washington.

Sometimes not chasing the buck but using your talents where they are needed can be very good for the community.

By the way, Obama never lived with his father in Kenya and never lived in the middle east, whatever definition you use. Let's deal with the issues, not Nostradamus.

[backfist]

Originally Posted by paperhouse

Hope. LOL. Change? LOL. What about actually doing something?

Feel free to check these records for yourself:

Clinton v. Obama on Legislative Experience:

Senator Clinton, who has served one full term (6yrs.), and another year campaigning, has managed to author and pass into law, (20) twenty pieces of legislation in her first six years.

These bills can be found on the website of the Library of Congress (www.thomas.loc.gov), but to save you trouble, I'll post them here for you:

1. Establish the Kate Mullany National Historic Site.
2. Support the goals and ideals of Better Hearing and Speech Month.
3. Recognize the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
4. Name courthouse after Thurgood Marshall.
5. Name courthouse after James L. Watson.
6. Name post office after Jonn A. O'Shea.
7. Designate Aug. 7, 2003, as National Purple Heart Recognition Day.
8. Support the goals and ideals of National Purple Heart Recognition Day.
9. Honor the life and legacy of Alexander Hamilton on the bicentennial of his death.
10. Congratulate the Syracuse Univ. Orange Men's Lacrosse Team on winning the championship.
11. Congratulate the Le Moyne College Dolphins Men's Lacrosse Team on winning the championship.
12. Establish the 225th Anniversary of the American Revolution Commemorative Program.
13. Name post office after Sergeant Riayan A. Tejeda.
14. Honor Shirley Chisholm for her service to the nation and express condolences on her death.
15. Honor John J. Downing, Brian Fahey, and Harry Ford, firefighters who lost their lives on duty. Only five of Clinton's bills are, more substantive.
16. Extend period of unemployment assistance to victims of 9/11.
17. Pay for city projects in response to 9/11
18. Assist landmine victims in other countries.
19. Assist family caregivers in accessing affordable respite care.
20. Designate part of the National Forest System in Puerto Rico as protected in the wilderness preservation system.

There you have it, the fact's straight from the Senate Record.

Now, I would post those of Obama's, but the list is too substantive, so I'll mainly categorize.

During the first (8) eight months of his elected service he sponsored over 820 bills. He introduced:

233 regarding healthcare reform,
125 on poverty and public assistance,
112 crime fighting bills,
97 economic bills,
60 human rights and anti-discrimination bills,
21 ethics reform bills,
15 gun control,
6 veterans affairs and many others.

His first year in the U.S. Senate, he authored 152 bills and co-sponsored another 427. These inculded
**the Coburn-Obama Government Transparency Act of 2006 (became law),
**The Lugar-Obama Nuclear Non-proliferation and Conventional Weapons Threat Reduction Act, (became law),
**The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act, passed the Senate,
**The 2007 Government Ethics Bill, (became law),
**The Protection Against Excessive Executive Compensation Bill, (In committee), and many more.

In all since he entered the U.S. Senate, Senator Obama has written 820 bills and co-sponsored another 1096. An impressive record, for someone who supposedly has no legislative record.

[paperhouse]

Originally Posted by Yeledaf

I like my politicians to serve as metaphors.

Unlike you, I'm a realist.

So this change is about race? I figured as much. I am very real in my trust that it will work out so that people at least realize what they are doing to this country is wrong.