Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

RINO

2012-02-12T04:56:11Z

TBush: lots of RINOs in my native New York

[[File:Kel-rino.jpg|thumb|250px|Sergeant [[Jesse Kelly]] runs for Congress in Arizona in 2009 and attacks the RINOs in the GOP]]
A '''RINO''' ('''R'''epublican '''i'''n '''N'''ame '''O'''nly) is an officeholder or candidate who is a member of the [[Republican Party]], but holds views outside the mainstream Republican Party. The term "RINO" describes politicians who claim to be [[Republican Party|Republican]] but are in fact [[liberal]], and therefore generally debase the winning conservative coalition base of the Republican Party. RINOs provide support for raising taxes, [[abortion]] as [[Pro-choice|a right]], [[gay rights]] and [[gun control]].

RINOs and Reform Democrats typically come from states in [[New England]], the [[Mid-Atlantic]]; or states on the [[West Coast]]. A less-used term is '''[[cafeteria conservative]]''', for a person who picks and chooses which [[conservative]] principles to believe, as a person might choose foods in a cafeteria instead of ordering the full-course ''menu'' selected by the chef at most restaurants.<ref>[http://www.manp.org/association-spotlight/archives/james-carville-mary-matalin-he-said-she-said James Carville & Mary Matalin: He Said, She Said]</ref> In contrast to RINO's and cafeteria conservatives, [[movement conservative]]s understand that since conservative philosophy is a coherent whole, it is untenable to discard part of it without discarding all of it.

The targets of attack argue they follow [[middle of the road]] policies and are not liberals; they claim they get results, and insist that without them the [[United States Congress|Congress]] would be totally controlled by liberal [[Democratic Party|Democrats]] and Republicans would rarely have any success. Conservatives respond that in the heyday of "Rockefeller liberalism" in the GOP the Democrats always controlled Congress, and the GOP only took power when [[Newt Gingrich]] launched a national conservative "Contract with America" in 1994, ending 40 years of Democratic control of the [[United States House of Representatives|House]].

In recent Republican [[Primary election|primaries]], voters have been rejecting establishment RINOs in favor of those with stronger conservative principles. Their commitment to self and not party is evident in their refusal to endorse the candidate that beats them. In some instances, they refuse the will of the voters and their party by running for office on an [[Independent candidate|independent ticket]]. It is important to vote for someone who's more conservative on the issues rather than for a Republican because anyone can join a party and be they can be RINOs.

== RINOs ==
*Senator [[Olympia J. Snowe]] of [[Maine]]

*Senator [[Susan Collins]] of [[Maine]]

*Senator [[Lindsey Graham]] of [[South Carolina]]

*Senator [[Scott Brown]] of [[Massachusetts]]

*Senator [[Lisa Murkowski]] of [[Alaska]]

*Senator [[Mark Kirk]] of [[Illinois]]

*Senator [[Richard Lugar]] of [[Indiana]]

*Senator [[John McCain]] of [[Arizona]]

*Senator [[Kay Bailey Hutchison]] of [[Texas]]

*Governor [[Mitch Daniels]] of [[Indiana]]

*Former Senator [[George Voinovich]] of [[Ohio]]

*Former Senator [[Gordon Smith]] of [[Oregon]]

*Former Senator [[Charles Mathias]] of [[Maryland]]

*Former Senator [[Bob Bennett]] of [[Utah]]

*Former Senator [[Chuck Hagel]] of [[Nebraska]]

*Former Vice-President and Senator [[Nelson Rockefeller]] of [[New York]]

*Former Congressman [[Christopher Shays]] of [[Connecticut]]

*Former Congressman [[Tom Campbell]] of [[California]]

*Former Congressman [[Michael Castle]] of [[Delaware]]

*Former Congressman [[Joseph Cao]] of [[Louisiana]]

*Former Congressman [[Joe Scarborough]] of [[Florida]]

*Former Governor [[Jon Huntsman, Jr.]] of [[Utah]]

*Former Governor [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]] of [[California]]

*Former Governor [[Linda Lingle]] of [[Hawaii]]

*Former Governor [[George Pataki]] of [[New York]]

*Former Governor and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator [[Christine Todd Whitman]] of [[New Jersey]]

*Former Secretary of State [[Colin Powell]]

*Former Secretary of [[Homeland Security]] [[Tom Ridge]].

*Former Press Secretary [[Scott McClellan]]

*Former [[New York City]] Mayor [[Rudy Giuliani]]

*Former New York Congressional Candidate [[Dede Scozzafava]]

*Transportation Secretary [[Ray Lahood]]

*Lawyer [[Ted Olson]] of [[California]]

*State Senator Allan Kittleman of [[Maryland]], for promoting homosexual [[special rights]]<ref>[http://voices.washingtonpost.com/annapolis/2011/02/gop_senator_announces_support.html GOP senator announces support for Md. same-sex marriage bill]</ref>

*Commentator [[Meghan McCain]], daughter of John McCain

*Columnist [[David Frum]]

*Columnist [[David Brooks]]

*Actor [[Clint Eastwood]], for promoting homosexual special rights<ref>[http://news.yahoo.com/clint-eastwood-supports-gay-marriage-sort-231410225.html Clint Eastwood on same-sex "marriage"]</ref>

==Former RINOs==

*Former Senator [[Arlen Specter]] of [[Pennsylvania]], who became a Democrat in 2009.

*Former Senator [[Lincoln Chafee]] of [[Rhode Island]], who became an Independent in 2007.

*Former Senator [[Lowell Weicker]] of [[Connecticut]], who left the party and formed his own local one in 1990, then became an Independent in 1995.

*[[New York City]] Mayor [[Michael Bloomberg]], who became an Independent in 2007.

*Former Senator [[Jim Jeffords]] of [[Vermont]], who left the Party and became a Democrat in 2001, giving control of the [[United States Senate|Senate]] to the Democrats.

*Former Governor [[Charlie Crist]] of [[Florida]], who became an independent in 2010 after it was clear he would lose his Senate bid.

*Former Representative [[John Anderson]] of [[Illinois]], who became an Independent after losing his party's presidential primary in 1980.

*Former President [[Theodore Roosevelt]], because he regulated the economy and used social justice.

==RINO McCain==

A majority of conservatives distrust RINO [[John McCain]] even though many of his policies are that of a true conservative. Key RINO principles rejected by McCain include support for [[gay rights]], support for [[abortion]], and support for [[earmark]]s. He has positioned his career as a bipartisan moderate, reaching across the aisle whenever possible. This is also his downfall. The era of reaching across the aisle passed -- when [[statist]], [[socialist]] Democrats became Senators. His major political blunders mostly came during the 21st century political period. He was against both the Reagan and Bush [[tax cuts]], and employed [[class warfare]] rhetoric in trying to stop the tax cuts from taking effect. His support for amnesty was the complete opposite of what conservatives wanted. He has always complained about [[waterboarding|enhanced interrogation techniques]], calling them "[[torture]]". In non-election years, he likes to trash conservative positions and icons in order to get the [[Mainstream media|media]]'s and Democrats' approval. However, during the election he refused to go after [[Barack Hussein Obama]]'s associations with [[Jeremiah Wright]]. He believes in the junk science known as [[global warming]], and has supported cap-and-trade programs. Another [[Middle East]] war, without a goal, without full commitment to win, without Congressional approval- McCain supports the President. It didn't stop there and in July 2011, he called the [[Tea Party]], the people that care about fiscal sanity in Washington, they are "hobbits".

The sacrifices he has made serving this country cannot be overlooked. John McCain has earned war hero status but also the status as a D.C. zero.

==External Links==
* [http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/05/1615233/in-senate-primary-california-republicans.html In Senate primary, California Republicans run away from RINO label]
* [http://www.commieblaster.com/RINO/index.html CommieBlaster RINO Index]

==See Also==
*[[PLINO]] - [[pro-life]] in name only
*[[XINO]] - [[Christian]] in name only
*[[Republican Party]]
*[[Moderate Republican]]
*[[Conservative Democrat]]
*[[Blue Dog Democrat]]
*[[Reagan Democrat]]
*[[Catholic in name only]]
*[[Liberal media conservative]]

{{Liberalism}}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Conservative]]
[[Category:Republican Party]]

Essay: Gingrich Administration

2011-12-19T02:22:39Z

TBush: rv vandalism

The '''Gingrich Administration''' is the expected leadership of the [[Executive Branch]] of the [[United States]] government from 2013 to 2017, assuming that [[Newt Gingrich]] wins the [[Presidential Election 2012]].

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Position
!Conservapedia Prediction
!Actual Appointment
|-
|[[President]]
|[[Newt Gingrich]]
|
|-
|[[Vice President]]
|[[Rick Perry]] <ref> Arguably the second strongest Republican candidate, it would be a very wise political decision for Gingrich to choose him as a Vice President to unite his party, like how Ronald Reagan appointed George W. Bush as his Vice President after he won the Republican nomination in 1980</ref>
|
|-
|[[Secretary of State]]
|[[Sarah Palin]]
|
|-
|[[Secretary of Defense]]
|[[John McCain]]
|
|-
|[[Secretary of Health and Human Services]]
|[[Mike Huckabee]]
|
|-
|[[Attorney General]]
|can't be [[Chris Christie]]<ref>Christie is a huge (no pun intended) supporter of [[Mitt Romney]].</ref>
|
|-
|[[White House Press Secretary]]
|a [[Fox News Channel]] analyst
|
|}

== See also ==

*[[Presidential Election 2012]]
*[[Endorsements 2012]]
*[[Swing States 2012]]

== References ==

<references/>

[[Category:politics]]

Allen West

2011-12-16T01:55:56Z

TBush:

{{Officeholder
|name=Allen West
|image=Allen-west.jpg
|party=[[Republican]]
|spouse=Angela West
|religion=Christian
|offices=
{{Officeholder/representative
|state=Florida
|district=22nd
|terms=January 3, 2011 - Present
|preceded=[[Ron Klein]]
|former=n
|succeeded=
}}

}}

'''Allen West''' (born February 7, 1961 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former United States Army Lieutenant Colonel and the current [[Republican]] Representative of [[Florida]]'s 22nd congressional district. West received his Bachelors degree from University of Tennessee and Masters degree from Kansas State University, both in political science. He also holds a Master of Military Arts and Sciences from the US Army Command and General Staff Officer College in political theory and military operations.

His military career includes serving in several combat zones: [[Operation Desert Storm]], in [[Operation Iraqi Freedom]], where he was battalion commander for the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, and in [[Afghanistan]], where he trained Afghan officers. Also, West taught a year of high school in Broward County, Florida. West had the support of the [[Senate Conservatives Fund]] and the [[Tea Party Movement]]. Critics of the Tea Party occasionally slander it by claiming it's inherently racist, yet most likely haven't heard of West, and other conservative African-American members.

He is married to Angela and they have two children.

==Quotes==
{{cquote| His parents instilled in him a very basic principle, love of [[God]] and Country.}}
{{cquote|If Joseph Goebbels was around, he’d be very proud of the Democrat Party, because they have an incredible propaganda machine.<ref>http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/199821-rep-west-nazi-goebbels-would-be-very-proud-of-the-democrat-party</ref>}}

==External Links==
* [http://allenwestforcongress.com Campaign website]
* [http://www.facebook.com/ElectAllenWest Facebook page]
* [http://twitter.com/AllenWest2010 Twitter page]
* [http://www.youtube.com/AllenWestForCongress YouTube channel]
* [http://www.flickr.com/photos/AllenWest Fickr page]

==References==
<references>
[[Category:2010 Midterm Elections]]
[[Category:Republican Party]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Tea Party Movement]]
[[Category:Conservatives]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:West, Allen}}
{{conservatism}}

Utah

2011-12-16T01:42:41Z

TBush: /* Notable people from Utah */

{{USState
|name=Utah
|flag=Utah_State_Flag.gif
|motto="Industry"
|nick=The Beehive State
|capital=Salt Lake City
|language=English
|governor=Gary Herbert
|gparty=Republican
|senator2=Mike Lee
|s2party=Republican
|s2phone=(202) 224-5444
|s2email=http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/senators/one_item_and_teasers/Lee_Mike.htm Contact
|senator1=Orrin Hatch
|s1party=Republican
|s1phone=(202) 224-5251
|s1email=http://hatch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Offices.Contact Contact
|population=
|date=January 4, 1896 (45th)
}}

'''Utah''', known as the ''Beehive State'', is the forty-fifth state to enter into the union, achieving statehood on Jan. 4, 1896. Approximately 62% of Utah's residents are members of [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints]] ([[Mormons]]), although this number is on the wane.
<ref>http://www.sltrib.com/ci_2886596</ref>

The state's capital and largest city is [[Salt Lake City]]. The Great Salt Lake, located in northern Utah, is the largest saltwater lake in the Western hemisphere. <ref>http://www.utah.com/stateparks/great_salt_lake.htm</ref>

The state bird is the California Seagull. The state insect is the European Honey Bee.

==History==

The first permanent European settlement of Utah came in 1847 when members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, led by [[Brigham Young]], settled there, which ended their long westward trek to escape persecution. Peace would prove illusory, as relations with [[Native American]]s and white non-Mormons would turn sour. The infamous [[Mountain Meadows Massacre]] of 1857 led to over 100 deaths. <ref>[http://www.lds.org/portal/site/LDSOrg/menuitem.b12f9d18fae655bb69095bd3e44916a0/?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=1c234dc029133110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&locale=0 The Mountain Meadows Massacre]</ref> <ref>http://www.cesnur.org/testi/morm_01.htm</ref> Utah was admitted into the Union in 1896, after the Church banned [[polygamy]] on the basis that a new revelation from God had commanded this.

==Politics==

Utah is among the reddest of red states, having elected [[President Bush]] by some of the highest margins of any state in both 2000 and 2004 and supporting [[John McCain]] in 2008. [[Salt Lake City]] is generally the only exception, having a mayor, Rocky Anderson, who is very liberal. <ref>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17154193/</ref> Both of the state's Senators ([[Orrin Hatch]] and [[Mike Lee]]) are [[Republican]]s, and two out of the state's three Representatives are Republicans. <ref>http://www.govtrack.us/congress/findyourreps.xpd?state=UT</ref>

==Elected Officials==

===Federal===
*Sen. [[Orrin Hatch]] (R)
*Sen. [[Mike Lee]] (R)
*Rep. [[Rob Bishop]] [R, UT-01]
*Rep. [[Jim Matheson]] [D, UT-02]
*Rep. [[Jason Chaffetz]] [R, UT-03]

===Statewide===
*Governor [[Gary Herbert]] (R)
*Lt. Governor [[Gregory Bell]] (R)

==Out of wedlock births==

Utah has the lowest rate in the nation of out of wedlock births at 18%. The highest is Mississippi with 53%.<ref>San Diego Union-Tribune Newspaper, Nov. 9th, 2008</ref>

==Notable people from Utah==

*[[Orson Scott Card]], science-fiction writer best known for the ''Ender's Game'' series, has lived in Orem.
*[[Orrin Hatch]] - Republican U.S. Senator from Utah, serving since 1977.
*[[Jon Huntsman, Jr.]], 2012 presidential candidate.
*[[Thomas S. Monson]], President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as of 2008, was born in Salt Lake City.
*[[Ken Jennings]], who made a record 74 straight appearances on the game show ''Jeopardy'', lives in Utah.
*[[Donny Osmond]] and [[Marie Osmond]] - singers and actors; both were born in Ogden.
*[[Brigham Young]], perhaps the most important person in the history of the founding of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints other than the founder, Joseph Smith, Jr., was part of the aforementioned settling of the state in the 1840s.
*[[Steve Young]] - Hall of Fame quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers. Steve is a direct descendant of [[Brigham Young]].
*[[Mario Capecchi]] - Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for "Discoveries for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells."

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

==See Also==
*[[Bountiful Utah Temple]]
*[[Logan Utah Temple]]
*[[Manti Utah Temple]]
*[[Monticello Utah Temple]]

{{USstates}}
[[Category:Utah]]

Swing States 2012

2011-12-16T00:58:56Z

TBush:

Here are the key swing states for the [[Presidential Election 2012]], ranked by likelihood that [[Barack Obama]] will likely lose them despite winning them in 2008. These eight swing states will have a total of 122 [[Electoral College]] votes in 2012. (In 2008 Obama won by a margin of only six states.)

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!State
!Margin of [[Obama]]'s win in 2008
!Indicators
!Electoral Votes in 2012
|-
|Indiana
|1.03%
|Indiana was a red state from 1964 to 2004, and when Obama took the state in 2008 it was by a very narrow margin. Obama is currently very unpopular in the state
|11
|-
|Virginia
|
|Elected a Republican governor, [[Bob McDonnell]], in 2009. In the 2011 elections the Republican party took the state senate, giving them control over both houses of the legislature
|13
|-
|Pennsylvania
|10.3%
|Obama's disapproval rating is high: 54%, and [[Republicans]] swept the elections in 2010; also, Obama polled poorly here in 2008 against [[Hillary Clinton]].<ref>[http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1327.xml?ReleaseID=1653 Quinnipiac poll done late September 2011]</ref>
|20
|-
|Florida
|
|Elected a Republican for both governor and Senate in the 2010 midterm elections; however, Governor [[Rick Scott]] is currently (Dec. 2011) very unpopular in the state.
|29
|-
|Ohio
|
|
|18
|-
|Wisconsin
|
|Elected Republicans to the state legislature, governor's office, and Senate in 2010. Despite much complaining by Democrats and their [[labor union]] allies, recall attempts in 2011 failed to overturn the GOP majority in the state senate.
|10
|-
|North Carolina
|
|The current [[Democratic]] governor, [[Bev Perdue]], is highly unpopular and polling badly, especially in the wake of recent scandals among her staff.
|15
|-
|Nevada
|
|A recent special election for the state's 2nd congressional district was predicted to be competitive but resulted in a decisive victory for [[Republican]] [[Mark Amodei]]. [[Harry Reid]] won reelection in 2010 despite [[Tea Party]] opposition, but this may have been due to discrepancies and corruption in the voting process.
|6
|-
|Colorado
|
|
|9
|-
|Michigan
|
|Mitt Romney, though not ideal for the average conservative, grew up in Michigan and could put it into play
|16
|-
|Iowa
|
|
|6
|-
|New Hampshire
|
|
|4
|-
|New Mexico
|
|
|5
|}

== See also ==

*[[Presidential Election 2012]]
*[[Endorsements 2012]]

== External links ==

*[http://www.tnr.com/article/the-vital-center/95467/obama-mccain-elections-gop-democrats Analysis of Electoral College and popular vote]

== References ==

<references/>

[[Category:politics]]

Facebook

2011-12-16T00:54:34Z

TBush:

[[Image:Newfacebooklogo3.jpg|right]]
'''Facebook''' (stylized '''facebook''') is a [[social networking]] website originally available only to college students, but was soon opened up to the public at large 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, by interfering with marriages and personal relationships, and by acting like a busybody.

One survey conducted showed 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><ref>http://m.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/facebook-overuse-can-lead-to-psychological-disorders-in-youth/2389</ref>

Other studies done have shown that the use of Facebook is associated with poorer performance in school. Facebook use is also associated with a substantial percentage of marital problems and an increase in psychological disorders in youth.<ref>[http://thetechjournal.com/internet/facebook-is-the-new-cause-of-divorce.xhtml#ixzz1OmdIs3rN Facebook is the new cause of divorce, The Tech Journal, December 23, 2009]</ref><ref>http://m.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/facebook-overuse-can-lead-to-psychological-disorders-in-youth/2389</ref> 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 "liked" 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 said that it was more Hollywood storytelling 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 for staying with the company. On October 15, 2010, Facebook announced the release of a new email client. Internally referred to as Titan, the media has dubbed it a "Gmail Killer". Zuckerberg insists it is not a head-to-head competitor of Google's Gmail service; rather, it 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>

98% of political donations from Facebook employees went to [[Barack Obama]] in the 2008 presidential election. <ref>[http://beforeitsnews.com/story/684/994/Facebook_self_appointed_arbiter_of_free_speech_tells_Tea_Party_no_more_organizing.html Facebook – self appointed arbiter of “free speech” – tells Tea Party no more organizing, Before It's News, June 2, 2011]</ref>

==Privacy issues==
Facebook Privacy Policy is constantly changing. This is not for the benefit of the users but to the monetary value they represent to advertisers. Due to the size of Facebook, all kinds of data on your habits are monitored. Not just by Facebook either, the government can peek at your life and monitor you behind the scenes. <ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/17/13-year-old-boy-questioned-secret-service-facebook-posting/?test=latestnews 13-Year-Old Boy Questioned by Secret Service Over Facebook Posting, Fox News, May 17, 2011]</ref> <ref>[http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/govt-and-politics/article_bbd23382-6ecf-11e0-aeef-001a4bcf6878.html Feds mine Facebook for info, STLToday.com, April 25, 2011]</ref> Facebook claims your personal information is not for sale. They make the case that it is anonymously collected data, thereby protecting your privacy. Third parties develop applications to run on top of Facebook. Your privacy is effectively in the hands of unknown organizations. The below examples include what information is on display by every user.

* 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 displays all changes and status updates from their friends by default.
*The "wall" feature allows a user to post 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 by default.
*As with Google ads, Facebook collects profile information, and places ads on the page that reflect the user's personal information. This resulted in one man logging into his facebook account, and seeing his wife's photograph appear in an advertisement for a dating website.<ref> [http://www.kvoa.com/news/husband-finds-wife-in-facebook-singles-ad/] Husband finds wife in facebook singles ad</ref>
*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.

== See also ==
* [[Social media]]
* [[Twitter]]
* [[MySpace]]

==References==
<references/>

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

Joust

2011-12-15T23:39:17Z

TBush:

==Jousting in history==

Jousting refers to mock combat between two armored, mounted [[knight]]s or squires performed during the 12th-16th centuries. Jousting became a public display of the knight's skill and a popular public entertainment. Starting at opposite ends of the tourney field (known as the ''lists''), the competing knights would ride at each other and try unhorse their opponent with a blunt-tipped [[lance]]. By the 14th century, knights would joust in full plate amour over a mail haubergeon and padded gambeson to absorb the impact of the blows.

In its early days, when the weapons were unblunted and [[impromptu]] contests were frequently set up on country roads, the practice was frowned upon by kings and the church as a needless loss of life. [[Henry II]] banned it. [[Richard I]], however, as a money-making device, licensed tournaments on chosen ''steads'', or fields, and contestants paid an entry fee. Jousting tournaments were often lavish affairs and offered prizes of money or land to victorious knights. The winner often claimed the horse and armour of the vanquished. Fortunes, and indeed reputations, could be won and lost, and it was a way for younger - therefore landless - knights to get up in the world. The practice is described in stirring detail in Scott's ''[[Ivanhoe]]''.

A joust could also settle a score between two knights or noblemen, in the role that a [[duel]] with [[pistol]]s or [[rapier]]s came to fulfil in later centuries. [[Froissart]] describes such a duel in 1386 in his ''Chronicles''.

==Jousting in the present day==

Although the practice of jousting died out in the 16th century, some groups continue to put on displays of jousting to entertain the public. An example of this is the Royal Armouries Museum in the United Kingdom where staged jousting (along with other displays of [[falconry]] and [[musket]] firing) is one of the most popular attractions during the summer months.

==Popular Culture==

A jousting tournament can be seen in the comic film "A Knight's Tale". The novels of [[George R.R. Martin]] feature jousting tourneys.

''Joust'' may also refer to a [[video game]] where knights mounted atop flying [[ostrich]]es attempt to dismount each other.

[[Category:Games]]
[[Medieval History]]

Blue state

2011-12-15T23:36:47Z

TBush:

'''Blue state''' refers to states in the USA where a majority votes for [[Democratic Party|Democrats]] in Presidential elections. They generally have [[liberal]] views on taxation, regulation of business, human rights, [[homosexuality|homosexual]] rights, [[abortion]], and [[crime]], are known for their dependence on federal aid and are not considered part of the [[real America]].

They are generally located in the northeast and on the west coast of the United States.

==See Also==
*[[Red state]]
*[[Purple state]]

[[Category:United States Political Terms]]

Wikipedia

2011-12-15T23:35:44Z

TBush:

[[File:Wikipedia-logo.png|right|200px]]

'''Wikipedia''' is [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia|a politically left leaning]] online [[encyclopedia]]<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4840340.stm</ref> written and edited by an ''ad hoc'' assemblage of anonymous persons who are mostly, according to the ''Register'' (UK)<ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/mar/08/media.comment</ref><ref>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/18/sanger_forks_wikipedia/</ref>, teenagers and unemployed persons.<ref>[http://frontpagemag.com/2011/08/23/how-the-left-conquered-wikipedia-part-1/ How the left conquered Wikipedia - Part 1]</ref> However, in 2009, a survey conducted by the Wikipedia Foundation came out concerning the typical Wikipedia editor that declared the average age of an editor is 26.8 years and 87% of the editors are men.<ref>http://gawker.com/5410917/wikipedia-gridlocked-by-wikipedia-nerds</ref> In 2008, the ''American Journalism Review'' declared concerning Wikipedia:
{{cquote|"An even more blunt assessment appears in the encyclopedia's "Ten things you may not know about Wikipedia" posting: "We do not expect you to trust us. It is in the nature of an ever-changing work like Wikipedia that, while some articles are of the highest quality of scholarship, others are admittedly complete rubbish." It also reminds users not to use Wikipedia as a primary source or for making "critical decisions."<ref>http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4461</ref>}}
The project was initiated by [[atheism|atheist]] and [[entrepreneur]] [[Jimmy Wales]] and the [[agnosticism|agnostic]] [[philosophy]] [[professor]] [[Larry Sanger]] on January 15, 2001.<ref>http://www.nndb.com/lists/288/000092012/</ref> An irony of internet history is that Jimmy Wales, despite being an atheist, refers to himself as Wikipedia's "spiritual leader".<ref>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/09/wikimedia_pron_purge/</ref> Despite its official "neutrality policy," [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia|Wikipedia has a strong liberal bias.]] In his article entitled ''Wikipedia lies, slander continue'' [[journalism|journalist]] [[Joseph Farah]] stated Wikipedia "is not only a provider of inaccuracy and bias. It is wholesale purveyor of lies and slander unlike any other the world has ever known."<ref>http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=83640</ref> Mr. Farah has repeatedly been the victim of defamation at the Wikipedia website.<ref>http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=83640</ref> In December of 2010, [[Christian apologetics|Christian apologist]] [[JP Holding]] called Wikipedia "the abomination that causes misinformation".<ref>http://tektonticker.blogspot.com/search/label/Wikipedia</ref>

Wikipedia has millions of entries on topics ranging from an explanation for "duh"<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duh (only after Conservapedia criticized the entry on the English word "duh" did Wikipedia eventually remove it)</ref> to singles by obscure rock bands<ref>such as ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honk_If_You_Love_Fred_Durst Honk If You Love Fred Durst]'' (accessed April 1, 2007)</ref> to arcane British nobility.<ref>Part of the article about [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Liddell Henry Liddell], a 19th-century Vice-chancellor of Oxford University and author, includes that his grandfather was the youngest son of the 8th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, and that his daughter was the child ''Alice in Wonderland'' was written for (accessed April 1, 2007)</ref> There are editions of Wikipedia in 250 languages, and 130 have more than 1000 articles.<ref>[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias List of Wikipedias - Wikimedia], accessed April 1, 2007.</ref> After about four years Wikipedia had about 450,000 entries,<ref>Aaron Weiss, The Unassociated Press, N.Y. Times, Feb. 10, 2005, at G5.</ref> and after six years it had about 1.7 million entries.<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics English Wikipedia statistics] accessed April 1, 2007</ref> Four years later this number had more than doubled again: in November 2011, there are more than 3.8 million content pages.<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics English Wikipedia statistics] accessed May 6, 2011</ref> However, the quality of these articles is up for dispite, given the [[Wikipedia#Leftist_bias|evidence of systematic bias]].

==Origins==
[[Image:Wpp.png|thumb|right|200px|Multilingual Wikipedia Home Page]]
Initially, Wikipedia was hosted on servers operated by Bomis, Inc., a company that also sold pornographic pictures.<ref>Martin Hickman and Genevieve Roberts, "WIKIPEDIA," The Independent (London) p. 12 (Feb 13, 2006)</ref> In 2003, Jimbo Wales founded the Wikimedia Foundation to oversee the day-to-day operations of Wikipedia. The Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit organization that provides support for Wikipedia and other similar projects,<ref>[http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home Wikimedia Foundation] accessed April 7, 2007</ref> and also the free MediaWiki software that runs Wikipedia and Conservapedia.<ref>[http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki MediaWiki home] accessed April 7, 2007</ref>
== Leftist bias ==

See also: [[Leftist roots of Wikipedia]]

David Swindle writes at [[FrontPage Magazine]]:
{{cquote|There was not a single ideological vision driving Wikipedia’s founders and core contributors as they launched the project. Jimmy Wales, who would become the face of the project and its “benevolent dictator,” according to Andrew Lih’s ''The Wikipedia Revolution'', is a libertarian and [[Ayn Rand|Ayn Randian]] [[Objectivism|Objectivist]]. Also important in shaping Wikipedia was the so-called “hacker ethos,” the culture that has developed amongst computer programmers over the last 40 years and been shaped by the Left, the counterculture, popular culture, and [[anarchism|anarchist]] thought.

What binds together these ideologies is a [[Utopia|utopian]] ideal that human beings are more prone to [[altruism]] rather than self-interest. In Wikipedia Revolution Wales is quoted as saying, “Generally we find most people out there on the internet are good… It’s one of the wonderful humanitarian discoveries in Wikipeda, that most people only want to help us and build this free nonprofit, charitable resource.” Ward Cunningham was the programmer who created the wiki concept and software. According to Lih, he believed in the Wiki because “People are generally good.”

Lih explains how this philosophy is embedded within Wikipedia’s rules:

A core idea Wikipedia embraced.. was to assume good faith when interacting with others. The guideline promoted optimistic production rather than pessimistic nay-saying, and reads, “Unless there is strong evidence to the contrary, assume that people who work on the project are trying to help it, not hurt it; avoid accusing others of harmful motives without particularly strong evidence.

But as it worked out, Wikipedia in practice has strayed from these utopian ideas because of the ease with which political and social bias trumps altruism.

After almost a decade of rapid growth and free-wheeling experimentation the situation at the site by the Summer of 2009 was chaos. Political operatives would sabotage one another in electoral contests by vandalizing pages. More malicious misinformation filtered in freely, with living historical figures accused of involvement in conspiratorial plots.<ref>http://frontpagemag.com/2011/08/23/how-the-left-conquered-wikipedia-part-1/</ref>}}

[[File:Peter-Singer.jpg|right|thumbnail|250px|The [[atheist]] philosopher [[Peter Singer]] defends the practice of [[bestiality]] (as well as [[abortion]], infanticide and [[euthanasia]]). Despite holding these immoral views the [[liberal]] and pro-[[evolution]] academic establishment rewarded his views with a bioethics chair at [[Princeton University]].<ref>
*[http://creation.com/the-basis-of-a-christian-worldview The Basis of a Christian Worldview - Creation Ministries International]
*[http://creation.com/answer-to-philosophy-religion-professor-on-biblical-exegesis-and-the-problem-of-evil CMI answers philosophy/religion professor on biblical exegesis and the problem of evil]
*[http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2011/06/the-dangerous-mind-of-peter-singer ''The Dangerous Mind''] by Joe Carter, ''[[First Things]]''</ref> See: [[Atheism and bestiality]] and [[Wikipedia on bestiality]] ]]

=== Research ===

On August 23, 2011, David Swindle published an article at ''[[FrontPage Magazine]]'' detailing how Wikipedia has been taken over by the [[Leftist|political left]] and he cited statistics relating to Wikipedia's articles on [[Anne Coulter]], [[Michael Moore]], [[Glenn Beck]] and [[Keith Olbermann]] which helped demonstrate the Wikipedia has a leftist/[[liberal]] bias plus he discussed the liberal/leftist cultural foundations of Wikipedia.<ref>[http://frontpagemag.com/2011/08/23/how-the-left-conquered-wikipedia-part-1/ How the left conquered Wikipedia - Part 1]</ref>

For example, Swindle wrote:

"Consider Ann Coulter versus Michael Moore. Coulter’s entry (on August 9, 2011) was 9028 words long.* Of this longer-than-usual entry, 3220 words were devoted to “Controversies and criticism” in which a series of incidents involving Coulter and quotes from her are cited with accompanying condemnations, primarily from her opponents on the Left. That’s 35.6 percent of Coulter’s entry devoted to making her look bad. By contrast, Moore’s entry is 2876 words (the more standard length for entries on political commentators), with 130 devoted to “Controversy.” That’s 4.5% of the word count, a fraction of Coulter’s. Does this mean that an “unbiased” commentator would find Coulter eight times as “controversial” as Moore?"<ref>[http://frontpagemag.com/2011/08/23/how-the-left-conquered-wikipedia-part-1/ How the left conquered Wikipedia - Part 1]</ref>

== Wikipedia on bestiality ==

''See also:'' [[Wikipedia on bestiality]] and [[Atheism and bestiality]]

As note earlier, the Wikipedia project was initiated by [[atheism|atheists]] and [[entrepreneur]] [[Jimmy Wales]] and the [[agnosticism|agnostic]] [[philosophy]] [[professor]] [[Larry Sanger]] on January 15, 2001.<ref>http://www.nndb.com/lists/288/000092012/</ref>

[[Bestiality]] is the act of engaging in sexual relations with an animal. As of September 22, 2011, Wikipedia's article on zoophilia/bestiality has an entire section on "arguments for zoophilia" plus pictures depicting zoophilia as well as a section on "arguments against zoophilia". No worthwhile encyclopedia in existence has an article on zoophilia/bestiality with an entire section on "arguments for zoophilia" plus pictures depicting zoophilia. In addition, as of September 24, 2011, Wikipedia has a "Zoophilia and the law" article which has a section on the impact of zoophilia laws where 6 alleged negative impacts of zoophilia laws are given, but no positive impacts of the laws are given.

See also: [[Atheism and bestiality]] and [[Evolutionary belief and bestiality]]

==Economics==

Though Wikipedia is non-profit, the [[Wikia]] project of its co-founder is very much for-profit and has raised millions of dollars in investments. Already Wikipedia has been criticized for favoring Wikia. When Wikipedia community voted 61-39% percent to treat all links to other sites equally by removing nofollow (Google-ignored) tags for all of them, the Wikipedia co-founder overruled this decision and Wikipedia now favors Wikia in its treatment of nofollow tags.<ref>http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/04/28/wikipedia-special-treatment-for-wikia-and-other-wikis/</ref>

''The Register'' said:<ref>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/18/sanger_forks_wikipedia/</ref>
:Wikipedia has tried to balance the Utopian goal of "an encyclopedia anyone can edit" with the more utilitarian goal of "a website anyone would want to read". With over a million articles, and a rulebook almost as dense, Wikipedia has demonstrated an insatiable desire to participate, create lists and generate procedures. The result is a huge silo of recorded trivia, and perhaps the world's largest, most distributed bureaucracy - mostly manned by a casual staff of teenagers and the unemployed.

==Quality==
''In other words—and this is the rock-solid principle on which the whole of the Corporation’s Galaxywide success is founded—their fundamental design flaws are completely hidden by their superficial design flaws.''
—Douglas Adams

Wikipedia, which is written by anyone, still struggles to solve the need for traditional quality controls characteristic of conventional [[encyclopedia]]s. The self-policing practices has produced results and accuracy far better than originally expected. But still the lack of consistency and uniform supervision leaves an ever present shadow over any given piece of information. It has come to receive high grades for accuracy, but still many in the [[academy]] insist that it is unreliable source for [[research]] and an unacceptable reference in many classrooms. Perhaps these reactions are inevitable. Nevertheless, Wikipedia steers people to original [[source material]], and with the use of [[hyperlink]]s and [[search engine]]s, it has become the most widely used intermediary [[reference]] tool on the [[Internet]].

==[[Liberal bias]]==

''See also:'' [[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia]]

Wikipedia shows a systematic bias in that tiny proportion of articles which treat controversial issues. It ignores its own [[NPOV]] policy when it allows contributors to "delete well-referenced information" merely because it comes from a [[scientist]] who holds a [[minority view]]. It would only be a violation, if the article used the information to give a false impression of the proportion of scientists adhering to that view, but liberals use "[[undue weight]]" like a sledge hammer. They are either unaware or unconcerned about their bias.

This is not surprising, given this [[Zogby]] poll:

While 97% of [[Republican]]s surveyed said the media are [[liberal]], two-thirds of [[political independent]]s feel the same, but fewer than one in four independents (23%) said they saw a "conservative bias". [[Democrat]]s, while much more likely to perceive a conservative bias than other groups, were not nearly as sure the [[media]] was against them as were the Republicans. While Republicans were unified in their perception of a [[left-wing]] media, just two-thirds of Democrats were certain the media skewed [[right-wing|right]] – and 17% said the bias favored the left.

http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1262

==Scandals and decline==

[[Image:Wikipedia scandals.jpg|thumb|450px|right|Decline in Wikimedia Foundation donations.<ref>[http://centiare.com/Wikipedia_scandals Wikipedia scandals]. Retrieved from centiare.com October 10, 2007.</ref><br>Graph courtesy [http://www.centiare.com/Directory:Gregory_J._Kohs Gregory Kohs]. Used with Permission.]]The cumulative effect of multiple scandals and revelations has led to declining activity on the English Wikipedia. The rate of new account creation peaked in early 2007 and has declined ~30% since. Overall editing activity showed a steady decline beginning in February 2007. An independent analysis reported, "The rate at which edits were being made to Wikipedia articles appears to have peaked in February to April 2007 and declined since. This decline is unprecedented in Wikipedia's history.... Though it may be purely coincidental, this time frame also corresponds to the Essjay controversy appearing in the press."<ref>[http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-October/033661.html Statistical Decline of the English Wikipedia], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Dragons_flight/Log_analysis Dragons flight/Log analysis], October 9, 2007.</ref>

Even after the hoax was revealed of high level intimates promoted by the Wikimedia Foundation as experts in fields that they were not, to persuade college professors to allow students to cite Wikipedia as a reliable source, and entrusted with the ability to invade users privacy which could affect, in their words, "life and death," Wikipedia still appealed to students with a Jim and Tammy Faye Baker-style fundraising slogan across one million project space pages that read, "OMG! Wikipedia is gone! I’ll flunk my exams!" [http://whygive.wikimedia.org/2007/11/24/omg-wikipedia-is-gone-ill-flunk-my-exams/]

==False claim about Brent Bozell==

In March 2007, Brent Bozell described this falsehood in Wikipedia:<ref>http://www.creators.com/opinion/brent-bozell/not-your-father-s-encyclopedia.html</ref>

:The other day, Bernie Goldberg emailed me, upset. He pointed me to his Wikipedia entry. To read what was written was to conclude that apparently I must hate his guts. But we are friends. He is a man for whom I have profound respect, professional and personal. He knew there was foul play.

:Right there on the screen, under the heading "Criticism," it stated that I had attacked him, "claiming that Goldberg merely lifted material he had been producing for years, and only published the book because he had an ax to grind with his former employers and was attempting to make a 'quick buck,' noting that Goldberg never mentioned the alleged liberal bias of the media until it was 'convenient' and 'profitable' for him to do so." ...

:In fact, those words have never been uttered by me. The accusation would be false. Back in 1996, Goldberg used the op-ed pages of The Wall Street Journal publicly to castigate his own network for its one-sided oafish bashing of Steve Forbes. It was anything but "convenient" or "profitable" for him. It ruined his friendship with Dan Rather and put him on a path to the outer fringes of CBS "News. Ultimately, it ruined his newscaster career.

:My attorney contacted Wikipedia by email demanding the removal of this false entry. No response. So we edited out the offensive material ourselves, after which in writing counsel alerted Wikipedia to the legal action that might befall them should this be repeated. Here's full disclosure, Wikipedia-style: You can see how each article is altered, sometimes hour by hour, in its "History" section. But there is no mention of the attorney's complaints. In the Goldberg article's history, an editor simply now scolds: "Bozell's article is a mock-jealous swipe at Goldberg's opportunism. PLEASE REREAD IT." (Capitals theirs.)

:Goldberg and I are not alone. The website Conservapedia.com has a [[Bias in Wikipedia|long list]] of 41 allegations of bias and factual errors at Wikipedia. You can add to that the problem with the credentials of its staff. One of its editors, named only "Essjay" online and described on his user profile "as a tenured professor of religion at a private university with expertise in canon law," was recently exposed as a 24-year-old college kid in Kentucky. He resigned in disgrace — even though Wikipedia tried to retain him, claiming he'd edited thousands of articles with flair.

Instead of apologizing to Brent Bozell, '''Wikipedia instead says "Bozell points to Conservapedia as a resource that documents Wikipedia's faults in this regard, presumably holding it as a more authoritative reference less vulnerable to vandalism."'''<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brent_Bozell accessed April 1, 2007</ref>

==Rewriting its own history==

The Associated Press and others credit Larry Sanger as the co-founder of Wikipedia.<ref>http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/tech/2007/mar/25/032502465.html
</ref> But the Associated Press quotes Jimmy Wales as denying it:<ref>''id.''</ref>

:"When you write this up please do not uncritically repeat Sanger's absurd claim to be the co-founder of Wikipedia."

:"I know of no one who was there at the company at the beginning who would think it anything other than laughable," he added. This is an interesting comment, considering that Larry Sanger takes credit for coining the name, "Wikipedia."<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Jimbo_Wales/Archive_20#Sorry.2C_Jimbo.2C_but_not_buying_it. User talk:Jimbo Wales/Archive 20, Larry Sanger 03:26, 5 March 2007 (UTC)]</ref>

:"I am not bent out of shape about it," he wrote. "The facts are on my side, which is why I bother so little about it."

According to the Associated Press, Jimmy Wales "has repeatedly tried to address this - even going so far as editing his own Wikipedia biography to tone down credit for Sanger. Such autobiographical contributions are frowned upon in Wikipedia's community, and Wales apologized after his changes were noticed and publicized by blogger Rogers Cadenhead in 2005."<ref>''id.''</ref>

Jimmy Wales has admitted that certain administrators, contrary to their own rules, have at times completely removed editing evidence.

== Seigenthaler scandal ==

In early October 2005 a prominent and respected journalist [[John Seigenthaler Sr.]], contacted Wikipedia founder [[Jimmy Wales]] about false and libelous content in his biographical entry. Essjay, a 24 year old Wikipedia Administrator who was advancing rapidly in the organization, was dispatched to handle the situation.<ref>[http://www.wikitruth.info/index.php?title=User:Essjay/Letter User:Essjay/Letter]. Retrieved from WikiTruth, November 3, 2007.</ref> An anonymous contributor added to Seigenthaler's biography the previous May,
:"John Seigenthaler Sr. was the assistant to Attorney General [[Robert Kennedy]] in the early 1960s. For a short time, he was thought to have been directly involved in the Kennedy assassinations of both [[John F. Kennedy|John]], and his brother, Bobby. Nothing was ever proven," and "John Seigenthaler moved to the [[Soviet Union]] in 1971, and returned to the [[United States]] in 1984. He started one of the country's largest public relations firms shortly thereafter."

Wales told Seignethaler that Wikipedia is "accountable" and corrects mistakes immediately, but that the internet service provider of the anonymous user probably would not be helpful in identifying who placed the content.<ref>[http://www.journalism.org/node/1673 Seigenthaler's Op-Eds], October 1, 2005. Retrieved from http://www.journalism.org November 12, 2007.</ref> Accountability activist Daniel Brandt, a victim of a spurious biographical entry by Wikipedia Administrators, identified the place of employment of the anonymous user, and from there the person accountable was identified.<ref>http://www.journalism.cf.ac.uk/2006/online/index.php?id=parse-195-0-0-251&article=336&author=India+Camm</ref>

Seigenthaler returned to the editorial pages of ''USA Today'' from which he retired as its first editorial manager to write an Op-Ed piece critical of Wikipedia and the threat it poses to free speech due of its overt provocation of government regulation, its irresponsible self regulation and lack of accountability.<ref>[http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-11-29-wikipedia-edit_x.htm A false Wikipedia 'biography'], By John Seigenthaler, ''USA Today'', 11/29/2005.</ref>

=== CNN interview ===

On December 5, 2005 Wales and Seigenthaler appeared on [[CNN]]. An exchange between CNN moderator [[Kyra Phillips]] and Wales went like this:
{{Cquote|PHILLIPS:...I ran my name. I was shocked to see what was under my name. ...I'm telling you right now, Jimmy, that's not how I want people to see me and understand me. And what I'm about and what I write about in my interviews, et cetera. So, you know, it's not just individuals like John, but me and many other people, that just have concerns that this is creating gossip that can be very harmful. And people go to these sites thinking that this is the truth.}}
{{Cquote|WALES: Well, I mean, I think the real key is that the site matures over time, the -- all of the articles are edited over and over and over, and improved. Anyone's free to contribute. You're free to go and contribute.}}

This in fact is not the case. Phillips was not free to remove objectionable content within her biographical entry, as Daniel Brandt at that exact moment was discovering. Not four days prior, Wales told ''Editor & Publisher'' magazine regarding Brandt's objections to a false Wikipedia biography created by Wikipedia Administrators about him, "I find it hard to take him very seriously at all," and libelous slanders remained in Brandt's biography for a year and half. Wales told CNN, "we are very, very responsive to complaints and concerns."

Seigenthaler told the audience "with accountability comes credibility" and expressed fear that, "I'm afraid we're going to get regulated media as a result."<ref>http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0512/05/lol.02.html</ref>

On December 9, Seigenthaler appeared on C-SPAN's ''Washington Journal'' with Brian Lamb and articulated his concern that members of Congress or other powerful figures in government may likewise be targeted. On November 2, 2006, days before the mid-term Congressional elections, an anonymous IP address traced to the ''[[New York Times]]'' changed [[U.S. House of Representatives]] [[Majority Leader]] [[Tom DeLay]]'s Wikipedia biographical entry from "a prominent member of the [[Republican Party]]" to "Grand Dragon of the Republican Party."<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tom_DeLay&diff=prev&oldid=85320018 Wikipedia/Tom DeLay, Revision as of 20:19, 2 November 2006, IP 199.181.174.146]</ref><ref>[http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/name2ip.php?orgname=New+York+Times&location= WikiScanner]</ref>

Seigenthaler wrote a more expansive column in the ''The Tennessean'' after the November 30 ''USA Today'' piece appeared,
{{Cquote|a sudden stream of invective — homophobic, anti-Semitic and racist — spilled, as if from a sewer, onto the Wikipedia page under my name. ..It identified me as ...a "Nazi," "fascist-oriented" ....murderer ...there also was the profile picture of Adolf Hitler over the caption, "Press photo of Seigenthaler." The accompanying line: "He is secretly responsible for killing all the Jews." }}

=== Accountability and Section 230 ===
[[Image:Wikifascists.JPG|thumb|275px|right|From Wikipedia Watch. [http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/] The inscription reads,<br> ''"Two wikifascists find someone without a biography."'']]
Upon his retirement from ''USA Today'', Seigenthaler founded of the First Amendment Center, an organization dedicated to a national dialogue about [[First Amendment]] rights and values. Seigenthaler criticized passage of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Section 230 states that "no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker." Unlike print and broadcast companies, internet service providers (ISP's) cannot be sued for disseminating defamatory attacks on citizens posted by others. Seigenthaler noted [[Jimbo Wales]] told [[Brian Lamb]] in a [[C-Span]] interview that Wikipedia is accountable and that mistakes are corrected within minutes, but the false information remained in Seigenthaler's biography for five months. Seigenthaler concluded,
{{Cquote|And so we live in a universe of new media with phenomenal opportunities for worldwide communications and research — but populated by volunteer vandals with poison-pen intellects.<ref>A false Wikipedia 'biography', By John Seigenthaler, ''USA Today'', 11/29/2005.</ref>}}

In the case of ''Zeran v. AOL'', Zeran sued AOL for refusing to screen and remove defamatory messages, even after Zeran notified the ISP of their existence. The lower court ruled for the service provider and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld the decision, noting that the intent of Section 230 was to (1) remove incentives on service providers to restrict speech on the Internet and (2) encourage self regulation by service providers.<ref>http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=916529</ref><ref>http://www.adl.org/Civil_Rights/newcyber.pdf</ref>

An American citizen who posts material on the Internet that is illegal in a foreign country could be prosecuted if he subjected himself to the jurisdiction of that country. Internet users who export material that is illegal, that is to say, post material that is accessible and illegal in some foreign countries may be subject to prosecution in that country. However, under American law, the United States will not extradite a person for engaging in a constitutionally protected activity even if that activity violates a criminal law elsewhere.<ref>http://www.rjayco.com/obrien/nazism.pdf</ref>

=== Essjay given oversight ===
:''See Main article: [[Wikipedia:The Essjay scandal]]

Essjay wrote a professor to persuade her to allow her students to use Wikipedia as a viable source of information and posted a verbatim copy of the email for others to use. Essjay stated, "I was the administrator who deleted the inappropriate revisions when Mr. Seigenthaler contacted our founder, [[Jimmy Wales]]; it is quite unfortunate that a relatively minor issue on a relatively minor figure has provided so much negative publicity.<ref>[http://www.wikitruth.info/index.php?title=User:Essjay/Letter User:Essjay/Letter]. Retrieved from WikiTruth, November 3, 2007.</ref> Seigenthaler noted in his Op-Ed piece, "The motive for the salacious stuff directed at me is reasonably obvious," and quoted some comments, "We all at Wikipedia think he (Seigenthaler) is a horrible, stupid p...k for complaining about small inaccuracies in his biography."<ref>[http://www.journalism.org/node/1673 Seigenthaler's Op-Eds], October 1, 2005. Retrieved from http://www.journalism.org November 12, 2007.</ref>

Others said, "Mr. Seigenthaler's attitude and actions are reprehensible and ill-formed," and “if there is an error whether large or small, he can correct it.” This again, was not true. Even prior to the Wikipedia policy, '''Biographies of Living Persons''', [[conflict of interest]] restrictions existed on the subject of an article editing their own entry. Another wrote: "Rather than fixing the article himself, he made a legal threat."<ref>http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/02/12/bias_sabotage_haunt_wikipedias_free_world/?page=3</ref>
[[Image:Seigraph.gif|400px|thumb|right|The Seigenthaler scandal was viewed as "the best thing that ever happened to Wikipedia" as curiosity seekers to view the [[misinformation]] skyrocketed Alexa rankings.]]
Despite the damage to an innocent person and divulgence of Wikipedia's precarious claim as a viable source, the Seigenthaler scandal was viewed as a triumph and considered "the best thing that ever happened to Wikipedia,"<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:John_Seigenthaler,_Sr.#The_best_thing_that_ever_happened_to_Wikipedia Talk:John Seigenthaler Sr.#The best thing that ever happened to Wikipedia], retrieved 23 March 2007.</ref> catapulting it into a top ten most visited website as curiosity seekers responded to the negative publicity.<ref>[http://wikipediareview.com/lofiversion/index.php?t1100.html Wikipedia: A Nightmare Of Libel and Slander], Joel Leyden, Israel News Agency, 8 May 2006.</ref>

The scandal was originally billed as a "hoax", then "controversy," then downgraded to "incident," and now re-upgraded to "controversy," evidently in response to criticism. The Wikipedia entry on "Seigenthaler controversy" contains [[disinformation]], making the claim, "After the incident, Wikipedia took steps to prevent a recurrence, including barring unregistered users from creating new pages." No actions were ever taken to require disclosure of the real life identities of contributors. Barring unregistered users from creating new pages had nothing to do with the Seigenthaler scandal--the page already existed when an anonymous IP added the false information. Registration of accounts requires no accountability of the real life identity of the contributor. Indeed many experienced Wikipedia editors and Administrators have dozens of registered accounts, called "sockpuppet accounts." Protecting the identities of anonymous high-level Administrators has always been more of a priority to the WikiMedia Foundation than the propagation of false information about real life persons whose identities are known. Wales was asked by ''BusinessWeek'' magazine, “Why do you feel it is important to allow contributors and site administrators to remain anonymous?” Wales responded, “there are definitely people working in Wikipedia who may have privacy reasons for not wanting their name on the site….there are lots of reasons for privacy online that aren’t nefarious.”<ref> http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2005/tc20051214_441708.htm</ref> In the Seigenthaler case, it was the odd circumstance that a victim of false information had a large enough platform to respond, coupled with the welcome fact that the victim fundamentally opposes government regulation of internet speech.

Wikipedia's "Seigenthaler controversy" also states, "The Foundation added a new level of "oversight" features to the MediaWiki software,[12] accessible as of 2006 to around 20 experienced editors nominated by Wales,"<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Seigenthaler_Sr._Wikipedia_biography_controversy#Wikimedia_Foundation_reaction Seigenthaler controversy#Wikimedia Foundation reaction].</ref> one of whom was Essjay.

This ban on anonymous page creation “reform” was abandoned less than two years later as Wikipedia's usage and ratings slumped in the wake of yet more scandals and questions about Wikipedia's culture, core content policies, and endemic lack of accountability.<ref>http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2007-October/084292.html</ref>

==Brandt / Berlet feud==
:''See Main article: [[Wikipedia:The Daniel Brandt controversy]]
An ugly far-left sectarian dispute<ref>[http://spencer.lib.ku.edu/exhibits/wilcox/5.html Laird Wilcox], ''The Watchdogs: A Close Look at Anti-Racist "Watchdog" Groups'', Second Edition, Part 2, Editorial Research Service, 1999, p. 21. ISBN 0-993592-96-5.</ref> reared its head in 2005 with disastrous consequences for the site's credibility. The feud had been dormant for many years until the need to elevate a “controversial and notable expert” above the level of “partisan and extreme” defined by its own policies became apparent which would have precluded the so-called “expert” as "a source for anything other than himself,” as Wikipedia's ever fluid policies dictate.

Daniel Brandt, founder of Namebase,<ref>http://www.namebase.org/</ref> Google Watch, and Wikipedia Watch, removed [[Chip Berlet]] from his Board of Advisors in 1991 when Berlet refused to sit on the same Board which included Fletcher Prouty." Prouty, a retired Air Force colonel whose intelligence career stretched back to accompanying President [[Franklin Roosevelt]] to the [[Teheran conference]], was allegorically portrayed as the mysterious “Man X”<ref>[http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/lfprouty.htm Leroy Fletcher Prouty, Jr., Colonel, United States Air Force], [[Arlington National Cemetery]] Website, Retrieved November 4, 2007.</ref> by [[Donald Southerland]] in [[Oliver Stone]]'s film, [[JFK]]. A Brandt biographical page was created using Berlet as the source for unsavory attacks on Brandt. Brandt describes himself as an "accountability activist"<ref>[http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2006/04/your_take_roundupbelievers_neg.html Believers, Negativists Debate Wikipedia’s Trustworthiness], by Mark Glaser, 20 April 2006. Retrieved from pbs.org October 29, 2007.</ref><ref>[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Brandt Wikiquote/Daniel Brandt#Sourced]</ref> and claims he originally began working with Wikipedia editors in good faith during October 2005 but any biographical information he revealed was spun against him to depict him in a negative light. Brandt states,
{{Cquote|I soon realized that it was also about Berlet, who was still bent on undermining me. Berlet was using Wikipedia as part of his political agenda, and he was successful in this.<ref>http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=5641&pid=21441&mode=threaded&show=&st=0&#entry21441</ref>}}
Berlet's biography underwent an extensive revision with most of the substantive NPOV criticism cut out. The revising editor commented, "I kept Daniel Brandt, not because I feel he's a credible source, but because there's so little published criticism of Berlet, that I felt I had to retain something."<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Chip_Berlet&diff=prev&oldid=9161554 Chip Berlet/Talk, SlimVirgin 00:19, 7 January 2005].</ref> This is an extraordinary statement and raises the question why the same high-level Administrator and author of several of Wikipedia's core content and citation policies, including '''Wikipedia:Reliable Sources''' and '''Wikipedia:Biographies of Living Persons''' ('''BLP'''),<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons&diff=31947681&oldid=31753956</ref> would use a source she did not consider credible.

===Biographies of living persons===

Wikipedia:Biographies of Living Persons (WP:BLP) policy did not come into being because of the [[Seigenthaler scandal]], but rather over the Brandt controversy, as the originating editor noted in an edit summary.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons&diff=31947681&oldid=31753956</ref> Brandt requested Wikipedia delete his biographical entry, and ceased working with editors he suspected of working to further the propagation of false information about him.

''Editor & Publisher'' magazine bills itself as the nation’s oldest trade journal serving the newspaper industry with roots dating back to 1884. Wikipedia founder [[Jimmy Wales]] responded to questions from ''Editor & Publisher'' in a prepared statement on December 1, 2005 about Daniel Brandt saying,
{{Cquote|I don't regard him as a valid source about anything at all<ref>[http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/article_brief/eandp/1/1001612839 Wikipedia Founder, Readers Respond to Seigenthaler Article], Jay DeFoore, ''Editor & Publisher'', December 01, 2005.</ref>}}

Wales comments added '''undue weight'''<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:UNDUE#Undue_weight</ref> ('''WP:UNDUE''') to criticism of Brandt when placed within his biographical entry. Brandt demanded accountability from the army of unidentified Wikipedia Administrators furthering [[Chip Berlet]]'s agenda to destroy Brandt's credibility, and elevate Berlet's own as a Wikipedia "expert."
[[Image:294577483 90fd22f5cd m.jpg|thumb|300px|right|From '''WikiTruth''', the inscription reads,<br>
"''The Big Bad Brandt is Gonna Getcha!'']]
Brandt became known as the scourge of the Wikipedia Admin community. WikiTruth says in its ''Brandt the Boogeyman'' entry,
{{Cquote|he dates back to a time when people would look up facts in books and would verify information without just doing a copy and paste from an AP news article and thinking they were done. He compares writing styles, he calls government agencies, and he writes letters. And when he's done, he tends to know. Or at least, he knows where he stands in terms of information. He's rather tenacious about getting stuff right.

Wikipedia, of course, doesn't do this much at all: depending on the day, they'll laud a link to a website as being absolutely useless (it's on the WEB, of course) and then the next minute link to a different website to back a "fact" up. Citing books and printed materials is often a no-go, because nobody can read the original citation, so it gets swept away as well. Really, you have no idea what's good and what's bad, and it's all one big happy soup-hug.

Therefore, guys like Daniel Brandt are horrible for Wikipedia: he researches. He finds laws that pertain to situations. He asks the tough questions that could upset the whole Wiki-cart.}}

==The Wordbomb Saga==
[[Image:Patrick byrne overstock small.jpg|thumb|right|Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne [http://www.overstock.com/Patrick-Byrne-and-naked-short-selling/7371/static.html]]]
One of Wikipedia’s most bitter and drawn-out disputes, chronicled in ''The Register,''<ref>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/06/wikipedia_and_overstock/</ref> centers around the assertion by representatives of Overstock.com<ref>http://www.overstock.com/community</ref> that a [[Mainstream media|mainstream financial journalist]] Gary Weiss had been editing Wikipedia to impose his point of view on a series of articles relevant to the company. Weiss was once a reporter with BusinessWeek, in 2007 became a columnist with Forbes, and had for over 10 years been posting under fake names to confuse, distort, hijack Usenet groups, stock message boards, and Wikipedia, to prevent the public from understanding criminal activity.<ref>http://www.deepcapture.com/gary-weiss-scaramouch-psychopath/</ref> Weiss was notorious around the Internet for his public feud with Overstock<ref>http://garyweiss.blogspot.com/2007/05/overstockcoms-ethical-dilemma.html</ref> and its CEO Patrick Byrne,<ref>http://allantyoung.com/2008/09/22/patrick-byrne-vindicated/</ref> ridiculing their campaign against the controversial practice of [[Naked Short Selling]].

In 2006, Judd Bagley, an ally of Overstock’s Patrick Byrne having interviewed the CEO for a personal project, began editing Wikipedia to counter what was perceived to be a skewed representation of Naked Short Selling and Overstock.com. He was swiftly dispatched by influential Wikipedia administrators.

Shortly after, Bagley became Overstock’s Director of Communications, and embarked on an aggressive campaign to publicize the dispute on various websites, aiming to expose the administrators he held responsible for protecting Weiss. Using the moniker “Wordbomb”, Bagley presented evidence<ref>http://antisocialmedia.net/final-word-on-weiss/</ref> suggesting that not only was Gary Weiss editing Wikipedia using the name “User:Mantanmoreland“,<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mantanmoreland</ref> but that he was operating other accounts to manipulate consensus and protect his interests in the dispute. Mantanmoreland violated Wikipedia policies against Conflict of Interest and No Self Promotion by creating an article about himself.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gary_Weiss&diff=prev&oldid=48341962</ref> Bagley proved Weiss had edited Wikipedia from one of two main IPs used by the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC),<ref>http://www.dtcc.com/about/business/index.php</ref> the organization charged with settling about a quadrillion stock trades each year. The DTCC is also the organization Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne said acts an enabler of perpetrators of illegal naked short selling of many public companies.<ref>http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=10360&view=findpost&p=36485</ref>

Wikipedia responded to Bagley’s campaign in typical schoolyard fashion. The dispute was escalated by a small clique of powerful Wikipedians who seemed less interested in the truth of Bagley’s assertions, and more concerned with attacking perceived threats to the status quo at Wikipedia. With the approval of [[Jimbo Wales]], administrators sided with “Mantanmoreland” / Gary Weiss, and anointed Bagley / Wordbomb an “Enemy Of The Wiki” who needed to be silenced — a “stalker” and a “harasser” for publicizing the details of the person who had been editing relevant articles on Wikipedia, and the people who had been stopping him from doing the same.

For nearly two years, Bagley’s name was invoked to inspire paranoia in the Wikipedia Admin Community to keep questioning editors in line. It became a textbook case for analysis of the intense group-think Wikipedia has become notorious for.
[[Image:Judd bagley overstock.jpg|thumb|left|175px|Judd Bagley was made a target at the highest levels of Wikipedia and became a victim of a global [[witchhunt]] by the Wikipedia Admin Community for daring to expose an unholy alliance of abuse and [[corruption]] on [[Wall Street]] and in the Wikipedia cabal. [http://antisocialmedia.net/] ]]
Bagley was repeatedly disparaged<ref>http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=15897</ref> by a cabal of out-of-control administrators such as Guy Chapman, who denounced Bagley as “lunatic” and “evil” when it suited. UK Wikimedia representative David Gerard banned an entire area of Utah to prevent Bagley raising his issues and made personally disparaging remarks.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:David_Gerard/archive_5#User:204.15.84.2</ref> Wikipedia Arbitrator Fred Bauder claimed that Bagley’s blog AntiSocialMedia.net showed “moral depravity”<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Attack_sites/Proposed_decision&diff=158954587&oldid=158809362</ref> for challenging the Wiki-elite. Administrator Phil Sandifer dismissed Bagley in highly personal and offensive language while boasting<ref>http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2007-October/083509.html</ref> that he himself had become a “powerful and trusted administrator on the 9th biggest website in the world.”

Other editors who raised Overstock’s quite legitimate complaints were banned as proxies of Judd Bagley. Paranoia had taken such a hold that editors with productive records from all over the US, and as far afield as Europe and Asia found themselves accused of being Bagley. When the editor Cla68<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Mantanmoreland/Evidence#Evidence_presented_by_Cla68</ref> questioned the issue of Gary Weiss editing Wikipedia, he was swiftly blocked by administrator Durova on the orders of Jimbo Wales who wrote,<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Gary_Weiss&diff=165916446&oldid=165916313</ref> “Durova and Guy have my full support here. No nonsense, zero tolerance, shoot on sight. No kidding, this has gone on long enough”.

A study<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:SirFozzie/Investigation</ref> undertaken by concerned administrators into the editing patterns of “Mantanmoreland” came to fruition. Despite the “Mantanmoreland” account ceasing edits on Overstock / Naked Short Selling articles in September 2007, the study revealed evidence beyond reasonable doubt that the same person had been operating several accounts to “control” articles. Thus affirming Bagley’s claims.

More worryingly for good faith Wikipedians was the revelation<ref>http://www.wikback.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2762#Post2757</ref><ref>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/01/wikipedia_and_naked_shorting/print.html</ref> that [[Jimbo Wales]], alongside leading administrators, had considered that this person was almost certainly Gary Weiss in a private discussion as long ago as September 2007 (the same month the “Mantanmoreland” account quit editing the relevant articles). Meaning that behind the scenes, they were admitting that Bagley was probably right all along, yet in public were vilifying or blocking anyone who publicly stated so.

After the [[financial meltdown of 2008]], the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] issued directives aimed at curbing abusive naked short selling.<ref>[http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/20090728_SEC_short-selling_rule_is_permanent.html]</ref> Patrick Byrne has been widely recognized as in the forefront of the movement aimed at curbing such abuses.<ref>http://www.investigatethesec.com/drupal-5.5/?q=node/425</ref>

==Michael Moore==
[[Image:Moorecagan.JPG|right|thumb|200px|Moore with [[Leslie Cagan]] [[United For Peace and Justice]] [http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=629] ]]
The website MichaelMoore.com, dissatisfied with a Wikipedia editor's edits to ''[[Sicko]]'', published an image of a Wikipedia user on its main page. This was combined with links to edit both ''Sicko'' and the editor's user page.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Attack_sites/Proposed_decision#Michael_Moore] Several Wikipedia editors and Administrators regarded this action on the part of [[Michael Moore]]'s official website as an egregious violation of a well publicized ruling to protect Wikipedia editors from outside harassment. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Attack_sites/Evidence#Michael_Moore][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Attack_sites/Evidence#Michael_Moore_2] The consensus, per Wikipedia's policy was to remove links from Wikipedia to Michael Moore's attack site which was urging vengeance and reprisals against an editor who posted criticism of Moore's film.

In Arbitration, Wikipedia's internal policy making and dispute resolution arm, the Arbitration chairman publicly admitted,
{{Cquote|No question it contained an attack, including a link to edit our user's page. The problem is that many of us like Michael Moore very much and don't care much for the viewpoint of the user involved. Applying our policy in a rote manner (Without consideration of '''the unwritten rule that we support prominent subjects that we like''') yields removal of the link (At least while it contained the personal attack).<ref>Wikien-1 [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2007-October/082980.html Harassment sites], Fred Bauder, Sun Oct 14 19:03:28 UTC 2007.</ref>}}

Wikipedia's Neutral Point of View (NPOV), laid down by founder [[Jimbo Wales]] allegedly is "absolute and non-negotiable."[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view#_note-0] The ArbCom chairman further stated, "Obviously we need to make an exception for prominent people whose viewpoint we support." [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2007-October/082987.html] When asked, "How, then, is this remotely compatible with NPOV?", the ArbCom chairman responded, "Not at all." [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2007-October/082993.html] The editor whom Michaelmoore.com was urging its viewers to attack and harass is described as "a Fellow at the [[American Enterprise Institute]], a [[conservative]] [[think tank]]."[http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2007-October/083230.html]

==Sinbad hoax==
On March 16 2007, Wikipedia entry on the 50-year old entertainer Sinbad, born David Adkins, states: "He succumbed to a fatal heart attack on the morning of March, 14, 2007." This hoax was widely reported in the media<ref>http://www.ioltechnology.co.za/article_page.php?iSectionId=2891&iArticleId=3734818</ref>.

==Rutgers-Ivy League hoax==
A Wikipedia entry falsely stated that Rutgers was once invited to join the Ivy League. Although that false statement was eventually removed from Wikipedia, it was not removed before the ''Daily News'' relied on it in this story:

:You don't have to define your college with your football team, but Rutgers long ago decided to give it a try. Back in 1954, when it was considered a 'public Ivy,' Rutgers might have joined the fledgling Ivy League and altered its destiny. But the school declined the offer - arguably the dumbest mistake in its history. Ever since then, Rutgers has scrambled to prove itself worthy of playing football with the big boys."<ref>Bondy, Filip. "They Can Finally Say They Belong Here", New York Daily News, 2006-11-10, p. 92. Retrieved on 2006-12-13.</ref>

==Barbara Bauer vs. Wikimedia Foundation==
Wikimedia Foundation is one of 17 defendants in a lawsuit suit filed in New Jersey, by Barbara Bauer and her literary agency. Her Wikipedia article was deleted on March 25, 2007 by Wikipedia administrator Doc Glasgow as a "bloody disgrace".<ref>http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/bauertc.html</ref><ref>http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/bauertc.html</ref><ref>http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/bauert1.html</ref><ref>http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/bauert2.html</ref>

==GFDL License Issue==
Wikipedia's practice of complete deletion of articles<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&page=Brian+Peppers</ref> without reference to the original article, the author(s)/publisher(s) of the article, and the history and title(s) of the article, including modification history, description and appropriate dates, is a direct violation of at least GFDL version 1.2. Additionally, the GFDL License states that if the article/document contains Copyright notices, that said notices must be preserved at all times. If those notices are removed, then they are in violation of Copyright Law, as well as the terms of the GFDL license. Furthermore, the question of them removing anything outright at all comes into quite a grey area. If one reads the GFDL License literally, then it implies that once the article document is posted, it is in distribution, and technical measures are not allowed to be taken to prevent the use of the document in question, and that no other conditions whatsoever can be added by you to those of the GFDL license.<ref>http://www.wikitruth.info/index.php?title=Wikipocalypse:GF'DL</ref><ref>http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html#TOC1</ref>

== Humorous quotes concerning Wikipedia ==

''See also:'' [[Essay: 10 telltale signs you are on your way to becoming an atheist nerd|10 telltale signs you are on your way to becoming an atheist nerd]] - [[satire]]

An article entitled ''Wikipedia Gridlocked by Wikipedia Nerds'' declared:
{{Cquote|So who are these Gatekeepers to all the internet's knowledge?

A survey the foundation conducted last year determined that the average age of an editor is 26.8 years, and that 87% of them are men.

As you suspected: [[nerd]]s.<ref>http://gawker.com/5410917/wikipedia-gridlocked-by-wikipedia-nerds</ref>}}

[[Jimmy Wales]] said the typical profile of a Wikipedia contributor is "a 26-year-old geeky male" who moves on to other ventures, gets married and leaves the website.<ref>[http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/5397593/Wikipedia-losing-contributors-founder-says Wikipedia losing contributors, founder says]</ref>

=== Song excerpt ===

{{Cquote|All of my action figures are Cherry,
[[Stephen Hawking]]'s in my library....

I edit Wikipedia...I'm nerdy in the extreme,
whiter than sour cream...

They see me strollin', they're laughin'
And rollin' their eyes cause I'm so
White and nerdy". - ''White and Nerdy'', Weird Al Yankovic<ref>http://www.musiclyricsfyi.com/white-nerdy-lyrics.htm</ref>}}

==See also ==
*[[Examples of Bias in Wikipedia]]
*[[Previous Breaking News/Wikipedia|Articles about '''Wikipedia''' from previous "Breaking News"]]
*[[Essay:The Protocols of Ritual Defamation]]
*[[Wikipedia prejudice and KAL 007]] (Wikipedia deletion material related to [[New World Order]] and [[Larry McDonald]], touching [[Korean Airlines Flight 007]])

==Further reading==
*[http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/21/conservatives-miss-wikipedias-threat/ SHEFFIELD: Conservatives miss Wikipedia's threat] by [[Washington Times]], August 21, 2008
*[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/06/wikipedia_and_overstock/print.html Wikipedia black helicopters circle Utah's Traverse Mountain], By Cade Metz, ''The Register'', 6th December 2007.
*[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/15/wikipedia_can_damage_your_grades/ Avoid Wikipedia, warns Wikipedia chief - It can seriously damage your grades] by Andrew Orlowski, ''The Register'', June 15, 2006
*[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/18/wikipedia_quality_problem/ Wikipedia founder admits to serious quality problems] by Andrew Orlowski, ''The Register'', October 18, 2005
*[http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whowriteswikipedia Who Writes Wikipedia?] by Aaron Swartz, 2006

==References==
{{reflist|3}}

==External links==
*[http://www.wikipedia.org Wikipedia]
*[http://www.wikitruth.info/ Wikitruth]
*[http://www.citizendium.com Citizendium(Beta)]
*[http://www.wikipedia-watch.org Wikipedia Watch]
*[http://wikipediareview.com/ Wikipedia Review]
*[http://www.mises.org/story/2704 Wikipedia: What Is It Good For?], By Dick Clark, 9/19/2007. Retrieved from The Ludwig von Mises Institute, http://www.mises.org/ November 5, 2007.
{{Liberalism}}
[[Category:Wikis]]
[[Category:Featured articles]]
[[Category:Encyclopedias]]

Red state

2011-12-15T23:09:59Z

TBush:

In the [[United States]], a '''red state''' is a state in which a simple majority has voted for the [[Republican Party|Republican]] candidate in a presidential [[election]]. The term comes from the news networks, which in the 2000 presidential election decided to agree on one color to represent the Republicans and one for the Democrats in the states the parties won.

==Definition==
Voters in red states are considered generally more [[conservative]] as a whole than voters in other states. Red states are generally noted for a commitment to conservative [[Christian]] morality, [[abortion|pro-life]], family values, economic self-sufficiency, and a desire to reduce the [[tax]] burden, be sufficiently armed for self-defense, and reduce the degree of government intervention in their lives. This is opposed to, say, the liberal [[San Francisco values]] of the blue states. Red states are generally in the southern, western (sans the coast), and midwestern [[United States]]. These states are also collectively known as the [[real America]].

==See also==
*[[Blue state]]
*[[Purple state]]

[[Category:United States Political Terms]]

Red state

2011-12-15T23:07:51Z

TBush:

In the [[United States]], a '''red state''' is a state in which a simple majority has voted for the [[Republican Party|Republican]] candidate in a presidential [[election]]. The term comes from the news networks, which in the 2000 presidential election decided to agree on one color to represent the Republicans and one for the Democrats in the states the parties won.

Voters in red states are considered generally more [[conservative]] as a whole than voters in other states. Red states are generally noted for a commitment to conservative [[Christian]] morality, [[abortion|pro-life]], family values, economic self-sufficiency, and a desire to reduce the [[tax]] burden, be sufficiently armed for self-defense, and reduce the degree of government intervention in their lives. This is opposed to, say, the liberal [[San Francisco values]] of the blue states. Red states are generally in the southern, western (sans the coast), and midwestern [[United States]]. These states are also collectively known as the [[real America]].

==See Also==
*[[Blue state]]

[[Category:United States Political Terms]]

Red state

2011-12-15T22:40:54Z

TBush:

In the [[United States]], a '''red state''' is a state in which a simple majority has voted for the [[Republican Party|Republican]] candidate in a presidential [[election]]. The term comes from the news networks, which in the 2000 presidential election decided to agree on one color to represent the Republicans and one for the Democrats in the states the parties won.

Voters in red states are considered generally more [[conservative]] as a whole than voters in other states. Red states are generally noted for a commitment to conservative [[Christian]] morality, [[abortion|pro-life]], family values, economic self-sufficiency, and a desire to reduce the [[tax]] burden and the degree of government intervention in their lives. Red states are generally in the southern and Midwestern [[United States]]. These states are also collectively known as the [[real America]].

==See Also==
*[[Blue state|Blue State]]

[[Category:United States Political Terms]]

Nancy Pelosi

2011-12-15T22:12:31Z

TBush:

{{Officeholder
|name=Nancy Pelosi
|image=Ytr7576.jpg
|party=[[Democrat]]
|spouse=Paul Pelosi
|religion=Roman Catholic
|offices=
{{Officeholder/representative
|state=California
|district=8th
|terms=June 2, 1987 - Present
|preceded=Sala Burton
|former=n
|succeeded=
}}

}}

'''Nancy Pelosi''', M.C. is the Representative for the 8th Congressional District of [[San Francisco]], [[California]] and Minority Leader for the Democrats in the 112th Congress. She is the former [[Speaker of the House]], succeeding [[J. Dennis Hastert]] and preceding [[John Boehner]]. She is the first woman to become House Speaker. Pelosi, a [[liberal]] [[Democrat]], is among the top ten richest members of the House. <ref>[http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/CIDsummary.asp?CID=N00007360&year=2005 opensecrets.org]</ref>

Pelosi prides herself in "being called a liberal" and does not consider herself a "moderate". <ref>Michael Crowley, "Follow the Leader," New Republic, November 25, 2002.</ref> Before becoming Speaker of the House, she was the Congressional Representative for the district containing [[San Francisco]] and has generally been criticized for imposing [[San Francisco values]] on mainstream America. In July 2008 Pelosi told [[George Stephanopoulos]] on [[ABC News]]'s on the ''[[This Week]]'' program, {{Cquote|I'm trying to save the planet, I'm trying to save the planet<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeUx6o9qpYY</ref>}}
Pelosi grew up in a political family; her father was a Congressman and the mayor of [[Baltimore]] for twelve years. She graduated from Trinity College in Washington, D.C., in 1962. After marrying and having five children, Pelosi rose in the ranks in Democratic Party politics and became representative to the Democratic National Committee and chair of the California Democratic Party. In 1987, Pelosi made a leap into elected office by winning a special election upon the death of Representative Sala Burton. She served on the Appropriations Committee and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In 2002 she was elected Minority Leader and Speaker of the House after the 2006 midterm elections when Democrats gained the majorities in the House and Senate. John McCain referred to her as "one of the great American success stories" and "an inspiration."<ref>[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/29/MN0I121CI9.DTL&type=politics McCain extends olive branch to Pelosi, Gore]</ref>

When coming into her leadership position in 2007, Pelosi's "6 for 06" 100-hour campaign promise turned out being 100-legislative hours, and took several weeks. She frequently battled President [[George W. Bush]] over the [[War in Iraq]]. In 2008, anti-war protester [[Cindy Sheehan]] challenged Pelosi as an independent. Although Sheehan won 16% of the vote, more than the Republican nominee's 10%, Pelosi was reelected with 72%, indicating her House seat is in no peril.

During the 2010 congressional elections, largely due to the unpopularity of Pelosi's extreme positions, [[Republican]]s gained a historic 60+ seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Pelosi was stripped of power on January 3, 2011, when the 112th Congress was sworn in. <ref>http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/vote-2010-elections-nancy-pelosi-ousted-house-speaker/story?id=12034633</ref>

==Politics==
===Ethics===
Concerns over ethics in Congress played a big part in the Democratic recapture of the House of Representatives and Pelosi's ascension to the Speaker-ship after several members of Congress were investigated, indicted or convicted for legal wrongdoing in 2006. In early 2007, Speaker Pelosi established a Special Task Force on Ethics Enforcement to explore the problem. Twenty freshmen House Democrats have asked for legislation to establish an independent ethics commission within the legislative branch to investigate future ethical lapses by fellow members.<ref>Alexander Bolton, [http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/dems-press-pelosi-for-ethics-panel-2007-04-18.html''Dems press Pelosi for ethics panel''], The Hill, April 19, 2007. </ref> Speaker Pelosi and others in the majority have resisted such a reform. <ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7hE4HX-Cwo&NR=1 The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same], ''ABC News'', April 25 2007. </ref>

Pelosi, capitalizing on the public’s distaste for the [[earmark]]ing process, pledged reform during the elections last fall. Members of Congress regularly abuse the appropriations process by earmarking public monies to fund pet projects of special interests and donors often in their own congressional districts or states. Earmarks are an area of the legislative process particularly susceptible to corruption. In May 2007 Pelosi inserted a $25 million earmark into the Water Resources Development Act for a project that involves renovating ports near four separate commercial real estate properties near property owned by her husband, Paul Pelosi, and is likely to significantly boost the value of the property he owns. <ref>[http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZGIwYzc2MTQ4YTBlMTg3YjJmZGVhODc4NmJhYjg4YjY Pelosi’s Waterworks], Stephen Spruiell, ''National Review Online'', May 9, 2007.</ref> The properties earn combined rental income of more than $3 million. <ref>[http://www.nypost.com/seven/05082007/news/nationalnews/her_an_fran_treat_nationalnews_geoff_earle.htm Her $an Fransisco Treat: Pelosi Water-Bill Bid Drawing Fire], Geoff Earle, ''New York Post'', May 8, 2007. </ref> .

Members of Pelosi's own Congressional Democratic Caucus have warned failure to deliver on their campaign promises to clean up Congress would be damaging in the 2008 election. <ref>[http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0507/4014.html Democrats divided on lobbying reform], Josephine Hearn and Jeff Patch, May 15, 2007. Retrieved from politico.com 06/01/07.</ref>

Pelosi's now famous comment- the 'culture of corruption' is only meant to be used against Republicans. In another example of her hypocrisy, Democrat [[Charles Rangel]] is under investigation for ethics violations. Nancy says "she has no intention of forcing Rangel out." <ref>[http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/charles_rangel_ethics/2008/09/10/129539.htmlPelosi, Republicans in Rangel Tug of War] Newsmax.com, September 10, 2008</ref> So, her other famous comment "drain the swamp of corruption" is just as meaningless.

===Iraq war failure===
Another major setback for Pelosi in her early months as Speaker was the rejection by her own caucus, and the Congress as a whole, for her plan to end the [[War in Iraq]] and bring the troops home. Pelosi had promised during the run up to the midterm elections to stop funding for the war and force the President to withdraw troops fighting abroad in the [[War on terror]]. In a stunning rebuke to her leadership, and the anti-war movement, the House voted overwhelmingly 280-142 to continue building Iraqi democracy and counter the threat posed by [[Islamic]] extremists outside of U.S. territory rather than the cut and run strategy proposed by liberal anti-war activists. Only the radical fringe voted against funding the troops. <ref>[http://washingtontimes.com/national/20070525-122215-4854r.htm Congress OKs war bill sans timeline,] By S.A. Miller, ''The Washington Times'', May 25, 2007. </ref> In exchange Pelosi won a raise in the [[minimum wage]], a controversial maneuver that increases the incentive for young people to drop out of school, with devastating effects upon the most vulnerable in our society, minorities in particular -- African-Americans and Hispanics. <ref>[http://www.optimalsolutionsgroup.com/pubs/Duncan-Turner-Pape.pdf Minimum wages and school enrollment of teenagers: a look at the 1990’s.] Duncan D. Chaplin, Mark D. Turner, Andreas D. Pape. ''Economics of Education Review''. 22 (2003) 11–21. </ref>

One review stated,
{{Cquote|Hamilton and Madison knew what they were doing when they gave the bulk of the war powers to the President, and it's hard to imagine a more telling vindication of their wisdom...Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader [[Harry Reid]] claim to oppose the war and want it to end, yet they refused to use their power of the purse to end it. Instead, they tried every legislative gimmick imaginable to hamstring President Bush's war strategy without actually having to take responsibility for cutting off funds. <ref>[http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010126 Congress and Iraq], ''OpinionJournal'', May 26, 2007.</ref>}}

===Energy Independence===

Pelosi is opposed to expanding domestic drilling, though a recent Fox News poll showed more than 75% of Americans support drilling. This includes 85% of Republicans, 71% of Democrats and 68% of Independents favor drilling. <ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/062108_energy_release_web.pdf Fox News Polling Opinion Dynamics] Fox News, June 21, 2008</ref> The poll additionally found the American public split on whether the domestic drilling would have any effect on gas prices. By contrast, a CNN poll released July 31st found "just over half say that the Bush administration and the war in Iraq are major causes of high fuel prices."<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/31/congress.session/index.html GOP lawmakers want special session on energy crisis]</ref> Pelosi wants oil companies to drill on the lands already leased and is refusing to allow a vote on additional domestic drilling. She did take a vote to close the [[House of Representatives]] early for a five-week recess without addressing energy issues. <ref>[http://www.townhall.com/blog/g/77da4653-28ce-4c3e-a8a9-37ae52671b15 A Month Off for Bad Behavior] Townhall.com, July 30, 2008</ref> Pelosi wants to tap into the Strategic Oil Reserves. "America's greatest strategic reserves lie beneath taxpayer-owned lands - including ANWR's northern coastal plain and the outer continental shelf - that are currently off limits to energy production,” said Daniel Kish, senior vice president of the Institute for Energy Research, an oil industry-supported think tank. <ref>[http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jul/11/us-oil-reserves-sought-for-relief/ U.S. oil reserves sought for relief] Washington Times, July 11, 2008</ref> Nancy Pelosi often blames oil companies and capitalist speculators for the oil price increases. Her call for renewable energy and new technologies hasn't had an impact on lowering [[oil]] prices. "A New Direction", the Democrats' Six for '06 campaign promises includes energy independence. She has completely failed to produce anything that would contribute to energy independence. "For 25 years, Democrats have blocked more American-made oil and gas. That's why we're in the predicament we're in, voters want Congress "to vote on more American made oil and gas. We want to do that. She, [[Harry Reid]], [[Barack Obama]] are standing in the way." "She's got time to go out and promote her new book tour and her new book, but she doesn't have time to schedule a vote on the floor of the House and let the American people have their will expressed?" said Minority Leader John Boehner, R-OH.

Pelosi is a supporter of increasing taxes and regulation on energy production because she is a believer in [[global warming]]. She was scheduled to speak at a March 2, 2009 global warming protest, but did not make it because her plane was delayed due to a snowstorm. <ref>http://environmentalrepublican.blogspot.com/2009/03/pelosi-misses-global-warming-protest.html</ref>

===Health Care===

Pelosi's major achievement has been the passage on Nov. 7, 2009, of the "Affordable Health Care for America Act" [[H.R. 3962]], costing $1.1 trillion. It just barely passed 215-210, as 39 Democrats deserted her leadership. Pelosi is a strong supporter of abortion but to get the 215 votes she had to give in to Catholic leaders nationally and abortion opponents in her own caucus and allow them to impose tight restrictions of the [[Stupak Amendment]] that bar any insurance plan that is purchased with government subsidies from covering abortions. As a result numerous liberals denounced the bill even as they voted for it.<ref>David M. Herszenhorn and Jackie Calmes, [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/health/policy/08scene.html?_r=1 "Abortion Was at Heart of Wrangling," ''New York Times'' Nov 7, 2009]</ref> The bill is now in the Senate, where its fate is uncertain.

===Boy Scouts===
Nancy Pelosi tried to pass legislation making it illegal for [[Boy Scouts]] to use public facilities like schools. This move was brought on by her disapproval of the Boy Scouts not allowing homosexuals to lead the children.{{fact|date=January 2008}}

==Criticism==

===Accusation against CIA===

Pelosi has been caught lying about her knowledge of [[CIA]] interrogations. She claims she was never briefed by the [[Bush Administration]]. In fact, her and three others were briefed. The [[Washington Post]] reported the following: "In September 2002, four members of Congress [that included Pelosi] met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody," and "Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was waterboarding..." <ref>[http://www.cnsnews.com/public/Content/Article.aspx?rsrcid=47108 Pelosi Says She Was 'Never Briefed' on Waterboarding] CNSNews, April 24, 2009</ref>

After doing nothing to improve the intelligence of the CIA, after admonishing the CIA for lying, and providing no evidence weeks after her allegation, Pelosi then said she has confidence in the intelligence community. <ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/08/house-democrat-joins-pelosi-accusing-cia-misleading-lying-congress/ House Democrats' Letter Says Panetta Testified CIA 'Misled' Congress] Fox News, July 8, 2009</ref>

===Trip to China===

Pelosi leaves the U.S. at a time when she is under verbal attack at home for her CIA comments. Her travel to China makes no mention of Chinese human right's but raised awareness for [[Global warming]] as a human rights cause. Less than a year ago, she was calling for America and for George W. Bush to boycott the [[Chinese]] Olympics for [[Tibet]] human rights abuses.

===Trip to Syria===
Pelosi traveled to Damascus, Syria in April 2007 to meet with Syrian [[Ba'athist]] leader [[Bashar Assad]]. Pelosi indicated at a press conference that she had carried a message from the government of Israel. "Our message was President Bush’s message," Pelosi told The Associated Press in Portugal . <ref>[http://www.kxmb.com/getARticle.asp?ArticleId=111801 Pelosi: I Carried Bush's Message To Syria] Apr 7 2007. </ref> Pelosi told reporters the meeting "enabled us to communicate a message from Prime Minister Olmert".

The Israeli Prime Minister's office stated Olmert told Pelosi that Israel continued to regard Syria as "part of the axis of evil and a party encouraging terrorism in the entire Middle East." The ''Jerusalem Post'' reported sources at the Prime Minister's Office said, "Pelosi took part of the things that were said in the meeting, and used what suited her." <ref>[http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=845618&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0 PMO: Pelosi did not carry any message from Israel to Assad], Yoav Stern and Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Correspondents and AP, 5 April 2007.</ref>

The trip was praised by terrorists as "brave". Members of the Islamic Jihad have said Pelosi aligns to their views about terror much better than Bush and Dr. Condoleezza Rice. <ref>[http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3385140,00.html Terrorists endorse Pelosi's 'good policy of dialogue'], Aaron Klein, Israel News, 04.05.07. "Palestinian terror group members call US House speaker's visit to Damascus 'brave' and hope for talks with Iran; ‘I think the Democratic Party can do things the best,’ Islamic Jihad member says"</ref> Khaled Al-Batch, spokesman for [[Islamic Jihad]], which along with [[Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades]] has taken responsibility for every suicide bombing in Israel for the past two years, expressed hope Pelosi and the Democratic Party will pressure Bush to create dialogue with Syria and Middle East "resistance movements" and prompt an American withdrawal from Iraq.

In the lead editorial of Thursday, April 5th, The ''[[Washington Post]]'' commented on '''"The Pratfall in Damascus":'''<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402306.html</ref>

<blockquote>
HOUSE SPEAKER Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) offered an excellent demonstration yesterday of why members of Congress should not attempt to supplant the secretary of state when traveling abroad. After a meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, Ms. Pelosi announced that she had delivered a message from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that "Israel was ready to engage in peace talks" with Syria. What's more, she added, Mr. Assad was ready to "resume the peace process" as well. Having announced this seeming diplomatic breakthrough, Ms. Pelosi suggested that her Kissingerian shuttle diplomacy was just getting started. "We expressed our interest in using our good offices in promoting peace between Israel and Syria," she said.</blockquote>

<blockquote>
Only one problem: The Israeli prime minister entrusted Ms. Pelosi with no such message. "What was communicated to the U.S. House Speaker does not contain any change in the policies of Israel," said a statement quickly issued by the prime minister's office. In fact, Mr. Olmert told Ms. Pelosi that "a number of Senate and House members who recently visited Damascus received the impression that despite the declarations of Bashar Assad, there is no change in the position of his country regarding a possible peace process with Israel." In other words, Ms. Pelosi not only misrepresented Israel's position but was virtually alone in failing to discern that Mr. Assad's words were mere propaganda. ...</blockquote>

<blockquote>Never mind that that statement is ludicrous: As any diplomat with knowledge of the region could have told Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Assad is a corrupt thug whose overriding priority at the moment is not peace with Israel but heading off U.N. charges that he orchestrated the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri. The really striking development here is the attempt by a Democratic congressional leader to substitute her own foreign policy for that of a sitting Republican president. Two weeks ago Ms. Pelosi rammed legislation through the House of Representatives that would strip Mr. Bush of his authority as commander in chief to manage troop movements in Iraq. Now she is attempting to introduce a new Middle East policy that directly conflicts with that of the president. We have found much to criticize in Mr. Bush's military strategy and regional diplomacy. But Ms. Pelosi's attempt to establish a shadow presidency is not only counterproductive, it is foolish. </blockquote>

Pelosi was roundly criticized from all quarters for making the trip. The ''New York Post'' said, "the sad reality is that Pelosi is sending Assad the same message she and her Democratic colleagues in Congress have sent the terrorist insurgency in Iraq: Just wait until President Bush leaves office and a Democratic administration will hand you what you want on a platter <ref>[http://www.nypost.com/seven/04032007/postopinion/editorials/nancys_nonsense_editorials_.htm Nancy's Nonsense], New York Post, 3 April 2007.</ref> the ''Philadelphia Enquirer'' ran an editorial declaring Pelosi "was nuts" to visit Assad. <ref>Claudia Rosett, [http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20070405_Pelosi_was_nuts_to_visit_with_Assad.html Pelosi was nuts to visit with Assad], ''Philadelphia Enquirer'', Thu, Apr. 05, 2007.</ref>

===Gay rights and abortion===

Student [[Lila Rose]] has recently exposed several instances of illegal behavior by [[Planned Parenthood]]. <ref>http://dotherightthing-cyberpastor.blogspot.com/2009/01/lila-rose-wins-award.html</ref> However, Pelosi still wanted $200 million for Planned Parenthood as part of the economic stimulus bill. <ref>http://politicalhousewyf.wordpress.com/2009/01/29/speaker-pelosi-likes-leather/</ref> When asked to explain why this money would promote economic stimulus, Pelosi was never able to give a sensible answer and Planned Parenthood funding was dropped from the bill. <ref>http://www.lifenews.com/nat4799.html</ref>

Commenting on her erroneous understanding of the [[Catholic Church]] beliefs regarding conception, Nancy quips “And what I know is, over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition. And [[St. Augustine]] said at three months. We don’t know.” <ref>[http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/08/26/archbishop-of-washington-chides-pelosi-denver-archbishop-warns-biden-to-skip-communion/ Archbishop of Washington Chides Pelosi] Fox News, August 26, 2008</ref> [[Archbishop]] Donald Wuerl rebuked her saying "From the beginning, the Catholic Church has respected the dignity of all human life from the moment of [[conception]] to natural death"

In the 2001 San Francisco [[Lesbian]], Gay, [[Bisexual]], Transgender Pride Parade Pelosi marched along with long time [[CPUSA]] <ref>''The Boston Phoenix'', [http://bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/other_stories/documents/02511115.htm The real Harry Hay], Michael Bronski, October 31 - November 7, 2002. </ref> member and [[gay rights]] pioneer [[Harry Hay]]. <ref>The American Spectator Special Report, [http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=10450 When Nancy Met Harry], Jeffrey Lord, 10/5/2006.</ref><ref>The San Francisco Chronicle, [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/06/22/DD115758.DTL Official Guide & Program] Parade Lineup, page SP - 14, June 22, 2001. </ref> A gay activist group calling itself the [[Human Rights Campaign]] (HRC), eulogized Hay as "the first to realize that the dream of equality for our community could be attained through visibility and activism".<ref>[http://www.hrc.org/Content/ContentGroups/News_Releases/20021/HRC_Mourns_the_Death_of_Gay_Rights_Pioneer_Harry_Hay.htm Human Rights Campaign Mourns the Death of Gay Rights Pioneer Harry Hay], Press Release, Oct. 24, 2002.</ref> An outspoken advocate of the North American Man-Boy Love Association [[NAMBLA]], Hay regularly addressed NAMBLA conferences. NAMBLA carries published material by Hay on its website dating back to 1984. The [[ACLU]] defended NAMBLA against a $200 million lawsuit by parents of a 10 year old murder victim who claimed their sons’ killer was motivated by published material on NAMBLA’s website. <ref>Deroy Murdock, [http://www.nationalreview.com/murdock/murdock200402270920.asp No Boy Scouts: The ACLU defends NAMBLA], National Review Online, February 27, 2004. </ref><ref>[http://www.thecpac.com/Curleys-v-NAMBLA.html Curley Vs. NAMBLA]</ref> Pelosi has taken $10,000 in campaign contributions from the Human Rights Campaign. <ref>[http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.asp?CID=N00007360&cycle=2006 Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) Top Contributors]</ref>

Pelosi has made special rights for homosexuals a priority in the 109th Congress. <ref>Concerned Women for America, [http://www.cwfa.org/articles/12147/CWA/family/index.htm Homosexual Bills Top House Speaker Pelosi’s List], January 10, 2007.</ref> Several so-called [[Hate Crimes bill]]s, or gay rights advocacy measures, have been introduced into the House which, according to Michael Marcavage of Repent America, could allow a homosexual to "claim emotional damage from hearing Scripture that describes his lifestyle as an abomination. [The homosexual] can press charges against the pastor or broadcaster who merely reads the Bible in public. The 'hater' can be fined thousands of dollars and even imprisoned". <ref>[http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54535 Christian belief a 'hate crime' under plan], WorldNetDaily, March 3, 2007. </ref> On National Prayer Day 2007 Pelosi scheduled a vote on an alleged "Hate Crimes Bill".

Every year, the Folsom Street Fair takes place in her [[San Francisco]] district. The participants are from the gay and lesbian community. They are barely dressed and publicly expose themselves in depraved sex acts. In addition, crucifixes made into sex toys are sold on the street during the fair. <ref>[http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=41858 San Francisco Catholic Church Attacked by Pro-Homosexual Marriage Vandals
] CNSNews, January 13, 2009</ref> In 2007, the Fair mocked the 'Last Supper' image of Christians, with homosexuals in leather posing as [[Christ]] and the Apostles. Not a word of condemnation from Pelosi on the sacrilegious display.

Marc Sheppard of American Thinker has asked how can,
:"one of the most outspoken advocates for unrestricted abortion in Congress -- with a perfect 100% rating from the radical [[pro-abortion]] group [[NARAL]], -- maintain a straight face when declaring a concern for children? How can you vote NO to making it a crime to harm a fetus during another crime (Lacy and Conner’s Law - H.R.1997) and pretend to care about infants? How does anyone who voted against restricting interstate transport of minors for the purpose of [[abortion]] (H.R 748) or outlawing the barbaric [[infanticide]] which is [[partial birth abortion]] (H.R 3660) seriously proclaim that anything she does is “about children”. <ref>Marc Sheppard, [http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/01/pelosi_god_bless_the_child_tha.html Pelosi: God Bless the Child that’s not at Home], January 14, 2007.</ref>

In defense of children in the mother's womb and the sanctity of Jesus in the host, a priest at the Saint's Peter and Paul Church in Nancy Pelosi's home district, Fr. John Malloy wrote a letter regarding her abortion stance and church services. The letter makes mention of her 100% rating with [[NARAL]] and her support for partial birth abortion. The last line says "...Nancy, do not receive the Eucharist when you attend Mass." <ref>http://www.calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=695280f1-c90e-44d8-a866-d8e28f5ef457 , California Catholic Daily A priest writes to Nancy Pelosi, February 1, 2007</ref>

===Treatment of non-union workers===
According to opensecrets.org, nearly half of Pelosi's assets are tied up in a Napa County, California vineyard called Zinfandel Lane. Capitolnews.com has reported Pelosi only employs non-union laborers and does not provide health coverage for her workers. In addition, it is believed illegal aliens have been exploited by Pelosi on the work farm, as well as a general question surrounding paying a basic livable wage for many of societies most vulnerable.<ref>[http://www.capoliticalnews.com/s/spip.php?article13 Does Pelosi’s Non-Union Vineyard Use Illegal Aliens?]Monday 30 October 2006.</ref>

===CordeValle Golf Club and Resort===
Nancy Pelosi has one of her largest investments in a private golf development partnership called Lions Gate Limited. The Santa Clara County Planning Committee approved a plan for them to build a 275-acre golf course 30 minutes south of San Jose, but only under strict conditions. They agreed to allow 60% public usage of the course and to abide by strict environmental rules, since a number of endangered species were present in the area. The club opened in 2000 and did very well, making $250,000 for each member and $400,000 for corporations.<ref>Barry Witt, "Cordevalle club not living up to 60 percent language," San Jose Mercury News Jan. 10, 2002.</ref>

But then the Planning Commission took at look to see if the guidelines had been followed. First of all, only about a dozen non-members had been actually able to play on the course, a far cry from 60%. CordeValle had also set up obvious anti-public rules, such as requiring people to call seventy-two hours in advance and pay close to $300 for 18 holes. Upon investigation, the Commission learned that nonmembers would be told that the club was "full" and turned away even when the club was relatively empty. There were a series of public hearings on the matter and it was concluded that Lion's Gate was in clear violation of the agreement they had made<ref>Barry Witt, "CordeValle Update," San Jose Mercury News, May 8, 2003.</ref>.

During the hearings, it was learned that Lion's Gate had also ignored many of the environmental regulations they were responsible for. The ponds that they needed to make in order to preserve two species of lizard and turtle were not built. And only one mandatory annual environmental report had been submitted in seven years<ref>Barry Witt, "What to do on CordeValle; open it up to the public, or open up it's wallet", San Jose Mercury News, August 7, 2003</ref>. In 2004, a county report complained that improperly abandoned wells and urban pollutants from the resort were causing water quality degradation in the area. <ref>File 5950-68-28-94P, Lions Gate Limited Partnership Staff Report, San Jose Planning Commission, August 5, 2004, and November 4, 2004 (same file name)</ref>

In 2003, the Pelosis and the development partnership finally hired some lobbyists and put a few government employees on the pay role. This caused the commission to cave and give up their fraud investigation as long as the course agreed to host a charity golf tournament for children.<ref>Barry Witt, "Help for CordeValle," San Jose Mercury News, June 13, 2003.</ref>

== Bible Quoting ==

[[NBC]] correspondent Tom Brokaw, asked Pelosi when life begins. She replies "As an ardent, practicing [[Catholic]], this is an issue that I have studied for a long time and what I know is, over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition. And St. Augustine said at three months. We don’t know.”<ref>[http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/08/26/archbishop-of-washington-chides-pelosi-denver-archbishop-warns-biden-to-skip-communion/ Archbishop of Washington Chides Pelosi] Fox News, August 26, 2008</ref>

On [[Earth Day]] in 2008, Pelosi stated the following: "The Bible tells us in the Old Testament, 'To minister to the needs of God's creation is an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us.'" Pelosi has used the quote many times, often attributing it to Isaiah. The verse is non-existent.<ref>Christianity Today, June 2080, Pg. 15</ref>

Not necessarily a quote from the Bible however, she claims to know where good things come from. Barack Obama is "a leader God has blessed us with at this time."
<ref>[http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/430377.aspx Pelosi Suggests Obama is a Gift from God] Ap, August 19, 2008</ref>

== Iraq Statements ==

December 16, 1998, Pelosi's public comment "[[Saddam Hussein]] has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process."

Pelosi voted for [[Operation Iraqi Freedom]], authorizing President Bush to invade Iraq.

By June 2005, Minority leader Pelosi had long since changed her position on [[Iraq]] and opposed the war along with fellow Democrats. She remarked of the liberation of 25 million Iraqis as a "grotesque mistake".

== 2008 Election Comments ==

On October 28, Nancy says "Elect us, hold us accountable, and make a judgment and then go from there. But I do tell you that if the Democrats win, and have substantial majorities, the Congress of the United States will be more bipartisan." Commenting on Pelosi Republican Mike Pence said, “As it’s been said before, I have an open mind but not an empty mind.” <ref>[http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=39385 More ‘Bipartisan’ Congress Not Likely, Pence Says] CNSNews, November 17, 2008</ref>

== Memoir ==
[[File:Pelosibook.jpg‎|200px|right]]
Know Your Power: A Message to America's Daughters. She writes "If [[women]] can learn from me, it will make the honor of being [[Speaker of the House]] even greater." Currently, the majority rating is one star on Amazon.com and is doing poorly in sales, ranked at 1620 for a non-fiction memoir. <ref>[http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=71104 Corsi's Obama title soars to No. 1, Pelosi's tanks] Worldnetdaily.com, July 31, 2008</ref>

== See also ==

*[[Ségolène Royal]]
*[[Hillary Clinton]]
*[[New_Democrat]]
*[[Liberal]]
*[[Previous Breaking News/Nancy Pelosi|Articles about '''Nancy Pelosi''' from previous "Breaking News"]]

==External links==
*[http://www.house.gov/pelosi/ Nancy Pelosi's Congressional Page]
*[http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.asp?CID=N00007360&cycle=2006 Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) Top Contributors]
*[http://www.themilitant.com/1995/5944/5944_5.html Ed Shaw: 50 Years In Fight For Socialism], ''The Militant'', Vol.59/No.44, November 27, 1995. [http://www.opensecrets.org/1996os/contrib/H8CA05035.htm]

{{liberalism}}

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

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pelosi, Nancy}}

[[Category:United States Representatives]]
[[Category:Speakers of the House(US)]]
[[Category:Liberals]]
[[Category:Democratic Party]]
[[Category:California]]

San Francisco values

2011-12-15T22:10:45Z

TBush:

[[Image:No Theocracy San Francisco.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Examples of extremist San Francisco values occur in plentitude as protesters equate [[pro-life]] with anti-woman bigotry and [[Christianity]] with [[Fascism]].]]

The phrase '''San Francisco values''' refers to the general moral degradation present in [[San Francisco]] and the greater [[San Francisco Bay Area]]. By extension, it has been used to describe liberal areas and politicians who exemplify these values, under the guise of "progressiveness". These values follow very strong [[liberal]] tendencies and grew out of the [[Hippie]] culture that flocked to this city in the 60s and 70s. San Francisco values include: legalization of [[marijuana]], [[gay rights]], [[pro-abortion]], [[gun control]], [[environmentalism]], anti-[[military]], [[New Age]] spirituality, [[politically correct|political correctness]], support of [[illegal immigrants]], and heavy government regulation of [[business]] or even [[socialism|socialist]] and [[anarchism|anarchist]] tendencies. Speaker of the House [[Nancy Pelosi]], Representative for the Congressional district containing San Francisco, is generally considered the political embodiment of San Francisco values and its powerful role in the [[Democratic party]].

==General offenses==

The drug [[marijuana]] has been legalized in [[California]] for prescribed medical use. However in San Francisco, [[Berkeley]] and Oakland, marijuana use is common among the general populace and the few remaining laws against its use are not enforced. Similarly, [[prostitution]] is rampant and overlooked by the police.

Adoption agencies in California not only allow gay couples to adopt children, but there are even ones which purposefully seek out gay people to adopt children, on the faulty presumption that they will be better parents.<ref>http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/06/25/gay.adoption/index.html</ref> <ref>http://www.adoptionopen.com/gay_adoption.html</ref>

==San Francisco==

San Francisco has been the eponymous exemplar for San Francisco values, being the most egregious offender of the traditional Christian values upon which the United States were founded. It has been the home base for [[homosexual activism]], as well as the launch site of several other unsettling movements.

===Hotbed for Homosexuality===

San Francisco has the largest population of [[homosexual]]s in the nation of America, located in the urban neighborhood known as the Castro (from Castro Street, named for Mexican soldier Jose Castro<ref>[http://www.jdcjr.us/SFStreets.html San Francisco Street Names {A-G}]</ref>), which was usurped from families by an influx of many homosexuals in the 70s. It has become known as the "Gay Mecca", in an offensive analogy to the religious [[pilgrim]]s in [[Islam]] who are drawn to their holy city of [[Mecca]].

San Francisco has been the location of many flagrant [[gay pride]] marches and other parades which have degraded into drunkenness, public nudity, public sex, and in recent years, stabbings (2002) and shootings (2006)<ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E01EEDC133FF931A35752C1A9609C8B63 New York Times] Shooting in gay district at Halloween street party, October 2006</ref>. All this has been tolerated by the police and mayoral government and many citizens have been left apathetic to the matter, desensitized through the frequently excessive displays. (See: [[Homosexual Public Indecency Tolerated in San Francisco]])

[[Christianity Today]] states the following regarding Pastor David Innes regarding the [[Hamilton Square Baptist Church Riot|Hamilton Square Baptist Church riot]]:
{{cquote|Innes says he blames not police, but those in political control of the city, particularly the board of supervisors. "You really can't compare San Francisco with any other city," says Innes. "Homosexual advocates infiltrate and dominate the political structures here. Police are in straitjackets. They can't do their job. They've been instructed not to arrest homosexuals."<ref>Christianity Today, Nov 8, 1993 v37 p57</ref>}}

Pastor Innes then cites a September 30, 1993 letter published in the [[San Francisco Chronicle]] from a veteran police officer who was "highly embarrassed" when people asked him he was not making any arrests in regards to totally naked males engaging in lewd behavior at the San Francisco Folsom Street Fair. The officer stated that "At least a dozen times I had to painstakingly explain that we were to take a position of 'high tolerance' and not to create an incident." <ref>Christianity Today, Nov 8, 1993 v37 page 57</ref>

In 1990 and 1991 extreme public lewdness was exhibited at the [[San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Parades|Gay and Lesbian Parades in San Francisco]] and when police authorities were asked why there were no arrests they offered various excuses such as the primary responsibility was to "reflect community standards and maintain crowd control."<ref>http://www.leaderu.com/marco/special/spc12.html</ref>

San Francisco's mayor, [[Gavin Newsom]] ordered the city clerk to issue marriage licenses [[same-sex marriage | to same-sex couples]] despite the practice being explicitly illegal under California law. The marriages were nullified by the courts shortly thereafter, as the mayor and clerk were violating California state law.<ref>http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/feb/07020106.html</ref>

In possibly the lowest level that the city has shrunk to, the historic National Guard Armory building was recently sold to a company that produces disgusting hardcore and specifically gay [[pornography]]; tellingly, only 50 people showed up to protest the purchase.<ref>[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/08/BAG37O1B4U12.DTL San Francisco Gate article] on protests of the purchase</ref>

In 2001, the city of San Francisco extended its workers health insurance to cover sex change operations for municipal employees. <ref>http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2001-05-01/article/4630?headline=Sex-change-benefits-approved-in-San-Francisco</ref> <ref>http://www.brentmorrison.com/0102Sex_change.htm</ref> The Board of Supervisors and Mayor approved the measure which extended up to $50,000 in benefits to city workers who want to switch their gender.<ref>http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9801E0D71130F93BA25751C0A9679C8B63</ref> Such health benefits are supported by [[taxpayer]]s' money.

===Other values===

There have been numerous anti-[[Bush]], anti-[[military]], [[anti-American]], and anti-[[conservative]] protests and rallies in San Francisco.

San Francisco's newspaper, the [[San Francisco Chronicle]], is one of the most liberal in the nation, featuring many oustpokenly liberal columnists and political cartoonists. Many believe it to be more leftist than the liberal standard, the [[New York Times]].

The election ballot for November 4, 2008 has two municipal [[measure]]s on it which exemplify San Francisco values in action. The first is to "decriminalize" [[prostitution]], which creates a legal [[limbo]] where prostitution continues to be illegal on a statewide level, but the San Francisco police is legally forbidden to arrest prostitutes or charge anyone with crimes related to prostitution.<ref>[http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D93V4U0O0&show_article=1 Breitbart] San Francisco votes to decriminalize prostitution</ref> Again, San Francisco has curtailed the polices ability to perform its crimefighting duties. The second measure would be laughable if it didn't have the support it does. Proponents plan to rename a municipal sewage treatment plant after former president, [[George W. Bush]],<ref>[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/18/BA7A11QU1S.DTL San Francisco Chronicle], George W. Bush Sewage Plant plan is on ballot</ref> which pushes their loud dissent to a thoroughly unpatriotic echelon.

San Francisco was one of the first cities in the country to ban [[trans fat]]s, citing a need to promote healthy living.<ref>http://www.nbc11.com/news/15177139/detail.html?rss=bay&psp=news</ref> This ban was then extended to a statewide ban, the first in the country.<ref>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/25/RV9N11VMPR.DTL</ref> Of course, the burden is placed on [[restaurant]]s and [[business]]es, who have to pay for more expensive and less tasty alternatives to use in their cooking. The ban absolves the blame from the consumer who chooses to eat a double cheeseburger with extra bacon and fries instead of a sensible sandwich and pickle. [[Chef]]s have been left wondering "how the trans fat ban will affect the bottom line".<ref>[http://www.zagat.com/Blog/Detail.aspx?SNP=NLA&SCID=37&BLGID=13729 LA Chefs React to Cali Trans Fats Ban]</ref> The trans fat ban is another instance of the city's anti-business policies.

San Francisco is also a "city of refugees", which means they have passed an [[ordinance]] that it is against the law to report [[illegal immigrant]]s to the United States authorities as they are required to legally do. In other words anyone upholding the federal law will get in trouble with the city. This has led to a culture of underage drug dealers continuing their trade with impunity.<ref>http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,374803,00.html</ref>

Mayor [[Gavin Newsom]] has made [[recycling]] one of his biggest issues, in a blatant attempt to appeal to his leftist constituency. Unfortunately, San Francisco already has some of the most restrictive recycling laws in the country, including mandatory recycling. Therefore any new laws proposed have been intrusive and unnecessary. Newsom's most recently proposed a $1000 ban for improperly sorted recycling. Garbage collectors would inspect the trash and issue tickets to "violators", who will likely be regular citizens who made reasonable mistakes. The laws have been labeled [[Gestapo]]-like by the Canadian press.<ref>[http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/4314 Canada Free Press] San Francisco Recycling Gestapo</ref>.

One of the largest offices of the [[ACLU]] is in San Francisco, as are the headquarters of several other activist [[nonprofit organization]]s.

As an indicator of the extreme liberalism in this city, the most recent mayoral election (2007) had the following breakdown among major candidates, revealing an almost complete absence of grounded, moral, conservative values:<ref>http://www.sfgov.org/site/elections_index.asp?id=68841 SF Dept of Elections</ref>

* Gavin Newsom ([[Democratic Party]]): 73.66%
* Harold M. Hoogasian ([[Republican Party]]): 5.86%
* Quintin Mecke (Democratic Party): 6.33%
* Lonnie S. Holmes ([[United States Marijuana Party]]): 1.26%
* Wilma Pang ([[Peace and Freedom Party]]): 5.07%
* Josh Wolf ([[Socialist Party of America|Socialist Party USA]]): 1.24%

==Nearby cities==

Other close cities are also hot-beds of liberal, San Francisco values.

===Berkeley===

[[Berkeley]] has gained a particular notoriety as a hotbed of extreme liberalism, in particular [[University of California, Berkeley]]. In Berkeley the [[homeless]] are afforded more rights and protections than tax-paying residents.

In 2008 the city board voted to protest a [[Marines]] enlistment agency downtown, saying the Marines are "uninvited and unwelcome intruders" to the city.<ref>http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/07/berkeley.protests/</ref>

[[Tree sitter]]s hijacked a forested portion of the University of California campus, preventing several trees from being cut down in preparation for the building of a city-approved multi-million dollar athletics facility.<ref name=sitters>http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10419085</ref> The resulting standoff between the tree sitters and the University and police lasted 22 months and cost $800,000 and significant delays to traffic in the area and the student body.<ref name=sitterfines>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/21/BAUB131HLG.DTL</ref> The four final tree sitters were arrested for [[trespassing]] and violating a months-old court order to vacate the tree. None of these sitters were even students.<ref name=sitters/> They have been charged with numerous legal fees and judicial fines.<ref name=sitterfines/>

===Oakland===

[[Oakland]] has one of the highest crime rates in the country due to extensive [[gang]] presence and a [[welfare]] system run amok.

In Oakland, even the [[Catholic Church]] is liberal: [http://members.tripod.com/~SRLCC/ St. Raphael's Liberal Catholic Church].

==References==

{{reflist}}
[[Category:Liberals]][[Category:San Francisco]]
[[Category:Liberal Traits]]

Barack Hussein Obama

2011-12-15T20:10:09Z

TBush:

{{Officeholder
|name=Barack Hussein Obama
|image=President Barack Obama.jpg
|party=[[Democrat]]
|spouse=[[Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama]]
|religion= [[Barack Obama's Muslim Heritage|Allegedly]] Christian
|offices=
{{Officeholder/president
|country=the United States
|number=44th
|terms=January 20, 2009-Present
|vp=[[Joe Biden]]
|preceded=[[George W. Bush]]
|former=n
|succeeded=
}}
{{Officeholder/senator
|state=Illinois
|terms=January 3, 2005 – November 16, 2008
|preceded=Peter Fitzgerald
|former=y
|succeeded=[[Roland Burris]]
}}
}}

'''Barack Hussein Obama II''' also known by the alias '''Barry Soetoro''' during his time in [[Indonesia]]<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQPXVJuT2vY Barry Soetoro the muslim - YouTube]</ref><ref>[[Barack Obama's Muslim Heritage]]</ref> (born August 4, 1961) is the 44th President of the [[United States]] and the controversial recipient of the 2009 [[Nobel Prize|Nobel Peace Prize]]. Overcoming a short political career, Obama defeated [[Republican]] nominee [[John McCain]] for the presidency in 2008, campaigning on promises of "hope" and "change". In effect, that change has been an embrace of [[socialism]], [[Marxism]], and [[liberal]] policies. Barack Obama has been widely criticized by the American [[business]] community and others for his anti-business policies that are killing American jobs during a period of high unemployment.<ref>
*[http://www.usnews.com/opinion/mzuckerman/articles/2010/07/16/obamas-anti-business-policies-are-our-economic-katrina Obama's Anti-business Policies are our Economic Katrina]
*[http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/619dvjlm.asp An Anti-Business President]
*[http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/08/small-businesses-are-not-hiring-why.html Small Businesses are not hiring. Why should they?]
*[http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/02/dear_mr_president_why_we_are_n.html Dear Mr. President: Why we are not hiring]
</ref> Trend forecaster [[Gerald Celente]] indicates that [[Obama administration]]'s response to the the failed American economy is more war and the creation of misleading [[economics|economic]] statistics.<ref>[http://www.opednews.com/articles/Washington-s-Response-to-a-by-paul-craig-roberts-110728-724.html Washington's response to the failed economy: More war]</ref>

Under President Obama's mismanagement of the economy, the United States Government's credit rating has, for the first time in it's history, been downgraded from AAA to AA+, and [[poverty]]<ref>http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/incpovhlth/2009/pov09fig04.pdf</ref> has increased markedly. By and large his policies to combat the recession, unemployment, slow growth, the deficit, and expanding [[national debt]], have failed.<ref>"The vast majority (73%) of respondents reported the fiscal stimulus enacted in February 2009 has had no impact on employment to date. While 68% also believe a jobs bill, such as the one recently enacted into law, will have no impact on payrolls, 30% do believe it will boost payrolls moderately". ''Industry Survey'', National Association for Business Economics, April 2010, [http://www.nabe.com/press/ind1004.pdf p. 2 pdf].</ref> Also on the domestic front, Obama passed an expensive [[health care]] bill in 2009 with no [[bipartisan]] support and 34 Democrats dissenting. In foreign policy Obama has escalated the [[Afghanistan War]] and, against his own Defense Secretary's advice, [[Libyan uprising 2011|attacked Libya]] - a possible violation of the [[War Powers Act]]. After he announced the killing of [[September 11th]] mastermind and terrorist [[Osama bin Laden]], the [[U.S. State Department]] warned of the increased risk to the lives and safety of Americans around the world.<ref>http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/national_world&id=8273909</ref> Bin Laden's death had negligible long term impact on Obama's approval ratings, as seen in Gallup's daily poll.<ref>http://www.gallup.com/poll/113980/gallup-daily-obama-job-approval.aspx</ref>

==Early life==
:''Main article : [[Early life and career of Barack Hussein Obama]]''
:''See also : [[Barack Obama's Muslim Heritage]]''
Obama was born in Hawaii to Stanley Ann Dunham and [[Barack Obama Sr.]] - who had married just six months prior - on August 4, 1961 in [[Honolulu, Hawaii]]. The couple divorced in 1964. Barack Obama Sr. was not a [[Natural born citizen|citizen of the United States]]. Dunham remarried Lolo Soetoro, an [[Indonesia]]n student. When Obama was six, Soetoro returned to Indonesia, and Dunham and Obama followed.<ref name="db mother">{{cite web|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-05-03/a-singular-woman-by-janny-scott-review-by-stacy-schiff/#|work=The Daily Beast|format=HTML|language=English|title=Dreams of His Mother|author=Stacy Schiff}}</ref> He spent four years in Indonesia before returning to Hawaii to be raised by his grandparents, Madelyn and WW2 veteran Stanley Armour Dunham. He would later attend Occidental College, [[Columbia University]] and then [[Harvard University]] for law school, where he would become the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. It has been disputed by some groups whether Obama was actually born in the United States; some people allege that he was born in Kenya. On April 27, 2011 Obama officially released his long form birth certificate, which many experts have determined to be a fake and no legal body has determined its authenticity.

==Illinois State Senate career==
[[File:O-2002-antiwar-rally-davidson.jpg|right|thumb|250px| Obama speaking at the October 2002 rally in Chicago organized by [[Carl Davidson]].<ref>Davidson is a longtime [[Mao]]ist and champion of the ''Thought of Mao Tse Tung.'' Davidson's anti-Trotskyite polemic, [http://www.wengewang.org/read.php?tid=10925 ''Left in Form, Right in Essence''] defends Maoist doctrine.<br> 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> ''"[H]e is a brutal man who butchers his own people,"'' nevertheless Obama opposed ''"dumb wars".'']]

In 1995 Obama openly sought and obtained the endorsement of the [[Marxist]] [[New Party]] in his quest to be elected to the Illinois State Senate.<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> He became the [[Democrat]] nominee and ran unopposed to win the election. Obama entered the Illinois Senate promising change to a corrupt system. He mixed often radical votes with more pragmatic agreements. Possibly one of his most radical votes was against requiring medical care for aborted children who survive [[abortion|the procedure]] - in fact the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council ascribed him a 100% rating for his consistently pro-choice votes.<ref name="cbs illinois">{{cite web|url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/17/politics/main2369157.shtml|title=Obama Record May Be Gold Mine For Critics|work=CBS|format=HTML|language=English|last=Clark|first=Amy S.|date=Jan. 17, 2007}}</ref> He was criticized for using the statehouse as a stepping stone for a more illustrious career: Steven J. Rauschenberger, a [[Republican]], said prior to Obama's election as president: “He is a very bright but very ambitious person who has always had his eyes on the prize, and it wasn’t Springfield. If he deserves to be president, it is not because he was a great legislator.”<ref name="nyt illinois">{{cite web|work=The New York Times|title=In Illinois, Obama Proved Pragmatic and Shrewd|last=Scott|first=Janny|format=HTML|language=English|date=July 30, 2007|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/us/politics/30obama.html}}</ref>

The statehouse was majority Republican, so the Senator was sometimes forced to compromise. He formed allegiances across party lines to pass [[campaign finance]] reform that banned most gifts by lobbyists, prohibited spending campaign money for legislators’ personal use and required electronic filing of campaign disclosure reports.<ref name="nyt illinois"/> Obama also helped pass a so-called “driving-while-black bill”, which required the police to collect data on the race of drivers they stopped as a way to monitor [[racial profiling]].<ref name="nyt illinois"/>

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 veteran [[Mao]]ist and webmaster of [[Progressives for Obama]],<ref>[http://www.linkedin.com/in/carldavidson Carl Davidson,] LinkedIn.com, retrieved March 13, 2010.</ref> [[Carl Davidson]].

===Radical foundation and connection to William Ayers===
{{main article|Radical roots of Barack Hussein Obama}}
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]]. 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> along with Carl Davidson, are veterans of [[guerrilla warfare]] training in [[Cuba]] prior 1968 Democratic National Convention riots. Ayers and Dohrn have taken credit for, and never denied, bombing the [[U.S. Capitol]], the [[Pentagon]] and the [[State Department]].

Ayers and Dohrn used their celebrity status 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> are authors of ''[[Bill_Ayers#Prairie_Fire_Organizing_Committee_and_Maoist_thought|Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-imperialism]],'' the title taken from ''The Sayings of Mao Zedong.''<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/red-book/]</ref> 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> Ayers later jokingly, publicly admitted to ghostwriting Obama's book, ''Dreams From My Father''<ref>http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/03/ayers_affirms_he_wrote_dreams.html</ref> and Obama was to appoint several openly avowed Maoists to prominent White House and Executive Branch positions.<ref>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704597704574487431322664964.html</ref>

==U.S. Senate career==
:''See also: [[Early_life_and_career_of_Barack_Hussein_Obama#U.S._Senate_.282004-2008.29|Barack Obama:U.S. Senate (2004-2008)]]''
[[Image:obama.jpg|thumb|left|Senator Barack Obama]]

Following a failed campaign for the U. S. House of Representatives, Obama ran for the open Senate seat from Illinois in 2004 against Republican candidate Jack Ryan. He won the seat after Chicago media outlets The Chicago Tribune newspaper and Chicago ABC affiliate WLS-TV; together with candidate Jack Ryan's Republican Primary opponents, sought and obtained the release of the confidential and personally embarrassing records in his California divorce from actress Jeri Ryan, forcing him to end his campaign. Ryan was replaced by the out-of-state candidate [[Alan Keyes]]. Obama won over Keyes 70% to 27% in the general election. Obama spent very little time in the Senate - "frustrated by his lack of influence and what he called the 'glacial pace' ... [he began] running for president even as he was still getting lost in the Capitol’s corridors."<ref name="nyt senate">{{cite web|work=The New York Times|publisher=The New York Times, Inc.|format=HTML|language=English|title=Obama in Senate: Star Power, Minor Role|author=Kate Zernike and Jeff Zelleny|date=March 9, 2008|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/us/politics/09obama.html}}</ref>

Obama frequently used the [[filibuster]] to obstruct the operations of government,<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/03/AR2010020303801_pf.html</ref> voted against the [[minimum wage]]<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> and debt ceiling increases,<ref>http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/04/obama-once-opposed-debt-ceiling-hike/237129/</ref> and recieved more than $126,000 in campaign contributions from [[Fannie Mae]]. The ''[[National Journal]]'' ranked him the most liberal senator in 2007.<ref name="ranked">{{cite web|url=http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-502163_162-3775451-502163.html|title=National Journal: Obama Most Liberal Senator In 2007|author=Brian Montopoli|date=January 31, 2008|work=CBS}}</ref>

==Presidential Election==
{{main article|Barack Hussein Obama 2008 Presidential campaign}}
Democrats began calling for an Obama candidacy after liberals lauded his 2004 [[Democratic National Convention]] speech.
===Campaign to be the Democratic nominee===
The race for the Democratic ticket originally seemed [[Hillary Clinton]]'s to lose, but was ultimately a close race between Clinton and Obama. Clinton would take a slim advantage in the popular vote, while Obama would carry significantly more states and territories. Obama's advantage with super-delegates over Clinton was about 2-to-1.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Superdelegate endorsements for Friday 6/6|work=Democratic Convention Watch|url=http://demconwatch.blogspot.com/2008/06/superdelegate-endorsements-for-friday.html}}</ref> Obama was able to attract the support of [[liberals]] by pointing out that he had come out against the [[Iraq War]] "from the beginning" whereas Clinton had voted in favor of the war in 2002.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-01-31-democrats-debate_N.htm|title=Obama, Clinton stress differences on Iraq, issues|author=David Jackson|work=USA Today|format=HTML|language=English}}</ref>
===Campaign for the Presidency===
Obama campaigned against Senator [[John McCain]] in the general election. To the chagrin of Clinton supporters, he selected Senator [[Joe Biden]] to be his running mate, whereas McCain selected [[Governor]] of [[Alaska]] [[Sarah Palin]]. The Obama and Biden ticket would win the election, and Obama would become the nation's first [[African American]] president.

====Jeremiah Wright====
:''See also: [[Barack Obama and Liberation Theology]]''
One major dilemma that arose for Obama during his campaign was his connection to his preacher [[Jeremiah Wright]]. 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, a chruch that embraced [[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> Church pastor Jeremiah 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]]."

In April 2008, after 20 years in the church, 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>

==Presidential career==
{{main article|Obama administration}}
[[File:Obama and George H. W. Bush.jpg|thumb|right|300px|President Barack Obama meets with former President George H. W. Bush in the Oval Office, Feb. 15, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza).]]
Under Obama's stewardship the United States has suffered the largest [[Federal budget deficit|deficit]]s<ref>http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/107xx/doc10708/11-06-mbr.htm</ref><ref>http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/118xx/doc11873/NovemberMBR.pdf</ref> in history and a credit downgrade from the rating agency Standard & Poor. Most observers attribute the deficits to increasing benefits and welfare paid out on account of the Recession he inherited and has failed to end along with decreasing tax receipts. Standard & Poor decided to downgrade U.S. government deby after the debt ceiling debate debacle, where Congressional leaders refused to pass a bill authorizing borrowing to pay for the budget they had passed with much debate and controversy earlier in the year. Cynics have argued that rhetoric directed at the rating agencies about the issuance of AAA ratings to junk real estate bonds spurred the downgrade as a form of retribution. Ironically, the investor scare led to the flocking of investors to the safe haven of the Treasury bonds which had been downgraded, resulting in lower interest rates. As there are very few AAA bond markets, investors will likely continue to buy U.S. government debt for the foreseeable future. <ref>http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/04/18/the-sp-outlook-and-obama/</ref> When his [[economic stimulus]] program was adopted unemployment rose and stagnated in the 10% range, <ref>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704476104575439172480870774.html?mod=googlenews_wsj</ref> leaving tens of millions without [[hope]] of finding a job.<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>

Patrick H. Caddell and Douglas E. Schoen, writing in the [[Wall Street Journal]], noted, "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, saying, "Having one's opponent [[race card|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> Caddell and Schoen, who worked for President Carter and Clinton, respectively, further stated, "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>

===Domestic policy===
====Popular bills====
Obama's first act of office was to sign the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act - effectively nullifying the [[Supreme Court]] case ''Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'', which ruled that Ledbetter had to have filed a pay [[discrimination]] suit within 180 days of the first time Ledbetter was payed less than her male peers;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/30/us/politics/30ledbetter-web.html|work=The New York Times|format=HTML|language=English|title=Obama Signs Equal-Pay Legislation|author=Sheryl Gay Stolberg|date=January 29, 2009}}</ref> the law made corporations subject to suit within 180 days of each time the employee was unfairly paid.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://writ.news.findlaw.com/grossman/20090213.html?=features|work=FindLaw|author=Joanna L. Grossman|date=Feb. 13, 2009|format=HTML|language=English|title=The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009}}</ref>

On January 2, 2011, Obama signed the James Zadroga [[9/11]] Healthcare and Compensation Act.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2011/jan/02/obama-signs-zadroga-act-law/|publisher=New York Public Radio|title=Obama Signs Zadroga Act into Law|author=Fred Mogul|date=January 02, 2011|work=wNYC|format=HTML|language=English}}</ref> The act, which afforded 9/11 first responders who were sickened by the dust from the collapse of the [[World Trade Center]] health care and compensation, passed [[Congress]] after its sponsored agreed to scale down the pricing from 7.4 to 4.2 billion dollars.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2010/dec/22/zadroga-911-bill-passes-senate/|publisher=New York Public Radio|work=wNYC|format=HTML|language=English|title=Congress Approves 9/11 Health Bill|date=December 22, 2010}}</ref>

====Economic plan====
[[File:Keynes.jpg|thumbnail|right|190px|[[Barack Obama]] advocates the use of [[Keynesian economics|Keynesian economic concepts]] despite the fact that [[John Maynard Keynes]] was incompetent and a fraud.<ref>
*[http://centurean2.wordpress.com/2011/03/20/fabian-john-maynard-keynes-the-stealthy-enemy-of-human-freedom/ John Maynard Keynes the stealthy enemy of human freedom]
*[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-02-22/deathbed-of-keynesian-economics-will-be-in-u-k-matthew-lynn.html Deathbed of Keynesian Economics will be in the UK]
*[http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/show/23102.html Will the G8 Repudiate the Philosophy of Living Beyond Our Means?]
*[http://www.keynesatharvard.org/book/KeynesatHarvard-ch09.html KEYNES AT HARVARD Economic Deception as a Political Credo BY ZYGMUND DOBBS]
</ref> ]]
{{see also|Obamunism|American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009}}
Critics of the Obama administration have coined the word "[[Obamunism]]" to describe Barack Obama's [[socialism|socialistic]] and "[[fascism]] light" [[economic planning]] policies.<ref>[[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><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thebigmoney.com/articles/daily-intel/2009/07/20/obamunism-inc|work=The Big Money|publisher=WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC|format=HTML|language=English|title=Obamunism, Inc.|author=David Sessions|date=July 20, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.smallbusinessadvocate.com/small-business-interviews/gerald-celente-6944|author=Jim Blasingame|title=Is the government creating a bailout bubble?}}</ref> Obamunism can also refer to Obama's [[Obama administration fiscal policy|ruinous fiscal policies]] and [[Obama administration monetary policy|reckless monetary policies]].<ref name="gerard">{{cite web|url=http://seekingalpha.com/article/120883-monetary-policynot-obama-s-stimulusis-what-needs-watching|title=Monetary Policy-Not Obama's Stimulus-Is What Needs Watching|author=Gerard Jackson|date=February 16, 2009|work=Seeking Alpha}}</ref><ref name="bam">{{cite web|work=New York Post|date=May 17, 2009|url=http://www.nypost.com/seven/05172009/postopinion/editorials/bams_wise_words_169731.htm|title=BAM'S WISE WORDS}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://blog.heritage.org/2009/03/24/bush-deficit-vs-obama-deficit-in-pictures/|title=Bush Deficit vs. Obama Deficit in Pictures|work=The Foundry|publisher=The Heritage Foundation|author=Conn Carroll|date=March 24th, 2009}}</ref> As seen in his own actions, Barack Obama instructed his advisors to find loopholes that would enable the president to act as a [[dictator]] by pushing through legislation and increases in spending without congressional authority.<ref>http://www.theblaze.com/stories/executive-dictatorship-obama-instructs-advisers-to-push-through-stimulus-projects-without-pesky-congressional-authorization/</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, and many argue that it was not helpful in making the United States economy more productive and prosperous by encouraging more risk taking through letting banks off with a slap on the wrist. Others argue that bailing out the banks kept credit flowing and prevented a much deeper recession and a total collapse of the financial system. The government will recoup some though not all of its capital infusions over time. 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=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 name="celente1">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MMX3SKzrfU&feature=channel_page</ref><ref name="celente2">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]], although inflation under Bernanke has been below the historic mean.<ref name="gerard"/><ref name="bam"/><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 name="celente1"/><ref name="celente2"/>

During what the [[White House]] billed as [[Recovery Summer]], one half million workers per week continued losing their jobs. His signature legislative achievement, [[ObamaCare]],has been 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> by several judges and constitutional by others, and is credited as a major cause of uncertainty, high [[unemployment]],<ref>http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=33220</ref> lagging 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 credit default 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>

His 2012 Budget plan has been roundly criticized in the mainstream and liberal press as not a serious effort to deal with the nation's economic crisis.<ref>[http://republican.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=blogs.view&blog_id=1551d6f5-2ac9-4b8d-97ab-74def354024e Newspapers Call Out White House: ‘What Would That Path Be, Mr. President?’]</ref>

=====Healthcare=====
{{main article|Obamacare}}
On March 23, 2010, Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The act had originated in the House of Representatives and passed September 17, 2009. The act was amended and passed the Senate prior to [[Democrat]] [[Ted Kennedy]]'s passing along party lines - just a filibuster-proof majority at 60-39. In what can be construed as a de facto rejection of the bill, [[Massachusetts]] voters elected a [[Republican]] candidate, [[Scott Brown]], who promised to vote against the bill,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/senate/scott-brown-wins-massachusetts-senate-race.html|work=The Washington Post|author=Chris Cillizza|date=January 19, 2010|title=Scott Brown wins Massachusetts Senate special election race|language=English|format=HTML}}</ref> but another Senate vote would not occur. Scott Brown was also an excellent campaigner and judged to be a better candidate than his rival, Martha Coakley. He has since achieved one of the most moderate senate voting records, likely to avoid the anger of his mostly liberal constituency. After Obama made a promise to issue an [[executive order]] that would ultimately prohibit the use of taxpayer subsidies to pay for [[abortion]] services,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/22/nation/la-na-healthcare-passage22-2010mar22/3|work=The Los Angeles Times|format=HTML|language=English|title=House passes historic healthcare overhaul|date=March 22, 2010|author=Noam N. Levey and Janet Hook}}</ref> the [[House of Representatives]] would pass the bill as it left the Senate 219-212, with 34 Democrats and all other parties dissenting.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://articles.cnn.com/2010-03-21/politics/health.care.main_1_health-care-entire-house-democratic-caucus-pre-existing-conditions?_s=PM:POLITICS|date=March 21, 2010|author=Alan Silverleib|work=CNN|format=HTML|language=English|title=House passes health care bill on 219-212 vote}}</ref>

Amongst other things, the act mandates that the population purchase health care coverage or face punitive tax measures, and on this basis has been constitutionally challenged in the federal courts, with mixed results (three courts have upheld the act, two have declared it unconstitutional); thus, the Act is likely destined for [[Supreme Court]] reviewal. Plans originally proposed involved instituting a universal public insurance program, that is, extending Medicare to everyone. The universal mandate included in the act was originally a conservative idea that was enacted in Massachusetts under Republican Mitt Romney. Its supporters note that having health insurance results in reduced costs in paying for treatment of uninsured and forcing people to take responsibility for their healthcare. Due to ethical constraints, doctors cannot deny care to poor patients, resulting in the hospital and the healthcare system at large bearing the cost.

====Gulf oil spill====
{{main article|Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster}}
President Obama authorized 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> stating, "oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills"<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> and was widely criticized for his mishandling of 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://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/the-oil-spill-is-obamas-fault/?src=twt&twt=NytimesKrugman Conscience of a Liberal: The Oil Spill Is Obama’s Fault,] Paul Krugman, ''New York Times'', April 30, 2010.</ref>

====Don't Ask Don't Tell====
{{main article|Don't Ask Don't Tell}}
Candidate Obama promised to repeal a policy that originated in the Clinton era that prohibited inquiries into military personnel's [[sexual orientation]] while also barring "out" [[homosexuals]] from serving in the military. [[Liberals]] expressed anger when time passed and no effort to repeal the law was seen;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/21/obama-to-delay-repeal-of-dont-ask-dont-tell/|work=The Washington Times|format=HTML|title=Obama to delay ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ repeal|language=English|author=Rowan Scarborough|date=November 21, 2008}}</ref> in fact, Obama's [[justice department]], as part of their duty to defend all laws passed by any administration, filed a brief arguing against the [[Supreme Court]] granting a [[writ of certiorari]] to a gay soldier challenging the law (the writ was not granted). In response, the soldier, James Pietrangelo II, a former Army infantryman and lawyer, said, “[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."<ref>{{cite web|work=Time Magazine|publisher=Time Inc.|format=HTML|url=http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1903545,00.html?imw=Y|title=Dismay Over Obama's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Turnabout|author=Mark Thompson|date=Jun. 09, 2009}}</ref>

On December 15th, 2010, a bill was introduced in the [[House of Representatives]] to repeal the law - it passed a day later by a vote of 250-175;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2010/roll638.xml|title=FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 638|format=HTML|work=Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives}}</ref> it passed the Senate three days later 65-31.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=2&vote=00281|work=The U.S. Senate|title=U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 111th Congress - 2nd Session|format=HTML|language=English}}</ref> Obama signed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 on December 22nd.<ref name="g dadt">{{cite web|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/22/obama-repeals-dont-ask-dont-tell|work=The Guardian|format=HTML|language=English|title='Don't ask, don't tell' repealed as Obama signs landmark law|date=22 December 2010}}</ref>

The [[Pentagon]] itself could not immediately implement the repeal and questioned whether it would hurt combat readiness.<ref name="g dadt"/> Senator [[John McCain]], the senior Republican on the Armed Services Committee, opposed the bill, saying "It may be premature to make such a change at this time and in this manner, without further consideration of this report and further study of the issue by Congress – for of all the people we serve, one of our highest responsibilities is to the men and women of our armed services, especially those risking their lives in combat.”<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/mccain-on-dont-ask-dont-tell-dont-rush/|title=McCain on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’: Don’t Rush|date=December 2nd, 2010|format=HTML|author=David M. Herszenhorn|language=English|work=The New York Times}}</ref>

===Foreign policy===
[[File:Western Wall Obama.jpg|thumb|left|320px|At [[Western Wall]], Jerusalem, 2008.]]
As Senator, Obama was highly critical of President Bush and promised change. As President, Obama has tripled down in Afghanistan, widened the war into Pakistan, multiplied drone attacks, bombed Yemen and Somalia, and started an undeclared NATO war in Libya. On presidential war powers, surveillance questions, Guantanamo, detention policy and habeas corpus, Obama has similarly stayed the course, or expanded Bush's precedents. In a speech on May 19, 2011 Obama fully embraced the [[Bush Doctrine]] of preventative war.<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-news-in-obamas-speech/2011/05/19/AF4dFN7G_story.html</ref>

<blockquote>
The New America Foundation, which tracks the strikes, has listed 23 raids since the beginning of April, 2011, all but one in Pakistan’s tribal regions of North and South Waziristan. A June 20 attack was reported in Kurram, an area north of North Waziristan along the Afghanistan border.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
The drone program has become increasingly controversial as the Obama administration has expanded its use beyond the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Lethal missiles have been launched from unmanned aircraft in at least five countries in addition to Pakistan: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, and, most recently, Somalia. The military’s Joint Special Operations Command used a drone last June to attack what officials said were two senior members of the Al Shabab militant group on the Somali coast. [http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2011/07/04/cia_halts_drone_launches_from_pakistan_base/]
</blockquote>

====Commander-in-chief====
By Obama's second year as Commander-in-Chief, 559 American troops died in Iraq and Afghanistan - significantly more than the 469 who died during Presisdent [[George W. Bush]]'s final year in office. And growing numbers of civilian contractors also have fallen. In the first half of 2010, 250 contractors reportedly died in Iraq and Afghanistan - more than the 235 military personnel who fell during the same period.<ref>http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/05/24/114662/what-price-war.html#ixzz1Nz07pg5O</ref>

=====Afghanistan=====
{{main article|Afghanistan War}}
Obama escalated troop strength<ref name="pbs">{{cite web|url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/obamaswar/themes/strategy.html#ixzz1LhWNImZp|title=Obama's New Strategy (March '09)|author=George Packer, Seth Jones, David Kilcullen, Rory Stewart, Andrew Exum, Col. Andrew Bacevich (Ret.)|work=PBS|language=English|format=HTML}}</ref> and defense costs in Afghanistan from $43.5 billion in George Bush's last year to $113.7 billion for 2011.<ref>Congressional Research Service, quoted in Gregory Anthony, ''What price war?''</ref> Adviser to General [[Stanley McChrystal]] David Kilcullen wrote, "One of the big strategic shifts is the use of language now which talks about Pakistan and Afghanistan as the same theater. Now we talked about Af-Pak long before the Obama administration came about, but the public use of that term, and the description of it as the Afghanistan-Pakistan campaign, sends a new message to people about how the administration is going to think about Afghanistan and Pakistan."<ref name="pbs"/> This became evident when, under the orders of Obama, a military SEALs team killed September 11th mastermind [[Osama bin Laden]] in Abottabad, Pakistan.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newsweek.com/2011/05/05/commander-in-chief.html|title=Commander in Chief|author=Daniel Romano and Daniel Klaidman|date=May 05, 2011|work=Newsweek|publisher=The Newsweek/Daily Beast Company LLC|language=English|format=HTML}}</ref>

=====Iraq=====
{{main article|Operation Iraqi Freedom}}
Obama campaigned on a promise to end the War in Iraq, however 50,000 U.S. troops remain in the country.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://articles.cnn.com/2010-08-31/politics/obama.oval.office.address_1_iraq-requests-united-states-and-iraq-troop-surge?_s=PM:POLITICS|work=CNN|title=Obama: 'Time to turn the page' as Iraq combat mission ends|date=August 31, 2010|language=English|format=HTML}}</ref>

=====Guantanamo Bay=====
{{main article|Guantanamo Bay}}
One of Obama's campaign promises was that he would close the American detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba - detainees would be flown to other countries while the ones awaiting trial would enter the American court system. Two days after taking office he signed an order directing the military to do so.<ref name="salon">{{cite web|url=http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/04/25/obama_guantanamo_rhetoric|work=Salon|title=The Obama/Gitmo timeline|author=Natasha Lennard|format=HTML|language=English}}</ref> But, in November 2009 Obama admitted that his self imposed deadline of January 2010 would be missed, and in March 2011 the president went back on his campaign promise, signing an executive order to create a formal system of indefinite detention for the prisoners.<ref name="salon"/>

=====Libya=====
{{main article|Libyan uprising 2011}}
In February 2011, the political unrest that had spread through the Arab world showed up as protests in Libya. Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi - dictator of Libya for 41 years - responded to the activism with a wave of violence.<ref name="nyt libya">{{cite web|url=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/libya/index.html|work=The New York Times|publisher=The New York Times Inc.|format=HTML|language=English|title=Libya — Protests and Revolt (2011)}}</ref> The [[United Nations Security Council]] voted unanimously to impose [[sanctions]], and later authorized all members to take action to protect civilians. Obama, acting without approval from Congress and at the beckoning of the [[United Nations]], directed American forces to take out Libya's air defense system.<ref name="nyt libya"/> Obama later said, "[I]f we waited one more day Benghazi, a city nearly the size of Charlotte, could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world."<ref>{{cite web|author=Barack Obama|url=http://www.npr.org/2011/03/28/134935452/obamas-speech-on-libya-a-responsibility-to-act|title=Obama's Speech On Libya: 'A Responsibility To Act'|date=March 28, 2011|publisher=National Public Radio ([[NPR]])|language=English|format=HTML}}</ref> [[Alan J. Kuperman]] - writing an editorial for the ''[[Boston Globe]]'' - suggested this statement was false, writing, "[I]ntervention did not prevent genocide, because no such bloodbath was in the offing. To the contrary, by emboldening rebellion, US interference has prolonged Libya’s civil war and the resultant suffering of innocents."<ref name="kuperman">{{cite web|author=Alan J. Kuperman|work=The Boston Globe|url=http://articles.boston.com/2011-04-14/bostonglobe/29418371_1_rebel-stronghold-civilians-rebel-positions|title=False pretense for war in Libya?|date=April 14, 2011}}</ref> Kuperman, a professor of public affairs at the University of Texas who authored a book called ''The Limits of Humanitarian Intervention'', further stated that the rebels had tricked the world into thinking a bloodbath was at hand and that Obama had lied to the American people in order to act on this theory.<ref name="kuperman"/>
<blockquote>
Gaddafi [never] threaten civilian massacre in Benghazi, as Obama alleged. The “no mercy’’ warning, of March 17, targeted rebels only, as reported by The New York Times, which noted that Libya’s leader promised amnesty for those “who throw their weapons away.’’ Khadafy even offered the rebels an escape route and open border to Egypt, to avoid a fight “to the bitter end.’’ <ref> [http://politicalcartel.org/2011/04/17/libya-and-the-obama-doctrine/ Libya and the “Obama Doctrine”.] </ref>
</blockquote>

However Gaddafi wrote to Obama:

<blockquote>
Gaddafi said he bore no ill will toward Obama. "We have been hurt more morally than physically because of what had happened against us in both deeds and words by you," he wrote. "Despite all this you will always remain our son whatever happened. We still pray that you continue to be president of the USA. We endeavour and hope that you will gain victory in the new election campaign." The letter, dated 5 April 2011 in Tripoli, is signed "Mu'aumer Qaddaffi, Leader of the Revolution".<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/06/gaddafi-obama-nato-libya?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487]</ref>
</blockquote>

Critics point out the only thing worse than starting a "stupid, unnecessary war" against a madman is losing it.<ref>http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/271847/war-libya-dumb-and-dumber-victor-davis-hanson</ref>

==See also==

*[[Political positions of Barack Obama]]
*[[Barack Obama and uncharitableness]]
*[[Barack Obama and abortion]]
*[http://www.ontheissues.org/barack_obama.htm]

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

{{USPresidents}}
{{2008 presidential candidates}}
[[Category: Barack Hussein Obama]]
[[Category:Obama Presidency]]
[[Category:Obama Administration]]
[[category:Nobel laureates in Peace]]
[[Category:2012 Presidential Candidates]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Obama, Barack Hussein}}