2010-03-12T13:15:02Z opencongress.org tag:opencongress.org,2007:/person/comments/400629 2010-03-12T13:15:02Z tag:opencongress.org,2010-03-12:/comment/188561 TeaPartyCitizen For a politician who once was a candidate for the Marxist New Party, I'm shocked Obama became President of the United States. 2010-03-13T09:29:02Z tag:opencongress.org,2010-03-13:/comment/188645 TeaPartyCitizen You Lie! 2010-03-21T18:07:15Z tag:opencongress.org,2010-03-21:/comment/189672 fortermlimits We have to work to stop this. Never have I been involved other than voting, but all that has changed. In June I am off to attend the Republican State Convention. We have to stand up and take our country back. Join me, before it is too late. After todays vote (HC) I worry that we can't move fast enough, but we have to try. 2009-09-14T19:57:55Z tag:opencongress.org,2009-09-14:/comment/126037 tllurk Glad to see someone else in this pitiful country knows about the corupt Chicago political machine. I suggested to Gov. Rod that Cook County become the 51st state with him as their gov. leaving the rest of IL alone -- he didn't respond. Look where he is today -- prison is too good of an option for someone who led IL to ruin. I would like to suggest that O'Bama become the 1st President of the new country of Cook and leave the rest of the nation alone. Blagovich and O'Bama -- two of the most corupt puppets of the Chicago machine. Hopefully, the nation will oust O'B more quickly than IL did Gov. Rod. 2010-03-21T17:59:53Z tag:opencongress.org,2010-03-21:/comment/189668 fortermlimits He's not American at heart. 2010-03-21T18:01:24Z tag:opencongress.org,2010-03-21:/comment/189669 fortermlimits I love it. 2009-03-02T07:54:39Z tag:opencongress.org,2009-03-02:/comment/92510 kgotjesus2001 LINCOLN AND OBAMA ARE VERY MUCH ALIKE 1. Lincoln placed his hand on the Bible for his inauguration. Obama used the same Bible. 2. Lincoln came from Illinois . Obama comes from Illinois . 3. Lincoln served in the Illinois Legislature. Obama served in the Illinois Legislature. 4. Lincoln had very little experience before becoming President. Obama had very little experience before becoming President. 5. Lincoln rode the train from Philadelphia to Washington for his inauguration. Obama rode the train from Philadelphia to Washington for his inauguration. 6. Lincoln was a skinny lawyer. Obama is a skinny lawyer. 7. Lincoln was a Republican. Obama is a skinny lawyer. 8. Lincoln was highly respected. Obama is a skinny lawyer. 9. Lincoln was born in the United States . Obama is a skinny lawyer. 10. Lincoln was honest, so honest he was called Honest Abe. Obama is a skinny lawyer. 2008-02-08T07:20:58Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-02-08:/comment/703 Anonymous I would vote for him but because blacks are still being treat so unfair and I don't believe the king dream has come to pass. I very afraid for him as a black man. I believe he would win but I also believe after a term in the white house some crazy nut would kill him. But as a woman my vote goes to Hillary because I would like to see how a woman run a county and I would like to experience it. Then after that I vote for him after Hillary. 2008-02-09T10:29:42Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-02-09:/comment/740 bkoppe weasel: It's valid to say he should quite his job in order to campaign, but if you're going to lay that criticism on Obama, be sure to lay it equally on Senators Clinton and McCain (and all the other past and present senators and representatives that end up in the same situation when campaigning for president). It's a valid criticism, but Obama is in no way special in that regard. (Obama abstained in 25 of the last 30 votes, Clinton in 26 of the last 30, and McCain in 24 of the last 30) I also agree it's important to be choosing the right decision, which is yet another reason I prefer Obama. A great deal of economists, for example, are against the idea of health insurance mandates. Obama's health insurance plan is more solidly rooted in behavioral economics, which I think is a huge plus. The presidency has recently been only about making decisions, this is true. But originally the presidency was more about leadership and statesmanship. For a very long time, presidential vetoes were extremely rare, because if Congress - the elected representatives of the people - wanted to make a law, then the president signed it, unless he thought it was absolutely detrimental to the country as a whole. In recent decades, it has been that the president vetoes anything he disagrees with, which may or may not be a good thing. What is clear, though, is that the president has a very important role to play now in guiding Congress to decisions, which means working with people and inspiring them to work with each other. I have no doubt that even if Clinton's ideas are better (which I don't think they are, but even if they are), Obama would make far more progress towards implementing what are ultimately very similar ideas than Clinton would make in getting hers implemented. We'll likely just have to agree to disagree, because it's unlikely anyone is going to change their mind over the internet. And I'm OK with that: I support Obama, but I'm certainly willing to support Clinton if she gets the nomination. I'd like to encourage you to check out the two links I posted though. Anonymous: Heh, yes, there are clearly some issues with that. I didn't say I knew how they should do it, just that it's something which should be discussed. The trick is finding the right balance so that there is still incentive to actually be in DC for the vote. Perhaps something like counting votes from somewhere else as only half a vote, I don't know. It's just that the way the system is set up right now, it's absolutely prohibitive to anyone who would be a senator and presidential candidate simultaneously. As one of Obama's constituents, I understand this and don't hold it against him, but I do wish that he, and Senators Clinton and McCain were more able to do their jobs while also doing the rigorous work of campaigning. I certainly would have liked Obama and Clinton to have voted on the recent FISA amendments, but neither were able to. 2008-03-03T07:19:39Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-03-03:/comment/2209 rdixon Senator Obama:Please vote for bill HR5173/S1200 to delay or stop the cuts for medicaid/medicare case management. This service is so important for local health departments, hospitals and commuity programs. Not to mention the number of people who will be out of work. I beleive that our citizens come first, but I don't want to lose my job where I have been for 20 years. 2008-11-06T10:15:41Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-11-06:/comment/57083 JHENRY Dear President-Elect Obama: Congratulations on winning the race for the White House. I hope you can keep all the promises you have made. I am writing about Hillary Clinton's sponsored bill S.661 Caregivers Support Act. I was surprised not to see your name among those Senators of both parties that support this Bill because you have given great credit to your grandmother's for raising you to be the man you are today. In this Bill, it should also mention financial support for grandparents raising grandchildren. We have been given custody of 3 minor grandchildren that went through the juvenile dependancy court when these children were taken from their parents by Virginia CPS and put into foster Care. We were notified that if we didn't want the children separated because there were no foster care homes in that vacinity that would take all 3 that we needed to immediately get to that court and file papers for custody. We only had 3 days to do this. We are in our 60's and didn't have any choice but to go through with the custody hearings. We live in Southern California. We were retired and on social security and my husbands teacher retirement. We went through all of our saving to go to these hearings a total of 13 times. We were given a home study and had to be live scan finger printed by Social Service, as did our daugher and her husband and children that were over 16 years of age. Our home was thoroughly check out by Social Services to be sure we could accomodate the 3 children. The children were place in our home on an ICPC(Inter-state Compact for the Protection of Children. Which is Social Service. We were first given physical custody of the children and were getting Foster Care payments from Virginia. This helped a lot with the finances. We also had to pay attorney fees for an attorney in Virginia to represent us in the custody hearing prior to us getting legal custody. The parents were not given custody because of the neglect and endangerment of the parent's drug use and drug related activities. When we received legal custody of the children that same day Virginia cut off the Foster Care payments. We now have had the children for 4-1/2 years and have had California guardianship of them for going on 3 years. We took the children out of Foster Care and gave them a loving home and a safe environlment. We love them as if they were born to us, not just grandchildren. They are thriving. The oldest child came to us when she was 12 and went from all F's in Virginia schools from elementary school to the first semester of 7th grade. When she came to our home and started the second semester of 7th grade her life changed. Her GPA in 7th & 8th was 3.0 and she had many awards and commondations. From 9th grade to now, 11th grade she went from 3.5 to 3.8 in our California school district. We just went to an award ceremony where she received a certificate showing her GPA is now 3.8. She is taking college courses like Algebra, Chemistry Biology as well as History and English. Our only problem is trying to get her a scholarship. The grandson came to us when he was 7. He was not going to be promoted from kindergarten in Virginia because he couldn't read. We were asked to help him with his school work and reading when he came to California so they put him in 1st grade in Virginia and when he came to 1st grade in California he began to excell in school. He is way above his classmates in math. He can read and has many Excellerated Reader Awards as well as receiving Acadamic Awards and Spirit Award along with perfect attendance from grade 1 to now grade 5. The youngest granddaughter came to us when she was 3 years old. She is now 7, the same age her brother came to us. We have had her longer than her parents. She is above her classmates and is always put in to a combination class(Kindergarten/1st grade) and now 2nd/3rd grade because she does the grade appropriate work and is ahead of her classmates so the teachers give her work for 2nd or 3rd grade, depending on the grade she was in previously. She was tested for Gifted student yesterday. We are so very proud of these children. Our worry is that we will run out of money before the children finish high school and we can not afford tuition for college for any of them. That is why we are asking that Senate Bill 661 includes funding for Senior Grandparent raising grandchildren. We retired for 2, not 5. We had no idea this was going to happen. One day we were watching the news and 6 months later we were watching cartoons with 3 young children. THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS THESE CHILDREN HAVE ACHIEVED IN OUR CARE IS DUE TO THEIR KNOWING THEY ARE LOVED AND IN A SECURE, SAFE HOME AND ENVIRONMENT. KNOWING FROM EXPERIENCE, I DON'T BELIEVE THEY COULD HAVE MADE THEIR ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN A FOSTER CARE HOME WITH STRANGERS. RAISING CHILDREN TAKES A LOT OF LOVE AND PATIENCE. ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU ARE SENIORS OVER THE AGE OF 60. NOT EVERYONE CAN DO THIS. NO ONE CAN LOVE A CHILD THE SAME WAY THE MAJORITY OF RELATIVES LOVE THEIR NEICES, NEPHEWS, GRANDSONS AND GRANDDAUGHTERS. THESE CHILDREN LIVING WITH RELATIVES NEVER HAVE TO WORRY WHERE THEIR FAMILY IS. IN FOSTER CARE, WHAT ARE THE CHANCES OF SEEING LET ALONE KNOWING WHERE YOUR FAMILY IS? I AM STILL SEARCHING FOR MINE AFTER 40+ YEARS. MY GRANDCHILDREN KNOW WHERE THEIR PARENTS ARE, EVEN THOUGH THEY DON'T WANT TO LIVE WITH THEM, WHERE THEIR AUNTS AND UNCLES AND COUSINS ARE AND ANY OTHER MEMBER OF THE FAMILY SUCH AS GREAT AUNT AND UNCLES. THEY KNOW THEIR FAMILY CELTIC HISTORY AND THEY ALSO KNOW THAT EACH MEMBER LOVES AND WILL HELP THEM IN ANY WAY THEY CAN. We can take care of ourselves, we are just asking for financial help with the grandchildren. Everything seems to be geared for Foster Care Homes. I was in Foster Care from the time I was 2 years old until I was adopted at the age of 14. I know from experience that most of the foster care homes are in it for the money. If they get 5 or 6 foster children, that adds up to thousands of money per month. I know I never got to see any of that money. In fact, I never knew my foster parents got money until I left foster care. I had to go pick strawberries and other fruits at the age of 8 to buy my school clothes. Please help the thousands of elderly grandparents, such as myself, get the financial help they need. THE SOONER SENATE BILL 661 PASSESE WITH FINANCIAL HELP FOR GRANDPARENTS RAISING GRANDCHILDREN NO MATTER IF THE CHILDREN CAME INTO FOSTER CARE FROM OUT OF STATE ON AN INTERSTATE COMPACT FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN(ICPC) OR IN STATE, AND WERE PLACE IN TO THE CARE OF RELATIVES, THUS TAKING THEM OUT OF THE FOSTER CARE SYSTEM. WITHOUT THESE RELATIVE CARE GIVERS AND GRANDPARENTS RAISING GRANDCHILDREN, SOCIAL SERVICES WOULD HAVE A HIGHER CASE LOAD THEN THEY DO. Thank you for your support. I supported you during your campaign. PLEASE HELP ME IN MY CAMPAIGN FOR FINANCIAL HELP FOR RELATIVE CAREGIVERS ESPECIALLY GRANDPARENTS RAISING GRANDCHILDREN. Once again, congratulations on becoming the president/elect. JH grammyh371@live.com 2010-04-08T11:10:43Z tag:opencongress.org,2010-04-08:/comment/192464 vvicky The debt that's been perpetuated under the current administration was incurred during the former administration and policies that put the USA into two perpetual wars, it's citizens into loans they could not afford, and the continuation of jobs moving overseas. Yes, it looks like the middle-class American Dream is now gone but just don't see how people can't grasp our current situation as a continuation of what we've let happen to ourselves through giving in to our lust for shiny objects and the lack of self-discipline to control such urges. If this doesn't apply to you, then disregard my comments as you deserve commendation. But how many of us are truly honest with ourselves and concede to our own mistakes and shortcomings? And if you think I write this in defense of anyone, you're wrong. People need to wake up and stop blaming and take the share of responsibility that rests on each and every citizen of this country. 2008-06-09T18:27:12Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-06-09:/comment/21855 Anonymous ...give us a lot of RHETORIC about what he's going to do as PRESIDENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2009-02-25T11:25:16Z tag:opencongress.org,2009-02-25:/comment/90632 BearDuck47 Dear Reader: Let me tell you the real reason Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid pushed through the biggest spending bill in history - without proper debate, without Republican input, and without any public scrutiny at all. Simply, they are trying to turn the United States into a one-party country and to put the Republican Party out of business once and for all. The massive appropriation called a stimulus - some $787 billion of your money - is really a political war chest for the Democrats. They want to change the face of American politics forever, and they want to use your taxpayer money to do it. They want to use billions from our treasury to reward their political friends - and have huge amounts of cash to dole out before the 2010 and 2012 elections. Some people have wondered why, if the country is in dire need of emergency "stimulus," most of the money appropriated by this law will not even be spent this year. Instead, spending will go on for five to 10 years. There is no mystery here, as the answer is simple: These billions in taxpayer funds will fund the Democratic political machine for many years to come. Chicago Machine Takes Over Washington You must remember - the media won't tell you this - that Barack Obama is a product of the corrupt political machine in Chicago headed by Mayor Richard Daley. Chicago is run as a one-party city. The Democratic political machine and the government are one in the same. Just like we saw recently in Congress, there is no real debate in Chicago. Deals are brokered in the back rooms among the ward leaders, the mayor and their cronies. What the political machine decides, the public has to accept it. The city council serves simply as a rubber stamp - much the same way the Congress just acted for Obama. And public money in Chicago is used to protect and serve the interests of the machine. Obama - as I will reveal to you with the stimulus plan - is simply replicating the Chicago machine in Washington. It is a frightening thought because our freedoms depend on a vibrant two-party system. But that's what you believe, not what Obama and his crew believe. Barack Obama and his Chicago gang, which includes his Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, also a congressman from the Chicago machine, have a starkly different view. They want a one-party system headed by a strong man. We at The National Republican Trust PAC are deeply troubled not only by how much the stimulus plan spends but also the way it was implemented. We just witnessed how the basic and open democratic process of our republic was flouted. We fear that the actions by Obama and Congress that we just witnessed threaten the very foundation of our republic. Consider that we have long believed America is the greatest democracy in the world. Yet Congress passed the largest spending bill in its history - by essentially suspending vital democratic processes, including debate and public examination of the pending law. We know that the Democrats, working late into the night, secretly agreed to a "compromise" bill among themselves - and then refused even to share it with Republicans or the public until just hours before the bill went to the floor for a vote. The final stimulus bill was 1,079 pages long. We know Barack Obama never read the bill. Many members of Congress have admitted not one senator or congressman even read the bill before they voted for it! The Democrats say they suspended normal procedures because the country so desperately needed to avoid what Barack Obama said was an economic "catastrophe." The bill apparently was so urgent that the Democrats even excluded Republican leaders from any involvement in negotiations on it. When, in our republic, does Congress simply vote on a bill when its members have no idea what it says? And, how could congressional leaders like Pelosi and Reid, as well as President Obama, present a monumental law but not allow even one day of scrutiny by Congress, its staffs or the public? 2009-07-19T14:42:40Z tag:opencongress.org,2009-07-19:/comment/114108 maurene I'd stay anonymous too with that type of thinking. 2009-04-25T15:06:59Z tag:opencongress.org,2009-04-25:/comment/104324 b58 I see money power and a tainted election can vote in a socialist Marxist president to go with Queen Pelosi speaker of the house that shares the same agenda as Obama. 2008-06-17T11:02:16Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-06-17:/comment/25990 kjnelan I'm sorry, I just don't get it. Why would a bill be passed simply as a tribute to someone? Shouldn't it be passed based on the merits of the bill itself!!!!!??????? 2008-10-11T08:37:13Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-10-11:/comment/48443 Anonymous Hey, he's trying to get the job as President based on promises of what he'll do. He's not DOING anything in his present job. It's October. He's not worked to pass 2544 of which he's a cosponsor. He's introduced a new bill for the UI extension instead for his own glory and he's not got it passed either. 2008-10-14T15:22:35Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-10-14:/comment/49486 Anonymous What are you people talking about - they show a bill passed as of 10/3 to extend unemployment benefits another 7 weeks and Obama did not abstain but there were 9 other Dems and 29 other Reps who did. I thought the point of this site was to get the facts not the same garbage I read on the news sites. 2008-04-09T05:48:19Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-04-09:/comment/4614 Anonymous PLEASE do everything you can to push for Uneployment security. S2544! This is a must more people are hurting than you know. And by all means please do the following! IMPEACH GEORGE BUSH! A TRAITOR! A LIAR! A THEIF! PUT HIM IN THE STREET! EVERYONE SPEAK OUT! DON'T JUST WAIT FOR SOMETHING TO HAPPEN. GET UP AND MAKE IT HAPPEN!