Posted on 09/04/2008 10:44:30 PM PDT by politicket
Barack Obama is one heck of a community organizer - that is, if you count organizing a directory of Community College graduating students. This was Barack's sum total of TWO YEARS spent in the Illinois Senate.
Here is a link to Mr. Obama's activity during the 90th General Assembly (1997-1998):
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/legisnet90/sponsor/OBAMA.html
You can see from the link that Barack Obama sponsored (wrote and introduced) 31 bills over the two year period. Of these, 28 died on the vine - leaving only 3.
The first, SB0574, provided that "a municipality may provide for a system of administrative adjudication of violations of certain municipal ordinances." as can be seen here. This bill actually became law! BUT - let's take a closer look at how it did that.
You can follow the Bill Status here.
Notice how the bill passed through the Senate and then was sent to the House. Upon arrival in the House, an admendment (No. 1) was added that began with the words "DELETE EVERYTHING". In other words, what lawyer with the skill set of a community organizer wrote this thing! The House re-wrote the bill and it eventually went to the governor for signature. Barack Obama introduced the bill, but can take ABSOLUTELY no credit for its passage.
Next - Mr. Obama tried his hand at SB0755. This bill provided a power grab for the Department of Human Services. You can read the text here. This bill also became law, but AGAIN, let's see how it got there:
View the Bill Status here.
After the bill was introduced at First Reading in the Senate you can see how a Senate amendment (No. 1) was added - which again began with the words: DELETE EVERYTHING".
The bill was re-written by others and eventually went across the governor's desk and became law.
You would think that Obama would be ready to give up by now - but no! - he made one more heroic attempt at passing legislation - AND IT WORKED!
Mr. Obama realized that he couldn't write a bill that people wouldn't laugh at - so he enlisted Senator Mahar to help him write SB0837, which can be seen here. This bill fit the capabilities of a "community organizer" to perfection! It allowed Community Colleges to create a student directory of graduating vocational students in order to distribute to local industry.
The Bill Status can be seen here.
What a triumph! The bill sailed through to the governor and was signed into law - culminating THE ONLY successful bill that Barack Obama passed during TWO YEARS in the Illinois Senate.
Mr. Obama did have one other "feather in his cap". His was able to pass a resolution honoring a lady who worked in the police department and had died. What a man!
Of course, his other resolution seeking to declare November 1, 1997 to be South Shore Islamic Community Center Day went down in flames. Here is the text of that resolution.
Last - and least - Mr. Obama sought to get a constitional amendment placed onto the ballot to provide for Universal Health Care Coverage. He tried to do this through a Joint Resolution which can be viewed here. He failed at this, like so many other things.
All the while, Sarah Palin was excelling at her task as mayor of Wasilla, AK - on her way to be Chief Executive of a U.S. State.
bookmark
Thanks! Bookmarked.
“This bill provided a power grab for the Department of Human Services.”
The stealing money part.
This is dangerous. McCain and Palin are running under the banner of cleaning up Washington corruption, but Obama has Community College Reform in his back pocket.
Thanks for the article. It’s kind of sad - but the funniest part is some form of congressional editing:
DELETE EVERYTHING!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.