Obama Blocked Born Alive Infant Protection Act

CitizenLink: Obama Blocked Born Alive Infant Protection Act

He often stood alone as an Illinois lawmaker in opposition to protections for babies who survived abortion.

Note: This report first appeared in the April issue of Citizen magazine.

On Jan. 10, 2005, newly elected U.S. Sen. Barack Obama visited former colleagues and staffers at the Illinois state Capitol, where he had served seven years as state senator. I happened to be at the Capitol that day, too, and a friend and I took the opportunity to speak to Obama, who had not yet achieved rock-star status and was still approachable.

We were in Springfield to lobby for passage of the state Born Alive Infant Protection Act, legislation that would require hospitals to care for infants who survive an abortion. Obama spoke against the legislation in 2001 and 2002 and single-handedly defeated it in committee in 2003.

My friend stood in Obama’s path and said, “Senator, we are going to pass Born Alive here in Illinois this year.”

Obama smiled smoothly and agreed, “I think you will,” adding, “I would have voted for the Born Alive Infant Protection Act in Illinois had it been worded the same as the federal bill. I think that’s the position the Democrats should take.”

There’s just one thing he forgot to mention: Obama had stopped his committee from adding the federal wording.

With Obama no longer in the state Senate, the Born Alive legislation passed in 2005.

First encounter

An Illinois lawmaker offered the first draft of the state’s Born Alive Infant Protection Act in 2001 after I revealed publicly that Christ Hospital left babies who survived abortion — viable babies whose delivery was induced, and whom the abortionist intended to kill but somehow survived — in a utility room to die.

...

The term “born alive,” with respect to a member of the species homo sapiens, means the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of that member, at any stage of development, who after such expulsion or extraction breathes or has a beating heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles, regardless of whether the umbilical cord has been cut, and regardless of whether the expulsion or extraction occurs as a result of natural or induced labor, cesarean section, or induced abortion.

...

One night, a nursing co-worker was taking an aborted Down’s syndrome baby who was born alive to our Soiled Utility Room because his parents did not want to hold him, and she did not have time to hold him.  I could not bear the thought of this suffering child dying alone in a Soiled Utility Room, so I cradled and rocked him for the 45 minutes that he lived.  He was 21 to 22 weeks old, weighed about ½ pound, and was about 10 inches long.  He was too weak to move very much, expending any energy he had trying to breathe.  Toward the end, he was so quiet that I couldn’t tell if he was still alive unless I held him up to the light to see if his heart was still beating through his chest wall.  After he was pronounced dead, we folded his little arms across his chest, wrapped him in a tiny shroud, and carried him to the hospital morgue where all of our dead patients are taken.

...

Obama opposed Born Alive in committee, but voted “present” — neither “yes” nor “no,” but merely “present” — on the state Senate floor, one of many “present” votes that Hillary Clinton has cited as evidence that Obama lacks leadership skills. Clinton voted for the federal Born Alive bill, putting her on record as more pro-life than Obama.

When Rep. O’Malley reintroduced Born Alive and its companion bills in 2002, they headed again to the same committee, where Obama rewrote history:

"Ms. Stanek, your initial testimony last year showed your dismay at the lack of regard for human life. I agreed with you last year, and we suggested that there be a Comfort Room or something of that nature be done. The hospital acknowledged that and changes were made and you are still unimpressed. It sounds to me like you are really not interested in how these fetuses are treated, but rather not providing absolutely any medical care or life to them."

Of course, Obama had not agreed with me the year before, and I was the one who had told him about the Comfort Room, which the hospital created in response to my testimony: "We now have this prettily wallpapered room. … There is even a nice wooden rocker in the room to rock live aborted babies to death."

The hospital made live birth abortions look nicer, but the end result was still dead babies.

 “What we are doing here is to create one more burden on women, and I can’t support that,” Obama concluded, and voted “no” in committee again.

The bill went again to the Senate floor, where Obama was the sole speaker against it, claiming that it would impose a “burden” on physicians:

[T]his [legislation] puts the burden on the attending physician who has determined, since they are performing this procedure, that in fact, this is a nonviable fetus.

Troubled conscience?

Democrats won control of the state Senate in November 2002, and when Born Alive was reintroduced for the third time in 2003, it was directed to the Obama-chaired, infamously liberal Health and Human Services Committee, where he simply refused to call it for a vote.

By this time Obama was running for U.S. Senate. He won his primary in March 2004, and Republicans recruited former U.N. Ambassador Alan Keyes, who lived in Maryland, to oppose him. It was Obama’s position against Born Alive that persuaded Keyes to run, as he stated in his announcement speech:

"When I was first approached about this possibility… I have to say that my reaction was negative…. What finally caught my eye, however… what finally arrested my attention and forced me to consider whether I not only had the opportunity to oppose him, but the obligation… was when I learned that (Obama) had actually, in April 2002, apparently cast a vote that would continue to allow live birth abortions in the state of Illinois … .

"We are talking about a situation in which, in the course of an abortion procedure, a child has been born alive — is out of the womb, breathing and living on its own — and he cast a vote against the idea that we should not stand by and let that child die!"

Obama later admitted Keyes’ comment “nagged” him and has written or spoke about it several times, although he always misrepresents Keyes’ rationale as being about abortion support when it was specifically about infanticide support. In a July 2006 opinion piece in USA Today, restated later in The Audacity of Hope, Obama wrote:

If I am opposed to abortion for religious reasons but seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all.

The Home Stretch - A call to action

Okay folks, it's time to get it ramped up! Four weeks to go until election day and the race is still very close. I am certain that there will be more and more stories out there about Obama and William Ayers, Tony Rezko and a host of others coming out. The democrats will call this "swift boating". I call it bringing out the truth and not leaving your opponent the luxury of creating a good lie in response.

I, myself, will be posting stories that have more and more of an impact. Some of them are things I've resisted posting before because I was hoping not to get too serious about the election. I was hoping America would figure out who this guy is long before now. But it hasn't.

It is time that Mr. Obama come clean on Bill Ayers. It is time for Obama to provide some details on what he considers "responsible" when it comes to off-shore drilling, nuclear power, Iraq withdrawal, etc. Everything Obama is really against, he says he would do if it can be done "responsibly". We need to know what this means. It is time for Obama to own up to his votes on the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. It is time for Obama to tell America why his chief economic advisor is one of the people most largely responsible for the mortgage mess we are in. It is time for Obama to come clean on his dealings with ACORN. It is time for Obama to answer the questions about almost $200 million in unidentified campaign contributions.

To the Mad Sociologist and any other people who disagree with me - sorry. This is my blog and you've got yours. I am more than happy to debate, discuss and disagree and I actually enjoy doing so. But make no mistake - my purpose over the next four weeks is to do everything I ethically can to help get John McCain and Sarah Palin elected. This means there will be no lies posted here, but there will be plenty of questions and plenty of information that I believe people need to know.

To those on "our side": It is time for you to do your part to ensure that our country does not fall into the hands of a liberal President, liberal House and liberal Senate with two liberal Supreme Court justices about to retire. There is too much at stake.

Our party is not perfect - far from it. We have some corrupt politicians, money coming from places it shouldn't and people who put their best interests before our country's. We will deal with them. We must if we are to survive. But allowing the Democrats complete control over this mess they have helped create is not an acceptable solution.

I believe that John McCain and Sarah Palin will do whatever they can to root out this kind of crap from our government. They will not be completely successful but they will be a step in the right direction. If they step on some Republican toes to get it done - then maybe those toes need stepped on.

Your job, dear readers, is to visit here frequently and let people know about this site and other sites like it. Don't let the lies go unanswered.

Who Is Buying The White House?

IBDeditorials.com: Editorials, Political Cartoons, and Polls from Investor's Business Daily -- Who Is Buying The White House?

Sources of more than $190 million in Obama election contributions are unidentified. Will a federal investigation find foreigners illegally rigging the most important presidential election in history?

Newsmax reported last week that Sen. Barack Obama's campaign has collected "the largest pool of unidentified money that has ever flooded into the U.S. election system, before or after the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reforms of 2002."

Federal Election Commission data show that some $222 million of the cash Obama has collected came in the form of contributions of $200 or less, with the Democratic nominee's campaign identifying the donors of less than $40 million of that sum.

Campaigns may accept donations of less than $200 without providing the donors' names and addresses in campaign finance reports, but Sen. John McCain's camp has made its full donor database available on the Internet. Independent campaign finance watchdog organizations have asked the Obama campaign to list all its donors, as well, but it's refused. What is Obama hiding?

Archives prove Obama was a New Party member

 

Personally, I don't believe it.  I'm sure Mr. Obama just occasionally ran into this party in the neighborhood </sarcasm>

American Thinker Blog: Archives prove Obama was a New Party member

Obama's career bears many signs of being helped along by the radical left.  At the critical moment when he entered electoral politics, he was part of a movement to take over an established political party and direct it to the task of building a socialist America.

Last Night's Debate

For anyone looking for my analysis of last night's debate, here it is: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

McCain did fine and got a couple of jabs in (finally) about Obama's ties to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac but the questions were no different than the last debate and all we heard, for the most part, was the same old stump speeches we've been hearing for the last 2 months.

Things will get much sharper from here on out but last night was a waste of 90 minutes of my time.

It Is Here! The Banned SNL Skit Cannot Hide From Louie

Saturday Night Live finally does a funny skit that makes fun of both sides and NBC can't stand to let it be seen.  Why is that?

View it at the site below.  The scary thing is that, even though it is hilarious, it is incredibly accurate. 

It Is Here! The Banned SNL Skit Cannot Hide From Louie

It gets put up, it gets yanked, put up, yanked.

Yank this, bitches…

ACORN Vegas Office Raided in Voter Fraud Investigation

 ACORN is at again...or should I say "still".  Obama will distance himself further from these guys than he will from Bill Ayers or Tony Rezko...

ACORN Vegas Office Raided in Voter Fraud Investigation - FOXNews.com Elections

Nevada state authorities seized records and computers Tuesday from the Las Vegas office of an organization that tries to get low-income people registered to vote, after fielding complaints of voter fraud.

Bob Walsh, spokesman for the Nevada secretary of state's office, told FOXNews.com the raid was prompted by ongoing complaints about "erroneous" registration information being submitted by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, also called ACORN.

AP Shows Bias With ‘Racist Palin’ Hit Piece | Sweetness & Light

Someone...anyone...please explain to me how discussing Obama's "palling around with terrorists" is racist. Anyone?

AP Shows Bias With ‘Racist Palin’ Hit Piece Sweetness & Light

from the article:

Palin’s words avoid repulsing voters with overt racism. But is there another subtext for creating the false image of a black presidential nominee “palling around” with terrorists while assuring a predominantly white audience that he doesn’t see their America?

In a post-Sept. 11 America, terrorists are envisioned as dark-skinned radical Muslims, not the homegrown anarchists of Ayers’ day 40 years ago. With Obama a relative unknown when he began his campaign, the Internet hummed with false e-mails about ties to radical Islam of a foreign-born candidate.

Whether intended or not by the McCain campaign, portraying Obama as “not like us” is another potential appeal to racism.

What was Obama's friend, Bill Ayers doing? No Regrets - Chicago Magazine - August 2001

This is what Bill Ayers was doing in 2001, when Barack Obama was 40 (not 8) and AFTER Barack became friends with him and launched his political career at Ayers' house. He seems like such a sweet guy, I guess he didn't want to get his shoes dirty so he needed to keep them from touching the ground...

No Regrets - Chicago Magazine - August 2001 - Chicago

At 55, Bill Ayers, the notorious sixties radical, still carries a whiff of that rock 'n' roll decade: the oversize wire-rim glasses that, in a certain light, reveal themselves as bifocals; a backpack over his shoulder—not some streamlined, chic job, but a funky backpack-of-the-people, complete with a photo button of abolitionist John Brown pinned to one strap.

Yet he is also a man of the moment. For example: There is his cell phone, laid casually on the tabletop of this neighborhood Taylor Street coffee shop, and his passion for double skim lattes. In conversation, he has an immediate, engaging presence; he may not have known you long but, his manner suggests, he's already fascinated. Then there is his quick laugh and his tendency to punctuate his comments by a tap on your arm.

Overall, it is not easy to imagine him as part of the Weatherman, a group that during the late sixties and early seventies openly called for revolution in America, led a violent rampaging protest in Chicago, and took credit for numerous bombings around the United States.

Do Facts Matter?

Thomas Sowell :: Townhall.com :: Do Facts Matter?

from the article:

The current financial bailout crisis has propelled Barack Obama back into a substantial lead over John McCain-- which is astonishing in view of which man and which party has had the most to do with bringing on this crisis.

It raises the question: Do facts matter? Or is Obama's rhetoric and the media's spin enough to make facts irrelevant?

Fact Number One: It was liberal Democrats, led by Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, who for years-- including the present year-- denied that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taking big risks that could lead to a financial crisis.

It was Senator Dodd, Congressman Frank and other liberal Democrats who for years refused requests from the Bush administration to set up an agency to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

It was liberal Democrats, again led by Dodd and Frank, who for years pushed for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to go even further in promoting subprime mortgage loans, which are at the heart of today's financial crisis.

Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President. So did Bush's Secretary of the Treasury, five years ago.

Yet, today, what are we hearing? That it was the Bush administration "right-wing ideology" of "de-regulation" that set the stage for the financial crisis. Do facts matter?...

NYT's Ayers-Obama Whitewash

The Corner on National Review Online

As others have noted, today’s New York Times carries a story on the relationship between Barack Obama and unrepentant Weather Underground terrorist, Bill Ayers. The piece serves as a platform for the Obama campaign and Obama’s friends and allies. Obama’s spokesman and supporters’ names are named and their versions of events are presented in detail, with quotes. Yet the article makes no serious attempt to present the views of Obama critics who have worked to uncover the true nature of the relationship. That makes this piece irresponsible journalism, and an obvious effort by the former paper of record to protect Obama from the coming McCain onslaught.

The Obama-Khalidi Connection

I just don't how Obama can hang around with known terrorists and terrorist supporters and still not be called out on it by the mainstream media.  Are they really THAT biased that they won't cover these stories?  They spent weeks investigating whether or not George W. Bush missed a dentist appointment in 1973 but can't find the time to cover things like this?

American Thinker Blog: The Obama-Khalidi Connection

Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes will discuss the close relationship between Barack Obama and Rashid Khalidi - Palestinian supporter and the professor at Columbia University - on a special broadcast of "Hannity's America" which will air tomorrow night at 9:00 PM eastern time.
Khalidi is a former professor at the University of Illinois and was a close friend of Barack Obama and his wife Michelle. At a farewell dinner for Khalidi before he took the Columbia job, Obama 's speech was filled with glowing praise for his friend, including references to the many meals they had shared. He thanked Khalidi for opening his eyes about the problems of the Palestinians.
Khalidi himself has given vocal support to suicide bombers:

During documented speeches and public events, Khalidi has called Israel an "apartheid system in creation" and a destructive "racist" state.  
He has multiple times expressed support for Palestinian terror, calling suicide bombings response to "Israeli aggression." He dedicated his 1986 book, "Under Siege," to "those who gave their lives ... in defense of the cause of Palestine and independence of Lebanon." Critics assailed the book as excusing Palestinian terrorism.

Khalidi's wife Mona ran the Chicago area charity, the Arab American Action Network, that received substantial assistance from the Woods Fund, a left wing foundation that Obama and unreconstructed terrorist Bill Ayers were Board members. The AAAN was notorious for its pro-Palestianian sympathies.

Obama Claims He Never Worked For ACORN

It appears that Obama and Biden have gone to the same school for lying.  The folks at Sweetness & Light, as usual, have done a phenomenal investigative job to uncover blatant falsehoods from the Obama/Biden camp.

Now that America is getting to know ACORN for the organization that it really is, Obama wants nothing to do with them.

Obama Claims He Never Worked For Acorn | Sweetness & Light

Lawmaker Accused of Fannie Mae Conflict of Interest

Well, well, well...

FOXNews.com - Lawmaker Accused of Fannie Mae Conflict of Interest - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum

WASHINGTON —  Unqualified home buyers were not the only ones who benefited from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank’s efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s.

So did Frank’s partner, a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agency’s push to relax lending restrictions.

Now that Fannie Mae is at the epicenter of a financial meltdown that threatens the U.S. economy, some are raising new questions about Frank's relationship with Herb Moses, who was Fannie’s assistant director for product initiatives. Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie.

Biden's "mis-statements" during the debate

Of course, these are coming from the McCain web site so we'll need to follow up and make sure these are accurate.   At first glance, they all seem legit.

JohnMcCain.com - McCain-Palin 2008

1. TAX VOTE: Biden said McCain voted “the exact same way” as Obama to increase taxes on Americans earning just $42,000, but McCain DID NOT VOTE THAT WAY.
2. AHMEDINIJAD MEETING: Joe Biden lied when he said that Barack Obama never said that he would sit down unconditionally with Mahmoud Ahmedinijad of Iran. Barack Obama did say specifically, and Joe Biden attacked him for it.
3. OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING: Biden said, “Drill we must.” But Biden has opposed offshore drilling and even compared offshore drilling to “raping” the Outer Continental Shelf.”
4. TROOP FUNDING: Joe Biden lied when he indicated that John McCain and Barack Obama voted the same way against funding the troops in the field. John McCain opposed a bill that included a timeline, that the President of the United States had already said he would veto regardless of it’s passage.
5. OPPOSING CLEAN COAL: Biden says he’s always been for clean coal, but he just told a voter that he is against clean coal and any new coal plants in America and has a record of voting against clean coal and coal in the U.S. Senate.
6. ALERNATIVE ENERGY VOTES: According to FactCheck.org, Biden is exaggerating and overstating John McCain’s record voting for alternative energy when he says he voted against it 23 times.
7. HEALTH INSURANCE: Biden falsely said McCain will raise taxes on people's health insurance coverage -- they get a tax credit to offset any tax hike. Independent fact checkers have confirmed this attack is false
8. OIL TAXES: Biden falsely said Palin supported a windfall profits tax in Alaska -- she reformed the state tax and revenue system, it's not a windfall profits tax.
9. AFGHANISTAN / GEN. MCKIERNAN COMMENTS: Biden said that top military commander in Iraq said the principles of the surge could not be applied to Afghanistan, but the commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force Gen. David D. McKiernan said that there were principles of the surge strategy, including working with tribes, that could be applied in Afghanistan.
10. REGULATION: Biden falsely said McCain weakened regulation -- he actually called for more regulation on Fannie and Freddie.
11. IRAQ: When Joe Biden lied when he said that John McCain was “dead wrong on Iraq”, because Joe Biden shared the same vote to authorize the war and differed on the surge strategy where they John McCain has been proven right.
12. TAX INCREASES: Biden said Americans earning less than $250,000 wouldn’t see higher taxes, but the Obama-Biden tax plan would raise taxes on individuals making $200,000 or more.
13. BAILOUT: Biden said the economic rescue legislation matches the four principles that Obama laid out, but in reality it doesn’t meet two of the four principles that Obama outlined on Sept. 19, which were that it include an emergency economic stimulus package, and that it be part of “part of a globally coordinated effort with our partners in the G-20.”
14. REAGAN TAX RATES: Biden is wrong in saying that under Obama, Americans won't pay any more in taxes then they did under Reagan.

Ask Joe Biden what time it is...

He should have no problem telling you - because Sarah Palin just issued him one freshly cleaned clock!! Wow!!

Let's compare tax plans...

In the interest of being on a quest for the “whole” truth, as prodded by the Mad Sociologist, I went looking for details on the candidates tax plans. Since Obama claims he is going to give 95% of families a tax cut and he says that McCain is reserving his tax cuts for the wealthy, I wanted to know the truth. Where did I go for the truth? I went to Barack Obama’s campaign web site. I figured this would be the place that would shed the most positive light on Obama’s plan and I was not disappointed.

After reading his “Full Tax Plan” I was pointed toward the Tax Policy Center as an unbiased source of information.

One the front page of the Tax Policy Center’s web site, I found a section titled The Impact of the Presidential Candidates' Tax Proposals on Effective Marginal Tax Rates (September 30, 2008). So I dug in.

Here is a summary of what is listed there. The data is theirs, the graphs are mine (since they didn’t have any)

Data for Tax Year 2009















Data for Tax Year 2012














Now…can someone please explain to me how Obama’s tax plan is better than McCain’s? It appears that the only people that would be helped by Obama are the people that already pay negative taxes!

I'm Voting Democrat

This is too funny not to post.

Obama's fishy $200 million

The American Spectator

An auditor for the Federal Election Commission is attempting to have his bosses seek a formal investigation into the collection by the Obama for President campaign of more than $200 million in potentially illegal political donations, including millions of dollars of illegal, foreign donations, and has sought a request for assistance from the Department of Justice or Federal Bureau of Investigation. But the analyst's requests have largely been ignored. "I can't get anyone to move. I believe we are looking at a hijacking of our political system that makes the Clinton and Gore fundraising scandals pale in comparison. And no one here wants to touch it."

Senator Harry Reid - Senility on Display

This guy really scares me.  The fact that he is the leader of the Senate should be cause for concern for everyone.  Perhaps his stroke a few years back affected more than we know. 

From an article about the 'bailout' vote:

ABC News: Candidates Leave Campaign Trail, Head to DC for Bailout Vote

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pressed for passage, with the alarming news that one of the country's premier insurance companies was about to go bankrupt if the crisis was not quickly resolved.

"We don't have a lot of leeway on time," Reid told reporters in the Capitol. "One of the individuals in the caucus today talked about a major insurance company -- a major insurance company -- one with a name that everyone knows that's on the verge of going bankrupt. That's what this is all about."

He did not identify the insurance company, and later in the day Reid spokesman Jim Manley said the senator was speaking broadly and not referring to anything specific.

"Senator Reid is not personally aware of any particular company being on the verge of bankruptcy," Manley wrote in an e-mail to ABCNews.com. "Rather, his comments were meant to refer to the conditions in the financial sector generally. He regrets any confusion his comments may have caused."

Pelosi paid husband with PAC funds

Washington Times - EXCLUSIVE: Pelosi paid husband with PAC funds

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has directed nearly $100,000 from her political action committee to her husband's real estate and investment firm over the past decade, a practice of paying a spouse with political donations that she supported banning last year.

Anyone that knows me well knows there are two types of people in life that I despise - liars and hypocrites...

VP debate moderator Ifill releasing pro-Obama book

VP debate moderator Ifill releasing pro-Obama book

As the church lady used to say "well isn't that special?"

Gwen Ifill

The moderator of Thursday's vice-presidential debate is writing a book to come out about the time the next president takes the oath of office that aims to "shed new light" on Democratic candidate Barack Obama and other "emerging young African American politicians" who are "forging a bold new path to political power."

Gwen Ifill, of the Public Broadcasting Service program "Washington Week," is promoting "The Breakthrough," in which she argues the "black political structure" of the civil rights movement is giving way to men and women who have benefited from the struggles over racial equality.

Ifill declined to return a WND telephone message asking for a comment about her book project and whether its success would be expected should Obama lose. But she has faced criticism previously for not treating candidates of both major parties the same.

Democrats in their own words Covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam that caused our Economic Cri

Anyone that can watch this video, which is absolute and incontrovertible proof of the Democrats complicitness in the failure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and still say that the current crisis is due to "the failed economic policies of George Bush" should immediately have their right to vote revoked.

Family Told Obama NOT To Wear Soldier Son's Bracelet... Where is Media?

Family Told Obama NOT To Wear Soldier Son's Bracelet... Where is Media? | NewsBusters.org

Barack Obama played the "me too" game during the Friday debates on September 26 after Senator John McCain mentioned that he was wearing a bracelet with the name of Cpl. Matthew Stanley, a resident of New Hampshire and a soldier that lost his life in Iraq in 2006. Obama said that he too had a bracelet. After fumbling and straining to remember the name, he revealed that his had the name of Sergeant Ryan David Jopek of Merrill, Wisconsin.

Shockingly, however, Madison resident Brian Jopek, the father of Ryan Jopek, the young soldier who tragically lost his life to a roadside bomb in 2006, recently said on a Wisconsin Public Radio show that his family had asked Barack Obama to stop wearing the bracelet with his son's name on it. Yet Obama continues to do so despite the wishes of the family.

Radio host Glenn Moberg of the show "Route 51" asked Mr. Jopek, a man who believes in the efforts in Iraq and is not in favor of Obama's positions on the war, what he and his ex-wife think of Obama continually using their son's name on the campaign trail. (h/t D. Keith Howington of www.dehavelle.com)

Jopek began by saying that his ex-wife was taken aback, even upset, that Obama has made the death of her son a campaign issue. Jopek says his wife gave Obama the bracelet because "she just wanted Mr. Obama to know Ryan's name." Jopek went on to say that "she wasn't looking to turn it into a big media event" and "just wanted it to be something between Barack Obama and herself." Apparently, they were all shocked it became such a big deal.

But, he also said that his ex-wife has refused further interviews on the matter and that she wanted Obama to stop wearing the reminder of her son's sacrifice that he keeps turning into a campaign soundbyte.