It’s Communism Stupid! - Just another Puma Party Community Blogs weblog

In February 2008, Cliff Kincaid of the conservative group Accuracy in Media wrote that the Global Poverty Act (S.2433) “would commit the U.S. to spending 0.7 percent of gross national product on foreign aid … which amounts to a phenomenal 13-year total of $845 Billion over and above what the U.S. already spends” to reduce global poverty.[1] Other outlets ran similar stories, including WorldNetDaily[2], which cites Kincaid as a source.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_poverty_act

“Did U.S. Senator Barack Obama clear the field in the Democratic state treasurer’s race?” lawyer and political analyst Russ Stewart wrote January 4, 2006.[5]

“Until incumbent Republican Judy Baar Topinka announced for governor, the only Democrat willing to run for the post was obscure Knox County State’s Attorney Paul Mangieri, of Galesburg. He was slated by the Democrats, and he is on record as opposing abortion rights. … When Topinka decided to move up, a flock of ambitious Democrats eyed the job,… But none announced, and all deferred to Alexi Giannoulias, a 29-year-old Chicago investment banker who was an early supporter of Obama in his 2004 Senate race, whose father owns Broadway Bank, and whose family helped bankroll the Obama campaign. Giannoulias has said that he will campaign as a ‘progressive,’ and he has promised to put more than $1 million in family funds into the race,” Stewart wrote.[5]

“The bottom line,” Stewart said: “Obama is the potential king maker. Expect Obama to publicly endorse Giannoulias, cut television ads for him, and go heavy for him on black radio stations. Of course, there’s a downside. If Obama endorses Giannoulias and he loses, that would indicate that Obama’s clout is not transferable,” Stewart wrote.[5]

In March 2006, Giannoulias said that “his ‘good friend and mentor, Barack Obama,’ inspired him to run.”[6]

In fact, Giannoulias’ “endorsers” were “essentially the base of the Obama coalition: white north side progressives and south side blacks.”[7]

“My prediction: The stars are aligning for Giannoulias, another silver spooner. Every politician in the Chicago area, Daleyites and anti-Daleyites, eager to collect campaign funds from Greek Americans in the future, will back Giannoulias. Obama’s early endorsement will be critical. Giannoulias will blanket the Chicago airwaves with ads proclaiming himself to be a reformer and a nonpolitician, and mail pieces will target liberal and feminist voters, ripping Mangieri’s anti-abortion stance. Mangieri won’t get more than 40 percent of the vote in the primary,” Stewart wrote.[5]

 ”In February 2007, the Illinois Sudan Act was held to be unconstitutional by the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in National Foreign Trade Council v. Giannoulias. The Illinois legislation directed the state treasurer to divest any investments in companies doing business in or with Sudan. An even more far-reaching provision prohibited the deposit of state funds in any financial institution that loaned money to companies doing business with Sudan. Relying on a US Supreme Court case decided in 2000 (Crosby v. National Foreign Trade Council), the court concluded that the Act violated the Supremacy Clause and the Foreign Commerce Clause, and additionally intruded upon the US federal government’s sole authority to conduct foreign affairs. The opinion left open, however, the question of the constitutionality of a divestment provision limited to the state’s own pension funds,” the international law firm Latham & Watkins wrote in a client alert.[8]

“In response to the Giannoulias decision (discussed above), Senator Barack Obama (D, Illinois) introduced S. 1430, the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act. The bill is intended to support state efforts to divest pension funds from companies doing business with Iran. It would require the Treasury Department to compile a list of companies that have invested more than $20,000,000 in Iran’s energy sector. States would be granted the prerogative of divesting state assets from any company appearing on the Treasury list. The Act is currently under consideration in the Senate Banking Committee. Based on the analysis in Giannoulias, US federal legislation may not be needed for states to choose how to invest their own pension funds as long as they remain within the parameters of the market participant doctrine. Nevertheless, the bill reflects at least some degree of Congressional support for state involvement in sanctioning Iran,” the Latham & Watkins alert stated.