1. Obama’s “community organizer ” activist group in Chicago was ACORN. ACORN is a Far Left organization with has been found guilty of voter fraud in various cities in the US.

2. Obama on the Board of the Chicago Anneburg Challenge, a non-profit organization in which Bill Ayers was instrumental in forming. The same Bill Ayers of the Weathermen Underground terrorist group. Obama and Ayers were present during several meetings between 1996-2001.

3. Obama and Ayers served together for three years on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago. Laura S. Washington, chairwoman of the Woods Fund, said the small board had a collegial “friendly but businesslike” atmosphere, and met four times a year for a half-day, mostly to approve grants.

4. Obama’s known connection to Tony Resko who is known to be a housing slum lord and convicted on several counts of fraud and bribery. However, the connection between the two Chicagoans was “all but ignored by the news media, other than Fox” until it was raised in a Hillary / Obama presidential debate .

5. Obama’s known relationship with Kwame Kilpatrick. The mayor of the nation’s 11th largest city, Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to a pair of felony obstruction charges and will step down after months of defiantly holding onto his job based on encouragement of people like Barack Obama.

I am an Independent and was on the fence up to 2 weeks ago. After realizing a definite lack of info regarding the candidates on the TV media, I started doing research on the web. Lot’s of garbage on blogs that I do not pay any mind to. But the items listed above are facts and have caused be to believe that Obama is NOT the way.

* Lieberman said Obama hadn’t “reached across party lines” to accomplish “anything significant,” though Obama has teamed with GOP Sens. Tom Coburn and Richard Lugar to pass laws enhancing government transparency and curtailing the proliferation of nuclear and conventional weapons.

* Thompson repeated misleading claims about Obama’s tax program, saying it would bring “one of the largest tax increases in American history.” But as increases go, Obama’s package is hardly a history-maker. It would raise taxes for families with incomes above $250,000. Most people would see a cut.

* Lieberman also accused Obama of “voting to cut off funding for our American troops on the battlefield.” But Obama’s only vote against a war-funding bill came after Bush vetoed a version of the bill Obama had supported – and McCain urged the veto.

* Palin may have said “Thanks, but no thanks” on the Bridge to Nowhere, though not until Congress had pretty much killed it already. But that was a sharp turnaround from the position she took during her gubernatorial campaign, and the town where she was mayor received lots of earmarks during her tenure.

* Palin’s accusation that Obama hasn’t authored “a single major law or even a reform” in the U.S. Senate or the Illinois Senate is simply not a fair assessment. Obama has helped push through major ethics reforms in both bodies, for example.

* The Alaska governor avoided some of McCain’s false claims about Obama’s tax program – but her attacks still failed to give the whole story.

* Giuliani distorted the time line and substance of Obama’s statements about the conflict between Russia and Georgia. In fact, there was much less difference between his statements and those of McCain than Giuliani would have had us believe.

* Giuliani also said McCain had been a fighter pilot. Actually, McCain’s plane was the A-4 Skyhawk, a small bomber. It was the only plane he trained in or flew in combat, according to McCain’s own memoir.

* Finally, Huckabee told conventioneers and TV viewers that Palin got more votes when she ran for mayor of Wasilla than Biden did running for president. Not even close. The tally: Biden, 79,754, despite withdrawing from the race after the Iowa caucuses. Palin, 909 in her 1999 race, 651 in 1996.

McCain claimed that Obama’s health care plan would “force small businesses to cut jobs” and would put “a bureaucrat … between you and your doctor.” In fact, the plan exempts small businesses, and those who have insurance now could keep the coverage they have.

McCain attacked Obama for voting for “corporate welfare” for oil companies. In fact, the bill Obama voted for raised taxes on oil companies by $300 million over 11 years while providing $5.8 billion in subsidies for renewable energy, energy efficiency and alternative fuels.

McCain said oil imports send “$700 billion a year to countries that don’t like us very much.” But the U.S. is on track to import a total of only $536 billion worth of oil at current prices, and close to a third of that comes from Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

He promised to increase use of “wind, tide [and] solar” energy, though his actual energy plan contains no new money for renewable energy. He has said elsewhere that renewable sources won’t produce as much as people think.

He called for “reducing government spending and getting rid of failed programs,” but as in the past failed to cite a single program that he would eliminate or reduce.

He said Obama would “close” markets to trade. In fact, Obama, though he once said he wanted to “renegotiate” the North American Free Trade Agreement, now says he simply wants to try to strengthen environmental and labor provisions in it.