Snapshots of 2001 — Reality is Not What It Seems
By Matthew Weaver on October 8, 2008 at 5:00 PM in Barack Obama, Current Affairs
Google has made available its search engine index from 2001 as part of its 10th anniversary. Here are a few tidbits that you may not find on today’s Internet [and which are all corroborated by links to the just-available articles; we will provide all of those links in subsequent individual stories on these items, which we are posting in a fast summary because it's critical the word get out]:
13TH DISTRICT, Democrat: Barack Obama. Supports gay rights, same-sex marriage; increased AIDS funding, abortion rights, affirmative action. Endorsed by IFHR, IMPACT, IVI-IPO, Illinois and Chicago NOW, Personal PAC.—Trudy Ring, Elections set for Illinois House, Senate,; McKeon runs for Rep, November 1996.
Obama was an active member of the now-defunct socialist New Party! “Chicago DSA is affiliated with the national Democratic Socialists of America.” From October 1996: “Three NP-members won Democratic primaries last Spring and face off against Republican opponents on election day: Danny Davis (U.S. House), Barack Obama (State Senate) and Patricia Martin (Cook County Judiciary).” November 2006: “New Party member Barack Obama was uncontested for a State Senate seat from Chicago.” [More to follow in separate post, such as Obama's ideas on social wages and redistribution of wealth.---Matthew]
Obama “spent five years working as a community organizer, first in Harlem, then in Chicago.” “Obama serves on the boards of several organizations: including the Chicago Annenberg Center Challenge (Chairman), the Joyce Foundation, the Woods Fund of Chicago, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law and Public Allies.”—Harvard
Claims to have been “deeply involved on my campus” (Columbia University) in anti-apartheid divestment from South Africa.–Interview with Politically Black.
“I worked as a journalist for a year after college and then decided I wanted to become an organizer.”—Barack Obama
Barack, Michelle, and terrorist Bernadine Dohrn worked together as mentors in 2000
Michelle Obama shows up repeatedly in materials. For example, she was a planner for a 10th Anniversary Prom for the Community Renewal Society, part of Chicago School Reform. Also on the lists are the Ayers, Klonsky’s, and other usual suspects from Barack’s circle of Chicago associates.
Barack worked with Father Michael Pfleger (See picture from 2000)
What is this 2001 Search Engine
This is an edited copy of Google’s 2001 index. The search engine index from 2001is linked to the edited archive at Internet Archive. Yes, both are filtered and, thus, incomplete.
Google Uncovers Itself as Biased Arbiter of Information
In offering this window into 2001, flawed as it might be, Google inadvertently unmasks their nefarious role in delivering us to 1984.
- If there has ever been a confirmed request to remove a given web page, we’ve removed it from the 2001 index.
- The results you see here are indeed taken from our January 2001 index, but as noted above, we’ve removed a fair number of results.
- If you clicked on the link to today’s version of the webpage, please contact the website owner directly to take down the bad content. If you clicked on the link to the Internet Archive’s version, you can contact the Internet Archive. If you think the search result should be removed from our Google 2001 search index due to inappropriate content or sensitive information, please let us know.
One can only imagine that today’s index is as equally compromised. To see the bias at Google, browse through their own blog at http://googleblog.blogspot.com/.
And at The Internet Archive, they also readily filter their collection: “The Internet Archive is not interested in preserving or offering access to Web sites or other Internet documents of persons who do not want their materials in the collection.” As with Google, they offer steps to have items removed from the collection.
The Challenge to Find What is There
Google and the Internet Archive offer us, even if flawed and filtered, a window into the past that is shocking and sobering because we’ve become so dependent upon Internet search engines that we’ve often forgotten to question it’s completeness or accuracy. These indexes are filters and they do not necessarily show us what we want to find but rather what someone else wants us to find or, worse, not find.
In the case of Barack Obama, we find details that he has carefully scrubbed from his current persona as he runs for president. But he cannot hide from the truth. As Obama has shrouded himself in lies, misstatements, and omissions, it is up to us, the voter, to ferret out the truth, which is often in plain sight.
With Google and other Internet organizations controlling access to information it is important to remember how to do real research through multiple sources as over dependence on any one source is dangerous. I was a graduate student of history in the 1980s, learning to do research the hard way, with physical indexes, books, printed media, and microfilm or microfiche. It is past time to brush off those old skills.
And, as a final thought and recommendation, as you do your own research and reading, please keep in mind that the Google index is only up for a few more days and the data you find today may be gone tomorrow. Do screen captures of everything you find of interest. Where data isn’t accessible, write down what you can and go to the library to retrieve it. Finally, as I’ll write in a near future post, there are other search engines and Internet archives that might prove helpful in your efforts.
Cross-posted at my blog, The Independent View.
by Ronald Scott
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