56 Search Results for "debate"

• Should America Fear Muslims an

  • From: TheSarge1960
  • Description:
    This particular article is not the article that I intended to submit for today’s readers, however, after receiving a disturbing email this morning from a man that I’ve called friend for over two decades and who I personally believe has morphed into a caricature of hate and fear that is reflective of much of the confusion and anger that we see on television and hear on radio in America today, well…again I am compelled to respond in the form of commentary that I hope will promote thought and civil discourse which will prevent that metaphorical “powder keg” from exploding across small towns and big cities in the United States.
     
    This is what the email stated: 
     
    “I feel better now; we need to keep those crazy Christians in check, right?”
     
    “America has finally lost it”.....
     
    “Repeat after me”....
     
    Obama is not a Muslim, Obama is not a Muslim, Obama is not a Muslim,
     
    Obama is not a Muslim, Obama is not a Muslim…
     
    In order to keep my friend’s email in proper context I should explain that embedded in his email is a link islamoncapitolhill.com/Home_Page.html that connects to a website that I assume was created by a pro American Muslim organization. The website announces a planned day of Muslim prayer which is scheduled to be held at the U.S. Capital on September 25, 2009. Upon connection to the link, in addition to what is written, one will hear what appears to be a prayer in Arabic, which to some Americans who are unfamiliar with the Arabic language, may sound sinister and threatening. This is the gist of the website's opening statement:
     
    “The objective of this gathering is to invite the Muslim communities and friends of Islam to express and illustrate the wonderful diversity of Islam. We intend to manifest Islam’s majestic spiritual principals as revealed by Allah to our beloved prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) of Arabia. Likewise, we intend to inspire a new generation of Muslim to work for the greater good of all people, regardless of race, religion or national origin”.
     
    In addition to the proclamation of a day of prayer made in the narrative, the website also gives an itinerary of planned events for that particular day. Motivated to carefully review the website after reading the false allegation that President Obama is a Muslim, I thoroughly searched but could not find any endorsement of this planned event by the President or any of his cabinet members. 
     
    As a professed Christian, I personally do not feel threatened by this event, nor would I feel threatened by any other religious organization / faith that planned to have a peaceful rally at our nation’s Capital. However, for individuals whose agenda includes emasculating the President and disseminating seeds of fear and hate, this is another opportunity to prey on Americans that may not be fortunate enough to be able to separate fact from fiction. I’m not a soothsayer, however; as debate on national health care reform reaches a boiling point, I understand and can envision how tactics of spreading misinformation and fear about President Obama can distract the average American from staying focused on an issue that will ultimately affect tens of millions of fellow Americans who are concerned about not having sufficient health care coverage.
       
    In regard to the email that I received this morning, President Obama has empathically stated that he is a Christian. I find it hypocritical and disingenuous that former President Bush was not accused of being a Muslim when he held an Iftar dinner (refers to the evening meal when Muslims break their fast during the Islamic month of Ramadan) at the White House during his Presidency. www.wrmea.com/archives/janfeb2002/0201082.html  The million dollar question is, why is Obama being accused of being a Muslim and Bush, in light of officially honoring the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, when he served as the President of the United States, hasn't? An image of Jack Nicholson’s performance as the defiant Colonel in the movie, “A Few Good Men” comes to mind when Mr. Nicholson proclaimed to a relentless Tom Cruise, “You can’t handle the truth”. Inquiring minds want to know what you think about the planned Muslim event at the Nation’s Capital which is scheduled on September 25, 2009. 
     
    Is this event something that Americans should fear? Or is the rally being used as fodder for opponents of the President who rely on “misinformation” as means to boost their own agenda and negatively manipulate the minds of Americans who are forced to deal with near record unemployment and an uncertain future?  As I write this commentary there is no doubt in my mind that my friend’s email will be sent to untold numbers of fellow Americans who may become confused as to what to believe. In lieu of some American factions portraying most Muslims as the “Boogie Man” and with an ever increasing effort on their part to associate President Obama as being an undercover Muslim, does my friend’s particular brand of propaganda instigate violence against the President and his family?  
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  • 2 months ago
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• The Real Motive Behind the Che

  • From: pinkiehot52
  • Description:

    I never thought I'd ever lead off a column by quoting Jesse Ventura. Not because I don't respect him. I do. Hell, he was in Predator! But rather, I never really had a specific reason to quote him. Until today.

    The following is perhaps the best elevator pitch against the Bush administration's criminal torture policy, and it cuts the heart of exactly why torture was employed:

    "You give me a waterboard, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I'll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders."

    For several weeks now, I've been attempting to unravel the answers to a pair of important "why?" questions, and Jesse's quote helped to crystallize some possible answers. Why did the Bush administration authorize torture when other methods were more successful? And why is Dick Cheney so desperate to exonerate himself and to skew the debate with trivialities?

    The second question first.

    I don't know if it's even possible for a vampiric supervillain like Cheney to experience the human emotion known commonly as desperation, but I tend to question the motives and stability of anyone who, as part of his public defense against a possible criminal investigation, shoves his daughter into the ring to absorb some of the punches intended for his own translucent-fleshed cheek. This was a guy who, when questioned about his other daughter's homosexuality, made it perfectly clear that his family was off limits. And now he's enlisted Liz Cheney as a surrogate in a bit of parental psychosis not seen since the contents of Cody and Cassidy's poopy diapers became unofficial sidekicks on Regis.

    That's not to suggest Liz is doing this against her will or that she can't hold her own. She was clearly blessed with daddy's Freon chromosome.

    Personally, however, I grapple with the very idea of herein mentioning that I have a daughter. It's impossible to even fathom the notion of asking her to somehow go forth and publicly defend my work. And if she were to volunteer for such an effort, I would physically block her. You know, lay down in the path of her car and the like. Yet here's Dick Cheney employing his daughter, who, until now, we never even really heard from, to defend his decision to authorize the domestically and internationally illegal act of torture.

    What motivates a man to exploit his daughter like this -- and in the context of an issue possessing such serious consequences?

    I believe it's the desperation of a crook who's under significant strain and duress. And as information related to his authorization of torture trickles out, the reason for his desperation becomes increasingly evident.

    This isn't just about torture or a tangential debate about ticking nukes or "keeping us safe."

    It's apparent that torture was authorized for the purpose of fabricating a case for invading Iraq.

    According to multiple accounts and experts, the efficacy of torture is limited to ascertaining what the torturer wants to hear -- rather than information that's actually true. In other words, if Jesse Ventura tortured Dick Cheney with The Waterboard, he could very likely force Cheney to confess to the Sharon Tate murders even though, obviously, Cheney didn't have anything to do with them.

    April 21, 2009:

    The Bush administration applied relentless pressure on interrogators to use harsh methods on detainees in part to find evidence of cooperation between al Qaida and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, according to a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a former Army psychiatrist.

    On Monday, the body of terror suspect Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi was found in his Libyan cell following what appeared to be a suicide. Andrew Sullivan, who has been tracking the relationship between torture and Iraq for some time now, wrote:

    ...Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi was first captured by the US and tortured by CIA surrogates in an Egyptian cell. Apparently, they beat him and put him in a coffin for 17 hours as a mock-burial. To end the severe mental and physical suffering, he confessed that Saddam had trained al Qaeda terrorists in deploying WMDs. This evidence was then cited by Colin Powell as part of the rationale for going to war in Iraq.

    We still don't know if they coerced al-Libi to confess to the Sharon Tate murders. But we do know that the torture of Abu Zubaydah began only after CIA operatives ascertained this false information about Iraqi WMD from al-Libi. (On Wednesday, former FBI interrogator Ali Soufan told Congress that he was able to get actionable intelligence from Abu Zubaydah within about an hour by employing legal interrogation techniques.)

    For the record, here's what then-Secretary of State Colin Powell said about al-Libi in his now infamous speech at the UN:

    I can trace the story of a senior terrorist operative telling how Iraq provided training in these weapons to al Qaeda. Fortunately, this operative is now detained, and he has told his story. I will relate it to you now as he, himself, described it.

    And, as we're all aware, that UN speech outlined the administration's entire case for connecting Iraq, al-Qaeda and WMD, and thus the case for war. We now know that one of the chief conclusions in the speech was actually formed from the tortured confessions of a man, al-Libi, who was flogged, buried alive, then forced to confirm the administration's mushroom cloud fantasy. (By the way, I'd like to hear from the cable news and talk radio sadists about whether or not the so-called interrogation techniques used on al-Libi were torture or not. I doubt Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh would submit to being beaten and stuffed in a coffin for 17 hours. Charity or not.)

    Sadly, the complexities and parameters of torture appear to be open for debate these days. But using torture as a means to falsify evidence for war is a far more damning and despicable can of worms. So it stands to reason that Cheney would roll out whatever ammunition he has in order to obfuscate and sidetrack the issue. Including the use of his daughter as a spokesperson. This way, we're all wrapped up in debating whether waterboarding is actually torture, or whether the Bushies kept us safe (they didn't), or, in the case of the cable news talkers, whether or not the Cheney family "closed the deal" with their various TV performances. It's all horseshit to prevent us from seriously examining the Bush administration's motives for deliberately breaking the law and selling-out our American values. And the evidence is pointing to a motive for war.

    If we eliminate the idea that torture works; if we eliminate the fact that the terror suspects who were tortured had previously revealed valuable information without being tortured; if we factor in the reality that these techniques were invented in order to gather intentionally false confessions; and if we look at the evidence showing that detainees were tortured so they would specifically connect Iraq and al-Qaeda, we're left with no conclusion other than this. Or sadism as sport.

    No wonder Dick Cheney is so frantic.

    BobCesca.com

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  • 6 months ago
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• Steele: "I Have A Problem" Wit

  • From: pinkiehot52
  • Description:

    RNC Chairman Michael Steele's fill-in stint as the host of Bill Bennett's radio talk show has produced a handful of quasi-embarrassing moments -- most notably his claim that Mitt Romney's Mormonism helped doom him in the Republican Primary.

    At the very end of the nearly two-hour segment, it turns out, was another whack Steele took at his fellow Republicans. Responding to a caller disparaging the National Council for a New America -- the new Republican re-branding effort -- the RNC Chairman joined the fray, saying he had "a problem" with the notion, as put forth by former Gov. Jeb Bush, that the party needed to move beyond the legacy of Ronald Reagan.

    "This tour is not about bringing minorities to the Republican Party," Steele said, correcting his caller. "This listening tour that these individuals have put in place is their way, as they said, to look forward, bring about a grassroots caucus and to bring moderates and like-minded Democrats to a series of public forums around the country where we can have a debate of ideas. Now, on its face I see nothing wrong with that. But if you are going to go and start this and start slamming Ronald Reagan, I have a problem. And it is going to be an issue. Because you can't blame the past particularly when that past contributed to the success of the party."

    
    <embed />

    
    In offering his objections to the messaging coming from the NCNA, Steele joins a host of other Republican officials. Still, it remains rare to see the head of a national political committee disparage major players in his own party. In addition to Bush, the NCNA includes former Gov. Mitt Romney, Rep. Eric Cantor, and Sen. John McCain.

    Later in the program, Steele was told that he should have run against Barack Obama in 2008, to which he responded, "It would have been an interesting race." When another caller lamented the media's treatment of Gov. Sarah Palin, he said the issue was endemic to all true conservatives, before saying he preached a type of political philosophy that has people "looking over their shoulders and wondering whether or not Michael Steele is standing there."

    "Look, the fact that Sarah is a conservative," he said. "Michael Steele is a conservative, Bill Bennett is a conservative, a Jack Kemp was a conservative. We were a target, we were a ready target for these guys... but the strength of conservatism is that it is real and in its realism it has a way to go out to talk to people and connect to people. That's the biggest threat that we offer. And that's the threat I want to take to the streets everyday. I want them looking over their shoulders and wondering whether or not Michael Steele is standing there. Because I will be, with you [caller] standing right next to me and a whole lot of other conservatives."

     

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  • 6 months ago
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• The Revolution Will Be Televis

  • From: TheSarge1960
  • Description:

    This particular blog is in response to the piece entitled "Trash in the White House Please", which was written earlier today by nmcgee8198 who like myself is trying to reach out and evoke progressive and stimulating debate on this website. Putting her article into context with my own views, nmcgee8198 was and is attempting to challenge the readers of this site to become more responsive to the blatant bigotry and ignorance that exists on American radio, television and print whenever the subject involves American President Barack Obama. MSNBC appears to be the only American cable media willing to give President Obama the benefit of fair coverage when it comes to his administration and his policies, thus MSNBC has become my primary source of information as it pertains to national and international news. On a personal note, I pray that individuals who frequent this website give the bloggers who take the time to professionally chronicle life as we see it in America, the much needed comments to our articles, which in turn, motivates us as writers to do what I believe God has Blessed us to do. 

     My response to the piece that nmcgee8198 wrote today begins as follows:

    I totally agree with your view points young lady.  Remember the piece that I wrote, "The Art of War"? There is an evil insidious segment of America that relies on maintaining their version of "order" by disseminating fear in the form of lies, racism and misinformation.  Of this I am certain.  At times I am slightly discouraged by the lack of motivation (as I see it) in Black America to respond to issues that are substantive to our daily lives; past, present and future.  Why aren't there more platforms for articulate individuals like yourself to point out and expose these "haters" and their schemes ? As large as a following that Tom Joyner has, writers such as we, receive very little feedback.  I recognize that articles written on the foibles of celebrities are entertaining, however, when will people of color be more interested in events that shape our economic lives and the economic lives of our children?  It's really a shame that on a large scale, we only have MSNBC to represent without hate, the good deeds of President Obama. 

    I pretty much ended my comment to nmcgee8198's article with the above paragraph; however, I would also like to add as an editorial comment to my own piece:

    Currently, the President and the First Lady are together in Europe attending in some cases, separate functions that promote different but equally important agendas. The President's role will be to primarily discuss with other leaders at the G20 summit, upcoming plans that are necessary to prevent a worldwide depression.  If we think that the economic situation is bad now, what do you think would happen, Lord forbid, if there is a complete failure of world banks.  I'm here to state on the record that the "end game" of politics and government gone bad, is a worldwide depression. Born from this very possible depression is anarchy. All Americans, but especially people of color (who always receive the short end of the stick) should become more vigorously engaged in prayer and meditation to include positively involving ourselves in issues that shape our lives and the lives of our children. I am not a forecaster of gloom and doom, to the contrary, I am optimistic because of my personal faith, however, to ignore the fact that the rich has become richer at the expense of the poor and the ever shrinking middle class, would be in my opinion a grave mistake.  The revolution will be televised. Tell me what you think.  This is the Sarge signing and sounding off.  Good day and God Bless. 

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  • 7 months ago
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• Is Obama the AntiChrist? - 11/

  • From: starchild50
  • Description:

    Hence the saying: If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

    Daily Cartoon

    (click here to view)

    Monte Wolverton Cagle Cartoons, Inc. Nov 17, 2008 EditorialCartoonists.com

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    The Obamas On 60 Minutes, Full Video

    

    Watch it Here: http://www.jedreport.com/2008/11/the-obamas-on-60-minutes-full.html

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    Kansas Preacher Pushes Obama Muslim Message

    WICHITA, KAN.  --  A Wichita, Kansas preacher says he will not remove a message on his church sign that says President-Elect Barack Obama is a Muslim.
    
    The sign is staying up despite the fact that Obama is a Christian.
    
    The sign at Spirit One Christian Center reads, "America we have a Muslim president. This is sin against the Lord."
    
    Obama supporters reportedly got into a shouting match with parishioners outside the church on Sunday.

    Protesters are angry over a Wichita church marquee that’s calls Barack Obama a Muslim and his presidency a sin.
    
    “We just felt really hurt by what it said and we just wanted to come out here, kind of spread the word, kind of tell people, look what they’re doing,” protestor Matt Gillan said.
    
    “America we have a Muslim president. This is sin against the lord!” the sign says.
    
    “The main point of the marquee is to cause Christians to understand he's not a Christian,” Pastor Mark Holick of Spirit One told KSNW-TV. “They call and tell me he’s not a Muslim he's a Christian. That's not the point. The point is he's not a Christian.”

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    Protest against priest who said Obama voters must repent 

    David Edwards and Muriel Kane

    Several dozen protesters and counter-protesters lined up on Sunday outside a Greenville, SC Catholic church where the pastor has stated that any of his parishioners who voted for Barack Obama should repent before receiving communion.
    
    In a letter posted last week on the church website, Father Jay Scott Newman wrote that "voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exists constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil."
    
    

    One of those protesting the pastor on Sunday carried a sign saying "St. Marys is Un-American." Another, whose dog wore an "Obama rules" t-shirt, explained to reporters, "This is Max. He's an Obama fan as well."
    
    However, there were also supporters of the pastor, with signs reading, "You can't be Catholic and pro-abortion" and "Thank you Fr. Newman for speaking the TRUTH."
    
    Newman had previously explained his position by saying that the abortion debate "engages the deepest human emotions" and had insisted in an email interview with the Greenville News that it is the "chief battleground" in the culture wars. On Sunday, however, he had no comment for news cameras as he walked past the contending picketers.

    Watch Video Here: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Protest_of_priest_who_said_repent_1117.html

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    Is Obama the Antichrist?

    The winning lottery number in Illinois was 666, which, as everyone knows, is the sign of the Beast.

    Lisa Miller - Newsweek

    On Nov. 5, Todd Strandberg was at his desk, fielding E-mails from around the world. As the editor and founder of RaptureReady.com, his job is to track current events and link them to biblical prophecy in hopes of maintaining his status as "the eBay of prophecy," the best source online for predictions and calculations concerning the end of the world. Already Barack Obama had drawn the attention of apocalypse watchers after an anonymous e-mail circulated among conservative Christians in October implying that he was the Antichrist. Former "Saturday Night Live" ingénue Victoria Jackson fueled the fire when, according to news reports, she wrote on her Web site that Obama "bears traits that resemble the anti-Christ." Now Strandberg was receiving up-to-the-minute news from his constituents in Illinois. One of the winning lottery numbers in the president-elect's home state was 666— which, as everyone knows, is the sign of the Beast (also known as the Antichrist). "It is very eerie, and I take it for a sign as to who he really is," wrote one of Strandberg's correspondents.

    Ever since Jesus Christ was crucified and, according to the Gospels, rose again in glory, his followers have been anticipating the end of history—the time when their Lord will return to earth and reign for a thousand years. The question has always been when. Most Christians don't worry about the end too much; it's an abstract concept, a theological puzzle for late-night pondering. A few, however, have always believed that it is coming—and soon. Millennialist movements, as they're called, gain prominence especially when the world grows chaotic, during wars and at the turn of every century. According to a 2006 study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, a third of white evangelicals believe the world will end in their lifetimes. These mostly conservative Christians believe a great battle is imminent. After years of tribulation—natural disasters, other cataclysms (such as the collapse of financial markets)—God's armies will vanquish armies led by the Antichrist himself. He will be a sweet-talking world leader who gathers governments and economies under his command to further his own evil agenda. In this world view, "the spread of secular progressive ideas is a prelude to the enslavement of mankind," explains Richard Landes, former director of the Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University.

    Read More Here: http://www.newsweek.com/id/169192?fark

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    In Trouble Again - Michael Jackson failed to keep £3.7million music deal

    Michael Jackson begged a Bahrainian prince for money to pay his home bills, the High Court heard today.

    The pop star took £3.7 million to sing songs composed by Sheikh Abdullah Bin Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa after the pair began collaborating from 2004 onwards, the court was told.

    He and Jackson agreed a deal to release joint collaborations and raise money for the victims of the tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.

    

    Read More Here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1086607/Michael-Jackson-failed-3-7million-music-deal-says-Bahrainian-prince.html

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    Prince Says God Against Homosexuality

    by Claire Hoffman

    The thirty-thousand-square-foot Italianate villa, built this century by Vanna White’s ex-husband, looks like many of the other houses in Beverly Park, a gated community in L.A., except for the bright-purple carpet that spills down the front steps to announce its new tenant: Prince. One afternoon just before the election, Prince invited a visitor over. Inside, the place was done up in a generic Mediterranean style, although there were personal flourishes here and there—a Lucite grand piano with a gold-colored “Artist Formerly Known as Prince” symbol suspended over it, purple paisley pillows on a couch. Candles scented the air, and New Age music played in the living room, where a TV screen showed images of bearded men playing flutes. Prince padded into the kitchen, a small fifty-year-old man in yoga pants and a big sweater, wearing platform flip-flops over white socks, like a geisha.

    “Would you like something to eat?” he asked, sidling up to the counter. Prince’s voice was surprisingly deep, like that of a much larger man. He picked up a copy of “21 Nights,” a glossy volume of photographs that he had just released. It is his first published book, a collection of highly stylized photographs of him taken during a series of gigs in London last year. “I’m really proud of this,” he said. Short original poems and a CD accompany the photographs. (Sample verse: “Who eye really am only time will tell/ 2 the almighty life 4ce that grows stronger with every chorus/ Yes give praise, lest ye b among . . . the guilty ones.”)

    Read More Here: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2008/11/24/081124ta_talk_hoffman

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    Prince Talks Religious Conversion, Anti-Gay Marriage Stance

    Update 2:50 pm
    

    According to Perez Hilton, Prince is now claiming that he was misquoted in the interview:

    
    Apparently, the interviewer did not even use a recorder when she spoke with His Holy Purpleness, and that when she called his people to fact check, it turned out she had several factual inaccuracies, including a little bit about Prince recovering from hip surgery, which he never even had... What His Purpleness actually did was gesture to the Bible and said he follows what it teaches, referring mainly to the parts about loving everyone and refraining from judgment...

    
    "We're very angry he was misquoted," says our Prince insider.

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    Wanda Sykes: "I'm Proud To be Gay"

    LAS VEGAS — Comedian Wanda Sykes says the passage of a same-sex marriage ban in California has led to her be more outspoken about being gay.

    "You know, I don't really talk about my sexual orientation. I didn't feel like I had to. I was just living my life, not necessarily in the closet, but I was living my life," Sykes told a crowd at a gay rights rally in Las Vegas on Saturday.

    "Everybody that knows me personally they know I'm gay. But that's the way people should be able to live their lives," she said.

    Read More Here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/16/wanda-sykes-im-proud-to-b_n_144130.html

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    Anti-war veterans deploy 4,171 toy soldiers at gas station

    David Edwards and Muriel Kane

    In a daring guerrilla raid earlier this fall, members of the Los Angeles chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) infiltrated a local gas station to deploy a battalion of 4171 toy soldiers, together with a sign reading, "Price of Gas: 4171 U.S. Soldiers."
    
    The project was initiated by designer Andrew Wilcox, who served as art director, and photographer and former marine Jonas Lara. According to Wilcox, it also involved "6 Iraq War Veterans who wish to remain anonymous."
    
    A video of the action, carried out in the early morning hours of October 11, has now been posted on YouTube and Digg and featured at the IVAW website and on several blogs.

    Watch Video Here: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Antiwar_group_stages_4200_toy_soldiers_1117.html

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    Kennedy Returns to the Hill

    Senator Edward M. Kennedy made his return to the Capitol today and pronounced himself eager to work on an economic-stimulus package and health-care reform.

    

    Watch Video Here: http://www.bluetidalwave.com/2008/11/kennedy-returns-to-hill.html

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    John Bolton Grilled On BBC

    John Bolton was on a panel in England and faced a hostile crowd and made to look ridiculous. This video clip is a fascinating window to how we are viewed across the pond.

    Watch It Here: http://www.truveo.com/John-Bolton-Grilled-On-BBC/id/972207001#

    About John Bolton Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Bolton
    

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    Glenn Beck Accosted At Wendy's: "You Racist Bigot!"

    Conservative personality Glenn Beck was accosted at his local Wendy's Saturday night, he said Monday on his radio show. In his attempt to procure a Frosty — "Everybody wants a Frosty," he said — he was stopped by a truck driver with food in his hair and called a "racist bigot."

    "I wanted to say, I think you have me mistaken for someone else, but I knew he knew who I was and he just hated me for who I was," Beck said.

    Read More Here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/17/glenn-beck-accosted-at-we_n_144411.html

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    The Trouble with Ray Nagin

    New Orleans’ youthful, outspoken mayor grabbed the national spotlight after Hurricane Katrina and government incompetence conspired to destroy his city. Three years and another hurricane later he’s facing a different flood—of crime, corruption, and scandal—and this time there’s no FEMA to blame.

    By Ethan Brown; Photograph by Michael Schmelling

    
    
    To get to C. Ray Nagin’s office in the boxy modernist City Hall building in downtown New Orleans, one must pass through metal detectors in the lobby, take an elevator to the second floor, walk through a wood-paneled hallway adorned with framed photographs of mayors past, and engage a pair of secretaries who guard the door to a small, sparsely decorated reception area beyond which lie the mayor’s sprawling chambers.
    
    
    Read More Here: http://men.style.com/details/features/landing?id=content_7558
    
    
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    Obama Meets With McCain, but Republican Strategists Say a Bipartisan Government Will Be Tough

    By Kenneth T. Walsh
    
    

    

    President-elect Barack Obama, meets with Sen. John McCain, at Obama's transition

    President-elect Barack Obama is reaching out to his critics, as illustrated by his make-nice meeting today with defeated Republican rival John McCain and his session last week with former Democratic foe Hillary Clinton to discuss the possibility of her taking over as secretary of state. But generating a real spirit of bipartisanship in Washington may be tougher than Obama realizes, according to two senior Republican strategists who participated in a forum to assess the election and its aftermath.

    Three Democrats on the recent panel, sponsored by the Smithsonian in Washington, said voters want a new spirit of compromise. For example, Howard Dean, outgoing chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said Obama was elected with a "mandate" to change politics in Washington. Referring to fellow baby boomers, Dean said, "Our generation is a confrontational generation. This new generation is a service generation."
    
    
    Read More Here: http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/campaign-2008/2008/11/17/obama-meets-with-mccain-but-republican-strategists-say-a-bipartisan-government-will-be-tough.html?s_cid=rss:obama-meets-with-mccain-but-republican-strategists-say-a-bipartisan-government-will-be-tough
    
    
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    Erykah Badu To Star Opposite Mos Def In 'Bobby Zero'

    

    Blackvoices has learned that Grammy-winner American soul singer, songwriter, and actress Erykah Badu has landed a leading role opposite Mos Def in the indie film, 'Bobby Zero'. The film will be produced by Effie Brown's Los Angeles-based production company Duly Noted. Also attached to the film are Peter Dinklage and Clifton Collins.

    Mos Def will play the romantic lead in the story of a down-on-his-luck social satirist who gives up his artistic aspirations to work at an advertising agency.

    Read More Here:http://www.blackvoices.com/blogs/2008/11/14/erykah-badu-to-star-opposite-mos-def-in-bobby-zero/

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  • 1 year ago
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• Keyes Files Suit Against Obama

  • From: starchild50
  • Description:

    Hence the saying: If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

    Daily Cartoon

    (click here to view)

    Ted Rall Universal Press Syndicate Nov 15, 2008 EditorialCartoonists.com

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    Obama News Mosaic

    

    The Obama News Mosaic showing a collage of over 600 newspaper "page ones" from around the world dated November 5th, 2008. See detail here.

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    The First Weekly YouTube Address from the President-Elect

    

    President-elect Obama used social media tools for awareness, fundraising and word of mouth marketing during his campaign. Now he has committed to doing weekly addresses on YouTube and Change.gov to the nation, here’s the first video.

    Watch it Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd8f9Zqap6U

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    In Transition, Tangle of Ties to Lobbying

    By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

    WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama has imposed stricter conflict-of-interest restrictions on his White House transition team than any president before him. But a list of transition team members that his office made public on Friday includes a complicated tangle of ties to private influence-seekers.

    Among the full roster of about 150 staff members being assigned to government agencies between now and Inauguration Day are dozens of former lobbyists and some who were registered as recently as this year. Many more are executives and partners at firms that pay lobbyists, and former government officials who work as consultants or advisers to those seeking influence.

    After campaigning on promises to end the influence of lobbyists in the White House, Mr. Obama has imposed rules that bar officials on his transition team from handling any issues in areas of policy where they have lobbied over the last 12 months or from seeking to influence the same agencies for the next 12 months.

    Read More Here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/us/politics/15transition.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
    

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    Laura Bush elaborates on Michelle Obama’s White House tour: 'I showed her the closets'.

    In an interview with CNN that aired today, First Lady Laura Bush described her Monday meeting with Michelle Obama at the White House. She said she told Michelle that “this house really can be a home” and showed her “all the things that women are interested in.” The First Lady didn’t elaborate on what those “things” were, beyond, “I showed her the closets.”

    Watch it Here: http://thinkprogress.org/2008/11/14/laura-bush-closets/

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    Fashion Advice for Michelle ObamaHint: Don't dress like Jackie Kennedy.

    By Josh Patner

    Photograph by Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images.

    

    Dear Mrs. Obama,

    Congratulations to you and your husband on a thrilling victory. It must be unnerving to find, a week after such a historic event, that all anyone wants to talk about is your wardrobe.

    Forgive us. We pro-fashion pundits can't help but chime in on the importance of clothes. Especially now that we've been treated to this absurdly style-happy election. We've spent the past 20 months talking about Clinton's décolletage, McCain's loafers, his wife's earrings, Obama's sunglasses, and, of course, Sarah Palin's pricey makeover. We just can't stop.

    But we also want to talk about your wardrobe because we think you have great style. We are attracted to it and inspired by it, and—with all respect due the future first lady—I thought I'd offer a few humble thoughts on what makes your style so great and what you might keep in mind as you get dressed for the next four to eight years.

    Watch Slideshow and Read More Here: http://www.slate.com/id/2204577/

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    Obama 60 Minutes Interview: Describes Moment Of Victory

    

    CBS's 60 Minutes will air the first televised interview with President-elect Barack Obama and his wife Michelle this Sunday.

    Here's a preview, where the two describe the moment they knew that the Democratic ticket had prevailed on Election Day:

    Asked when it sunk in that her husband had won, Michelle Obama told Kroft, "I remember, we were watching the returns and, on one of the stations, Barack's picture came up and it said, 'President-Elect Barack Obama.' And I looked at him and said, 'You are the 44th president of the United States of America. Wow. What a country we live in.'"

    
    "How about that?" President-elect Obama added. "Yeah. And then she said, 'Are you going take the girls to school in the morning?'"

    "I did not," Michelle Obama replied, laughing. "I didn't say that."

    Watch Video Clip Here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/14/barack-and-michelle-obama_n_144004.html

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    Secret Directed-Energy Tech Protecting the President?

    By David Hambling

    The Secret Service is tasked with protecting the President of the United States from assailants; and given that President-elect Obama has already been the target of assassination plots they may have their work cut out after January. But they have more than earpiece radios and armored limos to help them; the Secret Service can call on the very latest technology. Documents from a recent court case indicate that they have advanced directed-energy devices which are highly classified.

    You may remember Donald Friedman, who claims that government agencies are misusing non-lethal directed-energy weapons. It’s easy to dismiss him as a crank. But his obsessive digging has turned up valuable information. For instance, one of his Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests unearthed a 1998 U.S. Army program looking at a microwave device to beam sound directly into the target's skull which the rest of us had missed. (The same technology underlies the Medusa non-lethal weapon.)

    Read More Here: http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/11/presidents-secr.html

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    "Brother -They Don't Want YOU!"

    African- American Republican Commentator Mike Paul was  told in so many words by Pat Buchanan that the Republican party will remain non-inclusive on MSNBC's Hardball.

    Republican strategist Mike Paul accused Pat Buchanan of a personal attack while appearing on MSNBC’s Hardball Thursday. Paul had been explaining that recently defeated Republicans needed to be more inclusive as a Party.

    Buchanan disagreed, “I would love to get all the young voters and African-American voters, if you tell me how to do it other than talk about a big tent.”

    “I’m saying we need to examine ourselves first,” Paul explained.

    “Why don’t you examine yourself?” snapped Buchanan.

    While Paul accused Buchanan of a “personal attack,” he seemed too upset to remember Buchanan’s exact words. “You’ll have to look back at the transcript,” said Paul.

    Watch Video Here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27704797#27705045

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    Vt. town grows divisible over Pledge of Allegiance

    WOODBURY, Vt.(AP)

    No one is sure when daily recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance fell by the wayside at Woodbury Elementary School.

    But efforts to restore them have erupted into a bitter dispute in this town of about 800 residents, with school officials blocking the exercise from classrooms over concerns that it holds children who don't participate up to scorn.

    U.S. schoolchildren have long been able to opt out of reciting the pledge for religious reasons. But unlike other pledge controversies, this one centers on how and where schoolchildren say it, not whether they should.

    "The whole thing is tearing our community apart," said Heather Lanphear, 39, the mother of a first-grader and an opponent of reciting the pledge in the classroom.

    The brouhaha in the Vermont school began in September, when parent Ted Tedesco began circulating petitions calling for the return of pledge recitation as a daily practice in the 19th-century schoolhouse, which has 55 children in kindergarten through sixth grade.

    School officials agreed to resume it as a daily exercise, but not in the classroom.

    "We don't want to isolate children every day in their own classroom or make them feel they're different," said Principal Michaela Martin.

    Read More Here: http://cfnews13.com/News/National/2008/11/14/vt._town_grows_divisible_over_pledge_of_allegiance.html

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    Alan Keyes files suit over Obama citizenship question

    By Ben van der Meer, PolitickerCA.com Senior Reporter

    Former presidential candidate Alan Keyes and other members of his American Independent Party have filed suit in California Superior Court in Sacramento to stop the state from giving its electoral votes to President-elect Barack Obama.

    The suit contends that Secretary of State Debra Bowen and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger shouldn't be allowed to certify last week's election results for electors until Obama or his supporters provide proof of his natural-born citizenship in the United States.

    Conservative bloggers maintained during the presidential election that Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii, and had citizenship in other countries, thus disqualifying him from the presidency.

    Groups such as FactCheck.org investigated the claims and determined that Obama had a valid birth certificate from Hawaii.

    It was not clear Friday evening how soon the suit would get a court hearing.

    Archive Video of Keyes Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMvHMEDJ_CY

    And Here on Obama's Faith: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md2bf9DNVB4&feature=related

    On Race in America: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpI89_Hgvhw&feature=related

    On the Jena 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYY47a_yrKs

    At the Republican Presidential Debate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-vQCE8mnpE&feature=related
    

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    Audit: Sharpton campaign owes US nearly $500,000

    WASHINGTON – Federal auditors have concluded the Rev. Al Sharpton's 2004 campaign owes the government nearly $500,000 for illegal donations and other financial improprieties. Sharpton has been feuding with the Federal Election Commission for years over his accounting in his failed run for president, for which he received $100,000 in so-called government matching funds that authorities later concluded he did not deserve because he hadn't followed campaign laws.

    The auditors have now determined that Sharpton owes $486,803 to the U.S. Treasury because of his campaign's taking improper donations, largely from the National Action Network, a not-for-profit corporation that Sharpton leads but is separate from his campaign committee.

    Sharpton will appeal the finding, aides said Friday, which would extend an already years-long fight with the government over how he raised and spent money to run for president.

    The audit report is "a gross violation of Reverend Al Sharpton's right to perform his paid duties as president of the National Action Network, a traveling minister, lecturer, and an author who was promoting a book during the time period being audited," said his spokeswoman, Rachel Noerdlinger.

    Sharpton's campaign finances came under scrutiny as he campaigned, speaking at churches where he collected "love offerings" that are common to traveling preachers.

    Read More Here: http://fe25.story.media.ac4.yahoo.com/news/us/story/ap/20081115/ap_on_el_ge/sharpton_finances

    Watch Video Here: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1407424/bill_o_reilly_factor_rev_al_sharpton_tax_problems/
    

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    Senator McCain Back On The Campaign Trail For Saxby Chambliss

    By CSPANJunkie

    Senator Saxby Chambliss held a campaign rally at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta for his runoff election. He was joined by Senator John McCain.

    Watch Video Here: http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/cspanjunkie/senator-mccain-back-campaign-trail-sax

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    GEORGIA ELECTION

    Runoffs set for Dec. 2; some early voting starts Monday

    The run-off between Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss and Democratic challenger Jim Martin and other run-offs, including contests for the Georgia State Appeals Court and Public Service Commission-District 4, are set for Dec. 2.

    Read More Here: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/11/13/georgia_election_results.html

    Republican Saxby Chambliss: "We didn't get our folks to come out to vote"

    Watch Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH1prP_kdhE
    

    On civil liberties and civil rights issues, in 2007, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) gave him a 17% rating,^[22] and the NAACP gave him a 27% rating.^[23]

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    Barack Obama has already scored his first diplomatic victory!

    Barack Obama has already scored his first diplomatic victory with Iran and called their bluff.

    How agreeing to talks without preconditions destroys Iranian hardliner's propaganda.

    Watch Video Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iAkA47NZqc

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    How low can oil go? A lot lower, but it'll recover

    By Christopher Johnson - Analysis

    LONDON (Reuters) - World oil prices could easily fall below $50 a barrel and might even slip toward $40 or perhaps $35, but they will recover and could do so fairly quickly, analysts and economists say.

    Benchmark U.S. crude futures dropped to a 22-month low under $55 on Thursday as evidence mounted that the deepening recession would have a severe impact on demand, reducing the use of oil by industries and individuals alike.

    Oil has now fallen more than 60 percent from July's record $147.27 a barrel and is moving close to what is widely considered to be the average operating cost, or "cash cost," for the world's oil major oil companies around $50 a barrel.

    Many analysts think the market is likely to fall further, breaching the psychological $50 barrier before recovering.

    Read More Here: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4AC5OY20081113

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    Lawsuits claim election night hate crimes by police

    By David Friday 

    

    Several lawsuits have alleged that Chicago police abused Chicago citizens as they celebrated the win of Barack Obama.

    CBS' Chicago affiliate reported:

    Two more women are suing Chicago Police for hate crimes and battery after officers allegedly sprayed pepper spray on the women and their children and barged into their West Side home as they celebrated Barack Obama's Election Night victory.

    Her family was standing outside their home in the 3400 block of West Chicago Avenue cheering and celebrating Obama's victory when police squad cars drove down the street and one or more officers hung out the window and discharged pepper spray at the crowd, the suit said.

    After some words were exchanged, officers exited their vehicles with guns drawn and kicked open the door to the Arnold family home, according to the suit.

    The officers allegedly knocked some of the family members to the ground and made racial comments, the suit said.

    Watch Video Here: http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/lawsuits-claim-election-night-hate-crimes-po

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    Jury awards $2.5 million to teen beaten by Klan members

      (CNN) -- A jury awarded $2.5 million in damages on Friday to a Kentucky teenager who was severely beaten by members of a Ku Klux Klan group because they mistakenly thought he was an illegal Latino immigrant, the Southern Poverty Law Center said.

    The jury found that the Imperial Klans of America and its founder wrongfully targeted 16-year-old Jordan Gruver, an American citizen of Panamanian and Native-American descent.

    The verdict included $1.5 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages against "Imperial Wizard" Ron Edwards.

    The law center said before the verdict that a large damage award could break the Klan group, allowing the teen and the law center to seize the group's assets, including its headquarters, a 15-acre compound in Dawson Springs, Kentucky.

    "We look forward to collecting every dime that we can for our client and to putting the Imperial Klans of America out of business," said SPLC founder and chief trial attorney Morris Dees, who tried the case.

    Read More and Watch Video Here: http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/11/14/klan.sued.verdict/index.html?eref=rss_topstories#cnnSTCVideo

    http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/11/14/klan.sued.verdict/index.html?eref=rss_topstories#cnnSTCText
    

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    North Carolina cops investigated for possible racial slurs against Obama

    DURHAM - Derogatory remarks toward President-elect Barack Obama made on a social networking Web site are now the subject of an internal police investigation.

    A police department employee claims the statements were made on the MySpace pages of two Durham officers.

    "There's no exact words that were said," said Police Chief Jose L. Lopez Sr. in a telephone interview Wednesday from San Diego, where he is attending the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference. "It wasn't a racial slur, but we're still investigating it."

    Investigators, who are focusing on the context of what was written, have been looking into the allegations since Thursday.

    Lopez wouldn't disclose what was said or identify the officers involved.

    City Manager Tom Bonfield, who was notified of the investigation late Tuesday afternoon, said he advised Lopez to complete it as quickly as possible.

    Bonfield, whom Lopez reports to, said the department has the discretion to notify him of such inquiries.

    The police, as well as other city agencies, have a good sense of when an issue is big enough to notify him, said Bonfield, who added that he notified city council members within an hour of talking with Lopez.

    "It's important that the investigators have a chance to do their jobs and make sure they get all of the information," he said. "I think it's important that the police are given the opportunity to respond against any allegations against them."

    Bonfield added that if the allegations are found to be true and officers posted racially charged statements, then an appropriate response by the department would be warranted.

    The department's code of conduct, under the heading "private life," states that an officer's "character and conduct while off duty must always be exemplary, thus maintaining a position of respect in the community in which he or she lives and serves. The officer's personal behavior must be beyond reproach."

    Lopez said even though the remarks were made on a personal Web page, the comments could be a violation of the policy.

    "As a police officer, it doesn't matter where you do it, if you provide disservice to the organization, it violates the [department's] code of conduct," he said. "It is a high standard that officers are held accountable to."

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    The Latino Vote: Can Democrats lock it up for a generation?

    One aspect of the 2008 election outcome that will likely have real long-term consequences for the nation's political alignment is the emergence of the power of the Latino vote.

    It's looking increasingly as though Latinos have moved semi-permanently into the Democrats' column, in large part because the Republican brand has been semi-permanently tainted with the ugly nativist bigotry that has immersed movement conservatism. It certainly played a significant role in the voters' repudiation of all things conservative.

    Andres Ramirez at NDN Blog likewise pored over the numbers and found, among other things:

    Hispanics Improved The Margin of Victory in These Four States - In Colorado, Obama’s Hispanic support accounted for 7.9% of the electorate, while Obama won by 9%. In Florida, Obama’s Hispanic support accounted for 7.9% of the electorate, while Obama won by 3%. In Nevada, Obama’s Hispanic support accounted for 11.4% of the electorate, while Obama won by 12%. In New Mexico, Obama’s Hispanic support accounted for 28.3% of the electorate, while Obama won by 15%.

    Watch Video and Read More Here: http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/latino-vote-can-democrats-lock-it-ge

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    Sheppard Smith: No Media Bias against John McCain

    Sheppard Smith has been full of surprises lately. First he smacks down wingnut extraordinaire Joe the Plumber and then he smacks down Nick DiPaolo.

    DiPaolo:...the MSM being so in the tank for Obama...

    Smith: Oh, please. That's preposterous. (Why?)
    The MSM reflected what was happening in this nation. It did not drive it. The blogs didn't drive this movement, the media didn't drive this movement. Barack Obama did not lose this election. It was his to lose. It was not John McCain's to win. The Republicans had no shot unless the Democrats gave it to them and they didn't and to blame the media is a cop out and ridiculous....

    DiPaolo The MSM has been liberal since its inception. It's years and years of pounding...

    Smith: How did George Bush win twice?

    DiPaolo: I don't know. Karl Rove is a genius.

    We can debate some of the merits of Smith's argument, but his central point about media bias in this election is correct. And Karl Rove embodies everything that is wrong with American politics.

    Watch Video Here: http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/draft-sheppard-smith-says-there-was-no-

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    Palin left out of RGA leadership

    In the wake of the Republican Governors Association (RGA) convention this week in Miami, many GOP governors were reluctant to embrace Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) as the party’s leader or presidential candidate for 2012. Today, the RGA made that sentiment official, by not voting her in to any of the organization’s leadership positions:

    The Republican Governors Association announced its new leadership lineup today after their annual meeting concluded Thursday in Miami.

    South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was voted RGA chairman, taking over the top job from Texas Gov. Rick Perry who will now serve as finance chairman. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is vice-chairman, while Florida Gov. Charlie Crist will serve as chair for the annual RGA gala, and Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue will head up the recruitment effort.

    Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle, Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty will also sit on the RGA’s executive committee. […]
    
    Not on the list? Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who also attended the Miami meeting.

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    Sarkozy to Putin: ‘Do you want to end up like Bush?’

    The London Times’ Charles Bremner has identified one positive aspect of President Bush’s foreign policy legacy:

    With Russian tanks only 30 miles from Tbilisi on August 12, Mr. Sarkozy told Mr. Putin that the world would not accept the overthrow of Georgia’s Government. According to [Sarkozy’s chief diplomatic adviser, Jean-David] Levitte, the Russian seemed unconcerned by international reaction. “I am going to hang Saakashvili by the balls,” Mr. Putin declared.

    Mr. Sarkozy thought he had misheard. “Hang him?” — he asked. “Why not?” Mr. Putin replied. “The Americans hanged Saddam Hussein.”

    Mr. Sarkozy, using the familiar tu, tried to reason with him: “Yes but do you want to end up like [President] Bush?” Mr. Putin was briefly lost for words, then said: “Ah — you have scored a point there.”

    Fear of “ending up like Bush” now functions as a deterrent.

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    Stewart to O'Reilly: Explain your Obama fear mongering

    David Edwards and Nick Juliano

    Jon Stewart hosted Bill O'Reilly as Thursday night's guest in a sometimes heated exchange during which the Daily Show host all-but openly mocked his guest.
    
    The interview began with Stewart displaying a montage of O'Reilly Factor clips from prior to the election that amped up fears of Barack Obama.
    
    "You've got a 'no spin zone,' I've got a safe zone," Stewart deadpanned. "Bill I want you to talk to me. Tonight is about getting over your fear."
    
    O'Reilly sputtered about Obama's relatively thin resume before declaring Stewart "a master of propaganda."
    
    After a break, the two discussed the relative ideological positioning of the American people, with Stewart undercutting the right-wings repeated assertion -- backed by virtually no evidence -- that America is a "center-right" country

    Watch Videos Here: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Stewart_to_OReilly_Explain_your_Obama_1114.html

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    Rahm Emanuel apologizes for father's disparaging remarks about Arabs

    U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel apologized to an Arab-American group on Thursday for comments disparaging Arabs made by his father.
    
    The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee sent a letter to Emanuel calling on him to distance himself from remarks made by the elder Emanuel in an interview with an Israeli newspaper following his son's appointment last week.
    
    In the interview, Benjamin Emanuel was reported as saying: "Obviously, he will influence the president to be pro-Israel. Why wouldn't he? What is he, an Arab? He's not going to clean the floors of the White House." While some political analysts have said Rahm Emanuel, a veteran Democratic congressman, should not be held responsible for the actions of his father, there was also a sense that an apology was unavoidable.

    Read More Here: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037256.html

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    Five Million Dead and Counting

    The disaster in Congo is all the more tragic because it was utterly avoidable.

    By Michael J. Kavanagh

    In the North Kivu province of eastern Congo, people are living in ditches along the sides of roads. They're filling up the floors of churches and schools. Displaced people are surrounding the compounds of bewildered U.N. peacekeepers. Young boys and men are hiding in the forest to avoid being killed or forced into armed groups.

    "There are only girls left in the schools in my village," one 13-year-old boy told me. The day before, he and three friends had run from rebel soldiers who'd come to kidnap them.

    There are now more than 1 million displaced people scattered throughout the province. In the last 10 years of fighting, more than 5 million people have died in the Congolese conflict—mostly civilians who haven't had access to enough food or health care because of the fighting. And let's be clear: That's 5 million and counting.

    Read More Here: http://www.slate.com/id/2204662/

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    Obama Names Valerie Jarrett Senior White House Advisor

    President-elect Barack Obama has formally named his friend Valerie Jarrett to be a senior adviser in the White House. Her official title will be "senior advisor and assistant to the President for Inter-government relations and Public Liaison in the Obama White House," according to the Chicago Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet.

    Jarrett is a co-chair of Obama's transition team and was a top advisor to him during the presidential campaign.

    From Lynn Sweet's report:

    Jarrett, 51, a Hyde Park resident, is a veteran of Chicago's City Hall who went on to become the CEO of The Habitat Company, a major Chicago real estate firm as well as serving on a variety of civic and corporate boards. [...] Joining the campaign while still juggling her Habitat duties, Jarrett functioned as a friend--dining with Obama and other pals before a debate--as a top surrogate for the fund-raising drive--and as an advisor, often with Obama on the campaign plane.

    Read More Here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/14/obama-names-valerie-jarre_n_143992.html

    Watch Video Here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAsxlsjwgRI&feature=related
    

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• Farrakhan Says Obama 'New Begi

  • From: starchild50
  • Description:

    Daily Cartoon

    (click here to view)

    David Cohen Asheville Citizen-Times Nov 10, 2008 EditorialCartoonists.com

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    Obama planning U.S. trials for Gitmo detainees

    President-elect has described camp as ‘sad chapter in American history’

    

    The sun sets in June over Camp Justice and its adjacent tent city, the legal complex of the U.S. Military Commissions, at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, in Cuba.

    WASHINGTON - President-elect Obama's advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require creation of a controversial new system of justice.

    During his campaign, Obama described Guantanamo as a "sad chapter in American history" and has said generally that the U.S. legal system is equipped to handle the detainees. But he has offered few details on what he planned to do once the facility is closed.

    Under plans being put together in Obama's camp, some detainees would be released and many others would be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts.

    Read More and Watch Video Here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27640617/

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    High Court to examine Marri terror case

    WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court could take up a terrorism-related case challenging the President's broad powers of detention, observers say.

     The High Court will decide Monday whether to accept the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah Marri, a legal U.S. resident who was whisked into military detention in 2003 when Bush administration officials charged he was an al-Qaida operative plotting a wave of post-Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Washington Post (NYSE:WPO) reported.

    Marri was on trial in federal court in 2003 charged with using a false name and a stolen Social Security number to apply for bank accounts in Macomb, Ill., when Bush ordered he be turned over to the military. Marri was taken to a U.S. Navy brig in South Carolina where he's been held ever since, the newspaper said.

    Read More Here: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/11/09/High_Court_to_examine_Marri_terror_case/UPI-36011226246841/

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    Obamas Visit Bushes At White House

    President-Elect And President Bush Discuss Transition Of Power In Private Meeting Monday

    CBS/ AP)  President-elect Obama and President Bush gathered Monday for their first face-to-face meeting, an Oval Office session that comes during a historic shifting of power to a new administration.
    
    Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, arrived at the South Portico 11 minutes early with President Bush and first lady Laura Bush waiting for them. Mrs. Bush and Mrs. Obama enjoyed a warm greeting, while the president and his successor exchanged smiles and a handshake.
    
    Taking a bit of prerogative, the president-elect put his left hand on Mr. Bush's back as the two couples entered the Diplomatic Reception Room.
    
    "These things can be pretty frosty, but I think this time it won't be that way," said CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer, predicting "a nice and pleasant exchange" despite Mr. Obama's stated intention to undo many of Mr. Bush's initiatives.
    Watch Videos Here:

    http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/10/politics/main4587490.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_4587490

    And Here:

    http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/10/obama.bush/index.html?iref=mpstoryview#cnnSTCVideo

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    The Bushes, The Obamas & The White House

    CBS' Mark Knoller On The Tradition Of Presidents-Elect And White House Tours

    There’s a lot of play-acting involved when a President-elect of the opposition party is received at the White House by the outgoing President.
    
    It’s not quite as awkward as when the incoming Chief Executive actually defeated the incumbent, as was the case in 1980 when Jimmy Carter welcomed Ronald Reagan to the Oval Office; or in 1992, when the first President Bush had to offer smiles and a handshake to Bill Clinton.
    
    Imagine how you’d feel if you’d been fired and were then required to show your replacement around your office and house?
    
    Barack Obama didn’t beat George W. Bush, but he did beat him up rhetorically. Mr. Obama spent most of the last two years repeatedly making the case that Mr. Bush needlessly took the nation to war in Iraq and ran the economy into a ditch. Not the kind of verbiage that makes for instant cordiality.
    
    And the worst thing Mr. Obama felt he could say about John McCain was that his election would amount to a third term for the Bush Administration.
    
    But Messrs. Bush and Obama are both top-flight politicians. They know how to put politics aside - especially when the whole world is watching. And President Bush wants to be seen rolling out the red carpet for his successor.

    Watch Video Here: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/President44/story?id=6217188&page=1

    And Here: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/10/obama.bush/index.html?eref=rss_topstories#cnnSTCVideo

    Read More Here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/10/notebook/main4587823.shtml

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    Bush leaving office more unpopular than Nixon

    

    President Bush has the lowest presidential approval rating in the history of such polling.On the day that President-elect Barack Obama is visiting the White House, a new national poll suggests that the current occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is the most unpopular president since approval ratings were first sought more than six decades ago.

    Seventy-six percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday disapprove of how President Bush is handling his job.

    That's an all-time high in CNN polling and in Gallup polling dating back to World War II.

    "No other president's disapproval rating has gone higher than 70 percent. Bush has managed to do that three times so far this year," says CNN polling director Keating Holland. "That means that Bush is now more unpopular than Richard Nixon was when he resigned from office during Watergate with a 66 percent disapproval rating."

    Before Bush, the record holder for presidential disapproval was Harry Truman, with a 67 percent disapproval rating in January of 1952, his last full

    Read More Here: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/10/bush.transition.poll/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

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    5 Signs President-Elect Obama Is a Geek

     

    By Matt Blum

    Barack Obama, soon to become the 44th President of the U.S.A., is many things: a statesman, a lawyer, an author, and an orator. It is also our opinion at GeekDad that, even without knowing him personally, we have enough evidence to demonstrate that he is a big geek. Even if you didn't want him to win the election, you have to admit that it would be awesome for him to be not only the first African-American President, but also the first geek President. Here, then, is our evidence:

    1. Obama has pledged to create a cabinet-level Chief Technology Officer for the country. The U.S. CTO would be responsible for making broadband technology readily available to every U.S. citizen, and for fighting the telcos for net neutrality. While this is admirable for many reasons, it seems to us that nobody would make this a central point of his presidential campaign unless he were, on some level, a geek.

    Watch Video Here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/10/politics/washingtonpost/main4587983.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_4587983

    Read More Here: http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/11/5-signs-preside.html

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    Farrakhan Says Obama 'New Beginning'

    CHICAGO (AP) ―

    After months of silence about his support for Barack Obama, Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan said in an address Sunday the new president-elect has a God-given capacity to handle any burdens he'll face as the nation's leader.

    Farrakhan added that Obama will only be able to make positive changes with help from "God and people of good will," and he urged the Chicago-based movement's followers to do their part.

    "President-elect Obama has energized all segments of the depressed, downtrodden, rejected and despised," he said in a 90-minute speech at Mosque Maryam on the city's South Side. "Now it is up to us to take the new energy that he has given us ... and channel that energy into making ourselves better."

    Dressed in intricately decorated red and gold robes and matching fez, the once-ailing 75-year-old leader spoke to more than 1,000 followers in an address called "America's New Beginning: President-elect Barack Obama."

    Farrakhan, who said Obama draws a "oneness of spirit" from all people, admitted he stayed quiet about his support for Obama during the past few months out of fear his words would harm the Illinois senator's bid for the White House.

    Watch Video Here: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=77539

    Read More Here: http://cbs2chicago.com/local/farrakhan.obama.new.2.860013.html

     

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    David Duke's EURO Conference Meets in Memphis

     

    

    Reported by: Lacey Crisp

    MEMPHIS, TN - Despite being kicked out out of an Olive Branch hotel, and several others, David Duke and his International EURO Conference have found a meeting place.  Duke announced Thursday the meeting would be held at a secret location.  Members gathered Saturday at the Memphis Plaza Hotel & Suites on Shelby Oaks Dr. near Sycamore View Rd.
    
    The group of about 100 participants, met at the East Memphis hotel to discuss issues that Duke says are "vital to European Americans." According to Duke's official website, "The European American Unity and Rights Conference is dedicated to defending the heritage and rights of European Americans."  
    
    Memphis police were on hand in case of any problems, but the event went smoothly.
    
    This is the third International EURO Conference held by the white civil rights activist.  The first EURO Conference was held in New Orleans in 2004. Duke says now is an important time for the group because of President Elect Obama.  Duke says Obama has a record of anti-white racism and is close with an anti-white church leader, Rev. Wright.

    Watch Video Here: http://www.myeyewitnessnews.com/mostpopular/story.aspx?content_id=f0784783-a8df-48b9-8285-19f2268595cd#BBECDEEMBEDEDPLAYER

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    Obama's Life In Photos

    

     

     

    To View Photos Go Here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-081028-obama-all-pg,0,6564040.photogallery

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    Police: No Video of Inmate's Death

     

    UPPER MARLBORO, Md. (AP) -- Internal reports at the Prince George's County jail reveal that a video camera failed to record the first five minutes when guards arrived in a cell to find a dead inmate.

    The Washington Post reports it reviewed 13 statements that guards, supervisors and jail nurses provided to internal investigators on the day 19-year-old Ronnie White was found dead.

     

    Watch Video Here: http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0908/555544.html

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    Working Poor and Young Hit Hard in Downturn

     

    By ERIK ECKHOLM

     Published: November 8, 2008

    NYT_INLINE_IMAGE_POSITION1

    PHILADELPHIA — Harvey Shaw’s plans to move out of his parents’ house, finally, have been derailed. With a high school degree obtained belatedly at 21, he had held a full-time job for 26 months as a detailer at a car dealership here, sprucing up new and used cars.

    But in early October, Mr. Shaw, now 24, recalled, “I came back from vacation, and they said they were cutting back and replacing me with part-time workers.”

    Labor experts say the hardships of the gathering recession are sweeping down to hurt the working poor and younger job seekers most of all.

    From the fall of 2007 to this October, the share of 16- to 19-year-olds working fell by 8 percent, the largest decline of any age group, and the outlook for youths and low-skilled workers in coming months is bleak, economists say, with the industries most apt to employ them, like home-building and retail sales, taking steep dives.

    Read More and Watch Multimedia Here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/us/09young.html?ex=1383973200&en=28499c89baac0e4d&ei=5124&partner=digg&exprod=digg

    **************************************

    Most 'undervotes' cast in counties won by Obama

    An analysis of ballots that had a vote for president but no vote for U.S. senator could have recount implications.

    By BRIAN BAKST, Associated Press

    An Associated Press analysis of the nearly 25,000-vote difference in Minnesota presidential and U.S. Senate race tallies shows that most ballots lacking a recorded Senate vote were cast in counties won by Democrat Barack Obama.

    The finding could have implications for Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and DFLer Al Franken, who are headed for a recount separated by the thinnest of margins -- 221 votes as of Friday, or about 0.01 percent.

    Though some voters may have intentionally bypassed the race, others may have mismarked their ballot or optical scanning machines may have misread them. A recount to begin Nov. 19 will use manual inspection to detect such ballots.

    Read More Here: http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/34116044.html

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    How to End the Recession

    By Robert Pollin

    November 6, 2008

    

    The collapse on Wall Street is now decimating Main Street, Ocean Parkway, Mountain View Drive and I-80. Since January the economy has shed 760,000 jobs. In September alone, monthly mass layoff 

    claims for unemployment insurance jumped by 34 percent. General Electric, General Motors, Chrysler, Yahoo! and Xerox have all announced major layoffs, along with the humbled financial titans Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. Fully one-quarter of all businesses in the United States are planning to cut payroll over the next year. State governments are facing a tax revenue shortfall of roughly $100 billion in the next fiscal year, 15 percent of their overall budgets. Because states have rules requiring balanced budgets, they are staring at major budget cuts and layoffs. The fact that the economy's overall gross domestic product (GDP) shrank between July and September--the first such decline since the September 2001 terrorist attacks--only confirms the realities on the ground facing workers, households, businesses and the public sector.

    Read More Here: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081124/pollin

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    60 Minutes, CBS: Obama's Inner Circle (Video/Transcript)

    by icebergslim

    Nov 09, 2008

    I watched this interview with David Axelrod, David Plouffe, Robert Gibbs and Anita Dunn.  Their poise, effectiveness, showed throughout this interview.  The most important thing, no in-fighting, leaks, drama.  And they talk about how the McCain Campaign did not take them seriously, especially about winning Indiana and North Carolina.

    Read More and Watch Video Here: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/11/9/214644/606/727/658291

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    Cable News' Future After The Election  

    NEW YORK — Chris Matthews refused to be drawn in to a debate last week when fellow MSNBC host Joe Scarborough talked on "Morning Joe" about whether President-elect Obama had fumbled the appointment of Rahm Emanuel as his White House chief of staff.

     

    Matthews said he wanted to "do everything I can to make this thing work, this new presidency work."

    Wait a minute. A declaration of political peace? On one of the three cable news networks that has thrived on political combat during the presidential election campaign?

    CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC all knew the end would come. Now the networks must retool, and will learn how many of the new viewers who sought them out over the past year will stick around.

    Read More Here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/10/cable-news-future-emafter_n_142612.html

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    Palin's own words: 'Amazing we did as well as we did'

     

    Blames Bush -Snake wearing lipstick!!

     

    Gov. Sarah Palin blames the Bush administration for the failure of the McCain-Palin ticket, thinks people need to move on from the so-called "Troopergate" controversy and has no regrets about state per diem for time spent at her home in Wasilla or state-funded travel for her children.

    Palin also said she loved her time in the national spotlight and won't rule out a run for president or vice president in 2012.

    Those were some of Palin's responses to questions posed Sunday afternoon in a wide-ranging interview with the Anchorage Daily News and KTUU Channel 2 at the governor's Wasilla home.

    Despite the defeat of the Republican ticket at the polls Nov. 4, Palin remains a national media obsession: Greta Van Susteren of Fox News had just finished an interview with her Sunday and was chatting with the governor and her husband in the kitchen. Moose chili cooked in the crock pot and moose hot dogs lay on the table. Palin insisted they weren't a prop for the national media but just how the family likes to dine.

    Watch Video Here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/55562.html

    ***********************************

    Man questioned in Hudson case to stay jailed

    Balfour

    JOLIET, Illinois - The convicted felon questioned in the killings of Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and nephew is staying in prison after authorities say a witness reported seeing him with a gun.

    During a 35-minute hearing in Joliet on Monday, authorities decided there's probable cause to hold William Balfour until a Dec. 3 hearing before the full Illinois Prisoner Review Board.

    Board Chairman Jorge Montes says the witness reported seeing Balfour with a gun that matches the description of the .45 caliber weapon used to kill Hudson's family members.

    Read More Here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27645234/

    Watch Video Here: http://abclocal.go.com/wls/video?id=6486018

    ************************************

    In tough times, layaway makes a comeback

    Ahead of Christmas, plummeting sales spur revival of a ’50s standby

    Hot Shoppes. Green Stamps. Rexall. Layaway.
    Ask your grandparents.
    Wait a minute ... did we say layaway?

    Scratch that — of all the relics of 1950s retailing genius, it’s the one that’s still around. And with Christmas approaching in a time of widespread economic distress, it’s coming back strong.

    “For a lot of people, they’re not going to have credit and they don’t have a lot of money right now, but they want to have a good Christmas,” said Mary Bullock, manager of a Kmart store in Orlando, Fla. “It is a lot different than in years past.”

    Until recently, Kmart Corp. was pretty much the only major retailer that bothered to keep layaway plans prominent among their customer services. The service — in which a customer pays off the purchase price of a product in installments plus a small fee before taking it home — appeared headed for obsolescence two years ago when Wal-Mart Stores Inc. shut down its program.

    Read More and Watch Video Here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27582079/

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    US 'in secret overseas strikes'

    The US has carried out nearly a dozen anti-terror attacks in Pakistan, Syria and elsewhere in the past four years, the New York Times has reported.

    

    The US has carried out attacks in Pakistan in recent months

    The previously unreported attacks were authorised in 2004 by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the Times quoted senior officials as saying.

    The order gave US forces permission to attack terror targets anywhere in the world without prior specific approval.

    The Times said the defence department declined to comment on its claims. E SF

    The White House also made no comment.

    Read More Here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7719050.stm

    ********************************

    MGM first to post full-length features to YouTube

    - Metro-Goldwyn Mayer Studios, better known as MGM, will be the first major movie studio to post full-length feature films on YouTube, the company announced Sunday.

    CNET News reported on Thursday that YouTube was preparing to launch a feature-film service after spending months smoothing over fractured relationships in Hollywood.

    MGM will likely not be the last studio to post full-length feature films on YouTube, according to an industry source. Last summer, Lionsgate announced a partnership with YouTube, but that deal calls for the studio to offer only short clips from films and TV shows. MGM will also post TV shows on YouTube, according to multiple reports published on Sunday.

    For Google, YouTube's parent company, the deal is a turning point in its relationship with Hollywood. There was lots of distrust and bitter feelings in entertainment circles after the way Google dealt with copyright infringement on its site. But that was when Google was in the driver's seat. Back then, thousands of YouTube's users would post clips from TV shows and films on the site and YouTube executives told the studios they were powerless to prevent it--all the while YouTube amassed an enormous following.

    Read More Here: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/cnet/20081110/tc_cnet/8301102331009228393

    Starchild: I suggest all future HD television purchases = LCD with PC connectors -  VGA at the very least!

    ***************************

    Terminator Salvation Footage! Possibly Leaked!

    

    The fact that this new Terminator Salvation footage has popped up randomly leads me to believe that it hasn’t been officially released, so catch it while you still can. The video is called Terminator 4: The Art of Martin Laing and features a male (I assume it’s Martin Laing) talking about designing the new Terminators and then seeing them come to life. The footage shows a huge Transformer like Terminator called the Harvester, and we also get a glimpse at some motor cycle-type Terminators.

    Watch it below!

    http://filmonic.com/terminator-salvation-footage

    *****************************

    Miriam Makeba dies after collapsing on stage

    The story

    Miriam Makeba, the South African singer who wooed the world with her sultry voice but was banned from her own country for more than 30 years under apartheid, died after collapsing on stage in Italy. She was 76.

    In her dazzling career, Makeba performed with musical legends from around the world -- jazz maestros Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie, Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon -- and sang for world leaders such as John F. Kennedy and Nelson Mandela.

    "Her haunting melodies gave voice to the pain of exile and dislocation which she felt for 31 long years. At the same time, her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us," Mandela said in a statement. Read full article »

    Watch Video Here: http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Music/11/10/obit.makeba.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories#cnnSTCVideo
    

    ******************************

    Jheryl Busby Former Motown President  has died.

    

     

    b. 5th May 1949, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

    d. 4th November 2008, Malibu, California, U.S.A.

    Former Motown President and Chief Executive, Jheryl Busby has died. He was 59.

    He was found dead in the hot tub at his home in Malibu.

    The cause was accidental, probably natural, although this had not been initially determined, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner's office stated.

    During his career, Jheryl worked for Stax Records, MCA Records, DreamWorks Records and Def Soul Classics.

    He, also, developed the careers of Boyz II Men, Queen Latifah and Johnny Gill.

    Jheryl Busby commenced his business career at Mattel Toys, starting as an inventory clerk and ultimately promoted to new-toy coordinator.

    In 2004, he founded Def Soul Classics Records, signing LaBelle and the Isley Brothers, and two years later continued his partnership with LaBelle by starting Umbrella Recordings.

    In 1998, Jheryl Busby also became a majority stakeholder in Founders National Bank, the first African-American-owned and operated commercial bank in California.

    Read More Here: http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/Respect.html

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  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
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• Slavery Was Better Than Welfar

  • From: starchild50
  • Description:

    Daily Cartoon

    (click here to view)

    Scott Stantis Birmingham News Nov 8, 2008 EditorialCartoonists.com

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    A Night To Remember:
    Video Highlights From Tuesday

    Sarah Palin: I can see a landslide from my house.

    

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qiRwCuQmZA

    
    OBAMA BACKSTAGE election night photos posted on Flickr.

    **********************************

    Obama Election Night Backstage Photos (SLIDESHOW)

    Huffington Post   |   November 7, 2008 02:02 PM
    
    

    The Obama campaign has posted photos on Flickr of the Obama campaign and family on election night, watching the results backstage and celebrating. Sasha, Malia, Michelle, Jill and Joe Biden, Plouffe, Gibbs and Axelrod all make an appearance. Not to be missed:

    Go Here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/07/obama-election-night-back_n_142161.html
    

    **********************************

    
    

    
    

    Calls for inauguration tickets through the roof

    By Lolly Bowean |Tribune reporter

    
    

    
    

    
    

    There have been calls from forgotten childhood classmates, from long-gone girlfriends and boyfriends, and even from the widows of deceased Chicago icons.
    
    In the three days since the election of Barack Obama, the demand for tickets to Inauguration Day events has been unprecedented, local congressional officials said.
    
    "It's crazy," said Sharon Jenkins, spokeswoman for Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.). "We're in a unique moment in U.S. history. Every day under Obama's administration is a first, and people want to be a part of it."

    Read More Here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-obama-tickets-08-nov08,0,1861618.story

    *********************************

    Before Obama, There Was Bill Cosby

    By TIM ARANGO
    Published: November 7, 2008

    NYT_INLINE_IMAGE_POSITION1

    

    
    

    Bill Cosby with Tempestt Bledsoe, left, and Keshia Knight Pulliam as his daughters in a 1986 episode of “The Cosby Show.”

    Some theorists argue that political and social change is preceded by shifts in popular culture. So it’s not surprising that the debate has heated up over who, or what, in arts and entertainment presaged Barack Obama’s election as president.

    Many ideas have ricocheted around academia and the blogosphere — from Oprah Winfrey to Tiger Woods to Will Smith to “The West Wing,” to the many actors who have played black presidents, among them Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock (although not that many people actually saw Mr. Rock’s film “Head of State”).

    But one idea seems to be gaining traction, and improbably it has Bill Cosby and Karl Rove in agreement: “The Cosby Show,” which began on NBC in 1984 and depicted the Huxtables, an upwardly mobile black family — a departure from the dysfunction and bickering that had characterized some previous shows about black families — had succeeded in changing racial attitudes enough to make an Obama candidacy possible.

    Read More Here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/08/arts/television/08cosb.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

    ******************

    Oprah to Palin: Stop by any time

     A couple of months ago, there was a media kerfuffle when Oprah Winfrey said she would not have Gov. Sarah Palin on the show during the election.

    Now that the election is over, the door is open to the former vice presidential candidate. A representative for Oprah's talk show said that "we have extended an invitation" to the Alaska governor.
    
    There's no word yet on whether Oprah, a prominent Obama supporter, has received a yea or nay from the camp of Palin, who is still much in the news as a candidate for 2012 and as a controversial figure even within the McCain campaign.

    ********************************

    Wingnut revisionism: Oh, that ole time slavery was so much better than welfare

    By David Neiwert Friday Nov 07, 2008 7:14pm
    
    
    Summary: On The War Room with Quinn & Rose (http://www.warroom.com/), Jim Quinn said: "You know, if you were a slave in the old South, what did you get as a slave? You got free room and board, you got free money, and you got rewarded for having children because that was just, you know, tomorrow's slave. ... Can I ask a question? How's that different from welfare? You get a free house, you get free food, and you get rewarded for having children. Oh, wait a minute, hold on a second. There is a difference: The slave had to work for it."
    

    Listen Here: http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/wingnut-revisionism-oh-ole-time-slav

    Jim Quinn yesterday on The War Room with Quinn & Rose:

    You know, I was thinking about this. You know, if you were a slave in the old South, what did you get as a slave? You got free room and board, you got free money, and you got rewarded for having children because that was just, you know, tomorrow's slave. So, you got a free house, you got free money, and you got rewarded for having children. Can I ask a question? How's that different from welfare? You get a free house, you get free food, and you get rewarded for having children. Oh, wait a minute, hold on a second. There is a difference: The slave had to work for it.

    Yeah, that was the difference. Right.

    This raises the question: Are the wingnuts coming so unhinged they are losing any contact with reality?

    ***********************************

    More Bodies Found In Haitian School Rubble

    Toll Of Children, Teachers Killed In Building Collapse Raised To 75; More May Be Trapped

    (CBS/AP)  sphereit start The mayor of Petionville said the death toll now stands at 75 from the collapse of a school in Haiti after crews uncovered a classroom filled with students and a teacher.
    
    Claire Lydie Parent told The Associated Press that at least 17 students were found crushed on Saturday as crews continue to search for victims.
    
    Authorities said there may have been hundreds of students in La Promesse school when the concrete building collapsed Friday. Rescuers used bare hands to pull bleeding students from the wreckage.
    
    Underneath the massive pile of concrete are children, possibly 300 or more, reports CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella.
    
    The school came down late in the morning while students from kindergarten to high school age were going to class, reports Cobiella.
    
    At least 39 bodies were brought to the morgue at Port-au-Prince's General Hospital, Haitian police spokesman Garry Desrosier said.
    
    Another eight people died in a trauma center run by the aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, spokesman Francois Servranckx said. More than 80 others were being treated for injuries by the aid group.
    
    Rescuers worked furiously through the night under floodlights to pull children from the wreckage and give water to those still stuck in the rubble. Thousands looked on from beside the school and across the valley, cheering each time a live student emerged.
    
    But the rescue effort was chaotic and disorganized from the start. The throngs of grieving and screaming onlookers made it impossible for U.N. peacekeepers, Red Cross workers and Haitian authorities to bring trucks and heavy equipment for much of the afternoon.

    Read More and Watch Video Here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/08/world/main4585742.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_4585742

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    Ashville N.C. School teacher browbeats student over being a McCain supporter

    Teacher Diantha Harris browbeats McCain supporting student, Kathy,in Ashville N.Carolina grade school. The poor girl is obviously distressed over the teacher's line of questiong and belittling her choice of candidate in front of her school mates.

    Watch it Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDEAYgm0Dv8

    Superintendent William C. Harrison responds to YouTube video of political discussion between teacher and students.

    Watch it Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9ta9XKQXgE&watch_response
    

    **********************************

    Fears of Democrat crackdown lead to gun sales boom 

    By DENA POTTER

    Associated Press Writer

    MIDLOTHIAN, Va. (AP) -- When 10-year-old Austin Smith heard Barack Obama had been elected president, he had one question: Does this mean I won't get a new gun for Christmas?

    That brought his mother, the camouflage-clad Rachel Smith, to Bob Moates Sports Shop on Thursday, where she was picking out that special 20-gauge shotgun - one of at least five weapons she plans to buy before Obama takes office in January.

    Like Smith, gun enthusiasts nationwide are stocking up on firearms out of fears that the combination of an Obama administration and a Democrat-dominated Congress will result in tough new gun laws.

    "I think they're going to really try to crack down on guns and make it harder for people to try to purchase them," said Smith, 32, who taught all five of her children - ages 4 to 10 - to shoot because the family relies on game for food.

    Last month, as an Obama win looked increasingly inevitable, there were more than 108,000 more background checks for gun purchases than in October 2007, a 15 percent increase. And they were up about 8 percent for the year as of Oct. 26, according to the FBI.

    No data was available for gun purchases this week, but gun shops from suburban Virginia to the Rockies report record sales since Tuesday's election.

    Read More Here: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OBAMA_GUN_SALES?SITE=AP

    Watch Video Here: http://video.ap.org/v/Default.aspx?partner=en-ap&g=347db720-1bf8-4118-89c3-575047cff41d&t=m318&p=ENAPus_ENAPus&f=AP&

    **********************************

    Mississippi students told not to say Obama's name

    David Edwards and Muriel Kane
    Published: Friday November 7, 2008

    A controversy has erupted at a Mississippi junior high school over allegations that a bus driver and a coach threatened students with punishment for saying Barack Obama's name.
    
    The incidents became public when outraged parents called the studios of WAPT news in Pearl, Miss. Some said their children were threatened by a bus driver with being written up and taken to the principal's office, others that their children were told by a girls' basketball coach they would be suspended.
    
    Reginald Simpson, a student at Pearl Junior High, explained that when students on the bus started saying, "Obama is our president," the bus driver told them she didn't want to hear his name. One kid said, "This is history woman," and according to Simpson, "She pulled over and kicked me and the kid off the bus." They were left waiting at the high school and later taken to their own school.
    
    "They feel like they afraid to say who our president is, cause they afraid they going to be in trouble," Reginald's mother Canishia told WAPT. "We teach our kids not to be racist, and here it is going on. I just feel hurt by it."
    
    The Simpson family is black. However, another mother whose son was on the bus and who also plans to confront school officials about the incident is white. "This is what the whole election was about," Venus Neagu told WAPT. "It was supporting someone. And now that they've done it and they're on the school bus, now they're getting consequences for it."
    
    School officials reviewed video from the bus and promised that no students would be punished. The superintendent released a statement saying, "It appears that some persons, out of disappointment and disillusionment with the election may have been so frustrated that they said something inappropriate to students. We have taken appropriate steps with the bus driver and the coach."

    Watch Video Here: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Students_asked_not_to_say_Obamas_1107.html

    **********************************

    Emanuel Was Director Of Freddie Mac During Scandal

    New Obama Chief of Staff, Others on Board, Missed "Red Flags" of Alleged Fraud Scheme

    By BRIAN ROSS and RHONDA SCHWARTZ
    November 7, 2008
    
    

    President-elect Barack Obama's newly appointed chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, served on the board of directors of the federal mortgage firm Freddie Mac at a time when scandal was brewing at the troubled agency and the board failed to spot "red flags," according to government reports reviewed by ABCNews.com.

    

    President-elect Barack Obama's newly appointed chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, served on the board of...

    President-elect Barack Obama's newly appointed chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, served on the board of directors of the federal mortgage firm Freddie Mac at a time when scandal was brewing at the troubled agency and the board failed to spot "red flags," according to government reports reviewed by ABCNews.com.

    According to a complaint later filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Freddie Mac, known formally as the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, misreported profits by billions of dollars in order to deceive investors between the years 2000 and 2002.

    Emanuel was not named in the SEC complaint (click here to read) but the entire board was later accused by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) (click here to read) of having "failed in its duty to follow up on matters brought to its attention."

    Read More Here: http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6201900&page=1

    **********************************

    Obama apologizes to Nancy Reagan for seance remark

    CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama called Nancy Reagan on Friday to apologize for a remark about seances he made during his first news conference earlier in the day.

    startclickprintexclude PURGE: /2008/POLITICS/11/07/obama.seance/art.obama.afp.gi.jpg KEEP

    

     

    When a reporter asked Obama if he had spoken with any ex-presidents since his election on Tuesday, he responded that he had spoken to all former presidents "that are living."

    "I didn't want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any seances," he said.

    Nancy Reagan, wife of 40th President Ronald Reagan, was derided in 1988 when his former chief of staff Donald Regan revealed in a book that the first lady had consulted an astrologer to determine the president's schedule.

    Obama apologized to Reagan "for the careless and offhanded remark," Obama transition team spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said. Watch Obama make the seance remark »

    "The president-elect expressed his admiration and affection for Mrs. Reagan that so many Americans share and they had a warm conversation," Cutter said.

    **********************************

    'Mutts like me' shows Obama's racial comfort

    Analysis: Offhanded remark indicates his different approach to race

    

    Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
    President-elect Barack Obama took questions on a range of subjects at his first post-election press conference on Friday.
    By Alan Fram

    

    updated less than 1 minute ago function UpdateTimeStamp(pdt) { var n = document.getElementById("udtD"); if(pdt != '' && n && window.DateTime) { var dt = new DateTime(); pdt = dt.T2D(pdt); if(dt.GetTZ(pdt)) {n.innerHTML = dt.D2S(pdt,((''.toLowerCase()=='false')?false:true));} } } UpdateTimeStamp('633617706796970000');

    WASHINGTON - It popped out casually, a throwaway line as he talked to reporters about finding the right puppy for his young daughters.

    But with just three offhanded words in his first news conference as president-elect, Barack Obama reminded everyone how thoroughly different his administration — and inevitably, this country — will be.

    "Mutts like me."

    Read More and Watch Video Here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27606637/

     

    ***********************************

    US judge denies Simpson's request for new trial

    Agence France-Presse
    Published: Friday November 7, 2008

    LAS VEGAS (AFP) — A Las Vegas judge has rejected former US football star OJ Simpson's request for a new trial after he was convicted in October for robbing two sports memorabilia collectors.
    
    Nevada judge Jackie Glass said Simpson and co-defendant Clarence Stewart had not made strong enough arguments to merit a new hearing.
    
    Simpson, 61, whose trial for the brutal 1994 murder of his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman ended up in his acquittal, was found guilty on October 4 of 12 charges in the armed robbery and kidnapping of the two collectors in the Las Vegas Palace Station casino on September 13, 2007.
    
    Simpson and Stewart both face life in prison, and their sentences in the case are scheduled to be handed down on December 5.
    
    Simpson's acquittal in the racially charged 1995 Los Angeles murder trial was greeted with widespread outrage across the United States.
    
    The 1970s professional football hero has always vehemently denied murdering his former wife and her friend.
    
    But he was found liable for the deaths in a 1997 civil suit and was ordered to pay damages to the victims' families totaling 33.5 million dollars. He has repeatedly said he will not pay the settlement.

    **********************************

    New Army Recruiting Tactic: Obama will "Get Us Out of Iraq"

    by: Brandon Friedman

    Well that didn't take long.  Polls across America had been closed for less than 24 hours and Army Career Counselors were already exploiting Barack Obama's victory in an effort to recruit former soldiers back into units.  This email was forwarded to me by an Iraq veteran and former Army captain who received it on Wednesday Read it Here:

    http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2148

    *********************************

    Obama not to attend G20 summit

    Agence France-Presse
    Published: Friday November 7, 2008

    WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President-elect Barack Obama will not be attending a summit of world leaders for economic crisis talks in Washington next week, his spokeswoman said Friday.
    
    Obama's transition spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter confirmed the president-elect would not be attending the upcoming summit.
    
    "As he said himself, there is only one president at a time," she told reporters after Obama's first post-election news conference in Chicago.
    
    Earlier the White House confirmed it did not expect Obama to take a seat at the talks on November 15.
    
    "We are in communication and coordination with them. I don't know whether someone will actually be in the building. I don't expect in the room," spokesman Tony Fratto said of Obama's economic team.

    But Fratto pledged close cooperation with the president-elect's economic advisers on the best way to respond to the global financial meltdown in order to avoid sending "confusing signals" to international markets.
    
    "We look forward to hearing their views on how to deal with these issues which are going to go on for some time," the spokesman said one week before outgoing US President George W. Bush hosts the summit.
    
    Obama is keen not to trample on the sitting president's authority. But his aides are also leery of becoming too closely associated with the outgoing administration's 700-billion-dollar banking bailout, which remains unpopular among many voters, sources said.
    
    The November 15 talks will bring together leaders of the Group of 20 rich countries and major developing economies to discuss cooperative measures for responding to the global economic meltdown and ways to prevent future crises.
    
    The G20 includes the seven major industrialized nations -- Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Germany and the United States -- plus Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey.
    
    It also takes in the 27-nation European Union, represented by France, which holds the rotating EU presidency. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank also participate in its meetings.

    **********************************

    Palin on the media: ‘There have been some stinkers.’

    By Faiz Shakir

    Sarah Palin stopped tonight to answer a few questions from the Alaskan press in an attempt to dispel some of the recent damaging media reports about her involvement in the McCain campaign. “I know that I know that I know that there was nothing done wrong in the campaign,” she said. Palin complained that the other 49 states “aren’t quite there” like Alaska because they don’t allow the same “equal opportunities and equal treatment.” She then argued that, while has been some “fairness and objectivity” by some in the media, “there have been some stinkers.”

    Defending the purchase of her fancy, expensive clothes during the campaign, she claimed, “I never asked for anything more than maybe a Diet Dr. Pepper once in a while.”

    Watch Keith Olbermann’s report Here:http://thinkprogress.org/2008/11/07/palin-stinkers/

    ***************************

    Truth!: Palin 'One Step' From Stealing

    NEWSWEEK's Katie Connolly and Evan Thomas on the real story behind Sarah Palin's shopping spree (Reporter: Suzanne Smalley; Producer/Camera: Ira Spitzer, Lee Wang; Editor: Lee Wang).

    Watch It Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OavoTPttLK0

                             http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdvVhKghAX0
    

    ***************************

    Focus On The Family Compares Obama To Nazis

    By Cernig Friday Nov 07, 2008 9:00am

    Two days after Obama and the Democratic Party won a ringing 7 million refusal of rightwing fearmongering and hate, the extreme right are unrepentant and none the wiser. Smintheus at Unbossed writes:

    This evening James Dobson's Focus on the Family Action sent out a fundraising email to members that likened the victories of Barack Obama and congressional Democrats in Tuesday's election to the Nazi bombing of England during World War II. The author of this vile letter is Tom Minnery, Senior Vice President of Focus on the Family Action. It was nearly inevitable that anger over losing the 2008 election would soon provoke right-wing extremists to violate Godwin's Law. Obama's victory in Colorado may have been particularly galling for the Colorado Springs based Focus on the Family, which has been heavily involved in the political campaign this year advocating for conservative issues. James Dobson personally endorsed the McCain-Palin ticket this fall.

    Focus on the Family has not so far posted this hateful fundraising letter on the web. Here is the opening section of the letter:

    Dear Friend,

    The spirit of Winston Churchill was alive and well on Tuesday night at Focus on the Family Action headquarters.

    You may recall that in the most desperate days of World War II – when Great Britain was being pounded daily by Hitler’s Luftwaffe – that Winston Churchill called on his countrymen not to despair from danger but to rise to the challenge.

    It goes on in exactly the same vein, saying that:

    Our nation has never faced the kind of anti-family, pro-abortion assault that we’re likely to see in the coming weeks and months. We don’t have to guess what the Left will do now that they control Congress and the White House; they’ve told us.

    What are FoF so upset about? Freedom of choice, freedom of marriage and legislation to combat discrimination against gays in the workplace. The last, according to FoF, will be an assault on FoF members' religious freedom. Nice of them to state so clearly that theirs is a path of bigotry.

    ***************************

    Carroll named first black speaker of Colo. House

    
    

    By STEVEN K. PAULSON
    Associated Press Writer

    Published: Thursday, November 6, 2008 2:35 PM MST
    DENVER | Democratic Rep. Terrance Carroll was chosen Thursday to be the new speaker of the Colorado House, the first black named to the position.
    

    
    The Denver lawmaker was nominated by majority Democrats on Thursday and will be formally elected by the full House in January, when the next session convenes.
    
    Ratification is usually unanimous. It would be the first time the state has black leaders in both houses after Senate President Peter Groff re-nominated to that position on Thursday.
    
    "It just shows how, with the selection of Sen. Groff and president-elect Barack Obama, that there are no limits to what we can do. It really shows we made significant progress, but there is still much work to be done," Carroll said.
    
    It was a bittersweet day for House Democrats, who also said goodbye to Rep. Bernie Buescher, a Western Slope Democrat who was expected to be the next speaker before he suffered a surprising defeat in Tuesday's election.
    Read More Here:http://www.aurorasentinel.com/articles/2008/11/06/news/state_and_region/doc49136317501a3340850067.txt
    

    ***************************

    2 baggage handlers arrested at LAX

    8:16 p.m. November 7, 2008

     

    LOS ANGELES – Two baggage handlers are accused of stealing $10,000 and hundreds of items from luggage at the Los Angeles International Airport.

    KCBS-TV reported Friday that Roman Jaime and Carlos Garcia were arrested Oct. 30 on the tarmac. Police recovered 272 items at their homes, including purses, cameras, computers and cash.

    Police say undercover officers became suspicious of the pair because many of the flights they worked had reports of thefts from baggage.

    LAX police would not elaborate on the case Friday night and it was not immediately clear if either suspect had an attorney.

    Lara Uselding, spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, says more than 460 transportation security officers nationwide have been fired for theft since May 2003. She says that represents 0.4 percent of the agency's workers.

    ***************************

    "Irrelevant"

    By John Amato Friday Nov 07, 2008 2:00pm

    Thanks for the memories, but you were all completely "Irrelevant" during the historic victory that Barack Obama achieved during 2008 Presidential election. All your smears failed to change the course of history.

    

    "Irrelevant"

    

    "Irrelevant"

    

    "Irrelevant"

    

    "Irrelevant"

    

    "Irrelevant"

    

    "Irrelevant"

    

    "Irrelevant"

    

    "Irrelevant"

    

    (The list keeps growing. More below the fold.)

    "Irrelevant"

    

    "Irrelevant"

    

    "Irrelevant"

    

    "Irrelevant"

    

    "Irrelevant"

    

    "Irrelevant"

    

    "Irrelevant"

    

    "Irrelevant"

    

    "Irrelevant"

    

    "Irrelevant"

    

    "Irrelevant"

    

    Kudos to all. Thanks to you, conservatism itself is now ... Irrelevant.

    P.S. (Starchild) But still ones to keep one eye on- remember their faces!!!

    ************************************

    No Thanks for the Memories

    With his days in office coming to an end, we look back at some of Georgie Boy’s finest moments.

    

     

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 358

• Live Election Night Blogging!

  • From: TheFlyJock
  • Description:

    Fired up, and ready to blog!

    This will be our last Live Blog Party related to the history-making 2008 presidential election. And as we celebrate the history that is unfolding before us, we can’t forget about the history we’ve made ourselves. The Live Blog Party, covering the vice presidential debate, was a first for us -- and you made it a success by logging on in big numbers. By the third Live Blog Party, so many of you showed up -- close to 10,000 -- we caused the site to crash. It was like a house party that got so crowded that someone called the cops.

    Today, we made history again by being granted exclusive rights to broadcast the TJMS at the official Obama headquarters in Chicago. If you ever wondered whether Obama was really going to “do anything” for black people, he started this morning by putting us where everyone else in the media business wanted to be.

    So as we come to end of this thing together, I can barely contain myself. I’m ready to celebrate now but I know I need to wait until it’s official. In fact, I don’t think I’ll celebrate until every single vote is counted. In the meantime, let’s
    do the darn thing together.

    I’m here at Grant Park in Chicago where Barack Obama will make his acceptance speech, and you’re here with me, just as you should be. Your love, your prayers, and your votes made it all possible. 

    Check me out live on TV One as I bring you reports, updates and hopefully some breaking news that will Barack the world!

    Oh, before I forget, we’ve got drinking games. Take a sip every time our man gets a blue state.  I’ll announce the next game later, and if you have any suggestions, hit me on the blog.  See you at the official after party on the TJMS!

    ---

    6:14 p.m.: We've got a lot in store for you on this historic night. We'll be chatting about election results plus any news stories that I think you'd be interested in.

    6:15 p.m.: Stay with me, people. It might be a long night.

    6:15 p.m.: According to Jacque Reid, Vermont just called for Barack!

    6:17 p.m.: Are you as nervous as I am?  I don't remember being this excited, ever!  And I've done a lot of stuff.

    6:18 p.m.: Did you check out the show this morning? We were up in there ... I'm  talking about the official Obama headquarters in Chicago, and we were granted exclusive rights. That means we were in there by ourselves.

    6:20 p.m.: Let's start the drinking game now that we know Vermont just came in for Barack ... every time we get a blue state, take a drink!

    6:21 p.m.: McCain just got  Kentucky. Obama has 3 electoral votes and McCain has 8.  Our magic number is 270!

    6:23 p.m.: On the show this morning, Obama played a game of basketball at a gym on Chicago's west side. Is that Black enough for you? Is that cool enough for you?

    6:25 p.m.: Were you checking me out on TV One? How's my hair?

    6:29 p.m.: Did you all see Obama and his family go the polls and vote this morning? Imagine going with your daddy to vote ... for himself!

    6:30 p.m.: We've seen it in the movies, we've seen it on TV and now it's about to be real, our first black president.

    6:32 p.m.: I know you're watching TV, but don't forget about all the coverage on BlackAmericaWeb.com. We've got your black!

    6:37 p.m.: What do you think will BO's first official act will be? What should it be? Launching universal health care, ending the war, giving us every Friday off? Let me know what you think it will be.

    6:44 p.m.: Things are looking good so far, BO is ahead.  But remember it's the battleground states that count: Virginia , Ohio and Pennsylvania.

    6:44 p.m.: When we get those three, we'll be in there!

    6:46 p.m.: Are you checking out the blue states? You ought to be a little tipsy.

    6:50 p.m.: I wish you could be here in Grant Park with me. Everybody is cheering and chanting already.

    6:51 p.m.: And it's getting cold too. It started out nice and warm. Then it remembered it's November ... in Chicago!

    6:51 p.m.: The polls have closed in Ohio and North Carolina.

    6:56 p.m.: Don't get scurred, but in Toledo, Ohio police have issued riot gear. Holy Toledo!

    7:01 p.m.: McCain has 16 electoral votes, Obama has 3! Don't slap anybody, it's early.

    7:03 p.m.: That's a touchdown, and two field goals. We can do this, baby ... yes, we can!

    7:08 p.m.: Obama takes Pennsylvania!

    7:10 p.m. Florida is still too close to call.

    7:12 p.m.: McCain took Tennessee and Oklahoma. What would you expect from an old guy? No offense, Tulsa and Memphis ...

    7:13 p.m.: Memphis, the home of Stax records and the one of the best civil rights museums in the country.  Oh, well!

    7:14 p.m.: McCain is projected to win in South Carolina. I ought to whip J. Anthony Brown's behind. He promised us his home state. Well, I'll bet Columbia came through for us!

    7:16 p.m.: Thanks for those comments about what Obama should do when he gets in. My favorite was to fix the election machinery ... Good one, VA55! Keep them coming!

    7:17 p.m.: Nationally, Obama has 53 percent, McCain 46 percent.

    7:21 p.m.: CNN projects New Jersey, Connecticut and Illinois for Obama. I think Illinois is a duh! Except Al Gore didnt take his homestate of Tennessee when he ran, so go figure. If I was running for prez, I might not win, but I'd damn well take Tuskegee!

    7:22 p.m.: How you guys holding up? it's only a little past 7 p.m. Central!

    7:28 p.m. We are ghetto fabulous here. I wish you could see our set up. we're blogging, and it''s dark, so Rev. Marcia Dyson, Michael Eric Dyson's wife, brought us a lamp out of her hotel room!  Pretty gangster, huh? That's how we do it!

    7:29 p.m.: People are borrowing press badges so they can eat for free.

    7:29 p.m.: Someone is borrowing our power cord so they can power up their computer.

    7:30 p.m.: The only thing missing? No one is selling  black love incense. Yet.

    7:31 p.m.: What song do you think Obama will rock when he first moves into the White House?

    7:32 p.m.: I think it will be "One Nation Under a Groove."

    7:33 p.m.: Whoever asked whether there was a doctor in the house was right! My heart is racing, too.

    7:36 p.m.: Not since I got my first slow dance has my heart beat like this.

    7:37 p.m.: When have you been this excited about anything? Tell me what it was.

    7:38 p.m.: CNN has projected that Obama will take New Hampshire!

    7:43 p.m.: So far, 2,500 of you have dropped by our Live Blog Party so far. Tell your friends about it! Have them join us!

    7:44 p.m.: Fox has projected that mC will win Alabama and Arkansas.

    7:46 p.m.: If he wins Alabama, I guess I can't say anything to J. about him winning South Carolina. Sybil will be the only one with bragging rights since Obama won Illinois.

    7:59 p.m.: It's cold out here. I'm wondering if I can blog wearing mittens.

    8:00 p.m.: Take two drinks for Obama winning Pennsylvania; it's a big state. And have a cheesesteak!

    8:06 p.m.: Wisconsin, New York, Michigan and Rhode Island all went to Obama! That's four drinks ...

    8:07 p.m.: It's too close to call in Arizona! See there, McCain -- that King holiday thing might be coming back to bite you!

    8:11 p.m.: Are y'all doing special watch parties for tonight? The Queen of Soul is having a pajama party at a casino in Detroit. A school in sunny south Dallas is having a sleep over for fourth, fifth and sixth graders. What are you doing to celebrate this great evening?

    8:20 p.m.: Are you checking out TV One? Don't forget to get your updates from BlackAmericaWeb.com. We're all you need!

    8:28 p.m.: So, I'm wondering what hit I should play tomorrow. You be me and choose. Whatever it is, it's got to be funky!

    8:29 p.m.: MSNBC is projecting that obama will win Ohio. We are so close!

    8:36 p.m.: It's official: We just took Ohio!

    8:40 p.m.: We're 76 electoral votes away from making history! Come on, California, and other big states. Let's do this.

    8:46 p.m.: For all you ladies out there, Common just walked by.

    8:49 p.m.: I like what you're saying, Blackmanforblackman08. It is time for us to go higher and represent. All eyes are going to be on us for real now.

    8:50 p.m.: Oprah and Lynn Whitfield just walked by.

    8:56 p.m.: So many of you are saying you're afraid to trust what you're hearing from the mainstream media. I hear you. That's why we're here.

    8:57 p.m.: DDarling, I hear you. "Ain't No Stopping Us Now" is a great suggestion for tomorrow morning. If you can top that one, let me know. I've got to jam all morning long!

    9:02 p.m.: People are screaming ... something good must be happening.

    9:05 p.m.: Speaking of good news, MSNBC has called Iowa for Obama. It's too close to call in Montana, North Carolina and Virginia and too early to call in Nevada and Colorado. McCain is up by about 9,000 votes in Indiana.

    9:09 p.m.: Yeah, dskobb! I'm with you on the things we need to concentrate on -- health care, education reform and the economy.

    9:15 p.m.: So the rumor is Oprah may get a cabinet position with Obama. what do you think she should be? Secretary of State? Secretary of Talk Shows? What? Let me know. And who else should get a position? Hill Harper? Common? Maria Shriver? Mmmm ... Tom Joyner?

    9:17 p.m.: It's getting good! This thing could be over in 30 minutes, I just overheard someone very important say. The helium people need to start filling the balloons. This thing is about to jump off -- in our lifetime!

    9:20 p.m.: But not so fast ... let's wait until it's official. We've been tricked before.

    9:25 p.m: But I really think we've got this. When will you be sure? Who do you have to hear it from?

    9:29 p.m.: How many of you are having a prayer service at church like Rev. Al Sharpton suggested? And if you are at church, are you playing the drinking game with communion wine? That's just wrong ... wrong for me to say and wrong for you to do!

    9:39 p.m.: Obama 207, McCain 136. Do the math, baby! Our magic number is 270!

    9:40 p.m.: Fired up, ready to win!

    9:46 p.m.: McCain just won South Dakota and its 3 electoral college votes. I don't think we expected to win South Dakota. But we would take it!

    9:47 p.m.: They're blasting the music here. That's gotta mean something good.

    9:51 p.m.: Red states are turning blue. Its starting to look like a Zeta convention! Sorry, Deltas ...

    9:53 p.m.:  I just saw Oprah coming out the porta-potty. That's worth about 30 electoral college votes alone. I'm calling it!

    9:55 p.m.: I'm bouncing like a bad check.

    10:03 p.m.: In our lifetime!

    10:04 p.m. Who would have believed it?

    10:05 p.m.: Do you believe in miracles?

    10:10 p.m.: This party is over. And it's just beginning!

    10:11 p.m.: J. just called, and he's crying like a you-know-what! And I'm not mad at him!

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 2558

• Election Day 2008

  • From: TheFlyJock
  • Description:

    Fired up, and ready to blog!

    This will be our last Live Blog Party related to the history-making 2008 presidential election. And as we celebrate the history that is unfolding before us, we can’t forget about the history we’ve made ourselves. The Live Blog Party, covering the vice presidential debate, was a first for us -- and you made it a success by logging on in big numbers. By the third Live Blog Party, so many of you showed up -- close to 10,000 -- we caused the site to crash. It was like a house party that got so crowded that someone called the cops.

    Today, we made history again by being granted exclusive rights to broadcast the TJMS at the official Obama headquarters in Chicago. If you ever wondered whether Obama was really going to “do anything” for black people, he started this morning by putting us where everyone else in the media business wanted to be.

    So as we come to end of this thing together, I can barely contain myself. I’m ready to celebrate now but I know I need to wait until it’s official. In fact, I don’t think I’ll celebrate until every single vote is counted. In the meantime, let’s
    do the darn thing together.

    I’m here at Grant Park in Chicago where Barack Obama will make his acceptance speech, and you’re here with me, just as you should be. Your love, your prayers, and your votes made it all possible.

    Check me out live on Radio One as I bring you reports, updates and hopefully some breaking news that will Barack the world!

    Oh, before I forget, we’ve got drinking games. Take a sip every time our man gets a blue state.  I’ll announce the next game later, and if you have any suggestions, hit me on the blog.  See you at the official after party on the TJMS!

    ---

    6:14 p.m.: We've got a lot in store for you on this historic night. We'll be chatting about election results plus any news stories that I think you'd be interested in.

    6:15 p.m.: Stay with me, people. It might be a long night.

    6:15 p.m.: According to Jacque Reid, Vermont just called for Barack!

    6:17 p.m.: Are you as nervous as I am?  I don't remember being this excited, ever!  And I've done a lot of stuff.

    6:18 p.m.: Did you check out the show this morning? We were up in there ... I'm  talking about the official Obama headquarters in Chicago, and we were granted exclusive rights. That means we were in there by ourselves.

    6:20 p.m.: Let's start the drinking game now that we know Vermont just came in for Barack ... every time we get a blue state, take a drink!

    6:21 p.m.: McCain just got  Kentucky. Obama has 3 electoral votes and McCain has 8.  Our magic number is 270!

    6:23 p.m.: On the show this morning, Obama played a game of basketball at a gym on Chicago's west side. Is that Black enough for you? Is that cool enough for you?

    6:25 p.m.: Were you checking me out on TV One? How's my hair?

    6:29 p.m.: Did you all see Obama and his family go the polls and vote this morning? Imagine going with your daddy to vote ... for himself!

    6:30 p.m.: We've seen it in the movies, we've seen it on TV and now it's about to be real, our first black president.

    6:32 p.m.: I know you're watching TV, but don't forget about all the coverage on BlackAmericaWeb.com. We've got your black!

    6:37 p.m.: What do you think will BO's first official act will be? What should it be? Launching universal health care, ending the war, giving us every Friday off? Let me know what you think it will be.

    6:44 p.m.: Things are looking good so far, BO is ahead.  But remember it's the battleground states that count: Virginia , Ohio and Pennsylvania.

    6:44 p.m.: When we get those three, we'll be in there!

    6:46 p.m.: Are you checking out the blue states? You ought to be a little tipsy.

    6:50 p.m.: I wish you could be here in Grant Park with me. Everybody is cheering and chanting already.

    6:51 p.m.: And it's getting cold too. It started out nice and warm. Then it remembered it's November ... in Chicago!

    6:51 p.m.: The polls have closed in Ohio and North Carolina.

    6:56 p.m.: Don't get scurred, but in Toledo, Ohio police have issued riot gear. Holy Toledo!

    7:01 p.m.: McCain has 16 electoral votes, Obama has 3! Don't slap anybody, it's early.

    7:03 p.m.: That's a touchdown, and two field goals. We can do this, baby ... yes, we can!

    7:08 p.m.: Obama takes Pennsylvania!

    7:10 p.m. Florida is still too close to call.

    7:12 p.m.: McCain took Tennessee and Oklahoma. What would you expect from an old guy? No offense, Tulsa and Memphis ...

    7:13 p.m.: Memphis, the home of Stax records and the one of the best civil rights museums in the country.  Oh, well!

    7:14 p.m.: McCain is projected to win in South Carolina. I ought to whip J. Anthony Brown's behind. He promised us his home state. Well, I'll bet Columbia came through for us!

    7:16 p.m.: Thanks for those comments about what Obama should do when he gets in. My favorite was to fix the election machinery ... Good one, VA55! Keep them coming!

    7:17 p.m.: Nationally, Obama has 53 percent, McCain 46 percent.

    7:21 p.m.: CNN projects New Jersey, Connecticut and Illinois for Obama. I think Illinois is a duh! Except Al Gore didnt take his homestate of Tennessee when he ran, so go figure. If I was running for prez, I might not win, but I'd damn well take Tuskegee!

    7:22 p.m.: How you guys holding up? it's only a little past 7 p.m. Central!

    7:28 p.m. We are ghetto fabulous here. I wish you could see our set up. we're blogging, and it''s dark, so Rev. Marcia Dyson, Michael Eric Dyson's wife, brought us a lamp out of her hotel room!  Pretty gangster, huh? That's how we do it!

    7:29 p.m.: People are borrowing press badges so they can eat for free.

    7:29 p.m.: Someone is borrowing our power cord so they can power up their computer.

    7:30 p.m.: The only thing missing? No one is selling  black love incense. Yet.

    7:31 p.m.: What song do you think Obama will rock when he first moves into the White House?

    7:32 p.m.: I think it will be "One Nation Under a Groove."

    7:33 p.m.: Whoever asked whether there was a doctor in the house was right! My heart is racing, too.

    7:36 p.m.: Not since I got my first slow dance has my heart beat like this.

    7:37 p.m.: When have you been this excited about anything? Tell me what it was.

    7:38 p.m.: CNN has projected that Obama will take New Hampshire!

    7:43 p.m.: So far, 2,500 of you have dropped by our Live Blog Party so far. Tell your friends about it! Have them join us!

    7:44 p.m.: Fox has projected that McCain will win Alabama and Arkansas.

    7:46 p.m.: If he wins Alabama, I guess I can't say anything to J. about him winning South Carolina. Sybil will be the only one with bragging rights since Obama won Illinois.

    7:59 p.m.: It;s cold out here. I'm wondering if I can blog wearing mittens.

    8:00 p.m.: Take two drinks for Obama winning Pennsylvania; it's a big state. And have a cheesesteak!

    8:06 p.m.: Wisconsin, New York, Michigan and Rhode Island all went to Obama! That's four drinks ...

    8:07 p.m.: It's too close to call in Arizona! See there, McCain -- that King holiday thing might be coming back to bite you!

    8:11 p.m.: Are y'all doing special watch parties for tonight? The Queen of Soul is having a pajama party at a casino in Detroit. A school in sunny south Dallas is having a sleep over for fourth, fifth and sixth graders. What are you doing to celebrate this great evening?

    8:20 p.m.: Are you checking out TV One? Don't forget to get your updates from BlackAmericaWeb.com. We're all you need!

    8:23 p.m.: If you're keeping up with the Senate seats, the Democrats have taken North Carolina and virginia. Don't you wish you had paid more attention in school?

    8:25 p.m.: A.J. from BET and Hill Harper were just standing in front of us. Hill was Obama's roommate at Harvard. I wonder which one got all the ladies. It was probably a tie.

    8:28 p.m.: So, I'm wondering what hit I should play tomorrow. You be me and choose. Whatever it is, it's got to be funky!

    8:29 p.m.: MSNBC is projecting that obama will win Ohio. We are so close!

    8:36 p.m.: It's official: We just took Ohio!

    8:40 p.m.: We're 76 electoral votes away from making history! Come on, California, and other big states. Let's do this.

    8:46 p.m.: For all you ladies out there, Common just walked by.

    8:49 p.m.: I like what you're saying, Blackmanforblackman08. It is time for us to go higher and represent. All eyes are going to be on us for real now.

    8:50 p.m.: Oprah and Lynn Whitfield just walked by.

    8:56 p.m.: So many of you are saying you're afraid to trust what you're hearing from the mainstream media. I hear you. That's why we're here.

    8:57 p.m.: DDarling, I hear you. "Ain't No Stopping Us Now" is a great suggestion for tomorrow morning. If you can top that one, let me know. I've got to jam all morning long!

    9:02 p.m.: People are screaming ... something good must be happening.

    9:05 p.m.: Speaking of good news, MSNBC has called Iowa for Obama. It's too close to call in Montana, North Carolina and Virginia and too early to call in Nevada and Colorado. McCain is up by about 9,000 votes in Indiana.

    9:09 p.m.: Yeah, dskobb! I'm with you on the things we need to concentrate on -- health care, education reform and the economy.

    9:15 p.m.: So the rumor is Oprah may get a cabinet position with Obama. what do you think she should be? Secretary of State? Secretary of Talk Shows? What? Let me know. And who else should get a position? Hill Harper? Common? Maria Shriver? Mmmm ... Tom Joyner?

    9:17 p.m.: It's getting good! This thing could be over in 30 minutes, I just overheard someone very important say. The helium people need to start filling the balloons. This thing is about to jump off -- in our lifetime!

    9:20 p.m.: But not so fast ... let's wait until it's official. We've been tricked before.

    9:25 p.m: But I really think we've got this. When will you be sure? Who do you have to hear it from?

    9:29 p.m.: How many of you are having a prayer service at church like Rev. Al Sharpton suggested? And if you are at church, are you playing the drinking game with communion wine? That's just wrong ... wrong for me to say and wrong for you to do!

    9:39 p.m.: Obama 207, McCain 136. Do the math, baby! Our magic number is 270!

    9:40 p.m.: Fired up, ready to win!

    9:46 p.m.: McCain just won South Dakota and its 3 electoral college votes. I don't think we expected to win South Dakota. But we would take it!

    9:47 p.m.: They're blasting the music here. That's gotta mean something good.

    9:51 p.m.: Red states are turning blue. Its starting to look like a Zeta convention! Sorry, Deltas ...

    9:53 p.m.:  I just saw Oprah coming out the porta-potty. That's worth about 30 electoral college votes alone. I'm calling it!

    9:55 p.m.: I'm bouncing like a bad check.

    10:03 p.m.: In our lifetime!

    10:04 p.m. Who would have believed it?

    10:05 p.m.: Do you believe in miracles?

    10:10 p.m.: This party is over. And it's just beginning!

    10:11 p.m.: J. just called, and he's crying like a you-know-what! And I'm not mad at him!

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 13674

• The Battle Plan II: Sarah "Evi

  • From: pinkiehot52
  • Description:

    Please understand what you are looking at when you look at Sarah "Evita" Palin. You are looking at the designated muse of the coming American police state.

    You have to understand how things work in a closing society in order to understand "Palin Power." A gang or cabal seizes power, usually with an affable, weak figurehead at the fore. Then they will hold elections -- but they will make sure that the election will be corrupted and that the next affable, weak figurehead is entirely in their control. Remember, Russia has Presidents; Russia holds elections. Dictators and gangs of thugs all over the world hold elections. It means nothing. When a cabal has seized power you can have elections and even presidents, but you don't have freedom.

    I realized early on with horror what I was seeing in Governor Palin: the continuation of the Rove-Cheney cabal, but this time without restraints. I heard her echo Bush 2000 soundbites ("the heart of America is on display") and realized Bush's speechwriters were writing her -- not McCain's -- speeches. I heard her tell George Bush's lies -- not McCain's -- to the American people, linking 9/11 to Iraq. I heard her make fun of Barack Obama for wanting to prevent the torture of prisoners -- this is Rove-Cheney's enthusiastic S and M, not McCain's, who, though he shamefully colluded in the 2006 Military Tribunals Act, is also a former prisoner of war and wrote an eloquent Newsweek piece in 2005 opposing torture. I saw that she was even styled by the same skillful stylist (neutral lipstick, matte makeup, dark colors) who turned Katharine Harris from a mall rat into a stateswoman and who styles all the women in the Bush orbit --but who does not bother to style Cindy McCain.

    Then I saw and heard more. Palin is embracing lawlessness in defying Alaskan Legislature subpoenas --this is what Rove-Cheney, and not McCain, believe in doing. She uses mafia tactics against critics, like the police commissioner who was railroaded for opposing handguns in Alaskan battered women's shelters -- Rove's style, not McCain's. I realized what I was seeing.

    Reports confirmed my suspicions: Palin, not McCain, is the FrankenBarbie of the Rove-Cheney cabal. The strategy became clear. Time magazine reported that Rove is "dialed in" to the McCain campaign. Rove's protégé Steve Schmidt is now campaign manager. And Politico reported that Rove was heavily involved in McCain's vice presidential selection. Finally a new report shows that there are dozens of Bush and Rove operatives surrounding Sarah Palin and orchestrating her every move.
    
    What's the plan? It is this. McCain doesn't matter. Reputable dermatologists are discussing the fact that in simply actuarial terms, John McCain has a virulent and life-threatening form of skin cancer. It is the elephant in the room, but we must discuss the health of the candidates: doctors put survival rates for someone his age at two to four years. I believe the Rove-Cheney cabal is using Sarah Palin as a stalking horse, an Evita figure, to put a popular, populist face on the coming police state and be the talk show hostess for the end of elections as we know them. If McCain-Palin get in, this will be the last true American election. She will be working for Halliburton, KBR, Rove and Cheney into the foreseeable future -- for a decade perhaps -- a puppet "president" for the same people who have plundered our treasure, are now holding the US economy hostage and who murdered four thousand brave young men and women in a way of choice and lies.

    How, you may ask, can I assert this? How can I argue, as I now do, that there is actually a war being ramped up against US citizens and our democracy and that Sarah Palin is the figurehead and muse for that war?

    Look at the RNC. This is supposed to be McCain's America. But you see the unmistakable theatre of Rove's S and M imagery -- and you see stages eight, nine and ten of the steps to a dictatorship as I outlined them in The End of America. Preemptive arrest? Abusive arrest? "Newly released footage, which was buried to avoid confiscation, shows riot cops arresting and abusing a giant group of people for nothing."
    
    Journalists were arrested -- for reporting. Amy Goodman and ABC producers were arrested. Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake and others were forced to lie face down as armed agents tied their hands behind their backs. The riot police wore the black S&M gear of the Rovian fantasy life and carried the four foot batons cops carry in North Korea. All this is not John McCain's imagery or strategy: it is Karl Rove's.

    In McCain-Palin's America, citizens who are protesting are being charged as terrorists. This means that a violent war had been declared on American citizens. A well known reporter leaked to me on background that St Paul police had dressed as protesters and, dressed in Black -- shades of the Blackshirts of 1920 -- infiltrated protest groups. There were also phalanxes of men in black wearing balaclavas, linking arms and behaving menacingly -- alleged "anarchists." Let me tell you, I have been on the left for thirty years and you can't get three lefties to wear the same t-shirt to a rally, let alone link arms and wear identical face masks: these are not our guys. Agent Provocateurs framing protesters and calling protest "terrorism" constitutes step ten of a police state:

    "In what appears to be the first use of criminal charges under the 2002 Minnesota version of the Federal Patriot Act, Ramsey County Prosecutors have formally charged 8 alleged leaders of the RNC Welcoming Committee with Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism... [they] 7 1/2 years in prison under the terrorism enhancement charge which allows for a 50% increase in the maximum penalty."

    
    "Paid, confidential informants... infiltrated the RNCWC on behalf of law enforcement. They allege that members of the group sought to kidnap delegates to the RNC, assault police officers with firebombs and explosives, and sabotage airports in St. Paul. Evidence released to date does not corroborate these allegations with physical evidence or provide any other evidence for these allegations than the claims of the informants. Based on past abuses of such informants by law enforcement, the National Lawyers Guild is concerned that such police informants have incentives to lie and exaggerate threats of violence and to also act as provocateurs in raising and urging support for acts of violence."

    Under the Palin-Rove police state, you will see escalating infringements on your access to a free internet:

    "Sarah Palin was baptized at Wasilla Assembly of God...Last Sunday our research team released a video, a ten-minute mini-documentary, focusing on the Wasilla Assemblies of God and the video seemed on the verge of a massive "viral" breakthrough when YouTube pulled it down, citing 'inappropriate content'. At the point the video was censored by YouTube it had been viewed by almost 160,000 people. The short of it is that YouTube has censored a video documentary that appeared to be close to having an effect on a hard fought and contentious American presidential election..."

    Under the coming Palin-Rove police state, you will witness the plans now underway to bring Iraqi troops to patrol the streets of our nation. This is not McCain's fantasy: it is Rove's and Cheney's.

    Under the Palin-Rove police state, there will be no further true elections. Mark Crispin Miller has done sensational and under-reported investigating t o establish that -- as I warned -- indeed the GOP staffers on the US Senate Judiciary Committee have been .

    The evidence is also buried on the Website of the Majority House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

    WASHINGTON -- Republican staff members of the US Senate Judiciary Commitee infiltrated opposition computer files for a year, monitoring secret strategy memos and periodically passing on copies to the media, Senate officials told The Globe. >From the spring of 2002 until at least April 2003, members of the GOP committee staff exploited a computer glitch that allowed them to access restricted Democratic communications witho ut a password. Trolling through hundreds of memos, they were able to read talking points and accounts of private meetings discussing which judicial nominees Democrats would fight -- and with what tactics.

    
    -- "Senate panel's GOP staff spied on Democrats" By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | January 22, 2004

    Do you think that spying like this will ever end under a Palin-Rove regime? Dream on. If she and McCain are elected, then every single strategy memo and speech and debate prep note from every opposition candidate from now and on into forever will be read by the regime in power while it is still in the computers of the challengers.

    Under the Palin-Rove police state, citizens will be targeted with state cyberterrorism. Bruce Fein of the American Freedom Agenda, a former Reagan official, warned me three years ago that the Bush team went after a Republican who had crossed them through cyberstalking: they messed with his email, messed with his phones and I believe messed with his bank account -- he became a cyber-pariah, unemployable and haunted. With modern technology, there really is less place to hide from the state than there was in East Germany in the Cold War era. I remember feeling a chill: of course. That is the wave of the future once we breach the protections around citizens of FISA and the fourth amendment. That way lies the abyss for us all.

    Am I trying to scare you? I am. I am trying to scare you to death and ask you to scare your Republican and independent friends most of all. How do you know when it is war on citizens? When there are mass arrests, journalists are jailed, the opposition is infiltrated, rights are stripped and leaders start to ignore the rule of law.

    Almost everyone I work with on projects related to this campaign for liberty has been experiencing computer harassment: emails are stripped, messages disappear. That's not all: people's bank accounts are being tampered with: wire transfers to banks vanish in midair. I personally keep opening bank accounts that are quickly corrupted by fraud. Money vanishes. Coworkers of mine have to keep opening new email accounts as old ones become infected. And most disturbingly to me personally is the mail tampering I have both heard of and experienced firsthand. My tax returns vanished from my mailbox. All my larger envelopes arrive ripped straight open apparently by hand. When I show the postman, he says "That's impossible." Horrifyingly to me is the impact on my family. My childrens' report cards are returned again and again though perfectly addressed; their invitations are turned back; and my daughters many letters from camp? Vanished. All of them. Not one arrived. Try explaining that to a smart thirteen year old. Try explaining it in a way that still makes her feel secure and comfortable.

    I am not telling you this because it's about my life. I am telling you this because it is about your life -- whoever you are, Conservative or Liberal, independent or evangelical. Your politics will not protect you in a police state. History shows that nothing portects you in a police state. This is not about my fear and anxiety: it is about what awaits you and everyone you love unless you see this for what it is:

    Scharansky divided nations into "fear societies" and "free societies." Make no mistake: Sarah "Evita" Palin is Rove and Cheney's cosmetic rebranding of their fascist push: she will help to establish a true and irreversible "fear society" in this once free once proud nation. For God's sake, do not let her; do not let them.

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 106
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• In a Nutshell....

  • From: starchild50
  • Description:

    Jason Whitlock

    Posted October 23, 2008 | 03:12 PM (EST)

    I Owe My Interest in American Politics to Sarah Palin

    History is likely to reveal my disdain for Sarah Palin was misguided. The truth is I owe my interest in American politics to Gov. Palin's bid for the vice presidency.

    Before the late-August morning when I awakened to learn that Alaska's moose-hunting governor would be John McCain's running mate, I had less than tepid interest in politics.

    I was a stubbornly proud non-voter, a 41-year-old patriotic American unwilling to tie any of my identity to a political party or ideology. Politics, from my view, were nothing more than an excuse for unabashed public dishonesty.

    When presidential politics provoked Barack Obama to disavow the minister who filled in the holes created by Obama's irresponsible biological father, it confirmed in my mind that Obama's message of political change wouldn't stretch nearly far enough to meet my standard of courage and honesty.

    It sickens me that we are forced to pretend Obama doesn't have the ability to associate with and even love people with extreme, illogical views, denounce those beliefs in words and deed and remain a rational, fair-minded person. For decades, black people have supported and respected elected white officials who were raised by unrepentant racists, and we are expected to take those white politicians at their word that their parents' views don't interfere with their motivation to be fair.

    Hmm. But now I'm supposed to believe that a half black man who owes his entire existence to his white mama and grandparents is a threat to America because his old black minister can't get over the racism he tasted first-hand.

    I wanted Barack to make that point, more subtly than I just made it. But I wanted it out there for everyone to deal with. America is full of white and black Jeremiah Wrights, and a good president has to lead them all.

    To the dismay of my parents, friends and everyone at my barbershop, I told anyone who would listen there were no substantive differences between John McCain and Barack Obama, only a difference in skin color.

    Then along came Paris Palin, and her attempt to purchase the highest level of political power completely on credit.

    She is the perfect manifestation of tinkle-down economics and tinkle-down intellectualism. Strapped with good looks, backed by a four-year degree earned at four different, below-middle-of-the-pack universities, and emboldened by a belief that America owes her far more than she's prepared to pay for, Palin desperately wants to piss down on the rest of us from the White House.

    She connects because she's like most of America. She's determined to live beyond her means. She represents exactly what landed us in financial crisis. She's a maxed-out, main-street politician being exploited by the political friends of Wall Street willing to extend her credit over the objections of her bankrupt qualifications.

    I was in a hotel room in Muncie, Ind., when I heard her name that late-August morning on CNN. My head was buried in pillows. I never looked up. But I was -- for reasons I still don't fully understand -- totally fascinated.

    I hopped out of bed, flipped open my laptop, googled Palin and spent most of the morning and afternoon reading as much as I could about Alaska's governor.

    I read all the unfounded rumors concerning her last child. I listened to an audio tape of a radio interview where she laughed wildly as her interviewers -- two shock jocks -- ridiculed one of her political opponents by calling the woman a "bitch" and overweight. I discovered that her popularity numbers could be directly attributed to her taking office precisely at the time when oil prices skyrocketed and she could play Santa Claus by redistributing wealth to her constituents. And I learned of her and husband's long ties to the Alaskan Independence Party.

    By Saturday morning -- and keep in mind my political inexperience -- I had convinced myself that John McCain was attempting to throw the election with his selection of Palin.

    It was the only thing that made sense to me at the time. I'm not that good at finding things on the Internet. In less than 24 hours of searching, I had found numerous red flags in regards to Palin's competence and maturity.

    Since Palin's introduction, I have been immersed in election coverage and news. I spend hours every day reading realclearpolitics.com, fivethirtyeight.com, redstate.com, dailykos.com, huffingtonpost.com and watching CNN, MSNBC and Fox News.

    By the time I learned that Palin had only recently acquired a passport and had demonstrated zero curiosity about the rest of the world, I began to rethink my position. There was something more at work here. When Palin exposed her embarrassing lack of knowledge during interviews with Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric, I started hunting for a new explanation for her arrival on the national political scene.

    Lipstick on a pit bull.

    Her exploiters never hid their intentions. They stated them and executed them in her mean-spirited acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.

    Sarah Palin's application for the vice presidency was approved so she could put a pretty face on a divisive, bigoted and desperate political strategy. McCain's strategists realized that President Bush's administration, Obama's pop-star status and record fundraising would make it nearly impossible for McCain to out-duel Obama in a debate about the issues.

    In order for McCain to compete, there had to be an appeal along racial lines for two reasons: 1. McCain has to offset the swelling number of black voters who will turn out to vote for Obama simply because he's black; 2. Racial fears normally cause people to make irrational decisions such as a $40,000-a-year plumber getting upset about tax hikes on people making six times more money than him.

    OK, so who would be foolish enough to be the front person for a line of attack that included telling America that the potential Jackie Robinson of presidential politics pals "around with terrorists" and sees America as imperfect and different from the pro-America part of America?

    Who would be that thoughtless? Only someone running for the vice presidency on credit. Mitt Romney, Joe Lieberman and Tom Ridge wouldn't be that stupid.

    Sarah Palin intends to acquire the skill, knowledge and savvy for high office later. In the meantime, she's not going to question the marching orders given to her by the McCain strategists who overlooked her spotty credit application, and she's going to duck calls from the creditors burning up her phone lines.

    Who are her creditors? The investigators who wanted to talk with her about Troopergate, the mainstream "elite" media who wanted to ask her follow-up questions, the conservative pundits who wanted her to represent their side of the argument in a coherent, creditable fashion and anyone who watched her one debate with the hope of her answering a direct question.

    And look what happened. With a credit score in the low 200s, Sarah Palin still had fraudulent lenders such as Sean Hannity ready to extend her more credit. With McCain sitting by her side to co-sign the loan, Hannity walked Palin through the process of pretending to be a qualified candidate for the vice presidency to the delight of Fox News viewers.

    It was stunning. And it's depressing that it's actually working.

    Envious that hard-right-wing sham lenders approved Palin for a bailout package and then milked her for ratings bumps, the traditional media lenders have offered to allow Palin to bat her eyes, wink and jive her way through softball interviews.

    Fox, MSNBC and CNN are locked in such a heated battle for viewers and advertisers that they care virtually nothing about fulfilling their roles as TV journalists. They're most interested in preserving Paris Palin as a ratings winner to serve as a foil against Denzel Obama over the next four years. The cable news networks cannot match the integrity of Saturday Night Live executive producer Lorne Michaels, who rode Palin to record ratings while allowing Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin to treat the VP candidate like the lightweight she is.

    Palin is unworthy of respect. At a critical juncture in our nation's history, she has selfishly asked for and received her 15 minutes and further damaged America's ability to discuss and debate critical issues.

    She also cost me $2,300 last Friday. Living in Kansas, a vote for Obama and Biden is worthless. The only tangible thing I could do to voice my displeasure over her eagerness to be used as a tool to divide us is make a full donation to Obama's campaign.

    You can contact Jason Whitlock at ballstate68@aol.com.

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 113
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• Dream Team-Obama/Powell

  • From: starchild50
  • Description:

    Obama: Powell Will Be An Adviser

    Democratic Candidate Says Former Secretary Of State Could Have A Formal Role If He Wants It

    (CBS/AP)  Colin Powell will have a role as a top presidential adviser in an Obama administration, the Democratic White House hopeful said Monday.
    
    "He will have a role as one of my advisers," Barack Obama said on NBC's "Today" in an interview aired Monday, a day after Powell, a four-star general and President Bush's former secretary of state, endorsed him.
    
    "Whether he wants to take a formal role, whether that's a good fit for him, is something we'd have to discuss," Obama said.
    
    Being a top presidential adviser, especially on foreign policy, would be familiar ground to Powell on a subject that's relatively new to the freshman Illinois senator. Obama has struggled to establish his foreign policy credentials against GOP candidate John McCain, a decorated military veteran, former prisoner of war and ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
    
    In the NBC interview, Obama said Powell did not give him a heads-up before he crossed party lines and endorsed the Democratic presidential candidate on the network's "Meet the Press" a day earlier.
    
    In that interview, Powell called Obama a "transformational figure" in the nation's history and expressed disappointment in some of McCain's campaign tactics. But, Powell said, he didn't plan to hit the campaign trail with Obama before the Nov. 4 election. (Read more about Powell's endorsement)
    
    "I won't lie to you, I would love to have him at any stop," Obama said with a grin Monday. "Obviously, if he wants to show up he's got an open invitation."
    
    On CBS' Face The Nation, supporters of both campaigns reacted to the endorsement.
    
    Republicans Gov. Matt Blunt of Missouri and former Rep. Rob Portman of Ohio both said they don’t think the endorsement would affect the race in their states, both battlegrounds.
    
    "I don't know that it will make a difference in Missouri. You know, Missourians admire Colin Powell for his many years of service to our country, but in the end they're going to evaluate where the candidates on issues that are important to them," Blunt told host Bob Schieffer.
    
    "I don't think it makes a big difference," added Portman. "Endorsements are typically overrated I think. But Colin Powell is well respected. I was interested to see that he said this morning that he thought either man would be a good president. It didn't surprise me a lot because I've heard General Powell talk about both candidates. He says he respects both men but he's always had a special admiration for Senator Obama."
    
    But Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia had a different view, saying he thought the endorsement would make a difference in favor of his candidate and calling it "very important" in his state.
    
    "General Powell is not seen as a dividing figure but a uniting figure. And so him vouching for Senator Obama convinces those of us who want to see a greater unification of the nation that he's the right guy," he said. "Second, General Powell is not an ideological figure. He's a pragmatic person. And so those of us who are, you know, pragmatists first who worry about results and just trying to do the right thing and manage government well, I think they'll see the endorsement by General Powell very positively. Finally it vouches for the senator in terms of that critical issue. We know he has plans to make a change in direction of national security policy. To have the confidence of General Powell in this election is very important. Virginians care about this. We're a state that loves the military. A lot of installations, a lot of folks in service or veterans. So General Powell's endorsement will mean a lot to Virginians, especially the undecideds and Independents."
    
    Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida said she also thought the endorsement would "resonate" there.
    
    "We have thousands of military retirees in the state of Florida," she said. "And I think what Colin Powell's endorsement does say is it shows that Barack Obama can build bridges across party lines. He's going to be able to reach out and bring in and embrace different ideas and, you know, isn't necessarily, you know, cut from one particular cloth." (Read more from the debate on Face The Nation here.)
    
    Powell's endorsement came just hours after Obama's campaign disclosed that it raised $150 million in September - obliterating the old record of $66 million it had set only one month earlier.
    
    He expressed disappointment in the negative tone of McCain's campaign, his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a running mate and their decision to focus in the closing weeks of the contest on Obama's ties to 1960s-era radical William Ayers, saying "it goes too far."
    
    McCain, meanwhile, seemed dismissive of Powell's endorsement, saying it wasn't a surprise, that the two share mutual respect and are longtime friends.
    
    The Republican from Arizona pointed out on Sunday that he had support from four other former secretaries of state, all veterans of Republican administrations: Henry Kissinger, James A. Baker III, Lawrence Eagleburger and Alexander Haig.
    
    At a boisterous rally Sunday, Obama said McCain was "out of ideas and almost out of time."
    
    He and his aides appear so confident of his prospects that apart from a brief stop in Madison, Wis., next Thursday, Obama currently has no plans during the next 10 days to return to Pennsylvania, Minnesota, New Hampshire or any other state that voted for John Kerry in 2004.
    
    Instead, he intends to spend two days this week in Florida, where early voting begins on Monday, and travel to Virginia, Iowa, Ohio, Colorado, New Mexico and possibly Nevada and Indiana. Those states hold 97 electoral votes combined, and Bush won all in 2004.
    
    Obama also may stop in West Virginia, where his campaign recently bought statewide television advertising in a late attempt to put the state's five electoral votes into serious contention.

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 114

• Joe the Plumber was once Joe t

  • From: pinkiehot52
  • Description:

    By Kyle Hopkins | Anchorage Daily News

    ANCHORAGE — The star of Wednesday night's presidential debate used to live in Alaska.

    And for once we're not talking about Gov. Sarah Palin.

    Long before he was "Joe the plumber," Joe Wurzelbacher lived in North Pole and Eielson Air Force Base outside Fairbanks, according to Alaska public records. A family member says Wurzelbacher came to the state in the mid-1990s and stayed about four years — long enough to have the son who can be seen standing next to him in the now famous YouTube clip of Wurzelbacher grilling Sen. Barack Obama about taxes.

    story_factbox.comp /story_factbox.comp

    Kelly Morrison watched the debate with her husband in Midtown Anchorage. As the candidates sparred over someone named Joe the plumber, her husband kept telling Morrison that it had to be the Joe they know.

    Morrison's sister, Jennifer, is Wurzelbacher’s ex-wife. They've known him for years. At one point, Joe worked as Morrison's plumber when they both lived in Arizona.

    Then someone on TV said Joe’s last name.

    "I'm like, 'That’s Joe!' And (my husband) said, 'I’ve been trying to tell you that the whole time," Morrison said.

    Alaska records show Wurzelbacher listed a North Pole address in 1992 and 1993, and Eielson Air Force Base address in '94 and '95. He applied for hunting permits, owned an old Ford and a new Dodge, and paid a $76 fine in Fairbanks court for speeding.

    It was unclear Thursday afternoon whether Wurzelbacher registered to vote while living in Alaska, and if so with which party, Division of Elections Director Gail Fenumiai wrote in an e-mail.

    Wurzelbacher's son was born in the Fairbanks area in 1995, Morrison said.

    "Jennifer had called up to Joe to tell him that she was in labor and Joe made it down the stairs just in time, his baby was delivered on the wooden floor in their home," Morrison said.

    "That was a huge thing for us ... We joked with them and said, 'OK, you did it the Alaskan way,'" said Morrison, who was living Outside at the time. She later married an Alaskan and moved here herself.

    "I met (Joe) when he was working for Roto-Rooter," said her husband, John.

    Morrison said Wurzelbacher served in the Air Force and that as far as she knows, he and her sister never met Gov. Sarah Palin, who is now Sen. John McCain’s running mate.

    Obama and McCain argued again and again over which candidate would be a better president for "Joe the plumber" during the debate. All those shout-outs made Joe a media superstar overnight.

    Even Wurzelbachers who have nothing to do with Joe started fielding questions.

    Doug Wurzelbacher, a California dog musher who lived in Palin’s own stomping grounds – the Mat-Su Valley – in 2001 and 2002, said his phone started ringing Thursday from friends, and some strangers.

    They wanted to know: Where the two related?

    Meanwhile, bloggers discovered the Wurzelbacher name in sled-dog race results online — and that the musher was from Palin’s part of Alaska — and questions began flying about a a possible Doug-and-Joe connection and whether Joe, who confronted Obama in front of television cameras in Ohio, was a plant.

    "There’s something smelly about the plumbing in this story," someone wrote on the Daily Kos.

    Doug said he's never met Palin and that while his last name is a rare one, he'd never heard of Joe before the debate.

    "Somewhere along the line, I got to be related to him, but I don't know him," Doug said

    Morrison first met Joe Wurzelbacher in Ohio in the late '80s, when he was dating her sister.

    "She said, 'I’m going to bring my boyfriend home and I think he's the one. You're my older sister and I want you to tell me what you think and here comes this big guy walking through the front door," Morrison said.

    The Wurzelbachers married and moved to Fairbanks, then left the state about four years later to be closer to family, she said.. Jennifer now lives in Michigan and declined to be interviewed. The couple’s son, Joey, lives with his father, Morrison said.

    Morrison said she lasted talked to Wurzelbacher maybe two years ago. "He wanted to actually come up here and do something hunting and fishing."

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
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• The Plumber: Was Obama Setup?

  • From: starchild50
  • Description:

    I guess it's no wonder John McCain was so happy to use "Joe the Plumber" as a debate prop last night -- he's a partisan Republican who also happens to be a member of McCain's old friends, the Keating family.

    From Martin Eisenstadt:

    http://www.eisenstadtgroup.com/2008/10/15/joe-the-plumber-wurzelbacher-related-to-charles-keating-oops/

    Turns out that Joe Wurzelbacher from the Toledo event is a close relative of Robert Wurzelbacher of Milford, Ohio. Who’s Robert Wurzelbacher? Only Charles Keating’s son-in-law and the former senior vice president of American Continental, the parent company of the infamous Lincoln Savings and Loan. The now retired elder Wurzelbacher is also a major contributor to Republican causes giving well over $10,000 in the last few years.

    Now I guess we know why Joe is telling the press that Obama is a "socialist" and that the Obama tax plan "infuriated" him. After all, it would hit families like the Keatings and their minions the hardest.

    Not to mention that Obama's economic-recovery plan would put the crimps on influence peddlers like McCain's old friends, the Keating Five.

    But he sure made for a good one-day story.

     

    He was not "Undecided" as McCain stated in the Debate!

    Joe The Plumber Admits He Wasn't Undecided After All

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVTfxoJfMpo

    We don't know much about Joe The Plumber, but we do know this: he made up his mind who he was voting for before last night's debate.

    Speaking with Katie Couric, "Joe" said that he "wasn't swayed" by the debate last night, yet pretty much knew who he was going to vote for. So if (a) he wasn't swayed by the debate and (b) knows who he is going to vote for, then (c) he had already made up his mind before the debate.

     

    "Joe The Plumber" Speaks: "It's Pretty Surreal"

    Phillip Elliott AP

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — Who is Joe the Plumber?

    He is Joe Wurzelbacher, an Ohio man looking to buy a plumbing business who came to symbolize the notion of "spreading the wealth" in Wednesday night's third and final presidential debate between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain.

    Earlier this week, when Wurzelbacher got a chance to speak with Obama when the candidate visited Toledo, he told Obama that his tax plan would keep him from buying the business that currently employs him.

    Sensing an opening in the debate, McCain cited that exchange when the candidates were asked to explain why their economic plans are better than their opponent's. McCain said Obama's plan would stop entrepreneurs from investing in new small businesses and keep existing ones from growing.

    "Joe wants to buy the business that he has been in for all of these years, worked 10, 12 hours a day. And he wanted to buy the business but he looked at your tax plan and he saw that he was going to pay much higher taxes," McCain challenged Obama.

    "You were going to put him in a higher tax bracket which was going to increase his taxes, which was going to cause him not to be able to employ people, which Joe was trying to realize the American dream," McCain said.

    McCain then looked directly into the TV camera and said: "Joe, I want to tell you, I'll not only help you buy that business that you worked your whole life for and I'll keep your taxes low and I'll provide available and affordable health care for you and your employees. And I will not stand for a tax increase on small business income."

    Obama denied that was true.

    "Not only do 98 percent of small businesses make less than $250,000, but I also want to give them additional tax breaks, because they are the drivers of the economy," Obama said. "They produce the most jobs."

    So what did Wurzelbacher (pronounced whur-zell-BAHK-er) think about being at the center of the debate?

    "It's pretty surreal, man, my name being mentioned in a presidential campaign," he said minutes after hearing McCain utter his name.

    In Toledo on Sunday, Wurzelbacher told Obama that he was preparing the company, which earns more than $250,000 a year, and said: "Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn't it?"

    Obama said that under his proposal taxes on any revenue from $250,000 on down would stay the same, but that amounts above that level would be subject to a 39 percent tax, instead of the current 36 percent rate.

    "And the reason why we're doing that is because 95 percent of small businesses make less than 250 (thousand). So what I want to do is give them a tax cut. I want to give all these folks who are bus drivers, teachers, auto workers who make less, I want to give them a tax cut," he said.

    Wurzelbacher protested, saying he's been a hardworking plumber for 15 years and why should he be taxed more.

    "It's not that I want to punish your success," Obama said. "I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you that they've got a chance at success, too."

    At a later point in the discussion, Obama said: "I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody. But listen, I respect what you do and I respect your question, and even if I don't get your vote, I'm still gonna be working hard on your behalf because small businesses are what creates jobs in this country and I want to encourage it."

    Wurzelbacher's name came up again when the debate turned to a discussion of health care policies.

    He said Obama's reaction on the tax question left him feeling uneasy.

    "I didn't think much of it the first time I heard it," Wurzelbacher said, adding that he still thinks Obama's plan would keep him from buying the business.

    About McCain: "He's got it right as far as I go."

    Even so, Wurzelbacher declined to say which candidate would get his vote on Nov. 4.

    "That's for me and a button to know," he said.

  • Blog post
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• Political Musings: YOU GOT NEX

  • From: E_Joyce
  • Description:
    ''All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing"--Edmund Burke
    This video is a must see for everyone:  It is Donna Brazile in a panel discussion in New York:
    http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1827871374/bctid1849005701
     

    The Final Debate is over.  Senator Obama was the overall winner, and his performance reminded me of Tiger Woods, who knows when to shoot a par and when to go for the birdie, especially when he is ahead and it's Sunday on the ninth hole.  The next strategy -- the only one the McCain camp has left -- is to make a case for the perils of having a democratic Congress and a Democratic President.  The Independents and the uncommitted were looking for a McCain win of the final debate; what they got was a laughable, and I mean that literally, performance full of grimaces, grunts, thinly veiled anger and contempt for Senator Obama.  Um, memo to Senator McCain: Just a few talking points as you round out the final push:
    Palin is a Governor not a Senator, as you referred to her last night.
    Palin's child has Down's syndrome not Autism.
    You must have forgotten your own senatorial voting record.                                                              You really should have vetted Joe the plumber before you used and reused him as an example of the average American, given that he is NOT registered to vote, has some personal'fianancial/legal issues that were not ready for primetime, and is not a licensed plumber. 
    And finally, perhaps a few anger management classes may beneficial; life is too short to be that angry all the time. 

    What I have determined, after reading the interview of Gayle Quinell, after watching the videos ( of the people in  Palin/McCain rallies, that these people have neither the capacity nor the desire to hear the truth. They don't want the truth, they want to be right, they want to believe that "White is right." And that is frightening when combined with the delusional behavior of Sarah Palin, who simply does not understand that she does not understand, comprehend or has the faintest idea as to what she has done wrong in Alaska, what harm she is doing in this country with her focus on making lies become the truth by continual repetition. Palin is incredibly dangerous to this country on so many levels.  Just don't ask Elisabeth Hasselback of the View, who has begun to sound like a McCain batteried Stepfor d wife, since she cannot see past her own convictions to consider that she might be wrong.  And the McCain campaign is not stopping Palin.  Even the conservatives are giving pause to what has become a bizarre side show and an almost surreal soap opera-level drama. 

     
    There is a saying that character is what you are when no one else is in the room. I received a forwarded e-mail, which I don't always open nowadays because I get so many.  But I decided to open this one. At first I thought: This has to be a made up story, it's too good to be true.  So I decided to fact check, sure that I would be proven right.  I wasn't.  I think this story simply reinforced my view of Barack Obama, when it comes to his character.   When all is said and done, it is character, intelligence, ethics and courage to follow your vision for the greater good that will be the qualities imperative within the next President of this country.  As I watched this final debate, watch the anger, contempt and something close to hatred ooze from behind the fairly transparent mask that John McCain wore, I knew that the people of this country will have a choice to make about changing their internal paradigms and beliefs in order to come to the same conclusion I have.  This is too important to get hung up on skin color or perceptions that are not reality.  And try as they will not to do so, it is encouraging to see the slow shift in attitudes. 
     
    Those who follow my writings know what I have said about polls.  Believe it or not, I think that it is even more important now than ever before that you DO NOT GET COMFORTABLE WITH WHAT THE POLLS SAY.  POLLING IS A BIASED SOURCE OF INFORMATION, THAT IS EITHER INTENTIONALLY OR UNINTENTIONALLY MISLEADING.  The reason for so many polls that are being referenced on every news media available, is that there is a psychological effect of political poll information. There is an inherent part of a human being that likes to be on the winning team. So when someone hears polling statistics, one of three things occurs: 1) They pay no attention to the information, because their individual choice is based upon other factors. 2) they actually use the poll statistics to decide how to vote, JUST to be on the side they perceive to be the winning side or 3) They decide not to vote at all because the polls say their choice is going to lose so what's the use. So here are some reality checks you need to put into place when it comes to polls: No one really tells us who they are polling and how many people were polled, and what questions were asked to get the information.  You see, I know from experience that many pollsters/surveyors ask questions in a way that will yield the answer desired by the client. That means the questions are biased. While there are different points of view on the number Next there has to be at least 500 responses if the statistics are to reflect the opinion of a large group of people. And no one tells me who they asked or how many. Here's an example: on last night's news, the local television station in Indiana stated that their poll indicated that Obama had 47% of the votes, McCain 44%. This is a traditionally red state, so this was news. So imagine my surprise when watching CNN that morning and their polls showed McCain with 45% of the votes and Obama with 41% (I may be off by a point). Two different polls, one state, huge disparity. Confirmed for me that polls mean nothing.  And now that the polls show Senator Obama with a double-digit lead, you should be even more focused, not less on getting family, friends and neighbors to the polls EARLY, to make sure they have the best opportunity to vote, and/or to find out if anything about their eligibility has been mis-handled, while there is time to fix it.  November 4th will not be the day to resolve any individual voter problem.
     
    DO not get this twisted. We have to take this seriously enough to make sure that every single vote is counted, every one we can reach out to votes. We need to stay focused on making sure we get out the voters on or before November 4th, and then make sure every vote is counted so volunteer to monitor the polls, volunteer to drive people to the polls to vote.We have to take this seriously enough to make sure that every single vote is counted, every one we can reach out to votes. Forget the polls, forget the noise. Every vote counts this time. Until November 4th nothing is in the bag and we cannot assume that the worst in this country will not happen. Tell your friends, families, peers that they must, must, must make sure that they VOTE.  Our country's future depends on it.
    Visit my YOUTUBE blog for the latest video -- McCain's Problems Revisited.

     
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• The Sarah Palin Digest

  • From: pinkiehot52
  • Description:
    

    ThinkProgress has put together a document compiling what we know about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) vice presidential running mate. Here are the issues:

    * Big Oil
    * Civil Rights
    * Earmarks
    * Economy
    * Energy
    * Environment
    * Ethics
    * Foreign Policy
    * Health Care
    * Radical Right
    * Science
    * Troopergate
    * Women’s Rights

    Click here to comment on this report.

    ON FOREIGN POLICY

    Palin Hasn’t Given The War In Iraq Much Thought. Palin told the Alaska Business Monthly, “I’ve been so focused on state government, I haven’t really focused much on the war in Iraq. I heard on the news about the new deployments, and while I support our president, Condoleezza Rice and the administration, I want to know that we have an exit plan in place.” [Alaska Business Monthly, 3/1/07]

    Palin Has Never Been To Iraq. In her only trip overseas, Palin visited Alaska National Guard troops stationed in Kuwait and Germany in July 2007. [AP, 7/25/07]

    Palin Believes That The Iraq War Is A Task ‘From God.’ Speaking at the Wasilla Assembly of God church in June, Palin said that “our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God.” [Huffington Post, 9/2/08]

    Palin Believes The Iraq War Was Fought Over Oil. “We are a nation at war and in many [ways] the reasons for war are fights over energy sources,” Palin told BusinessWeek in an interview. [BusinessWeek, 8/29/08]

    Palin Didn’t Have A Passport Until 2007. Palin first obtained a passport in July 2007 for her trip to Kuwait and Germany to visit Alaska National Guard troops. Her only other trips outside of the United States have been to Canada and Mexico. A Palin spokeswoman had previously said that Palin had also been to Ireland, although it was actually just a “refueling stop” on her Germany/Kuwait trip. [New York Times, 8/29/08; Politico, 9/2/08; ABC News, 9/12/08]

    Palin Has Never Issued An Order To The Alaska National Guard. Maj. Gen. Craig Campbell, the service commander of the Alaska National Guard, has stated that Palin has never personally ordered the National Guard to do anything. [McClatchy, 9/4/08]

    Palin Is Unaware Of The Bush Doctrine. During an interview with ABC’s Charlie Gibson, Palin was stumped about the Bush Doctrine, thinking it was the President’s “worldview.” [ABC News, 9/11/08]

    ON EARMARKS

    Palin Supported The Bridge To Nowhere. During her unveiling as McCain’s running mate, Palin claimed that she said, “Thanks, but no thanks” to federal funding for the Bridge to Nowhere. But in her 2006 campaign for governor, Palin repeatedly expressed support for the bridge project, saying Alaska should take advantage of earmarks “while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist.” [Anchorage Daily News, 10/22/06; Ketchikan Daily News, 8/9/06, 11/21/06]

    Palin Obtained $27 Million In Earmarks As Mayor Of Wasilla. As mayor of Wasilla, AK, Palin “hired a private lobbyist to help the tiny town secure earmarks from [Sen. Ted] Stevens.” “The town obtained 14 earmarks, totaling $27 million between 2000-2003.” [Associated Press, 9/3/08]

    ON THE ENVIRONMENT

    Palin Denies Man-Made Global Warming. When asked for her “take on global warming,” Palin replied, “A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I’m not one though who would attribute it to being man-made.” [Newsmax, 08/29/08]

    Palin Says She’s Not A ‘Doom-And-Gloom Environmentalist’ Who Blames Global Warming On ‘Human Activity.’ “I’m not an Al Gore, doom-and-gloom environmentalist blaming the changes in our climate on human activity, but I’m not going to put my head in the sand and pretend there aren’t changes.” [Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, 12/4/07]

    Challenging ‘Uncertain Climate Models,’ Palin Is Suing To Lift Protected Status For Polar Bears. After a multi-year court battle, the Bush administration recognized in 2008 that polar bears are threatened with extinction by global warming. Announcing Alaska’s suit to block the listing, Palin said, “We believe that the listing was unwarranted and that it’s unprecedented to list a currently healthy population based on uncertain climate models.” [Reuters, 5/22/08]

    Palin Established Illegal Fly-By Wolf Hunting Bounty. In 2007, Palin illegally established “a $150 bounty to the state sanctioned airborne wolf hunters as an added incentive to increase their kills,” soon overturned by the Alaska State Court. [Alaska Wildlife Alliance; Anchorage Daily News, 3/31/07]

    ON ENERGY

    Palin Is A Top Arctic Wildlife Refuge Drilling Advocate. Palin said she thinks McCain is “going to evolve into, eventually, supporting ANWR opening also” and “I’d like the opportunity to get to change his mind about ANWR.” [Kudlow & Co., 6/25/08]

    Palin Opposes Lieberman’s Bill To Prevent Arctic Refuge Drilling. In a letter to Congress opposing the Arctic Wilderness Act (S. 2316), Palin wrote that “as a citizen of the United States” she believes “development [of the Refuge] should be authorized.” [Letter to Sen. Akaka, 11/9/07]

    Palin Dismisses Alternative Energy. Palin said that “Congress needs to lift the ban on drilling” because “alternative-energy solutions are far from imminent and would require more than 10 years to develop.” [Charleston Post and Courier, 8/16/08]

    Palin Believes It Is ‘God’s Will’ To Build A Natural Gas Pipeline. Speaking to the Wasilla Assembly of God church in June, Palin said, “I think God’s will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that,” referring to a $30 billion national gas pipeline project. [Huffington Post, 9/2/08]

    ON BIG OIL

    Palin’s First Statewide Campaign Was Fueled By Veco. “While mayor of Wasilla, Palin ran for lieutenant governor in 2002. She gathered $5,000 — or about 10 percent of her campaign fund — from Veco officials or their wives along the way.” [Anchorage Daily News, 9/6/06]

    Palin’s Inauguration Was Sponsored By BP. Beyond Petroleum Exploration Inc. is listed by the Alaska Inaugural Committee as a sponsor of Palin’s 2007 Governor’s Balls. [Alaska Inaugural Committee]

    ON SCIENCE

    Palin Supports Teaching Creationism In Public Schools. In a 2006 gubernatorial debate, Palin “said she thinks creationism should be taught alongside evolution in the state’s public classrooms.” But as governor, Palin kept her campaign pledge to not push the idea in the schools. [Anchorage Daily News, 10/27/06; AP, 9/4/08]

    ON WOMEN’S RIGHTS

    Palin Is A Member Of Anti-Abortion Group Feminists For Life. Palin is a member of an “anti-abortion group called Feminists for Life.” When running for governor in 2002, she “sent an e-mail to the anti-abortion Alaska Right to Life Board saying she was as ‘pro-life as any candidate can be’ and has ‘adamantly supported our cause since I first understood, as a child, the atrocity of abortion.’” [Anchorage Daily News, 8/6/08]

    Palin Opposes Abortion Even In Cases Of Rape Or Incest. In 2006, Palin said that even if her daughter were raped, “I would choose life.” She said that she would support abortion only if the mother’s life were in danger. [Anchorage Daily News, 11/3/06]

    Palin Slashed Funding To Help Teenage Mothers. Earlier this year, Palin used a line-item veto “to slash funding for a state program benefiting teen mothers in need of a place to live.” Funding for Covenant House Alaska, which provides transitional housing for teen mothers, was cut by 20 percent — from $5 million to $3.9 million. [Washington Post, 9/3/08]

    Palin Supports Abstinence-Only Policies. In 2006, the Eagle Forum Alaska asked Palin whether she would “support funding for abstinence-until-marriage education.” Palin replied, “Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support.” [Politico, 9/1/08]

    Palin Supports Parental Consent Laws For Minors Seeking Abortions. According to the Anchorage Daily News, Palin was “disappointed lawmakers let a bill die requiring girls under 17 to get parental consent for an abortion. ‘My belief is parents have the right to know about the health and welfare of their children,’ she said.” [Anchorage Daily News, 8/14/08]

    Palin Picketed Women Who Got Abortions. In 1996, Palin participated in “a boisterous picket line outside Dr. [Susan] Lemagie’s office,” an OBG-YN who challenged conservative efforts to severely restrict abortion services. [Salon, 9/15/08]

    ON ETHICS

    Palin’s Lobbyist Had ‘Close Ties’ To Don Young, Ted Stevens. “As mayor of Wasilla, however, Palin oversaw the hiring of Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh, an Anchorage-based law firm with close ties to Alaska’s most senior Republicans: Rep. Don Young and Sen. Ted Stevens, who was indicted in July on charges of accepting illegal gifts.” [9/2/08]

    Palin’s Lobbyist Was Part Of ‘Team Abramoff.’ Steven Silver, the lobbyist Palin hired as Wasilla Mayor, also listed Jack Abramoff’s lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig, as a client. Silver lobbied on issues similar to those headed up by Abramoff, including “Indian/Native American policy” and “legislation relating to gaming issues.” [TPMmuckracker, 9/2/08; Washington Post, 9/2/08]

    Palin Served As Director Of ‘Ted Stevens Excellence In Public Service’ 527. Palin’s name was listed on 2003 incorporation papers of the “Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.,” a 527 group that could raise unlimited funds from corporate donors. She also “served as one of three directors until June 2005, when her name was replaced on state filings.” [Washington Post, 9/1/08]

    State Employee Charged Palin With Ethics Violation. A state employee filed an ethics complaint alleging Palin tried to secure a job for one of her supporters. The complaint accused Palin and her top staffers of “breaking executive ethics branch and hiring rules. It centers on the hiring of surveyor Tom Lamal, who once co-hosted a Palin fundraiser, for a state right-of-way agent job in Fairbanks.” [Anchorage Daily News, 9/7/08]

    Palin Forced Top Wasilla Employees To Resign As Loyalty Test. As Mayor of Wasilla in 1998, “asked all of the city’s top managers to resign in order to test their loyalty to her administration.”[Daily Sitka Sentenial, 10/28/06]

    Palin Fired Police Chief For Not Fully Supporting Her. After becoming Mayor of Wasilla, Palin fired the city’s police chief, Irl Stambaugh, writing, “I do not feel I have your full support in my efforts to govern the city of Wasilla. Therefore I intend to terminate your employment.” Stambaugh charged that Palin fired him “because he stepped on the toes of Palin’s campaign contributors, including bar owners and the National Rifle Association.” [Anchorage Daily News, 2/1/97; ABC News, 9/3/08]

    Palin Used Mayoral Office Resources For Campaigning. During her 2002 campaign for lieutenant governor, Palin ordered campaign materials from City Hall, had them delivered there, and used city employees on city-aid time to arrange campaign events. According to the Anchorage Daily News, there was “no indication she repaid the city for the incidental expenses the city incurred.” [Anchorage Daily News, 7/21/06]

    Palin Billed Taxpayers For Nights Spent At Home. Palin billed the state for “312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a “per diem” allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.” She also charged for travel expenses to take her children and husband on “official out-of-town missions.” [Washington Post, 9/9/08]

    ON TROOPERGATE

    Ousted Former State Official Accused Palin Of Pressuring Him To Fire Trooper. Palin allegedly “tried to get a state trooper fired and she then fired the trooper’s boss because he wouldn’t act on her request.” Palin’s sister was involved in a “bitter child custody battle” with the trooper. [Anchorage Daily News, 7/18/08]

    Palin’s Intial Denials Of Interference In Firing Were Proven False. Palin “previously said her administration didn’t exert pressure to get rid of trooper Mike Wooten,” but “an audio recording that shows an aide pressuring the Public Safety Department to fire a state trooper embroiled in a custody battle with her sister.” The McCain campaign now says Palin’s husband and members of her staff had made inquiries “about the appropriate Department of Public Safety procedures for dealing with someone they considered a dangerous person and rogue trooper.” [Anchorage Daily News, 8/14/08, 9/02/08]

    Palin’s Lawyer In Investigation Is Also Her Personal Attorney. Thomas V. Van Flein, the lawyer Palin hired to defend her in the trooper investigation, is “representing Palin both personally and in her official capacity as governor.” The AP noted, “Depending on where the investigation leads, that could put him in a difficult situation if Palin’s interests and the interests of the public office diverge.” [AP, 9/02/08]

    Palin Has Refused To Release E-mails, Citing ‘Executive Privilege.’ Palin has refused to release e-mails requested by the state’s trooper union, citing executive privilege. Questions have been raised, however, as to whether these documents are actually related to official business, since her husband was copied on some of them. [KTUU, 8/6/08; TPMmuckraker, 9/1/08]

    ON THE RADICAL RIGHT

    Palin Cheered On the Alaskan Independence Party. Six months ago, Palin “told members of the Alaskan Independence Party” — who advocate for a vote on secession from the union — to “keep up the good work” and “wished the party luck on what she called its ‘inspiring convention.’” Palin and her husband attended the party’s convention in 2000, and “for all but two months from 1995 to 2002, the governor’s husband was registered as an Alaskan Independence Party member.” George Clark, the vice chair of the party, claims that Palin was a member of the party “before she got the job as a mayor of a small town.” The McCain campaign denies the charge. [LA Times, 9/3/2008; ABC News, 9/1/2008]

    Palin Welcomed The Hard-Right Candidacy Of Pat Buchanan. Palin reportedly supported Pat Buchanan’s 1999 presidential bid. When Buchanan visited Alaska in 1999, “[a]mong those sporting Buchanan buttons were Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin and state Sen. Jerry Ward, R-Anchorage.” Buchanan said Palin “was a brigader in 1996 as was her husband, Chris, they were at a fundraiser for me.” The McCain campaign says Palin “never worked for any effort to elect” Buchanan. [The Nation, 8/29/08; ABC News, 8/30/08]

    Palin Characterized Ron Paul As ‘Cool.’ During an interview with MTV in February, Palin called Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), who ran against McCain in the primaries, “cool.” “He’s a good guy,” she added. “He’s so independent. He’s independent of the party machine. I’m like, ‘Right on, so am I.’ ” [MTV News, 8/29/2008]

    Palin Believes The Founding Fathers Wrote The Pledge Of Allegiance. In 2006, when asked by the Eagle Forum Alaska if she found the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance offensive, Palin replied, “Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me.” But the words “Under God” didn’t appear in the Pledge until 1954. The Pledge itself wasn’t written until 1892. [Huffington Post, 9/1/08; Slate, 6/28/02]

    Palin Responded ‘Hang ‘Em Up’ When Asked About The Death Penalty. When asked about the death penalty in extreme cases, Palin replied, “My goodness, hang ‘em up, yeah.” [Anchorage Daily News, 8/18/06]

    ON CIVIL RIGHTS

    Palin Supports Denying Benefits To Same-Sex Couples. In 2006, Palin vetoed legislation denying benefits to same-sex couples, “based on a legal opinion from her new attorney general that the legislation was unconstitutional.” However, she said that she would support a constitutional amendment to deny same-sex couples the benefits. [Gay Republic Daily, 9/20/06; Anchorage Daily News, 12/21/06]

    Palin Opposed Expanding Hate Crime Laws. A 2006 Eagle Forum Alaska questionnaire asked, “Will you support an effort to expand hate crime laws?” Palin replied, “No, as I believe all heinous crime is based on hate.” [Washington Blade, 9/2/08]

    ON HEALTH CARE

    Palin Advocated Consumer-Driven Health Care. While running for governor, Palin attributed rising health care costs to “a lack of competition” and called for “flexibility in government regulation that allow competition in health care.” [On The Issues]

    Palin Introduced Health Care Transparency Act. Palin’s Alaska Health Care Transparency Act established “an Alaska health care information office” to help consumers “make better-informed decisions about health care in the state.” The act also called for the repeal of Certificate of Need Laws, programs “aimed at restraining health care facility costs and allowing coordinated planning of new services and construction.” [Gov Tech, 1/28/2008; National Conference of State Legislatures, 8/21/2008]

    Palin Did Not Take A Position On Expanding SCHIP Funding. Palin did not advocate for greater federal funding of SCHIP. [Blagojevich Press Release, 2/23/07]

    Palin Signed Watered-Down SCHIP Bill. Palin signed legislation updating eligibility for Alaska’s SCHIP program, Denali KidCare, to maintain the eligibility level–which had dropped to an effective rate of almost 150 percent of the poverty line due to inflation. However, by limiting eligibility to families living below 175 percent of the poverty line, Alaska’s eligibility criteria are still among the lowest in the nation. Palin did not support legislation to expand eligibility to higher levels. [National Conference of State Legislatures, 6/2008; Kaiser Network, 5/22/2007; Anchorage Daily News, 4/15/2008]

    Palin Failed To Support A Bill To Cover All Alaskans. While governor, Palin “did not get behind the most significant piece of health legislation offered — a proposal to ensure that all residents have health insurance, without disrupting the coverage that many Alaskans already have.” [Anchorage Daily News, 5/17/2008]

    Palin Failed To Answer Question About Expanding Health Care Coverage and Walmart. While running for Governor, Palin “sidestepped a question from her audience about the wisdom of encouraging expansion in Alaska of Wal-Mart, a chain that has been criticized for offering low pay and few benefits.” [Anchorage Daily News, 1/30/06]

    ON THE ECONOMY

    Palin Said Mortage Giants Are ‘Too Expensive To The Taxpayers.’ Speaking in Colorado Springs, CO, Palin said that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had “gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers.” The companies, however, aren’t taxpayer funded. [McClatchy News, 9/6/08]

    Palin Left Wasilla $20 Million In Debt. As mayor of Wasilla, Palin cut taxes while simultaneously expanding the town’s operating budget by almost $2 million. She ended her term in 2002 with Wasilla $20 million in debt. [Anchorage Daily News 10/23/06; the Politico, 8/29]

    Palin Instituted A Windfall Profits Tax On Oil Companies. In 2007, Palin raised taxes on oil company profits by $1.5 billion a year, enabling Alaska to double its oil revenue. However, in 2008 she said, “Windfall profits taxes alone prevent additional investment in domestic production.” [Bloomberg, 3/8; Seattle Times, 8/10; Governor’s Office Press Release]

    Palin Supported Flat Tax Advocate. Palin appeared in campaign commercials in support of Republican Senate candidate Mike Miller, who was advocating the Flat Tax. [Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, 4/24/04]

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• Sarah Palin - The Truth

  • From: starchild50
  • Description:

    Who is Sarah Palin?

    Click Here for full report and video

    TrooperGate:

    Report: Palin abused her power

    Click Here for full report and video

    Steven Branchflower, the prosecutor who led the investigation into Sarah Palin’s firing of Alaska’s public safety commissioner, concludes in his final report that she abused her power. However, another of Branchflower’s findings makes the report something less than a complete disaster for Palin.

    The investigation stemmed from Palin’s firing of Walt Monegan, allegedly at least in part because he refused to fire Michael Wooten, a state trooper who also happens to be Palin’s former brother-in-law.

    Branchflower includes a list of findings in the report. The first reads:

    Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) provides

    “The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.”

    The second reads:

    I find that, although Walt Monegan’s refusal to fire Trooper Michael Wooten was not the sole reason he was fired by Governor Sarah Palin, it was likely a contributing factor to his termination as Commissioner of Public Safety. In spite of that, Governor Palin’s firing of Commissioner Monegan was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statutory authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads.

    Sarah Palin's Right Wing Radical Friends:
    

    Click Here for full report and video

     

    Extremists Mark Chryson and Steve Stoll helped launch Palin's political career in Alaska, and in return had influence over policy. "Her door was open," says Chryson -- and still is.

    By Max Blumenthal and David Neiwert

    Editor's note: Research support provided by the Nation Institute Investigative Fund. For Salon's complete coverage of Sarah Palin, click here.

    ---

    Oct. 10, 2008 |

    On the afternoon of Sept. 24 in downtown Palmer, Alaska, as the sun began to sink behind the snowcapped mountains that flank the picturesque Mat-Su Valley, 51-year-old Mark Chryson sat for an hour on a park bench, reveling in tales of his days as chairman of the Alaska Independence Party. The stocky, gray-haired computer technician waxed nostalgic about quixotic battles to eliminate taxes, support the "traditional family" and secede from the United States.

     

    So long as Alaska remained under the boot of the federal government, said Chryson, the AIP had to stand on guard to stymie a New World Order. He invited a Salon reporter to see a few items inside his pickup truck that were intended for his personal protection. "This here is my attack dog," he said with a chuckle, handing the reporter an exuberant 8-pound papillon from his passenger seat. "Her name is Suzy." Then he pulled a 9-millimeter Makarov PM pistol -- once the standard-issue sidearm for Soviet cops -- out of his glove compartment. "I've got enough weaponry to raise a small army in my basement," he said, clutching the gun in his palm. "Then again, so do most Alaskans." But Chryson added a message of reassurance to residents of that faraway place some Alaskans call "the 48." "We want to go our separate ways," he said, "but we are not going to kill you."

     

    Though Chryson belongs to a fringe political party, one that advocates the secession of Alaska from the Union, and that organizes with other like-minded secessionist movements from Canada to the Deep South, he is not without peculiar influence in state politics, especially the rise of Sarah Palin. An obscure figure outside of Alaska, Chryson has been a political fixture in the hometown of the Republican vice-presidential nominee for over a decade. During the 1990s, when Chryson directed the AIP, he and another radical right-winger, Steve Stoll, played a quiet but pivotal role in electing Palin as mayor of Wasilla and shaping her political agenda afterward. Both Stoll and Chryson not only contributed to Palin's campaign financially, they played major behind-the-scenes roles in the Palin camp before, during and after her victory.

     

    Palin backed Chryson as he successfully advanced a host of anti-tax, pro-gun initiatives, including one that altered the state Constitution's language to better facilitate the formation of anti-government militias. She joined in their vendetta against several local officials they disliked, and listened to their advice about hiring. She attempted to name Stoll, a John Birch Society activist known in the Mat-Su Valley as "Black Helicopter Steve," to an empty Wasilla City Council seat. "Every time I showed up her door was open," said Chryson. "And that policy continued when she became governor."

     

    When Chryson first met Sarah Palin, however, he didn't really trust her politically. It was the early 1990s, when he was a member of a local libertarian pressure group called SAGE, or Standing Against Government Excess. (SAGE's founder, Tammy McGraw, was Palin's birth coach.) Palin was a leader in a pro-sales-tax citizens group called WOW, or Watch Over Wasilla, earning a political credential before her 1992 campaign for City Council. Though he was impressed by her interpersonal skills, Chryson greeted Palin's election warily, thinking she was too close to the Democrats on the council and too pro-tax.

     

    But soon, Palin and Chryson discovered they could be useful to each other. Palin would be running for mayor, while Chryson was about to take over the chairmanship of the Alaska Independence Party, which at its peak in 1990 had managed to elect a governor.

     

    The AIP was born of the vision of "Old Joe" Vogler, a hard-bitten former gold miner who hated the government of the United States almost as much as he hated wolves and environmentalists. His resentment peaked during the early 1970s when the federal government began installing Alaska's oil and gas pipeline. Fueled by raw rage -- "The United States has made a colony of Alaska," he told author John McPhee in 1977 -- Vogler declared a maverick candidacy for the governorship in 1982. Though he lost, Old Joe became a force to be reckoned with, as well as a constant source of amusement for Alaska's political class. During a gubernatorial debate in 1982, Vogler proposed using nuclear weapons to obliterate the glaciers blocking roadways to Juneau. "There's gold under there!" he exclaimed.

     

    Vogler made another failed run for the governor's mansion in 1986. But the AIP's fortunes shifted suddenly four years later when Vogler convinced Richard Nixon's former interior secretary, Wally Hickel, to run for governor under his party's banner. Hickel coasted to victory, outflanking a moderate Republican and a centrist Democrat. An archconservative Republican running under the AIP candidate, Jack Coghill, was elected lieutenant governor.

     

    Hickel's subsequent failure as governor to press for a vote on Alaskan independence rankled Old Joe. With sponsorship from the Islamic Republic of Iran, Vogler was scheduled to present his case for Alaskan secession before the United Nations General Assembly in the late spring of 1993. But before he could, Old Joe's long, strange political career ended tragically that May when he was murdered by a fellow secessionist.

     

    Hickel rejoined the Republican Party the year after Vogler's death and didn't run for reelection. Lt. Gov. Coghill's campaign to succeed him as the AIP candidate for governor ended in disaster; he peeled away just enough votes from the Republican, Jim Campbell, to throw the gubernatorial election to Democrat Tony Knowles.

     

    Despite the disaster, Coghill hung on as AIP chairman for three more years. When he was asked to resign in 1997, Mark Chryson replaced him. Chryson pursued a dual policy of cozying up to secessionist and right-wing groups in Alaska and elsewhere while also attempting to replicate the AIP's success with Hickel in infiltrating the mainstream.

     

    Unlike some radical right-wingers, Chryson doesn't put forward his ideas  freighted with anger or paranoia. And in a state where defense of gun and property rights often takes on a real religious fervor, Chryson was able to present himself  as a typical Alaskan.

     

    He rose through party ranks by reducing the AIP's platform to a single page that "90 percent of Alaskans could agree with." This meant scrubbing the old platform of what Chryson called "racist language" while accommodating the state's growing Christian right movement by emphasizing the AIP's commitment to the "traditional family."

     

    "The AIP is very family-oriented," Chryson explained. "We're for the traditional family -- daddy, mommy, kids -- because we all know that it was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. And we don't care if Heather has two mommies. That's not a traditional family."

     

    Chryson further streamlined the AIP's platform by softening its secessionist language. Instead of calling for immediate separation from the United States, the platform now demands a vote on independence.

     

    Yet Chryson maintains that his party remains committed to full independence. "The Alaskan Independence Party has got links to almost every independence-minded movement in the world," Chryson exclaimed. "And Alaska is not the only place that's about separation. There's at least 30 different states that are talking about some type of separation from the United States."

     

    This has meant rubbing shoulders and forging alliances with outright white supremacists and far-right theocrats, particularly those who dominate the proceedings at such gatherings as the North American Secessionist conventions, which AIP delegates have attended in recent years. The AIP's affiliation with neo-Confederate organizations is motivated as much by ideological affinity as by organizational convenience. Indeed, Chryson makes no secret of his sympathy for the Lost Cause. "Should the Confederate states have been allowed to separate and go their peaceful ways?" Chryson asked rhetorically. "Yes. The War of Northern Aggression, or the Civil War, or the War Between the States -- however you want to refer to it -- was not about slavery, it was about states' rights."

     

    Another far-right organization with whom the AIP has long been aligned is Howard Phillips' militia-minded Constitution Party. The AIP has been listed as the Constitution Party's state affiliate since the late 1990s, and it has endorsed the Constitution Party's presidential candidates (Michael Peroutka and Chuck Baldwin) in the past two elections.

     

    The Constitution Party boasts an openly theocratic platform that reads, "It is our goal to limit the federal government to its delegated, enumerated, Constitutional functions and to restore American jurisprudence to its original Biblical common-law foundations." In its 1990s incarnation as the U.S. Taxpayers Party, it was on the front lines in promoting the "militia" movement, and a significant portion of its membership comprises former and current militia members.

     

    At its 1992 convention, the AIP hosted both Phillips -- the USTP's presidential candidate -- and militia-movement leader Col. James "Bo" Gritz, who was campaigning for president under the banner of the far-right Populist Party. According to Chryson, AIP regulars heavily supported Gritz, but the party deferred to Phillips' presence and issued no official endorsements.

     

    In Wasilla, the AIP became powerful by proxy -- because of Chryson and Stoll's alliance with Sarah Palin. Chryson and Stoll had found themselves in constant opposition to policies of Wasilla's Democratic mayor, who started his three-term, nine-year tenure in 1987. By 1992, Chryson and Stoll had begun convening regular protests outside City Council. Their demonstrations invariably involved grievances against any and all forms of "socialist government," from city planning to public education. Stoll shared Chryson's conspiratorial views: "The rumor was that he had wrapped his guns in plastic and buried them in his yard so he could get them after the New World Order took over," Stein told a reporter.

     

    Chryson did not trust Palin when she joined the City Council in 1992. He claimed that she was handpicked by Democratic City Council leaders and by Wasilla's Democratic mayor, John Stein, to rubber-stamp their tax hike proposals. "When I first met her," he said, "I thought she was extremely left. But I've watched her slowly as she's become more pronounced in her conservative ideology."

     

    Palin was well aware of Chryson's views. "She knew my beliefs," Chryson said. "The entire state knew my beliefs. I wasn't afraid of being on the news, on camera speaking my views."

     

    But Chryson believes she trusted his judgment because he accurately predicted what life on the City Council would be like. "We were telling her, 'This is probably what's going to happen,'" he said. "'The city is going to give this many people raises, they're going to pave everybody's roads, and they're going to pave the City Council members' roads.' We couldn't have scripted it better because everything we predicted came true."

     

    After intense evangelizing by Chryson and his allies, they claimed Palin as a convert. "When she started taking her job seriously," Chryson said, "the people who put her in as the rubber stamp found out the hard way that she was not going to go their way." In 1994, Sarah Palin attended the AIP's statewide convention. In 1995, her husband, Todd, changed his voter registration to AIP. Except for an interruption of a few months, he would remain registered was an AIP member until 2002, when he changed his registration to undeclared.

     

    In  1996, Palin decided to run against John Stein as the Republican candidate for mayor of Wasilla. While Palin pushed back against Stein's policies, particularly those related to funding public works, Chryson said he and Steve Stoll prepared the groundwork for her mayoral campaign.

     

    Chryson and Stoll viewed Palin's ascendancy as a vehicle for their own political ambitions. "She got support from these guys," Stein remarked. "I think smart politicians never utter those kind of radical things, but they let other people do it for them. I never recall Sarah saying she supported the militia or taking a public stand like that. But these guys were definitely behind Sarah, thinking she was the more conservative choice."

     

    "They worked behind the scenes," said Stein. "I think they had a lot of influence in terms of helping with the back-scatter negative campaigning."

     

    Indeed, Chryson boasted that he and his allies urged Palin to focus her campaign on slashing character-based attacks. For instance, Chryson advised Palin to paint Stein as a sexist who had told her "to just sit there and look pretty" while she served on Wasilla's City Council. Though Palin never made this accusation, her 1996 campaign for mayor was the most negative Wasilla residents had ever witnessed.

     

    While Palin played up her total opposition to the sales tax and gun control -- the two hobgoblins of the AIP -- mailers spread throughout the town portraying her as "the Christian candidate," a subtle suggestion that Stein, who is Lutheran, might be Jewish. "I watched that campaign unfold, bringing a level of slime our community hadn't seen until then," recalled Phil Munger, a local music teacher who counts himself as a close friend of Stein.

     

    "This same group [Stoll and Chryson] also [publicly] challenged me on whether my wife and I were married because she had kept her maiden name," Stein bitterly recalled. "So we literally had to produce a marriage certificate. And as I recall, they said, 'Well, you could have forged that.'"

     

    When Palin won the election, the men who had once shouted anti-government slogans outside City Hall now had a foothold inside the mayor's office. Palin attempted to pay back her newfound pals during her first City Council meeting as mayor. In that meeting, on Oct. 14, 1996, she appointed Stoll to one of the City Council's two newly vacant seats. But Palin was blocked by the single vote of then-Councilman Nick Carney, who had endured countless rancorous confrontations with Stoll and considered him a "violent" influence on local politics. Though Palin considered consulting attorneys about finding another means of placing Stoll on the council, she was ultimately forced to back down and accept a compromise candidate.

     

    Emboldened by his nomination by Mayor Palin, Stoll later demanded she fire Wasilla's museum director, John Cooper, a personal enemy he longed to sabotage. Palin obliged, eliminating Cooper's position in short order. "Gotcha, Cooper!" Stoll told the deposed museum director after his termination, as Cooper told a reporter for the New York Times. "And it only cost me a campaign contribution." Stoll, who donated $1,000 to Palin's mayoral campaign, did not respond to numerous requests for an interview. Palin has blamed budget concerns for Cooper's departure.

     

    The following year, when Carney proposed a local gun-control measure, Palin organized with Chryson to smother the nascent plan in its cradle. Carney's proposed ordinance would have prohibited residents from carrying guns into schools, bars, hospitals, government offices and playgrounds. Infuriated by the proposal that Carney viewed as a common-sense public-safety measure, Chryson and seven allies stormed a July 1997 council meeting.

     

    With the bill still in its formative stages, Carney was not even ready to present it to the council, let alone conduct public hearings on it. He and other council members objected to the ad-hoc hearing as "a waste of time." But Palin -- in plain violation of council rules and norms -- insisted that Chryson testify, stating, according to the minutes, that "she invites the public to speak on any issue at any time."

     

    When Carney tried later in the meeting to have the ordinance discussed officially at the following regular council meeting, he couldn't even get a second. His proposal died that night, thanks to Palin and her extremist allies.

     

    "A lot of it was the ultra-conservative far right that is against everything in government, including taxes," recalled Carney. "A lot of it was a personal attack on me as being anti-gun, and a personal attack on anybody who deigned to threaten their authority to carry a loaded firearm wherever they pleased. That was the tenor of it. And it was being choreographed by Steve Stoll and the mayor."

     

    Asked if he thought it was Palin who had instigated the turnout, he replied: "I know it was."

     

    By Chryson's account, he and Palin also worked hand-in-glove to slash property taxes and block a state proposal that would have taken money for public programs from the Permanent Fund Dividend, or the oil and gas fund that doles out annual payments to citizens of Alaska. Palin endorsed Chryson's unsuccessful initiative to move the state Legislature from Juneau to Wasilla. She also lent her support to Chryson's crusade to alter the Alaska Constitution's language on gun rights so cities and counties could not impose their own restrictions. "It took over 10 years to get that language written in," Chryson said. "But Sarah [Palin] was there supporting it."

     

    "With Sarah as a mayor," said Chryson, "there were a number of times when I just showed up at City Hall and said, 'Hey, Sarah, we need help.' I think there was only one time when I wasn't able to talk to her and that was because she was in a meeting."

     

    Chryson says the door remains open now that Palin is governor. (Palin's office did not respond to Salon's request for an interview.) While Palin has been more circumspect in her dealings with groups like the AIP as she has risen through the political ranks, she has stayed in touch.

     

    When Palin ran for governor in 2006, marketing herself as a fresh-faced reformer determined to crush the GOP's ossified power structure, she made certain to appear at the AIP's state convention. To burnish her maverick image, she also tapped one-time AIP member and born-again Republican Walter Hickel as her campaign co-chair. Hickel barnstormed the state for Palin, hailing her support for an "all-Alaska" liquefied gas pipeline, a project first promoted in 2002 by an AIP gubernatorial candidate named Nels Anderson. When Palin delivered her victory speech on election night, Hickel stood beaming by her side. "I made her governor," he boasted afterward. Two years later, Hickel has endorsed Palin's bid for vice president.

     

    Just months before Palin burst onto the national stage as McCain's vice-presidential nominee, she delivered a videotaped address to the AIP's annual convention. Her message was scrupulously free of secessionist rhetoric, but complementary nonetheless. "I share your party's vision of upholding the Constitution of our great state," Palin told the assembly of AIP delegates. "My administration remains focused on reining in government growth so individual liberty can expand. I know you agree with that ... Keep up the good work and God bless you."

     

    When Palin became the Republican vice-presidential nominee, her attendance of the 1994 and 2006 AIP conventions and her husband's membership in the party (as well as Palin's videotaped welcome to the AIP's 2008 convention) generated a minor controversy. Chryson claimed, however, that Sarah and Todd Palin never even played a minor role in his party's internal affairs. "Sarah's never been a member of the Alaskan Independence Party," Chryson insisted. "Todd has, but most of rural Alaska has too. I never saw him at a meeting. They were at one meeting I was at. Sarah said hello, but I didn't pay attention because I was taking care of business."

     

    But whether the Palins participated directly in shaping the AIP's program is less relevant than the extent to which they will implement that program. Chryson and his allies have demonstrated just as much interest in grooming major party candidates as they have in putting forward their own people. At a national convention of secessionist groups in 2007, AIP vice chairman Dexter Clark announced that his party would seek to "infiltrate" the Democratic and Republican parties with candidates sympathetic to its hard-right, secessionist agenda. "You should use that tactic. You should infiltrate," Clark told his audience of neo-Confederates, theocrats and libertarians. "Whichever party you think in that area you can get something done, get into that party. Even though that party has its problems, right now that is the only avenue."

     

    Clark pointed to Palin's political career as the model of a successful infiltration. "There's a lot of talk of her moving up," Clark said of Palin. "She was a member [of the AIP] when she was mayor of a small town, that was a nonpartisan job. But to get along and to go along she switched to the Republican Party … She is pretty well sympathetic because of her membership."

     

    Clark's assertion that Palin was once a card-carrying AIP member was swiftly discredited by the McCain campaign, which produced records showing she had been a registered Republican since 1988. But then why would Clark make such a statement? Why did he seem confident that Palin was a true-blue AIP activist burrowing within the Republican Party? The most salient answer is that Palin was once so thoroughly embedded with AIP figures like Chryson and Stoll and seemed so enthusiastic about their agenda, Clark may have simply assumed she belonged to his party.

     

    Now, Palin is a household name and her every move is scrutinized by the Washington press corps. She can no longer afford to kibitz with secessionists, however instrumental they may have been to her meteoric ascendancy. This does not trouble her old AIP allies. Indeed, Chryson is hopeful that Palin's inauguration will also represent the start of a new infiltration.

     

    "I've had my issues but she's still staying true to her core values," Chryson concluded. "Sarah's friends don't all agree with her, but do they respect her? Do they respect her ideology and her values? Definitely."

    http://http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/09/mccain-palin-rally-attend_n_133240.html

     

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 148

• "Sit Down Boy!"

  • From: starchild50
  • Description:

    Obama Hatred At McCain-Palin Rallies: "Terrorist!" "Kill Him!" (VIDEO)

    John Aravosis at AmericaBlog writes:

    McCain was speaking today in New Mexico, doing his usual personal attack on Barack Obama, as the stock market plummeted (you can see the ticker next to McCain on the screen, an apt reminder of what McCain and his fellow Republicans represent), and McCain asked the crowd "who is Barack Obama?" Immediately you hear someone yell "terrorist." McCain pauses, the audience laughs, and McCain continues on, not acknowledging, not chastising, not correcting. Oh, but McCain does say in the next sentence that he's upset about all the "angry barrage of insults."

    Marc Ambinder notes that the shouter advances McCain's Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright attacks, while Jonathan Martin suggested the campaign would need a third party to do it:

    Judging by McCain's slightly startled reaction, he clearly didn't anticipate that reaction, and McCain's in no way responsible for the utterances of anybody in his audience. But he must have some idea of how deeply this fear/outsider/other meme has spread. A tripartite strategy isn't needed.

    UPDATE: The Washington Post reports on a similar moment at a Palin rally today:

    "Now it turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers," Palin said.

    
    "Boooo!" said the crowd.

    "And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,'" she continued.

    "Boooo!" the crowd repeated.

    "Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.

     

    And Dana Milbank highlights another incident from Tuesday:

    Worse, Palin's routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy."

    "Getting ugly out there," says ABC's Jake Tapper.

    American News Project went inside a pro-Palin rally set up by the McCain campaign to watch the vice presidential debate, where supporters booed moderator Gwen Ifill and laughed when Sen. Joe Biden got choked up talking about his first wife and daughter's deaths. Watch:

    http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1417423198/bctid1834283910

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• Palin on Darfar

  • From: pinkiehot52
  • Description:

    During last week's VP debate, Sarah Palin talked big with claims of her administration's leadership role in an attempt to divest Alaska holdings from Darfur. Sound too good to be true? Guess why.

    Below is the real story from (D) Rep. Les Gara, who filed legislation cosponsored by (R) Rep. Bob Lynn to require Alaska to divest from companies supporting the genocide in Darfur.

    Les didn't even get to hear the last half hour of the VP debate, because as soon as Palin dropped her little bomb about Darfur and how she "called for" divestment as soon as she found out about it, his phone started ringing off the hook with people saying, "HUH?".

    *********************************************************************************

    Palin's Debate Claim Not Accurate That She Opposed Darfur Investments When She First "Found Out" About Them

    Documents Show Palin Administration Supported Investments in Businesses Linked to Darfur Genocide Until March, 2008.
    
    "When I and others in the legislature found out we had some millions of dollars in Sudan, we called for divestment through legislation of those dollars to make sure we weren't doing anything that would be seen as condoning the activities there in Darfur." Sarah Palin, Oct. 2, 2008, VP Debate

    During last week's Vice Presidential debate, Governor Palin stated that once she "found out" that her state's large investment funds held stock in companies linked to the Darfur genocide, she worked to divest from them, in a stand against Sudan's brutal genocide. Dozens of other states have divested from companies linked to the government-sponsored genocide in Sudan's Darfur region.The facts show the Governor did not in fact take a stand on this issue when she "found out" about it. A recently discovered 2006 letter, other documents, and records of legislative committee testimony show the Palin Administration opposed efforts by Alaska legislators to pass a Darfur divestment bill until near the end of the 2007-2008 legislative session.

    These documents (linked below) show Governor Palin was asked by members of Congressto divest from Sudan's genocide-related companies in November of 2006. Records show her Administration was asked again to divest through 2007, that this issue was discussed in Alaska's media, and that her Administration to divest from these companies through February of 2008. "The Administration's opposition to our divestment legislation was one of the reasons we couldn't get the bill passed. I do appreciate that they eventually dropped their opposition. But in fairness, they didn't do anything to help when they found out about this problem," said Alaska State Rep. Les Gara (D-Anch.), who filed legislation in 2007 with co-Sponsor Rep. Bob Lynn (R-Anch), to require Alaska to divest from companies implicated in the Darfur genocide.The following documents demonstrate the Palin Administration was asked to join the divestment effort in November of 2006, and opposed divestment efforts through February of 2008:

    1. In November, 2006, members of Congress wrote personally to the Governor to ask that she join other states in divesting their assets from companies implicated by the human rights communityin the Darfur genocide.

    (Nov. 2006 Letter To Palin).

    2. In 2007 the Alaska press started covering the public effort to get Alaska to divest from genocide-implicated companies doing business in Sudan.

    (Dec, 2007 Alaska NBC News Story On divestment Effort).

    3. In December 2007, members of the Save Darfur Coalition met with the Governor's office, without success, in an effort to gain support for divestment.

    (Save Darfur Coalition Meeting With Governor's Office, December, 2007).

    (Bill Press release, January, 2008)

    4. The Palin Administration testified in opposition to divestment from companies implicated in the Darfur genocide. On February 9, 2008, the Alaska Legislature's House State Affairs Committee held its first hearing on Rep. Lynn & Gara's HB 287. The Palin Administration and the Permanent Fund Corporation testified against the bill. Brian Andrews (since deceased), Deputy Commissioner of the State of Alaska, Department of Revenue, testified on behalf of the Palin Administration. This testimony helped kill this bill, with 4 members of the Governor's Republican party stating their opposition to the bill (Reps. Bob Roses, Craig Johnson, Kyle Johansen and John Coghill). The bill never left this committee, and died when the legislative session ended on April 12, 2008. Deputy Commissioner Andrews testified at length against divestment from Sudan, and stated in part: "[T]he desire to make a difference is noble, but mixing moral and political agendas at the expense of our citizens' financial security is not a good combination."

    (Feb 9, 2008 House State Affairs Committee testimony Minutes).

    (Juneau Empire Press Coverage).

    5. Through February and March, 2008, the Save Darfur Coalition and Rep. Gara kept working to change the Administration's position. The former held a rally on the capitol steps. "I was pretty angry at how lightly the Permanent Fund and Administration took this issue, and began pushing for meetings to convince them that investing in genocide was wrong," said Gara. Rep. Gara's office held meetings with both the Commissioner of the Department of Revenue, Pat Galvin, and Permanent Fund Corporation Director Mike Burns. In late March of 2008 the Commissioner of Revenue and Governor agreed to change course and support the divestment effort. On April 1 Commissioner Galvin testified in favor of a companion Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Hollis French (D - Anch.). But with 12 days left in the legislation session at that point, the bill never made it to the Senate or House Floor for a vote, and House Bill 287 never made it out of the House State Affairs Committee.

    Les Gara is a frequent contributor to Mudflats.

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