Now Jennifer Brunner takes a cue from John Murtha and calls Eastern Ohioans racists. Eastern Ohio borders John Murtha's racist Western Pennsylvania.
Simply stunning how the Dems can continually call their own constituents racists on a regular basis;
...usually aren't ! Rantings and ravings from a news junkie.
Rendell says race is closer than polls indicate | Wilkes-Barre News | The Times Leader
By Bill O’Boyle boboyle@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
Gov. Ed Rendell Friday said the presidential race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain is "closer than the polls indicate." Urging people to get out and vote in Tuesday's general election, Rendell said Obama does not have a double-digit lead in Pennsylvania and he told voters to take an umbrella and dress warmly to withstand the weather.
Rendell
Times Leader Photo Store
"Stay in that line and make sure you vote," Rendell told about 50 people at Wilkes University. "I've seen polls that have the race as close as four points."
Rendell also said the addition of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to the Republican ticket has "enthused" the campaign.
"She has drawn thousands of people to every event she has appeared at," Rendell said.
Read the whole story in Saturday's The Times Leader.
“The point is, though, that — and it’s not just charity, it’s not just that I want to help the middle class and working people who are trying to get in the middle class — it’s that when we actually make sure that everybody’s got a shot – when young people can all go to college, when everybody’s got decent health care, when everybody’s got a little more money at the end of the month – then guess what? Everybody starts spending that money, they decide maybe I can afford a new car, maybe I can afford a computer for my child. They can buy the products and services that businesses are selling and everybody is better off. All boats rise. That’s what happened in the 1990s, that’s what we need to restore. And that’s what I’m gonna do as president of the United States of America.
“John McCain and Sarah Palin they call this socialistic,” Obama continued. “You know I don’t know when, when they decided they wanted to make a virtue out of selfishness.”
A man stares down the lens, delivering a message to the camera.
Dear Mr Obama: Iraq veteran's message to Democrat
"Dear Mr Obama having spent 12 months in Iraq theatre I can promise you it's not a mistake."
At 1 minute 55 seconds, it's short, simple and powerful.
"When you call the Iraqi war a mistake you disrespect the service and sacrifice of everyone who has died promoting freedom... Because you do not understand or appreciate these principles Sir, I am supporting Senator John McCain for president."
The film, titled Dear Mr Obama, is the most-viewed election-related video on the YouTube website, attracting more than 11 million hits.
Made by an Iraq war returnee, it's an example of how ordinary Americans have used the website to get their voice heard.
In this election, YouTube has provided a new way for people to consume and communicate their views - from the serious to the silly, the official to the outrageous.
NY POST, DALLAS MORNING NEWS, WASHINGTON TIMES TOLD TO GET OUT... ALL 3 ENDORSED MCCAIN
**Exclusive**
The Obama campaign has decided to heave out three newspapers from its
plane for the final days of its blitz across battleground states -- and
all three endorsed Sen. John McCain for president!
The NY POST, WASHINGTON TIMES and DALLAS MORNING NEWS have all
been told to move out by Sunday to make room for network bigwigs -- and
possibly for the inclusion of reporters from two black magazines,
ESSENCE and JET, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
Despite pleas from top editors of the three newspapers that
have covered the campaign for months at extraordinary cost, the Obama
campaign says their reporters -- and possibly others -- will have to
vacate their coveted seats so more power players can document the final
days of Sen. Barack Obama's historic campaign to become the first black
American president.
MORE
Some told the DRUDGE REPORT that the reporters are being ousted
to bring on documentary film-makers to record the final days; others
expect to see on board more sympathetic members of the media, including
the NY TIMES' Maureen Dowd, who once complained that she was barred
from McCain's Straight Talk Express airplane.
After a week of quiet but desperate behind-the-scenes
negotiations, the reporters of the three papers heard last night that
they were definitely off for the final swing. They are already planning
how to cover the final days by flying commercial or driving from event
to event.
Sign battle starts with a zzzzzzzt!
Jay Price, Staff Writer
CHAPEL HILL - After Shawn Turschak saw two sets of McCain-Palin signs disappear from his yard within hours of being planted, he took steps to protect the latest pair.
On Monday, he ran wires from his house and hooked the signs into a power source for an electric pet fence. Then he mounted a surveillance camera in a nearby tree and wired it to a digital recorder.
Tuesday afternoon, the camera saw this: A neighbor trotting up with an Obama-Biden sign, grabbing a handful of volts as he touched a McCain-Palin sign, then fleeing at top 9-year-old boy speed.
A few minutes later, the boy's father, Andrew Noble, was at Turschak's door, demanding an explanation from Turschak's 13-year-old daughter, who called her parents on the phone to say a man was yelling at her. Both families agree on one aspect of the exchange, that Noble chastised her for "electrocuting" his son, then left.
The Turschaks hurried home and received another visitor: an Orange County sheriff's deputy.
Campaign signs are vandalized or stolen so often that many people don't report it, and, when they do, law officers often don't investigate.
This time was different.
This is an amazing race. The incumbent president has approval ratings somewhere between Robert Mugabe and the ebola virus. The economy is supposedly on the brink of global Armageddon. McCain has only $80 million to spend, while Obama's burning through $600 mil as fast as he can, and he doesn't really need to spend a dime given the wall-to-wall media adoration. And tonight Chris Matthews' doctors announced that his leg tingle has metastasized leaving his entire body like a vibrating cellphone whose ringtone is locked on "I'm In Love, I'm In Love, I'm In Love, I'm In Love, I'm In Love With A Wonderful Guy." And yet an old cranky broke loser is within two or three points of the King of the World. Strange.
“If Obama loses it will spark the second American Civil War. Blood will run in the streets, believe me. And it’s not a coincidence that President Bush recalled soldiers from Iraq for Dick Cheney to lead against American citizens in the streets.”
CBS: "If he closes every loophole as promised, saves every dime from Iraq, raises taxes on the rich and trims the federal budget as he's promised to do 'line by line,' he still doesn't pay for his list."
sarah p Says:
October 27, 2008 at 5:04 am
Ok, I want to clear my conscious a little. Hopefully you could make a blog post to help some fellow clinton supporters out.
I work for a campaign and can’t wait for this week to be over.
I was doing it for a job. I was not a fan of any candidate but over time grew to love HRC.
The internal campaign idea is to twist, distort, humiliate and finally dispirit you.
We pay people and organize people to go to all the online sites and “play the part of a clinton or mccain supporter who just switched our support for obama”
We do this to stifle your motivation and to destroy your confidence.
We did this the whole primary and it worked.
TV'S TOP AD STARS PAN BAM
By SALLY GOLDENBERG
Posted: 3:56 am
October 30, 2008
Two leading infomercial stars agree: Barack Obama's half-hour self-promotion last night was a flop.
"I don't see enough smiling. Doom and gloom totally," said Anthony Sullivan, one of the biggest names in infomercial history.
"I feel depressed right now," added Sullivan, an Englishman famous for his infomercials touting the Swivel Sweeper and Smart Chopper. The only thing saving Obama, Sullivan said, was when the candidate appeared live at the end speaking at a rally in Florida.
"I think it needed it. I was about to throw myself through a window because it was depressing," Sullivan said.
He and AJ Khubani, who has produced infomercials for 25 years, said Obama also fell short of offering solutions to the dire problems he laid out.
"I didn't see a payoff. Classic infomercial is you show the before and you show the after. I didn't see the music or the crashing waves of the Pacific," Sullivan said.
He joked the producer "needs a spanking" for lacking optimism.
Khubani said: "Every infomercial lays out common problems, whether it's a flabby belly or acne, and then it gives a solution. In this case the solution is Obama."
But Obama didn't pitch the product - himself - convincingly enough, he argued.
"We always spend much more time on the solution than the problem and he did the opposite," Khubani added.
"Loving your country shouldn't just mean watching fireworks on the 4th of July," he said. "Loving your country must mean accepting your responsibility to do your part to change it. If you do, your life will be richer, our country will be stronger."...
"We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set," he said Wednesday. "We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded."
After several weeks of John McCain’s campaign attacks on Barack Obama’s tax plan and idea of “spreading the wealth around”, the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds voters trust McCain more than Obama on taxes, 47% to 45%.
Two weeks ago, Obama had a one point-advantage on the issue of taxes and a month ago, he had a three-point edge. The last time McCain had the advantage on this issue was September 14, just before the collapse of Lehman Brothers started the meltdown on Wall Street (see trends).
Clinton's explanations of why Obama is qualified [on the economy] were interesting, to say the least.
"You know what he did?" Clinton said, heralding Obama's reaction to the financial crisis. "First he took a little heat for not saying much. I knew what he was doing. He talked to his advisers – he talked to my economic advisers, he called Hillary. He called me. He called Warren Buffet. He called all those people, you know why? Because he knew it was complicated and before he said anything he wanted to understand."
Got that?
"If we have not learned anything we have learned that we need a president that wants to understand and who can understand," Clinton said.
Thank heaven the Clintons were there to help Obama understand!
WASHINGTON – Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was less than upfront in his half-hour commercial Wednesday night about the costs of his programs and the crushing budget pressures he would face in office.
Obama's assertion that "I've offered spending cuts above and beyond" the expense of his promises is accepted only by his partisans. His vow to save money by "eliminating programs that don't work" masks his failure throughout the campaign to specify what those programs are — beyond the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
A sampling of what voters heard in the ad, and what he didn't tell them:
Aerosmith’s Joe Perry walks this way with John McCain - BostonHerald.comAerosmith’s Joe Perry walks this way with John McCain
By Dave Wedge
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Aerosmith has generally left the politics to bands like U2 and the Dixie Chicks, but axeman Joe Perry says national security and economic woes have prompted him to split from the rest of the entertainment world and throw his support behind John McCain.
“We pretty much stay out of it, but seeing so many people come out for Obama, I just felt like ‘What the hell, I might as well raise my hand for this side,” Perry said from his Duxbury home.
The Bay State rockers have done a few fund-raisers for the Kennedy family over the years, but Perry’s endorsement of McCain marks a first for the platinum-selling guitarist/songwriter. A lifelong Republican, he said he was inspired to come forward because of ringing McCain endorsements from Rudy Giuliani and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“I’ve been a hardcore Republican my whole life,” he told the Herald. “My mother and father drilled into me from the very start that if you work hard and be positive, you’ll get what you’re working for. I guess I’m living proof of that.”
Of criticism about McCain’s age, Perry said: “My mother’s in her 80s and she does aerobics. My manager’s 70 and he’s right there. That doesn’t bother me.”
And despite lopsided polls, he urged his fans to get out and vote.
“I’m an optimist. It ain’t over till its over,” he said. “I think that he’s got a chance.”
Of the rocker’s endorsement, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said: “Joe Perry is an icon of rock-and-roll and a great American. John McCain absolutely appreciates his support.”
Snow blankets London for Global Warming debate • The RegisterSnow blankets London for Global Warming debate
How Parliament passed the Climate Bill
By Andrew Orlowski • Get more from this author
Posted in Government, 29th October 2008 12:35 GMT
Snow fell as the House of Commons debated Global Warming yesterday - the first October fall in the metropolis since 1922. The Mother of Parliaments was discussing the Mother of All Bills for the last time, in a marathon six hour session.
In order to combat a projected two degree centigrade rise in global temperature, the Climate Change Bill pledges the UK to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. The bill was receiving a third reading, which means both the last chance for both democratic scrutiny and consent.
Obama on CBS Early Show with Harry Smith 10/23;
If you're not caring for your family, you're probably not the kind of person who's going to be caring for other people...
Found in a rundown Boston estate: Barack Obama’s aunt Zeituni Onyango - Times OnlineFound in a rundown Boston estate: Barack Obama’s aunt Zeituni Onyango
The aunt of Barack Obama, Zeituni Onyango
(Tom Pilston/The Times)
Barack Obama's Kenyan aunt, Zeituni Onyango, walks from her home at a housing project in Boston
James Bone in Boston, Rob Crilly in Kogelo and Ben Macintyre
Barack Obama has lived one version of the American Dream that has taken him to the steps of the White House. But a few miles from where the Democratic presidential candidate studied at Harvard, his Kenyan aunt and uncle, immigrants living in modest circumstances in Boston, have a contrasting American story.
Zeituni Onyango, the aunt so affectionately described in Mr Obama’s best-selling memoir Dreams from My Father, lives in a disabled-access flat on a rundown public housing estate in South Boston.
"The most damning part of the Obama aunt story is that once his campaign found her living in squalor they told her to not talk to the press until after the election, but they didn't try to help her."
Frank yesterday dismissed McCain's words as "an appeal to prejudice" that he said reminded him of past Republican efforts to raise voter concerns about the prospect of congressmen Charles Rangel and John Conyers, who are black, becoming committee chairs.
"I'm flattered by this," said Frank, who is gay. "But I don't think I'm the single most important member of the House after Nancy Pelosi. There are also a lot of straight white men who are committee chairmen."
McCain's chief speechwriter, Mark Salter, shook his head when asked to respond. "We're bringing him up for his quotes," said Salter. "We're prejudiced against wasteful spenders and tax hikers."
Obama confuses "Sanford and Son" with "The Jeffersons"
RALEIGH, N.C.--Barack Obama seemed to mix up black television sitcoms "Sanford and Son" and "The Jeffersons" in a speech Wednesday, where he was making the point that if Social Security had ever been privatized--as Republicans tried to do a few years ago, folks invested in the stock market would have been whacked with giant losses because of the economic meltdown."Can you imagine if you had your Social Security invested in the stock market these last two weeks, these last two months.
You wouldn't need Social Security. You'd be having a, ya know like Sanford and Sons, 'I'm coming Weezy."
McCain Slams LA Times for Double Standard in Withholding Obama-Khalidi Tape
John McCain says he's sure The Los Angeles Times would be quick to produce a tape that purported to show him or his running
mate at a neo-Nazi event, so he can't understand why it won't show Barack Obama in the company of a former PLO mouthpiece.
Doug Ross writes that he has gotten a tip from a person who claims to have viewed it:
Reason we can't release it is because statements Obama said to rile audience up during toast. He congratulates Khalidi for his work saying "Israel has no God-given right to occupy Palestine" plus there's been "genocide against the Palestinian people by Israelis."
It would be really controversial if it got out. Tha's why they will not even let a transcript get out.
Judge rules Ohio homeless voters may list park benches as addresses
Tuesday, October 28, 2008 1:32 PM
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A federal judge in Ohio has ruled that counties must allow homeless voters to list park benches and other locations that aren't buildings as their addresses.
U.S. District Judge Edmund Sargus also ruled that provisional ballots can't be invalidated because of poll worker errors.
Monday's ruling resolved the final two pieces of a settlement between the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.
The coalition agreed to drop a constitutional challenge to Ohio's voter identification law until after the Nov. 4 election. In return, Brunner and the coalition agreed on procedures to verify provisional ballots across all Ohio counties.
The coalition was concerned that unequal treatment of provisional ballots would disenfranchise some voters.
…if the Democrats win and have substantial majorities, Congress of the United States will be more bipartisan,” said Pelosi.
What we’re saying is that $87 billion tax break doesn’t need to go to people making an average of 1.4 million, it should go like it used to. It should go to middle class people — people making under $150,000 a year.”
Senator Obama has made a lot of promises. First he said people making less than 250,000 dollars would benefit from his plan, then this weekend he announced in an ad that if you're a family making less than 200,000 dollars you'll benefit — but yesterday, right here in Pennsylvania, Senator Biden said tax relief should only go to "middle class people — people making under 150,000 dollars a year." It's interesting how their definition of rich has a way of creeping down. At this rate, it won't be long before Senator Obama is right back to his vote that Americans making just 42,000 dollars a year should get a tax increase. We can't let that happen.
Both sides of aisle rip MSNBCBoth sides of aisle rip MSNBC
Keith Olbermann also criticized at media luncheon
By Paul Bond
Oct 27, 2008, 08:26 PM ET
In a room full of television industry executives, no one seemed inclined to defend MSNBC on Monday for what some were calling its lopsidedly liberal coverage of the presidential election.
The cable news channel is "completely out of control," said writer-producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, a self-proclaimed liberal Democrat.
She added that she would prefer a lunch date with right-leaning Fox News star Sean Hannity over left-leaning MSNBC star Keith Olbermann.
Olbermann was criticized by many who attended Monday's luncheon sponsored by the Caucus for Producers, Writers & Directors at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The event was dubbed "Hollywood, America and Election '08."
Bloodworth-Thomason and others seemed especially critical of the way MSNBC -- and other media -- has attacked Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin while demeaning her supporters.
"We should stop the demonizing," she said, adding that Democrats have been worse than Republicans as far as personal attacks on candidates are concerned. "It diminishes us," she said of her fellow Democrats.
Bloodworth-Thomason even suggested a defense of Palin and her supporters should be written into TV programming, just as she went out of her way to portray Southern women as smart in her hit TV show "Designing Women."
Attendee Michael Reagan, the radio talk-show host and son of President Ronald Reagan, said he no longer will appear as a guest on MSNBC because "I actually get death threats."
"I'll stop sending them," joked Larry Gelbart, the writer, producer and director best known for the "M*A*S*H" television series and such movie screenplays as "Tootsie" and "Oh, God!"
Pollster Frank Luntz, a regular guest on the Fox News, joked that MSNBC is "the only network with more letters in its name than viewers."
On a more serious note, Luntz said it's a problem that the electorate chooses to watch news programs not for information but to confirm already-held beliefs, and that applies to viewers of CNN and Fox News as well.
Luntz predicted a Barack Obama victory and said that one of the many reasons the Democrats have been more effective with their message is because, while Republicans dominate talk radio, Democrats have begun to dominate the Internet.
"I'd rather have the Internet," he said.
Obama also gets credit because he's a better communicator than past Democrats, Luntz said, comparing the previous Democratic presidential nominee, John Kerry, to one of those trees that threw apples at Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz."
Actress Patricia Heaton noted that Hollywood workers too often just assume everyone they work with is a like-minded liberal. When those around her belittle John McCain or Palin, she politely reminds them that she's a Republican.
"That's what you have to do in our town," she said.
Actor Beau Bridges lamented that there is "too much entertainment" in elections nowadays. "Just put 'em in a room -- like we are now -- and let 'em talk about the issues," he said.
Some of the most spirited debate came from the panel's moderator, outspoken conservative Lionel Chetwynd. The writer, director and producer passionately defended the Iraq War and Palin, whom he called "the ideal Jeffersonian political figure."
Chetwynd's performance prompted Gelbart to joke that Chetwynd was the most "immoderate moderator" he had ever seen.
"It's a liberal organization," Chetwynd said of the Caucus. "But I'm trying."
'Obama Wins!,' newspaper declares
Posted: 02:39 PM ET
From CNN Chief National Correspondent John King
One New Mexico paper has declared Obama the next president.
SANTA FE, New Mexico (CNN) – For The New Mexico Sun News it is either a major scoop or “Dewey Beats Truman” déjà vu 60 years later.
“Obama Wins!” is the headline of the edition on newsstands now, complete with “special collector’s edition” in red bold typeface.
The Sun News is a bi-monthly newspaper and its Oct 26-Nov 8 issue had to hit the streets, and the newsstands, before the election. So the editors decided to make a leap of faith and declare Democrat Barack Obama the winner.
In an article explaining their choice, the editors unabashedly wrote, “When it comes to calling the winner of a presidential election, everyone wants to be first. The New Mexico Sun News hereby claims that achievement.”
In its tongue-in-cheek style, the article went on to note the newspaper has a goal of reaching one million readers with each edition, but prints just 10,000 copies of each of its issues.
So, “each copy must be read by 100 different and distinct people. This places an enormous burden on our intrepid readers. However, it is a burden that we must insist you carry. So, please, read quickly, care for the physical condition of the paper and pass it on to your next chosen reader.”
The liberal leaning alternative newspaper ended by imploring its readers to get out and vote, “even if we did spoil the ending for you.”
White people shouldn't be allowed to vote
It's for the good of the country and for those who're bitter for a reason and armed because they're scared.
Jonathan Valania is editor in chief of the blog Phawker.com
As a lifelong Caucasian, I am beginning to think the time has finally come to take the right to vote away from white people, at least until we come to our senses. Seriously, I just don't think we can be trusted to exercise it responsibly anymore.
I give you Exhibit A: The last eight years.
In 2000, Bush-Cheney stole the election, got us attacked, and then got us into two no-exit wars. Four years later, white people reelected them. Is not the repetition of the same behavior over and over again with the expectation of a different outcome the very definition of insanity? (It is, I looked it up.)
Exhibit B is any given Sarah Palin rally.
Exhibit C would be Ed Rendell and John Murtha, who in separate moments of on-the-record candor they would come to regret, pointing out that there are plenty of people in Pennsylvania who just cannot bring themselves to pull the lever for a black man - no matter what they tell pollsters.
These people are ruining things for the rest of us white people who are ready to move on. Sure, they have their reasons, chimerical though they may be: He's a Muslim. He's a terrorist. He's a Muslim terrorist. He's going to fire all the white people and give their jobs to blacks.
But those are just the little white lies these people allow themselves to be told, a self-induced cognitive dissonance that lets them avoid saying the unsayable: I cannot pull the lever for a black man.
Hey, some people just aren't ready yet, even the governor said so. Just like some people aren't ready yet for computers or setting the clock on the VCR.
Or, to hear Murtha tell it, some people - specifically some people in Western Pennsylvania - will never be ready. But the fact is, if you did a statewide head count of racists, you'd find just as many in eastern Pennsylvania as you would in the western part of the state.
That's why this ban on white people voting I'm proposing has got to be statewide. And I'm sorry to say, it's going to have to include all white people, even those who would vote for Obama, because you can't just let some white people vote. That would be unfair.
By this point, you either think I am joking or are calling me an elitist. I assure you I am neither. OK, maybe a little of both. But it wasn't always like this. I come from the Coal Belt, from that Alabamian hinterland between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, as per James Carville's famous formulation.
I am, in fact, just two generations out of the coal mines that blackened the lungs of my grandfather, leaving him disabled, despondent and, finally, dead at the ripe old age of 54.
So, understand that I am saying all this for the good of the country and, in fact, for the good of those hard-working white people that Hillary used to pander to.
I know those people, I come from them. They are not some shameful abstract demographic to be brushed under the rug of euphemism by Wolf Blitzer and his ilk.
I have broken kielbasa with those people. I went to school with their children. I have gone to Sunday Mass with a deer-hunter hangover with those people. They are bitter with good reason, and they are armed because they are scared. They mean well, but they are easily spooked.
I fear for what is to become of them after the campaigns leave town for the last time, and Scranton and Allentown and Carlisle go back to being the long dark chicken dance of the national soul they were before the media showed up.
'60s leftist William Ayers: Time for GOP to get over it
BY RICHARD VANDERFORD
DAILY NEWS WRITERSunday, October 26th 2008, 11:32 PM
![]()
Bill Ayers arriving at a meeting in Manhattan Sunday wearing a shirt reading, 'This is Ridiculous.'
The man the GOP loves to hate tiptoed out of hiding Sunday - if only to blast Fox News and the rest of the media for his predicament.
William Ayers, the '60s radical who is one of John McCain's talking points in his criticism of Barack Obama, told a Manhattan panel discussion audience he was tired of being used as cannon fodder in America's political wars.
"[Fox host] Bill O'Reilly comes on his show and first thing he says is, 'Why won't this Ayers story die?'" Ayers told well-wishers. "And then he spends 10 minutes talking about it."Ayers, a University of Illinois education professor in Chicago, has mostly kept a low profile since McCain started using him as a poster boy for Obama's supposed left-wing leanings.
He kept quiet as Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin accused Obama of "palling around with terrorists," a dig at the fact that Ayers and Obama once served on a charity board together.
The press was barred from the discussion yesterday at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting near Gramercy Park, but a Daily News reporter managed to get inside.
The former member of the Weather Underground beamed at the attention paid by the audience of about 60 people, many of whom were decked out in Obama gear.
The crowd gave Ayers a warm welcome, guffawed at jokes about "redistributing the wealth" and nodded at his complaints about the "Republican revolution."
After the talk was over, event organizers attempted to sneak Ayers out a back door to avoid the media.
Waiting reporters gave chase, but Ayers sputtered, "No comment," and darted into a cab.
Sen. Christopher Dodd's bewildering odyssey of entitlement, evasions and deceptions continued last week. He shed more credibility as he staggered through new excuses for concealing from the public documents related to his cut-rate mortgages of nearly $800,000 from subprime giant Countrywide Financial.
On Wednesday, Dodd announced he wants to wait until the Senate Ethics Committee completes its investigation of his mortgage deals. There's no Senate rule requiring Dodd to remain silent during the investigation. There's no legitimate reason for Dodd to withhold from the public the array of documents, e-mails and letters from the mortgage swag bag Countrywide gave him.
A Senate investigation isn't like a Countrywide mortgage: It's expensive to prove there's nothing there.
Dodd has caught a lucky break, as senators often do. The Federal Elections Commission allows Dodd to use campaign funds from the Friends of Chris Dodd re-election committee to pay his legal and other expenses incurred in the ethics investigation.
Interesting tidbit on polls « Virginia VirtuconInteresting tidbit on polls
Posted on October 24, 2008 by Riley
From VV contributor Ignatius:
I was having dinner a night ago with a friend of mine who is a statistician for a well-regarded private polling company. They do some work for Republicans in California, but most of the work they do is for Democrats or Democrat-leaning operations (Unions, etc.). Anyway, her shop was retained to do a few Presidential polls for targetted states on behalf of a union so the union could decide where to spend their ad dollars for the last week. They did Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Missouri. After mocking the hell out of the voter id spreads used by Rassmussen, Zogby, etc. (and this is coming from a committed Dem who will be voting for Barry O) she said the results of their polling lead her to believe that McCain will definitely win FL, OH, NC, MO and NV. She says Obama definitely wins New Mexico. She said that Colorado and New Hampshire were absolute dead heats. She said she thinks there is a 55% chance Obama holds on in Pennsylvania and a 75% chance McCain wins Virginia. She absolutely laughed at the public polls showing Obama leading Virginia–and pointed out that all of those polls rely on Dem turnout being +4 and as much as +7, when in 2006, Republicans actually had the advantage by +3. She also pointed out that the numbers for Obama in SWVA look absolutely awful and that McCain is running 10 points better then Allen did in NoVa.
Anyway, her companies conclusion is that the election will come down to Colorado, New Hampshire and the Republican leaning district in Maine, which in her opinion might very well decide the Presidency (apparently the district in Nebraska that Obama thought he might be able to get is now off the table). She said she has very little doubt that the public polling is part of a “concerted voter suppression effort” by the MSM. She said IBD/TIPP was the only outfit doing public polling that was “worth a bucket of warm piss”.
Biden a reliable running mate amid the stumbles - Yahoo! NewsBiden a reliable running mate amid the stumbles
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer Nedra Pickler, Associated Press Writer – Sat Oct 25, 12:51 pm ET
WASHINGTON – Joe Biden's performance as Barack Obama's running mate has been pretty predictable — even when unpredictable.
The biggest knock against Biden during discussions on whether he would make a good vice presidential nominee was that his mouth tends to get him in trouble. And it has, with Biden recently raising the expectation that Obama would be tested by an international crisis soon after taking office — a comment that Obama said showed Biden's penchant for "rhetorical flourish."
Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin have used that comment to suggest that Obama is not prepared to deal with such a problem. That's not what Biden said — he argued Obama would persevere because he's "got steel in his spine." But McCain is using a recording of Biden's comments in a new ad against Obama.
"We're going to have an international crisis ... to test the mettle of this guy," Biden says in a recording replayed in the ad over grainy images of a woman crying and people rioting in the streets of a foreign land. "I guarantee you it's going to happen."
An announcer interjects: "It doesn't have to happen. Vote McCain."
But despite the occasional gaffe that's been highlighted, the Obama team says Biden has been a steady asset.
"State and local officials are investigating if state and law-enforcement computer systems were illegally accessed when they were tapped for personal information about "Joe the Plumber."Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher became part of the national political lexicon Oct. 15 when Republican presidential candidate John McCain mentioned him frequently during his final debate with Democrat Barack
Obama.The 34-year-old from the Toledo suburb of Holland is held out by McCain as an example of an American who would be harmed by Obama's tax proposals.
Public records requested by The Dispatch disclose that information on Wurzelbacher's driver's license or his sport-utility vehicle was pulled from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles database three times
shortly after the debate.Information on Wurzelbacher was accessed by accounts assigned to the office of Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers, the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency and the Toledo Police Department.
It has not been determined who checked on Wurzelbacher, or why. Direct access to driver's license and vehicle registration information from BMV computers is restricted to legitimate law enforcement and government business.
Death Threats Sent to Pollster
After releasing this morning’s numbers showing McCain ahead in Ohio and Florida, the Strategic Vision polling company received several death threats through the contact e-mail on the company’s web site.
David Johnson, the CEO of Strategic Vision, shared the messages with National Review Online.
One of the messages stated:
My goodness, your polls stinks.
There are 3 polls that have Obama by double digits and only yours has Obama down. WOW!. How come your poll is the only one giving Palin high favor ratings? I think you nee dto be careful tonight when you get in your car and might want to check underneath your car. SCRAP YOUR IDIOTIC POLLS OR ELSE!
VP candidate kept from media and no crowd questions. Not Palin. It's Biden! | Top of the Ticket | Los Angeles TimesVP candidate kept from media and no crowd questions. Not Palin. It's Biden!
Is it possible we've been living in a bubble for the last several weeks, not noticing a complete role reversal between the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Sen. Joe Biden, and his Republican counterpart, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska?
The always astute Jake Tapper over at ABC makes a shocking point:
Now, Palin, who was once so sequestered from the media it allowed her opponents to caricature her and helped create "Free Sarah Palin" buttons, is meeting with more and more national reporters and, unreported by them, numerous local media types at virtually every campaign stop.
Alaska Governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and Democratic Senator and vice presidential candidate Joe Biden of Delaware
There's an interview with the Chicago Tribune today, reported here in The Ticket and on CNN earlier this week. She walks back and chats with reporters on her campaign plane.
And, contrary to the silent fears of the McCain controllers, she's doing just fine.
But Biden is something else entirely. We've got Joe the Plumber and Joe Six-Pack. But Joe Delaware-by-way-of-Scranton has gone missing.
Obama officials will deny it. But he's clearly been muzzled by the Democratic campaign that's for real change.
New Allegations in Mahoney Sex Scandal
Document: Rep. Allegedly Used Mistress as "Tease" for Big Donors
By RHONDA SCHWARTZ and EMMA SCHWARTZ
October 24, 2008Current and former members of the staff of Congressman Tim Mahoney (D-Fla) say he has yet to come completely clean about his multiple affairs, abusive behavior and alleged ethical lapses.
Last week, following a series of reports on The Blotter, Mahoney confirmed that he had hired one of his mistresses for his Congressional staff and that he was also carrying on an affair with a Florida county official who sought his help with a federal grant.
But a document obtained by ABC News reveals new allegations of threatening behavior and sexual harassment toward a female staffer, that go far beyond Mahoney's public confession, including claims that he urged one of his mistresses to serve as a "tease" for big donors.
Sales of previously owned U.S. homes rose 5.5 percent last month, the biggest gain since July 2003, and the inventory of unsold homes fell, a hopeful sign for a housing market mired in a long slump.
The National Association of Realtors said on Friday that sales of existing homes rose to a 5.18 million-unit annual rate from the 4.91 million unit pace set in August. Economists had expected sales to rise to only a 4.93 million unit rate.
It was the first time the sales pace had risen above its year ago level in nearly three years, a sign the market could be stabilizing.
The surprisingly large jump in sales pushed the inventory of unsold homes down by 1.6 percent to 4.27 million, or a 9.9 months’ supply at the current pace, the lowest since February.
Police: Campaign Volunteer Made Up Attack Story
MORE: KDKA Online Voters Guide | Campaign '08 News
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A Pittsburgh police commander told KDKA Investigator Marty Griffin that Ashley Todd confessed to making up the story & is facing charges
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― Police sources tell KDKA that a campaign worker has now confessed to making up a story that a mugger attacked her and cut the letter "B" in her face after seeing her McCain bumper sticker.
Ashley Todd, 20, of Texas, initially told police that she was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield and that the suspect became enraged and started beating her after seeing her GOP sticker on her car.
Police investigating the alleged attack, however, began to notice some inconsistencies in her story and administered a polygraph test.
Authorities, however, declined to release the results of that test.
“She just opened up and said she wanted to tell the truth,” Bryant said. “She was upset with the media for blowing this into a political firestorm.”
She told Detectives J.R. Smith and Scott Evans varying stories about how she ended up with two black eyes and a backward letter “B” etched onto her right cheek late Wednesday. She said she remembers being in her car, driving around the city, and seeing the letter on her cheek when she looked into the rearview mirror. She said she immediately thought of Barack Obama when she saw the “B,” Bryant said.
“She said she doesn’t remember doing it but knows it must have been her who did it,” Bryant said.
Wonder Land - WSJ.comHatin' Palin
She's not the reason Americans can't stand their politicians.
*
By DANIEL HENNINGER
The abuse being heaped on Sarah Palin is such a cheap shot.
The complaint against the Alaska governor, at its most basic, is that she doesn't qualify for admission to the national political fraternity. Boy, that's rich. Behold the shabby frat house that says it's above her pay grade.
[Wonder Land] NBC
Sarah Palin appears with Lorne Michaels on Saturday Night Live.
Congress has the lowest approval rating ever registered in the history of polling (12%!). She isn't the reason polls are showing people want the entire Congress fired, with many telling pollsters they themselves could do a better job.
Sarah Palin didn't design a system of presidential primaries whose length and cost ensures that only the most obsessional personalities will run the gauntlet, while a long list of effective governors don't run.
These rules have wasted the electorate's time the past three presidential elections, by filling the debates with such zero-support candidates as Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, Al Sharpton, Duncan Hunter, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden (8,000 total votes), Wesley Clark and Alan Keyes.
Ryan Corsaro reports:
(COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.) - It might be surprising to some to learn that Sarah Palin is now talking to her national press corps more often than Joe Biden.
While the once silent Palin has taken questions from reporters that travel with her three times in the last week, Biden has not offered the same type of access to reporters who cover his every move on the campaign trail in almost two months.
The presidential race tightened after the final debate, with John McCain gaining among whites and people earning less than $50,000, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll that shows McCain and Barack Obama essentially running even among likely voters in the election homestretch.The poll, which found Obama at 44 percent and McCain at 43 percent, supports what some Republicans and Democrats privately have said in recent days: that the race narrowed after the third debate as GOP-leaning voters drifted home to their party and McCain's "Joe the plumber" analogy struck a chord.
Three weeks ago, an AP-GfK survey found that Obama had surged to a seven-point lead over McCain, lifted by voters who thought the Democrat was better suited to lead the nation through its sudden economic crisis.
The contest is still volatile, and the split among voters is apparent less than two weeks before Election Day.
There have been so many scandals since October, 2006, the month that I launched this blog, that I just about forgot who Mark Foley was.
I got an excited phone call yesterday from two friends, TV producer Richard Ayoub and talent manager Dolores Cantu, who were having lunch at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Sitting the next table over was Foley, who resigned just before the midterms after the revelation that he sent inappropriate e-mail messages to a congressional page.
Ayounb and Cantu didn't know immediately recognize him until he told them he had once been in Congress. The jist of the conversation then went like this, according to both:
Cantu: "You didn't have an affair, did you?"
Foley: "Well, I was..."
Realizing who was in their midst, Ayoub, who has a penchant for devilish humor, offered a deadpanned admonishment, "You should not flirt with congressional pages." Foley went on to say that nothing happened, he didn't realize that the page was only 18, and that he perhaps was a bit tipsy when he sent the e-mails.
What they both said was how great Foley looked, and he was particularly excited about Colin Powell's endorsement that morning of Obama. Foley said he also favors Obama.
And Foley also expressed some pleasure in watching the latest developments from his old Florida district: His successor, Democrat Tim Mahoney, is now in trouble for a series of extramarital affairs
Undecideds will go to McCain at a rate of 4:1 or higher, the same way they broke for Clinton. That means in this Battleground Poll, it’s actually McCain 52%-Obama 49%.
The other interesting thing to keep in mind is that, on average, Obama overpolled by 7% in our primaries. That means his support could actually only be at 42% in this poll above, with McCain ahead by 17-points.
OPRAH OFFERS PRODUCTION HELP WITH OBAMA'S NETWORK SPECIAL
Tue Oct 21 2008 09:28:56 ET
**Exclusive**
Oprah Winfrey is offering to "produce" the half-hour Barack Obama advertisement set to air on Oct. 29, a top source tells the DRUDGE REPORT. The Daytime TV dynamo has even offered up her studio space in Chicago.
"She's been begging Obama to let her help," a source explaines.
In the past two days alone, Palin has answered questions from her national press corps on three separate occasions. On Saturday, she held another plane availability, and on Sunday, she offered an impromptu press conference on the tarmac upon landing in Colorado Springs. A few minutes later, she answered even more questions from reporters during an off-the-record stop at a local ice cream shop.
By contrast, Biden hasn’t held a press conference in more than a month, and Obama hasn’t taken questions from his full traveling press corps since the end of September. John McCain—who spent most of the primary season holding what seemed like one, never-ending media availability—hasn’t done one since Sept. 23.
Obama Praised 'Searing and Timely' Book by Ayers - FOXNews.com ElectionsObama Praised 'Searing and Timely' Book by Ayers
Barack Obama once gave a glowing endorsement of a book by former domestic terrorist William Ayers and was mentioned by name in the book itself.
Obama Ayers blurb
Barack Obama provided a glowing endorsement of a book by domestic terrorist William Ayers in the Dec. 21, 1997 Chicago Tribune.
Barack Obama, who has consistently downplayed his relationship with William Ayers during his presidential campaign, once gave a glowing endorsement of a book by the former domestic terrorist and was mentioned by name in the book itself.
A blogger unearthed the Dec. 21, 1997, endorsement in the Chicago Tribune and posted photographs of the praise for Ayers' book on Zombietime.com Saturday.
Featured next to a smiling photograph of himself, then-State Senator Obama called Ayers' book, "A Kind and Just Parent: Children of the Juvenile Court," a "searing and timely account of the juvenile court system, and the courageous individuals who rescue hope from despair."
The book, which details life at the Chicago Juvenile Court prison school, mentions Obama by name on page 82 when it describes Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood:
"Our neighbors include Muhammad Ali, former mayor Eugene Sawyer, poets Gwendolyn Brooks and Elizabeth Alexander, and writer Barack Obama. Minister Louis Farrakhan lives a block from our home and adds, we think, a unique dimension to the idea of 'safe neighborhood watch': the Fruit of Islam, his security force, has an eye on things twenty-four-hours a day."
The Obama campaign said the blurb was not a full-fledged review of the book.
“Mark my words,” the Democratic vice presidential
nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. “It
will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they
did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a
brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of
America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember
anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis,
a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”“I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might
originate,” Biden said to Emerald City supporters, mentioning the
Middle East and Russia as possibilities. “And he’s gonna need help. And
the kind of help he’s gonna need is, he’s gonna need you - not
financially to help him - we’re gonna need you to use your influence,
your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it’s
not gonna be apparent initially, it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re
right.”
By golly, 'Saturday Night Live' viewers prefer the real Sarah Palin; largest audience in 14 years
"Saturday Night Live" and Tina Fey may mercilessly mock Sarah Palin.
But, goldarnit, they're mercilessly mocking her all the way to one of the banks still in business.Alaska Governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin waves as she leaves NBC after the Saturday Night Live show 10-18-08 which had the highest ratings in 14 years
The Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate has become a genuine media star, guaranteeing high ratings even for an actress like Fey pretending to be her.
But last night with the real Sarah Palin onboard, SNL enjoyed its highest ratings in 14 years -- since the first Clinton term in 1994 when figure skater Nancy Kerrigan and soul singer Aretha Franklin teamed up on the show.
Final Nielsen figures will be out later this week. But early estimates put the average audience at 14 million with the largest number at 17 million for the show's first half-hour, when Palin appeared in the long opening skit. And then she appeared again later in the News Update section.
To see videos of both segments, click on the Read more line below here.
-- Andrew Malcolm
"It's not that I want to punish your success. I want to make sure that
everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance for success,
too. My attitude is that if the economy's good for folks from the
bottom up, it's gonna be good for everybody. I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."
Obama Broke Illinois Ethics Laws As A State Legislator
By Rob on October 19, 2008 at 11:10 am
Apparently, on Obama’s released tax records, he discloses income from speaking fees. The problem? Accepting payment for speaking fees when you’re a legislator is against Illinois state law.
Apparently, as an Illinois state legislator through 2004, Barack was prohibited from taking honoraria for speaking under the Illinois Governmental Ethics Act.
But what about Barack Obama’s 2000 and 2002 tax returns?
2000: On his 2000 Schedule C-EZ, Barack reported that he received $16,500 as a “Foundation director/Educational speaker.”
2001: On his 2001 Schedule C-EZ, Barack reported $98,158 from a Chicago law firm, Miner, Barnhill, for “Legal services/attorney” (and nothing for speaking).
2002: On his 2002 Schedule C, Barack reported $34,491 for “LEGAL SERVCES / SPEAKING FEES.”
These “speaking fees” are in addition to the amounts that Barack was paid as an employee, a lecturer at the University of Chicago, reported on the first page of his 1040s.
That’s not change we can believe in.
Just to sum up, the media can find Joe the Plumber’s tax woes within 24 hours of his having dared to question The One’s narrative, but they can’t find a clear ethical violation in the released records of a man who has been campaigning for President for two years now.
Another truth-telling moment brought to you by our fair and objective news media.
"And then he's trying to suggest that a plumber is the guy he's
fighting for," Obama said, in a reference to Joe Wurzelbacher. "How
many plumbers you know makin' a quarter million dollars a year? I have
a different set of priorities, I'll give a middle class tax cut to 95%
of all workers."
He also said that, in his encounter with Obama, the Illinois Senator "a tap dance...almost as good as Sammy Davis, Jr."
“I am convinced that if there were no Fox News, I might be two or three points higher in the polls,” Obama told me. “If I were watching Fox News, I wouldn’t vote for me, right? Because the way I’m portrayed 24/7 is as a freak! I am the latte-sipping, New York Times-reading, Volvo-driving, no-gun-owning, effete, politically correct, arrogant liberal. Who wants somebody like that?
“I guess the point I’m making,” he went on, “is that there is an entire industry now, an entire apparatus, designed to perpetuate this cultural schism, and it’s powerful. People want to know that you’re fighting for them, that you get them. And I actually think I do. But you know, if people are just seeing me in sound bites, they’re not going to discover that. That’s why I say that some of that may have to happen after the election, when they get to know you.”
Ohio elections chief appeals court rulingOhio elections chief appeals court ruling
2 hours ago
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio's top elections chief has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in a dispute over whether the state is required to do more to help counties verify voter eligibility.
A spokesman for Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said Thursday that an appeal has been filed with the high court.
On Tuesday, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati sided with the Ohio Republican Party and ordered Brunner to set up a system that provides names of newly registered voters whose driver's license numbers or Social Security numbers don't match records in other government databases.
The GOP contends the information will help prevent fraud.
Brunner, a Democrat, has called the issue a veiled attempt at disenfranchising voters and that other checks exist to help determine eligibility.
Secret Service says "Kill him" allegation unfoundedBy Andrew M. Seder aseder@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
SCRANTON – The agent in charge of the Secret Service field office in Scranton said allegations that someone yelled “kill him” when presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s name was mentioned during Tuesday’s Sarah Palin rally are unfounded.
The Scranton Times-Tribune first reported the alleged incident on its Web site Tuesday and then again in its print edition Wednesday. The first story, written by reporter David Singleton, appeared with allegations that while congressional candidate Chris Hackett was addressing the crowd and mentioned Oabama’s name a man in the audience shouted “kill him."
News organizations including ABC, The Associated Press, The Washington Monthly and MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann reported the claim, with most attributing the allegations to the Times-Tribune story.
Agent Bill Slavoski said he was in the audience, along with an undisclosed number of additional secret service agents and other law enforcement officers and not one heard the comment.
“I was baffled,” he said after reading the report in Wednesday’s Times-Tribune.
He said the agency conducted an investigation Wednesday, after seeing the story, and could not find one person to corroborate the allegation other than Singleton.
Slavoski said more than 20 non-security agents were interviewed Wednesday, from news media to ordinary citizens in attendance at the rally for the Republican vice presidential candidate held at the Riverfront Sports Complex. He said Singleton was the only one to say he heard someone yell “kill him.”
“We have yet to find someone to back up the story,” Slavoski said. “We had people all over and we have yet to find anyone who said they heard it.”
Hackett said he did not hear the remark.
Slavoski said Singleton was interviewed Wednesday and stood by his story but couldn’t give a description of the man because he didn’t see him he only heard him.
When contacted Wednesday afternoon, Singleton referred questions to Times-Tribune Metro Editor Jeff Sonderman. Sonderman said, “We stand by the story. The facts reported are true and that’s really all there is.”
Slavoski said the agents take such threats or comments seriously and immediately opened an investigation but after due diligence “as far as we’re concerned it’s closed unless someone comes forward.” He urged anyone with knowledge of the alleged incident to call him at 346-5781. “We’ll run at all leads,” he said.