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Selected News For Week Sep 20 - Sep 26

This thread is for the busy bees of S&L to post news items themselves.

In order to make the articles as readable as possible, please try to stick to the format described in the first of these weekly editions here.

Of course articles that fit under the topic of a recent thread should be posted there. As always, remember to excerpt heavily and to provide a link to the original source.

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This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Saturday, September 20th, 2008 at 12:00 am. You can leave a response.

83 Responses to “Selected News For Week Sep 20 - Sep 26”

  1. BillK
    September 22, 2008 at 2:07 am

    An editorial from our friends at the very far left Madison, WI Capital Times:

    Women are on to Palin

    One week ago, after the Republican National Convention had nominated John McCain and Sarah Palin, the Republican ticket enjoyed a 53 percent to 34 percent lead among white women over Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden, according to polling conducted for CBS and the New York Times. The theory was that Palin, the first woman nominated for vice president by the Republicans, was winning women over to the GOP.

    What a difference a week can make.

    The new CBS/New York Times poll now has the Obama/Biden ticket leading among white women by a 47-45 margin.

    That’s a 13 point jump for the Democrats, and it has radically shifted the character of the race for the presidency.

    Where a week ago, the average of national polls had the McCain/Palin ticket leading by almost three points, the Obama/Biden ticket is now up by two points.

    And the momentum is entirely in the Democratic direction.

    Consider the Gallup Daily Tracking Poll.

    One week ago, the Gallup had the Republicans ahead 48-44.

    Now the Democrats are up 48-44.

    Translation: Obama, who has been gaining a point in the polls each day since Monday — the day when the economy became the issue — has reversed McCain’s lead.

    The Gallup Survey is not an anomaly.

    The aforementioned CBS/New York Times poll has Obama up by five points. That means that, in this survey, Obama now enjoys the same level of support he did immediately after the Democratic National Convention.

    The new Quinnipiac poll, echoing the Gallup and CBS surveys, puts Obama up by four points overall.

    In each survey, the movement to the Democrats is most dramatic among white women — the group that Sarah Palin was supposed to be drawing into the Republican camp.

    What’s up with Palin? The governor’s overall favorable rating has fallen to just 40 percent in the CBS/New York Times survey — down four points from last week. Palin’s unfavorable rating is up eight points to 30 percent. But the shift is even more dramatic among women, with whom Palin’s star has fallen 11 points in one week.

    http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/305739

    Amazing how last week the left and MSM were running around saying polls didn’t matter.

    Yet this week, polls mean everything.

    Palin is obviously failing, yet the attempts to smear her continue full-bore.

    Hmmm…

    Reply
  2. BillK
    September 22, 2008 at 2:15 am

    The State of Wisconsin, despite their complaints, must have tons of extra money, judging from their actions.

    From the (Madison) Wisconsin State Journal:

    State may fund teaching Indian languages

    By Jason Stein

    When teachers of the state’s native languages want a children’s book, some of them end up pasting a translation over the words of a book in English.

    Now Wisconsin’s top schools official wants to give them help developing materials and even hiring staff by reviving a long-standing but now ended state program for American Indian languages.

    The proposal by state schools Superintendent Libby Burmaster comes at a critical time. Native languages have come to the edge of extinction here but a handful of tribal pioneers are also having their first success in teaching the languages to children in more than a generation. Speaking after her annual State of Education address on Thursday, Burmaster said the initiative could also help boost the lagging academic achievement of tribal students by strengthening their connection to their schools.

    “Every child really wants to know where they came from and what’s the history of their parents and their grandparents and their community and so I think it does contribute to the growth of the child and that will foster their ability to achieve,” Burmaster said of tribal language programs. …

    http://www.madison.com/wsj/topstories/305864

    Children can learn “where they come from” without needing to be taught their “native” language in public school.

    Reply
  3. BillK
    September 22, 2008 at 2:23 am

    Today’s anti-Palin article from the Los Agneles Times:

    Alaskans angered that Palin is off-limits

    Queries are directed through the McCain campaign machine. Her political capital at home is eroding.

    By Kim Murphy

    ANCHORAGE — Jerry McCutcheon went to Sarah Palin’s office here last week to request information about the firing of former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, the scandal that for weeks has threatened to overshadow the governor’s role as Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s running mate.

    McCutcheon was given a phone number in Virginia to call: the national headquarters of the McCain-Palin campaign.

    Why, he wanted to know, did he have to call a campaign office 4,300 miles away to find out what was going on in Alaska government? The longtime civic activist phoned his local state representative, Les Gara, who quickly filed a protest.

    These days, many such queries about Monegan — or anything else involving Palin’s record as governor — get diverted to McCain staffers. A former Justice Department prosecutor from New York flew in recently to advise the governor’s lawyer and field reporters’ calls about Monegan. Soon after, Palin’s willingness to cooperate in the Legislature’s probe of the affair ended.

    A recent call to John Cramer, the head of the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs — who clashed with Palin during her years as mayor of Wasilla — was returned by a McCain campaign operative who had just arrived from Washington, D.C. “John who?” she asked.

    In stubbornly independent Alaska, the sudden intrusion of a political campaign into so many corners of state government — not to mention Wasilla, where a dozen or more campaign researchers and lawyers have also begun overseeing the release of any information about Palin’s years as mayor — has touched a raw nerve. McCain staffers have even been assigned to answer calls for Palin’s family members, who have been instructed not to talk.

    “Why did the McCain campaign take over the governor’s office?” the Anchorage Daily News demanded in an editorial Saturday. “Is it too much to ask that Alaska’s governor speak for herself, directly to Alaskans, about her actions as Alaska’s governor?”

    The partisan spillover of the presidential campaign into the statehouse, political analysts here say, now threatens Palin’s most powerful political capital in Alaska: her commitment to transparency, her willingness to forge bipartisan alliances with Democrats to advance her legislative agenda, and her battle to upend the good ol’ boy network.

    “Is this going to dilute her image as a maverick who will clean out the rascals from their perches of power, when she herself cannot tolerate questions into her behavior, investigations into the firing of a public safety commissioner?” said Gerald McBeath, political science professor at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.

    Palin, he said, is “still popular” in Alaska, “but she is not beloved. And there’s a difference between the two. She’s getting a lot more criticism at the state level as a result of her vice presidential candidacy.” …

    http://www.latimes.com/news/pr.....8051.story

    Because questions about Bill Clinton’s governorship of Arkansas didn’t go through his campaign office when he was running.

    Because questions about McCain’s, Obama’s or Biden’s senatorial records don’t get run through their campaign offices, either.

    So a liberal activist calls to get information about a non-story the left is trying to spin up into a scandal and is told that such queries must go through the campaign, and this means Alaskans now hate their Governor.

    Yeah.

    Reply
  4. BillK
    September 22, 2008 at 2:30 am

    If you hadn’t heard, Woody Allen’s rush into insignificance continues.

    From the Los Angeles Times:

    Woody Allen says an Obama loss would be ‘terrible’, a ‘disgrace’ to the US

    Adding to the increasingly heavy Hollywood pile-on, Woody Allen has come out for Barack Obama.

    And the award winning writer/director/actor of comedy classics such as “Annie Hall,” “Manhattan,” says it won’t be funny if Barack Obama fails to win the presidential seat.

    “It would be a disgrace and a humiliation if Barack Obama does not win,” Allen told journalists at the ongoing 56th San Sebastian film festival, where his latest film “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” is screening.

    “It would be a very, very terrible thing for the United States in many, many ways. It would be a terrible thing if the American public was not moved to vote for him, that they actually preferred more of the same.”

    Obama, Allen said, is “so much better” than Republican rival John McCain, and “represents a huge step upward from (the) incompetence and misjudgment” of the Bush administration.

    Just so happens that Scarlett Johansson, who co-stars in Allen’s new film, is also a bigtime Obama supporter. And her brother works for his campaign.

    Also on the Obama bandwagon, Spanish-born Hollywood actor Antonio Banderas, who told festival press that he’s backing Obama for the sake of his daughter, even though he is not a US citizen and cannot vote.

    Guess that means his wife Melanie Griffith may also be for Obama.

    That’s three more stars to add to the BO list: Oprah, Matt Damon, Margaret Cho, LIndsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson, Jennifer Aniston, Robert DeNiro, Chris ‘Rock, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel Jackson, George Clooney, Ben Affleck, Cloris Leachman, Jennifer Garner, Pamela Anderson, and Pink,

    http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedishrag/

    Seriously - is there a celebrity that is stumping for Obama other than Oprah that does not live a in some way dysfunctional life?

    In this case we have Woody “hey, she’s my adopted daughter, so who cares if we’re having sex” Allen telling us what would or would not be good for the United States.

    You’ll pardon me if I don’t take your advice as gospel.

    Reply
  5. BillK
    September 22, 2008 at 3:15 am

    A socialist takeover of financial institutions?

    Oh no you don’t, not without real socialist programs as well.

    From the “laying of even more staff” McClatchy News Service

    $700 billion bailout deal stalls as Paulson, Democrats argue over help for ordinary citizens

    Democrats want help for ordinary citizens, cap on execs’ pay; Paulson doesn’t

    By Kevin G. Hall

    WASHINGTON — President Bush’s $700 billion rescue plan for Wall Street ran into trouble Sunday as Democrats insisted on provisions for struggling homeowners and limits on CEO pay that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson opposes.

    With the cost of the proposed bailout effort equal to about $2,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States, Democrats began pushing for language in the rescue plan that would steer additional aid to homeowners struggling to stay in their homes and prevent foreclosures.

    But Paulson, making the rounds on the Sunday morning talk shows, insisted that the issue has already been addressed through administration and congressional efforts already under way. Congress should pass the legislation the administration seeks, he said.

    “What I am saying is we need this to be clean, and we need to be quick” in passing it, Paulson said on ABC’s Sunday morning talk show This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

    The issue of CEO pay on Wall Street has been a controversial one, especially after the chiefs of Citigroup and Merrill Lynch both exited late last year as problems mounted in the financial sector. They left with compensation packages worth tens of millions of dollars, and several months later American taxpayers are being asked to clean up the mess.

    Recognizing the growing public anger, Paulson told ABC that it was appropriate to limit the perks and pay of the departing heads of mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Those two government-chartered private companies were seized by Treasury on Sept. 6, and since they are now in government hands it is appropriate to limit compensation, he said.

    But Paulson made it clear that under the administration’s current plan, the government would not be taking over additional firms, just assuming the risk of their bad securities.

    That, too, is being challenged by Democrats, who are seeking that the government receive stock warrants or some similar sweetener that ensures that there is windfall to the U.S. Treasury in exchange for the risk of taking on bad assets. These warrants are being sought by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., chairman of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress.

    So not only do we have to bail out banks that gave loans to people who didn’t deserve them due to liberal policies, we of course need to pay for the people whose defaults cause the banks to have issues. …

    http://www.dailycamera.com/new.....al-stalls/

    Let’s just go whole hog and have the Federal government just give people free houses.

    Of course we need to limit CEO perks now, now that Franklin Raines and his haul are out (and of course will remain unmentioned when talking about “out of control” CEO pay.)
    But then the Democrats would demand federally subsidized cable TV, painting services, lawn mowing… you get the idea.

    Reply
  6. BillK
    September 22, 2008 at 5:52 am

    From LA Observed:

    Tina Fey won Emmy awards for acting, writing and being one of the executive producers on “30 Rock,” which got the trophy for outstanding comedy series. Fey then took a shot at Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who she nailed with a satirical impersonation on SNL a week ago: “I want to be done playing this lady Nov. 5. So, if anyone can help me be done playing this lady, that would be good for me.

    http://www.laobserved.com/arch.....e_pack.php

    I’ll be more than happy to help, Tina.

    In fact, aside from ignoring SNL, thanks for freeing me up from having to spend time watching 30 Rock this fall as well.

    Reply
  7. BillK
    September 22, 2008 at 11:46 am

    A Democratic candidate “inspires” an SNL sketch critical of the opposing party.

    No conflict of interest, right?

    From a “Oh, isn’t that funny?” AP:

    Franken advises ‘SNL’ on sketch ridiculing McCain

    MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Senate candidate Al Franken provided his old “Saturday Night Live” boss with the inspiration for a comedy sketch that lampooned Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

    Franken served as a writer and performer on the longtime NBC comedy hit from its founding in 1975 to 1980, and again from 1985 to 1995. Franken, who grew up in Minnesota, has since returned to the state and is running as the Democratic challenger to Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.

    Franken had a phone conversation last week with SNL creator Lorne Michaels, his campaign spokeswoman Colleen Murray said Sunday. She described the talk as two friends of more than 30 years catching up, and she said Franken told Michaels about his experiences on the campaign trail.

    In relating a story about recording campaign commercials, Franken noted how all political candidates must say they “approve this message” in their ads - and editorialized that he thought it must be a difficult task for McCain, whom many Democrats and pundits have accused of leveling dishonest charges against Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

    In the sketch, which led Saturday night’s show, McCain is played by “SNL” veteran Darrell Hammond. While recording campaign commercials, McCain is forced to say that he “approves this message” over a series of increasingly vicious and ludicrous attacks against Obama.

    Not long after the conversation between Franken and Michaels, “SNL” head writer Seth Meyers contacted Franken and they spoke briefly about the idea, the campaign said. Franken was not involved in writing any of the specifics of the skit, Murray said.

    “Lorne Michaels decided Al’s real-life experience was funny, and it became an accidental inspiration for a comedy sketch” Murray said.

    A spokesman for NBC did not immediately return a call Sunday from The Associated Press. A spokesman at McCain’s Minnesota office said the campaign did not have any comment on the sketch or Franken’s involvement in it.

    But Coleman’s campaign jumped all over the news, citing Franken’s involvement as evidence to support Minnesota Republicans’ argument that the Democrat’s career in comedy and history of sometimes stinging satire make him a bad fit for the U.S. Senate.

    “Once again he proves he’s more interested in entertainment than service, and ridiculing those with whom he disagrees,” Coleman’s campaign manager, Cullen Sheehan, said in a statement.

    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/s.....NIGHT_LIVE

    Remind me again of why we supposedly need the “Fairness Doctrine?”

    Meanwhile, no discussion of how Obama apparently has no morals given the cr*p he’s “approved” including blatant lies about comments by Rush Limbaugh?

    Or that Republicans, not his financial advisor, are responsible for the mess at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?

    Or how his party’s mob-like tactics (We suggest you loan to these unqualified people or there may be consequences) largely caused the current financial mess?

    No, Obama can just blame the GOP, and that isn’t “dirty campaigning.”

    Nor is not saying a single word decrying the hacking of Palin’s email account.

    Nope, that’s just “good political campaigning.”

    I can hardly wait to hear what inspired the show’s sketch implying Todd Palin is guilty of incest.

    Reply
  8. clifcrds
    September 22, 2008 at 12:57 pm

    Jawa Report Investigates Obama’s Astoturfing Of Palin

    Today, the Jawa Report observes — in a lengthy, well-documented article — that at least one of the viral videos carrying a proven false rumor about Palin (that she belonged to an Alaskan separatist movement) was professionally prepared by a p.r. firm linked to the Obama campaign,

    …the ad, while professionally produced, was put on YouTube and then spread in such a way as to make it seem like amateurs had made it and spread it. We can’t help but wonder if the missing disclaimer on the video was an intentional exploitation of a loophole meant to distance the people behind the ad from its outright lies?

    We also can’t help but wonder if maybe those who produced the ad believed that the lack of disclaimer constituted an FEC violation? Which would be an alternative explanation for why they did not wish to be connected to it.

    Beyond the disclaimer, though, our reading of FEC regulations suggests that political campaign and 527 groups, such as Moveon.org, are required to report money spent on advertising opposing a candidate for public office. We can find no exception for advertising intended for web only campaigns.

    We assume that if some group paid for the production of the video, that it would be reported to the FEC. Not doing so, we believe, would constitute a breach of federal campaign law.

    http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/194057.php

    Not only does it seem that a professional P.R. firm linked to Obama prepared the ad, but the site details persuasive evidence that key members of that same firm, posing as members of the public used sock puppets (made up online personae, to spread the video far and wide (make it go “viral”).

    Rusty also has evidence, which he details, that the firm used its facilities to produce the video and that a voice over artist used before by David Axelrod, Obama’s campaign adviser and a professional specializing in astroturfing, was involved in the production of the video.

    Very Interesting

    This very exhaustive report ties Obama’s campaign manager to using YouTube to propagate lies about Sarah Palin. What was Obama’s campaign slogan . . . “Change”? Dosen’t look like any change from a typical lieing liberal socialist to me.

    Reply
  9. RightWinger
    September 22, 2008 at 1:08 pm

    That Jawa Report and the others invovled did a great job of exposing that. How everybody got fingered just shows how arrogant those people are. Using “eswinner” (amongst others sued) as the name of an unbiased, non-partisan observer??? Amongt other things. They must have thought they were so clever and smart that nobody could put 2+2 together. That is arrogance.

    Of course there should be an investigation by the FEC, but since these are Demorats involved, it will not go anyplace. Of course their defense will be that this was all a very childish frame-up job orchestrated by Karl Rove, that magnificent bastard!

    Reply
  10. BillK
    September 22, 2008 at 5:59 pm

    Update on the Palin hacking, from Fox News:

    Warrant Served on Residence of College Student in Palin E-Mail Hack

    The FBI has served a search warrant against a 20-year-old college student in connection with the hacking of Sarah Palin’s personal e-mail account.

    A witness told WBIR-TV that FBI agents served the warrant at the college residence of David Kernell, a student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Kernell is the son of Mike Kernell, a Democratic state representative from Memphis.

    The FBI and Secret Service launched a formal investigation on Sept. 17 into the hacking of one of Palin’s Yahoo! e-mail accounts. Yahoo! declined to comment Sept. 18 on details of the investigation, citing Palin’s privacy and the sensitivity of such investigations.

    A Department of Justice spokesman told WBIR-TV that there has been “investigatory activity” in Knoxville regarding the investigation. A witness told the station that several agents arrived at Kernell’s apartment complex early Sunday morning.

    A witness told the station they took photos inside Kernell’s apartment and that his three roommates were subpoenaed to testify this week in Chattanooga.

    The hacker who compromised Palin’s account used Ctunnel.com, an Internet proxy site, which renders Web users anonymous, to get into Palin’s e-mail. The site is run by Gabriel Ramuglia, 25, a Web developer from Athens, Ga., who said the hacker left behind revealing clues after posting screen grabs of Palin’s inbox.

    Ramuglia said he saw the screenshots and recognized his site. He is now working with the FBI to provide agents with his business logs to help identify the criminal.

    “I should be able to find out who is involved by going through my logs,” he said. “The FBI called me last night and they wanted to know that the logs weren’t deleted — as long as they weren’t deleted — and they asked me to help, so I’m downloading them.”

    Ramuglia said the FBI told him they also reached out to Yahoo! to ask for help. The hope is that information from Yahoo! can be matched with something in the proxy site’s logs, identifying the hacker. The logs from both Ctunnel.com and Yahoo! were to be delivered to the FBI last week, Ramuglia said.

    “As long as they didn’t use a second proxy, I should be able to find them,” Ramuglia said. “I don’t think they were careful enough to do that.”

    There is widespread speculation about who was behind the attack and what the motivation was.

    Jose Nazario, a senior security engineer with Arbor Networks Inc., said he knows “through personal contacts” that members of the group Anonymous were involved in the Palin e-mail attack.

    He said Anonymous is a loose network of a few dozen people who live in the United States and abroad and range from teenagers to 30-year-olds who share what he said is a “sociopathic sense of humor.”

    “Anonymous sort of takes pride in doing this publicly and pissing people off. There are other groups that do this, but they aren’t as public about it,” Nazario said.

    The confession read: “i am the lurker who did it, and i would like to tell the story.” It continued to say that what started as a prank was cut short because of panic over the possibility the FBI might investigate, the hacker wrote. …

    http://elections.foxnews.com/2.....mail-hack/

    Unfortunately in cases like this, proof will be very, very hard to find.

    Even if all the IP addresses point to a person, you still need to prove the computer’s owner was actually responsible; all Kernell would have to say is that he let “another guy in the dorm” use his computer or that “my PC was hacked” and he’s off the hook unless say the FBI finds step by step notes in his handwriting in his apartment.

    Reply
  11. BillK
    September 22, 2008 at 6:07 pm

    A brief summary of the anti-Palin and anti-GOP remarks from the Emmys, from Fox News:

    Tina Fey Wants Palin Out of Her Life After Election

    LOS ANGELES — There were plenty of digs at John McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin at Sunday’s 60th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards.

    The show immediately opened on a political note (with a great round of applause) as host Howie Mandel said that he was on Palin’s “bridge to nowhere.”

    Winner Jeremy Piven later laughed about the comments backstage, and when asked for his thoughts on the candidate, he responded that he was with Matt Damon (who recently slammed Palin) on that one.

    Stephen Colbert of “The Colbert Report” also opened up backstage about his desire to follow in Tina Fey’s footsteps and do an impersonation of the Alaska governor.

    “Because I too have no business in being a vice president,” Colbert explained bluntly.

    Fey herself, who has gotten so much attention for her impression of Palin on “Saturday Night Live,” said she hopes the VP hopeful will be out of her life very soon.

    “I want to be done playing this lady Nov. 5, so if anyone could help me be done playing her on Nov. 5, that would be good for me,” Fey said, adding that she was totally resistant in acknowledging her uncanny physical resemblance to Palin until her young daughter turned on the TV and teased “that’s mummy.”

    In addition, Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show” took a political poke while accepting his Emmy for best Variety, Music or Comedy Series by concluding that he is “really looking forward to the next administration, whoever that is.”

    Laura Linney also used the press opportunity following her win for best lead actress in a mini-series or movie to subtly slam Palin’s remarks at the RNC regarding Sen. Barack Obama’s roots as a community organizer.

    “Our founding fathers were community organizers. I feel it’s been disparaged a bit,” Linney told us in the media tent, adding that nobody should be disrespected regardless of their party or personal upbringing. …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,425902,00.html

    No surprises here, but it’s nice to have them nailed down in one place.

    Reply
  12. BillK
    September 22, 2008 at 6:23 pm

    Yes, it’s an incredibly far-left paper, but the fawning coverage is incredible.

    From the (Madison, WI) Capital Times:

    It’s time to get independents off the fence, says Michelle Obama

    By Steven Elbow

    Michelle Obama issued an urgent call to action to supporters today, imploring them to get friends, family and neighbors off the fence and into the camp of her husband, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

    “With less than 50 days, every day, every minute, counts,” she told about 1,800 supporters at the park outside Camp Randall. “He’s up against a tough opponent with a lot of resources.”

    Recent polls show Obama running neck-and-neck with Republican presidential nominee John McCain and holding onto a slight lead in Wisconsin. While Democrats have won Wisconsin in recent presidential elections, they have done so with razor-thin margins.

    “It was never going to be easy,” Obama said.

    Kicking off a week-long campaign in Wisconsin aimed at women voters, Obama spoke to a crowd in which women substantially outnumbered men. Many took a partial day off work or missed classes to attend.

    “You have to have your priorities,” said Nick Keel, 28, a UW graduate student who skipped class for the event.

    As if on cue, the sun burned through a thick haze serving up a beautiful early fall day as speakers — including Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, County Executive Kathleen Falk and U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin — took the podium.

    The supportive crowd didn’t need to be convinced to vote for Obama, a freshman U.S. senator who has run a remarkably effective grassroots campaign. While she touted her husband as the only candidate who will address health care, education, renewable energy, the unfolding economic crisis and an end to U.S. involvement in Iraq, she did so in the context of addressing the issues others should take to friends and family who are still sitting on the fence.

    “You have to talk to them,” she said.

    She said supporters need to go “block by block, neighbor to neighbor” to get voters focused on the issues that matter to them.

    Never mentioning McCain by name, she repeatedly told the crowd that Obama — who was raised by a single mother and worked as a community organizer in Chicago after graduating from Harvard Law School — was the only candidate that would be on the side of working Americans.

    “I know in my heart that Barack gets it,” she said. “How do I know he gets it? It’s because he’s been there.”

    She also played to the many students who attended, highlighting Obama’s plan to offer tuition breaks in exchange for community service.

    Unlike her first Wisconsin appearance in February, when she drew conservative fire for telling a crowd that “For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country,” her speech today contained no such gaffes.

    She recounted her own upbringing in Chicago as well. Her father was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis while working as a blue-collar city worker, and her mother stayed at home to raise her and her brother. Still, she said, her parents helped put two children through college, and Michelle Obama eventually earned her law degree. She and Barack Obama have two daughters, and concern for their future is part of her husband’s passion to put the country on a different track.

    Michelle Obama, who delivered a rousing speech last month on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention, has become renowned in her own right for her speaking abilities and ability to connect with a crowd.

    After the speech, as two bodyguards eyed the crowd, Obama met a throng of fans who offered handshakes and hugs. Many walked away with high emotions.

    “She certainly is a warm, gracious person,” said Deanne Armentrout, 65, who was in tears after shaking Obama’s hand.

    She said her emotion stemmed from the fact that she has children and grandchildren, and she feels their future hinges on this election.

    “We want them to grow up in a world like the one we experienced,” she said.

    Maura Tracy, a 20-year-old UW junior, said shaking Obama’s hand made her day.

    “She’s just so inspiring, just hearing her story,” she said. …

    http://www.madison.com/tct/news/stories/305985

    Excuse me while I vomit.

    I do have to agree with Michelle on one point, though:

    She said supporters need to go “block by block, neighbor to neighbor” to get voters focused on the issues that matter to them.

    Absolutely.

    We need to get out and make sure people know just how much destruction this woman’s husband will cause to this country should he be elected President.

    I also liked:

    She said her emotion stemmed from the fact that she has children and grandchildren, and she feels their future hinges on this election.

    “We want them to grow up in a world like the one we experienced,” she said.

    She’s more correct than she knows, but not in the way she thinks.

    An Obama Presidency would guarantee that her children and grandchildren will never know the world she grew up in and instead will grow up in a socialist United States willing to placate terrorists with whatever they ask as long as they leave us alone.

    Reply
  13. dulcimergrl
    September 22, 2008 at 6:24 pm

    Thanks BillK, for emmy moonbat wrap-up. And I used to think Laura Linney was intelligent…

    Reply
  14. 1sttofight
    September 22, 2008 at 6:44 pm

    “You have to have your priorities,” said Nick Keel, 28, a UW graduate student who skipped class for the event.

    Son, if you are still in school at age 28, you might want to change some of your “priorities”.

    Reply
  15. JohnMG
    September 22, 2008 at 7:28 pm

    1sttofight; …..”who skipped class for the event……”

    This might explain his still being in school at age 28. He must have REAL trouble ordering his priorities. Wonder if he felt a thrill go down his leg or if he just wet himself?

    Reply
  16. BillK
    September 23, 2008 at 2:00 am

    Wisconsin Democrats continue to claim that Republican efforts to ensure only legal voters vote are nothing more than vote repression efforts.

    From the (Madison) Wisconsin State Journal:

    Wisconsin Republican Party chairman says he had contacts with Van Hollen’s top aide

    By Mark Pitsch

    The state Republican Party chairman said Monday he had multiple conversations with Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen’s top aide before Van Hollen filed a lawsuit against the state election agency to compel expanded voter registration checks.

    But Reince Priebus, the party chairman, defended his contacts with Deputy Attorney General Ray Taffora, his comments in Van Hollen’s presence this month at the Republican National Convention criticizing the election agency, and meetings between GOP lawyers and the Justice Department lawyers handling the lawsuit.

    And he said party officials didn’t collaborate with Van Hollen, a Republican, in preparing the lawsuit against the state Government Accountability Board, which oversees elections.

    “We have a right to talk to the attorney general’s office and we did it,” Priebus said Monday. “There’s nothing wrong with us reporting a problem that is a blatant and intentional disregard of federal law.”

    But state Democratic Party Chairman Joe Wineke said the contacts show Van Hollen is “misusing his role as attorney general.”

    “What he is doing is pushing the agenda of the Republican Party of Wisconsin,” Wineke said.

    Van Hollen and Taffora didn’t respond to requests for comment.

    But a Justice Department spokesman said Taffora spoke with Priebus about the voter checks at the party chairman’s request and that Taffora also spoke with accountability board officials about the matter.

    Van Hollen told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last week that he was not aware of contacts between his office and state GOP officials.

    Also Monday, the state GOP filed a motion Monday seeking to intervene in the case to protect legitimate votes. …

    http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/306023

    Could this be because the Democrats don’t care about illegal voting at all?

    The Attorney General is doing his job - trying to ensure that federal law is not violated.

    Reply
  17. BillK
    September 23, 2008 at 2:04 am

    In other “insane news media member” news, from the Los Angeles Times:

    Dan Rather’s suit against CBS is trimmed

    The case can proceed, but a New York judge tosses out two of the former anchor’s four claims. The lawsuit stems from a story about Bush’s Air National Guard service.

    By Matea Gold

    NEW YORK — A New York state Supreme Court judge Monday limited the scope of Dan Rather’s $70-million lawsuit against CBS Corp., tossing out his claims that the network committed fraud and unlawfully interfered with his contract in his final months at the news division.

    But Justice Ira Gammerman allowed Rather to proceed with his claims that CBS broke the terms of his contract and breached its fiduciary duty by sidelining him in the wake of a controversial story about President Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard.

    The ruling “allows us to prove everything we need to prove to a jury,” said Martin Gold, Rather’s lead attorney. “I think the breach-of-contract claim is essentially a slam-dunk.”

    That point was vigorously disputed by lawyers for CBS, who cast the judge’s decision as a victory for the network, which had asked the court to dismiss three of Rather’s four remaining claims. The judge threw out two of them and also dismissed the complaint against Viacom, saying the corporation could not be held liable for the actions of CBS, from which it split in 2006.

    James Quinn, CBS’ attorney, said the former anchor would not be able to prove that the network breached the terms of his contract.

    Monday’s ruling capped the second attempt by the network to get Rather’s suit dismissed and came almost exactly a year after he startled the television industry by suing his former employer of 44 years.

    t the heart of the case is a story that Rather reported on the now-defunct weeknight edition of “60 Minutes” in September 2004 that said political allies helped Bush avoid deployment to Vietnam and skirt the requirements of his service in the Texas Air National Guard.

    Conservative bloggers and other critics immediately challenged the veracity of the story. In the end, a panel appointed by CBS concluded that the report was based in part on documents that could not be authenticated.

    The newsman said that after he stepped down from “CBS Evening News” in March 2005, he was denied the support staff and airtime that his contract guaranteed.

    http://www.latimes.com/enterta.....4582.story

    Basically it’s now a contract dispute between CBS News and Rather, nothing more, and certainly no referendum on the veracity of the National Guard memos.

    He could have retained some dignity, but this is how the world will remember Dan.

    Aside from as a newscaster that would walk off the set if he was upset.

    Reply
  18. BillK
    September 23, 2008 at 2:21 am

    Ahmadinejad joins Obama in calling for Change:

    Iran president blames Wall Street turmoil on U.S. ‘military engagement’

    Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in New York for U.N.’s fall opening, also says Israel is doomed.

    By Richard Boudreaux

    NEW YORK — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared Monday that the turmoil on Wall Street was rooted in part in U.S. military intervention abroad and voiced hope that the next American administration would retreat from what he called President Bush’s “logic of force.”

    He also asserted, in an interview with The Times, that Israel was doomed like “an airplane that has lost its engine” and that Western intelligence documents questioning the peaceful purpose of Iran’s nuclear program were crude forgeries.

    The United Nations General Assembly opened its annual session Monday in a state of alarm over a global financial crisis. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he feared for his effort to secure increased pledges from rich nations to aid the poorest, which are already reeling from higher food and energy prices.

    Before joining the annual fall debate, Ahmadinejad sounded a provocative note on the topic during a 40-minute interview with Times editors and a reporter in a Midtown Manhattan hotel suite heavily guarded by agents of the Department of Homeland Security.

    “Problems do not arise suddenly,” he said. “The U.S. government has made a series of mistakes in the past few decades. First, the imposition on the U.S. economy of heavy military engagement and involvement around the world . . . the war in Iraq, for example. . . . These are heavy costs.

    “The world economy can no longer tolerate the budgetary deficit and the financial pressures occurring from markets here in the United States, and by the U.S. government,” he added.

    Several blocks away, across from the U.N. headquarters, 3,000 people mobilized by a coalition of mostly Jewish groups protested against Ahmadinejad’s threats toward Israel and Iran’s human rights record.

    And in Vienna, the chief of the U.N.’s atomic watchdog agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, accused Iran of blocking his efforts to clarify its involvement in experiments and studies consistent with the development of a clandestine nuclear weapons program.

    Suspicion that Iran is pursuing such weapons took center stage at last fall’s General Assembly debate and put Ahmadinejad on the spot. This year, with a divided Security Council reluctant to tighten sanctions against Iran, he appeared relaxed and confident.

    “We do not believe that the U.S. policy perspective, looking at the rest of the world as a field of confrontation, will give good results,” he said.

    http://www.latimes.com/news/na.....3574.story

    It’s unknown whether he took his Obama pin off before the interview or not…

    Reply
  19. BillK
    September 23, 2008 at 5:09 am

    From the Times of London:

    Russia engages in ‘gangland’ diplomacy as it sends warship to the Caribbean

    By Tony Halpin in Moscow

    Russia flexed its muscles in America’s backyard yesterday as it sent one of its largest warships to join military exercises in the Caribbean. The nuclear-powered flagship Peter the Great set off for Venezuela with the submarine destroyer Admiral Chabanenko and two support vessels in the first Russian naval mission in Latin America since the end of the Cold War.

    “The St Andrew flag, the flag of the Russian Navy, is confidently returning to the world oceans,” Igor Dygalo, a spokesman for the Russian Navy, said. He declined to comment on Russian newspaper reports that nuclear submarines were also part of the expedition.

    The voyage to join the Venezuelan Navy for manoeuvres came only days after Russian strategic nuclear bombers made their first visit to the country. Hugo Chávez, the President, said then that the arrival of the strike force was a warning to the US. The vehemently antiAmerican Venezuelan leader is due to visit Dmitri Medvedev, the Russian President, in Moscow this week as part of a tour that includes visits to Cuba and China.

    Peter the Great is armed with 20 nuclear cruise missiles and up to 500 surface-to-air missiles, making it one of the most formidable warships in the world. The Kremlin has courted Venezuela and Cuba as tensions with the West soared over the proposed US missile shield in Eastern Europe and the Russian invasion of Georgia last month. Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister, said recently that Russia should “restore its position in Cuba” – the nation where deployment of Soviet nuclear missiles in 1962 brought Russia and the United States to the brink of nuclear war.

    Igor Sechin, the Deputy Prime Minister, made clear that Russia would challenge the US for influence in Latin America after visits to Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba last week. He said: “It would be wrong to talk about one nation having exclusive rights to this zone.”

    Moscow was infuriated when Washington sent US warships into the Black Sea to deliver aid to Georgia after the war. Analysts said that the Kremlin was engaging in gunboat diplomacy over the encroachment of Nato into the former Soviet satellites of Georgia and Ukraine.

    Pavel Felgengauer, a leading Russian defence expert, told The Times: “It’s to show the flag and the finger to the United States. They are offering a sort of gangland deal – if you get into our territory, then we will get into yours. You leave Georgia and Ukraine to us and we won’t go into the Caribbean, OK?” He described the visit as “first and foremost a propaganda deployment”, pointing out that one of the support vessels was a tug in case either of the warships broke down. …

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t.....804157.ece

    That’s OK; should anything happen I’m sure we can sit down and have a talk.

    Reply
  20. BillK
    September 23, 2008 at 5:12 am

    The latest anti-US court decision from US courts, from Fox News:

    Court Rules U.S. Can’t Block Release of Detainee Photos

    NEW YORK — A federal appeals court says the U.S. government must release 20 pictures of U.S. soldiers and detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan demanded by a civil rights group seeking to expose abuse.

    The Manhattan court on Monday rejected the government’s claim that the release of the pictures would endanger the life or physical safety of U.S. troops and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    A federal judge had earlier ordered that identifying facial features be removed from the pictures before they are released to the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU had asked for the pictures to be released.

    The color photographs were taken by people serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,425963,00.html

    After all, those war-mongering soldiers deserve whatever they get for daring to take up arms against these innocents…

    Reply
  21. BillK
    September 23, 2008 at 5:17 am

    Everyone’s favorite ex-President makes a comment that would get a Republican nailed to a wall.

    Needless to say, the Press doesn’t even blink.

    From the AP:

    Bill Clinton Says He Understands Palin’s Appeal

    NEW YORK — Former President Bill Clinton said Monday he understands why Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is popular in the American heartland: because people relate to her.

    “I come from Arkansas, I get why she’s hot out there, why she’s doing well,” said Clinton, who supports the Democratic ticket headed by Barack Obama.

    Speaking to reporters before his Clinton Global Initiative meeting, the former president described Palin’s appeal by adding, “People look at her, and they say, ‘All those kids. Something that happens in everybody’s family. I’m glad she loves her daughter and she’s not ashamed of her. Glad that girl’s going around with her boyfriend. Glad they’re going to get married.”‘

    Clinton said voters would think, “I like that little Down syndrome kid. One of them lives down the street. They’re wonderful children. They’re wonderful people. And I like the idea that this guy does those long-distance races. Stayed in the race for 500 miles with a broken arm. My kind of guy.” …

    http://elections.foxnews.com/2.....in-appeal/

    What if that had read “I like that little Black kid. One of them lives down the street. They’re wonderful children.”?

    Will we hear from activists for the disabled?

    Nah, Bill’s a good ol’ boy, no big deal.

    Reply
  22. BillK
    September 23, 2008 at 11:02 pm

    Screw the economy, it’s politics, stupid.

    From Fox News:

    Senators Express Reservations on Bailout, Despite Pleas for Swift Passage

    WASHINGTON — Leading senators of both parties are expressing strong reservations about the administration’s financial bailout plan despite pleas from the treasury secretary and Federal Reserve chairman for quick passage.

    Sen. Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said on Tuesday, “What they have sent us is not acceptable.”

    Sen. Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican, said, “We have got to look at some alternatives.”

    But congressional leaders and aides are still predicting passage, only with significant changes, after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke bluntly warned reluctant lawmakers they risk a recession with higher unemployment and increased home foreclosures if they fail to approve the Bush administration’s $700 billion plan to bail out the financial industry.

    “This will pass. No question,” a senior aide to Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell told FOX News, predicting the stand-off would draw to a close by the end of the weekend.

    Bernanke sketched a scenario in which neither businesses nor consumers could borrow money as President Bush and top lawmakers leaders in both parties voiced hope for agreement within days on a plan to ease the crisis.

    “Nobody is happy” about the bailout request, said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., although he too spoke of possible passage of legislation by the weekend.

    “Nobody wants to have to do this,” agreed Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader. He said he was hopeful of a quick agreement, despite withering criticism from conservative GOP lawmakers, some of whom likened the plan to socialism.

    With the Dow Jones industrials sinking 161 points after initially surging on the bailout announcements last week, the stakes were unmistakable. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Congress must pass the legislation this week. He later met with House GOP leaders Tuesday evening.

    “I understand speed is important, but I’m far more interested in whether or not we get this right,” said Dodd, D-Conn., presiding over a a hearing by the Senate Banking Committee banking panel where Bernanke joined Paulson in appealing for quick legislation.

    “There is no second act to this. There is no alternative idea out there with resources available if this does not work,” he added.

    Bernanke’s remarks about the risk of recession came in response to a question from Dodd, who seemed eager to hear a strong rationale for lawmakers to act swiftly on the administration’s unprecedented request.

    “The financial markets are in quite fragile condition and I think absent a plan they will get worse,” Bernanke said.

    Ominously, he added, “I believe if the credit markets are not functioning, that jobs will be lost, that our credit rate will rise, more houses will be foreclosed upon, GDP will contract, that the economy will just not be able to recover in a normal, healthy way.” …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,426505,00.html

    Hey, the Democrats didn’t get their recession, so what’s wrong with forcing one?

    Reply
  23. BillK
    September 23, 2008 at 11:04 pm

    From the AP:

    FBI Investigating Potential Fraud by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman, AIG

    WASHINGTON — The FBI is investigating four major U.S. financial institutions whose collapse helped trigger a $700 billion bailout plan by the Bush administration, The Associated Press has learned.

    Two law enforcement officials said Tuesday the FBI is looking at potential fraud by mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and insurer American International Group Inc. Additionally, a senior law enforcement official said Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. also is under investigation.

    The inquiries will focus on the financial institutions and the individuals that ran them, the senior law enforcement official said.

    The law enforcement officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigations are ongoing and are in the very early stages.

    Officials said the new inquiries bring to 26 the number of corporate lenders under investigation over the past year.

    Spokesmen for AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did not immediately return calls for comment Tuesday evening. A Lehman spokesman did not have an immediate comment.

    Just last week, FBI Director Robert Mueller put the number of large financial firms under investigation at 24. He did not name any of the companies under investigation but said the FBI also was looking at whether any of them have misrepresented their assets.

    Over the past year as the housing market cratered, the FBI has opened a wide-ranging probe of companies across the financial services industry, from mortgage lenders to investment banks that bundle home loans into securities sold to investors. Mueller has previously said the FBI’s hunt for culprits in the nation’s subprime mortgage crisis focused on accounting fraud, insider trading, and failure to disclose the value of mortgage-related securities and other investments.

    The investigations revealed Tuesday come as lawmakers began considering whether to approve emergency legislation that would give the government broad power to buy up devalued assets from troubled financial firms.

    The bailout proposed by the Bush administration is aimed at helping unlock credit and stabilize badly shaken markets in the United States and around the globe.

    In the past two weeks, the government has taken over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the country’s two biggest mortgage companies, with a bailout plan that could require the Treasury Department to put up as much as $100 billion for each of them over time if needed to keep them afloat as mortgage losses mount.

    Last week, the Federal Reserve provided an emergency $85 billion loan to AIG, which teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. Lehman Brothers was forced to file for bankruptcy after attempts to engineer a private rescue fell apart. All the companies were laid low from bad bets on complex mortgage-related securities. …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,426783,00.html

    One wonders how quickly this will be swept under the rug should Frankie Raines in any way be implicated…

    Reply
  24. BillK
    September 23, 2008 at 11:11 pm

    From the AP:

    Democrats to Let Offshore Drilling Ban Expire, Conceding Defeat in Battle With GOP

    WASHINGTON — Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in a months-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline prices this summer.

    House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., told reporters Tuesday that a provision continuing the moratorium will be dropped this year from a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running after Congress recesses for the election.

    Republicans have made lifting the ban a key campaign issue after gasoline prices spiked this summer and public opinion turned in favor of more drilling. President Bush lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling in July.

    “If true, this capitulation by Democrats following months of Republican pressure is a big victory for Americans struggling with record gasoline prices,” said House GOP leader John Boehner of Ohio.

    Democrats had clung to the hope of only a partial repeal of the drilling moratorium, but the White House had promised a veto, Obey said.

    The House is expected to act on the spending bill Wednesday. The Senate is likely to go along with the House.

    “The White House has made it clear they will not accept anything with a drilling moratorium, and Democrats know we cannot afford to shut down the government over this,” said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “We look forward to working with the next president to hammer out a final resolution of this issue.”

    While the House would lift the long-standing drilling moratoriums for both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, a drilling ban in waters within 125 miles of Florida’s western coast would remain in force under a law passed by Congress in 2006 that opened some new areas of the east-central Gulf to drilling.

    Just last week, the House passed legislation to open waters off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to oil and gas drilling but only 50 or more miles out to sea and only if a state agrees to energy development off its shore. It quickly became clear that measure would not get the 60 votes needed in the Senate.

    Republicans called that effort a sham that would have left almost 90 percent of offshore reserves effectively off-limits.

    The Interior Department estimates there are 18 billion barrels of recoverable oil beneath the Outer Continental Shelf, about half of it off California.

    While the ban on energy development will be lifted if the Senate goes along with the House action, it doesn’t mean any federal sale of oil and gas leases in the offshore waters — much less actual drilling — would be imminent.

    The Interior Department’s current five-year leasing plan includes potential leases off the Virginia coast but probably would not be pursued unless the state agrees to energy development. And the state is unlikely to do so without Congress agreeing to share federal royalties with the state.

    The congressional battle over offshore drilling is far from over. Democrats are expected to press for broader energy legislation, probably next year, that would put limits on any drilling off most of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Republicans, meanwhile, are likely to fight any resumption of the drilling bans that have been in place since 1981. …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,426764,00.html

    So in fact this changes nothing; no new leases will be offered and of course no company is going to even explore with the possibility that they will be prevented from drilling next year.

    It also remains to be seen if this will do anything to calm the jittery oil market.

    Reply
  25. BillK
    September 23, 2008 at 11:13 pm

    From a disappointed AP:

    Obama campaign quiet since Palin announcement

    By Steve Quinn

    JUNEAU, Alaska — The Palin punch has delivered a blow to Barack Obama’s slim hopes of capturing Alaska’s three electoral votes on Nov. 4.

    Obama’s high profile in the state has taken a precipitous slide since Aug. 29, when popular Gov. Sarah Palin joined Sen. John McCain on the Republican presidential ticket.

    Two of Obama’s Alaska campaign offices have consolidated into one and another didn’t open as advertised. One of two press secretaries assigned to Alaska has left.

    Alaskans last chose a Democrat for the presidency in 1964, when they backed Lyndon B. Johnson by a 2-1 margin over Barry Goldwater. Since 1980, the state has sent an all-Republican congressional delegation to Washington.

    Of the state’s 482,045 registered voters, 121,338 are Republican, 73,876 are Democrat and 256,516 haven’t chosen a party _ a bloc the Obama campaign had hoped to win over.

    Obama spokeswoman Nayyera Haq said the campaign still planned several rallies and parties tied to the upcoming debates.

    With the presidential race very tight, Alaska Democrats aren’t expecting Obama to visit Alaska _ a prospect raised in July. Julie Hasquet, a spokeswoman for Democratic Senate candidate Mark Begich, said it wasn’t realistic to expect a visit.

    “Initially yeah, we thought we might see him,” Hasquet said. “But when your governor is running for vice president, it makes it more difficult for the opposing candidate to do well in that state.”

    http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2.....ka,00.html

    But I thought animosity towards Palin was ever-increasing in Alaska?

    Reply
  26. BillK
    September 23, 2008 at 11:17 pm

    Can anyone spot the laugh-out-loud line in this story?

    From Fox News:

    Report: Jenna Jameson Having Twins

    Former adult film star Jenna Jameson and mixed martial arts fighter Tito Ortiz are having twins, gossip blogger Perez Hilton reports.

    “They’re having twins,” a friend of the superstar told Hilton. “Jenna and Tito just found out. They are beyond thrilled!”

    Jameson recently confirmed that she’s pregnant following months of buzz.

    “Yes, I can confirm I’m pregnant. It’s still early, so I’m being cautious. I’m resting as much as possible,” she told Usmagazine.com, adding that she and Ortiz “are still in a state of shock.”

    “I’m so happy!” she said.

    Jameson, 34, previously told Us she discovered she was two months pregnant in November 2004 after being diagnosed with malignant melanoma. A day later, she miscarried due to the stress of cancer.

    But the devout Catholic — who has tried in vitro — told Us, “It was all in God’s plan.”

    Jameson — who split from adult film studio owner Jay Grdina in 2006 and from porn star Brad Armstrong in 2001— said she and Ortiz have no plans to wed.

    “I think I’m gonna stay unmarried and just go for the babies!” she told Us. “I’m following in Angelina’s footsteps!” …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,426268,00.html

    Hmmm, former adult film star decides to have twins while unmarried.

    Devout Catholic?!?!?

    I’ll let englishqueen01 or some of our other actual practicing Catholic readers dissect that one…

    Reply
  27. Exeter
    September 23, 2008 at 11:18 pm

    Just found this little tidbit on Michelle Malkin’s site. NOW I’m pissed!

    http://michellemalkin.com/

    Kill the bailout: Phones ringing off the hook; student loans, car debt added to proposal
    By Michelle Malkin • September 23, 2008 10:27 PM

    We don’t have to have this trillion-dollar bailout shoved down our throats.

    You can make a difference.

    Phones are ringing off the hook. Peter Viles at L.A.Land:

    A key quote in this morning’s Senate hearing about the Paulson bailout is worth repeating. This comes from Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat:

    “Like my colleagues, my phones have been ringing off the hook. The sentiment from Ohioans about this proposal is universally negative.”

    Not “overwhelmingly negative.” Not “deeply suspicious.” Not “extremely upset.” Universally negative.

    I’ll state the obvious: Members of Congress aren’t generally in the habit of passing historic and spectacularly unpopular legislation five weeks before election day.
    Make your voice heard now. Every second counts: 202-224-3121.

    ***

    Quotable: “‘Just because God created the world in seven days doesn’t mean we have to pass this bill in seven days,’ said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas.”

    Or at all.

    You might want to make a special effort to phone John McCain’s office. He’s waffling and wavering and straddling. Mr. Maverick needs a clue.

    Ready for this?!

    Update: Student loans, car loans, and credit card debt have been snuck into the bailout proposal No. No No. Hellllllll, no.

    In the dark of night over the weekend when most people were snoozing, the Treasury dramatically expanded its bailout plan to include buying student loans, car loans, credit card debt and any other “troubled” assets held by banks.

    The changes, which were included in draft language that also opened the bailout program to foreign banks with extensive loan operations in the United States, potentially added tens of billions of dollars to the cost of the program.

    Although it was a major addition to what was already the nation’s largest-ever bailout, it did not become part of the debate between Democrats and the Treasury over details of the program. A Monday counterproposal by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd included such consumer loans as well as mortgages, just as the Treasury’s draft did Saturday night.

    “The costs of the bailout will be significantly higher than originally considered or acknowledged,” said Joshua Rosner, managing director of Graham Fisher & Co., who charged that the Treasury and Federal Reserve have not been “forthright” about the ultimate cost to the public. The plan gives Treasury the discretion to buy the non-mortgage loans and securities in consultation with the Fed.

    Conservatives cited the move as a sign that the massive plan to take over bad mortgage debt already is opening the door to further government bailouts.
    ***

    Get your GOP senator off the fence:

    Many members of the U.S. Senate blasted the Bush administration’s Wall Street bailout plan Tuesday, but no senator has come forward so far with an explicit pledge to kill the $700 billion proposal.

    The rules of the Senate, unlike the House , give individual lawmakers substantial power to delay or halt legislation, but three Senate aides said there were no clear signs yet of that power being exercised.

    As the Senate Banking Committee held a hearing on the plan put forward by the Treasury Department, aides said much would depend on Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, the committee’s top Republican, who was sharply critical at the hearing.

    The outlook for Treasury’s plan would dim greatly if Shelby were to move to block the bill that is expected to emerge soon from congressional debate over the plan, the aides said.

    The Democrat-controlled Congress and the Republican Bush administration are in negotiations over specifics of the bailout bill, with the House aiming to get legislation to a floor vote possibly Friday…

    …Other senators, including Republicans Jim Bunning of Kentucky and Jim DeMint of South Carolina, have expressed strong concerns.

    But the aides said these lawmakers also have stopped short of warning they would work to block the bill.

    Senator Coleman will be hearing from me tonight.

    Reply
  28. BillK
    September 23, 2008 at 11:20 pm

    Steven Spielberg joins the cause, from a delighted AP:

    Steven Spielberg Donates Money to Support Gay Marriage

    LOS ANGELES — Steven Spielberg and his wife, Kate Capshaw, are the latest celebrity donors to the fight against California’s November ballot initiative that would overturn the state Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage.

    Spielberg and Capshaw have donated $100,000 to fight Proposition 8, they announced in a statement Monday.

    “By writing discrimination into our state constitution, Proposition 8 seeks to eliminate the right of each and every citizen in our state to marry regardless of sexual orientation,” the statement said. “Such discrimination has NO place in California’s constitution, or any other.”

    Also known as the Marriage Protection Act, Proposition 8 would amend the state constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman. If passed, it would overturn the court decision that made the state only the second in the U.S. to legalize same-sex marriage.

    Brad Pitt gave the same amount to the cause last week.

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,426381,00.html

    Of course it’s not discrimination, but no one will ever be able to convince the left of that.

    Reply
  29. BillK
    September 23, 2008 at 11:23 pm

    Exeter, I hear you, but this is of course Congress’ fault for padding the bailout so badly.

    Alas, I suspect if the bill is defeated we may well see the DJIA’s first four digit drop in history. :(

    Reply
  30. Exeter
    September 23, 2008 at 11:23 pm

    BillK:

    How do you put that cool grey border next to your citation?

    Reply
  31. BillK
    September 23, 2008 at 11:24 pm

    Exeter - read SG’s original article posting instructions here.

    (It’s also linked at the very top of this page.)

    In particular, it’s via use of the “blockquote” HTML tag.

    Reply
  32. Exeter
    September 23, 2008 at 11:32 pm

    Wow - that’s cool! Thanks, BillK

    Reply