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Selected News For Week Sep 6 - Sep 12

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.

Related Articles:

This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Saturday, September 6th, 2008 at 12:00 am. You can leave a response.

82 Responses to “Selected News For Week Sep 6 - Sep 12”

texaspsue
September 6th, 2008 at 2:59 am
Video of the day:

Dear Mr. Obama

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG4fe9GlWS8<

Beautiful and effective.

H/T gateway pundit
JohnMG
September 6th, 2008 at 9:59 am
Thanks, Tex.
What a beautiful testimonial to the character of our young men and women in uniform. Is it any wonder the military are overwhelmingly supporting McCain rather than the othr ticket?
Liberals Make Great Speedbumps
September 6th, 2008 at 10:45 am
texaspsue,

Wonderful video, thank you for pointing it out.
wardmama4
September 6th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Texaspsue - Thanks for pointing it out

McCain, Obama & Biden - take note - 1:55 to say what you mean & mean what you say.

McCain/Palin ‘08
Palin/Coulter ‘12
notsoyoungjim
September 6th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Just for fun–rare footage of a tree hugger’s convention:

http://tinyurl.com/553bmg
fluffy
September 6th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Fun with numbers!

Our shrinking economy

A blizzard of pink slips propelled the jobless rate from 5.7 percent in July to 6.1 percent in August, the Labor Department reported Friday. Such a sharp increase is usually a strong recession warning, and it dashed investors’ hopes for a late-year recovery.

Worried about the economy and their own business prospects, employers cut payrolls by 84,000 in August, marking the eighth straight month of losses.

6.1% - 5.7% = .4 %

.4% = 1/250

84,000 x 250 = 21,000,000

America’s total workforce is a mere 21 million workers. That, or the numbers are cooked.
texaspsue
September 6th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
notsoyoungjim, omg… I don’t even know where to start. That was sooo disgusting. And to think, abortions are okay but, killing trees?….. waaahhhh. They truly need medical help.

I’m just glad they weren’t around when I cleared the cedar of of my property. :-)
SG
September 6th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
You’re right, Fluffy. Something is wrong with those numbers. The US civilian labor force, at 154.9 million, according to the Department Of Labor:

Employment Situation Summary
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
texaspsue
September 6th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
From the Washington Times:

Small-town residents boo media with McCain

By Joe Curl

CEDARBURG, Wisc. — Hundreds of angry people in this small town outside Milwaukee taunted reporters and TV crews traveling with Sen. John McCain on Friday, chanting “Be fair!” and pointing fingers at a pack of journalists as they booed loudly.

On the first leg of the “McCain Street USA” tour — which will take the Republican presidential nominee and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, to small towns across the heartland — the 30 or so reporters and crew were walking back to their buses to join the McCain motorcade when hundreds of townspeople started yelling.

“Stop lying! You are all liars! Tell the truth!” one woman yelled from the front of the pack.

The crowd was not menacing or threatening, but was clearly angry.

“You’re telling lies! Stop the lies!” one man yelled. Asked why the crowd was so angry, Linda J. Green of Mequon, Wisc., said: “I’m thinking the press is very biased.”

“I think the press is very liberal and very slanted against the McCain-Palin ticket. Would you ask a man if his kids were being taken care of while he’s out campaigning?”

http://washingtontimes.com/web.....-mccain-1/

Uh-Oh. This campaign is getting more interesting by the minute. I think main stream America has found their collective voice and the backlash the MSM and Liberals are going to experience could get ugly. Good. It’s about ding dang time. :-)
texaspsue
September 6th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
From Human Events:

Sarah Palin Is My Girl

By Ted Nugent

With grave suspicion and reservations, I nonetheless rejoice that the fading embers of conservatism may have indeed caught fire once more. That fireball is Gov.Sarah Palin of Alaska, I pray the next Vice President of the United States. Now I know why I have seen no one with any guts in the Republican Party in so long: the governor of Alaska has them all. Her speech last night was clearly a grand slam out-of-the-park home run. America, we have liftoff!

By selecting Gov. Palin to be his running mate, Sen. McCain has finally electrified the conservative base — the very base he desperately needs to defeat Sen.Obama in November. I, for one, am greatly relieved and inspired by her message, delivery, confidence, poise, class and grace.

To borrow a relative quote from Michelle Obama, with the selection of Gov. Palin, it’s the first time in quite some time that I’m proud of the Republican Party.

Gov. Palin is a true outsider, a real maverick. She lacks Washington, D.C. political experience. That’s good. No, that’s excellent. It is her lack of D.C. political experience that is the refreshing outsider change America so desperately needs and wants.

Palin made it clear that she is like the rest of us, noting how Fedzilla is bloated, broken, ineffective, and wasteful. Our professional politicians no longer work for us, but instead represent K Street bandit lobbyists. These scoundrels deserve our scorn, anger and contempt, and, quite honestly, a big, old pink slip, and Sarah appears to be the tough leader we seek to get the job done.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=28377

This article is a couple of days old; it’s a good read in case you missed it.

Ted Nugent was on Glenn Beck yesterday, (it was an encore show). He represents the beliefs of most Americans, always has an interesting take on the matters at hand and doesn’t mince words. He’s the real deal.
U NO HOO
September 6th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Palin/Jindal 2012!
Virginia Shanahan
September 6th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Pride Really Does Goeth Before The Fall- Just Ask Obama

No one ever saw it coming. As an aged warrior named John McCain approached him, Obama raised his chin tothe sky and scoffed. Who is this old man that believes he shall dent my amour? The country laughed and mockedthe old warrior. Little did Obama, or the country know, the old warrior had found Obama’s weakness and the laughter was about to be replaced with wails ofdisbelief and horror.

http://conservativepolitics.to.....ack-obama/

Sarah Palin’s Hard Hitting Body Checks Leave Her Opponenets Bloodied And Bruised

After the speech given by Joe Biden when he accepted the Vice Presidential nomination, in which he dutifully attacked John McCain, the liberal mainstream media praised the performance of Obama’s new “attack dog.” They sure have harsh words for Palin, who took Obama head on and desecrated his already thin resume and his pompous arrogance. Her performance alone challenged Obama’s own speechmaking. No longer is Obama the only gifted speaker in town.

There was no whining and no apologies from Sarah Palin. She jumped into the lions den and went for the jugular. She was tough in a non-bitchy way. Though she has never performed in front of an audience as large as last nights, nor in prime time, she was obviously comfortable and calm- even when her teleprompter broke and she had to wing it. Her performance and speech was so impressive even her critics were stunned as Palin left no stone unturned. She unleashed on Obama, Biden, the “do nothing” Senate and the press who has attempted to crucify her and her family this week. She body checked them all.

http://conservativepolitics.to.....d-bruised/
U NO HOO
September 6th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
“even when her teleprompter broke and she had to wing it.”

She has 5 children, she has winged it before, probably often.
Diane
September 6th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
I obviously can’t vouch for the authenticity of this letter. It was posted in a comment here:

http://miamiherald.typepad.com.....-conn.html

A most interesting and foreboding letter.

From Richmond Times-Dispatch, Monday, July 7, 2008 ~

Dear Editor, Times-Dispatch:

‘Each year I get to celebrate Independence Day twice. On June 30 I celebrate my independence day, and on July 4 I celebrate America’s. This year is special, because it marks the 40Th anniversary of my independence.

‘On June 30, 1968, I escaped Communist Cuba, and a few months later, I was in the United States to stay. That I happened to arrive in Richmond on Thanksgiving Day is just part of the story, but I digress.

‘I’ve thought a lot about the anniversary this year. The election-year rhetoric has made me think a lot about Cuba and what transpired there. In the late 1950s, most Cubans thought Cuba needed a change, and they were right. So when a young leader came along, every Cuban was at least receptive.

‘When the young leader spoke eloquently and passionately and denounced the old system, the press fell in love with him. They never questioned who his friends were or what he really believed in. When he said he would help the farmers and the poor and bring free medical care and education to all, everyone followed. When he said he would bring justice and equality to all, everyone said, ‘Praise the Lord.’ And when the young leader said, ‘I will be for change and I’ll bring you change,’ everyone yelled, ‘Viva Fidel!’

‘But nobody asked about the change, so by the time the executioner’s guns went silent, the people’s guns had been taken away. By the time everyone was equal, they were equally poor, hungry, and oppressed. By the time everyone received their free education, it was worth nothing. By the time the press noticed, it was too late, because they were now working for him. By the time the change was finally implemented, Cuba had been knocked down a couple of notches to Third-World status. By the time the change was over, more than a million people had taken to boats, rafts, and inner tubes. You can call those who made it ashore anywhere else in the world the most fortunate Cubans. And now I’m back to the beginning of my story.

‘Luckily, we would never fall in America for a young leader who promised change without asking, what change? How will you carry it out? What will it cost America?

‘Would we?’

(I tried to clean up the formatting a bit. If I screwed it up, my apologies.)

Authentic or not, something worth thinking about.
Reality Bytes
September 6th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Hey - notsoyoung.

Wow! I thought I was looking a pentecostal bible meeting there for a minute. You know, when I was a kid in school, my humanities teacher told us that there actually were people who worshipped trees and rocks. I thought he was kiddin!

http://tinyurl.com/553bmg
Curmudgeon
September 7th, 2008 at 10:04 am
The following is going around on Facebook… it calls these “facts” “frightening”, but what’s really frightening is the horrendous logic and thin associations the writer employed in his arguments. It has made me happier about voting for McCain, though.
——————————————————————————
I don’t think some people realize how frightening our future could be with John McCain as president. The truth is that McCain has spent the last 25 years fighting against a women’s right to choose and her access to birth control and health clinics. He is GREATLY anti-choice, and if elected, I promise you that he will make huge steps to impose laws on our bodies.

This group exists to raise awareness about his anti-choice record. Studies show that exposing groups of women to this information significantly lowers their desire to vote for McCain. Please invite your friends, female or male. We need to ensure that the women in this country are protected and offered the choices they deserve.

FACT: stricter laws on abortion and birth control will actually increase the abortion rate. From the book “How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America” by Cristina Page: “the countries with the lowest rates of abortion are characterized, interestingly, by liberal abortion laws, well-financed contraception programs, and a commitment to comprehensive sex education.”

FACT: pro-lifers often do what is worse for America’s children. The Children’s Defense Fund (a neutral group when it comes to the issue of abortion) ranked the best and worst legislators for children, based on their voting records. Of the 113 representatives the CDF rated as “worse for children,” 100% of them are pro-life.

FACT: “delay” laws (i.e. laws that require women to receive counseling before abortions, etc) do not prevent abortion, but rather cause women to have abortions later in their pregnancies, when the fetus is more developed and the abortion is a greater risk to the woman’s life. In 1992, when a prominent delay law took effect, 53% more women had abortions in the second trimester.

FACT: the “just say no to sex until marriage” message does not work, and completely fails to consider the fact that about 1 in 5 of U.S. women who have abortions are married.

FACT: when Bush was governor of Texas, he spent $10 million on abstinence-only education. Today, Texas has the fourth-largest population in the U.S. of people living with HIV/AIDS. By the end of Bush’s term as governor, Texas ranked dead last in the nation when it came to the decline of teen birth rates. Overall, Southern states have the highest rate of new HIV/AIDs infections, the highest rate of STDs, and the highest rate of teen births.
The supporting evidence for birth control, choice, and comprehensive sex education goes on and on. This is why having John McCain as president would be incredibly harmful to our country. A summary of his anti-choice views:

- His official campaign website calls legal abortion a “human tragedy” and claims that “the reversal of Roe v. Wade represents only one step in the long path toward ending abortion.”
- He repeatedly voted for (and cosponsored) a federal abortion ban.
- Voted to TERMINATE the Title X Family-Planning Program, which provides millions of women with a range of health services, from birth control to breast cancer screenings.
- Voted to DENY all federal health grants to any health center that provides abortions, thus de-funding clinics nationwide that provide services ASIDE from abortions, like STD testing or family planning.
- Voted AGAINST the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which sought to establish penalties for anti-choicers who use violence or threats to stop people from entering clinics that provide abortions and birth control.
- Voted to take $75 million dollars from the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant (to provide children and adults with quality health care) and use it to fund abstinence-only programs.
- Voted to de-fund the United Nations Population Fund, an organization that provides family-planning services (not abortion) to the world’s poorest women.
- Voted on a policy that would make it easier for those convicted of harassment or violence towards clinic workers or patients to avoid paying fines for their actions.
- Voted FOR a regulation that would make a fetus (but not a pregnant woman) eligible for health-care coverage.
- Voted in favor of four anti-choice Supreme Court nominees, and six anti-choice lower court nominees.

Of the 119 votes John McCain has cast regarding reproductive rights issues, 115 of them have been anti-choice. Imagine what he can do as president.
———————————————————————-
Yes, let’s imagine.
DW
September 7th, 2008 at 10:35 am
From Canada’s Sun Media:

Harper flips the election switch

By KATHLEEN HARRIS, SUN MEDIA’S NATIONAL BUREAU CHIEF

2008-09-07

A full year before it was legally slated to start, a five-week federal election campaign officially jumps through the gates today with battle lines firmly drawn over who’s the best leader to steer Canada through troubled economic times.

The stakes are high and the prize is grand: the ruling Conservatives see a majority government within their grasp and the Opposition Liberals are vying for a return to power.

“Anything is possible,” said David Taras, a political scientist from the University of Calgary.

Taras said unexpected issues could arise, dominate and ultimately decide this election, and growing support for the Green Party along with the slumping popularity of the Bloc Quebecois will also mix up local races across Canada. But the big-picture wild card is Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, who’s running his first federal campaign at the helm.

He could pull out a surprise star performance, or, in his party’s worst-case scenario, he could “pull a Kim Campbell” and hand NDP Leader Jack Layton the keys to Stornoway.

“The Tories are going to make it a comparative exercise, and go after the weakest link. Dion’s poll numbers are low, he’s not trusted on the economy, he’s disliked in Quebec,” Taras said. “You almost get the sense that Dion could be Stephen Harper’s bridge to a majority government.”

Harper’s biggest asset could be that comparative advantage — and Dion’s tough-to-sell Green Shift carbon tax plan. Taras expects the PM will exploit those to stifle rivals’ reminders that the Conservatives held the purse strings while a big surplus evaporated and the economy slid.

Tories openly concede they’re banking on Harper’s high public approval to ride out a steady, stay-the-course campaign. The core strategy is to cast Harper as the guy next door running against “Professor Dion” whose ideas are theoretical and out-of-step with average Canadians.

“On the one side you have a minivan-driving hockey dad from the suburbs — the most middle-class prime minister Canada’s ever had,” said one Conservative official. “And on the other side, you have an elitist professor whose leadership is marked by indecision and dogmatic adherence to ideological theories that he has pulled together. Case in point, his carbon tax plan that only makes sense if you put it on a blackboard.”

Full article:
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Ca.....1-sun.html

I really like Mr. Harper, but he gives me grey hair when he does things like this.
This election could go in any direction.
BillK
September 7th, 2008 at 11:25 am
This is the kind of self-described as snarky “reporting” we can expect, once again starting with blog “rumors,” from the blog site LA Observed:

Walter Reed puts out a statement

Quick update from an item this morning: Principal Donna Tobin posts at the Walter Reed Middle School website that “permission to use the front of our school for the Republican National Convention was not given by our school nor is the use of our school’s picture an endorsement of any political party or view.” Here is what she’s talking about.

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

The gist (if you click on the link above) is that Los Angeles’ Walter Reed Middle School was used as a photo behind McCain during his speech, and the lefty bloggers are saying it’s because the Republicans didn’t know the difference between it and Walter Reed Army Medical Center; in fact the article linked to is headlined “Wrong Walter Reed?”

How about the fact that the school chosen is very picturesque, and thanks to Hollywood looks just the way many people expect a school “should” look?

Note the Seattle Times is reporting this as “news” and the truth is being depicted merely as “spin” by the campaign:

Oops?

Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood, Calif., became the focus of national attention Friday after a blowup photo of the front of the mansionlike building was used as a backdrop for GOP presidential nominee John McCain’s nationally televised acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night.
Convention planners apparently looking for a photo of Walter Reed Army Medical Center found a picture of the exterior of the school instead.

The school’s phone system quickly became so overloaded with calls that Principal Donna Tobin posted an official response on the school’s Web site rather than field all the calls personally.

“It has been brought to the school’s attention that a picture of the front of our school, Walter Reed Middle School, was used as a backdrop at the Republican National Convention,” Tobin wrote in her statement. “Permission to use the front of our school for the Republican National Convention was not given by our school nor is the use of our school’s picture an endorsement of any political party or view.”

By late afternoon McCain’s campaign was characterizing the use of the picture as a way of illustrating the candidate’s call “for public education reforms that empower parents and students before bureaucrats and labor unions,” as spokesman Tucker Bounds put it.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....ser07.html

Ah, “journalism” today. We know the truth, watch McCain’s campaign try to recover, ha-ha.

Sigh.

Note that Kos is indeed one of the original “sources” for this.

I’m sure a correction will eventually be published without a web link and right after the want ads in their print editions.
SG
September 7th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
“FACT: pro-lifers often do what is worse for America’s children. The Children’s Defense Fund (a neutral group…”

They seem to be confused about the meaning of the word “fact.”
pagar
September 7th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
From the post above that starts with the words:

“I don’t think some people realize how frightening our future could be with John McCain as president.”

To this article in the New York Post:

“AHMADINEJAD’S NEW ENEMY: WOMEN”

“IN one of his last sermons before his death, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini warned of “three threats” to his vision of Islam: the US, the Jews and women.

Two decades later, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad thinks he has the United States and the Jews in hand - and is moving on the third “enemy.”

Anyone who still thinks that it doesn’t matter who sent Obama, what his name is,
who sponsored him at Harvard, how he got to be head of the Harvard Law Review,
who his friends are, what his plans for this country are? Anyone who still thinks that a person’s religion should not affect US citizenship or politics?
Kilmeny
September 7th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
I saw Curmudgeon’s post floating around Facebook too. Liberals who post such fast and loose interpretations of facts do so, I think, because they hate the concept of family and children. You know, the responsible, self-sacrificing, lifetime commitment part of having children. They also have never understood that there are no guarantees in life. No guarantees that children will be perfect, or arrive when it’s convenient. (In fact, it always seems that babies like to show up when you’re not even close to thinking that you’re ready.) No one ever claimed that abstinence-only programs would be 100 percent foolproof, because people are human and imperfect. But they’re certainly a lot better than tossing the kid a family pack of Trojans and a how-to manual on masturbation. And the paranoia that somehow John McCain would be overseeing their sex lives Big Brother-style is laughable.
JohnMG
September 7th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
…. “Permission to use the front of our school for the Republican National Convention was not given by our school….” Principal Donna Tobin

Uh, do you think somebody should take Ms. Tobin aside and give her a crash course in Civics? Apparently she slept through that class or skipped it altogether. Since her school is funded by federal tax dollars, she has no say as to who may use it as a photographic backdrop. This statement would be laughable if it wasn’t for the obvious partisanship it displays.

How did this dope rise to the level of administrator? Oh, silly me. I forgot about the NEA!
1sttofight
September 7th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
You are exactly right John, anyone can take a picture of a public building, ie, school, and use it for whatever they want too. Unless of course Ms. Tobin can produce a legal deed with her named as the owner, I don’t see where she has a leg to stand on.

I have even more distressing news for Ms. Tobin, any taxpayer, even Republicans can come into her school, any part of it, examine any file, any business dealing or anything else that is there and there is not a damned thing she can do about it.
1sttofight
September 7th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Lets see now, Mrs. Clinton was used and abused by her white husband, now she is being used and by a black male politician. She is certainly not a racist but does appear to be one of those women who like to be abused by males…

Wonder how that sets with the NAGS? ( as if anyone cares what they think these days)
DW
September 8th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
From Reuters via MSNBC:

Venezuela to host Russia navy exercise
Joint maneuvers in Caribbean likely to increase tensions with Washington

updated 6:20 a.m. ET, Sun., Sept. 7, 2008
CARACAS - Several Russian ships and 1,000 soldiers will take part in joint naval maneuvers with Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea later this year, exercises likely to increase diplomatic tensions with Washington, a pro-government newspaper reported on Saturday.

Quoting Venezuela’s naval intelligence director, Salbarore Cammarata, the newspaper Vea said four Russian boats would visit Venezuelan waters from November 10 to 14….

…Cammarata said it would be the first time Russia’s navy carried out such exercises in Latin America. He said the Venezuelan air force would also take part.

Chavez: Russian planes welcome
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, an outspoken critic of Washington, has said in recent weeks that Russian ships and planes are welcome to visit the South American country.

“If the Russian long-distance planes that fly around the world need to land at some Venezuelan landing strip, they are welcome, we have no problems,” he said on his weekly television show last week.

Chavez, who buys billions of dollars of weapons from Russia, has criticized this year’s reactivation of the U.S. Navy’s Fourth Fleet, which will patrol Latin America for the first time in over 50 years….

Full atricle:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26587236/

Sounds like Venezuela’s becoming the next Cuba.
BillK
September 8th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
The UK Telegraph reports this as if it may be a bad thing:

Al-Qa’eda’s American-born propaganda chief may have died in predator attack

Western intelligence sources in Pakistan believe that al-Qa’eda’s prize American recruit and propaganda chief may have been killed in a CIA-directed airstrike.

By Nick Meo

Months of attacks by unmanned US predator aircraft have caused carnage among the middle ranks of terrorist leaders in the lawless lands along the border with Afghanistan, where al-Qa’eda remains dangerous despite suffering a serious defeat in Iraq.

Their victims have included experienced Arab leaders and, it is now thought, Adam Gadahn, a former heavy-metal fan and so-called “killer computer nerd” originally from California. Nothing has been heard from him for months, leading intelligence experts to conclude that he may be dead.

Mr Gadahn has been credited with helping transform al-Qa’eda’s al-Sahab propaganda wing into a slick operation which communicates in fluent English and produces professional quality DVDs, including one for Osama bin Laden last year.
But he may have fallen victim to an expanded programme of predator assassinations which in the last year has targeted and killed many of al-Qa’eda’s military commanders, terrorist trainers and facilitators.

Jihadists around the world will be watching as closely as intelligence officials this week to see whether Mr Gadahn - also known as Azzam al-Ameriki - produces a new video message to mark September 11, as he has done every year since 2003.
If there is no message it will be taken as near certain confirmation that he is dead – killed either in a strike by Hellfire missiles, or perhaps by jihadi colleagues who have grown jealous of his success.

Mr Gadahn is now thought to have been killed in an attack launched from a remotely piloted aircraft in January which killed al-Qaeda’s then military commander, Abu Laith al-Libi, in Mir Ali, Waziristan.

Al-Libi was the most prominent of a series of terrorist leaders to be killed in recent months. Abu Saeed al-Masri, who was implicated in attacks on Britain, was killed in July. Syrians, Somalis and Kuwaitis have also been killed.

Evan Kohlmann, an investigator with the Nine Eleven Finding Answers (Nefa) foundation which monitors terrorist groups, said: “Al-Qaeda acknowledges that several of its leaders have been taken out. There aren’t that many experienced leaders left in the middle ranks and they are being replaced by younger guys with no credentials but lots of enthusiasm.”

Experts now fear that younger leaders will attempt to prove themselves by launching bloody attacks such as a suicide bomb attack on workers at a munitions factory in Pakistan last month which killed 70.

Gadahn has taken on real importance as al-Qa’eda’s best known Westerner. He also became the poster boy of would-be jihadis around the world who are radicalised on the internet - and identify with a former Orange County teenager who once reviewed heavy metal bands before finding radical Islam and travelling to Pakistan in 1998.

His rants about globalisation and the US mortgage meltdown struck a chord with the alienated loners who are targeted by al-Qaeda.

Mr Kohlmann said: “The people in the dark world of online jihad, the ones who watch the videos from Iraq, are the ones he speaks to. They are dangerous because they could become home-grown jihadis.”

Another possibility being considered by intelligence officials is that Gadahn may have been killed by rivals, or demoted if jealous colleagues decided that he was too close to Osama bin Laden. Last year he appeared to have coached bin Laden for propaganda videos.

But his most likely fate seems to have been death by predator, the deadliest weapon against foreign terrorists on Pakistani soil.…

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....ttack.html

“American killed by American military” is how this will inevitably be reported by the US MSM.

I also love that experts are afraid that young terrorists may now attack to “prove themselves” - so much better not to kill their leaders after all.

SIgh…
Dave2882
September 8th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Newsweek: Those in the GOP who support Sarah Palin are misogynic hypocrites

I’m not going to quote the smear piece in its entirety, but here’s a choice bit:

John McCain has been no advocate for women; when asked during the primaries, on the subject of Senator Clinton, “How do we beat the bitch?” he responded, “Excellent question.” (Note to the GOP: that IS sexist.)

Also, there’s this:

Amid the drumbeat of female Amazonian competence occasioned by the Palin nomination ran one deeply discordant assumption, the assumption that women are strong and smart and sure and yet neither sentient nor moral enough to decide what to do if they are pregnant under difficult circumstances. The governor has talked about the choice she and her pregnant teenage daughter have made, but would deny other women the right to make their own choices.

And:

When Democrat James Carville said he found the choice of Palin perplexing on the merits, Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann said she found that “offensive to American women.” I found her offense offensive to American women, since at its core was the notion that Governor Palin should not and could not be judged by the same standards as her male counterparts.

Hello…she’s a Governor. Your (male) candidate is a freshman Senator who has spent most of his only term campaigning.
BillK
September 8th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
From the AP, and note this is a news story, not an editorial, despite the obvious spin:

McCain uses Palin as fundraising tool

By Sara Kugler

Republican John McCain seized on running mate Sarah Palin’s popularity to raise money for the party, telling donors at a $4 million fundraiser Monday that he’s overwhelmed by the buzz she’s generating for his White House bid.

“I’m very proud and I’m very pleased at the enthusiasm that’s been sparked,” the presidential nominee said. The fundraiser, in Democratic candidate Barack Obama’s hometown, followed several days of campaigning in which Palin has nearly overshadowed the head of the ticket.

The first-term Alaska governor has already been good for McCain’s fundraising efforts. Of the $47 million he raised in August, $10 million came in the three days after he announced he had chosen her as his vice presidential running mate, the campaign said.

McCain’s campaign said the event raised $4 million for the national Republican Party and state GOP committees, which will then spend it on McCain’s behalf.

McCain spent about half of his speaking time boasting about Palin. He also sought to reassure supporters who might be wary about her experience level. She became governor in December 2006 and before that was mayor of small-town Wasilla, Alaska.

“She was thoroughly vetted and I’m proud of the experience and the talent she brings to our ticket, and she will bring to the presidency and vice presidency of the United States of America,” McCain said.

McCain also repeated his line against Obama from earlier in the day, when he and Palin criticized the Illinois senator for the amount of money he has requested for his home state, even though Alaska under Palin’s leadership has asked Washington for 10 times more money per citizen for pet projects.

At a rally in swing state Missouri, McCain and Palin accused Obama of requesting nearly $1 billion in earmarks for Illinois. The new line of attack came after Obama made his first direct criticism of Palin over the weekend, using the topic of earmarks, which are special projects that lawmakers try to get for their districts and constituents.

“Just the other day our opponent brought up earmarks - and frankly I was surprised that he would even raise the subject at all,” Palin said. “I thought he wouldn’t want to go there.”

Obama hasn’t asked for any earmarks this year. Last year, he asked for $311 million worth, about $25 for every Illinois resident. Alaska asked this year for earmarks totaling $198 million, about $295 for every Alaska citizen.

Palin has cut back on pork project requests but, under her administration, Alaska is still and by far the largest per-capita consumer of federal pet-project spending.

The governor did reject plans to build the notorious “Bridge to Nowhere” after Congress had cut off its financing. …

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

DNC talking points or actual news story

Apparently there’s now no difference.

Seriously - this “story” could have come from the Obama web site.

Let’s see:

* McCain is just using Palin (the way men always use women)
* Even Republicans worry she has no experience
* Palin lied about earmarks
* Palin lied about the “Bridge to Nowhere”
* Palin loves pork, too.

Congratulations, Ms. Kugler, you managed to work them all in - you get the good seats at the next Obama press conference.
BillK
September 8th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
How dare land owners use their land rather than meet neighbor’s assumptions as to how it will be used?

From the Boulder Daily Camera:

Proposed easement change riles neighbors

Century-old farmhouse could be demolished; large home proposed

By Ryan Morgan

When Margaret Miner and her husband built their house southeast of Boulder a few years ago, one of the things they liked about the place was that the big pasture across the street was part of a county open space conservation easement.

They thought that meant it would stay a pasture.

Now, Boulder County officials are recommending that elected leaders amend the easement to allow the family who owns the parcel of land at the corner of South Boulder Road and 68th Street to demolish a century-old farmhouse that sits there.

The amended easement would let the Reichert family build a large house in what’s now a pasture.

“We’ve been out there for nine years,” Miner said. “We’ve loved it, and we’ve trusted that it would stay open.”

A lawyer for the Reichert family says her clients want the flexibility to build a house that doesn’t sit right on South Boulder Road, and she argues that setting that space aside for agricultural use actually makes for a better easement.

Miner said she’s frustrated because she thinks the county is too willing to change what ought to be a permanent document to accommodate the desires of the Reichert family. She thinks the easement in its current form is sound, and shouldn’t be changed.

“It’s really about dollars,” Miner said. “It’s about moving it off of South Boulder Road so this property will sell.”

The proposed amendment to the easement, which county commissioners are scheduled to discuss Thursday, would allow the property’s owners to move the existing home to the south end of the property, across the street from the Miners. Alternatively, the easement would allow the owners to demolish the house, set aside the land it sits on for agricultural use, and build a new house at the lot’s southern end.

Janis Whisman, the county’s conservation easement program manager, said changing the easement gives the county more certainty about the property’s future. The current easement, which is three decades old, spells out a process by which it could be terminated — something the county would prefer not to even have as an option.

Amending the easement gives county commissioners a chance to make it perpetual, she said. Changing the language also gives the county more certainty about what kind of building will be allowed — and what won’t — on the site, she said.

“The staff’s recommendation is that we could gain some things by amending the easement and clarify some things for the landowner and the county,” she said. …

http://www.dailycamera.com/new.....neighbors/

Let’s see, homeowner wants to strip landowners who’ve owned the land across the street for decades of their rights to do anything with it.

Sounds about right for Boulder, even though:

From the beginning, the family had every right to develop this property in five-acre lots. They chose instead from the very beginning to put 75 percent of this property under a conservation easement,” she said. “That was a pretty progressive thing to do for someone who could have made a lot of money by selling those lots.”
notsoyoungjim
September 9th, 2008 at 12:01 am
Dave, for a smear piece it’s remarkably supine:

To try to suggest Sarah Palin might garner the Hillary Clinton vote, that one woman is just the same as another, that biology trumps ideology, is the ultimate evidence of true sexism, and I hope Senator Clinton will travel the country and say so.

Hillary camp ((( crickets )))

Anna Quisling is too obtuse to understand that HRC is quite happy to see Dumbo twist in the wind. Cue Jennette MacDonald, “I’ll be calling youuuuuuuuu!”
Liberals Make Great Speedbumps
September 9th, 2008 at 1:22 am
This isn’t really news, just an observation and question regarding it. Is it just me or has anyone else noticed how all of the coverage of McCain & Palin’s campaign stops and speeches is being edited to show only the same lines, taken from their convention speeches, making it appear that they are giving virtually the same speech over and over? I notice that that is a new avenue of attack suddenly from the Dem pundits I see on TV, making snarky comments that they need to come up with new speeches.
Do they actually believe that if footage was shown from Obama bin Biden stump speeches day after day after day, they would have absolutely no repetitive material at their appearances? Just curious as to what other think about this.
BannedbytheTaliban
September 9th, 2008 at 11:13 am
More good deeds by the ACLU,

From WRAL:

ACLU launches investigation after sheriff’s comments

SMITHFIELD, N.C. — The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina Legal Foundation and other civil rights groups in the state on Tuesday launched an investigation into the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office after Sheriff Steve Bizzell made racially inflammatory statements.

In a Sunday article in the News & Observer of Raleigh, Bizzell talked about his frustration with the changing face of the county where he grew up. Bizzell called illegal immigrants “trashy” and said the growing Latino population in his county was “breeding like rabbits.”

“Everywhere you look, it’s like little Mexico around here,” he said in the Sunday article.

The ACLU-NCLF alleges Bizzell’s statements in the article constitute direct evidence of racial discrimination and hostility toward Latino citizens and residents of Johnston County.

The group has filed a formal records request demanding public records and documents from Bizzell pertaining to DWI checkpoints, driver’s license checkpoints arrests, jail bookings and other information on whether the county has complied with state law prohibiting racial or ethnic profiling by law enforcement.

“Blanket assertions like this about an entire class of people, again despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, if put into practice, are the very essence of racial and ethnic profiling by law enforcement that are prohibited by state law,” said Jennifer Rudginer, executive director of the ACLU in North Carolina.”

Bizzell apologized for the remarks on Sunday, saying in a one-paragraph statement that it wasn’t his intention to make broad statements that reflected on legal and law-abiding Hispanics. He said his comments, made during interviews for a series of stories, were influenced by his anger over the death of a boy in April who was killed by a Hispanic drunken driver who previously had been convicted of driving while impaired.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/3511372/

He is right you know, so much for the freedom of speech.
texaspsue
September 9th, 2008 at 11:23 am
Video(s) of the day:

I am Sarah Palin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h-4eYveEVA

This video is a tribute to all women who got involved in the politcal process, in one way or another, large or small. They made a difference while successfully raising their children and nuturing their families. I think their on to something. (With a little cleanup, this could be a great campaign ad.)

codepink ejected from St. Paul cab after interupting Palin’s speech:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KySYpk_4aN0

My hero. sigh :-)

H/T flopping aces
BillK
September 9th, 2008 at 11:47 am
We all knew this was coming from the day it was announced.

From a smug AP:

Civil Rights Group Sues NYPD Over Terror Surveillance Plan

A civil rights group sued the New York Police Department on Monday seeking to learn more about a plan to use license plate readers and a network of 3,000 surveillance cameras to help protect lower Manhattan from terrorist threats.

The New York Civil Liberties Union claims the NYPD has moved forward with its plan without explaining how the department will use and store images and data captured by the video cameras, license-plate readers and other security devices.

“A plan of this scope, expense and intrusiveness demands robust public debate and legislative oversight,” said Donna Lieberman, the group’s executive director. “The public has a right to this information.”

The department already has turned over 91 pages of material about the so-called Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, which is expected to cost tens of millions of dollars. But the NYCLU said the documents were redacted, and that more information should be disclosed.

The NYPD “must have hundreds if not thousands of documents that would be responsive to the NYCLU’s request,” says the suit, filed in state court.

Police spokesman Paul Browne said the department has provided everything it could, “short of a road map terrorists could use for another attack.”

The security plan, prepared by the NYPD’s counterterrorism division, would rely on 116 stationary and mobile license-plate readers and a network of 3,000 closed-circuit cameras — both public and private — that would be monitored by officers at a command center. It was modeled in part after the “ring of steel” surveillance measures in London’s financial district.

Police officials say photos and license plate numbers would be cross-checked with information about potential terror suspects and suspicious vehicles. They insist data deemed innocent would be purged from police records after 30 days.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,418903,00.html

The problem with terrorists is that they are “innocent” members of “the public” right up to the point they strike.

If some “right wing” terrorist took out the ACLU or NYCLU offices, would they defend the accused’ rights so stridently?

One wonders, given free speech is great unless it’s within a prescribed distance of an abortion clinic.
BillK
September 10th, 2008 at 12:52 am
It’s apparent the MSM and Dems are scared stiff of Palin, as the attacks are starting to flow full blast.

From the Washington Post:

Palin billed Alaska for nights spent at home

By James V. Grimaldi

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a “per diem” allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

The governor also has charged the state for travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions. And her husband, Todd, has billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he makes on official business for his wife.

Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, claimed and received $16,951 as her allowance, which officials say was permitted because her official “duty station” is Juneau, according to an analysis of her travel documents by the Washington Post.

The governor’s daughters and husband charged the state $43,490 to travel, and many of the trips were to and from their house in Wasilla and Juneau, the capital city 600 miles away, the documents show.

Gubernatorial spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said Monday that Palin’s expenses are not unusual and that, under state policy, the first family could have claimed per-diem expenses for each child taken on official business but has not done so.

Speaking from Palin’s Anchorage office, Leighow said the first family’s travel is an expected part of the job.

“As a matter of protocol, the governor and the first family are expected to attend community events across the state,” she said.

The state finance director, Kim Garnero, said Alaska law exempts the governor’s office from elaborate travel regulations. Said Leighow: “The governor is entitled to a per diem, and she claims it.”

The popular governor collected the per-diem allowance from April 22, four days after the birth of her fifth child, until June 3, when she flew to Juneau for two days. Palin moved her family to the capital during the legislative session last year, but prefers to stay in Wasilla and drive 45 miles to Anchorage to a state office building where she conducts most of her business, aides have said.

Palin rarely sought reimbursement for meals while staying in Anchorage or Wasilla, the reports show.

She wrote some form of “Lodging - own residence” or “Lodging - Wasilla residence” more than 30 times at the same time she took a per diem, according to the reports. In two dozen undated amendments to the reports, the governor deleted the reference to staying in her home but still charged the per diem.

Asked Monday about the official policy on charging for children’s travel expenses, Garnero said: “We cover the expenses of anyone who’s conducting state business. I can’t imagine kids could be doing that.”

But Leighow said many of the hundreds of invitations Palin receives include requests for her to bring her family, placing the definition of “state business” with the party extending the invitation.

Palin has spent far less on her personal travel than her predecessor: $93,000 on airfare in 2007, compared with $463,000 spent the year before by her predecessor, Frank Murkowski. He traveled often in an executive jet that Palin called an extravagance during her campaign. She sold it after she was sworn into office.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....12QJ2C.DTL

The effort to turn Palin into some free-spending hypocrite continue, with CNN hauling out the Democrat who governed before Murkowski to note that he never claimed a per diem when staying in his own home, and that this is just double-dipping on the fault of Republicans - he was quoted as saying the per diem was “legal but not moral.”
BillK
September 10th, 2008 at 12:56 am
Now it’s time to attack Palin’s church and pastor.

From a triumphant AP:

Palin church promotes converting gays

By Rachel D’Oro

Gov. Sarah Palin’s church is promoting a conference that promises to convert gays into heterosexuals through the power of prayer.

“You’ll be encouraged by the power of God’s love and His desire to transform the lives of those impacted by homosexuality,” according to the insert in the bulletin of the Wasilla Bible Church, where Palin has prayed for about six years.

Palin’s conservative Christian views have energized that part of the GOP electorate, which was lukewarm to John McCain’s candidacy before he named her as his vice presidential choice. She is staunchly anti-abortion, opposing exceptions for rape and incest, and opposes gay marriage and spousal rights for gay couples.

Focus on the Family, a national Christian fundamentalist organization, is conducting the “Love Won Out” Conference in Anchorage, about 30 miles from Wasilla.

Palin, campaigning with McCain in the Midwest on Friday, has not publicly expressed a view on the so-called “pray away the gay” movement. Larry Kroon, senior pastor at Palin’s church, was not available to discuss the matter Friday, said a church worker who declined to give her name.

Gay activists in Alaska said Palin has not worked actively against their interests, but early in her administration she supported a bill to overrule a court decision to block state benefits for gay partners of public employees. At the time, less than one-half of 1 percent of state employees had applied for the benefits, which were ordered by a 2005 ruling by the Alaska Supreme Court.

Palin reversed her position and vetoed the bill after the state attorney general said it was unconstitutional. But her reluctant support didn’t win fans among Alaska’s gay population, said Scott Turner, a gay activist in Anchorage.

“Less than 1 percent of state employees would even apply for benefits, so why make a big deal out of such a small number?” he said.

“I think gay Republicans are going to run away” if Palin supports efforts like the prayers to convert gays, said Wayne Besen, founder of the New York-based Truth Wins Out, a gay rights advocacy group. Besen called on Palin to publicly express her views now that she’s a vice presidential nominee. …

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....257D37.DTL

I suspect that any loss of gay Republican votes will be more than made up by an influx of conservatives of all political stripes, but hey, it’s more “controversy” with Fox News headlining this “Palin Pastor Controversy!”
BillK
September 10th, 2008 at 2:17 am
Proving there’s no such thing as a Minnesota politician too far left.

From a jubilant AP:

Al Franken wins Senate nod amid 7 state primaries

By Brian Bakst

Comedian Al Franken grabbed the Democratic nomination Tuesday for U.S. Senate in Minnesota, setting up a showdown with Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.

Franken, who gained fame as a “Saturday Night Live” cast member, easily beat six other candidates chasing the Democratic nod. Coleman trounced his only opponent, an expatriate living in Italy.

Minnesota voters joined those in six other states and the District of Columbia in deciding general election matchups. Nominations for House, Senate and governor were on the line, along with the fate of another TV celebrity: Kevin Powell, a former cast member on MTV’s “Real World,” who lost his bid for Congress in New York.

Franken’s celebrity has both helped and hurt him. His coast-to-coast recognition enabled him to amass an impressive bankroll for a first-time candidate, but archives full of racy material provided ammunition to Republicans and his most visible Democratic rival, attorney Priscilla Lord Faris.

Lord Faris, part of a well-regarded family in state Democratic politics, criticized Franken for “angry and offensive public behavior” and said he’d be too easy a target for Coleman and his allies.

Franken had 65 percent of the vote with returns nearly complete, to Lord Faris’ 29 percent. …

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....604D35.DTL

I thought the “Al Franken decade” (reference for those of you old enough to remember him on SNL) was over…
BillK
September 10th, 2008 at 2:21 am
The latest “controversy” - personally I think McCain’s camp overstepped on this one and it makes them look as silly as the left.

From the AP:

McCain camp: Obama’s ‘lipstick’ remark disgraceful

By Nedra Pickler

What’s the difference between the presidential campaign before and after the national political conventions? Lipstick. The colorful cosmetic has become a political buzzword, thanks to Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s joke in her acceptance speech that lipstick is the only thing that separates a hockey mom like her from a pit bull.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama told an audience Tuesday that GOP presidential nominee John McCain says he’ll change Washington, but he’s just like President Bush.

“You can put lipstick on a pig,” he said to an outbreak of laughter, shouts and raucous applause from his audience, clearly drawing a connection to Palin’s joke even if it’s not what Obama meant. “It’s still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It’s still going to stink after eight years.”

McCain’s campaign called the comments “offensive and disgraceful” and said Obama owes Palin an apology. Obama’s campaign said he wasn’t referring to Palin and said the GOP camp was engaging in a “pathetic attempt to play the gender card.” Obama’s camp also noted that McCain once used the same phrase to describe Hillary Rodham Clinton’s health care plan.

Obama followed up by saying Palin is an interesting story, drawing boos at the mention of her name that he tried to cut off.

“Look, she’s new, she hasn’t been on the scene, she’s got five kids. And my hat goes off to anybody whose looking after five. I’ve got two and they tire Michelle and me out,” he said.

In Virginia, a questioner asked Obama to join Republicans and agree that candidates’ families and religion are off limits. Palin’s pregnant teenage daughter and the teachings of her church, the nondenominational Wasilla Bible Church, have been the subject of scrutiny since McCain picked her as his running mate.

Obama responded that he already has said families are off limits and he’s very protective of his daughters, 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha. He said he doesn’t want their inevitable future mistakes to become newspaper fodder if he gets to the White House. …

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....125D92.DTL

Come on now - the “lipstick on a pig” saying was out there long before Palin’s speech and to even feign offense at it is being as over-sensitive as the left usually is.

However, I do think Obama was clever in his comment in subtly implying that Palin would be too tired to do the job rather than coming out and saying it.
BillK
September 10th, 2008 at 2:26 am
From the San Francisco Chronicle, kids aren’t passing the exit exam, so the test has to go:

More students failing to pass exit exam

By Nanette Asimov

Far more California high school students failed the Exit Exam and did not graduate this year than last year, a decline that state educators blamed largely on the fact that test results of disabled students were counted for the first time.

Nearly 10 percent of the Class of 2008 - 45,910 students - never passed the required Exit Exam, compared with 6 percent of the Class of 2007 - 26,587 students - state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell announced, emphasizing that the figures are estimates.

Among the nearly 40,000 disabled students who took the exam, the failure rate was a stunning 46 percent - the highest of all student groups. Students receiving special-education services typically fail the basic reading and math test most often, and in 2006 and 2007 they won legal exemptions from having to pass the test in order to graduate. Those exemptions expired this year.

O’Connell, who wrote the Exit Exam law in 1999 while a state senator, has long argued that students with learning disabilities and other conditions should be held to the same academic standards as everyone else.

“It’s important and appropriate to have this expectation for all of our students,” O’Connell said today. “Special-education students deserve a diploma that has real value and real meaning.”

But the issue remains controversial.

“It’s an unmitigated disaster,” said Sid Wolinsky, the lawyer who represented special-education students in the recently settled class-action lawsuit that gave them the 2006 and 2007 exemptions. “You can’t be a janitor in the Oakland School District without a high school diploma. It’s the entrance ticket to participation in American life.”

State Sen. Gloria Romero, a Los Angeles Democrat running for O’Connell’s job in 2010, has written Senate Bill 1446, which would exempt students with disabilities from having to pass the Exit Exam. The bill has passed through the Legislature but won’t be sent to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger until a state budget is signed.

Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill by Romero last year.

All of the state’s public school students start trying to pass the Exit Exam as sophomores. Students with disabilities also have taken the test in prior years, though their results weren’t included until this year.

High school students have eight chances to pass the Exit Exam before graduation day. They can keep trying after that for the rest of their lives, “a million times,” O’Connell said. “We’ll never give up on the student.”

More than 16,000 students from the Classes of 2006 and 2007 have continued to try to pass the Exit Exam after graduation day, the state reported. So far, 4,103 succeeded.

As long as students have satisfied all other graduation requirements, they can get a diploma at any age, O’Connell said. …

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....12QD8J.DTL

Acitivists for the disabled should be incredibly upset at this, as the gist of their argument is “those disabled people, they just can’t learn, and you can’t expect them to pass a high school exit exam.”

Can you imagine if it were the right saying this about disabled students?
wardmama4
September 10th, 2008 at 8:02 am
RE: McCain camp: Obama’s ‘lipstick’ remark disgraceful

BillK - I happen to disagree with you - America has been lambasted not to mention Obama’s ahem, race and many innocuous comments have been called racist. Why this comment, beyond being tasteless, is that it indicates Obama (once again) is not New, Change, Different or anything other than a Typical Political Person.

Michelle Malkin had an email from a blogger who had a commentor on her site make the suggestion that we should send Obama Lipstick to make a point. I am digging one out and letting him have it - I’ve sent white feathers to Reid (The War is Lost), I sent red nailpolish to Yale (Taliban supporter given paid attendance) and a brick (Build it they won’t come) to my Congressman - it is the imparitive of We The People to stand up and stop this. It is obvious that DC - all three branches of gov are infested with power/fear and thus nothing is stopping them - it is getting worse year after year. We must stand up now before it is too late for America.

Obama has made it clear - in so many ways - that he wants to drag America even further left - so any and all implied, suggested and infered references to this comment should and must be taken to stop him Now.

Now which color should I send him?
wardmama4
September 10th, 2008 at 8:31 am
Acitivists for the disabled should be incredibly upset at this, as the gist of their argument is “those disabled people, they just can’t learn, and you can’t expect them to pass a high school exit exam.”

Can you imagine if it were the right saying this about disabled students

Not only that, as the parent of a disabled (former HS student) child, two things really disgust me about that attitude:
1) it discounts those ‘disabled’ students who are like my son - physically not mentally disabled - DUH - [aside, my son 'failed' the 9th grade proficiency test in TX as he scored above all the high scores in almost all sections, passed all except the first English section (scored 4 out 6) and thus failed the entire test. Fast forward to SR year in HS - he had to take the OH version (never, ever went to school in OH, except his SR year) of both the 9 and 12th grade tests - passed both without any pre-study or assistance - ended up doing both OH tests & the California test for my daughter - she aced all three in the same (SR) year- Moving around often sucks for military brats]
2) to me this is just another way (combined with their now DS kids bashing re: Trig) to demean, dismiss and deminish those Americans with disabilities (which I laugh at would love to know who put forth all the AWDActs and Laws) - so that their ~~death culture~~euthanasia to those who have less ‘qualities’ of life or are an inconvenience becomes more acceptable to the ‘masses’ [I am so glad I am a Beta -Brave New World].
Yes just imagine if someone on the right had ever made a comment like that.
Liberals Make Great Speedbumps
September 10th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Now which color should I send him?

WM4,

Any color other than black, that would be insensitive.
Exeter
September 10th, 2008 at 11:28 am
BillK - It looks to me that Obama took a cheap shot against Palin, subtlely cloaked like an innocent comment. That being said, you’re right - the McCain camp shouldn’t take the bait, and just let public opinion boomerang on him. Also, concerning the school exam issue, I think these results are a good opportunity for Gov. Swarzenegger to take the Teachers’ Union to task. Like Mr. Miagi said, “No such thing as bad student, only bad teacher”. The failure doesn’t belong to the students, but to those educating them.

NotSoYoungJim - I’m afraid that tree-hugger video made me cry, too - I was laughing that hard.
1sttofight
September 10th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
This is who we need to lead our nation forward.

RUSH: Kurt in Pittsburgh, hello, sir. Nice to have you on the EIB Network, and how about the Steelers defense?

CALLER: How about those Steelers, huh?

RUSH: How about that?

CALLER: Hey, listen, Rush, longtime listener, first-time caller, one of those Bible, family, gun clingers from western Pennsylvania.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: And I wanted to share a story with you. A week ago last Saturday we went to the Palin-McCain rally in Washington, Pennsylvania, was the day after he announced her, and we have a five-year-old daughter with Down syndrome, and we made a sign that said: “We Love Kids with Down Syndrome.” So when they pulled in in their bus the sign did catch their, McCain and Palin and the rest of their family, it caught their eye, we could tell, they gave us a thumbs-up from the bus, so we were all excited just by that —

RUSH: Wait, wait, wait. Who gave you the thumbs up, McCain and Palin?

CALLER: McCain, Palin, Cindy McCain, we could see them from the bus. We were in a position where we had eye contact with them –

RUSH: Oh, cool!

CALLER: My wife was holding our daughter.

RUSH: Very, very, very cool.

CALLER: It was really cool, Rush. I was like, “Wow, that’s awesome,” because I love Governor Palin and so I thought that’s really neat. So then we moved around as the bus was getting ready to pull out, we kind of positioned ourselves so we could just wave them on and a Secret Service agent came up to us and said, “Hey, can you come with us?” I was like, “Do we have a choice?”

RUSH: (laughing) You shouldn’t have worried. It’s not the Clinton administration.

CALLER: Right. So we accompanied them up the hill, we went right to the bus, where it was, and Governor Palin, Senator McCain, Cindy, Todd Palin, they’re all standing there. We’re in this inner circle with just us and them, and the Secret Service agent, and they came right up to us and thanked us for coming out, said they loved our sign, and Governor Palin immediately said, “May I hold your daughter?” and our daughter Chloe, who’s five, went right to her, and I have some pictures I’d love to send you maybe when I’m done here, but Governor Palin was hugging Chloe, and then her little daughter brought their baby Trig who has Down syndrome from the bus, he was napping, and Chloe went right over and kissed him on the cheek, and my son Nolan who’s nine, he thanked her.

RUSH: This is amazing.

CALLER: I will send you all the stuff, Senator McCain was talking to my son, and we thanked him for his service, and he asked my son if he wanted to see the bus, and we were hanging out and it was very surreal. I felt like we could have had a pizza and a beer with them, they were so warm.

RUSH: You know what? I want to put you on hold. I want Snerdley to give you our super-secret, known-only-to-three-people here, e-mail address.

CALLER: I will send you everything, Rush.

RUSH: And then could you send us these pictures? Would you mind if we put them on the website?

CALLER: I would be honored, and my main thing is they are warm, kind, genuine people, and they represent the best of this country.

RUSH: That’s right. And when you send these pictures, make sure you identify them. I mean, we’ll know Palin and McCain, of course. Identify yourselves.

CALLER: I will, I will identify everybody in the picture, Rush, and God bless you for being a beacon of hope and truth in this country.

RUSH: Oh, no, no. It’s nothing, it’s nothing. You’re doing the Lord’s work.

CALLER: Well, we’re very blessed and I want people to know what a blessing it is to have a child with Down syndrome. These kids, they’re angels.

RUSH: That’s the thing. There’s always good to be found in everything that happens. It may be a while before it reveals itself.

CALLER: Absolutely.

RUSH: Right, and when she hugged my daughter I said, here’s the difference, this candidate embraces life and all its limitless possibilities.

RUSH: All right.

CALLER: That’s what she is.

RUSH: Terrific, okay, I gotta run here, but I’m going to put you on hold.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush.

RUSH: Thank you, Kurt. I really appreciate it.

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/ho.....guest.html

Be sure and go to rush’s site and look at the pics.

My eyes are wetting up…
Dave2882
September 10th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Slate writer admits to being on jihad

http://www.slate.com/id/2199668/

While the questions (if not the commentary) are fair, they are also tough
questions that require considerable thought to answer well, at least without
alienating substantial blocks of the electorate.

Oh, and the numerous smears the author lobs (”cracker”!?) reveal his bias. I
consider myself fairly bright and knowledgeable, and while I couldn’t compose
decent answers to questions like this on the fly, it’s fairly easy to come up
with better answers than the strawmen the Slate writer provides.

The questions Gibson asked Obama and Hillary were softballs and easier to
predict. And they answered in weasel language with vague generalities, and there
was no mass outcry calling them on it. The Slate author is setting the bar much
higher for Gov. Palin, as I strongly suspected her haters in the media would.
And unlike the Slate author, I at least waited for the media to offer proof of
my suspicions rather than putting words in the media’s mouth.

There’s a difference between having the knowledge in your brain and being able
to put it into words with no time to prepare, and moreover, construct a
well-composed answer with a coherent, ordered structure.

I wonder if this Slate writer could show where Hillary or Obama has been asked
questions like this. Since Obama wants to unify the country, shouldn’t he have
been asked what policies of his he thought appealed to the GOP base? And I love
how Obama is allowed to claim to be bipartisan, and the media never challenges
him on his voting record or the legislation he offers as proof of
bipartisanship.
BillK
September 10th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

City drops foreclosure in parking case

By Raquel Rutledge

The City of Milwaukee agreed today to drop the foreclosure on the house of a disabled man who failed to pay a $50 parking-related fine.

Judge Dennis Moroney signed the order to vacate the foreclosure judgment this morning.

Peter Tubic, the owner of the home who admits to ignoring the fine for more than four years, said someone came forward to pay the fine and the city agreed to drop the case, which had been scheduled for a court hearing tomorrow. …

http://www.jsonline.com/watch/.....p;id=45961

Awww, let’s all sing Kumbaya…
BillK
September 10th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
From the AP:

SC Dem Party chief apologizes for saying that having no abortion is Palin’s top qualification

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s Democratic Party chairwoman said Wednesday that Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s top qualification seems to be not having had an abortion. She later apologized.

In an interview posted on the political Web site Politico, Chairwoman Carol Fowler said Republican John McCain picked a running mate “whose primary qualification seems to be that she hasn’t had an abortion.”

Fowler later apologized, saying she made the statement during an interview about single-issue voters.

“I personally admire and respect the difficult choices that women make everyday, and I apologize to anyone who finds my comment offensive,” Fowler said in a statement.

“I clumsily was making a point about people in South Carolina who may vote based on a single issue. Whether it’s the environment, the economy, the war or a woman’s right to choose, there are people who will cast their vote based on a single issue,” she continued. “That was the only point I was attempting to make.”

Palin opposes abortion, including in cases of rape or incest, and has lived out her convictions by bearing son Trig in April, knowing he had Down syndrome.

A top McCain surrogate, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, said it was an outrage to dismiss Palin’s record and life with that kind of remark.

“I think it has more to do with the fact our Democratic colleagues and opponents are in a meltdown mode over Gov. Palin,” Graham said. He said there would be a “firestorm of monumental proportion” if a Republican had said the same thing about a female Democrat running for vice president, and called on Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama to repudiate Fowler’s remark.

“If he doesn’t speak to this and condemn this statement, it will speak volumes about where we’re at on the Democratic side,” Graham said.

Obama spokesman Nick Shapiro said Fowler was not speaking for the campaign, “just as John McCain has said state parties don’t speak for him.”

“But obviously this does not reflect our view,” Shapiro said.

A fellow Democrat, Rep. John Spratt of South Carolina, also distanced himself from Fowler’s comment.

“Her statement about Gov. Palin is outrageous and wrong, because Sarah Palin’s qualifications are quite evident,” the House Budget Committee chairman said in a statement. “She is the mother of five children who has been elected mayor of her town and governor of her state, and she has shown herself to be an effective public speaker and an energetic campaigner. Sen. Obama has said that ‘families are off-limits, and people’s children are especially off-limits.’ I could not agree more.” …

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

Note:

Fowler later apologized, saying she made the statement during an interview about single-issue voters.

“I personally admire and respect the difficult choices that women make everyday, and I apologize to anyone who finds my comment offensive,” Fowler said in a statement.

It’s the classic non-apology apology: “I’m sorry if my comment offended you.”

Note she didn’t retract her comment, but simply apologized to anyone who took offense at it.

Ask anyone in an argument how sincere the apology “I’m sorry you were offended” actually is.
BillK
September 11th, 2008 at 12:29 am
From Fox News:

Political Teams Battle To Define Palin In Alaska

A new battleground is emerging in the presidential race, and it’s not a swing state like Ohio or Florida. The fight is in Alaska, and it’s over the ability to define Sarah Palin.

Alaska, rich with gobbets of information on Palin’s personal and political past, is the new political frontier.

According to reports, a “mini-army” of Democratic lawyers and operatives has descended on the home state of John McCain’s running mate to open the books on her past, and the Barack Obama campaign is trucking out a group of Alaskan supporters whose mission is to “set the record straight” on the governor’s career.

The McCain campaign, likewise, has sent a team — much as it did during the Democratic National Convention — to launch a counteroffensive of its own in Alaska. The campaign also has formed a “truth squad” of McCain-Palin supporters to defend Palin when it feels she is unjustly attacked.

The proxy war has led to recriminations on both sides, and it will probably last through Election Day.

In the center of it all are questions over Palin’s religious beliefs, her family, her record on pork-barrel spending and an ethics inquiry into whether she fired a former public safety commissioner because he would not dismiss a trooper who was going through a divorce from Palin’s sister.

McCain’s campaign launched an ad Wednesday invoking a Wall Street Journal article that reported that 30 Democratic lawyers and researchers were digging around in Juneau, Anchorage and Palin’s home town of Wasilla.

“The attacks on Governor Palin have been called completely false, misleading, and they’ve just begun,” the narrator says, referencing the article. “As Obama drops in the polls, he’ll try to destroy her.”

Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor released a statement refuting the Journal article, saying “neither the Obama campaign nor the DNC have sent researchers to Alaska.”

But the campaign does not specifically deny that Democratic lawyers are researching Palin in Alaska, either from in-state firms or out-of-state independent groups that support Obama. They only deny having sent them.

The Democratic National Committee also denies having any researchers on the ground.

“The Democratic National Committee has zero lawyers, zero, zilch, nada in Alaska,” DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse told FOXNews.com. “I don’t know of any lawyers or researchers from the outside that have been sent into Alaska.”

But McHugh Pierre, with the Alaska Republican Party, told FOXNews.com he’s personally seen and spoken with Democratic operatives in the state looking into Palin.

“They’ve got a ton of people. They’ve got like three dozen staff here,” he said. “They’re knocking on doors. They’re everywhere.”

He said he spoke with a few who were knocking on doors in Anchorage, and who said they were working for the Obama campaign.

The Obama campaign seemed to leave a little wiggle room in its description of the situation Wednesday.

Asked about the claims, spokesman Josh Earnest took issue with the charge in the Journal and McCain ad that operatives were “airdropped” into Alaska.

“That’s just not true,” he said on a conference call, adding: “There are no Obama or DNC staffers or researchers that were airdropped into Alaska.”

But his objection centered more on the alleged importation of Democratic lawyers than on their actual presence in the state.

Former Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles and Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein, two Obama supporters on the call, tried to brush off the charge.

Weinstein said he’s “not aware” of any Democratic lawyers in the state researching Palin.

But he also said: “I’m not surprised, whether it’s Democrats or media, coming to Alaska to find out who is this person, what is really her record, what are her truth beliefs?”

Knowles and Weinstein are part of the newly formed Alaska Mythbusters, which on Wednesday held the conference call to accuse Palin of supporting the very earmarks, such as the “Bridge to Nowhere,” that she claims to have defeated, and to raise questions about the trooper inquiry.

“That is a very serious ethical charge, and whether it’s for personal vendetta or personal gain, a person in public office cannot use their power to achieve those ends,” Knowles said. …

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

Like say, dismissing all U.S. Attorneys.

Also:

“That’s just not true,” he said on a conference call, adding: “There are no Obama or DNC staffers or researchers that were airdropped into Alaska.”

So that means they either drove or were bussed in. Got it.
BillK
September 11th, 2008 at 12:35 am
From Fox News:

CNN Comes Up Short on Reporting Palin Bikini Photo Fraud and Other Rumors

A CNN reporter this week didn’t seem to know or care that a fake photo showing a bikini-clad, rifle-toting Sarah Palin had been widely debunked days earlier as a fraud, the latest in series of incidents involving apparent misstatements or inaccurate reporting by the news network.

“(John) McCain has been really good about painting (Barack) Obama as this lightweight … They don’t want that to come back on Sarah Palin, and people say, yes, she looks good in a bikini clutching an AK-47, but is she equipped to run the country?” CNN’s Lola Ogunnaike said in response to a question on the network’s “Reliable Sources” show, which aired Sunday.

Ogunnaike’s remarks, which came in response to a question by host Howard Kurtz about whether Palin’s status as a political celebrity might undercut Republican efforts to portray the vice presidential nominee as a serious, reform-minded governor, were posted on CNN’s Web site and have since been reported and discussed on numerous other independent sites.

CNN correspondents and analysts have also recently misrepresented Palin’s stance on incorporating creationism into Alaska’s school curriculum and falsely reported that she cut funds for people with special needs in the state budget.

Regarding the doctored “bikini” photo, neither Kurtz, a “Washington Post” columnist, nor anyone else on the “Sources” discussion panel ever corrected Ogunnaike by pointing out that the picture was a fake.

Speaking about Ogunnaike and the doctored photo, Kurtz told FOXNews.com on Wednesday that he figured everyone knew the photo was a fake.

“I thought that Lola was joking around since the bikini was so obviously fake,” Kurtz said. “I thought she was making a lighthearted reference to it.

“Lola is a very sharp former New York Times reporter so I seriously doubt that she bought into the notion that the governor of Alaska had in fact posed in a bathing suit carrying an assault rifle,” he added.

“Lola’s comments were made in the context of the tabloid rumors that have emerged since Sarah Palin’s nomination to the ticket,” a CNN spokeswoman said. “She regrets that she didn’t make it more clear that the photo was not only a rumor but a hoax.”

The infamous fake bikini shot first appeared during the early days of the Republican convention. But it was widely debunked within 24 hours, with bloggers and others quickly exposing the fraud by finding the original shot, reportedly taken in 2004 in Athens, Ga., by an amateur photographer of his then-girlfriend.

FOXNews.com was among the news outlets to report the fake. …

http://elections.foxnews.com/2.....ts-a-fake/

This doesn’t surprise me at all as guests on Larry King were spewing the “cut funding for special needs children by 62%” line most of a day after factcheck.org exposed them as not only wrong, but substantially so.

Why would CNN care if information being spread to discredit their opponent is fake?

It’s not like they’re a news organization or anything.

The story concludes:

The morning after Toobin’s remarks on creationism, CNN correspondent Jessica Yellin reported that Palin vetoed funds not only for so-called “earmarks,” but “even for people with disabilities.” This was an apparent reference to a charge discussed during a Sept. 4 interview, in which CNN’s Soledad O’Brien pressed a McCain spokeswoman on another accusation brought by Palin critics.

O’Brien twice referred to the charge that while governor, Palin cut the state’s special needs budget by 62 percent.

“Those advocates have said, as a woman who is now a mother of a special-needs child, she’s not fighting — she’s cut the budget by 62 percent since she came into office, and doesn’t that show a contradiction?” O’Brien asked McCain spokeswoman Nicolle Wallace, according to transcript available on CNN’s Web site.

But Factcheck.org, a non-partisan group affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, is among those that have reported that Palin “did not cut funding for special needs education in Alaska by 62 percent.”

In fact, the group said in a posting published on Newsweek’s Web site, “She didn’t cut it at all. She tripled per-pupil funding over just three years.”

Of course how long before the MSM reports that as happening only because Palin now has a special needs child of her own and is in fact self-enrichment with State funds?
BillK
September 11th, 2008 at 12:40 am
From the AP, another “obvious failure” of the Bush administration:

Satellite Images Show Second Long-Range Missile Site in North Korea

North Korea has quietly built a long-range missile base that is larger and more capable than an older and well-known launch pad for intercontinental ballistic missiles, according to independent analysts relying on new satellite images of the site and other data. Analysts provided images of the previously secret site to The Associated Press.

Construction on the site on North Korea’s west coast began at least eight years ago, according to Joseph S. Bermudez, Jr., senior analyst with Jane’s Information Group, and Tim Brown with Talent-keyhole.com, a private satellite imagery analysis company. Bermudez first located the site in early spring and they have tracked its construction using commercial and unclassified satellite imagery.

“The primary purpose of the facility is to test,” Bermudez told The Associated Press in an interview last week. A base capable of a long-range test could obviously be used in wartime to launch a missile that carried a warhead.

“This is a clear indication North Korea is continuing its ballistic missile development program,” Bermudez said.

Bermudez is also unveiling the images on the defense web site Janes.com and in the Sept. 17 edition of Jane’s Defence Weekly.

He said the launch pad has been operational since 2005 but has not yet been used. He believes North Korea wants to use it to develop longer-range and more accurate ICBMs. It could also launch satellites into space.

Although North Korea has been long thought to want additional missile capability and test facilities, this is the first public disclosure of the new launch facility, according to Bermudez, Brown and John Pike, an imagery analyst with GlobalSecurity.org, who first reviewed the information last week.

Pike said the new facility represents a major step forward for North Korea’s long-range missile program as it would allow multiple test flights in a short time, which is difficult at the smaller, original long-range missile launch site known as Musudan-ni.

“This would be a facility to conduct a real flight-test program and develop something that you have some operational confidence in,” Pike told the Associated Press. “It would suggest they have the intention to develop the capability to perfect a missile to deliver atomic bombs to the United States.” …

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,420523,00.html

Not a shock to anyone of course - North Korea has always said they intend to destroy the United States should they ever perceive themselves to be under attack.
BillK
September 11th, 2008 at 12:46 am
From the AP, IMHO the best way to remember 9/11:

Officials: Top Al Qaeda Operatives Killed in Pakistan

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan — Two important Al Qaeda operatives were among four foreign militants killed in a CIA missile strike in Pakistan’s northwest, officials said Wednesday.

Some Pakistani intelligence officials said one of the men was in charge of the terror network’s activities in Pakistan’s tribal regions, semiautonomous areas that the U.S. fears have become a haven for Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

However, another Pakistani official said none of the four appeared to be members of Al Qaeda’s top leadership and a U.S. official said he believed the militants were mid-level operative.

The missile strike occurred Monday in the North Waziristan tribal region, destroying a seminary and houses associated with a veteran Taliban commander. The tribal belt is considered a possible hiding place for Usama bin Laden and Al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri.

Several suspected missile strikes in recent days have indicated the U.S. is escalating direct efforts to root out militants along the lengthy, porous Afghan-Pakistan border.

U.S. officials say the elimination of insurgent hideouts in Pakistan is critical to stemming the growing Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s fledgling government has struggled to contain militancy, despite using peace talks and force.

Three Pakistani intelligence officials identified four foreign militants killed in the Monday strike as Abu Qasim, Abu Musa, Abu Hamza and Abu Har

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