Barack Your Baby: Barack Obama travels a lot, but many babies live in places he hasn’t been. That’s why he’s now accepting babies by mail. Send him your baby, and he’ll kiss it and send it back to you.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Barack Your Baby: Obama accepting babies through mail
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Barack Obama
Barack Your Baby: Barack Obama travels a lot, but many babies live in places he hasn’t been. That’s why he’s now accepting babies by mail. Send him your baby, and he’ll kiss it and send it back to you.
Most Australians would vote for ObamaFrom
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Barack Obama
Obama would win by landslide if world could vote United States only country where McCain won Obama leading in opinion polls since vote
IF Australians could vote for US president, Democrat Barack Obama would win by a landslide, according to a survey that was part of a global poll.
In fact if the whole world could vote, Obama would win by a landslide in all but one of the 17 countries polled by Reader's Digest magazine.
The odd one out was the United States where Republican John McCain was preferred by a narrow margin, the magazine said in an article posted on its website.
However, the surveys - with about 1000 participants in each country - were conducted from June 2 to July 7 and since then Senator Obama has been leading in opinion polls.
In Australia, 76 per cent of respondents said they would vote for Senator Obama, to Senator McCain's 10 per cent.
When asked if they were paying attention to the campaign, 85 per cent of Australians said they were, with 24 per cent of claiming a high level of interest.
But a resounding 71 per cent said they would not want to live in the United States.
Of the global picture, the magazine's polling director John Fredricks said: "It's Obama by a landslide - except in the country in which he's actually running for president".
"What is most striking is the margin of his support."
Senator Obama was preferred by more than 90 per cent in the Netherlands, by 85 per cent in Germany and by similar margins on all six continents, the magazine said.
Polling was conducted in Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Spain, South Africa, Taiwan, and the United States.
An interactive reader survey by The Economist delivered another resounding victory for Senator Obama.
The Economist has created a "Global Electoral College" in which readers in all of the world's 195 countries can cast votes on its website.
Mirroring the US system, each country is allocated a number of votes in proportion to its population.
In the US electoral college, a candidate needs to win 270 of a total 538 votes to win the White House. US voters cast ballots to decide who wins their state's electoral college votes, rather than voting for president directly.
"With over 6.5 billion people (worldwide) enfranchised, the result is a much larger electoral college of 9,875 votes," the Economist said of its global version.
"But rally your countrymen - a nation must have at least 10 individual votes in order to have its electoral college votes counted," it said.
Voting at www.economist.com/vote2008 will conclude on November 1 at midnight London time.
So far, Senator Obama had tallied 8455 global votes and Senator McCain 16 - from Andorra, Georgia and Macedonia.
From News.com.au
IF Australians could vote for US president, Democrat Barack Obama would win by a landslide, according to a survey that was part of a global poll.
In fact if the whole world could vote, Obama would win by a landslide in all but one of the 17 countries polled by Reader's Digest magazine.
The odd one out was the United States where Republican John McCain was preferred by a narrow margin, the magazine said in an article posted on its website.
However, the surveys - with about 1000 participants in each country - were conducted from June 2 to July 7 and since then Senator Obama has been leading in opinion polls.
In Australia, 76 per cent of respondents said they would vote for Senator Obama, to Senator McCain's 10 per cent.
When asked if they were paying attention to the campaign, 85 per cent of Australians said they were, with 24 per cent of claiming a high level of interest.
But a resounding 71 per cent said they would not want to live in the United States.
Of the global picture, the magazine's polling director John Fredricks said: "It's Obama by a landslide - except in the country in which he's actually running for president".
"What is most striking is the margin of his support."
Senator Obama was preferred by more than 90 per cent in the Netherlands, by 85 per cent in Germany and by similar margins on all six continents, the magazine said.
Polling was conducted in Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Spain, South Africa, Taiwan, and the United States.
An interactive reader survey by The Economist delivered another resounding victory for Senator Obama.
The Economist has created a "Global Electoral College" in which readers in all of the world's 195 countries can cast votes on its website.
Mirroring the US system, each country is allocated a number of votes in proportion to its population.
In the US electoral college, a candidate needs to win 270 of a total 538 votes to win the White House. US voters cast ballots to decide who wins their state's electoral college votes, rather than voting for president directly.
"With over 6.5 billion people (worldwide) enfranchised, the result is a much larger electoral college of 9,875 votes," the Economist said of its global version.
"But rally your countrymen - a nation must have at least 10 individual votes in order to have its electoral college votes counted," it said.
Voting at www.economist.com/vote2008 will conclude on November 1 at midnight London time.
So far, Senator Obama had tallied 8455 global votes and Senator McCain 16 - from Andorra, Georgia and Macedonia.
From News.com.au
Sarah Palin banned at Madonna shows
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Madonna,
Sarah Palin
Pop superstar Madonna has banned US Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin from attending any of the dates on her current Sticky and Sweet world tour.
"Sarah Palin can't come to my party. Sarah Palin can't come to my show. It's nothing personal," Madonna announced from the stage during a gig in Meadowlands, New Jersey, last Saturday.
Madonna is believed to be backing Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama in his campaign for the White House.
From The Star Online
"Sarah Palin can't come to my party. Sarah Palin can't come to my show. It's nothing personal," Madonna announced from the stage during a gig in Meadowlands, New Jersey, last Saturday.
Madonna is believed to be backing Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama in his campaign for the White House.
From The Star Online
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Joe Biden's son leaves for Iraq
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Joe Biden
Democratic vice presidential candidate and Delaware senator Joe Biden sent his son off to war Friday.
Joseph Biden III, 39, is a captain in the Delaware Army National Guard's 261st Signal Brigade. He is also the Delaware attorney general.
Biden said goodbye to his son and the rest of the national guard in a ceremony outside the state capitol.
"We take comfort in the knowledge that you are the best-trained, best-prepared group of citizen soldiers that our country to this day has ever sent into harm's way," Biden said.
Biden's unit leaves Sunday for Fort Bliss, Texas. There they will train for six weeks before heading to Iraq.
Joseph Biden III, 39, is a captain in the Delaware Army National Guard's 261st Signal Brigade. He is also the Delaware attorney general.
Biden said goodbye to his son and the rest of the national guard in a ceremony outside the state capitol.
"We take comfort in the knowledge that you are the best-trained, best-prepared group of citizen soldiers that our country to this day has ever sent into harm's way," Biden said.
Biden's unit leaves Sunday for Fort Bliss, Texas. There they will train for six weeks before heading to Iraq.
Love Child of Joe Biden and Sarah Palin
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Joe Biden,
Sarah Palin
Avi Muchnick, while commenting on intense sexual chemistry between Joe "Six-Pack" Biden and Sarah "Nukeyoolar" Palin, went ahead and had a closer look at alleged love child of Joe Biden and Sarah Palin.
Have a laugh!
From Aviary
Have a laugh!
From Aviary
Monday, October 6, 2008
Sarah Palin Winking Her Way to Vice... Presidency
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Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin, the wink says it all.
Oil Funded research in Sarah Palin's campaign against protection for Polar Bear
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Sarah Palin
The Republican Sarah Palin and her officials in the Alaskan state government drew on the work of at least six scientists known to be sceptical about the dangers and causes of global warming, to back efforts to stop polar bears being protected as an endangered species, the Guardian can disclose. Some of the scientists were funded by the oil industry.
In official submissions to the US government's consultation on the status of the polar bear, Palin and her team referred to at least six scientists who have questioned either the existence of warming as a largely man-made phenomenon or its severity. One paper was partly funded by the US oil company ExxonMobil.
The status of the polar bear has become a battleground in the debate on global warming. In May the US department of the interior rejected Palin's objections and listed the bear as a threatened species, saying that two-thirds of the world's polar bears were likely to be extinct by 2050 due to the rapid melting of the sea ice. Palin, governor of Alaska and the Republican nominee for US vice-president, responded last month by suing the federal government, to try to overturn the ruling. The case will be heard in January.
Though the state of Alaska has no polar bear specialists on its staff, the governor's stance has pitted it against the combined scientific fire-power of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the US Geological Survey, and world experts on the mammal.
In its lawsuit, Alaska said it opposed the endangered label partly because the listing would "deter activities such as ... oil and gas exploration and development". Oil companies recently bid $2.7bn (£1.5bn) for rights to explore the Chuckchi sea, an established polar bear habitat.
The threatened species status might also impede the building of an Alaskan natural gas pipeline, which Palin has called the "will of God". In a letter last year to the US interior secretary, Dirk Kempthorne, she said she believed the polar bear population was "abundant, stable and unthreatened by direct human activity". She opposed the call for the listing because it "did not use the best available scientific and commercial information".
Her own Alaskan review of the science drew on a joint paper by seven authors, four of whom were well-known climate- change contrarians. Her paper argued that it was "certainly premature, if not impossible" to link temperature rise in Alaska with human CO2 emissions.
The paper, entitled Polar Bears of Western Hudson Bay and Climate Change, has been criticised for relying on old research and ignoring evidence that Arctic sea-ice is melting at a quickening pace. Walt Meier, a world authority on sea ice, based at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre, said: "The paper doesn't measure up scientifically."
One co-author of the paper, Willie Soon, completed the study with funding from ExxonMobil - which has oil operations in Alaska's North Slope - as well as from the American Petroleum Institute. Soon was a former senior scientist with the George C Marshall Institute, which acts as an incubator for climate-change scepticism. The institute has received $715,000 in funding from ExxonMobil since 1998.
In May, ExxonMobil announced that it was no longer funding Marshall and other groups linked with contrarian views. It said this was to avoid "distraction from the need to provide energy while reducing greenhouse gas emissions" and stressed that the company did not "control the research itself".
Another co-author of the document was Sallie Baliunas. In 2003 she and Soon were criticised when it was revealed that a joint paper had been partially funded by the American Petroleum Institute. Thirteen scientists whom they cited issued a rebuttal and several editors of the journal Climate Research resigned because of the "flawed peer review". A third co-author of the polar bear study, David Legates, a professor at Delaware University, is also associated with the Marshall Institute.
The citation by Palin and her officials prompted complaints from Congress. One member, Brad Miller, dubbed the polar bear study phony science.
Palin told Miller: "Attempts to discredit scientists ... simply because their analyses do not agree with your views, would be a disservice to this country." Miller now says that Palin's use of the paper shows she differs greatly from John McCain, the Republican presidential contender, who has pressed for scientific integrity. "Turning to the cottage industry of scientists who are funded because they spread doubt about global warming is not integrity," Miller said.
Palin's submission consulted J Scott Armstrong, a specialist in forecasting, who regards the global warming issue as "public hysteria".
Two other contrarian scholars were cited. One was Syun-Ichi Akasofu, formerly director of the International Arctic Research Centre, in Alaska, who argues that climate change could be a hangover from the little ice age. He is a founding director of the Heartland Institute, a thinktank that has received $676,500 from ExxonMobil since 1998.
Timothy Ball, a retired professor from Winnipeg, is cited for his climate and polar bear research. He has called human-made global warming "the greatest deception in the history of science". He has worked with both Friends of Science, and the Natural Resources Stewardship Project, which each had funding from energy firms.
Kert Davies, research director at Greenpeace US, said the state of Alaska under Palin's leadership had relied on scholars who argue the opposite view to that of the overwhelming consensus in the scientific community. "It shows that she is completely out of touch with the urgency of the climate crisis."
Last month Palin agreed that the Alaskan climate was changing but added: "I'm not one though who would attribute it to being man-made." She later tried to retract the statement.
Source: Guardian
In official submissions to the US government's consultation on the status of the polar bear, Palin and her team referred to at least six scientists who have questioned either the existence of warming as a largely man-made phenomenon or its severity. One paper was partly funded by the US oil company ExxonMobil.
The status of the polar bear has become a battleground in the debate on global warming. In May the US department of the interior rejected Palin's objections and listed the bear as a threatened species, saying that two-thirds of the world's polar bears were likely to be extinct by 2050 due to the rapid melting of the sea ice. Palin, governor of Alaska and the Republican nominee for US vice-president, responded last month by suing the federal government, to try to overturn the ruling. The case will be heard in January.
Though the state of Alaska has no polar bear specialists on its staff, the governor's stance has pitted it against the combined scientific fire-power of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the US Geological Survey, and world experts on the mammal.
In its lawsuit, Alaska said it opposed the endangered label partly because the listing would "deter activities such as ... oil and gas exploration and development". Oil companies recently bid $2.7bn (£1.5bn) for rights to explore the Chuckchi sea, an established polar bear habitat.
The threatened species status might also impede the building of an Alaskan natural gas pipeline, which Palin has called the "will of God". In a letter last year to the US interior secretary, Dirk Kempthorne, she said she believed the polar bear population was "abundant, stable and unthreatened by direct human activity". She opposed the call for the listing because it "did not use the best available scientific and commercial information".
Her own Alaskan review of the science drew on a joint paper by seven authors, four of whom were well-known climate- change contrarians. Her paper argued that it was "certainly premature, if not impossible" to link temperature rise in Alaska with human CO2 emissions.
The paper, entitled Polar Bears of Western Hudson Bay and Climate Change, has been criticised for relying on old research and ignoring evidence that Arctic sea-ice is melting at a quickening pace. Walt Meier, a world authority on sea ice, based at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre, said: "The paper doesn't measure up scientifically."
One co-author of the paper, Willie Soon, completed the study with funding from ExxonMobil - which has oil operations in Alaska's North Slope - as well as from the American Petroleum Institute. Soon was a former senior scientist with the George C Marshall Institute, which acts as an incubator for climate-change scepticism. The institute has received $715,000 in funding from ExxonMobil since 1998.
In May, ExxonMobil announced that it was no longer funding Marshall and other groups linked with contrarian views. It said this was to avoid "distraction from the need to provide energy while reducing greenhouse gas emissions" and stressed that the company did not "control the research itself".
Another co-author of the document was Sallie Baliunas. In 2003 she and Soon were criticised when it was revealed that a joint paper had been partially funded by the American Petroleum Institute. Thirteen scientists whom they cited issued a rebuttal and several editors of the journal Climate Research resigned because of the "flawed peer review". A third co-author of the polar bear study, David Legates, a professor at Delaware University, is also associated with the Marshall Institute.
The citation by Palin and her officials prompted complaints from Congress. One member, Brad Miller, dubbed the polar bear study phony science.
Palin told Miller: "Attempts to discredit scientists ... simply because their analyses do not agree with your views, would be a disservice to this country." Miller now says that Palin's use of the paper shows she differs greatly from John McCain, the Republican presidential contender, who has pressed for scientific integrity. "Turning to the cottage industry of scientists who are funded because they spread doubt about global warming is not integrity," Miller said.
Palin's submission consulted J Scott Armstrong, a specialist in forecasting, who regards the global warming issue as "public hysteria".
Two other contrarian scholars were cited. One was Syun-Ichi Akasofu, formerly director of the International Arctic Research Centre, in Alaska, who argues that climate change could be a hangover from the little ice age. He is a founding director of the Heartland Institute, a thinktank that has received $676,500 from ExxonMobil since 1998.
Timothy Ball, a retired professor from Winnipeg, is cited for his climate and polar bear research. He has called human-made global warming "the greatest deception in the history of science". He has worked with both Friends of Science, and the Natural Resources Stewardship Project, which each had funding from energy firms.
Kert Davies, research director at Greenpeace US, said the state of Alaska under Palin's leadership had relied on scholars who argue the opposite view to that of the overwhelming consensus in the scientific community. "It shows that she is completely out of touch with the urgency of the climate crisis."
Last month Palin agreed that the Alaskan climate was changing but added: "I'm not one though who would attribute it to being man-made." She later tried to retract the statement.
Source: Guardian
Sarah Palin thinks Afghanistan and US are neighbours
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Sarah Palin
Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin called Afghanistan “our neighboring country” on Sunday in a speech that could revive questions over her tendency to stumble into linguistic knots.
Three days after a mostly gaffe-free debate performance, the Alaska governor fumbled during a speech in which she praised U.S. soldiers for “fighting terrorism and protecting us and our democratic values”.
“They are also building schools for the Afghan children so that there is hope and opportunity in our neighboring country of Afghanistan,” she told several hundred supporters at a fundraising event in San Francisco.
The gaffe could add fuel to comedians and late-night talk show hosts who have seized on her linguistic infelicities to portray her as someone not to be taken seriously.
Later in a speech in Omaha, Neb., Palin poked a little fun at herself when talking about one comedian in particular — actress Tina Fey whose dead-on impression of Palin’s looks, voice and body language has been a hit.
Fey, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Palin, has parodied her as a rambling, perky politician unfamiliar with world issues for three straight weeks on the comedy show “Saturday Night Live”.
“I was just trying to give Tina Fey more material — job security for Saturday Night Live,” Palin said.
The skits have become a sensation since an awkward interview with CBS News anchor Katie Couric in which Palin failed to coherently express her views about Russia, the U.S. government’s $700 billion financial bailout package, and the newspapers or magazines she reads.
In recent days, the 44-year-old self-described “hockey mom” has described the Couric interview as “less than successful”, and apologized to crowds of supporters for her shaky performance, saying she was “annoyed” and “impatient” because she wanted to talk about other issues like energy independence.
Palin’s opponent, Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden, has also committed high-profile gaffes, including claiming in a recent interview that President Franklin D. Roosevelt calmed fears in a TV address at the beginning of the Great Depression. There was no TV in 1929 — Roosevelt wasn’t president at the time.
From Reuters Blog
Three days after a mostly gaffe-free debate performance, the Alaska governor fumbled during a speech in which she praised U.S. soldiers for “fighting terrorism and protecting us and our democratic values”.
“They are also building schools for the Afghan children so that there is hope and opportunity in our neighboring country of Afghanistan,” she told several hundred supporters at a fundraising event in San Francisco.
The gaffe could add fuel to comedians and late-night talk show hosts who have seized on her linguistic infelicities to portray her as someone not to be taken seriously.
Later in a speech in Omaha, Neb., Palin poked a little fun at herself when talking about one comedian in particular — actress Tina Fey whose dead-on impression of Palin’s looks, voice and body language has been a hit.
Fey, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Palin, has parodied her as a rambling, perky politician unfamiliar with world issues for three straight weeks on the comedy show “Saturday Night Live”.
“I was just trying to give Tina Fey more material — job security for Saturday Night Live,” Palin said.
The skits have become a sensation since an awkward interview with CBS News anchor Katie Couric in which Palin failed to coherently express her views about Russia, the U.S. government’s $700 billion financial bailout package, and the newspapers or magazines she reads.
In recent days, the 44-year-old self-described “hockey mom” has described the Couric interview as “less than successful”, and apologized to crowds of supporters for her shaky performance, saying she was “annoyed” and “impatient” because she wanted to talk about other issues like energy independence.
Palin’s opponent, Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden, has also committed high-profile gaffes, including claiming in a recent interview that President Franklin D. Roosevelt calmed fears in a TV address at the beginning of the Great Depression. There was no TV in 1929 — Roosevelt wasn’t president at the time.
From Reuters Blog
Joe Biden's Fantasy World
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Joe Biden
In the popular media wisdom, Sarah Palin is the neophyte who knows nothing about foreign policy while Joe Biden is the savvy diplomatic pro. Then what are we to make of Mr. Biden's fantastic debate voyage last week when he made factual claims that would have got Mrs. Palin mocked from New York to Los Angeles?
APStart with Lebanon, where Mr. Biden asserted that "When we kicked -- along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said and Barack said, 'Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don't know -- if you don't, Hezbollah will control it.' Now what's happened? Hezbollah is a legitimate part of the government in the country immediately to the north of Israel."
The U.S. never kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, and no one else has either. Perhaps Mr. Biden meant to say Syria, except that the U.S. also didn't do that. The Lebanese ousted Syria's military in 2005. As for NATO, Messrs. Biden and Obama may have proposed sending alliance troops in, but if they did that was also a fantasy. The U.S. has had all it can handle trying to convince NATO countries to deploy to Afghanistan.
Speaking of which, Mr. Biden also averred that "Our commanding general in Afghanistan said the surge principle in Iraq will not work in Afghanistan." In trying to correct him, Mrs. Palin mispronounced the general's name -- saying "General McClellan" instead of General David McKiernan. But Mr. Biden's claim was the bigger error, because General McKiernan said that while "Afghanistan is not Iraq," he also said a "sustained commitment" to counterinsurgency would be required. That is consistent with Mr. McCain's point that the "surge principles" of Iraq could work in Afghanistan.
Then there's the Senator's astonishing claim that Mr. Obama "did not say he'd sit down with Ahmadinejad" without preconditions. Yet Mr. Biden himself criticized Mr. Obama on this point in 2007 at the National Press Club: "Would I make a blanket commitment to meet unconditionally with the leaders of each of those countries within the first year I was elected President? Absolutely, positively no."
Or how about his rewriting of Bosnia history to assert that John McCain didn't support President Clinton in the 1990s. "My recommendations on Bosnia, I admit I was the first one to recommend it. They saved tens of thousands of lives. And initially John McCain opposed it along with a lot of other people. But the end result was it worked." Mr. Biden's immodesty aside, Mr. McCain supported Mr. Clinton on Bosnia, as did Bob Dole even as he was running against him for President in 1996 -- in contrast to the way Mr. Biden and Democratic leaders have tried to undermine President Bush on Iraq.
Closer to home, the Delaware blarney stone also invited Americans to join him at "Katie's restaurant" in Wilmington to witness middle-class struggles. Just one problem: Katie's closed in the 1980s. The mistake is more than a memory lapse because it exposes how phony is Mr. Biden's attempt to pose for this campaign as Lunchbucket Joe.
We think the word "lie" is overused in politics today, having become a favorite of the blogosphere and at the New York Times. So we won't say Mr. Biden was deliberately making events up when he made these and other false statements. Perhaps he merely misspoke. In any case, Mrs. Palin may not know as much about the world as Mr. Biden does, but at least most of what she knows is true.
From Wall Street Journal
APStart with Lebanon, where Mr. Biden asserted that "When we kicked -- along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said and Barack said, 'Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don't know -- if you don't, Hezbollah will control it.' Now what's happened? Hezbollah is a legitimate part of the government in the country immediately to the north of Israel."
The U.S. never kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, and no one else has either. Perhaps Mr. Biden meant to say Syria, except that the U.S. also didn't do that. The Lebanese ousted Syria's military in 2005. As for NATO, Messrs. Biden and Obama may have proposed sending alliance troops in, but if they did that was also a fantasy. The U.S. has had all it can handle trying to convince NATO countries to deploy to Afghanistan.
Speaking of which, Mr. Biden also averred that "Our commanding general in Afghanistan said the surge principle in Iraq will not work in Afghanistan." In trying to correct him, Mrs. Palin mispronounced the general's name -- saying "General McClellan" instead of General David McKiernan. But Mr. Biden's claim was the bigger error, because General McKiernan said that while "Afghanistan is not Iraq," he also said a "sustained commitment" to counterinsurgency would be required. That is consistent with Mr. McCain's point that the "surge principles" of Iraq could work in Afghanistan.
Then there's the Senator's astonishing claim that Mr. Obama "did not say he'd sit down with Ahmadinejad" without preconditions. Yet Mr. Biden himself criticized Mr. Obama on this point in 2007 at the National Press Club: "Would I make a blanket commitment to meet unconditionally with the leaders of each of those countries within the first year I was elected President? Absolutely, positively no."
Or how about his rewriting of Bosnia history to assert that John McCain didn't support President Clinton in the 1990s. "My recommendations on Bosnia, I admit I was the first one to recommend it. They saved tens of thousands of lives. And initially John McCain opposed it along with a lot of other people. But the end result was it worked." Mr. Biden's immodesty aside, Mr. McCain supported Mr. Clinton on Bosnia, as did Bob Dole even as he was running against him for President in 1996 -- in contrast to the way Mr. Biden and Democratic leaders have tried to undermine President Bush on Iraq.
Closer to home, the Delaware blarney stone also invited Americans to join him at "Katie's restaurant" in Wilmington to witness middle-class struggles. Just one problem: Katie's closed in the 1980s. The mistake is more than a memory lapse because it exposes how phony is Mr. Biden's attempt to pose for this campaign as Lunchbucket Joe.
We think the word "lie" is overused in politics today, having become a favorite of the blogosphere and at the New York Times. So we won't say Mr. Biden was deliberately making events up when he made these and other false statements. Perhaps he merely misspoke. In any case, Mrs. Palin may not know as much about the world as Mr. Biden does, but at least most of what she knows is true.
From Wall Street Journal
Bidens owe SimmonsCooper $1 million in hedge fund deal
More On:
Joe Biden
Vice presidential candidate Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden and brother James Biden owe $1 million to SimmonsCooper law firm of East Alton from a hedge fund buyout that fell apart in 2006.
SimmonsCooper attorneys have contributed hundreds of thousands to campaigns of Senator Biden, his other son Beau Biden, and John Markell, current candidate for governor, while turning Delaware into a national magnet for asbestos lawsuits.
In the hedge fund case, Hunter Biden and James Biden seek to shift their debt to former partner Joseph Lotito through counterclaims in a fraud suit he filed against them.
New York State Supreme Court Justice Bernard Fried rejected their bid in May, ruling that they should have checked out the fund more carefully.
"These counterclaims, conditionally pleaded, do not rest on a justiciable controversy, but seek only to foment uncertainty and chaos between the parties in the event that plaintiff is successful in presenting the main claims," Fried wrote.
"Such pleading will not be countenanced," he wrote.
He held that Hunter Biden and James Biden can't allege misrepresentation when they failed to allege their own due diligence.
In June, Hunter Biden and James Biden appealed Fried's decision.
SimmonsCooper committed $2 million but withheld the second million after seeing how Lotito wasted the first million, according to Hunter Biden and James Biden.
SimmonsCooper invested in Hunter Biden and James Biden after teaming with Beau Biden's firm in Wilmington, Del.
In 2005, SimmonsCooper shifted its focus away from Madison County, Illinois, after Chief Judge Edward Ferguson transferred the mammoth asbestos docket from Circuit Judge Nicholas Byron to Circuit Judge Daniel Stack.
The firm targeted Delaware because many businesses incorporate there and the firm's roster of defendants always includes Delaware corporations.
No one at SimmonsCooper held a Delaware law license, so Beau Biden's firm filed the suits and SimmonsCooper identified itself as, "of counsel."
Beau Biden dropped an asbestos defense client to accommodate SimmonsCooper.
At the same time, Joe Biden resisted asbestos litigation reform in the Senate judiciary committee.
On New Year's Eve 2005, SimmonsCooper attorneys, staff and spouses contributed at least $52,250 to Biden's campaign for a seventh Senate term.
In the following five weeks the firm contributed at least $56,100.
Campaign reports don't allow full accounting from any source because contributors ignore employment information requests or many channel cash through others.
While SimmonsCooper backed Joe Biden's reelection, he prepared to run for president.
Hunter Biden meanwhile earned his living as a lobbyist, but not for long.
According to court records filed by Lotito, Joe Biden wanted Hunter Biden to find a different line of work because he couldn't afford to run for president as father of a lobbyist.
Lotito claims he and James Biden discussed Hunter Biden's job prospects.
Lotito met James Biden in 2002 and they invested together in 2005, according to Lotito.
Lotito introduced James Biden and Hunter Biden to lawyer John Fasciano, and the four began planning to buy Paradigm Capital Management.
Majority owner James Parks had started Paradigm in 1991 and successfully promoted it as less volatile than most hedge funds.
Everyone agreed that the Bidens and Lotito would form a corporation to buy 54 percent of Paradigm for $21.3 million in cash.
They would install Hunter Biden as chief executive officer at a salary of $1.2 million.
In April 2006, they formed LBB Limited Liability Corporation.
In May 2006, SimmonsCooper invested $1 million.
In June 2006, according to Lotito, the Bidens told him to stay away.
In August 2006, according to Lotito, the Bidens formed a corporation, executed a promissory note for $8.1 million, and purchased Paradigm's assets.
In September 2006, Lotito signed an agreement relinquishing his third of LBB.
He sued the Bidens in January 2007, alleging fraud and breach of fiduciary duty.
Attorney Brian Wille claimed the Bidens made a secret side deal, terminated Lotito's rights, and fraudulently induced him to sign away his interest in LBB.
Willie wrote that Lotito found investors and the Bidens rejected them.
He wrote that the Bidens intimidated Lotito and accused him of receiving kickbacks from Fasciano.
"Ultimately, the Bidens threatened to use their alleged connections with a former U.S. Senator to retaliate against counsel for insisting that his bill be paid, claiming that the former Senator was prepared to use his influence with a federal judge to disadvantage counsel in a proceeding then pending before that court," Willie wrote.
For the Bidens, Nicholas Gravante answered that Lotito failed to tell them that Fasciano would soon go to federal prison on a fraud conviction.
Gravante alleged that Lotito exaggerated Paradigm's value.
He alleged that Lotito failed to tell the Bidens that Parks had acted for years as absentee owner of Paradigm due to substance abuse.
Gravante filed a counterclaim and brought it to a hearing before Fried in June 2007.
Gravante called Lotito a criminal, and Fried asked where his pleadings called him that.
Gravante stammered and Fried said, "In my courtroom I would like you to restrict yourself to acting civilly."
Fried said, "You have accused him of being a criminal in this courtroom and it's not in these papers."
Gravante said, "He is accused of crimes. I don't call him a criminal, correct."
Fried rejected the counterclaim last September but ruled that the Bidens could amend it.
Gravante amended it to allege that LBB "specifically recruited SimmonsCooper as a result of Lotito's and Fasciano's misstatements and omissions."
SimmonsCooper withdrew, he wrote, and its investment converted to debt.
At a hearing this January, Gravante said the Bidens had "an uncheckered history."
He said, "These are reputable people - discovery will bear that out - who wouldn't have agreed to have that kind of an attorney do this work for them."
In May, for the second time, Fried rejected the counterclaim.
"Certainly defendants do not claim that the law permits sophisticated investors to rely on whatever representations a potential advisor makes without the need for a diligent inquiry by defendants, and that such representations are actionable if they wind up to have been faulty," Fried wrote.
Although the dispute hinges on the SimmonsCooper investment, neither side has alleged that Lotito knew or didn't know that SimmonsCooper would invest.
From Madison County Record
SimmonsCooper attorneys have contributed hundreds of thousands to campaigns of Senator Biden, his other son Beau Biden, and John Markell, current candidate for governor, while turning Delaware into a national magnet for asbestos lawsuits.
In the hedge fund case, Hunter Biden and James Biden seek to shift their debt to former partner Joseph Lotito through counterclaims in a fraud suit he filed against them.
New York State Supreme Court Justice Bernard Fried rejected their bid in May, ruling that they should have checked out the fund more carefully.
"These counterclaims, conditionally pleaded, do not rest on a justiciable controversy, but seek only to foment uncertainty and chaos between the parties in the event that plaintiff is successful in presenting the main claims," Fried wrote.
"Such pleading will not be countenanced," he wrote.
He held that Hunter Biden and James Biden can't allege misrepresentation when they failed to allege their own due diligence.
In June, Hunter Biden and James Biden appealed Fried's decision.
SimmonsCooper committed $2 million but withheld the second million after seeing how Lotito wasted the first million, according to Hunter Biden and James Biden.
SimmonsCooper invested in Hunter Biden and James Biden after teaming with Beau Biden's firm in Wilmington, Del.
In 2005, SimmonsCooper shifted its focus away from Madison County, Illinois, after Chief Judge Edward Ferguson transferred the mammoth asbestos docket from Circuit Judge Nicholas Byron to Circuit Judge Daniel Stack.
The firm targeted Delaware because many businesses incorporate there and the firm's roster of defendants always includes Delaware corporations.
No one at SimmonsCooper held a Delaware law license, so Beau Biden's firm filed the suits and SimmonsCooper identified itself as, "of counsel."
Beau Biden dropped an asbestos defense client to accommodate SimmonsCooper.
At the same time, Joe Biden resisted asbestos litigation reform in the Senate judiciary committee.
On New Year's Eve 2005, SimmonsCooper attorneys, staff and spouses contributed at least $52,250 to Biden's campaign for a seventh Senate term.
In the following five weeks the firm contributed at least $56,100.
Campaign reports don't allow full accounting from any source because contributors ignore employment information requests or many channel cash through others.
While SimmonsCooper backed Joe Biden's reelection, he prepared to run for president.
Hunter Biden meanwhile earned his living as a lobbyist, but not for long.
According to court records filed by Lotito, Joe Biden wanted Hunter Biden to find a different line of work because he couldn't afford to run for president as father of a lobbyist.
Lotito claims he and James Biden discussed Hunter Biden's job prospects.
Lotito met James Biden in 2002 and they invested together in 2005, according to Lotito.
Lotito introduced James Biden and Hunter Biden to lawyer John Fasciano, and the four began planning to buy Paradigm Capital Management.
Majority owner James Parks had started Paradigm in 1991 and successfully promoted it as less volatile than most hedge funds.
Everyone agreed that the Bidens and Lotito would form a corporation to buy 54 percent of Paradigm for $21.3 million in cash.
They would install Hunter Biden as chief executive officer at a salary of $1.2 million.
In April 2006, they formed LBB Limited Liability Corporation.
In May 2006, SimmonsCooper invested $1 million.
In June 2006, according to Lotito, the Bidens told him to stay away.
In August 2006, according to Lotito, the Bidens formed a corporation, executed a promissory note for $8.1 million, and purchased Paradigm's assets.
In September 2006, Lotito signed an agreement relinquishing his third of LBB.
He sued the Bidens in January 2007, alleging fraud and breach of fiduciary duty.
Attorney Brian Wille claimed the Bidens made a secret side deal, terminated Lotito's rights, and fraudulently induced him to sign away his interest in LBB.
Willie wrote that Lotito found investors and the Bidens rejected them.
He wrote that the Bidens intimidated Lotito and accused him of receiving kickbacks from Fasciano.
"Ultimately, the Bidens threatened to use their alleged connections with a former U.S. Senator to retaliate against counsel for insisting that his bill be paid, claiming that the former Senator was prepared to use his influence with a federal judge to disadvantage counsel in a proceeding then pending before that court," Willie wrote.
For the Bidens, Nicholas Gravante answered that Lotito failed to tell them that Fasciano would soon go to federal prison on a fraud conviction.
Gravante alleged that Lotito exaggerated Paradigm's value.
He alleged that Lotito failed to tell the Bidens that Parks had acted for years as absentee owner of Paradigm due to substance abuse.
Gravante filed a counterclaim and brought it to a hearing before Fried in June 2007.
Gravante called Lotito a criminal, and Fried asked where his pleadings called him that.
Gravante stammered and Fried said, "In my courtroom I would like you to restrict yourself to acting civilly."
Fried said, "You have accused him of being a criminal in this courtroom and it's not in these papers."
Gravante said, "He is accused of crimes. I don't call him a criminal, correct."
Fried rejected the counterclaim last September but ruled that the Bidens could amend it.
Gravante amended it to allege that LBB "specifically recruited SimmonsCooper as a result of Lotito's and Fasciano's misstatements and omissions."
SimmonsCooper withdrew, he wrote, and its investment converted to debt.
At a hearing this January, Gravante said the Bidens had "an uncheckered history."
He said, "These are reputable people - discovery will bear that out - who wouldn't have agreed to have that kind of an attorney do this work for them."
In May, for the second time, Fried rejected the counterclaim.
"Certainly defendants do not claim that the law permits sophisticated investors to rely on whatever representations a potential advisor makes without the need for a diligent inquiry by defendants, and that such representations are actionable if they wind up to have been faulty," Fried wrote.
Although the dispute hinges on the SimmonsCooper investment, neither side has alleged that Lotito knew or didn't know that SimmonsCooper would invest.
From Madison County Record
Sarah Palin at Carson
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Sarah Palin
Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin praised running mate John McCain and criticized Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama today while spelling out goals of a McCain-Palin administration during a speech at The Home Depot Center.
A enthusiastic crowd estimated by Home Depot Center officials to be between 15,000 and 20,000 jammed the Carson facility's tennis stadium -- whose capacity is around 8,000 -- and an overflow area for a rare general election public appearance in Southern California by a major party presidential or vice presidential candidate.
In a 25-minute speech, interrupted about 20 times by applause, Palin demonstrated a folksy and feisty manner that seemingly had disappeared during a much-criticized interview with CBS anchor Katie Couric.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Barack Obama Writes to Indian Prime Minister
More On:
Barack Obama
Barack Obama didn't meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his recent U.S. visit, but has written him a letter reports Rediff.com.
Sen. Obama congratulated Dr. Singh for shepherding the nuclear cooperation agreement through the Indian parliament and deplored the recent string of terrorist attacks. Obama also said he hoped the civil nuclear cooperation would lead to greater cooperation on the non-proliferation issue, and said he would work with the U.S. Senate to secure ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
"Imagine our two democracies in action: Indian laboratories and industry collaborating with American laboratories and industry to discover innovative solutions to today's energy problems. That's the kind of new partnership I would like to build with India as president," he wrote.
Sen. Obama congratulated Dr. Singh for shepherding the nuclear cooperation agreement through the Indian parliament and deplored the recent string of terrorist attacks. Obama also said he hoped the civil nuclear cooperation would lead to greater cooperation on the non-proliferation issue, and said he would work with the U.S. Senate to secure ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
"Imagine our two democracies in action: Indian laboratories and industry collaborating with American laboratories and industry to discover innovative solutions to today's energy problems. That's the kind of new partnership I would like to build with India as president," he wrote.
The Friends of McCain
More On:
Barack Obama,
John McCain
Can a presidential candidate justify a long and friendly relationship with someone who, back in the 1970s, extolled violence and committed crimes in the name of a radical ideology -- and who has never shown remorse or admitted error? When the candidate in question is Barack Obama, John McCain says no. But when the candidate in question is John McCain, he's not so sure.
Obama has been justly criticized for his ties to former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers, who in 1995 hosted a campaign event for Obama and in 2001 gave him a $200 contribution. The two have also served together on the board of a foundation. When their connection became known, McCain minced no words: "I think not only a repudiation but an apology for ever having anything to do with an unrepentant terrorist is due the American people."What McCain didn't mention is that he has his own Bill Ayers -- in the form of G. Gordon Liddy. Now a conservative radio talk-show host, Liddy spent more than 4 years in prison for his role in the 1972 Watergate burglary. That was just one element of what Liddy did, and proposed to do, in a secret White House effort to subvert the Constitution. Far from repudiating him, McCain has embraced him.
How close are McCain and Liddy? At least as close as Obama and Ayers appear to be. In 1998, Liddy's home was the site of a McCain fundraiser. Over the years, he has made at least four contributions totaling $5,000 to the senator's campaigns -- including $1,000 this year.
Last November, McCain went on his radio show. Liddy greeted him as "an old friend," and McCain sounded like one. "I'm proud of you, I'm proud of your family," he gushed. "It's always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon, and congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great."
Which principles would those be? The ones that told Liddy it was fine to break into the office of the Democratic National Committee to plant bugs and photograph documents? The ones that made him propose to kidnap anti-war activists so they couldn't disrupt the 1972 Republican National Convention? The ones that inspired him to plan the murder (never carried out) of an unfriendly newspaper columnist?
Liddy was in the thick of the biggest political scandal in American history -- and one of the greatest threats to the rule of law. He has said he has no regrets about what he did, insisting that he went to jail as "a prisoner of war."
All this may sound like ancient history. But it's from the same era as the bombings Ayers helped carry out as a member of the Weather Underground. And Liddy's penchant for extreme solutions has not abated.
In 1994, after the disastrous federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, he gave some advice to his listeners: "Now if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms comes to disarm you and they are bearing arms, resist them with arms. Go for a head shot; they're going to be wearing bulletproof vests. ... Kill the sons of bitches."
He later backed off, saying he meant merely that people should defend themselves if federal agents came with guns blazing. But his amended guidance was not exactly conciliatory: Liddy also said he should have recommended shots to the groin instead of the head. If that wasn't enough to inflame any nut cases, he mentioned labeling targets "Bill" and "Hillary" when he practiced shooting.
Given Liddy's record, it's hard to see why McCain would touch him with a 10-foot pole. On the contrary, he should be returning his donations and shunning his show. Yet the senator shows no qualms about associating with Liddy -- or celebrating his service to their common cause.
How does McCain explain his howling hypocrisy on the subject? He doesn't. I made repeated inquiries to his campaign aides, which they refused to acknowledge, much less answer. On this topic, the pilot of the Straight Talk Express would rather stay parked in the garage.
That's an odd policy for someone who is so forthright about his rival's responsibility. McCain thinks Obama should apologize for associating with a criminal extremist. To which Obama might reply: After you.
By Steve Chapman
Obama has been justly criticized for his ties to former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers, who in 1995 hosted a campaign event for Obama and in 2001 gave him a $200 contribution. The two have also served together on the board of a foundation. When their connection became known, McCain minced no words: "I think not only a repudiation but an apology for ever having anything to do with an unrepentant terrorist is due the American people."What McCain didn't mention is that he has his own Bill Ayers -- in the form of G. Gordon Liddy. Now a conservative radio talk-show host, Liddy spent more than 4 years in prison for his role in the 1972 Watergate burglary. That was just one element of what Liddy did, and proposed to do, in a secret White House effort to subvert the Constitution. Far from repudiating him, McCain has embraced him.
How close are McCain and Liddy? At least as close as Obama and Ayers appear to be. In 1998, Liddy's home was the site of a McCain fundraiser. Over the years, he has made at least four contributions totaling $5,000 to the senator's campaigns -- including $1,000 this year.
Last November, McCain went on his radio show. Liddy greeted him as "an old friend," and McCain sounded like one. "I'm proud of you, I'm proud of your family," he gushed. "It's always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon, and congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great."
Which principles would those be? The ones that told Liddy it was fine to break into the office of the Democratic National Committee to plant bugs and photograph documents? The ones that made him propose to kidnap anti-war activists so they couldn't disrupt the 1972 Republican National Convention? The ones that inspired him to plan the murder (never carried out) of an unfriendly newspaper columnist?
Liddy was in the thick of the biggest political scandal in American history -- and one of the greatest threats to the rule of law. He has said he has no regrets about what he did, insisting that he went to jail as "a prisoner of war."
All this may sound like ancient history. But it's from the same era as the bombings Ayers helped carry out as a member of the Weather Underground. And Liddy's penchant for extreme solutions has not abated.
In 1994, after the disastrous federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, he gave some advice to his listeners: "Now if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms comes to disarm you and they are bearing arms, resist them with arms. Go for a head shot; they're going to be wearing bulletproof vests. ... Kill the sons of bitches."
He later backed off, saying he meant merely that people should defend themselves if federal agents came with guns blazing. But his amended guidance was not exactly conciliatory: Liddy also said he should have recommended shots to the groin instead of the head. If that wasn't enough to inflame any nut cases, he mentioned labeling targets "Bill" and "Hillary" when he practiced shooting.
Given Liddy's record, it's hard to see why McCain would touch him with a 10-foot pole. On the contrary, he should be returning his donations and shunning his show. Yet the senator shows no qualms about associating with Liddy -- or celebrating his service to their common cause.
How does McCain explain his howling hypocrisy on the subject? He doesn't. I made repeated inquiries to his campaign aides, which they refused to acknowledge, much less answer. On this topic, the pilot of the Straight Talk Express would rather stay parked in the garage.
That's an odd policy for someone who is so forthright about his rival's responsibility. McCain thinks Obama should apologize for associating with a criminal extremist. To which Obama might reply: After you.
By Steve Chapman
Barack Obama Dress Hits Paris Runway
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Barack Obama
Barack Obama also made an appearance at the Jean-Charles de Castelbajac 2009 ready-to-wear show in Paris, in the form of a sparkling canary yellow dress, complete with "Yes" glove. In the spirit of fairness, the model also wore a "No" glove on the other hand.
From Towleroad.com
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Ten Lies of John McCain
More On:
John McCain
John McCain told the Des Moines Register this week that he always tells "100 percent absolute truth," even in campaign ads. There's one big problem with that bold statement: it's just not true.
McCain has made a number of statements — in paid ads and on the campaign trail — that simply cannot be described as 100 percent accurate. Some aren't even close.
Barack Obama is guilty, too. He falsely accused McCain of wanting to slice Social Security benefits in half and grossly exaggerated his role in writing this year's economic stimulus plan. He also promised to accept public financing — and then proceeded to opt out when it was clear he could raise more money on his own.
But only McCain made this dare: Prove it, he told the Register. The paper did not — Politico will.
With the help of the truth-squad crew over at the invaluable Politifact and factcheck.org, as well as other fact-checking websites, here is a list of some of McCain's biggest whoppers:
1. On "The View," McCain claimed Sarah Palin did not take or request earmarks as governor of Alaska. "Not as governor, she didn't," McCain said. But in her first year in office, she requested $256 million in earmarks from the federal government.
2. Shortly after announcing Sarah Palin as his running mate, the McCain campaign ran an ad claiming, "She stopped the bridge to nowhere" — perhaps the most thoroughly debunked claim about the Alaska governor, who supported the bridge project before changing her position late in the game. Asked about the bridge during her 2006 gubernatorial bid, Palin replied: "I'm not going to stand in the way of progress."
3. At the Republican National Convention, McCain claimed Obama's national health insurance plan would "force small businesses to cut jobs, reduce wages and force families into a government-run health care system where a bureaucrat stands between you and your doctor." But according to factcheck.org, Obama's plan does not place burdens on small business, and people would have the option of keeping their existing insurance plans.
4. In a campaign ad, "Dome," McCain claimed Obama's election would result in "painful income taxes, skyrocketing taxes on life savings, electricity and home heating oil," the clear implication being that Obama wants to hike these tax rates. But factcheck.org says Obama hasn't proposed a tax on electricity or home heating oil and wouldn't raise taxes on investments for individuals earning less than $200,000 a year.
It's possible Obama's election would result in these tax rates increasing. But this McCain-Palin claim is a little like the Obama camp's misleading attack on McCain's Social Security plan, tagging his opponent with the most undesirable, unintended and far from certain consequences of his policy proposals.
5. McCain has repeatedly accused Obama of supporting higher taxes on people making as little as $42,000 a year. "Two times, on March 14, 2008 and June 4, 2008, in the Democratic budget resolution, he voted to raise taxes on people making just $42,000 per year," McCain said this week. But this is a misleading claim: Obama's votes were for nonbinding resolutions, which supported allowing certain Bush administration tax cuts to expire but didn't actually have the effect of raising taxes.
6. In a July visit to Colorado, McCain told voters: "I want to look you in the eye: I will not raise your taxes nor support a tax increase. I will not do it." Last Sunday, however, McCain acknowledged to ABC's George Stephanopoulos that his health care plan could lead to some people paying taxes on employer-provided health insurance.
"It depends on what plan they have," McCain said. "But that's usually the wealthiest people."
7. McCain's campaign claimed adviser Rick Davis had taken a leave of absence from his firm, Davis Manafort, and vigorously attacked a New York Times story suggesting that Davis had profited from Davis Manafort's relationship with mortgage lender Freddie Mac. "Mr. Davis has seen no income from Davis Manafort since 2006," wrote McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb, who called the Times story "demonstrably false."
"Mr. Davis has never — never — been a lobbyist for either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac."
But Davis Manafort was receiving $15,000 monthly payments from Freddie Mac as recently as August, and while the payments didn't go to Davis personally he still stands to gain from the success of his firm.
8. McCain has boasted of never requesting a single earmark, saying in January: "I have never asked for nor received a single earmark or pork-barrel project for my state." But he has requested federal funding for special projects back home, including $10 million for a center at the University of Arizona, $5 million for a home-state water project and spending authority to purchase land around Arizona's Luke Air Force Base.
Politifact says it's a matter of debate whether these projects constitute pork-barrel spending — but clearly McCain has searched for federal help in his own backyard.
9. In last Friday's debate, McCain accused Obama of "voting to cut off funds for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan." But Obama has consistently voted in favor of war funding bills, including an earlier version of the bill McCain was discussing. The Illinois senator voted against this particular proposal because it did not push the Bush administration toward a timetable for withdrawal. McCain's comment was technically defensible — but rather too sly to be called "absolute truth."
10. In July, McCain accused Obama of skipping his visit to a military hospital in Germany because he was told he couldn't bring reporters and video cameras. McCain ran an ad saying: "Seems the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras." But when pressed to provide evidence that Obama had canceled the visit for this reason, McCain's campaign could not support their claim — and media reports found no evidence that Obama had ever planned to bring media with him.
By Alexander Burns
McCain has made a number of statements — in paid ads and on the campaign trail — that simply cannot be described as 100 percent accurate. Some aren't even close.
Barack Obama is guilty, too. He falsely accused McCain of wanting to slice Social Security benefits in half and grossly exaggerated his role in writing this year's economic stimulus plan. He also promised to accept public financing — and then proceeded to opt out when it was clear he could raise more money on his own.
But only McCain made this dare: Prove it, he told the Register. The paper did not — Politico will.
With the help of the truth-squad crew over at the invaluable Politifact and factcheck.org, as well as other fact-checking websites, here is a list of some of McCain's biggest whoppers:
1. On "The View," McCain claimed Sarah Palin did not take or request earmarks as governor of Alaska. "Not as governor, she didn't," McCain said. But in her first year in office, she requested $256 million in earmarks from the federal government.
2. Shortly after announcing Sarah Palin as his running mate, the McCain campaign ran an ad claiming, "She stopped the bridge to nowhere" — perhaps the most thoroughly debunked claim about the Alaska governor, who supported the bridge project before changing her position late in the game. Asked about the bridge during her 2006 gubernatorial bid, Palin replied: "I'm not going to stand in the way of progress."
3. At the Republican National Convention, McCain claimed Obama's national health insurance plan would "force small businesses to cut jobs, reduce wages and force families into a government-run health care system where a bureaucrat stands between you and your doctor." But according to factcheck.org, Obama's plan does not place burdens on small business, and people would have the option of keeping their existing insurance plans.
4. In a campaign ad, "Dome," McCain claimed Obama's election would result in "painful income taxes, skyrocketing taxes on life savings, electricity and home heating oil," the clear implication being that Obama wants to hike these tax rates. But factcheck.org says Obama hasn't proposed a tax on electricity or home heating oil and wouldn't raise taxes on investments for individuals earning less than $200,000 a year.
It's possible Obama's election would result in these tax rates increasing. But this McCain-Palin claim is a little like the Obama camp's misleading attack on McCain's Social Security plan, tagging his opponent with the most undesirable, unintended and far from certain consequences of his policy proposals.
5. McCain has repeatedly accused Obama of supporting higher taxes on people making as little as $42,000 a year. "Two times, on March 14, 2008 and June 4, 2008, in the Democratic budget resolution, he voted to raise taxes on people making just $42,000 per year," McCain said this week. But this is a misleading claim: Obama's votes were for nonbinding resolutions, which supported allowing certain Bush administration tax cuts to expire but didn't actually have the effect of raising taxes.
6. In a July visit to Colorado, McCain told voters: "I want to look you in the eye: I will not raise your taxes nor support a tax increase. I will not do it." Last Sunday, however, McCain acknowledged to ABC's George Stephanopoulos that his health care plan could lead to some people paying taxes on employer-provided health insurance.
"It depends on what plan they have," McCain said. "But that's usually the wealthiest people."
7. McCain's campaign claimed adviser Rick Davis had taken a leave of absence from his firm, Davis Manafort, and vigorously attacked a New York Times story suggesting that Davis had profited from Davis Manafort's relationship with mortgage lender Freddie Mac. "Mr. Davis has seen no income from Davis Manafort since 2006," wrote McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb, who called the Times story "demonstrably false."
"Mr. Davis has never — never — been a lobbyist for either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac."
But Davis Manafort was receiving $15,000 monthly payments from Freddie Mac as recently as August, and while the payments didn't go to Davis personally he still stands to gain from the success of his firm.
8. McCain has boasted of never requesting a single earmark, saying in January: "I have never asked for nor received a single earmark or pork-barrel project for my state." But he has requested federal funding for special projects back home, including $10 million for a center at the University of Arizona, $5 million for a home-state water project and spending authority to purchase land around Arizona's Luke Air Force Base.
Politifact says it's a matter of debate whether these projects constitute pork-barrel spending — but clearly McCain has searched for federal help in his own backyard.
9. In last Friday's debate, McCain accused Obama of "voting to cut off funds for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan." But Obama has consistently voted in favor of war funding bills, including an earlier version of the bill McCain was discussing. The Illinois senator voted against this particular proposal because it did not push the Bush administration toward a timetable for withdrawal. McCain's comment was technically defensible — but rather too sly to be called "absolute truth."
10. In July, McCain accused Obama of skipping his visit to a military hospital in Germany because he was told he couldn't bring reporters and video cameras. McCain ran an ad saying: "Seems the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras." But when pressed to provide evidence that Obama had canceled the visit for this reason, McCain's campaign could not support their claim — and media reports found no evidence that Obama had ever planned to bring media with him.
By Alexander Burns
Friday, October 3, 2008
Bristol Palin, fiance consider summer wedding
More On:
Sarah Palin
The teenage pregnant daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her boyfriend are considering a summer wedding.
Bristol Palin, 17, and Levi Johnston, 18, haven't set a wedding date yet, his mother, Sherry Johnston, said Thursday.
The two have been considering getting married next summer, "but that could change," she said during a short interview outside her Wasilla home. The baby is due in late December.
The young couple was thrust into the spotlight after Sarah Palin was selected as John McCain's running mate in late August.
That only intensified Sept. 1 when Palin announced her unwed daughter was pregnant, spinning Internet speculation about the father's identity. In a short statement, the campaign never identified Levi, instead saying only: "Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family."
Sherry Johnston eventually disclosed that her son, a former high school hockey player, was the father.
Levi Johnston attended the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., the next week as Palin accepted the nomination.
From AP
Bristol Palin, 17, and Levi Johnston, 18, haven't set a wedding date yet, his mother, Sherry Johnston, said Thursday.
The two have been considering getting married next summer, "but that could change," she said during a short interview outside her Wasilla home. The baby is due in late December.
The young couple was thrust into the spotlight after Sarah Palin was selected as John McCain's running mate in late August.
That only intensified Sept. 1 when Palin announced her unwed daughter was pregnant, spinning Internet speculation about the father's identity. In a short statement, the campaign never identified Levi, instead saying only: "Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family."
Sherry Johnston eventually disclosed that her son, a former high school hockey player, was the father.
Levi Johnston attended the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., the next week as Palin accepted the nomination.
From AP
Joe Biden asked Sister's help to defeat Sarah Palin
More On:
Joe Biden,
Sarah Palin
As Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. puzzles out the perfect tone to take with Gov. Sarah Palin in Thursday night’s debate, he is getting advice from a woman who has been an intimate since he was a grade school student with a stutter and a paper route.
“He’s been my best friend all my life,” said that person, Mr. Biden’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens, in an interview in August. “I opened my eyes and he was there and he said, ‘Let’s go.’ I was his sidekick.”
She has managed every one of his campaigns, from high school class president to his New Castle County Council race to his first Senate bid, a 1972 upset victory, to his minefield of a presidential run in 1988.
The tightly controlled Obama operation has been the first time she has had no official position on her brother’s campaigns. That does not mean, however, that she is sitting this one out.
“She is absolutely his political alter-ego and confidante,” said David Wade, Mr. Biden’s press secretary. “She talks with the campaign every day.”
Their talks include advice on how Mr. Biden should handle himself during Thursday night’s debate, a showdown where many will be watching whether Mr. Biden can temper his oversized personality so he does not appear to be overpowering his female opponent. It was Mrs. Biden Owens who endorsed the plan to have him practice with Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm of Michigan, another dynamic female governor with a quick take.
As Mr. Biden has written in his autobiography, his trust in his sister is complete.
Mrs. Biden Owens, like Bay Buchanan before her, could be part of a small group called Sister Strategists. (Bay is the sister of Patrick J. Buchanan, who ran for president in 1992, 1996 and 2000.)
Mrs. Biden Owens said her family — along with Mr. Biden, there are two other brothers — does not know how to do it any other way. “It’s just how we grew up,” she said.
Having his family closely involved with his life has worked both politically and personally for Mr. Biden.
Claire DeMatteis, who worked as Mr. Biden’s senior counsel for 10 years, said of Mrs. Biden Owens, “I wouldn’t call it weakness, but when people criticize Senator Biden, she takes it understandably very personally.”
When he was hit with charges of plagiarism in his 1988 run, it was “just terrible” for his sister, Mr. Kaufman said. “Senator Biden’s career has been an incredible roller coaster, and that makes it even harder.”
Mrs. Biden Owens was reminded of that flame-out in August, while sitting in a Denver hotel room a few hours before her brother made his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.
“You make a mistake and you pay for it,” she said. “He paid for it. When we left the presidential campaign in ’88, he turned and walked down the corridor of the Senate and he sat down and chaired the Bork confirmation.” She paused and looked off, as if she could still see him walking down that long hall.
Shortly after, there was the aneurism that almost killed him. Mrs. Biden Owens noted the positive side: Had he stayed in the race, he very well might be dead.
“Oh, if we had continued,” she said, “and if he had told me three months down the road, right before the Iowa caucuses, that he had a headache and he couldn’t do it that day, I would have said, ‘You don’t know what a headache is.’ ”
After Mr. Biden’s first wife and infant daughter were killed in a car crash in 1972, just after he was first elected to the Senate, his sister quit her teaching job, moved in and cared for his two young sons. “Aunt Val” lived with her brother for four years — through her divorce, remarriage and even the birth of her oldest daughter — before finally moving out.
She is married to Jack Owens, one of Mr. Biden’s closest friends from law school, and they now live only 15 minutes away.
“Valerie Biden was the cornerstone that allowed me to sustain and then rebuild my family,” Mr. Biden wrote in his autobiography, “Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics.”
“It was a gift,” Mrs. Biden Owens said, more lightly, all these years later. “I got to practice on Beau and Hunter before I screwed up my own kids.”
She said that people tried to make what she had done, dropping everything and moving in with her brother, into something heroic, but she insisted it had not been.
Her 91-year-old mother, Jean Finnegan Biden, said it was natural for her daughter. “There’s nothing but family, nothing in the world,” she said. “As they were growing up, they did what she told them to do. She was the only girl.”
When they were children, Mr. Biden was a member of the safety patrol, but he turned in his shiny blue badge rather than report his sister for her bad behavior on the bus one day.
At the University of Delaware, he vetted all of her suitors.
“If there was any guy he knew, I couldn’t go out with him because he knew the son of a gun, and any guy he didn’t know, I couldn’t go out with because he didn’t know the son of the gun,” Mrs. Biden Owens recalled.
After her brother’s 1996 Senate race, Mrs. Biden Owens joined the consulting firm Joe Slade White & Company, marketing candidates in dozens of national races. Her clients include Governor Granholm, as well as Representative Chet Edwards of Texas, who had been discussed as a possible Democratic running mate this year before Mr. Biden was chosen.
These days, she said, her role “is to be the sister of the vice-presidential nominee.”
Thinking ahead to Thursday night, right before her brother takes the stage in St. Louis for the debate, Mrs. Biden Owens said: “I don’t have to tell Joe anything. I’ll just give him a hug and tell him I love him.”
Source: NYTimes
“He’s been my best friend all my life,” said that person, Mr. Biden’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens, in an interview in August. “I opened my eyes and he was there and he said, ‘Let’s go.’ I was his sidekick.”
She has managed every one of his campaigns, from high school class president to his New Castle County Council race to his first Senate bid, a 1972 upset victory, to his minefield of a presidential run in 1988.The tightly controlled Obama operation has been the first time she has had no official position on her brother’s campaigns. That does not mean, however, that she is sitting this one out.
“She is absolutely his political alter-ego and confidante,” said David Wade, Mr. Biden’s press secretary. “She talks with the campaign every day.”
Their talks include advice on how Mr. Biden should handle himself during Thursday night’s debate, a showdown where many will be watching whether Mr. Biden can temper his oversized personality so he does not appear to be overpowering his female opponent. It was Mrs. Biden Owens who endorsed the plan to have him practice with Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm of Michigan, another dynamic female governor with a quick take.
As Mr. Biden has written in his autobiography, his trust in his sister is complete.
Mrs. Biden Owens, like Bay Buchanan before her, could be part of a small group called Sister Strategists. (Bay is the sister of Patrick J. Buchanan, who ran for president in 1992, 1996 and 2000.)
Mrs. Biden Owens said her family — along with Mr. Biden, there are two other brothers — does not know how to do it any other way. “It’s just how we grew up,” she said.
Having his family closely involved with his life has worked both politically and personally for Mr. Biden.
Claire DeMatteis, who worked as Mr. Biden’s senior counsel for 10 years, said of Mrs. Biden Owens, “I wouldn’t call it weakness, but when people criticize Senator Biden, she takes it understandably very personally.”
When he was hit with charges of plagiarism in his 1988 run, it was “just terrible” for his sister, Mr. Kaufman said. “Senator Biden’s career has been an incredible roller coaster, and that makes it even harder.”
Mrs. Biden Owens was reminded of that flame-out in August, while sitting in a Denver hotel room a few hours before her brother made his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.
“You make a mistake and you pay for it,” she said. “He paid for it. When we left the presidential campaign in ’88, he turned and walked down the corridor of the Senate and he sat down and chaired the Bork confirmation.” She paused and looked off, as if she could still see him walking down that long hall.
Shortly after, there was the aneurism that almost killed him. Mrs. Biden Owens noted the positive side: Had he stayed in the race, he very well might be dead.
“Oh, if we had continued,” she said, “and if he had told me three months down the road, right before the Iowa caucuses, that he had a headache and he couldn’t do it that day, I would have said, ‘You don’t know what a headache is.’ ”
After Mr. Biden’s first wife and infant daughter were killed in a car crash in 1972, just after he was first elected to the Senate, his sister quit her teaching job, moved in and cared for his two young sons. “Aunt Val” lived with her brother for four years — through her divorce, remarriage and even the birth of her oldest daughter — before finally moving out.
She is married to Jack Owens, one of Mr. Biden’s closest friends from law school, and they now live only 15 minutes away.
“Valerie Biden was the cornerstone that allowed me to sustain and then rebuild my family,” Mr. Biden wrote in his autobiography, “Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics.”
“It was a gift,” Mrs. Biden Owens said, more lightly, all these years later. “I got to practice on Beau and Hunter before I screwed up my own kids.”
She said that people tried to make what she had done, dropping everything and moving in with her brother, into something heroic, but she insisted it had not been.
Her 91-year-old mother, Jean Finnegan Biden, said it was natural for her daughter. “There’s nothing but family, nothing in the world,” she said. “As they were growing up, they did what she told them to do. She was the only girl.”
When they were children, Mr. Biden was a member of the safety patrol, but he turned in his shiny blue badge rather than report his sister for her bad behavior on the bus one day.
At the University of Delaware, he vetted all of her suitors.
“If there was any guy he knew, I couldn’t go out with him because he knew the son of a gun, and any guy he didn’t know, I couldn’t go out with because he didn’t know the son of the gun,” Mrs. Biden Owens recalled.
After her brother’s 1996 Senate race, Mrs. Biden Owens joined the consulting firm Joe Slade White & Company, marketing candidates in dozens of national races. Her clients include Governor Granholm, as well as Representative Chet Edwards of Texas, who had been discussed as a possible Democratic running mate this year before Mr. Biden was chosen.
These days, she said, her role “is to be the sister of the vice-presidential nominee.”
Thinking ahead to Thursday night, right before her brother takes the stage in St. Louis for the debate, Mrs. Biden Owens said: “I don’t have to tell Joe anything. I’ll just give him a hug and tell him I love him.”
Source: NYTimes
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
John McCain's mansion on sale for $12 Million
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John McCain
Got $12 million burning a hole in your pockets? Need a new mansion in Arizona? How about this little place, one of John and Cindy McCain’s unwanted castles?
It’s a 5,000+ square foot estate with nine bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a seven-car garage, an entire extra gourmet chef’s kitchen out by the swimming pools, a 1,750-square-foot guest house, and it’s all on 2.7 gated acres.
Remember, you’re middle-class if you make up to $5 million a year, so following the old rule about buying a house — the purchase price should be no more than three times your gross annual income — you can easily afford $12 million.
But go ahead and offer $7.5 million, because the real-estate market in Phoenix is wrecked.
[Phoenix Real Estate/Phoenix New Times/RealEstate.com]
It’s a 5,000+ square foot estate with nine bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a seven-car garage, an entire extra gourmet chef’s kitchen out by the swimming pools, a 1,750-square-foot guest house, and it’s all on 2.7 gated acres.
Remember, you’re middle-class if you make up to $5 million a year, so following the old rule about buying a house — the purchase price should be no more than three times your gross annual income — you can easily afford $12 million.
But go ahead and offer $7.5 million, because the real-estate market in Phoenix is wrecked.
[Phoenix Real Estate/Phoenix New Times/RealEstate.com]
Sarah Palin Interview Generator
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Sarah Palin
This site is a parody. The answers are computer generated based on probabilities calculated from Sarah Palin's actual speech.
Source: Interview Sarah Palin
Source: Interview Sarah Palin
On Facebook, tens of thousands stake claim to Palin's job
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Sarah Palin
Griffin DuBois of New York is one of thousands of people who think their foreign policy credentials make them more qualified to be vice president of the United States than Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
"I live above a Greek family and next to an Egyptian family. I'm more qualified than Sarah Palin," DuBois said in a message posted Thursday on the "I have more foreign policy experience than Sarah Palin" group on Facebook, the social networking site.
As of Thursday afternoon -- six days after Republican presidential candidate John McCain unveiled Palin as his choice for the number two spot in Washington -- the Facebook group founded by University of Washington student Timothy Goyder had more than 17,000 members.
And some 100 new adherents from around the world were joining every 10 minutes.
"I studied some French phrases to get ready for a trip to Paris... in doing so, I've leapt miles (or kilometers) ahead of Palin's foreign policy experience," said Matt Eichstedt of Chicago.
Ed Rooney of Vermont claimed to be the man for the job that has gone to a woman for the first time in the history of the Republican Party because: "I recently ate Chinese food which makes me an expert on US-China relations."
"I'm from Taiwan. Can I be VP?" asked David Wang, a high school student.
Others mentioned how often they have eaten at US fast food chain, the International House of Pancakes, italicizing the word "international."
Palin burst from relative obscurity in Alaska, where she has been governor for less than two years, to take center stage in US politics when McCain tapped her to be his running mate last week.
Her credentials for the number two job in Washington immediately came under scrutiny, and critics have homed in on her lack of foreign policy experience.
According to posts on the "I have more foreign policy experience than Sarah Palin", the 44-year-old governor of Alaska only got a passport last year and has visited three foreign countries.
Prominent Republicans have defended her by pointing out that Alaska borders Canada and is separated from Russia by the narrow Bering Straits, which sometimes freeze over to create a walkable bridge to Siberia, although the Republicans did not mention that.
Source: AFP
"I live above a Greek family and next to an Egyptian family. I'm more qualified than Sarah Palin," DuBois said in a message posted Thursday on the "I have more foreign policy experience than Sarah Palin" group on Facebook, the social networking site.
As of Thursday afternoon -- six days after Republican presidential candidate John McCain unveiled Palin as his choice for the number two spot in Washington -- the Facebook group founded by University of Washington student Timothy Goyder had more than 17,000 members.
And some 100 new adherents from around the world were joining every 10 minutes.
"I studied some French phrases to get ready for a trip to Paris... in doing so, I've leapt miles (or kilometers) ahead of Palin's foreign policy experience," said Matt Eichstedt of Chicago.
Ed Rooney of Vermont claimed to be the man for the job that has gone to a woman for the first time in the history of the Republican Party because: "I recently ate Chinese food which makes me an expert on US-China relations."
"I'm from Taiwan. Can I be VP?" asked David Wang, a high school student.
Others mentioned how often they have eaten at US fast food chain, the International House of Pancakes, italicizing the word "international."
Palin burst from relative obscurity in Alaska, where she has been governor for less than two years, to take center stage in US politics when McCain tapped her to be his running mate last week.
Her credentials for the number two job in Washington immediately came under scrutiny, and critics have homed in on her lack of foreign policy experience.
According to posts on the "I have more foreign policy experience than Sarah Palin", the 44-year-old governor of Alaska only got a passport last year and has visited three foreign countries.
Prominent Republicans have defended her by pointing out that Alaska borders Canada and is separated from Russia by the narrow Bering Straits, which sometimes freeze over to create a walkable bridge to Siberia, although the Republicans did not mention that.
Source: AFP
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