Crossposted from Flopping Aces

One more from Alfonzo Rachel before the election:

also:

The Ohio “Well Meaning” Record Checks Of Joe the Plumber

Now the director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, Helen Jones-Kelley (a Obama supporter who gave the maximum allowed to his campaign), has changed her story on the record check of Joe the Plumber.

She first said it was a routine check to see his status on child support payments, if any, because well….they do it for all the people who get publicity…wink wink.

Now the record checks turned out to be a bit more in depth:

Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, disclosed today that computer inquiries on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher were not restricted to a child-support system.

The agency also checked Wurzelbacher in its computer systems to determine whether he was receiving welfare assistance or owed unemployment compensation taxes, she wrote.

Jones-Kelley made the revelations in a letter to Ohio Senate President Bill M. Harris, R-Ashland, who demanded answers on why state officials checked out Wurzelbacher.

Harris called the multiple records checks “questionable” and said he awaits more answers. “It’s kind of like Big Brother is looking in your pocket,” he said.

If state employees run checks on every person listed in newspaper stories as buying a business, “it must take a lot of people a lot of time to run these checks,” he said. “Where do you draw the line?”

~~~

Jones-Kelley wrote that the checks were “well-meaning,” but misinterpreted amid the heated final weeks of a presidential election.

Well meaning and misinterpreted? Puhlease.

These MULTIPLE checks of MULTIPLE records done immediately after the debate were not misinterpreted. They are comparable to the passport check of Hillary and Obama which received front page news stories for days and resulted in multiple firings.

This story?

Crickets from the national media.

And I thought California was bad.

If your in Ohio and speak ill of Obama you better be prepared for some “well meaning” record checks of your past….isn’t that grand?

Finally:

The “Distraction” of Questioning Senator Obama’s Commitment to Israel

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama casts a shadow on the Israeli and American flags while speaking at an event to honor the 60th anniversary of Israel’s independence in Washington.
Mark Wilson – Getty Images

Jewish-Americans have long had a love affair with the Democratic Party. Aside from the “black vote”, Jews overwhelmingly are liberal and vote Democrat. Despite the fact that the Bush Administration has probably been the most pro-Israel American Administration in history, both Gore and Kerry received a sizeable majority of votes from the coveted “Jewish vote” in the last two elections. Why? Why do they continually vote against their group identity self-interest?

According to his campaign website, Senator Obama

has traveled to Israel and witnessed Israelis’ determination in the fight against terrorism and their yearning for peace with their neighbors. His commitment to Israel’s security, to the U.S.-Israel relationship, and to Israel’s right to self-defense has always been unshakable. Demonstrating his personal connection to Zionism and understanding of Israel as the homeland Jews longed for, Senator Barack Obama has stated that it must be preserved as a Jewish state. He will work tirelessly to help Israel in its quest for a lasting peace with its neighbors, while standing with Israel against those who seek its destruction.

Why is it, like so many other things, does Senator Obama’s history not appear to support the political campaign rhetoric?

(more…)

From Red Maryland

–by Richard E. Vatz

Watching Barack Obama tonight was like witnessing a microcosm of his entire campaign – slickly produced; speciously argued; and revelatory of the least grating successful national politician I have seen since Ronald Reagan.

He presented a handful of middle class Americans who were suffering from unemployment and other economic ills of our problematic economy. Some lack health insurance; some lack money for their home; and some have to put off retirement. Is Sen. Obama’s program more feasibly problem-solving and equitable and generally fair than Senator John McCain’s? We don’t know; no contrast between the two men’s health policies nor explication of Sen. Obama’s is presented. Do you think it is hard for politicians to find down-and-out Americans who invest their hopes in particular candidates?

Let’s look at how he handled some other major issues in this half-hour tribute:

Issue: Energy independence. How will Sen. Obama handle the Republican-claimed imperative of “Drill, baby drill?” We don’t know from this self-ennobling but substantively empty show. He’ll invest in new technologies; so will Sen. McCain. Will he support off-shore drilling in U.S. coastal waters or drilling in ANWAR? He doesn’t address the matter.

Issue: Taxes: In this “closing of the deal” we learn that the number of Americans who will be held harmless in the Obama tax plan is now down to those who earn less than $200,000 from its original level of $250,000. Senator Joe Biden says (outside the infomercial) that he will hold harmless those who earn less than $150,000 or $100,000. It is a moving target in this soft class warfare.

Issue: Foreign policy – Sen. Obama, according to this advertisement, will “rebuild America,” face down al Qaeda, not lose sight of Russia’s tricks and get us out of Iraq. The specific proposals he forwarded last year – a timetable for withdrawal and rejection of the surge – went unaddressed. Where would the United States be, had we left when he suggested, before the surge was successful? Unaddressed in the show; unaddressed in the campaign. How about Sen. Obama’s willingness to negotiate without preconditions with Iran? Not addressed in the infomercial.

Issue: Personal Associations: National Review on-line asks, “Why is the Los Angeles Times sitting on a videotape of the 2003 farewell bash in Chicago at which Barack Obama lavished praise on the guest of honor, Rashid Khalidi — former mouthpiece for master terrorist Yasser Arafat?” Also, CNN claims that Khalidi held a fundraiser for Sen. Obama. Irrelevant? Perhaps. But why would a mainstream newspaper withhold a tape pertaining to this relationship? Why has there been no journalistic investigation of Sen. Obama’s relationships with terrorist Bill Ayers, the odious Rev. Jeremiah Wright (“God Damn America”) and the criminal Tony Rezko? Well, he addressed these issues in the infomercial tonight by never alluding to them.
(more…)

By Dick Morris

Iraq isn’t the only place where the surge seems to be working. John McCain’s gains over the last five days are remaking the political landscape as Election Day approaches.

The double-digit leads Barack Obama held last week have evaporated, as all three of the top tracking polls (the most current and reliable measurements out there) show McCain hot on Obama’s heels.

Zogby had Obama ahead by 12 points last week – now it’s down to four. His margin in the Rasmussen poll has dropped from eight points to three in the last few days. Gallup shows only a two-point difference.

In each news cycle, Obama is on the defensive – staving off accusations of closet socialism and trying to wriggle out of his once overt advocacy of income redistribution. “Spreading the wealth around” has become the anti-Obama slogan – and might become the epitaph for his candidacy, just as “brainwashed” was for George Romney and “Where’s the beef?” was for Gary Hart.

And, as we head to Halloween, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s image is returning to haunt Obama. Yes, McCain refused to use the issue in his own campaign – but independent groups like goptrust.com are using funds from tens of thousands of individual donors to run ads featuring Wright and his relationship with Obama. Just yesterday, a tape surfaced in which Obama described Rev. Wright as “the best the black church has to offer.”

The double dose of Obama’s support for spreading the wealth around and his affiliation with the toxic Rev. Wright are eroding his once-formidable lead.

If the stock market doesn’t send us all into shock again, the election could be very close – with the undecided vote looming large. The key question is: About whom are they undecided?
(more…)

by Haider Ajina

Iraqi Police Take Over More Security Roles

Wednesday, 08 October 2008

By the 18th Military Police Brigade Public Affairs Office

BAGHDAD — Security improvements in Baghdad continue to progress as Iraqi security forces conducted a transfer of authority in more than 10 Muhallas (neighborhoods) yesterday in the Karkh Directorate of Baghdad. In the Kindi and Qadasiyah Muhallas of Baghdad, Iraqi Army (IA) Soldiers handed over security responsibilities to the Iraqi Police (IP). “In the past months, the improvement in the security situation and the Iraqi Police capability gains have provided the IP the opportunity to take on independent responsibilities for security in their neighborhoods,” said Lt. Col. Michael Indovina, spokesman for the 18th Military Police Brigade, Multi-National Division – Baghdad.

IP in the past 12 months have expanded their forces to more than 10,000 shurtas (policemen). Through the expansion and development partnership with the 18th Military Police Brigade and other Coalition efforts, the IP have grown and built their capabilities steadily and are preparing to take over more Muhallas in the near future.

IP continue to train daily to develop their community policing skills in order to take over security and police operations here in Baghdad.

In past weeks, IP and IA have conducted a relief in place (RIP) in selected areas of Baghdad. The RIP is a process where the IA Soldiers transition with IP to ensure there is a seamless transition of responsibilities and duties.

Part of the RIP process was for all the Iraqi security forces and community leaders to come together and talk through the transition.

“The transition from IA to IP has been extremely smooth because of the connection between Iraqi Police leadership and the IA,” said Capt. Nathan Brookshire, commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 716th Military Police Battalion, who is a native of Richmond, Ky. “The ISF in Baghdad conduct joint security meetings so all the key leaders are in the same room talking about how to keep the area secure.”

(more…)

Crossposted from Flopping Aces

McCain and Palin blasted the LA Times today for their complete hypocrisy in not releasing the tape that shows Obama toasting PLO terrorist Rashid Khalidi:

John McCain slammed The Los Angeles Times Wednesday for refusing to release a videotape that the newspaper’s editors say shows Barack Obama praising a Chicago professor who served as a spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization when it was a U.S.-designated terror group.

Speaking to two Florida radio stations, the Republican presidential candidate suggested a double standard in reporting by the newspaper and said if he were hanging out with neo-Nazis he’d bet the tape would be made public.

The Times says it is standing by its promise not to show the tape, which it got from an anonymous source. The newspaper also has not provided a transcript of the 2003 farewell party for University of Chicago professor Rashid Khalidi. Among others in attendance at the soiree were former Weather Underground founders William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.

“Apparently this is a tape with a dinner that Mr. Ayers … was at, and also … one of the leading spokespersons for the PLO. Now, why that should not be made public is beyond me,” McCain told La Kalle radio.

“I guarantee you, if there was a tape with me and Sarah Palin and some neo-Nazi or one of those, you think that that tape wouldn’t be made public? Of course, Americans need to know, particularly about Ayers, and also about the PLO. So hopefully there will be enough pressure on the L.A. Times that it’ll come out, but its really unfortunate that we have to go through this,” McCain continued.

Palin too lambasted the newspaper for its inaction.

“If there’s a Pulitzer Prize category for excelling in cow-towing, then the LA Times, you’re winning,” she said.

Not only have the refused to release the tape or even a transcript, they have made four…count them…four excuses for not releasing the thing. This latest one?

The Los Angeles Times did not publish the videotape because it was provided to us by a confidential source who did so on the condition that we not release it,” said the newspaper’s editor, Russ Stanton. “The Times keeps its promises to sources.

This one may not be so far fetched according to Debbie Schlussel.

The Los Angeles Times has a copy of the tape, but won’t release it because they said the source–whom I believe is Arab American Action Network (AAAN) founder and anti-Israel Palestinian activist Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada–required it not be released as a condition of sharing it. That’s because it likely shows Obama applauding an anti-Semitic, anti-Israel poem that was read at the dinner.

~~~

I’m almost positive that the video Wallsten referenced in the story was obtained from Arab American Action Network founder Abunimah because my article–the one Wallsten ripped off from me–featured photos of Barack Obama and wife Michelle seated with PLO advisor Edward Said at another AAAN annual banquet and led Wallsten to contact Abunimah. I noted in my article–from which Wallsten got most of his info–that the pics were from Ali Abunimah’s Electronic Intifada site, in which he wrote about Obama’s 180 on Israel from those days of AAAN dinners and PLO confabs.

I believe that Wallsten contacted Abunimah about the photos and learned of the other AAAN annual banquet dinner (at which Abunimah, Obama, Ayers, Dohrn, and Khalidi were all in attendance), and that Abunimah is his source for the video.

No hard evidence but it makes sense.

Now why would the video be suppressed? Hell, they won’t even release a transcript….why not?

Saw a clip from the tape. Reason we can’t release it is because statements Obama said to rile audience up during toast. He congratulates Khalidi for his work saying “Israel has no God-given right to occupy Palestine” plus there’s been “genocide against the Palestinian people by Israelis.”

It would be really controversial if it got out. Tha’s why they will not even let a transcript get out.

That from a tipster to Doug Ross who has given him reliable information in the past.

Pretty damaging stuff and would make even more sense given the fact that the tape is being hid from the public. Why do it if it wasn’t damaging?

also:

The “Distraction” of Senator Obama’s History and Cardboard Cutout List of “Accomplishments”

“The notion that people don’t know who I am is a little hard to swallow. I’ve been running for president for the last two years. I’ve campaigned in 49 states. Millions of people have heard me speak at length on every topic under the sun. I’ve been involved now in 25 debates, going on my 26th. And I’ve written two books which any — everybody who reads them will say are about as honest a set of reflections by, at least, a politician as are out there.”
-Senator Obama in an interview with Charles Gibson

Supporters of Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama hold up a cardboard cutout of Obama at a campaign event at the Palm Beach Community College in Lake Worth, Florida October 21, 2008.
REUTERS/Jim Young

We know John McCain. We don’t know Barack Obama.

Peter Nicholas, staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, wrote an interesting piece in yesterday’s Times on trying to get to know the man behind the image, spending 18 hour days on the campaign trail with the Illinois Senator. What comes across to him, is how well-disciplined Senator Obama is, making every word and action deliberate and calculated, with few instances of spontaneity. The mask is constantly kept on. Nicholas concludes:
(more…)

From Brian Griffith

Lost in the midst of reports of Democratic violence and the return of the incessantly whiny urban liberal set, there is actually, you know, an election going on. In case you forgot, the Obama campaign spent millions on a particularly milquetoast propaganda piece might have jolted you back into that reality.

What has been lost in the cacophony of whining and relatively irrelevant issues is the fact that this election next Tuesday could realistically be on of the biggest fundamental changes in the American body politic. While Obama plays make believe and runs as a centrist (or, if you watched his little movie, damn near a Republican) his campaign has been running on a platform that is possibly as far to the left, as far outside of the political mainstream as any “major” candidate for President since Henry Wallace. This is a fundamental shift in American politics, and a fundamental shift in the American ideology. Obama’s campaign to date essentially boils down to the following points:

Government spending will increase: With all of Obama’s pie-in-the-sky rhetoric about all of the new programs that he is going to implement, government would need to exponentially grow in an Obama administration. Which means….

Your taxes are going to go up: if you earn a paycheck, your taxes are going to go up. There is no earthly way with all of the programs and increase in government spending that tax hikes are not going to be part of the equation. You can forget a $250,000 threshold, or a $180,000 threshold ; if you make money, your taxes are going to up, as Barney Frank recently promised the Democratic congress will pass.

American Retreat: Precisely at the time when the U.S. needs to become more engaged in fighting international terrorism and to work to stop nuclear proliferation, an Obama administration would signal retreat, not just in Iraq but also in the international arena. That’s not to say that we would be isolationist, but that Barack Obama cannot be trusted to be tough with our enemies, something that has given pause to our European allies (immature is what Nicolas Sarkozy said).
(more…)

By Dick Morris

If current survey trends continue, Obama will finish with less than 50 percent in the polls. Even discounting the Nader vote (some people never learn), the undecided voters could tip the race either way. How will they break?

Since there is no incumbent, they cannot automatically be assigned to the challenger; and since turnout is likely to be huge, the current undecided voters will probably make their way to the polls and cast their ballots.

But for whom?

At the beginning of this contest, Obama effectively made the case that the election was a referendum on Bush’s performance in office. Painting a vote for McCain as a desire for “four more years of the same failed policies,” he made the most of Bush’s dismal approval rating. Had he been able to keep the focus on Bush, he would likely have inherited most of the undecided vote.

But as Obama surged into a more or less permanent lead in October, animated by the financial crisis, he has assumed many of the characteristics of an incumbent. Every voter asks himself one question before he or she casts a ballot: Do I want to vote for Obama? His uniqueness, charisma and assertive program have so dominated the dialogue that the election is now a referendum on Obama.

As Obama has oscillated, moving somewhat above or somewhat below 50 percent in all the October polls, his election likely hangs in the balance. If he falls short of 50 percent in these circumstances, a majority of the voters can be said to have rejected him. Likely a disproportionate number of the undecideds will vote for McCain.

But don’t write Obama off. His candidacy strikes such enthusiasm among young and minority voters that there is still a chance that a massive turnout will deliver the race to the Democrats. None of the polling organizations has any experience with — or model for — so massive a turnout, especially among voters notorious for staying at home. But the primaries proved that these young and minority voters will not stay home this time, but will vote for Obama. The effect of this increased vote is hard to calculate, but it may be enough to offset the undecideds who will vote for McCain.
(more…)

by Haider Ajina

National security minister prepares for receiving Wassit security file

October 24, 2008 – 12:53:06

WASSIT / Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi National Security Minister Shirwan al-Waeli arrived in Wassit on Friday to supervise the formation of an operations room in preparations for receiving the security file from the Multinational forces by the end of the month. Speaking at a press conference in Wassit, the minister said “my visit today to Kut city aims to inspect the security forces and to hold meeting with security commanders in the province on forming the operations room in preparations for receiving the security file by the end of the month.” “The delay in receiving the security file in Wassit was for its good to complete all its preparations,” he noted.

Twelve out of eighteen Iraqi provinces have received their security file from the Multinational forces, while the remaining six, including Wassit, still waiting. A Shiite province, Wassit, 180 km south of Baghdad, is in the east of the country. Its name comes from the Arabic word meaning “middle,” as it lies along the Tigris about midway between Baghdad and Basra. Its major cities include the capital, al-Kut, and al-Hayy. Prior to 1976 it was known as Kut Province. SH (S)

Security Responsibility Returns to Iraqis in Babil Province
(more…)

Crossposted from Flopping Aces

If you hadn’t heard by now The LA Times is holding a video that shows Obama celebrating with a group of Palestinians who are completely and utterly hostile towards Israel. The tape apparently shows Obama giving a toast to former PLO operatives.

Some damning stuff right?

Well, the LA Times refuses to release the tape.

O’Reilly had a segment about this refusal by the LA Times:

Andrew McCarthy asks if there was a tape depicting McCain toasting terrorists, would the LA Times hold the tape?

Come on:

Let’s try a thought experiment. Say John McCain attended a party at which known racists and terror mongers were in attendance. Say testimonials were given, including a glowing one by McCain for the benefit of the guest of honor … who happened to be a top apologist for terrorists. Say McCain not only gave a speech but stood by, in tacit approval and solidarity, while other racists and terror mongers gave speeches that reeked of hatred for an American ally and rationalizations of terror attacks.

Now let’s say the Los Angeles Times obtained a videotape of the party.

Question: Is there any chance — any chance — the Times would not release the tape and publish front-page story after story about the gory details, with the usual accompanying chorus of sanctimony from the oped commentariat? Is there any chance, if the Times was the least bit reluctant about publishing (remember, we’re pretending here), that the rest of the mainstream media (y’know, the guys who drove Trent Lott out of his leadership position over a birthday-party toast) would not be screaming for the release of the tape?

Do we really have to ask?

Holy cow, they would be doing backflips at their good fortune on getting such a tape. It would be front page news from coast to coast.

But it involves Obama and we get a story about the tape, but no tape produced.

The blatant bias is unconscionable….

also:

Ohio Government Official Who Invaded Joe’s Privacy Is A Obama Supporter

Shocker!

The Ohio Head of Job and Family Services who approved a child support search on Joe Wurzelbacher immediately after the third debate is a max donor to Obama. (h/t Ace)

And we’re supposed to believe her excuse for the invasion of privacy, which was “we always do that” more or less:

Ohio’s inspector general is investigating why a state agency director approved checking the state child-support computer system for information on “Joe the Plumber.”

Helen Jones-Kelly, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, confirmed today that she OK’d the check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher following the Oct. 15 presidential debate.

She said there were no political reasons for the check on the sudden presidential campaign fixture though the Support Enforcement Tracking System. (more…)

By Dick Morris

Zogby, Rasmussen and Gallup all report McCain closing to 5 points back. Zogby had him 12 back, Rasmussen 8 and Gallup 6 in their previous polling. McCain’s use of the Joe the Plumber and the tax issue in his ads is working!

Unilaterally, John McCain agreed to disarm himself by refusing to use perhaps his most potent weapon in exposing Barack Obama: the Democrats’ relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The McCain campaign and, at its direction, the Republican Party, have banned use of footage of Rev. Wright from their campaign commercials. Perhaps for fear of being accused of racism, they are not bringing up the single most compromising association in Obama’s past – his close liaison with Rev. Wright.

But it does not matter that Rev. Wright is black, white, or brown…or purple. What matters is that he spews hatred of the United States and that Obama was an active participant in his church. Or are we supposed to believe that Obama regularly attended church with Wright for two decades, chose the Reverend to baptize his children and officiate at his wedding, titled his book Audacity of Hope after a sermon of the Reverend’s, but did not know of his anti-American views? Nonsense.

The only time the issue has been used was during the Democratic primary when Obama’s ties to Wright were first revealed and the Reverend’s horrific anti-American sermons were aired on television. Even then, Obama tried to distance himself from Wright in the mildest of possible terms, only denouncing him more sternly after the relationship had begun to sap his standing in the polls.

Fortunately, one independent expenditure group — NationalRepublicanTrust.com- has the courage to bring the truth about Rev. Wright to the attention of the American people. NationalRepublicanTrust.com has prepared a hard-hitting advertisement that features some of Wright’s worst rantings and explains the intimate relationship over twenty years between the preacher and the politician. NationalRepublicanTrust.com, of course, is funded by individual donations, so their financial resources are limited.

As we enter the final week, this election is not yet over. Zogby shows Obama’s lead collapsing from 12 points on Thursday of last week to just five points over this past weekend. Other polls have Obama’s lead in the 5-7 point range, little enough ground to close in six more days. Only surveys that have quotas for large number of Democratic participants show Obama’s lead to be in double digits.
(more…)

From Red Maryland

–by Richard E. Vatz

Saturday Night Live (SNL) historically has been pro-liberal and pro-Democratic in its humor –albeit with shots at both sides — but has from time to time indicated an effort to reverse one-sidedness. When, earlier this year, the show heavy-handedly supported Hillary Clinton against Barack Obama and simultaneously implied that the media were in Barack Obama’s pocket, SNL followed up with some not-completely-positive satires of Hillary, albeit still lovingly.

SNL has — along with other shows involving political humor — been consistently one-sided in favor of the Barack Obama-Joe Biden ticket over the John McCain-Sarah Palin ticket

Last night either liberal guilt or fears of losing part of their audience took over, and some even-handed satire actually emerged – with one crushing embarrassing moment. The show satirized Joe Biden’s diarrhea-of-the-mouth disease. (If I believed in classic psychological syndromes, I might say Joe Biden’s unconscious self-loathing and guilt over stealing the Vice Presidential nomination from Hillary Clinton causes him to undermine through rhetorical overkill his presidential ticket. But I digress.) The opening skit referenced his ill-timed warning regarding the certainty that Sen. Obama’s election would inescapably cause an American military crisis. The same skit reminded viewers – as MSM hardly ever does — of Sen. Obama’s referring to frightened Americans and their clinging to “guns and religion.” (more…)

by Regina Sztajer

I feel after the many months I have written all I can finally say is that Barack Obama will not be a good choice for president. His past associations with hateful people that run the gambit from thieves, racists, anti-Semitics, terrorists and etc. is frightening. His lies and cover-ups regarding his association with ACORN I feel played a part in the mortgage crisis as well as voter fraud ands that leaves much to be desired. Whenever someone says anything that doesn’t fit his agenda like his wife, kids, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, or Louis Farakahan he silences them. Poor Joe Biden will regret the day he accepted the vice presidency because he will muzzle him.

My biggest fear is that we will have violence in America if Obama is not elected or even if he is. Why do I say that? This Idea of share the wealth encourages those who don’t work but look for trouble to go out and demand, it’s mine and I want it and if you don’t give it to me I’ll take it from you. The other day we got a call to remove out McCain- Palin bumper stickers from our cars because there has been violence against people with these stickers. My husband, a Holocaust survivor, took a knife outside to scrape off the stickers and he said for the first time in his life in America that he felt as if he were back in Poland in 1939. He was frightened and looked around fearing someone was watching him! He is not a man who frightens easily.
(more…)

Crossposted from Flopping Aces

Another example of how the left controls free expression to outlaw anything of which it does not approve!

In West Hollywood, California an effigy of Sarah Palin hangs from a roof of a residential home. “I know if we had done it with Barack Obama, people would’ve probably thrown things through our windows,” said the homeowner.

So why is it O.K. to hang Republicans like Sarah Palin (President Bush and U.S. soldiers have also been targets)?

How many days of media outrage did we see ginned up over the phony report that someone at a McCain rally shouted “kill him” in regard to Obama? Obama even brought it up in the debates. And yet violence towards Republicans is treated as a joke… something to laugh at.

It was wrong when someone hung a cardboard Obama in effigy in Oregon. But it’s equally wrong when someone hangs Sarah Palin in California. But if the left can’t see that, then they have no right to get all worked up about it when someone does it to Obama.

Either the standards condemning violent displays towards one group are applied to all or they don’t apply at all.

Democrats To Kill Your 401(k)

One more reason to be fearful of a Obama and Democrat sweep…..losing our 401k’s: (h/t QandO Blog)

Powerful House Democrats are eyeing proposals to overhaul the nation’s $3 trillion 401(k) system, including the elimination of most of the $80 billion in annual tax breaks that 401(k) investors receive.

House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-California, and Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Washington, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, are looking at redirecting those tax breaks to a new system of guaranteed retirement accounts to which all workers would be obliged to contribute.

~~~

A plan by Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economic-policy analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York, contains elements that are being considered. She testified last week before Miller’s Education and Labor Committee on her proposal. …

Under Ghilarducci’s plan, all workers would receive a $600 annual inflation-adjusted subsidy from the U.S. government but would be required to invest 5 percent of their pay into a guaranteed retirement account administered by the Social Security Administration. The money in turn would be invested in special government bonds that would pay 3 percent a year, adjusted for inflation.

The current system of providing tax breaks on 401(k) contributions and earnings would be eliminated.

Whoa boy. That new system sounds suspiciously like Social Security eh? Even better, employers will no longer be able to write off their matching contributions to a 401k plus you get taxed for your capital gains. So basically this means no employer contributions, no tax benefit, end of 401k’s. What do you get in return?

Six hundred bucks.

“From where I sit that’s just crazy,” said John Belluardo, president of Stewardship Financial Services Inc. in Tarrytown, New York. “A lot of people contribute to their 401(k)s because of the match of the employer,” he said. Belluardo’s firm does not manage assets directly.

Higher-income employers provide matching funds to employee plans so that they can qualify for tax benefits for their own defined-contribution plans, he said.

“If the tax deferral goes away, the employers have no reason to do the matches, which primarily help people in the lower income brackets,” Belluardo said.

This plan would not allow you to touch the money….just like Social Security. And you get the huge investment return of 3% for your trouble.

Just more evidence of the Democrats goal of keeping us all on the government nipple from birth to death.

Finally

Obama, Ayers & Khalidi…What Their Connections Mean For This Country

Andy McCarthy reminds us of a great interview done by Hugh Hewitt of Stanley Kurtz a few weeks ago that is an excellent primer on the Obama/Ayers association. It also highlights an association that isn’t talked about much. Ayers/Khalidi ties.

Here is the interview, lasts a little over 16 minutes but well worth the time to listen to the whole thing:
(more…)

From Jerry Breen

From Red Maryland

From the Indianapolis Star:

Indiana’s top elections officer has asked the state attorney general’s office and federal prosecutors to investigate allegations that perhaps thousands of fraudulent voter registration forms have been submitted in Lake County by an advocacy group accused of fraud in other states.

In a letter to Attorney General Steve Carter, Secretary of State Todd Rokita said Friday he had received “credible evidence” of voter fraud involving the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, a group that works to recruit low-income voters, who tend to lean Democratic.

It seems that everywhere this group operates it is inevitably associated with voter fraud. Just as invariably it tends to have a reliable place at the public mammary.

One of the major failings of the Bush Administration is its failure to carry a Writ of Fire and Sword to these left wing groups who have no visible means of support beyond government grants for “community organizing.” After 2000 there was more than sufficient evidence apparent to if not shut these groups down to at least make their lives difficult and unprofitable.

Vote fraud is real and it is significant:

In 2001, the voter rolls in many American cities included more names than the U.S. Census listed as the total number of residents over age eighteen. Philadelphia’s voter rolls, for instance, have jumped 24 percent since 1995 at the same time that the city’s population has declined by 13 percent. CBS’s 60 Minutes created a stir in 1999 when it found people in California using mail-in forms to register fictitious people, or pets, and then obtaining absentee ballots in their names.

(more…)

By Dick Morris

The most reliable surveys put McCain five to seven points behind Obama as we enter the last week of this interminable campaign. But in a race that will be famous for years afterwards for its volatility, it is not too late for the Republican to pull out a victory.

For Harry Truman in 1948, the presidential race shifted dramatically in the final week, and it’s happened three more times in the past 30 years. In 1980, Reagan came from eight points behind to a solid victory by winning his sole debate with Carter in the last week of October. In 1992, Clinton, who had fallen behind in the polls because of the pounding he was taking over his liberalism and propensity to raise taxes, surged ahead of Bush when Special Prosecutor Lawrence Walsh announced that he was indicting Defense Secretary Casper (Cap) Weinberger, an indication of Bush’s possible complicity in the Iran-Contra scandal. And in 2000, Bush’s three-to-four point lead in the polls was erased over the final weekend when reports surfaced that he had been cited for DWI 20 years before and had not revealed the fact to the public. Bush still won the election, of course, but Gore won the popular vote by half a point.

What does McCain have to do to pull off a similar shift this time?

1. Use the stock market crash to highlight the tax issue. With the Dow Jones dropping each day by hundreds of points, this election is being held against a backdrop of economic fear unlike any since the Depression. Almost every reputable economist agrees that it would be catastrophic to add to the economy’s woes by raising the capital gains tax. But Obama is on record as favoring an increase from 15% to 20% and suggested during the primaries that he would consider hitting 28%.

McCain should jump on the issue and challenge Obama to agree to a two-year moratorium on increases in the capital gains tax. If Obama agrees, McCain will score points for leadership. If Obama refuses, or ignores the challenge, McCain can attribute much of the drop in the market to the fear of increased capital gains taxation once Obama takes over. After all, its pretty obvious that if you keep 85% of your capital profits right now but stand only to keep 80% or 72% once Obama takes over, it’s prudent to unload now. This pressure to sell is exactly what the markets do not need, and McCain can hammer the point home.

McCain can say that Obama’s refusal to join in supporting a moratorium on capital gains taxation increases shows his commitment to class warfare – and that big government exceeds any concern he might have for stock market stability or the value of 401Ks or retirement pension funds.

McCain has already scored mightily with his invocation of Joe the Plumber and, polls show, he won the third debate by using the issue of taxes and small businesses. By early this coming week, his advertising will have achieved sufficient levels of frequency to have an impact on the polling.

2. Bring back Rev. Jeremiah Wright. For reasons that are beyond me, John McCain has vowed not to make an issue out of Rev. Wright’s extreme anti-American statements. But that should not stop independent expenditure and 527 groups from raising the issue.

A good advertisement would alternate footage of Wright saying “God damn America” and 9/11 was just the “chickens coming home to roost” with an announcer explaining the relationship between the two men. The narrator might remind voters that it was Rev. Wright who married Barack and Michelle Obama and that Obama himself sat in the pews at Wright’s church for 20 years as sermons like these were being given. It should point out that Obama only distanced himself from Wright a month after his remarks scandalized all Americans and cost him his momentum in the polls.
(more…)

Crossposted from Flopping Aces

H/T to Baklava comment, via Michelle Malkin

As I’ve said, that “spread the wealth” comment wasn’t an off the wall mistake…. this is an embedded political philosophy.

and:

Obama Staffers Admit Voter Fraud in Ohio

It’s only 13 out of thousands, but it’s a start!

BAM STAFFERS PULL THEIR BOGUS OHIO BALLOTS
By JEANE MACINSTOSH
New York Post
October 25, 2008

Thirteen campaign workers for Barack Obama yesterday yanked their voter registrations and ballots in Ohio after being warned by a prosecutor that temporary residents can’t vote in the battleground state.

A dozen staffers – including Obama Ohio spokeswoman Olivia Alair and James Cadogan, who recently joined Team Obama – signed a form letter asking the Franklin County elections board to pull their names from the rolls.
…
Also pulling his ballot yesterday was Hofstra University grad Jake Smith, an Obama volunteer who had voted in Knox County, Ohio.

On Thursday, O’Brien cut a deal with 13 out-of-staters, including four from New York, who tossed out their already-cast ballots and admitted they didn’t meet residency requirements.

Meanwhile, there still has been no resolution to the problem of 200,000 suspicious voter registrations in Ohio. President Bush ordered the Department of Justice to see if any violations of the Help America Vote Act have occurred after the Supreme Court overturned the order directing the Ohio Secretary of Secretary of State to comply with the law. The President acted shortly after receiving a request from House Minority Leader John Boehner (letter-PDF).

and:

Illegal Use of Ohio State and Law Enforcement Computers to Dig Dirt on Joe the Plumber?

On Friday, Joe the Plumber told an online chat at the Washington Times that he was “scared for America” if Obama is elected.

Apparently he has good reason to be concerned:

3 searches of ‘Joe’s’ BMV files probed
State investigating whether checks after presidential debate were lawful
By Randy Ludlow
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
October 25, 2008

State and local officials are investigating whether state and law-enforcement computer systems were used illegally to obtain personal information about “Joe the Plumber.”
…
Public records requested by The Dispatch disclose that information on Wurzelbacher’s driver’s license or his sport-utility vehicle was pulled from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles database three times shortly after the debate.

Information on Wurzelbacher was accessed through accounts assigned to the office of Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers, the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency and the Toledo Police Department.

It has not been determined who checked on Wurzelbacher, or why. Direct access to driver’s license and vehicle registration information from BMV computers is restricted to legitimate law-enforcement and government business.

Paul Lindsay, Ohio spokesman for the McCain campaign, called the inquiries politically motivated. “It’s outrageous to see how quickly Barack Obama’s allies would abuse government power in an attempt to smear a private citizen who dared to ask a legitimate question,” he said.

A pattern is developing whereby anyone who criticizes Obama will be subject to violations of their privacy including unlawful searches into their personal information.

It’s no wonder Joe is scared for America. We should all be worried. While some Democrats support civil liberties for terrorists detained at Guantanamo, they are busy undermining those same rights of their fellow citizens.

Hand these thugs the keys to the federal government and our rights are all at risk.

Finally:

Obama Thug Machine Punishes TV Station for Asking Tough Questions

This is what happens to ANYONE who dares to ask critical questions in the Obama Thugocracy!

I’ve often wondered why more “news” reporters don’t ask the tough questions about who and what Obama really is. Obama’s entire life has been spent in the company of Marxists with radical, anti-American views. What does he really believe?

One reporter finally asked:

The immediate reaction from the Obama Thug Machine was swift and harsh. The thugocracy canceled a planned interview with Joe Biden’s wife Jill saying:

“There’s nothing wrong with tough questions, but reporters have the very important job of sharing the truth with the public — not misleading the American people with false information.
…
Senator Biden’s wife is not running for elected office, and there are many other stations in the Orlando television market that would gladly conduct a respectful and factual interview with her.”
…
“This cancellation is non-negotiable, and further opportunities for your station to interview with this campaign are unlikely, at best for the duration of the remaining days until the election,” wrote Laura K. McGinnis, Central Florida communications director for the Obama campaign.

How long will it be before this television anchor’s personal information and privacy are splashed all over the Internet by the Obama Thug machine?

From Red Maryland

Florida Congressional candidate Eddie Adams Jr. (R) was admitted to Tampa General Hospital Sunday suffering from severe burns on the hands and arms. He will be undergoing additional skin grafts Tuesday.

A vandal tied a mattress to the underside of Mr. Adams pick-up truck. Friction with the road, and contact with the catalytic converter combined to ignite the bedding.

At this point in the campaign, office workers with the Hillsborough County Sheriff have tallied 90 reports of vandalism against cars with Republican campaign bumper stickers, and 7 such incidents against cars with Democrat bumper stickers. Other incidents include the systematic and widespread vandalism or theft of Republican campaign signs. full story

And the McCain/Palin camp is simmering with violence because someone didn’t yell “kill him” at one rally. (more…)

By Dick Morris

The perfect storm combining the vast expansion of government’s role in the American economy, a looming Obama triumph and likely huge Democratic gains in Congress augur the most serious threat of the onset of socialism the United States has faced since the New Deal. But while it became obvious that FDR’s goal was to save capitalism, not to replace it, it is by no means clear that Barack Obama is similarly inclined.

As alarm bells ring incessantly, demanding government action to prevent the conflagration of our most important companies and markets, the Federal Reserve and Treasury rush to extinguish the flames with hoses filled with money. But this massive and needed public-sector intrusion into private enterprise begs the key question: After the fires are put out, will the government firefighters leave, or will they move into the companies they saved and evict their former corporate owners?

The current crisis makes it clear that the government will be invited inside the management and ownership of our top financial and corporate institutions. But it is unclear whether it will ever withdraw after the crisis has passed.

Obama’s stated goal of “spreading the wealth around” may indicate an inclination to embrace European-style socialist democracy. His emphasis on promoting “fairness” in income distribution and his willingness to sacrifice economic growth by raising taxes on “the rich” all seem to point in that direction. Will Obama realize that while government is needed to prevent a crash, it is hopelessly inadequate as an engine of prosperity? Bureaucrats are neither sufficiently competent nor honest nor independent enough to make key decisions about where capital should be invested, except when it is needed to extinguish the flames of crisis.

If Obama wins and takes a solidly and overwhelmingly Democratic Congress with him — including a filibuster-proof Senate — we will have to entrust our system of private ownership, limited government and free enterprise to the tender mercy of the left. But the newly empowered liberals will not have to breach the walls of the private sector, justifying each new intrusion by argument and logic. Rather, they will already be inside the gates, invited there to save these institutions from their own history of greed and mismanagement. Will the left simply leave government there, effectively converting our private enterprise system, where government absorbs about a third of our GDP into a social democracy, a la Europe, where the public sector accounts for almost half of the economy?
(more…)

Submitted by Brujo

So, members of the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Department, Michigan State Police, (me included) and other local agencies inside Calhoun County are working with Secret Service in the security of Mr. Obama. Mr. Obama’s bus arrives in Battle Creek and pulls into the stadium area. Before Mr. Obama exits the bus, he has the Secret Service get off and tell all Law Enforcement personnel in uniform that they now have to stand behind the bus so Mr. Obama is not seen with anyone in aLaw Enforcement uniform before he gets off or while in the public view. So, everyone from Michigan State Police, Sheriff’s Deptments and other agencies look at each other for a brief second, go and stand behind the bus out of sight so Mr. Obama does not have to see, or been seen with, what to him is ‘undesirables’ since he refuses to be seen, or even acknowledge Military or Law Enforcement personnel in uniform.

And he wants to be our commander-in-chief!

At a time of war and terrorism in our world, this presidental candidate who is being protected by various branches of the military & law enforcement at the tax payers expense, refuses to acknowledge, be seen with, have in his photographed background, any type of Military or Law Enforcement in uniform. But this is not in the headlines or in the news or on TV. The TV news doesn’t show us marching around behind the bus. In the future, look and see if you can see a single soldier or police officer in uniform when you see Obama. Why? (more…)