Day: October 19, 2008

Will Robo-Calls Work?

Only if you are a pathetic moron.

Two Republican senators facing reelection battles in states also seeing presidential campaign attention are speaking out against anti-Obama robocalls from John McCain’s campaign and the RNC.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins expressed her dispeasure first on Friday.

“They don’t serve John McCain well,” Collins told PolitickerME. “This kind of campaign call does not reflect the kind of leader that he is.”

And today Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman’s campaign issued a blanket statement condemning negative ads and phone calls.

“I call on Al Franken, the DNC, the RNC, the DSCC, the NRSC and any other organization engaged in negative attacks on any candidate to bring them to an immediate end,” Coleman said in the statement.

Asked if this included McCain’s campaign, Coleman spokesman Luke Friedrich replied:  “The senator is calling on everyone.”

On Fox News Sunday, whose transcript the Obama campaign just sent reporters, McCain was forced to defend himself from the charge of hypocrisy for waves of negative robocalls. It’s a mark of how the public fascination with this race has made issues of process — robocalls are a tactic meant to go under the radar — instantly front and center.

WALLACE: But Senator back, if I may, back in 2000 when you were the target of robo calls, you called these hate calls and you said–

MCCAIN: They were.

WALLACE: And you said the following: “I promise you I have never and will never have anything to do with that kind of political tactic.” Now you’ve hired the same guy who did the robo calls against you to, reportedly, to do the robo calls against Obama and the Republican Senator Susan Collins, the co-chair of your campaign in Maine, has asked you to stop the robo calls. Will you do that?

MCCAIN: Of course not. These are legitimate and truthful and they are far different than the phone calls that were made about my family and about certain aspects that — things that this is — this is dramatically different and either you haven’t — didn’t see those things in 2000.

MCCAIN: Or you don’t know the difference between that and what is a legitimate issue, and that is Senator Obama being truthful with the American people. But let me tell you what else I think you should be talking about and the American people should be talking about. In the debate the other night, I asked Senator Obama to repudiate a statement made by John Lewis, a man I admire and respect and have written about that connected me and Sarah Palin —
WALLACE: This is the congressman, civil rights leader.

MCCAIN: Civil rights leader, American hero. That connected me and Sarah Palin to segregationists, to the campaign of George Wallace, and even alluded to the bombing of a church where four children, four children were killed, and I asked him to repudiate that statement. I have repudiated every statement made by any fringe person in the Republican Party. And it has come up from time to time, and it probably will. The fact that Senator Obama would not repudiate that statement I think is something the American people will make a judgment about. That robo call is accurate. It’s totally accurate

Apparently there are negative and positive negatives in McCain’s little corner of the realm of reality

Hoot Dere It Is! Powell Endorses Obama

Retired General Colin L. Powell, one of the country’s most respected Republicans, stunned both parties on Sunday by strongly endorsing Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and laying out a blistering, detailed critique of the modern GOP.

Powell said the election of Obama would “electrify the world.”

“I think he is a transformational figure,” Powell said. “He is a new generation coming … onto the world stage and on the American stage. And for that reason, I’ll be voting for Senator Barack Obama.”

Moderator Tom Brokaw said: “There will be some … who will say this is an African-American, distinguished American supporting another African-American because of race.”

“I can’t deny that it will be a historic event when an African-American becomes president,” Powell continued, speaking live in the studio. “And should that happen, all Americans should be proud — not just African-American, but all Americans — that we have reached this point in our national history where such a thing could happen. It would also not only electrify the country, but electrify the world.”

“And I come to the conclusion that because of his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America, because of who he is and his rhetorical abilities — and you have to take that into account — as well as his substance — he has both style and substance, he has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president.”

Powell said that he is “troubled” by the direction of the Republican Party, and said he began to doubt Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) when he chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Now what will the spin doctors have to say about this? Better they will not attack Powell the way they are attacking Obama. They may have cajones but they are not that big.

A Change Of Plan In Afghanistan

Increasingly frustrated by the “downward spiral” that the U.S. intelligence community sees in Afghanistan, the Pentagon appears to be moving in support of engaging leaders of the resurgent Taliban who are prepared to disassociate themselves from al Qaeda.

While the seeds for that strategy are being planted now, the next U.S. president – be it the current front-runner, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, or his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain – will likely be advised by Pentagon chief Robert Gates and the new chief of the U.S. Central Command (Centcom), Gen. David Petraeus, to support such an effort as the most effective way to stabilize Afghanistan where the “global war on terror” first began seven years ago.

According to the Post, Petraeus has ordered the Team to focused on two major themes – “government-led reconciliation of Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the leveraging of diplomatic and economic initiatives with nearby countries that are influential in the war.” Those are precisely the strategies Rashid and Rubin highlighted in their article as critical to achieving their “Grand Bargain.”

According to a New York Times article earlier this month, the draft of a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) – a consensus document of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies – found that the security situation in Afghanistan was in a “downward spiral.” It cited rampant corruption in the government of President Hamid Karzai; the exploding drug trade that now accounts for half of the country’s economy; and increasingly sophisticated attacks by the Taliban that has so far taken the lives of more U.S. and NATO troops in 2008 than in any previous year as the main causes.

McCain And Alt Energy

IN the last two debates MvcCain has said much about alt energy but in reality he has not been that keen on it.
For the second straight presidential debate, John McCain delivered a confused and misleading picture of his position on renewable energy sources. In the Oct. 15th debate, McCain said, “So the point is, with nuclear power, with wind, tide, solar, natural gas, with the development of flex fuel, hybrid, clean coal technology, clean coal technology is a key in the heartland of America that is hurting rather badly. So I think we can easily within seven, eight, ten years, if we put our minds to it, we can eliminate our dependence on the places in the world that harm our national security if we don’t achieve our independence from it.”

While this rhetoric is laudable, it simply doesn’t reflect John McCain’s actual record on alternative energy. Between 1992 and 2006, McCain voted against tax incentives for the renewable energy sector at least nine times, according to the Senate record. Between 2002 and 2005, as the public grew more in favor of promoting alternative energy sources, McCain vote four times to block renewable energy mandates. And between 1992 and 2005, McCain voted an additional 12 times against alternative energy proposals.

John McCain has insisted that he has supported “alternate fuel all of my time,” but he just hasn’t seemed to ever cast his Senate vote for it. A recent analysis of McCain’s record by FactCheck.org showed that while McCain has lent rhetorical support for renewable energy, as a Senator “he has declined opportunities to support it.”

Sorry, but there is not much rubber left on the tires of the “Straight Talk Express”.  The “straight shooter” is shooting himself in the foot.  Does anyone in the McCain campaign know how to use a pc?

Glenn Beck Joins FOX News

Good bye and good……..sorry cannot say it!

Beck has signed a multi-year agreement to host a weekday program on Fox News

He will continue to host his daily radio show, “The Glenn Beck Program,” syndicated by Clear Channel Communications’ Premiere Radio Networks to more than 300 stations and XM Satellite Radio.

CNN hired him back in 2006 and was just away to try and gain more low information voters to view the network.  I knew from the beginning he was a typical piece of ……..(use your imagination)….he did a story about the come back of business in Iraq and he showed a pic of an American soldier talking with a kid and the soldier was holding an Afghani flag…..and it was a story about Iraq…..see?

He is full of crap and FOX is where he belongs, he will be among friends and the same low life species of people who make up news to fit the situation.

Do NOt Talk About It, It Will Go Away

A popular high school program in which students bring home computerized “babies” as part of a teen pregnancy prevention program has been put on hold after a guest speaker introduced a cherry-flavored condom during the contraceptive portion of the instruction.

While condoms are within the guidelines of Howell Public Schools’ sex education instruction, the type of condom prompted a student question that led to a forbidden topic: oral sex. The topic is prohibited, but the district doesn’t spell out what guest speakers may talk about or what material they can present.

The school board voted Monday night to suspend Planned Parenthood’s Baby Think It Over program, which was being presented in a child development and psychology class, and all guest speakers until the district revisits its sex education guidelines to ensure they meet state law.

A 2004 law mandates all sex education material be reviewed by an advisory council and the public and approved by the school board.

All material shown to students must be presented by trained instructors.

Sowing The Seeds Of Hate

Much has been made recently about statements made by people within the campaigns. Palin, McCain, Rep. Lewis all have been accused of sowing the seeds of hate. Of course, both camps have denied that anything said was words of hatred. But unfortunately, not many voters are buying the bullsh*t.

I guess when you have an election at stake all things are acceptable. The seeds of hate? First it was the terrorist thing….McCain has taken a minor occurrence and turned it into a question of judegement. But the radical fringe has turn it into calls for violence, like “kill him”, “traitor”, and no one is asking the crowds to calm down. This is not an isolated thing, all the surroigates are harping on this issue. Even the surrogates are saying that Obama was the preferred candidate of terrorists.

Then a Congresswoman on MSNBC’s Hardball, Rep. Michele Bachman R-MN, recently called all liberals anti American and went so far as to say that a journalistic investigation should be done on all memebers of the democratic party in Congress. This dinosaur is a throw back to the days of McCarthy where there was a “commie” behind every pillar in Washington. It was silly then and it is twice as moronic NOW!

How about “robocalls” that remind people that Obama was “palling” around with terrorists.  Or the sheriff in uniform that made sure to use Obama’s middle name (btw, I believe that is against the law to do political stuff while in uniform).  And then there is the head of a Republican party apparatus that told workers to equate Obama with Osama.  Does any of this NOT sound like the sowing of hate?

These are just a few of the most recently hatred attacks. I am told by the McCain campaign that John would word with the Congress in a bi-partisan way, but yet these types of hatred attacks are just making the divide between the two parties deeper, to the point that if he should somehow fool the American people and become president, that Washington would become a more hateful place than it is now.

Let us not forget the old broad that called Obama , an “Arab”….McCain did try to disfuse that one. How about the head of a Repub organization that put out a flier saying that if they put Obama on a bill it would be a food stamp along with a bucket of chicken, ribs, etc. These types of caricature is not helping the seeds of hate to disappear. The McCain camp has done nothing to discourage this type of bullsh*t with the exception of some veiled attempt to say that it is all true.

Maybe he should fire his staff of advisers and hire Mickey Mouse, at least he is from a terminally happy place something McCain has abandoned–happy and good taste and sense. Sowing the seeds of hate is NOT something a responsible leader would do. It is an insult to anyone with half a brain.

What A Crock Of Crap

Please tell me that you are not this stupid to believe a crock of crap when you hear it.

Sen. John McCain stepped up his rhetoric against his Democratic rival on taxes in his weekly radio address Saturday, comparing his plan to “socialist” programs.

In the radio address, McCain didn’t directly call Obama a socialist, but he let the now-famous Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher nearly do it for him.

“You see, [Obama] believes in redistributing wealth, not in policies that help us all make more of it. Joe, in his plainspoken way, said this sounded a lot like socialism,” McCain said Saturday.(Is The McCain paying this yahoo’s tax bill?)

Suddenly—17 years after the Soviet Union’s collapse and the supposed “death of socialism”—the “S” word is being bandied about by American politicians and media pundits.  This is just another pathetic attempt to bolster some support for a dying campaign.

Once again the Repubs show their lack of concern for anyone outside of their circle of influence.

Please, because some worn out wannabe claims it so, does not make it so..  Before all start throwing the word “socialism” around, I suggest that you learn the definition of the word.  Obama is NO Socialist.  And to call his so shows a serious lack of understanding and the IQ of your shoe size.