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SAN FRANCISCO – Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday that the presidential candidates should end the smear campaigns and get back to the issues. Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama are wasting time making accusations that have nothing to do with the topics Americans want to hear about, he said. “Look at what the presidential campaign has reduced down to: They now are accusing each other of things that have nothing to do with the economy, that have nothing to do with health care, that have nothing to do with the environment, that have nothing to do with, you...

Whether Mr. Odinga [Raila Odinga] has ordered his men to commit murder and arson is unclear. But his own background does not exactly suggest enthusiasm for democracy and the rule of law. Mr. Odinga's father, Oginga Odinga, led the Communist opposition during the Cold War and Raila Odinga was educated in Communist East Germany. (snip) In August 2006, Mr. Obama visited Kenya and spoke in support of Mr. Odinga's candidacy at rallies in Nairobi. The Web site Atlas Shrugs has even posted a photograph of the two men side by side. More recently, Mr. Odinga says that Mr. Obama interrupted...

Gun violence is a leading cause of death and injury in America, and it is steadily increasing. There are now 38,000 gun deaths a year in America, a number that continues to climb. Gun deaths of young people are increasing at an especially high rate. While the Surgion General of the United States and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have acknowledged gun violence as a public health epidemic, most laws and public policies treat gun violence as a purely criminal problem. The Foundation's focus is on reframing gun violence as a public health issue.

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There were not many conspicuous tributes to the legacy of President Bush at last month's Republican National Convention, but there was at least one. It was a campaign button with the words "Thanks, W" across the top and photos of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. beneath the letters. Conservative legal activists view the two men as remarkable successes in Bush's quest to move the court to the right, and that is part of the reason that, as the court begins its work anew today, public attention is focused less on the cases at...

One day after John McCain's running mate escalated the vitriol of the presidential campaign by invoking a 1960s radical, Barack Obama accused Republicans of trying to distract voters from the sagging economy with "smears" Speaking to thousands of voters Sunday afternoon at Asheville High School, the Democratic nominee argued that McCain shares President Bush's economic philosophy.

How big, still, is Sarah Palin among the GOP base? Her rally in Pensacola Tuesday had to be moved from an airport hangar to the local civic center to accomodate the crowd. The civic center seats 10,000. It's this kind of enthusiasm, not to mention antipathy toward Obama, that will ensure Republicans come out in droves in red bulwarks like the Florida panhandle. Such turnout is key as it helps the GOP pile up large margins to offset more Democratic-leaning parts of the state. ALSO: Palin's Ft. Myers-area rally tomorrow had to be moved to a sports arena because of...

The frontrunner for this year's Democrat presidential nomination burst upon the scene from out of nowhere only in recent months. Two or three years ago, Barrack Hussein Obama was an unknown outside his Chicago bailiwick and in some other Illinois quarters. Even his time in the Illinois State Senate was unremarkable. The beginning The Feb. 22 issue of Politico — a Washington sheet basically for political insiders — added momentum to an already-major investigative project on the part of America's Survival. On that day, it ran a story spotlighting what might be called Obama's political "coming out" 1995 reception at...

On the heels of Gov. Sarah Palin's statement yesterday that Sen. Barack Obama does not see America as "a force for good in the world," Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., accused the Democratic presidential nominee of "talking down America." Referring to his visit to Germany where he said of America, "We've made our share of mistakes," Wilson said, "We've always had this history of saying, well, you know, 'Politics end at the water's edge.' And it didn't for Barack Obama. He has been critical not only of the president but of American policy and hence has kind of a negative view...

Barack Obama's allies warn that John McCain's attacks on the Democrat's character will lead to the political equivalent of mutual assured destruction: fire your big weapon at your own peril. The warnings of massive retaliation came as McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, took on the role of attacker and said that Obama sees America as so imperfect "that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country." She was referring to an early Obama supporter, 1960s radical Bill Ayers, a founder of the Weather Underground whose members were blamed for several bombings when Obama was a...

WASHINGTON — The next president will tip the courts, one way or another. Supreme Court openings are all but guaranteed, and that's just the start: 44 trial and appellate federal judicial vacancies already await filling. There will be more. Consider this: President Bush has placed 316 judges on the bench during his two terms. One out of three federal judges now owes a lifetime-tenured job to the current president. Whoever replaces Bush will be likewise recasting courthouses, top to bottom. "The proper role of the judiciary has become one of the defining issues of this presidential election," Republican presidential candidate...

In response to the requests we've had about our professional view of the candidates for the 2008 U.S. presidential election, we offer the results of our analyses below, which are based on comprehensive handwriting analysis, astrology, numerology, and intuitive assessment. Please understand that we're simply presenting our findings and that we don't have any political agendas. We've set aside our political opinions and have tried to be as fair and objective as possible. First we'll view the candidates' personalities through handwriting analysis. A holistic approach (spacing, movement, form, rhythm, etc.) in handwriting analysis is acceptable by itself to gain a...

I have been monitoring the donation data at the FEC website that the Obama for America campaign has submitted. Contrary to what the Obama campaign claims, they did NOT "rout out" or "refund" donations they received from the Edwan brothers (Hosam, Monir and Osama) of the Rafah Refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. OBAMA LIED: "Palestinian" Campaign Contributions NEVER RETURNED OR REFUNDED In the latest filing (9/20 for the month of August, 2008), it is apparent that the campaign has PURGED the database of most of the donations from the Edwan brothers. Edwan Brothers Transaction Analysis at Google Docs Another...

The private sector responds far more quickly to social change than do governments at whatever level. That’s why, I believe, a party which seeks to free that sector from excessive government interference, in the form of high taxation and unreasonable regulation, is better for gay people. And it’s why John McCain and Sarah Palin represent the better choice in this election. To be sure, there are areas where the federal government should take action on behalf of gay people, notably to recognize same-sex unions and to repeal discriminatory legislation, notably the military’s Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell Policy (DADT). On this one...

Voters may not say it out loud but pollsters back it up: racism is a lingering, significant factor in the 2008 presidential race that could elect the first black American to the White House. Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has consistently portrayed himself as the candidate of all Americans, not a champion of the African-American minority, even as he plays up how proud he is of his heritage as the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black father from Kenya. The Illinois senator, 47, earlier this year said racism was an issue the United States could not...

If McCain Doesn't Want to Talk Fannie and Freddie, Why Is He Running? Palin is bringing up Barack Obama's long connection to William Ayers... okay. I don't doubt that not enough Americans know about Obama and his ties to Ayers, and what an unrepentant domestic terrorist and SOB Ayers is. But that message is going to come up against a media that is hostile, determined to downplay the ties and/or willing to lie. (What the heck got into CNN lately? The past few weeks, they're getting things 180 degrees flat wrong, again and again, about easily verifiable facts and the...

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Barack Obama's allies warn that John McCain's attacks on the Democrat'a character will lead to the political equivalent of mutual assured destruction: fire your big weapon at your own peril.

ABC News' Imtiaz Delawala Report: Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin defended her charge that Sen. Barack Obama has been "palling around with terrorists," and disputed a characterization by the Associated Press that her remarks connecting Obama to former 60's radical William Ayers were racially tinged. "The comments are about an association that has been known but hasn't been talked about, and I think it’s fair to talk about where Barack Obama kicked off his political career, in the guy's living room," Palin said on the tarmac of the Long Beach, CA airport this morning. At three events yesterday, Palin...

Barack Obama was much older than 8 when William Ayers was photographed stepping on a US flag in 2001, for an article in which Ayers said he had “No Regrets” for his violent actions in the Weather Underground. In fact, at the same time Ayers was in a Chicago alley desecrating the flag, he and Barack Obama were serving on the board of the Woods Fund together: PolitiFact | Obama served on board with Ayers. Deborah Harrington, president of the Woods Fund, a philanthropic organization in Chicago, said Obama was a director from 1994 through 2001. That overlaps Ayers’ time...

"A guy who lives in my neighborhood" Here is a bit of documentation on the ties between Barack Obama and Weatherman terrorist William Ayers. Even the most tenuous of the ties, even taken in isolation from the others, show that Ayers had a closer relationship to Obama than Obama admitted when he characterized Ayers as "a guy who lives in my neighborhood". I've not found any contemporaneous online confirmation of the coffee-klatch at Ayers' home that launched Obama's political career, or of the donations Ayers gave to Obama's early campaigns, but no one seems to be denying them. "A guy...

For the past six months, McCain campaign strategists have been saying they are getting ready to play the "Ayers card" — that is, to attack Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., for his alleged association with the former Weather Underground radical William Ayers, who admitted bombing government buildings in 1960's. For six months, they have largely held off. Until now. It appears the McCain campaign is finally preparing to launch a forceful assault on Obama's character by portraying him as having a cozy relationship with a man it calls an "unrepentant terrorist," even though there is scant evidence that the two men...

UPDATE at end of post: the can has already been opened!Without question, ABC's Jake Tapper is one of the few members of the mainstream media who's actually willing to publish less than favorable reports about Barack Obama.In a "Political Punch" blog posting Saturday about new revelations involving indicted fundraiser Tony Rezko, Tapper deliciously summed up a Washington Post piece as claiming that "Sen. John McCain's campaign...is about to open up a can of whoop-ass on Obama with a focus on his personal associations." I kid you not (emphasis added, photo courtesy ABC): Story Continues Below Ad ↓ The Chicago Sun-Times...

BRISTOL, Va. — Republican John McCain will “nastily change the subject” from fixing the economy to personally attacking Democrat Barack Obama during next Tuesday’s presidential debate in Nashville, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews predicted Saturday. “I’m looking for McCain to come after him — hit him hard on culture, ideology, call him a liberal, hit him on taxes,” the author and host of MSNBC’s “Hardball” told reporters at the Bristol Public Library before a local speaking engagement. “They have to change the topic from the economy where they are losing to the culture ... go from the what to the who, ......

US presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama have released their technology policies, differing on whether "Net neutrality" rules should be imposed on telecommunications companies and on the breadth of their aspirations for the American public. Mr Obama said Net neutrality rules – which would prevent telcos giving priority to certain types of Internet traffic over others – were needed to ensure freedom of expression on the Internet and to prevent "a two-tier Internet in which websites with the best relationships with network providers can get the fastest access to consumers". The debate over Net neutrality has international implications, pitting...

With all the tools and time at Secretary Paulson's disposal to solve the subprime crisis, why did he wait until 5 weeks before the election to stage a brilliant piece of political theatre with the Democrats?

Now that Congress has approved the Bush-Paulson financial stabilization plan, Senator John McCain has an opportunity to refocus his Presidential campaign, and get back on the political offensive by pounding Senator Obama on the tax issue. No domestic issue provides a starker contrast between Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama than the issue of taxes. McCain wants to keep taxes low for all taxpayers, and cut them where he can. Mr. Obama wants to redistribute the tax burden by raising tax rates on the economically successful, and providing tax relief to certain middle- and low-income earners. Specifically, Senator McCain wants to...

The rule of thumb for fact checkers of Thursday night’s vice-presidential debate was that every time Joe Biden sounded especially confident, he was saying something that wasn’t true. For the most part, these were gross exaggerations or convenient fictions aimed to allow him to make a point he couldn’t otherwise support. How to answer the charge that he and Obama voted for a budget resolution that called for taxing Americans making $42,000? Assert that John McCain voted for it too, although he didn’t. How to argue that we’re paying no attention to Afghanistan? Claim repeatedly that we spend more in...

Be sure to watch the 1-hour EXPOSE on all of Barack Obama's radical connections and associations hosted by Sean Hannity on his new show, "Hannity's America". The special will air this Sunday, Oct. 5th, at 9:00 p.m. EST on the FOXNews channel. To quote Sean Hannity, "No one else in the television news media is going to cover this information".

No confirmation on this, no tip, no hint. But I know what he's doing. John McCain is waiting until the bill passes. And then he will unleash the dogs of war.

Obama is quick to say now that he warned of the financial crises coming last year. So why didn't Obama use his so called leadership to take action and stop it? Senator McCain in 2005 tried to stop it but the legislation was defeated by Obama and other democrat leaders. Senator Obama's failed leadership to include House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank's use of disgraceful partisanship venom during this national financial crises has been a disgrace to our nation. Together they have set in motion a full undermining of our nations foundation. Americans should...

In the Couric interview, Palin mangled her talking points so badly that all anybody noticed noticed was the mangling itself; the points themselves receded into the background. Her much-improved performance last night, though, had the paradoxical effect of throwing the weakness of the GOP message in this election cycle into sharper relief. To my mind, one of the more telling moments in the debate came when Palin, unbidden, latched on to a Biden reference to education, and started talking about all the teachers in her family, and how her kids attend public school, and then did her shout-out to her...

Here are two dozen reasons to vote against Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. I found one of my most widely read and circulated columns was the one on "Twenty-two reasons to vote against Obama" (Sept. 1, 2008) at www.thebulletin.us. So I've updated and expanded that column and here it is. 1. Sen. Obama says Iran is a tiny country that doesn't pose a real threat to us. Here is some of his exact language as reported by ABC: "If Iran ever tried to pose a serious threat to us, they wouldn't stand a chance." That's ridiculous. Iran is killing Americans in...

Attorney General Gorelick? Could the creator of the "wall of separation" between foreign and domestic investigations become the next Attorney General of the United States? Would you trust a person who's up to her elbows in the current financial upheaval to persue due diligence in the FBI's investigation of the key players in that debacle? Would President Obama, himself the number two beneficiary of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae's political largesse, allow his Attorney General to prosecute these cases? Would you have faith in the advise and consent capacity of a Senate composed of nearly 60 Democrats, among them Christopher...

Obama is lying about McCain's plans again http://www.thebulletin.us/site/index.cfm?newsid=20148771&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=8

The Tax Issue Still Resonates By KARL ROVE Conventional wisdom says tax cuts have lost their political power. "Cutting taxes has run its course," "America's great fever for lower taxes . . . has cooled," and "Republicans relied too easily on tax cuts," are among the assertions I've seen recently from different pundits. One reason offered for the alleged decline of tax cuts as a potent issue is that since 2000, tax cuts have taken 13 million filers off of the income tax rolls. Today, one-third of all filers have no federal income tax liability and nearly 40% of all...

I waited an hour for CBS to post the video. No luck. I’m uploading my own cut so stand by for that; when their version goes up, I’ll swap it in. In the meantime, here’s the transcript. Remember, the rap on Palin is that she’s supposedly a “Christianist” nut ready to impose theocracy at the first opportunity. Here we learn that she supports contraception; doesn’t want to punish abortion with jail time; supports teaching evolution as “an accepted principle” and may very well oppose teaching creationism (it’s ambiguous); and reaffirms that she doesn’t judge gays, partly because she’s had a...

The 2008 presidential election in America is the most crucial election in this country's history, not because the issues are that critical but because of Sen. Barack Obama. The Democratic presidential candidate's language, posture and demeanor suggest that he may suffer from narcissistic personality disorder, or NPD. NPD is a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration and a lack of empathy. The following are some of the symptoms of NPD that can be seen in Sen. Obama: He subtly misrepresents facts, opportunistically shifts positions, ignores data that conflict with his fantasy world, is overly confident and acts presidential despite...

John McCain's tax policies are designed to create jobs, increase wages and allow all Americans -- especially those in the hard-pressed middle class -- to keep more of what they earn. His plan achieves these goals in three important ways. First, he proposes a package of tax incentives that will create jobs and raise earnings by inducing firms to invest more in the U.S. Second, he is strongly committed to blocking any increase in tax rates while doubling the personal exemptions for families with children, which will reduce the tax burden on working Americans. Third, he proposes a new, refundable...

Other than Obama’s rude childish habit of shouting over top of McCain and making pompous faces anytime he wasn’t talking, he didn’t say much. But he did manage to do more than his fair share of talking without ever uttering a single truth, not that truth matters much in this country anymore. • Obama talked about the need for holding those responsible for the current financial crisis accountable. But he didn’t include himself, his leftist friends who turned the mortgage industry into another failed welfare program, his campaign advisors who stole tens of millions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac...

( I realize this could all be horse manure, but could not resist posting) Thread begins below: MSM contact-TO everyone, especially Stephen, Lance, and se: written by Anne, September 28, 2008 I know a "top" person in the MSM quite well. I was very fortunate to catch her at a party and discuss this for a few minutes (I asked about the citizenship angle). A little alcohol loosens the tongue. She said (speaking about her "company") "we're hoping Obama wins and then we'll haul in ratings ten times better than the Clinton affair. There's a lot more out there than...

DETROIT --The Classic Creations barber shop sits empty, surrounded by drunks and shuttered storefronts just two blocks from the manicured lawns of Grosse Pointe Park. The contrast isn't lost on LaVar Anthony, a young barber who speaks in riddles of race, class and politics. "What's already understood," he says without looking up from his Ebony magazine, "don't need to be explained." But when it comes to race, what is understood? And what is misunderstood? And how can it be that in 2008 - 143 years after slavery was abolished, decades after the civil rights movement - an AP-Yahoo News poll...

Now before some blogger reads five sentences out of my column and decides I'm a Democrat in Republican disguise, let me say this. I would walk across hot coals rather than cast a vote for Barack Obama this November. I'm not saying how many coals, but I hope this gets my message across. Though he wasn't my first choice, I think John McCain should be the next president of the United States and anything else would be a disaster for our country. However, McCain needs to stop reminding the Republican conservative base why they had problems with the senior Senator...

Estimate your 2009 - 2012 taxes Enter your 2008 personal tax information in the form below and then press calculate to see how the candidates’ promised tax plans will affect your taxes over the next four years based on “The McCain and Obama Tax Plans for Individuals“. For more information about an input item, click GO TO THIS WEBSITE : http://www.electiontaxes.com/

It is vitally important that our readers circulate this information as widely as possible. Barack Obama, with his own words, conceded the health care reform issue to John McCain. Just one last point I want to make, since Senator McCain talked about providing a $5,000 health credit. Now, what he doesn't tell you is that he intends to, for the first time in history, tax health benefits. So you may end up getting a $5,000 tax credit. Here's the only problem: Your employer now has to pay taxes on the health care that you're getting from your employer. And if...

Posted at 10:49 PM on 9/26/2008 by David Horowitz The Debate's Crucial Subtext: Reaction Shots Call me strange but I think undecided and swing voters are more swayed by character than by issues. The issues voters are already committed. Watching the debat this evening I was struck by the inability of Obama to keep his cool when his positions were challenged by his opponent. During the second half of the debate he was rattled and lost his composure almost every time John McCain contested or contradicted what he said. Scowls, inappropriate smiles, shaking of the head, rude interruptions betrayed the...

With only six weeks left before Election Day, it's open season for polling. Eager pollsters are dialing away, trying to get people on the line who will tell them which candidate they are likely to vote for. But what about the people who don't answer their phones? Or those who say "no thanks"--or worse--and hang up? Is there a certain type of person likely to refuse the probing calls? And does that affect polling numbers? In a January op-ed in The New York Times, Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center, warned that the disparity between polls and the...

Here's a sad monument to the sleaziness of this presidential campaign: Almost one-third of voters "know" that Barack Obama is a Muslim or believe that he could be. In short, the political campaign to transform Obama into a Muslim is succeeding. The real loser as that happens isn't just Obama, but our entire political process. A Pew Research Center survey released a few days ago found that only half of Americans correctly know that Obama is a Christian. Meanwhile, 13 percent of registered voters say that he is a Muslim, compared with 12 percent in June and 10 percent in...

Denver, Sep 25, 2008 / 05:33 pm (CNA).- The Democratic Party has been hijacked by elites hostile to religion, said Mark Stricherz, author of the book "Why Democrats are Blue" and a Democrat himself, during the Casey Lecture delivered on Tuesday at the Archdiocese of Denver. The Casey Series of Lectures was started by the Archdiocese of Denver in 2006 to promote Catholic thinking in political life, inspired by the life and political activism of the late Pennsylvania Governor Robert Casey, a devout Catholic and a Democrat. Stricherz, who has focused his investigation on the historical transition that turned the...

<p>Using the 'suspending the campaign and returning to Washington' trope normally reserved for deaths of high government officials or movie melodrama, Sen. John McCain this afternoon announced he's, well, suspending his campaign and returning to Washington, to deal with the mammoth financial meltdown -- and perhaps boost his flagging electoral fortunes by locking himself and Barack Obama in a statesmanlike duet for a few days.</p>

Xrlq points us to this ridiculous FactCheck.org piece on Obama and gun rights. I am by now completely disenchanted with FactCheck.org and virtually every other “fact checking” site out there, and this piece does nothing to dispel my depression. The summary version: FactCheck ridicules the NRA in this piece. But the NRA is careful to say: look at Obama’s record and not his rhetoric. And at least two of the NRA claims are backed up by references to Obama’s record. Yet FactCheck.org goes on to minimize or completely ignore Obama’s record on these points, choosing instead to concentrate on citations...