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Sarah Palin: northern star injects new life into lumbering campaign An extraordinary display of raw political talent could trump Obama’s ‘pretty speeches’ and rally the religious right Sarah Baxter in Detroit The enthusiasm generated by Sarah Palin, the Republican party’s new “northern star”, on her first tour of Middle America this weekend has revived Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign to such a remarkable extent that she is outshining her running mate. It is an unprecedented position of power for a vice-presidential candidate that carries great risks and rewards for McCain as he adjusts to operating in the shadow of a...

It's sort of hard to come away from that thinking "nonpartisanship." McCain tried to get voters to remember that man in his acceptance speech Thursday night, the one who "worked with members of both parties to fix the problems that need to be fixed." But that man has disappeared. The stage in the middle of the cavernous Xcel Energy Center was rearranged so McCain could conjure the feel of the town hall meetings he loves as he laced into "partisan rancor" and "the Washington crowd." Yet a set change could not disguise the fact that this convention -- including the...

One of the most notable polling results at the time of the 2006 elections was that Democrats had closed the national-security gap versus Republicans who held a long and significant advantage in that area. That was short-lived. Unfortunately for Democrats, the gap has reopened. Democrats are regaining the reputation with voters as wimps. Greenberg, Quinlan, Rosner has just released a survey that indicates that voters perceive Republicans once again as far and away better on national security issues than Democrats. Forty nine percent of those surveyed thought Republicans were better on national security while 35 percent thought Democrats better. When...

The Obama campaign and their friends in the media are finally starting to admit that Republicans have gotten some things right. Not just in the last few days but also in the last few years. After John McCain gave what was a less-than-rousing but authentically American speech, talk at MSNBC turned to how he will use the “mistake” that has turned out to be his greatest asset. How, Newsweek’s Washington Bureau Chief Howard Fineman asked MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, will McCain’s “accidental brilliance” of picking Sarah Palin as his running mate continue to bolster his bid for the presidency? This...

Since setting out from St. Paul Thursday night with his new running mate Sarah Palin, John McCain is for the first time being regularly welcomed by Obama-style crowds. A midday rally Saturday at an airport hangar here seems to have pulled McCain's third straight showing of over 10,000 attendees... Staff had projected only 1,000 to show up yesterday for a morning rally in a Milwaukee suburb, they said, while an estimated 12,000 ended up flooding Cedarbury's small-town streets.

EU wants to ban 'sexist' TV commercials Adverts which use sex to sell or promote gender stereotypes could be banned by the EU. By Chris Irvine MEPs want TV regulators in the EU to set guidelines which would see the end of anything deemed to portray women as sex objects or reinforce gender stereotypes. This could potentially mean an end to attractive women advertising perfume, housewives in the kitchen or men doing DIY. Such classic adverts as the Diet Coke commercial featuring the bare-chested builder, or Wonderbra's "Hello Boys" featuring model Eva Herzigova would have been banned. The new rules...

When political junkies flip through television stations on Sunday morning, they'll find policy-driven interviews with three of the four candidates on the presidential tickets — John McCain, Barack Obama and Joe Biden. They won’t, though, see Sarah Palin. Less than two months before voters hit the polls, Palin has yet to sit down for or even schedule an issues-oriented interview with any newspaper, magazine or television network. Meanwhile, the McCain campaign has significantly scaled back the access of the national press he used to jokingly refer to as his “base,” and several speakers, including Palin, took shots at the media...

In Tocqueville on American Character, I recounted a fascinating trip that the great Frenchman took in 1831 to the then-frontier, a bit north of Buffalo. He walked across the border with Canada, reminded himself that the settlers on both sides were culturally and ethnically identical, and then remarked on the dramatic difference in character between the Americans and the Canadians. You couldn’t miss it. On the Canadian side, the roads were good, the streets were laid out in an orderly fashion, and the houses were built to last. On the American side, everything was temporary; the houses were thrown together...

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday said the United States presidential nominee Barack Obama’s charge against Pakistan was a serious issue and the Manmohan Singh government should take it up with the Pakistan High Commissioner here. Mr. Obama had accused Pakistan of misusing American aid for preparing for a war against India. BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said it was known that terror attacks in Kashmir had increased recently and Bangladesh had become the new nerve centre for Islamic fundamentalists. Now Mr. Obama had made a specific charge against Pakistan.

In July, federal authorities indicted Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, on corruption charges on the grounds that Alaska's Prince of Earmarks concealed hundreds of thousands of dollars of gifts and improvements to his Alaska home provided by a powerful oil services company. Also this summer, amid the mortgage meltdown, newspapers reported that a number of senators -- including Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.; Kent Conrad, D-N.D.; and Barack Obama, D.-Ill. -- were the beneficiaries of sweetheart home loans. In June, the Senate Ethics Committee began an initial look into Dodd's and Conrad's discounted Countrywide Financial VIP loans, as is...

Sarah Palin could be an elusive target for Democrats. The plan for Sarah Palin—rock-star Republican—was to do a series of swing-state events with John McCain, record the campaign's regular weekend radio address and then go home. "We kind of shanghaied her out of Alaska," Steve Schmidt, the McCain-Palin campaign manager, told me. "She needs to go back for a few days." There are personal reasons. Her son is shipping off for Iraq. With a newborn of her own, a pregnant daughter and a state to run, "Sarah Barracuda" has to get her affairs in order. But there are political reasons,...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Republican White House nominee John McCain earned a record 38.9 million television viewers during his convention speech, edging his rival Barack Obama's record from the previous week, the Nielsen group reported Friday. "Senator McCain amassed an audience of 38.9 million viewers for his speech on two fewer channels than were carrying Senator Obama's speech August 28 to 38.38 million viewers," Nielsen Media Research said in a statement.

Talks this week on the reunification of Cyprus look more hopeful than many would have dared to think possible. But the discovery of remains from some of those killed during the 1974 Turkish invasion is refreshing old grievances, as Tabitha Morgan reports. (snip) On 21 December 1963 Mustafa Arif, a senior officer at Nicosia prison, was admitted to hospital in what is today the Greek Cypriot side of the city to be treated for a heart condition. By the next day relations between the two communities had collapsed. Riots broke out in Nicosia, shops were looted and burned and the...

A new political map has been drawn, says The New York Times: With just over eight weeks left until Election Day, the two sides are settling into an unusually broad set of state-by-state face-off... The map is the same as ever, says The New York Times: While McCain aides once believed that his appeal to independents might help him win a traditional Democratic state like New Jersey, and Obama aides thought their candidate’s broad appeal could be a lift in traditionally Republican ones like Montana, the emerging battlegrounds picked by both campaigns so far resemble the Bush-Kerry electoral map in...

The dilemma the campaign has about the sudden emergence of this political superstar comes down to this: it can't possibly ignore her, but going after her directly could easily backfire. If anything, the past week has shown that Palin wears a similar coat of Teflon as Obama. Just as many of Obama's opponents suddenly found themselves accused of playing the race card, many of Palin's supporters have been quick to accuse Dems of outrageous sexism in the frontal assault on Palin's record and family. And responding to each one of her volleys only gives her more prominence in the race...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (AFP) — US Republican vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin took her first swipe at her Democratic counterpart Saturday, casting Joe Biden as a Washington insider incapable of change. "The choice a presidential nominee makes for a running mate says a lot about him," Palin told a flag-waving crowd at an airport hangar in the western state of Colorado. "Senator Biden can claim many chairmanships across many, many years in Washington and certain many friends in the Washington establishment, but even those admirers would not call him an agent of change."

Africa Becoming a Biofuel Battleground By Horand Knaup Western companies are pushing to acquire vast stretches of African land to meet the world's biofuel needs. Local farmers and governments are being showered with promises. But is this just another form of economic colonialism? Everything will turn out alright. Correction: everything is going to get better. There will be new roads, a new school, a pharmacy, even a proper water supply. Most of all, there will be jobs -- 5,000, at the very least. "If there are jobs for us, then it's a good thing," says Juma Njagu, 26, who hopes...

US Republican vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin took her first swipe at her Democratic counterpart Saturday, casting Joe Biden as a Washington insider incapable of change. "The choice a presidential nominee makes for a running mate says a lot about him," Palin told a flag-waving crowd at an airport hangar in the western state of Colorado. "Senator Biden can claim many chairmanships across many, many years in Washington and certain many friends in the Washington establishment, but even those admirers would not call him an agent of change."

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- Two days after McCain formally accepted the nomination of his party, rival Obama accused his opponent of falsely portraying himself as a change agent despite championing the party agenda of the ruling GOP for the last eight years and tapping for the vice presidency Gov. Sarah Palin, who Obama says has taken earmarks “when it’s convenient." “Don’t be fooled,” a particularly punchy Obama told a crowd this morning at a town hall meeting in Terre Haute, Ind. “These are the folks who have been in charge. John McCain’s party, with the help of John McCain, has...

Democrat Barack Obama’s much-vaunted political star power took a drubbing this week as the woman in the GOP’s No. 2 spot bypassed him in favorability polls, according to Rasmussen Reports. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, virtually unknown in the lower 48 states a week ago, is now viewed favorably by 58 percent of American voters, despite days of relentless negative news reports and political attacks preceding her acceptance speech Wednesday, Rasmussen reported. Its national telephone survey found that 37 percent of voters hold an unfavorable view of the self-described hockey mom. Before her acceptance speech, Palin was viewed favorably by 52...

After the GOP attacks the media over stories about the vice presidential nominee's family, TV networks and newspapers deny bias and say Republicans opened the door to coverage. News executives Thursday tried to shake off the excoriations of the media emanating from the Republican National Convention, defending their coverage of GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin as responsible and evenhanded. While top television network officials and newspaper editors largely dismissed the critiques as partisan rhetoric, some fretted that charges of media bias had reached a new and disturbing level. "I really do take exception to it," NBC News President Steve...

This is some pretty cool stuff. They've mentioned Ad Topperwein.

Republicans Regain Largest Colorado Voting Bloc Last Updated: 3:27 PM Sep 5, 2008 Reporter: Associated Press/KKTV Republicans have regained their status as the largest voting bloc in Colorado, a battleground state for the 2008 presidential election. The Colorado secretary of state says in a report posted online this week that registered Republicans total more than 1,024,500. Unaffiliated voters are second at just under 1,022,400. Democrats are third at just under 946,200. But in June and July, Democrats registered nearly 13,700 new voters, compared with just under 4,100 new Republican registrations and about 400 new unaffiliated voters. Republicans had been bumped...

Country music legend Loretta Lynn, the coal miner’s daughter, captured the America that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin touches in Lynn’s 1971 hit, “One’s on the Way.” The song contrasts the glitzy world of celebrities with the routine of the ordinary life of a woman in Topeka where: “The rain is a fallin’. The faucet is a drippin’ and the kids are a bawlin’, one of ‘em a toddlin’, and one is a crawlin’. And one’s on the way.” Though dated, it speaks to life removed from the spectacle of television, where unimportant people engage in celebrity and important people play...

TEARS OF THE DESERT - Arab Muslim Bigoted Genocide in Dafur, Gang Rape as a Weapon Amazon.com: Tears of the Desert: A Memoir of Survival in Darfur ...Amazon.com: Tears of the Desert: A Memoir of Survival in Darfur: Halima Bashir, Damien Lewis: Books. http://www.amazon.com/Tears-Desert-Memoir-Survival-Darfur/dp/0345506251

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's unemployment rate bolted above the psychologically important 6 percent level last month for the first time in five years -- and it's likely to go even higher in the months ahead, possibly throwing the economy into a tailspin as Americans pick a new president....A blizzard of pink slips propelled the jobless rate from 5.7 percent in July to 6.1 percent in August, the Labor Department reported Friday....So far this year, a staggering 605,000 jobs have vanished -- slightly less than the population of Alaska.

Hedge fund Atticus denies liquidation rumors: report Thu Sep 4, 7:28 PM ET Hedge fund company Atticus Capital denied market rumors it was liquidating its positions and closing down and said it had a large net capital position and was looking for investment opportunities, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Atticus's two main hedge funds have been hit with losses of between 25 percent and 32 percent this year through August, but investors are largely sticking with it, according to unnamed investors cited by the Journal. Stocks the Wall Street Journal said Atticus held in recent months, including Burlington...

The Wilmington (Del.) News Journal takes a look today at some of the real estate transactions of Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del. Biden is one of the least wealthy members of Congress, but he enjoys a splendid home because of real estate deals with political supporters. The Bidens live "on a four-acre lakefront estate in a 7,000-square-foot custom home" in Greenville, Del., a property worth at least $2.5 million. Reports the newspaper: "In 1996, Biden sold a home in Greenville for the asking price of $1.2 million -- more than six times what he paid two decades earlier -- to John...

BERKELEY -- Except for a lone redwood holding four tree-sitters, UC Berkeley today finished cutting down the long-embattled Memorial Stadium trees that protesters had been fighting to preserve for 21 months. Arborists removed 42 oaks, redwoods, laurels, and other trees from the grove, leaving 28 around the perimeter. Several others, including a mature redwood, are slated to be transplanted to make way for a $124-million student athlete training center. The university has no immediate plans to forcibly extricate the tree-sitters, but hopes they'll come down voluntarily now that the grove has been removed, said campus spokesman Dan Mogulof. The campus...

One thing both Democrats and Republicans agreed about in their vastly different conventions: The American voter will not only decide but decide wisely. But does the electorate really know what it's talking about? Plenty of things are hurting American democracy -- gridlock, negative campaigning, special interests -- but one factor lies at the root of all the others, and nobody dares to discuss it. American voters, who are hiring the people who'll run a superpower democracy, are grossly ignorant. Here are a few particularly bogus claims about their supposed savvy. 1. Our voters are pretty smart. 2. Bill O'Reilly's viewers...

Mystery of the missing millionaire Samuel Israel III was living the good life with other people's money — playing a dangerous game, with staggeringly high stakes By Dennis Murphy Correspondent NBC News updated 7:51 p.m. ET Sept. 5, 2008 This report aired Dateline Friday, Sept. 5, 10 p.m. Dennis Murphy Correspondent NEW YORK CITY - No one knows for sure why the story of Sam Israel III found its way to Bear Mountain Bridge. Israel a millionaire living the high life. He had a boat, a nice house, and some cars. Suddenly, he was at the center of a mystery...

Whatever Happened to Family Values?How the GOP gave in to anti-abortion absolutism. By Jacob Weisberg Posted Saturday, Sept. 6, 2008, at 7:02 AM ET In the 1980s, the rising conservative movement tried to frame the pro-life cause as part of a broader family-values agenda that included reducing rates of illegitimate childbirth, welfare dependency, and divorce. To Ronald Reagan and many of his most ardent supporters, abortion-on-demand was the pre-eminent example of the breakdown of traditional morality brought about the sexual revolution. Few remember it this way, but Reagan's "evil empire" speech, delivered to the National Association of Evangelicals in 1983,...

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan reserves the right to appropriately retaliate against unilateral attacks by coalition forces from Afghanistan, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) General Tariq Majid said on Friday. “Pakistan reserves the right to appropriately retaliate in future,” General Tariq told German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung who called on him at the Joint Staff Headquarters. Condemning the attack by US forces at Angoor Ada, the CJCSC said such cross-border strikes would alienate locals. General Tariq said that Afghanistan was levelling allegations against Pakistan to cover its failures.

Posted on Sat, Sep. 6, 2008 Biden gets mixed welcome in Northeast Local Dem leaders say race is issue for many voters By DAVE DAVIES Philadelphia Daily News daviesd@phillynews.com 215-854-2595 DEMOCRATIC vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden went stumping for votes yesterday in Northeast Philadelphia, where Democrats need to earn the love of Democrats who voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama in the April primary. He worked a diner, gave a rousing speech on bread-and-butter issues at a union hall, and reeled off a memorable line tying the Republican candidate to the unpopular team in the White House. "My friend...

Genes alone don’t make the man — after all, humans and chimps share roughly 98 percent of their DNA. But where, when and how much genes are turned on may be essential in setting people apart from other primates. A stretch of human DNA inserted into mice embryos revs the activity of genes in the developing thumb, toe, forelimb and hind limb. But the chimp and rhesus macaque version of this same stretch of DNA spurs only faint activity in the developing limbs, reports a new study in the Sept. 5 Science. The research supports the notion that changes in...

Presidential Nominee Vows To Fight Back Against Character Attacks Better Than John Kerry Did In '04 MIDDLETOWN, N.J. (AP) ― Unlike his Republican opponent, Democrat Barack Obama is still raising money for his presidential campaign, and he turned Friday to rock legend Jon Bon Jovi for help. Bon Jovi and his wife, Dorothea, hosted more than 100 people for dinner on their mansion lawn by the Navesink River in Middletown, N.J. The price was $30,800 a person, to be divided between the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee. snip "We're not going to be bullied, we're not going to...

PASADENA, Texas — Two teenage girls are accused of stabbing a 75-year-old man to death in a robbery that netted them just $15, and police say the mother of one of the teens helped put them up to it. Dannette R. Gillespie, 38, gave knives to her 15-year-old daughter and Vanessa Anne Ocampo, 19, then waited in the back seat of their car while the teens robbed and killed Eugene Palma, according to a probable cause warrant. ... Ocampo told investigators they went to the bar and followed Palma home when he left. Gillespie handed knives to her daughter and...

Charles Rangel, a man who writes federal tax laws as head of the House Ways and Means Committee, not only failed to pay taxes on income he received from a luxury resort property he owns, he financed the purchase with an interest-free loan from a campaign backer who is also a politically active lawyer. David Kocieniewski and David M. Halbfinger report in the New York Times:.....

The Democrats, supported by their allies in the old big media, never tired of highlighting Vice President Dick Cheney’s absence of military service based on student draft deferments. But how much have we heard about Senator Joseph Biden’s military service -- or lack thereof? Biden turns out to have received the same number of student draft deferments during the Vietnam War as did Cheney -- five. Then, according to this quote from one of his campaign spokespersons, David Wade, “As a result of a physical exam on April 5, 1968, Joe Biden was classified I-Y and disqualified from service because...

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — Barack Obama took his first direct swipe at Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin on Saturday, criticizing her for supporting congressional earmarks before opposing them. “I know the governor of Alaska has been, you know, saying she is change,” Obama said at a town hall meeting here. “And that is great. She is a skillful politician. But when you [have] been taking all these earmarks when it is convenient and then suddenly you are the champion anti-earmark person. “That is not change, come on,” Obama continued. “I mean, words mean something. You can’t just make stuff...

Although the topline results don't make it obvious, it appears that John McCain had a fairly strong night of polling in the daily tracking polls, which are the only numbers we have to look at today. The Gallup tracker now shows Barack Obama leading by 2 points, down from 4 a day ago. When I attempt to estimate the daily results from the topline numbers, however, I get the following: Wednesday: Obama +7.8 Thursday: Obama +2.4 Friday: McCain +4.2 So Obama's numbers are being propped up by a strong night of polling on Wednesday, which will cycle out tomorrow. He...

Israel too vulnerable to think of Iran attack More News: www.balitapinoy.net Israel is too vulnerable to think of Iran attack, government spokesman, Gholam-Hossein Elham, said on Saturday. He made the remarks commenting on a recent statement made by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France in Syria who had said Iran was at risk of being attacked by Israel. Speaking to reporters at his weekly press conference, Elham said statements such as what was made by President Sarkozy had rooted from "weakness." "Such remarks prove the Israeli war-mongering and terrorist nature which uses every chance to pose threat to the global security,"...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing on Saturday in a rare visit to China coinciding with the start of the Paralympic Games. Hu said in welcoming words to Ahmadinejad at the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square that the two would discuss Sino-Iranian relations, among other issues, during their meeting. "I would like to further exchange opinions with you Mr President about issues like Sino-Iranian relations," Hu told the Iranian President. "I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank you and other Iranian leaders for the assistance your government provided...

"When it comes to action over Georgia, Russia has the European Union over a barrel. In fact, 1.2 million barrels. That’s how much Russian crude is pumped westward every day down the Druzhba pipeline to fuel Europe’s economies.” So began an article in The International Herald Tribune, one of many last week explaining why Europe — and the west — has little choice but to sacrifice parts of Georgia, and maybe a lot more, to Russia’s ambitions. “Russia knows that when it comes to conducting a serious foreign and security policy, Europe is all mouth,” says Lord Chris Patten, the...

Senator Barack Obama on Thursday released a list of $740 million in earmarked spending requests that he had made over the last three years, and his campaign challenged Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to do the same. The list included $1 million for a hospital where Mr. Obama’s wife works, money for several projects linked to campaign donors and support for more than 200 towns, civic institutions and universities in Illinois. But as the Senate debated a bill to restrict the controversial method of paying for home-state projects — a measure defeated Thursday evening — Mr. Obama’s presidential campaign also said...

SBA List President Statement Regarding John McCain’s GOP Convention AddressContact: Joy Yearout, Susan B. Anthony List, 703-875-3370, jyearout@sba-list.orgWASHINGTON, Sept. 5 /Christian Newswire/ -- Today, in response GOP Presidential nominee John McCain's Convention Address, the President of the Susan B. Anthony List offered the following statement: "John McCain has cemented his role as the one true, authentically pro-life choice for President," said Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. "Last night John McCain reiterated his commitment to building a culture of life. His words, on the heels of his choice of pro-life heroine Sarah Palin for VP, are exactly what pro-life voters...

McCain on Palin

Scientists preparing to fire up the world's largest atom smasher are being flooded with phone calls and emails – even death threats – from people worried that the Large Hadron Collider, when activated, will obliterate planet Earth.

In its coverage of John McCain and Sarah Palin in Cedarburg Wi. today, the Associated Press reported: "More than a thousand people jammed the streets to see McCain and the Alaska governor, his suprise choice for the vice presidential nomination who proved to be the hit of the convention." Elsewhere, the Wisconsin State Patrol estimated that over 12,000 people were in the "attendance area" at the event and that up to THREE TIMES that number were surrounding the "attendance area."

A great video