




The evening was full of Biden-isms, including the inevitable Obama/Osama slip, made when Biden was discussing the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border "where Obama, Osama Bin Laden lives, and Obama wants to go to get him."
A Greek temple?DENVER (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's
big speech on Thursday night will be delivered from an elaborate columned stage
resembling a miniature Greek temple.
The stage, similar to structures used for rock concerts, has been set up at the 50-yard-line, the midpoint of Invesco Field, the stadium where the Denver Broncos' National Football League team plays.
Some 80,000 supporters will see Obama appear from between plywood
columns painted off-white, reminiscent of Washington's Capitol building or even
the White House, to accept the party's nomination for president. He will
stride out to a raised platform to a podium that can be raised from beneath the
floor.
I believe in natural gas as a clean, cheap alternative to fossil fuels.Huh? I thought natural gas was a fossil fuel?
MR. BROKAW: Sounds like we're going to have offshore drilling.The most egregious lie she told was:REP. PELOSI: No, no, no.
I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time. And what I know is, over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition.
Actually there are two lies in above quote. (Three if you count the "I have studied for a long time.) The following is from an article available here:
Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable.
Pelosi is not an ardent, practicing Catholic. Any Catholic that follows the beliefs of the Church is Pro-Life.
As a Catholic, I am tired of the Church sitting on its rear and not calling out any politician that is supposedly Catholic but is pro-abortion. I believe excommunication should be done to every one of them. I also believe the Catholic Church should be telling members they should not be supporting candidates that are pro-abortion. It is their moral duty to support candidates that are Pro-Life.MR. BROKAW: Senator Obama saying the question of when life begins is above his pay grade, whether you're looking at it scientifically or theologically. If he were to come to you and say, "Help me out here, Madame Speaker. When does life begin?" what would you tell him?For the entire transcript of Pelosi's interview, click here.REP. PELOSI: I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time. And what I know is, over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition. And Senator--St. Augustine said at three months. We don't know. The point is, is that it shouldn't have an impact on the woman's right to choose. Roe v. Wade talks about very clear definitions of when the child--first trimester, certain considerations; second trimester; not so third trimester. There's very clear distinctions. This isn't about abortion on demand, it's about a careful, careful consideration of all factors and--to--that a woman has to make with her doctor and her god. And so I don't think anybody can tell you when life begins, human life begins. As I say, the Catholic Church for centuries has been discussing this, and there are those who've decided...
MR. BROKAW: The Catholic Church at the moment feels very strongly that it...
REP. PELOSI: I understand that.
MR. BROKAW: ...begins at the point of conception.
REP. PELOSI: I understand. And this is like maybe 50 years or something like that. So again, over the history of the church, this is an issue of controversy. But it is, it is also true that God has given us, each of us, a free will and a responsibility to answer for our actions. And we want abortions to be safe, rare, and reduce the number of abortions. That's why we have this fight in Congress over contraception. My Republican colleagues do not support contraception. If you want to reduce the number of abortions, and we all do, we must--it would behoove you to support family planning and, and contraception, you would think. But that is not the case. So we have to take--you know, we have to handle this as respectfully--this is sacred ground. We have to handle it very respectfully and not politicize it, as it has been--and I'm not saying Rick Warren did, because I don't think he did, but others will try to.
It's official: Barack Obama has received no bounce in voter support out of his selection of Sen. Joe Biden to be his vice presidential running mate.Essentially the race is tied and his has been for several weeks. The vice presidential announcement normally gives the candidate a bounce.Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Aug. 23-25, the first three-day period falling entirely after Obama's Saturday morning vice presidential announcement, shows 46% of national registered voters backing John McCain and 44% supporting Obama, not appreciably different from the previous week's standing for both candidates. This is the first time since Obama clinched the nomination in early June, though, that McCain has held any kind of advantage over Obama in Gallup Poll Daily tracking.
DENVER - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledged Monday that Democrats still are reconciling following a bitter primary fight, but said "wallowing" in it would not advance their goal of recapturing the White House.The Obama camp is claiming the camps are not divided:
Barack Obama's campaign denied reports of tension with Hillary Clinton's camp at the Democratic National Convention and said suggestions of discord come from people "who don't know what they are talking about."
No matter what help Barack Obama might get from Sen. Joseph Biden, his newly named vice presidential running mate won't give Obama much cover on the Tony Rezko front.Biden has described himself as a 30-year friend of a key figure in the Rezko trial who's pleaded guilty to a federal extortion charge in Chicago and is awaiting sentencing.
It’s a dead heat in the race for the White House. The first national poll conducted entirely after Barack Obama publicly named Joe Biden as his running mate suggests that battle for the presidency between the Illinois senator and Republican rival John McCain is all tied up.Hat tip Badger BloggerIn a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll out Sunday night, 47 percent of those questioned are backing Obama with an equal amount supporting the Arizona senator.
“This looks like a step backward for Obama, who had a 51 to 44 percent advantage last month,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.
“Even last week, just before his choice of Joe Biden as his running mate became known, most polls tended to show Obama with a single-digit advantage over McCain,” adds Holland.
So what’s the difference now?
It may be supporters of Hillary Clinton, who still would prefer the Senator from New York as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.
"At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the most dangerous; that the insufficiency of the means provided for their removal gave them a freehold and irresponsibility in office; that their decisions, seeming to concern individual suitors only, pass silent and unheeded by the public at large; that these decisions, nevertheless, become law by precedent, sapping, by little and little, the foundations of the constitution, and working its change by construction, before any one has perceived that that invisible and helpless worm has been busily employed in consuming its substance. In truth, man is not made to be trusted for life, if secured against all liability to account."
-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to Monsieur A. Coray, 31 October 1823)
Superior - A Superior man faces charges after trying to protect his son from arrest by nailing him into a cabinet.
Police went to the home of Jeffrey Scott Rantala Sr. with warrants to arrest his son, Jeffrey Scott Rantala Jr.
The father initially refused to let the officers search his house but agreed after a police supervisor told him officers would leave him alone if his son was not there. While waiting outside, an officer heard "a lot of banging going on inside the residence."
As police searched the house, the 25-year-old son kicked his way through a wall to escape a cabinet that was nailed shut.
One officer arrested the son. The other arrested the father, who was charged Monday with obstructing an officer and bail jumping.
A new poll on the public’s perception of education indicates that more think Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama would be better for public schools than think rival John McCain would, even on the traditionally Republican issue of parental choice.
Police descended on a group of foreign pro-Tibet activists and some disgruntled business owners from Hong Kong on Thursday, taking both groups away minutes after they displayed protest signs in central Beijing.The abrupt end of the separate protests—and the sentencing of six foreigners to 10 days of detention for “disrupting public order”—underscored China’s determination to prevent any disruption during the Olympics.
snip
Earlier this week, two elderly Chinese women—Wu Dianyuan, 79, and her neighbor Wang Xiuying, 77—who applied to protest were told they would be sent to a labor camp for a year. They were still at home Thursday under the surveillance of a government-sanctioned neighborhood watch group, Wang’s son Li Xuehui said.
Li said no cause was given for the order to imprison the pair. Activists said the order was an intimidation tactic.
All these two did was APPLY to protest.
As the 110th Congress continues its August recess, the big legislative news is that it has passed fewer laws than any Congress in the last two decades. An outfit known as Taxpayers for Common Sense reports that the fighting 110th has passed a mere 294 laws, while nonetheless finding time to consider 1,932 resolutions favoring such causes as National Watermelon Month. This is apparently supposed to be a matter of public consternation because Congress should be accomplishing more.
Sorry, but that's the best thing we've heard about this Congress. What a relief to discover the destruction could have been so much worse. With rare exceptions -- free-trade deals, money for the troops -- we wish the Members would spend every minute of every day passing resolutions. They'd have less time to do tangible harm.
Even we -- fated by bad career advice to write about this stuff -- haven't the foggiest idea what is in most of those 294 laws. The mayhem we know about is bad enough. There was that "reform" that blew up the student loan market and has led to Uncle Sam being America's college lender of first resort. This will be the Fannie Mae of the future. And don't forget the mortgage bailout, which puts taxpayers on the hook for as much as $300 billion in bad home loans.
Come to think of it, we'd feel safer if the whole crowd decided not to come back at all after Labor Day. Just stay home, or, even better, spend the rest of the year traveling on Congressional junkets. Sure, taxpayers would have to pay the airfare and hotel bills, but that's a bargain compared to what taxpayers will owe if Congress tries to solve any more problems.
I believe, the Supreme Court is to guard against the encroachment of the Executive Branch on the power of the other branches.Really? That's the job of the Supreme Court? Apparently Barry hasn't read the Constitution.
Assessing Obama’s Iraq plan on September 13, 2007: “My impression is [Obama] thinks that if we leave, somehow the Iraqis are going to have an epiphany” of peaceful coexistence among warring sects. “I’ve seen zero evidence of that.”
Also from that Observer interview: “But — and the ‘but’ was clearly inevitable — he doubts whether American voters are going to elect ‘a one-term, a guy who has served for four years in the Senate,’ and added: ‘I don’t recall hearing a word from Barack about a plan or a tactic.’”
read the whole this...In 1948, they had Harry Truman and “The buck stops here!”
In 2008, they’ve got Barack Obama and it’s “above my pay grade.”
This is definitely not your grandfather’s Democratic Party.
Certainly not mine. My grandfather, Ray Futrell, was a lifelong FDR Democrat, the kind who would proudly rather vote for a wife-beating, syphilitic drunkard than for a Republican. In fact, he would find the previous sentence entirely redundant.
My grandfather helped push Patton’s tanks across Europe, and one reason for my grandfather’s unshakable party loyalty was his belief that Harry Truman saved his life by dropping the A-bombs on Japan.
If Truman hadn’t made the call - if he’d demurred that such a profound life-and-death decision was “above my pay grade” - my grandfather believed that he and untold thousands of Americans would have died invading the Japanese mainland.
I miss my grandfather, but I’m also glad that he isn’t around to witness the tragic descent of his beloved Democratic Party.
With all due respect, Sen. Obama, being president is above your pay grade. And the voters are starting to figure that out.
At issue is the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, a bill in the Illinois state Senate that sought to protect against bungled abortions by requiring that a fetus that survived an abortion be defined as a person. Fearing that the legislation could be interpreted more broadly to protect fetuses that were not yet viable — thus threatening Roe v. Wade, abortion rights advocates pushed for an amendment that explicitly limited the scope of the bill to infants "born alive."
"Nothing in this section," the added sentence reads, "shall be construed to affirm, deny, expand, or contract any legal status or legal right applicable to any member of the species homo sapiens at any point prior to being born alive as defined in this section." A federal version with that added clause passed Congress unanimously in 2002, with the support of Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Kennedy, among others. Mr. Obama said in 2004 and again on Saturday that he would have supported the federal version.
For the last 6 years, Barack Obama has steadfastly claimed that if a "neutrality clause" like the federal bill had been added, he would have readily supported it on the state level.
It was proven again this week, the "neutrality clause" was written in at the state level bill, and Barack Obama voted against it anyway. He was the head of the committee addressing the issue and he killed the bill anyway.His campaign yesterday acknowledged that he had voted against an identical bill in the state Senate, and a spokesman, Hari Sevugan, said the senator and other lawmakers had concerns that even as worded, the legislation could have undermined existing Illinois abortion law. Those concerns did not exist for the federal bill, because there is no federal abortion law.Over and over and over again Barack Obama has come up with an excuse for allowing aborted babies that were born alive to be carted off to the broom closets and allowed to suffer and die alone.
Seriously folks, he said this.
What is worse- the idea that the fawning media will totally ignore this or the fact that Obama actually made this statement?
Well, well
How do you like that?
After a raucous debate in the Public Safety and Welfare on Monday night, suddenly everyone is willing to hold a referendum on the idea of banning smoking everywhere in Kenosha.
I would have preferred that we, the city aldermen, would have just done our jobs properly and given both sides of the debate a voice. Listening to the people, all of the people, is precisely what should have been done to start.
The reason I voted to defer this is because I know that the smoking side of the aisle did not get a fair chance to give their side.
Now there will be a referendum, both sides are once again on level ground.
I could not be more thrilled than I am right now. A few days ago I was worried that this would be a freight train that could not be stopped.
Well the train is stopped- now everyone gets a chance to climb on board.
Here is a current copy of the referendum.
The next battle that both sides will be conflicted on is what should be in the ordinance. Are you in favor of banning smoking at public parks or not? Are you in favor of banning smoking from restaurants? Bars? Bowling alleys?
Everything is on the table.
Over the next several weeks- the debate on the actually ordinance language will rage.
Once that is over, the debate for or against the actual ordinance will rage.
For all of those folks that did not have a chance because 9 aldermen has already made up there minds- now is your chance!
Both sides of the issue will get a chance to debate this in full view of the public.
You need to keep going to the council and committee meetings. Now is not the time to stop fighting.
Without confirmation, the allegations were not widely reported by national media but still were damaging to Edwards. He was not being invited to speak at this month's Democratic National Convention, out of fear that the rumors could become a distraction at the carefully orchestrated gathering.
Barack Obama's campaign is preparing to announce the list of convention speakers in the coming days, and the fact that Edwards wasn't going to be included forced his hand. If he didn't tell the story first, it threatened to blow open as reporters explained why the party's last vice presidential nominee and third-place finisher in the primary was being snubbed.
Clearly the Obama camp was worried and wanted no part of John Edwards. There goes Edwards---under the bus.
Comedian Bernie Mac died at Northwestern Memorial hospital early Saturday morning, according to Sun-Times Columnist, Stella Foster. He was 50.
In 2006, Edwards' political action committee paid $100,000 in a four-month span to a newly formed firm run by Rielle Hunter, who directed the production of just four Web videos, one a mere 2 1/2 minutes long.
Once again, the conservatives are getting a kick out of this little tit-for-tat between Obama and McCain. The liberals are just getting more angry.McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said Hilton appears to support his candidate's "all of the above" energy solution.
"Paris Hilton might not be as big a celebrity as Barack Obama, but she obviously has a better energy plan," Bounds said.
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP) - Democratic candidate Barack Obama criticized Republican John McCain on Tuesday for taking a page out of "the Cheney playbook" on energy, overlooking his own support of oil-friendly policies that the unpopular vice president helped to craft.
Obama voted for a 2005 energy bill backed by President Bush that included billions in subsidies for oil and natural gas production, a measure for which Vice President Dick Cheney played a major role. McCain opposed the bill, saying at the time that it included billions in unnecessary tax breaks for the oil industry.
The Obama campaign has said the Illinois senator supported the legislation because it included huge investments in renewable energy. Yet Democrats long have characterized the 2005 energy bill as being written by Cheney. One of them, Democratic primary rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, criticized Obama earlier this year for backing the "Dick Cheney lobbyist energy bill."
But his proposal includes two significant reversals of positions he has taken in the past, and he immediately drew accusations of flip-flopping from Republican rival John McCain, who has gained ground in the polls using the energy issue.
Obama had steadfastly fought the idea of new offshore drilling and was against tapping the nation's emergency oil stockpile to relieve pump prices that have stubbornly hovered around $4 a gallon.
However, in a major energy speech yesterday, Obama proposed that the government sell 70 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, saying that the move could help drive down gasoline prices in as soon as "within two weeks." Campaign adviser Heather Zichal said he reconsidered his position because "Americans are suffering."
Perhaps Barack did not notice that Americans were also suffering two weeks ago, as he was busy jetting around the world wasting millions on fuel. In fact, shortly after his overseas trip Obama was making his tire gauge claim. Now this???
That McCain's complaint is sometimes overstated and imprudent, however, does not mean that it is wrong. The political press corps has a problem when Jon Stewart lampoons reporters for being even more in the tank for Obama than he is.
Why are the media so smitten with Obama? Journalists have an affinity for the Democratic nominee in part because he is a wordsmith and they make a living manipulating words and symbols, so they have a special appreciation for his gifts. But another part of the reason is, yes, plain old liberal bias. McCain was a press darling when he was a maverick dissenting from the Republican Party from points left. Obama has become one by succeeding as a down-the-line liberal. When McCain decided this time around to court conservative Republican voters as much as liberal reporters, the coverage of him became more critical. Notice a pattern?
At this point, denying that the press has a liberal tilt, particularly on social issues, is like denying that the universities have one. Surveys of reporters show that they have more liberal views than the public; surveys of the public show that readers and viewers pick up on it.
I could not help but notice one of the reasons given by this reporter as to why Obama is so beloved by the media is his ability to manipulate words.
I think it is a pretty safe bet to say that the ad was a huge hit and Obama's comments a big bust.Sixty-nine percent (69%) of the nation’s voters say they’ve seen news coverage of the McCain campaign commercial that includes images of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton and suggests that Barack Obama is a celebrity just like them. Of those, just 22% say the ad was racist while 63% say it was not.
However, Obama’s comment that his Republican opponent will try to scare people because Obama does not look like all the other presidents on dollar bills was seen as racist by 53%. Thirty-eight percent (38%) disagree.
WASHINGTON — Barack Obama Friday dropped his opposition to offshore oil drilling, saying he could go along with the idea if it was part of a broader energy package.
Obama made his comments in St. Petersburg during an interview with the Palm Beach Post. "My interest is in making sure we've got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices," he said.
"If, in order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage - I don't want to be so rigid that we can't get something done," the paper quoted Obama as saying.
The change is dramatic because Obama often pointed to his opposition to drilling as a key difference between himself and presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain.
"I made a general point about the fact that we need to provide the American people some relief and that there has been constructive conversations between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate on this issue," he said during a press conference in Cape Canaveral.
"What I will not do, and this has always been my position, is to support a plan that suggests this drilling is the answer to our energy problems," Obama added.
Instead of supporting a oil drilling plan, Barack Obama supports a tire inflating plan. Duh!
As I said, Obama is trying to change his image, not his stance. With a full 75% of Americans in favor of drilling for more American oil, Barack Obama does not want to appear that he is against this.Does Pelosi imagine that with so much of America declared off-limits, the planet is less injured as drilling shifts to Kazakhstan and Venezuela and Equatorial Guinea? That Russia will be more environmentally scrupulous than we in drilling in its Arctic?
The net environmental effect of Pelosi’s no-drilling willfulness is negative. Outsourcing U.S. oil production does nothing to lessen worldwide environmental despoliation. It simply exports it to more corrupt, less efficient, more unstable parts of the world — thereby increasing net planetary damage.
They seem blissfully unaware that the argument for their drill-there-not-here policy collapses on its own environmental terms.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Democrats adjourned the House, turned off the lights and killed the microphones, but Republicans are still on the floor talking gas prices.
Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and other GOP leaders opposed the motion to adjourn the House, arguing that Pelosi's refusal to schedule a vote allowing offshore drilling is hurting the American economy. They have refused to leave the floor after the adjournment motion passed at 11:23 a.m., and they are busy bashing Pelosi and her fellow Democrats for leaving town for the August recess.
At one point, the lights went off in the House and the microphones were turned off in the chamber, meaning Republicans were talking in the dark. But as Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz..) was speaking, the lights went back on and the microphones were turned on shortly afterward.
But C-SPAN, which has no control over the cameras in the chamber, has stopped broadcasting the House floor, meaning no one was witnessing this except the assembled Republicans, their aides, and one Democrat, Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio), who has now left.
Only about a half-dozen Republicans were on the floor when this began, but the crowd has grown to about 20, according to Patrick O'Connor.
"This is the people's House," said Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.). "This is not Pelosi's politiburo."
Democratic aides were furious at the GOP stunt, and reporters were kicked out of the Speaker's Lobby, the space next to the House floor where they normally interview lawmakers.
"You're not covering this, are you?" complained one senior Democratic aide. Another called the Republicans "morons" for staying on the floor.
Update: The Capitol Police are now trying to kick reporters out of the press gallery above the floor, meaning we can't watch the Republicans anymore. But Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) is now in the gallery talking to reporters, so the cops have held off for a minute. Clearly, Democrats don't want Republicans getting any press for this episode. GOP leaders are trying to find other Republicans to rotate in for Blunt so reporters aren't kicked out.
Update 2: This message was sent out by Blunt's office:
"Although this Democrat majority just adjourned for the Democrat 5-week vacation, House Republicans are continuing to fight on the House floor. Although the lights, mics and C-SPAN cameras have been turned off, House Republicans are on the floor speaking to the taxpayers in the gallery who, not surprisingly, agree with Republican energy proposals.
"All Republicans who are in town are encouraged to come to the House floor."Update 3: Democrats just turned out the lights again. Republicans cheered.
Update 4: Republican leaders just sent out a notice looking for a bullhorn, and leadership aides are trying to corral all the members who are still in town to come speak on the floor and sustain this one-sided debate.
Also, Republicans can thank Shadegg for turning on the microphones the first time. Apparently, the fiesty Arizona conservative started typing random codes into the chamber's public address system and accidentally typed the correct code, allowing Republicans brief access to the microphone before it was turned off again.
"I love this," Shadegg told reporters up in the press gallery afterward. "Congress can be so boring. ... This is a kick."
How awesome is that!!!!
Of course, many in the media will hide from this story all together, but there are a few.