This video from the USA is called Bill Maher about Sarah Palin.
There is a new Mark Fiore animation on the Internet.
It is called John McCain‘s Fireside Chat.
It is about the present economic crisis and United States Republican candidates John McCain and Sarah Palin.
The animation is here.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
Posted by: “razldazl” razldazl@iinet.net.au
Sat Oct 4, 2008 5:14 am (PDT)
Carl Bernstein
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-bernstein
Posted October 3, 2008 | 10:03 PM (EST)
What the Palin-Biden Debate Really Told us
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-bernstein/what-the-palinbiden-debat_b_131837.html
Who won the Palin-Biden debate? Barack Obama, I suspect.
Who was the big loser? In an historic fortnight that had already underscored his erratic nature, John McCain.
The fact that Palin was able to string her sentences together last night – which she couldn’t manage to do in her unscripted interviews with Katie Couric — shows only how low McCain has strapped his presidential quest.
Sarah Palin’s task was an impossible one: to demonstrate that she is ready to be president of the United States. McCain put her in that impossible position; and her performance — all prep and no depth — demonstrated the bind he has put himself in.
Yes, he “energized the base” with his Hail Mary pick of Palin as a running mate. But he also demonstrated cynical disregard for the requirement of stable governance were he to be elected president, and then — through his incapacitation or death — Palin be called upon to exercise the powers of the presidency.
Just how scary a notion that is went on full display last night: She appeared to lack any semblance of the requisite depth, knowledge, or sense of history we should expect in a president or vice president; then she sought to excuse it by saying, “I’ve only been at this for five weeks.”
Yes, she could wink, she could tell Biden, “Say it ain’t so, Joe, there you go again,” and she could remind us again and again that she is a hockey Mom from the land of Joe-Six-pack (as if Western Republicans don’t swill Pinot Grigio with the rest of the country at their fund-raisers). She seemed incapable of thinking through the American condition and responding to it except by scripted answers, theatrical gestures, and tested buzzwords — and by announcing at the outset that she would decide which questions from the moderator to answer and which to ignore.
Yet Biden’s performance (deeply knowledgeable, sensible, and generally responsive to the questions) was perhaps the best evidence that — considered non-ideologically, but rather on judgment and temperament — Obama may be ready to be president, and McCain — who ought to be ready — is not.
Time after time, Biden had to tell Palin what John McCain’s real record is — as instance after instance — she misrepresented it (or misunderstood the legislative process), repeated easy slogans and bromides and, for the most part perhaps, offended the intelligence of voters who are not already die-hard, ideological proponents of right-wing Republicanism, creationism, or simplistic solutions to tough problems.
“Maverick,” “Maverick,” “Maverick,” she kept repeating about John McCain and herself. Perhaps Biden’s best moment in the best night of his career as a candidate (and I have heard him at his awful worst — i.e., being his own worst enemy) came when he challenged McCain’s constant claim to the Maverick title.
The tactical and intellectual deficiencies of the McCain campaign have been best analyzed by conservative and Republican commentators, and even politicians. George Will, Charles Krauthammer, Peggy Noonan, Chuck Hagel, come quickly to mind. (Hence, Krauthammer, following last night’s debate: “You can’t blame McCain. In an election in which all the fundamentals are working for the opposition, he feels he has to keep throwing long in order to keep hope alive. Nonetheless, his frenetic improvisation has perversely [for him] framed the rookie challenger favorably as calm, steady and cool.”)
As a former White House (Republican) chief of staff said to me, “Palin is evidence of desperation; she is an embarrassment.” That is the bottom line. (I generally check in with Republicans — not Democrats — to assess how the McCain campaign is doing.) He noted, “She wasn’t vetted, really; it’s an open secret in Washington, but the details of the negligence are better known to Republicans than Democrats.” That doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a future in the Republican galaxy, lacks star power, or couldn’t be a fine Secretary of the Interior in a McCain administration.
It’s too bad. Earlier in his career, until the presidency finally seemed within his grasp, McCain had demonstrated a real willingness to seriously and thoughtfully take on both his party and the Washington establishment when he thought they were wrong — albeit mostly on one issue: pork, an issue he has been heroic on.
But his real opportunity to show independence of his party’s reigning dogma and cultural-warrior-infantry was in his choice of a vice presidential running mate. Instead, McCain, who has lectured us about duty, honor, country first, has left many independent-minded voters who might want to vote for him at an impossible, dangerous impasse: an unprepared vice presidential candidate running on a ticket with the oldest presidential nominee in history — a 72-year-old with four cancer surgeries and medical records he has ordered sealed.
Conventional wisdom has almost always held (JFK-LBJ being a notable exception) that a presidential nominee’s choice of vice president makes no difference in the outcome of the election.
This time it is likely to be determinate, because it tells us so much not only about Sarah Palin, but also John McCain’s state of mind today, and the promise that his political career once held and now appears to have been left behind.
This post originally appeared on CNN’s AC360 Blog
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/blog/ .
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Video Roundup 10-3 – Palin is annoyed and life just isn’t fair…
Posted by: “Zoltan Abraham” zsazle@yahoo.com
Sat Oct 4, 2008 5:07 am (PDT)
Video Roundup – October 3
Sarah Palin wants to be one 72-year-old former cancer patient heartbeat away from the Presidency. But apparently, she’s light-years away from Campaign Headquarters. When the McCain camp decided to pull out of Michigan on Thursday, they neglected to tell the Junior Maverick. Palin didn’t find out about the decision until she read about it Friday morning (presumably during her customary marathon reading of *all* newspapers and magazines):
Why did Palin do so badly in the Katie Couric interviews? Because she was annoyed. I kid you not:
As Joshua Marshal of http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com points out, Palin complains because Couric supposedly didn’t allow her to talk about things that the American people want to hear about. Yeah, I guess Couric focused too much on the trivial, like Supreme Court decisions. Or John McCain’s record on the economy. Or what Palin reads to form her view of the world. Or her foreign policy experience. Ya see, the only interview that’s fair is when Palin gets an unfiltered platform to spread her lies about Barack Obama.
Did you also catch how Palin turned the question about what she reads around to make it seem like an insult to all Alaskans? If you ask her what she reads to get her news, it means you are insinuating that Alaskans are just too ignorant and too cut off from the rest of civilization to follow current events.
By that logic, if I asked an Alaskan about what kind of home they live in, would Palin reply: Do you think we live in mud huts during the summer and igloos in the winter?
Of if I asked an Alaskan who they are married to, would Palin exclaim: Oh, so ya think marriage is only for the fancy folk in the D.C. area, do ya!
Or something like that…
After watching the VP debate, and seeing the interview above, do you get the sense that a recent Republican poll or focus group indicates that the phrase “energy independence” resonates especially well with the voters this year? Palin seems determined to bring any question back to that subject.
What’s your favorite color?
Energy independence!
What’s your favorite toothpaste?
Energy independence!
What’s your favorite Bible passage?
Energy independence!
What would Jesus do?
Energy independence!
How is your love life?
Energy independence!
Why did the chicken cross the road?
Energy independence!
With all due apologies to Douglas Adams, the answer is no longer 42. The new ultimate answer is Energy independence! And what is the question? It doesn’t matter. Energy independence is the be all, end all…
(Of course, the oil companies probably pay her every time she utters that phrase. Under the guise of energy independence, they want to tear up the pristine Alaskan wilderness for a relatively tiny bit of oil, which will not make much difference in the long run. Obama and Biden both support the real solution – alternative energy to move us away from our oil-based lifestyle.)
If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.
As you know, Palin was unable to name any Supreme Court that decisions she disagrees with during her Katie Couric interview. You see, she was just really annoyed. Here she is again answering Couric:
Well, when the aggressive, belligerent, heartless, cruel Katie Couric annoys you too much, run to Fox, because they bow down in worship before any Republican. Apparently, Palin does have a good memory. She managed to memorize several Supreme Court cases for this interview. But do note her pronunciation of “heinous.” Correct me if I’m wrong, but even with her fake Minnesota accent, she mangles that word heinously…
But don’t be too hard on her. After all, she has only been at this for, like, five weeks (wink, wink):
The only trouble is that there is a phrase to describe what Palin was doing with the debate. It’s called a news conference. Except the McCain camp has never let Palin hold a real news conference, because there she could actually be asked questions and follow-up questions (unless, of course, Gwen Iffl was there to “moderate”).
Oh, and to close our Palin section, let’s take a look at her closing statement from the debate:
Protecting freedom… A quote from Ronald Reagan no less… How touching! Pass the Kleenex box please… Oh, wait a minute! I guess Reagan was not really talking about protecting our freedom. He was talking about standing up against… against Medicare. Read the article below for an explanation:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-gans/palin-channelling-reagan_b_131503.html
So. Obama has made gains with older voters – voters who especially value Medicare, but he still has a ways to go to solidify support from that demographic. Palin points out to the world that her party opposed the creation of Medicare. I am sure there is a Machiavellian trick there somewhere. I am just not seeing it immediately…
Oh, and one more thing on Palin tonight:
“She killed. It was her evening. She was a star.”
That’s a quote featured in a McCain ad about the debate. Who is the quote from? From “Famous person”… Really… Check out this link. Look on the right side of the picture:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/3/155145/046/127/619244
And now for something more of the same.
Watch the blond warriors of Faux News bow down in worship before the Great White Emperor (wannabe…), as he comments on the many problems besetting his campaign. Cue the violin music. Because, you see, life is just not fair…
Of course, McCain has much to complain about. Biden and Obama are hammering him on his policies. Biden landed a real good one at the debate:
Obama released a new ad using clips from the VP debate. Follow the link to see it:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/3/75525/6202
Rachel Maddow also tells it like it is:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/4/03147/5466/705/619659
In the mean time, pundit of pundits Chuck Todd is having an encounter with reality. He wonders why the public thought that Biden won the debate, when the punditocracy thought it was more or less a tie:
You know, Todd, there is an answer to your question. The public is, by and large, in the reality based community – whereas you and your fellow puditoids dwell in the overpaid people’s version of Second Life. My suggestion to you and other pundits is, get a freakin’ life! You don’t create reality. You are supposed to report on it. Get it?
(Of course, it’s easy to understand why the media pundits would want this race to be a horse race. 1) The media are owned by the GOP, and therefore always shill for Republican candidates. 2) Horse races generate more excitement, and therefore make for higher ratings…)
If Republicans told the truth about their agenda, their ads would be short and simple:
“We will take all your money, and leave you to rot.” However, focus group studies have shown that such ads would not resonate well with the American middle class. So instead, Republicans resort to lies and smears. McCain is running 100% negative ads right now – and we can expect that to continue through November 4th.
But they made a fatal error when they decided to hire Dan Quyale as their copy editor:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/4/03252/8376/704/619660
McCain – Palin
Ustable – Unable
Unfit to lead!
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Dear Friends, Colleagues and Supporters,
I was in a deep conversation with some Brave New Films supporters recently. They were enthusiastic about the value of our videos in spreading the truth and motivating support, but they kept asking, “How do you reach people who don’t agree with you?” Seems like a good time to explain why we ask you to forward the videos, Digg them, and encourage people to get their own free Brave New Films video subscription. Before the next debate, it is critical to get this information to as many people as possible.
Every day, our 20 videos on John McCain are seen by several hundred thousand people searching and browsing the Internet for information on McCain. They are literally typing in “john mccain” into Google, where our video is the #4 result. The same search on YouTube yields several more videos from The Real McCain series, which will only increase in the coming weeks. So far, these videos have received over 11 million views.
Think about it, if you didn’t know much about John McCain, what would you do? Probably two things. Type “john mccain” into Google, and ask your friends what they think.
That’s where YOU come in. When you get an e-mail from us with our latest video, what happens in the next 24 hours determines how far the video will reach outside the audience who would typically watch it. The more views on the video, the higher it goes on YouTube’s most viewed pages, seen by 60 million people a month. The more people who Digg it–a critical tool to reach those outside the choir–the better chance we have of getting on the Digg homepage, which is seen by 20 million people a month.
Every time we get on these top pages, we get tens of thousands of additional views from people who might otherwise have watched a cat playing the piano, a magic ping pong ball, or a pretty woman falling in the shower. We estimate that getting on the Digg homepage generates an additional 30,000-50,000 viewers. The YouTube most viewed page alone can add another 100,000 views!
Anything you do that increases the number of views helps. Posting on your blog, on Facebook, on MySpace, sending emails, leaving comments on other sites, and Digging it. The important thing to understand is it’s not just the people who view it that we reach, it’s the ripple effect those views have, pushing our videos higher up Google, YouTube, Digg, and all over the Internet. And that ripple effect extends months and even years down the road.
That #4 result on Google is a video we put out in February of 2007! 70,000 people watched it last week. Yes, it would be easier to spend millions of dollars on TV ads, but that is not what we do. Think about the difference in watching a video that has been sent to you by someone you know, versus skipping through a TV ad. What a difference in impact!
And when you get your friends to subscribe to the free Brave New Films video subscription, they become true force multipliers by sending to people who agree, who watch, who motivate, who send to others, and help us reach many people who don’t agree with us.
So, help us get the word out about McCain now before the next debate. Below are four videos that explain McCain’s stances on four crucial issues: the environment, the economy, tax cuts, and abortion. Let’s get that ripple effect going now by spreading these to everyone you know and getting them on blogs and sites like Digg.
Watch the video
1. McCain’s Green Economy: Drill, Baby, Drill: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3ecA2L-VuQ
Watch the video
2. John McCain: Economic Disaster: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4egXbhSOhk
Watch the video
3. Why the Rich Love McCain’s Tax Plan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwtayJCK5LY
Watch the video
4. The REAL McCain is anti-choice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAAYxCCT-Bg
Help increase the number who know the facts, and reach those who don’t. Now is the time!
Yours,
Robert Greenwald
and the Brave New team
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Posted by: “Zoltan Abraham” zsazle@yahoo.com
Sun Oct 5, 2008 10:06 am (PDT)
Video Roundup – Saturday, October 4
If you can’t see Tina Fey from your house, you can see her impersonating the meanest of Mean Girls in her latest Saturday Night Live skit by clicking on the link below:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/5/01624/2872
Gwen Iffl gets her comeuppance too… I repeat, Gwen Iffl gets her comeuppance too…
Once again, Tina Fey nails Palin. It’s too bad that we have to wait for a comedy skit to tell us the truth about the travesty that was Palin’s performance on Thursday night. The media lapdogs are too clueless (and bought) to deliver. The pundits are too busy adding new features to Pundit Life (their own version of the alternative universe Second Life) to bother with the pesky thing we call reality. So, thank you Tina, for a moment of truth.
The best line of the skit by far was Palin’s comment on marriage:
“I believe marriage is meant to be a sacred institution between two unwilling teenagers.”
Some might think this joke is a low blow, in that it goes after the kids. I disagree. The joke is not about the kids, but about Palin’s hypocrisy in trying to sell a shotgun teenage wedding as something sacred and honorable.
Just a quick shout-out to Sarah – as many Alaskans are now saying, I can see the end of your political career from my home…
David Letterman reflects on the debate. (You can just see McCain’s campaign strategists popping tranquilizers as they watch this…)
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/5/4254/75141
(Note: Energy Independence!)
Something wicked this way comes… McCain has fallen behind in the polls. Not only is Obama ahead nationally, but he is leading or tied with a lean in his favor in all of the swing states. With the conventions ancient history (politically speaking) and with just a month before the election, McCain can no longer look to any game changing moments. Though four weeks is an eternity in politics, historically major swings tend not to happen in October (one notable exception being Reagan’s sudden rise against Carter). Also, historically, the debates have not swayed voters, but have merely locked in already established notions about the candidates. The last two debates have not helped McCain – they have solidified support for Obama. The remaining two debates are highly unlikely to change the momentum of this election.
So what is McCain’s strategy? He is going all negative, all of the time. Expect a blitzkrieg of lies and smears hurled at Obama from every direction for the next four weeks.
Is Obama up to such attacks? Will he wither, John Kerry-style? Obama, though young, is no spring chicken. He is ready. We saw him deflect attacks during the primaries. Now he is playing political Aikido (using your opponent’s energy against him), with John McCain:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/5/84450/8324/792/620605
One of McCain’s smear strategies is to try to raise doubts about Obama among Jewish voters, especially in Florida, where the large Jewish community could swing the state for the Democratic candidate. Jewish voters are pushing back:
Before I saw the above video, I was surprised to read a commenter say that it always brings tears to his eyes. But I too found myself tearing up by the end.
Just a quick shout-out to Jewish voters in Florida: In 2000, you were tricked into voting for Pat Buchanan. Let this election be payback time…
McCain – Palin
Unstable – Unable
Unfit to lead!
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Posted by: “Carl Davidson” carld717@yahoo.com
Mon Oct 6, 2008 11:03 am (PDT)
30 Lies Refuted about Ayers and Obama
By John K Wilson
Created 10/05/2008
The gutter politics of the McCain campaign is reaching down once again to denounce Obama for his distant past links to Bill Ayers in an unprecedented guilt-by-association attack for a presidential campaign.
Sarah Palin declared [1], “This is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country.”
The New York Times article [2], which prompted Palin’s remarks, actually concluded that “the two men do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers.”
CNN Political Ticker [3] evaluated Palin’s “palling” charges and concluded, “False. There is no indication that Ayers and Obama are now palling around, or that they have had an ongoing relationship in the past three years. Also, there is nothing to suggest that Ayers is now involved in terrorist activity or that other Obama associates are….CNN’s review of project records found nothing to suggest anything inappropriate in the volunteer projects in which the two men were involved.”
Back in February, the Washington Post reported in a fact check, But the Obama-Ayers link is a tenuous one.(Washington Post [4], 2/18/08)
As part of a larger project where I’m compiling a long list of all the lies and smears spread about Obama, here are 30 lies about Ayers and Obama.
Tonight’s Hannity’s America featured more of these absurd lies about Obama and Ayers in Hannity’s infomercial for idiocy, including an amazing interview with legendary anti-Semitic crackpot Andy Martin:
LIE: “My view is that the community organizer was really a sham event. Bill Ayers was testing him.”(Andy Martin, Hannity’s America, October 5, 2008, “Obama and His Friends: History of Radicalism”)
TRUTH: Bill Ayers had nothing to do with Obama’s community organizing job. It’s pure lunacy to imagine that Ayers was “testing” Obama.
LIE: Obama’s “community organizing is a grand scheme perpetuated by none other than William Ayers.”(Sean Hannity, Hannity’s America, October 5, 2008, “Obama and His Friends: History of Radicalism”)
TRUTH: Obama’s community organizing was not a vast conspiracy for revolution devised by Bill Ayers.
LIE: “They live half a mile from William Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist” and “Just a half a mile from those homes is Louis Farrakhan.”(Hannity’s America, October 5, 2008, “Obama and His Friends: History of Radicalism”)
TRUTH: It’s true, of course, that Obama lives in this same neighborhood, as do tens of thousands of other people who presumably are also guilty by geographical association. The logic of this argument would be, if you live half a mile from a sex offender, then you agree with child molesters.
LIE: Obama and Ayers “appeared together at various public engagements…it would seem that they are more than just a little bit friendly.”(Sean Hannity, Hannity’s America, October 5, 2008, “Obama and His Friends: History of Radicalism”)
TRUTH: Appearing on a speaking panel is not a sign of friendship. There is no evidence that Obama had any role in ever inviting Ayers to speak.
LIE: In 1995, Ayers and Dohrn “hosted a political coming out party for a young Barack Obama.”(Sean Hannity, Hannity’s America, October 5, 2008, “Obama and His Friends: History of Radicalism”)
TRUTH: This was an event for Alice Palmer, not a “coming-out party” for Obama. Obama was invited by Palmer to the event.
But long before tonight’s Hannity, the right-wing has been spreading a series of lies about Obama and Ayers.
LIE: “Bill Ayers is an unrepentant terrorist.”
TRUTH: Bill Ayers is not, and apparently never was, a terrorist. The conventional definition of a terrorist is someone who tries to kill innocent people for political purposes. As Factcheck.org noted, In fact, nobody died as a result of bombings in which Ayers said he participated as part of the Weather Underground. (Factcheck.org, http://www.factcheck.org/… [5]
LIE: “I’m sure he’s very patriotic, but his relationship with Mr. Ayers is open to question….Because, if you’re going to associate and have as a friend and serve on a board and have a guy kick off your campaign that says he’s unrepentant, that he wished he’d bombed more. And then, the worst thing of all, that I think really indicates Senator Obama’s attitude, is he had the incredible statement that he compared Mr. Ayers, an unrepentant terrorist — an unrepentant terrorist, with Senator Tom Coburn. Senator Coburn, a physician who goes to Oklahoma on the weekends and brings babies into life.”(John McCain, April 20, 2008, ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos:)
http://mediamatters.org/… [6]
TRUTH: Obama was not friends with Ayers. Ayers did not kick off Obama’s campaign. And Obama was not comparing Ayers’ actions with Coburn. Obama was pointing out that he works with people even when he disagrees with them.
LIE: “Obama’s oldest friend in politics is a murderer and unrepentant terrorist. Why are they friends?”(ExposeObama.com email, Sept. 7, 2008)
TRUTH: Ayers isn’t Obama’s oldest friend in politics.
LIE: Ayers was “Obama’s boss.”(Jerome Corsi, p. 147)
TRUTH: The chair of a foundation board is not the boss of the members.
LIE: Jerome Corsi claimed Alice “Palmer would never have introduced Obama to the Hyde Park political community at the Ayres-Dohrn home unless she saw an affinity between Ayers and Dohrn’s radical leftist history, her own history of far-leftist politics, and the politics of Barack Obama.”(p. 137)
TRUTH: The event wasn’t held primarily for Obama. It was Palmer’s own announcement that she would run for Congress. Obama was there as Palmer’s endorsed successor for her Senate seat, but there’s no evidence that he had any role in deciding to hold it at Ayers’ home.
LIE: Jerome Corsi claims about Obama: “either he did not know Ayers and Dohrn are still radical leftists—in which case he is implausibly naive—or Obama did know, which would confirm he joined with Ayers and Dohrn because Obama too continues to believe, albeit silently and secretly, in the Far Left’s radical agenda.”(p. 140)
TRUTH: Obama probably knew Ayers was a leftist, but he didn’t care. Obama believes in the notion of a free society, where you work with people you disagree with.
LIE: “Even today, Ayers appears to hold the same radical political beliefs he did in the Weather Underground, and Obama had to know that was also the case when he first met Ayers in 1995.”(Jerome Corsi, p. 147)
TRUTH: Corsi doesn’t explain how Obama “had to know” Ayers’ views on politics when he first met him. Telepathy? Mind-reading?
LIE: David Freddoso calls Obama’s distant connection with Bill Ayers “a remarkable relationship for a presidential nominee to have.”(p. 122)
TRUTH: It reality, it’s not remarkable at all. The notion that people should resign from foundations and refuse to speak in public in order to avoid any connection to a former radical never convicted of a crime is absurd.
LIE: “The major media simply have not reported on Obama’s two years at New York’s Columbia University, where, among other things, he lived a mere quarter-mile from former terrorist Bill Ayers.”(Tony Blankley [7], September 24, 2008)
TRUTH: Thousands upon thousands of people lived near Bill Ayers in Manhattan. Obama didn’t know Ayers.
LIE: “Mr. Ayers founded CAC and was its guiding spirit. No one would have been appointed the CAC chairman without his approval.”(Stanley Kurtz, Wall Street Journal [8])
TRUTH: Kurtz has no evidence to support his claim. Ayers was one of several people involved in starting the group, and was not its “guiding spirit.” According to the New York Times reporting, Obama was recruited by other CAC leaders who knew him through the Joyce Foundation.
LIE: “Mr. Obama and Mr. Ayers worked as a team to advance the CAC agenda.”(Stanley Kurtz, Wall Street Journal [9])
TRUTH: Kurtz has no evidence that Obama and Ayers worked as a team. Ayers attended six meetings of the group along with Obama.
LIE: “Obama is hanging around with Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright. By the way, Bill Ayers advertised himself as being a communist with a small c just when he was beginning to partner with Obama on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.”(Stanley Kurtz, Hudson Institute [10], Washington DC, October 1, 2008)
TRUTH: Contrary to this McCarthyist attack, there’s no evidence that Obama ever knew that Ayers supposedly called himself a communist, nor is that a good reason for Obama to end his work on school reform and charitable activities.
LIE: “who provided Obama with the only executive experience he has ever had in his young life? Bill Ayers, unrepentant domestic terrorist, communist revolutionary…”(Joseph Farah [11], World Net Daily, October 2, 2008)
TRUTH: Ayers did not provide Obama with the Chicago Annenberg Challenge job. And Obama has also had executive experience in community organizing, running a voter registration drive, as well as running his campaigns. The New York Times reported, “In fact, according to several people involved, Mr. Ayers played no role in Mr. Obama’s appointment. Instead, it was suggested by Deborah Leff, then president of the Joyce Foundation, a Chicago-based group whose board Mr. Obama, a young lawyer, had joined the previous year.”(Scott Shane, New York Times [12], October 4, 2008)
LIE: “Barack Obama is friends with Ayers, defending him as quote ‘respectable and mainstream.'”(American Issues Project ad [13], August 2008)
TRUTH: David Axelrod described them as “friendly,” not friends. Obama didn’t call Ayers respectable and mainstream (although Ayers now is); Obama’s campaign on his website posted an op-ed in the press that described Ayers that way.
LIE: “I can’t understand why somebody who wants to be president of the United States, I’ll be perfectly honest with you, would want to associate or not condemn the actions of people in the past.”(Paul Ragonese [14], April 27, 2008, Fox News’ Hannity’s America)
TRUTH: Obama has condemned the past actions of Bill Ayers and called him somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago. (April 16, 2008 debate [15])
LIE: “Mr. Ayers founded CAC and was its guiding spirit. No one would have been appointed the CAC chairman without his approval.”(Stanley Kurtz, Wall Street Journal [16])
TRUTH: Kurtz has no evidence to support his claim. Ayers was one of several people involved in starting the group, and was not its guiding spirit.
LIE: “Mr. Obama and Mr. Ayers worked as a team to advance the CAC agenda.”(Stanley Kurtz, Wall Street Journal [17])
TRUTH: Kurtz has no evidence that Obama and Ayers worked as a team. Ayers attended six meetings of the group along with Obama.
LIE: About Bill Ayers, “Barack Obama really couldn’t bring himself to say ‘you know, I really don’t like that guy.’ That was too much for him to say. He had to talk about what a decent guy he is and what a good professor.”(Jim Geraghty, “Hype: The Obama Effect”)
TRUTH: There is no record of Obama during the campaign calling Ayers “decent” and “a good professor.” In fact, Obama really did bring himself to criticize Ayers, denouncing him during a Democratic debate as “somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago.”
LIE: “Obama was feted at a fundraising event” at Ayers’ home.(“Hype: The Obama Effect”)
TRUTH: Obama never had a fundraising event at Ayers’ home.
LIE: “Barack Obama and Bill Ayers had a close working relationship…the two of them were running the foundation together.”(Stanley Kurtz, Fox News Channel’s Fox and Friends, September 29, 2008)
TRUTH: Kurtz has no evidence of a “close working relationship” beyond attending a few meetings together. The notion that Obama and Ayers were the only ones running the Chicago Annenberg Challenge is absolutely false.
LIE: “The most important smoking gun is that Barack Obama was funding Bill Ayers’ radical educational projects.”(Stanley Kurtz, Fox News Channel’s Fox and Friends, September 29, 2008)
TRUTH: This is false. Obama was the president of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, not its dictator. There’s no evidence that Obama made any funding decisions. Moreover, it would have been completely unprofessional for anyone, including Obama, to ban Bill Ayers from receiving funding for educational projects because of alleged radical activities decades earlier which Ayers was never convicted of. Kurtz has no evidence that projects were judged based on anything other than their merits. This is a pure smear by association.
LIE: Emails “give us strong evidence that there may have been a cover-up in Bill Ayers’ role choosing Barack Obama.”(Stanley Kurtz, Fox News Channel’s Fox and Friends, September 29, 2008)
TRUTH: This is a fabrication. The email Kurtz is referring to shows absolutely no kind of cover up. In fact, it shows exactly the opposite. In his blog [18], Kurtz quotes the entire email Ken Rolling wrote to CAC founders Warren Chapman and Anne Hallett and notes that Sam Dillon, Education Reporter for the New York Times, was working on an article. Rolling wrote about Dillon, He is trying to understand how Barack got ‘picked’ for the CAC board, by whom, why, etc. – I have avoided that question head-on though I believe Barack was Debbie Leff’s/Joyce nomination.” This email reveals no kind of cover-up, and the New York Times article found several sources that said Obama was not picked by Ayers.
LIE: “There is a secret group in the Obama-Biden campaign tasked with shutting off any leaks from the record that links Barack Obama to his longtime adviser and mentor Bill Ayers, professor of education at the University of Illinois and unrepentant Weatherman terrorist and fugitive from the 1970s….There is a substantial independent report from a major Democratic source that confirms Diamond’s suspicions. The source confirms the unit is led by Bill Ayers himself and likely includes Tom Hayden and other members of ‘Progressives for Obama.’ Most critically, the Democratic source says this unit has direct access to media adviser David Axelrod of the Obama-Biden campaign.”(John Batchelor, Human Events [19], September 12, 2008)
TRUTH: There is no “secret group.” Hayden reports, “I am not part of any effort, personal or organized, trying to protect Obama against any leaks.” The notion that Ayers is leading the “unit” is laughable. According to the University of Illinois library, “all papers have been available since August 26” about the school reform group that Ayers and Obama worked on. Diamond, the source cited for the existence of the “unit,” declares [20], “I have no evidence of such a unit.” Diamond added, “I told Batchelor that I would not speak to Human Events yet he made up a quote from me and placed it in his article.”
Source URL: http://www.obamapolitics.com/node/131
Links:
[1] http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1008/McCain_camp_Obama_is_radical_pals_around_with_terrorists.html
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/us/politics/04ayers.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=politics&pagewanted=print
[3] http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/05/fact-check-is-obama-palling-around-with-terrorists/
[4] http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/02/obamas_weatherman_connection.html)
[5] http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/taking_liberties_in_philadelphia.html)
[6] http://mediamatters.org/items/200808260020?f=i_latest
[7] http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/09/the_man_who_never_was.html)
[8] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122212856075765367.html
[9] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122212856075765367.html
[10] http://www.hudson.org/files/documents/BradleyCenter/Transcript_2008_10_01.pdf)
[11] http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=76714
[12] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/us/politics/04ayers.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=politics&pagewanted=print
[13] http://www.americanissuesproject.org/pdf/AIP_Know_Enough_Research.pdf
[14] http://mediamatters.org/items/200804280004?f=s_search
[15] http://thehill.com/byron-york/barack-and-the-bomber-2008-04-17.html
[16] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122212856075765367.html
[17] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122212856075765367.html
[18] http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NTM4ZmU1NGFkODJlMjhmYjkxMjg4Y2Q0NTVlYjAzMmY=&w=MQ==
[19] http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=28508
[20] http://globallabor.blogspot.com/2008/09/yellow-journalism-human-events.html
Published on Obama Politics (http://www.obamapolitics.com)
——————————
Keep On Keepin’ On
Stop McCain, Stop the War, Vote Obama 2008!
Carl Davidson
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Posted by: “Zoltan Abraham” zsazle@yahoo.com
Mon Oct 6, 2008 11:01 am (PDT)
Video Roundup – Sunday, October 5
Four full weeks and just a few days left before the election. McCain is throwing everything at Obama, including the proverbial kitchen sink. Of course, he has many kitchen sinks (from his innumerable houses), so he has to nap in between his assaults.
But Obama has his kitchen sink deflector shield on. And he is fighting back.
Evidently, Obama has had a new line of attack ready all along, waiting for the right moment to release it. That moment has come. The Obama camp will now be aggressively highlighting John McCain’s central role in the Savings and Loan scandal, in which McCain was reprimanded by a bipartisan commission. What is more the S&L scandal happened precisely because of the kind of economic policies – including deregulation – that McCain has advocated all his life, and which have brought about the current economic crisis.
Here is Plain making a scurrilous attack against Obama, followed by Paul Begala warning the McCain camp of what might happen in response:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/5/19317/4480/333/621072
(Note: The language gets a little rough in that above entry.)
Here is a link to advance news of the latest Obama attack strategy:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/5/222047/945/192/621189
(Scroll down on the page and watch the Obama dance video too.)
Here is the link to the web page detailing McCain’s role in the scandal. A documentary on the subject is scheduled to be released tomorrow at noon (Eastern time) on the website:
http://www.keatingeconomics.com/
Take note of this moment in the campaign. We are witnessing the first time a Democratic presidential candidate has seriously fought back against the GOP smear machine since the days of Bill Clinton. Encouraging, to say the least!
Also, another excellent ad. More political Aikido:
And speaking of attacks, do you remember Lyndon Johnson’s Daisy Ad? Err… I don’t, because it was aired, like, a long time before I was born. But if it hadn’t been for that ad, I might not be alive today, and neither might you, for that matter. (Nuclear war and stuff…) The Daisy Ad is back, in the Illinois-18 race. If you have never seen the original Daisy Ad, don’t miss this opportunity. It is still powerful:
Palin said a really stupid thing and a really scary thing over the weekend. Unfortunately, I don’t have the clips.
Say it ain’t so!
– Sarah Palin, Vice Presidential Debate, October 2, 2008
Now doggone it!
– Sarah Palin, Vice Presidential Debate, October 2, 2008
I do have a link to an article on the stupid thing, regarding Afghanistan:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/5/222258/131
(Oh, and remember how Palin didn’t know the name of the US Commander in Afghanistan at the debate?
Who is McClellan? Did she mean Civil War Major General George B. McClellan, or former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, who has since then tried to leave the family…)
And here is an article on the scary thing, regarding freedom of the press being a privilege:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/5/213123/964/231/621158
Remember, Spiteful Sarah has a degree in journalism (though it took her five years and five different colleges to get it). Somehow the prospect of a potential future Vice President (and President) speaking about freedom of the press being a “privilege” doesn’t sit well with me. It’s just a liberal weakness, I guess. I believe in the Constitution of the United States of America… Sue me.
The New York Times talks about McCain’s health problems, and how Palin seems all too willing to take his place:
Remember the clip of McCain twitching in a weird sort of way, and then getting disoriented?
And the ad that TV stations are refusing to air, because it calls McCain’s health into question?
Here is Palin answering the question of what would happen if John McCain were elected and then tragically died in office:
(The clip starts with the corresponding question asked of Biden. Note how he lands a smooth one with the words “Bush Doctrine.”)
Palin’s response to the question of what would happen if she were called upon to take over from John McCain seems positively gleeful.
What is especially scary about the prospect of President Palin is that, since her selection as McCain’s running mate, she has been surrounded by Cheney’s people. She is using their tactics, their talking points; she is parroting their philosophy. Cheney is widely seen as the real mover-and-shaker, the ultimate Puppet Master behind the Bush years. Palin as President would give Cheney and his cronies another lease on the White House.
And now for something completely different!
I came across these guys today. It’s Red Green kind of fun (kind of). It’s all ’bout sarcasm and satire (I think):
http://www.redstateupdate.com/
Finally, condolences to Jill Biden and the whole Biden family:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/5/165436/543/416/620965
McCain – Palin
Unstable – Unable
Unfit to lead.
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