From the Chicago Sun-Times:On the campaign trail, Democratic front-runner Sen. Barack Obama talks about how he would use the bully pulpit if president, and he offered a demonstration Thursday when he drew wild cheers as he told a mostly African-American crowd that parents need to shape up, turn off the TV, help their kids with their homework and stop letting them grow fat eating Popeyes chicken for breakfast.
"It's not good enough for you to say to your child, 'Do good in school,' and then when that child comes home, you got the TV set on, you got the radio on, you don't check their homework, there is not a book in the house, you've got the video game playing," said Obama while in Beaumont, in southeast Texas.
"So turn off the TV set, put the video game away. Buy a little desk or put that child by the kitchen table. Watch them do their homework. If they don't know how to do it, give them help. If you don't know how to do it, call the teacher. Make them go to bed at a reasonable time. Keep them off the streets. Give 'em some breakfast. Come on. ... You know I am right."
..."I've got to talk about us a little bit," said Obama. "We can't keep on feeding our children junk all day long, giving them no exercise. They are overweight by the time they are 4 or 5 years old, and then we are surprised when they get sick."
Obama -- who exercises and is careful about what he eats -- said obese children need to improve their nutrition habits, invoking the name of a chain that makes delicious fried chicken.
"I know how hard it is to get kids to eat properly," Obama said. "But I also know that if folks letting our children drink eight sodas a day, which some parents do, or, you know, eat a bag of potato chips for lunch, or Popeyes for breakfast.
"Y'all have Popeyes out in Beaumont? I know some of y'all you got that cold Popeyes out for breakfast. I know. That's why y'all laughing. ... You can't do that. Children have to have proper nutrition. That affects also how they study, how they learn in school."
Obama has delivered "tough love" messages before about personal responsibility, but he seemed to revel in his "truth-telling" while campaigning in Beaumont, on a day that also took him to Austin and Fort Worth in advance of Tuesday's crucial primaries.
So Obama wants to be Parent-in-Chief. Is this "tough love" or is it condescending?
Barack is telling parents to make sure their kids eat right and study and succeed.
(Did he tell parents not to smoke, that it sets a bad example for kids?)
Michelle is preaching to women at a day care center:“Don’t go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we’re encouraging our young people to do that. But if you make that choice, as we did, to move out of the money-making industry into the helping industry, then your salaries respond.”
OK.
The Obamas' message: Don't be fat and don't make a lot of money. Corporate America is evil and so is junk food. Shape up but not too much._________________
Watch the video.
When I saw this Reuters photo of Hillary front and center on Drudge's site, I thought, "There you go again." 
US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) smiles during a campaign rally in St. Clairsville, Ohio February 27, 2008. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008 (USA)Reuters is notorious for its "message" photos.
For years, the Reuters photo wire has been packed with pics of President Bush that make editorial statements.
Here's a 2006 cheap shot by photographer Larry Downing--
This photo should have been discarded because the subject is cut off by the podium. The fact that it wasn't is very revealing.
When Drudge posted this one, he said the image suggests a "shrinking" president. I agree.
In this Downing photo, Bush has nearly disappeared. If not for the presidential seal, there would be no way to identify this as being a photo of the President of the United States.
This one gives the impression that Bush is seen through a gun sight, as if he's in the crosshairs. It actually is the lens of a video camera.
Yes, Downing is one talented photographer. He takes a picture of an image caught by another camera. And Reuters chooses to post it.
This sort of editorializing is nothing new. Reuters is anti-Bush.
Who could forget this "historically gripping" photo, taken by Rick Wilking of Reuters?
The President wrote this obviously private note to Condi Rice during a UN meeting. Is a "bathroom break" newsworthy? Reuters thinks so.
This was a transparent attempt by Reuters, the news outlet that refuses to call a terrorist a terrorist, to diminish Bush in stature.
By presenting the leader of the free world as if he were a first grader asking permission to relieve himself, Reuters hinted that Bush was not properly concentrating on international issues, but instead, focusing on other more intimate matters.
This "bathroom break" photo took some work to achieve.
Although Wilking shot the photo, Gary Hershorn made the decision to zoom in on the note to see if he could read it. The white areas of the photo were overexposed in Wilking's photo so Hershorn had a Reuters processor use Photoshop to "burn down the note."
After all that effort, Hershorn decided that the photo should be seen around the world and he put it on the wire.
This next Reuters contribution didn't require Photoshop to produce. This one was the result of photographer Larry Downing's careful framing, or possibly some creative cropping.
The caption running with this photo read:
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney speaks during his keynote address to the U.S. Labor Department's 2006 National Summit on Retirement Savings at the Willard Hotel in Washington March 2, 2006. REUTERS/Larry Downing
Obviously, the photo was taken or cropped to include the word "retire" above the Vice President's head. Based on Cheney's placement within the frame of the photo, there is no conceivable explanation for the appearance of the word other than a conscious decision by someone at Reuters to make an editorial statement.
Do you think Downing voted for Bush and Cheney in 2004?
I think it's highly doubtful.
When Hershorn was covering up for the "Bush Leak" photo, he insisted that there was no malice involved. He said, "That's not what we do."
That's not true. Malice is exactly what Reuters does.
Look at this one. It's not a flattering picture of the President. Nonethless, the powers that be at Reuters liked it and posted it.
Here's a zoom of the President's expression.
No bias there. Riiiight.
Check out this Reuters beauty.
Again, the photo includes a message -- Medicare is cropped to read "I care," behind a goofy looking President Bush.
These types of images from Reuters are no aberration. The intent is clearly malicious.
So when I saw Shannon Stapleton's photo of Hillary at the left of the image and the devil behind her shoulder, I certainly didn't think it was unintentional. I certainly don't think Stapleton supports Hillary.What is unusual is that Reuters is attacking a Dem. Yes, Reuters is treating Hillary like a Republican. How does it feel, Hillary?
Looks like a vast Left-wing conspiracy to me.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove listens to questions after his speech on economic policy at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington May 15, 2006. Rove said on Monday worries about the Iraq war had contributed to a sour public mood but Republicans would fare 'just fine' in November's congressional elections. REUTERS/Jim YoungPolitical figures aren't the only targets. Even Pope Benedict isn't off limits.This Reuters photo isn't altered. It's just strange, another one of those creative cropping shots.
Pope Benedict XVI arrives at Anitkabir, the mausoleum of the founder of the secular Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, in Ankara, November 28, 2006. Ataturk's mausoleum is the first official stop for Pope Benedict XVI during his four-day visit to Turkey. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi (TURKEY)Why would this shot be slapped on Reuters' photo wire?
Is this a photo of Pope Benedict or an unidentified woman's legs?
Given Reuters' history of shameful shots, I think that this photo was no accident. I think it's a clear attempt to be sexually suggestive and disrespectful.
Reuters' editorializing photographers and their cheap shots are a disgrace to photojournalists everywhere.
Byron York writes:I have a new story today about Michelle Obama's visit to Zanesville, Ohio, where she met with a group of women at a local day care center. According to the U.S. Census, Muskingum County, where Zanesville is located, had a median household income of $37,192 in 2004, below both the Ohio and national averages. Just 12.2 percent of adults in the county have a bachelor's degree or higher, also well below the state and national averages. About 20 percent don't have a high school degree. Nevertheless, Mrs. Obama urged them to foreswear lucrative professions like corporate law or hedge fund management and go into the helping industry, even if the sacrifice is great:
As she has many times in the past, Mrs. Obama complains about the lasting burden of student loans dating from her days at Princeton and Harvard Law School. She talks about people who end up taking years and years, until middle age, to pay off their debts. “The salaries don’t keep up with the cost of paying off the debt, so you’re in your 40s, still paying off your debt at a time when you have to save for your kids,” she says.
“Barack and I were in that position,” she continues. “The only reason we’re not in that position is that Barack wrote two best-selling books… It was like Jack and his magic beans. But up until a few years ago, we were struggling to figure out how we would save for our kids.” A former attorney with the white-shoe Chicago firm of Sidley & Austin, Obama explains that she and her husband made the choice to give up lucrative jobs in favor of community service. “We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we’re asking young people to do,” she tells the women. “Don’t go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we’re encouraging our young people to do that. But if you make that choice, as we did, to move out of the money-making industry into the helping industry, then your salaries respond.” Faced with that reality, she adds, “many of our bright stars are going into corporate law or hedge-fund management.”
What she doesn’t mention is that the helping industry has treated her pretty well. In 2006, the Chicago Tribune reported that Mrs. Obama’s compensation at the University of Chicago Hospital, where she is a vice president for community affairs, jumped from $121,910 in 2004, just before her husband was elected to the Senate, to $316,962 in 2005, just after he took office. And that does not count the money Mrs. Obama receives from serving on corporate boards. She would have been O.K. even without Jack’s magic beans.
Michelle has a problem with Americans working in "money-making industry"?
She has to be kidding.
It's fascinating learning more about the real Michelle.
It looks like Iraq's government is functioning at least to some extent.
It's getting business done.BAGHDAD -- Iraq's presidency endorsed the execution of Saddam Hussein's cousin known as "Chemical Ali," who was sentenced to death for his role in the 1980s scorched-earth campaign against Kurds, a government adviser said Friday.
The backing by Iraq's President Jalal Talabani and two vice presidents is the final step for the approval of Ali Hassan al-Majid's death sentence, which must be carried out within 30 days of the decision.
Al-Majid was one of three former Saddam officials sentenced to hang in June after being convicted of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for their part in the Operation Anfal crackdown that killed nearly 200,000 Kurdish civilians and guerrillas. An appeals court upheld the verdict in September.
Genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, 200,000 dead -- That's Chemical Ali's legacy.
That's Saddam's legacy.
Justice is being done, yet some say that it was wrong to depose Saddam and end his reign of terror.
Barack Obama has called the U.S. military action in Iraq a "dumb war."
If not for that "dumb war," Chemical Ali wouldn't be paying for his crimes.
And who knows what other atrocities he would have carried out?But the adviser said the presidency has not yet approved the death sentences against the other two — Hussein Rashid Mohammed, an ex-deputy director of operations for the Iraqi armed forces, and former defense minister Sultan Hashim al-Taie. The adviser spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
An adviser spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to the media -- Democracy is definitely taking root in Iraq.
Washington -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Thursday pledged to continue trying to end the Iraq war, even though events of the day demonstrated that he still lacks the votes to force a troop withdrawal.
The Senate wrapped up its first round of debate on the war this year with little fanfare. After two days of discussion, Republicans refused to advance a withdrawal bill. As a result, Democrats were forced to shelve proposals by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) that would have cut off money for combat and demanded a new strategy for defeating al-Qaida.
The procedural wrangling left majority Democrats defeated, even without a final vote cast on either measure.
"We'll be back," said Reid (D-Nev.), noting that this spring the Senate is to debate whether to approve an additional $100 billion for the war.
Feingold echoed Reid, saying: "I will continue this fight when the Senate takes up the supplemental soon. As long as the Iraq war continues, more Americans will be put at risk."
Senate Democrats planned to meet Wednesday to discuss their strategy on the war.
This week, Republicans agreed to extended debate on Feingold's legislation - not because they supported the measures, but because they said the debate would offer the opportunity to promote progress in Baghdad.
The hours of Senate speeches that followed included many by allies of President Bush who said Democrats had been wrong about the 2007 troop buildup.
The audacity!
How dare Republicans extend debate to give them the opportunity to highlight the progress our troops have made in Baghdad!
How horrible of those mean-spirited Republicans to point out that the surge has been successful! What an outrage to praise the troops!
Feingold keeps trying to cut off funds to the troops, but he just can't get it done.
_______________
Feingold's statement
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:A person who was shot once about 6:30 p.m. Thursday while sitting in a car near N. 11th St. and W. Atkinson Ave. suffered a non-life-threatening injury, Milwaukee police said.
Police did not have a description of the suspect, who was still at large, and did not give further details of the shooting.
Bad news: A person was shot Thursday evening while sitting in a car on a Milwaukee street.
Good news: The person's injury is non-life-threatening.
Bad news: On a regular basis, people fire guns at others in Milwaukee's streets, businesses, and homes.Really bad news: This is the new normal in Milwaukee.
Once again, Michelle Obama is getting tough.
This is becoming a pattern. Michelle is dispatched to do her husband's dirty work while he is perched regally above the fray.
Can't Barack fight his own battles?
Michelle seems to be stronger than he is. Michelle Obama: name Hussein is 'the fear bomb'
Mark Silva writes:Michelle Obama, who often has decried "the fear bomb'' that opponents have used against her husband for his middle name -- Barack Hussein Obama -- said in Canton, Ohio, today that it is happening again and shows why it's so important that he wins election as president.
"They threw in the obvious, ultimate fear bomb," Obama said today of her husband's 2004 Senate race. "We're even hearing [that] now. … 'When all else fails, be afraid of his name, and what that could stand for, because it's different.'"
The senator's wife said that rivals use innuendo to play on fears. "Just as they're saying it now," she said.
But, she told about 200 supporters this morning at a restored theater in Canton, Obama won despite that "climate of negativity and doubt" in 2004. "We learned, number one, that when power is threatened by real change they will say anything to stop it," she said. "But we also learned that the American people can handle the truth."
I know I've said this a lot lately, but I don't think Obama's middle name should be an issue.
Are opponents really creating a "climate of negativity and doubt" by referring to Hussein?
I don't think Michelle Obama is giving Americans enough credit. We aren't idiots. We know that Barack Hussein Obama isn't related to Saddam Hussein. We know he's not a terrorist.
Good grief.
Even though President Bush has been called Hitler, we all know that he isn't Hitler. (Well, most of us do. Some especially deranged Americans don't.)
Michelle says that during Barack's 2004 Senate campaign the voters didn't reject him out of fear. She says "the American people can handle the truth."
Yeah. So what's the point?
She says that the "fear bomb" is a dud.
Alrighty then.
The Obama campaign seems to be going out of its way to paint Obama as a victim.
I think that's a mistake.
Don't expect to see this in the New York Times. "Obama Served on Board that Funded Pro-Palestinian Group"
Aaron Klein writes:JERUSALEM – Democratic presidential frontrunner Sen. Barack Obama served as a paid director on the board of a nonprofit organization that granted funding to a controversial Arab group that mourns the establishment of Israel as a "catastrophe." (Obama has also reportedly spoken at fundraisers for Palestinians living in what the United Nations terms refugee camps.)
The co-founder of the Arab group, Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi, is a harsh critic of Israel who reportedly worked on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization when it was labeled a terror group by the State Department.
Khalidi held a fundraiser in 2000 for Obama’s failed bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In 2001, the Woods Fund, a Chicago-based nonprofit that describes itself as a group helping the disadvantaged, provided a $40,000 grant to the Arab American Action Network, or AAAN, at which Khalidi’s wife, Mona, serves as president. The Fund provided a second grant to AAAN for $35,000 in 2002.
Obama was a director of the Woods Fund board from 1999 to Dec. 11, 2002, according to the Fund’s website. According to tax filings, Obama received compensation of $6,000 per year for his service in 1999 and 2000.
The $40,000 grant from the Woods Fund to AAAN constituted about a fifth of the group’s reported grants for 2001, also according to tax filings. The $35,000 Woods Fund grant in 2002 made up about one-fifth of AAAN’s reported grants for that year as well.
Headquartered in the heart of Chicago’s Palestinian immigrant community, AAAN describes itself as working to "empower Chicago-area Arab immigrants and Arab Americans through the combined strategies of community organizing, advocacy, education and social services, leadership development, and forging productive relationships with other communities."
Speakers at AAAN dinners and events routinely have taken an anti-Israel line. The group co-sponsored a Palestinian art exhibit, titled "The Subject of Palestine," that featured works related to what Palestinians call the "nakba" or "catastrophe" of Israel’s founding in 1948.
The theme of AAAN’s Nakba art exhibit, held at DePaul University in 2005, was "the compelling and continuing tragedy of Palestinian life ... under [Israeli] occupation ... home demolition ... statelessness ... bereavement ... martyrdom, and ... the heroic struggle for life, for safety, and for freedom."
Another AAAN initiative, "Al Nakba 1948 As Experienced by Chicago Palestinians," seeks documents related to the "catastrophe" of Israel’s founding.
Although AAAN co-founder Rashid Khalidi has at times denied working directly for the PLO, he reportedly served as director of the official PLO press agency WAFA in Beirut from 1976 to 1982, a period during which the PLO committed scores of anti-Western attacks and was labeled by the U.S. as a terror group. Khalidi’s wife, Mona Khalidi, reportedly was WAFA’s English translator during that period.
...According to a professor at the University of Chicago who said he has known Obama for 12 years, the senator first befriended Khalidi when the two worked together at the university. The professor spoke on condition of anonymity. Khalidi lectured at the University of Chicago until 2003; Obama taught law there from 1993 until his election to the Senate in 2004.
Asked during a radio interview with this reporter on WABC’s John Batchelor program about his 2000 fundraiser for Obama, Khalidi said he "was just doing my duties as a Chicago resident to help my local politician."
Khalidi said he supports Obama for president "because he is the only candidate who has expressed sympathy for the Palestinian cause."
Where does Barack Obama stand on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
From Obama's website:Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Obama will make progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a key diplomatic priority. He will make a sustained push – working with Israelis and Palestinians – to achieve the goal of two states, a Jewish state in Israel and a Palestinian state, living side by side in peace and security.
Obama always says that all his policy positions are clearly spelled out in detail on his website.
In my opinion, two sentences on the Israelis and Palestinians don't provide adequate detail.
I'd like to hear Obama explain his stint as a "paid director on the board of a nonprofit organization that granted funding to a controversial Arab group that mourns the establishment of Israel as a 'catastrophe.'"
Obama's friend Rashid Khalidi, "a harsh critic of Israel who reportedly worked on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization when it was labeled a terror group by the State Department," held a fundraiser for Obama.
What's this about? Is this insignificant? Does it matter?
Obama's incredibly vague speeches about hope and change, peppered with his tired jokes about his cousin Dick Cheney being the black sheep of his family and Republicans approaching him to whisper their support don't reveal a lot about the issues. His website isn't helpful.
I think Obama needs to clarify his position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in detail.
UPDATE, August 13, 2008: Ryan Kropp Sentenced to Six Months, Probation__________________
Ryan Kropp (Photo/WISN)
When Ryan Kropp, cook at the Texas Roadhouse in West Bend, took revenge on a customer, I'm sure he never expected his disgusting act to go national.
It did. I heard the story mentioned by national ABC News Radio.
Ryan Kropp, this is your fifteen minutes.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:When Kevin Hansen visited the local Texas Roadhouse restaurant for dinner with family and friends last Saturday, he was served more than the nationwide chain's promise of "legendary food."
Hansen showed up at the police station Sunday complaining of hair in his steak.
"I started eating it," he said in an interview. "I noticed the hair after three bites."
A West Bend police officer observed "several strands of what appeared to be hair coming out of the middle of the steak," a criminal complaint says.
Ryan Kropp, 24, of West Bend, one of the two cooks responsible for steaks at the restaurant Saturday night, admitted to police that he placed a few of his own facial hairs on the steak, the criminal complaint says.
Kropp said he was angry with the customer for sending a different steak back to the kitchen earlier in the evening after telling a manager it was overcooked.
Kropp was charged Wednesday with placing foreign objects in edibles, a felony. If convicted, Kropp could face a fine of up to $10,000 and up to 3 1/2 years of imprisonment. He was released from jail Wednesday afternoon on a signature bond.
Hansen said that he had asked for a 16-ounce ribeye to be cooked medium rare - with a warm, red center - but it showed up medium, the criminal complaint says.
When restaurant service manager Michael Liberatore stopped by Hansen's table, the customer said the steak was overcooked but declined Liberatore's offer of a new steak.
Liberatore was persistent, the complaint says, and offered to provide Hansen with a new steak he could take home.
The manager then took what was left of the original steak to the kitchen and showed it to Kropp and the other cook "so that they could both learn what a medium rare steak was supposed to look like," the complaint says.
Kropp told police only a small piece of the first steak was returned to him. Since most of it had been eaten, he thought the customer was "just trying to get free stuff," according to the criminal complaint.
A second worker in the kitchen told an officer that Kropp placed the second steak on a plate, cut a slit in the center of the steak and pushed something into the meat.
The worker said Kropp then stated, "These are my pubes," in reference to pubic hair. Kropp next flipped the steak over on the plate so that the cut side was not visible, the criminal complaint says.
What can you say? GROSS! GAG! BLECH! YUCK!
I think Texas Roadhouse may want to take a look at hiring procedures for cooks. Psychological testing may be in order.
Kropp is every restaurant patron's nightmare.
Hansen clearly was not being a problem. He didn't want another steak. The manager insisted.
In any event, no restaurant customer deserves the service or the product that Hansen received.
I wonder if this was the first time Kropp prepared a "loaded" steak.
Texas Roadhouse motto:
Legendary Food, Legendary Service®
It's legendary now. No doubt about that.
Kropp's behavior may have an impact on business at the Texas Roadhouse in West Bend. That would be terribly unfortunate. Obviously the service manager there was very concerned about customer satisfaction.
Since the story has gone national, this incident could impact business across the country. I doubt it would suffer significantly because the problem is the result of a lone employee run amok, an isolated incident.
I've eaten at Texas Roadhouse many times. I will again, but certainly not today or tomorrow. Probably not on Saturday either.
Kropp is every restaurant owner's nightmare.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to get back at a customer by stuffing a steak with hair.
UPDATE, June 5, 2008: Brahm sentenced______________
Jake J. Brahm (aka "javness")
Time for an update on Wauwatosa man Jake J. Brahm---
Brahm has accepted responsibility for posting threats on the Internet.
NEWARK, N.J. -- A man pleaded guilty Thursday to making bogus Internet postings warning of terrorist attacks against seven NFL stadiums in 2006.
Jake J. Brahm admitted that he posted false information that so-called dirty bombs would be detonated at the stadiums in Miami, Atlanta, Seattle, Houston, Oakland, Cleveland and New York on Oct. 22, 2006.
He said the reference to New York was intended to indicate Giants Stadium, in East Rutherford, N.J., where the Jets played the Detroit Lions that day.
Brahm, 22, of Wauwatosa, Wis., pleaded guilty to a one-count indictment that had been handed up exactly a year earlier. The charge, part of the Patriot Act, accused him of willfully conveying false information that the stadiums would be attacked by terrorists with weapons of mass destruction and "radiological dispersal devices."
Brahm admitted composing and posting the threat about 40 times on a Web site between September and Oct. 18, 2006. The message said that bombs would be delivered by trucks and that "the death toll will approach 100,000 from the initial blasts and countless other fatalities will later occur as result from radioactive fallout."
The posting added that the stadium explosions would be praised by Osama bin Laden as "America's Hiroshima" and spark global conflicts.
That's extremely serious stuff.Brahm remains free on bail and faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when sentenced June 5 by U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares.
A message seeking comment from Brahm's lawyer, Walter A. Lesnevich, was not immediately returned. When Brahm was indicted last year, the lawyer said the incident was "greatly blown out of proportion."
"This was a stupid mistake by a kid that nobody took seriously," Lesnevich said last year.
Wrong.
It was a "stupid mistake" by a MAN that lots of people took seriously.
What did Brahm's threat cost taxpayers? How much fear did Brahm succeed in spreading?
I hope that Brahm's sentence will reflect the high toll his "prank" cost, both in dollars and fear.
Natural-born citizen? John Sidney McCain III with his father, John S. "Jack" McCain, Jr., and grandfather, John S. "Slew" McCain, Sr., both Navy Admirals.I wonder if New York Times journalist Carl Hulse cringed at the thought of reporting on John McCain and his eligibility to be president of the United States.
John McCain was born at the Coco Solo Air Base in the Panama Canal Zone.
Hulse delves into the possibility that McCain may not qualify as a "natural-born citizen."McCain’s Canal Zone Birth Prompts Queries About Whether That Rules Him Out
The question has nagged at the parents of Americans born outside the continental United States for generations: Dare their children aspire to grow up and become president? In the case of Senator John McCain of Arizona, the issue is becoming more than a matter of parental daydreaming.
Mr. McCain’s likely nomination as the Republican candidate for president and the happenstance of his birth in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936 are reviving a musty debate that has surfaced periodically since the founders first set quill to parchment and declared that only a “natural-born citizen” can hold the nation’s highest office.
Almost since those words were written in 1787 with scant explanation, their precise meaning has been the stuff of confusion, law school review articles, whisper campaigns and civics class debates over whether only those delivered on American soil can be truly natural born. To date, no American to take the presidential oath has had an official birthplace outside the 50 states.
“There are powerful arguments that Senator McCain or anyone else in this position is constitutionally qualified, but there is certainly no precedent,” said Sarah H. Duggin, an associate professor of law at Catholic University who has studied the issue extensively. “It is not a slam-dunk situation.”
This is pathetic.
It's the New York Times throwing everything it can at McCain. This article is the kitchen sink....Mr. McCain’s citizenship was established by statutes covering the offspring of Americans abroad and laws specific to the Canal Zone as Congress realized that Americans would be living and working in the area for extended periods. But whether he qualifies as natural-born has been a topic of Internet buzz for months, with some declaring him ineligible while others assert that he meets all the basic constitutional qualifications — a natural-born citizen at least 35 years of age with 14 years of residence.
“I don’t think he has any problem whatsoever,” said Mr. Nickles, a McCain supporter. “But I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if somebody is going to try to make an issue out of it. If it goes to court, I think he will win.”
Lawyers who have examined the topic say there is not just confusion about the provision itself, but uncertainty about who would have the legal standing to challenge a candidate on such grounds, what form a challenge could take and whether it would have to wait until after the election or could be made at any time.
In a paper written 20 years ago for the Yale Law Journal on the natural-born enigma, Jill Pryor, now a lawyer in Atlanta, said that any legal challenge to a presidential candidate born outside national boundaries would be “unpredictable and unsatisfactory.”
“If I were on the Supreme Court, I would decide for John McCain,” Ms. Pryor said in a recent interview. “But it is certainly not a frivolous issue.”
Eligibility to be president is not a "frivolous issue," but to discuss it in reference to McCain is disgraceful.
What sort of person would even consider a court challenge on McCain's eligibility?
It's sickening.
Hulse writes that "whether he qualifies as natural-born has been a topic of Internet buzz for months."
He's wrong about that. It's been a topic for years.
For example, from the Washington Post web site:Citizen McCain's Panama Problem?
By Ken Rudin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Thursday, July 9, 1998
Question: I would like to see Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) as a presidential candidate, but I heard that he was born in the Panama Canal Zone. The Constitution requires that a president be a "natural born" citizen of the United States. Is Sen. McCain barred from the presidency? – Steven R. Pruett, Falls Church, Va.
Answer: John McCain has more pressing worries than eligibility on the road to the Republican presidential nomination in 2000. After his lead role in pushing campaign-finance and tobacco legislation, both anathema to the Senate GOP leadership, the Arizona senator may have to spend a lot of time trying to prove his party credentials before he ever gets to Iowa or New Hampshire.
But is he constitutionally qualified to become president? McCain was indeed born in the Canal Zone, and Article II of the Constitution plainly states that "no person except a natural born Citizen... shall be eligible to the Office of President."
Some might define the term "natural-born citizen" as one who was born on United States soil. But the First Congress, on March 26, 1790, approved an act that declared, "The children of citizens of the United States that may be born beyond sea, or outside the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural-born citizens of the United States." That would seem to include McCain, whose parents were both citizens and whose father was a Navy officer stationed at the U.S. naval base in Panama at the time of John's birth in 1936.
Blah, blah, blah....
Who would actually take the issue of McCain's eligibility to serve as president to court?
Osama bin Laden would probably fund such an effort. Other sworn enemies of the U.S. would be eager to keep McCain from being commander-in-chief.
Sadly, there are Americans who would be happy to be part of a legal challenge.
The New York Times is displaying a disturbing pattern. Last week, it screamed about Vicki Iseman and whispered improprieties. This week, it appears to urge someone to attempt to strip McCain of his "natural-born citizen" status.
What will it be next week or next month or the next six months?
Disgraceful. It seems that the Times is engaged in an effort to deflect attention from discussion of issues that matter.
Any pangs of conscience?
John McCain's naval honors include the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart, and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
This certainly wasn't unexpected.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Editorial Board declares that the "Report of the Investigation into the November 2, 2004 General Election in Milwaukee" is "A case not made."A Milwaukee police investigation of a badly managed general election in 2004 describes a litany of, well, bad management.
This is old news. The Journal Sentinel has reported extensively on this, and, shortly after the 2004 election, a city task force noted many of the same problems.
But here's what you should consider if you agree with the report's recommendations to eliminate same-day registration and create a voter ID requirement. The city and the state have had at least two major elections since 2004. There was the 2006 November election and the state primary election earlier this month. Both had good turnouts, and both went swimmingly.
"No significant issues" arose, says Kevin Kennedy, legal director of the state Government Accountability Board.
The reasons: The database the City of Milwaukee used in 2004 was independent of a statewide voter database. It is no longer.
Also, as both Kennedy and Mayor Tom Barrett note, much more training has occurred for those who work the polls. The city, Barrett says, has increased the Elections Commission budget by $600,000 over the past 2 1/2 years.
This new report specifically points to "the inability of election inspectors to check the eligibility of voters" and "in other cases, the reluctance of election inspectors to check the eligibility of a voter . . . on the day of the election."
It then recommends eliminating same-day registration, and, if that doesn't occur, requiring "the presentation of a government-issued identification card." Almost as an afterthought, the report recommends, "in the absence of any substantive change," that election inspectors be given "adequate training and resources" to do their jobs well.
Fortunately, cooler heads already moved that final and best recommendation to the front of the line a while ago. They did so because, as the report seems to document, true incidences of voter fraud were few. Simply, they do not warrant disenfranchising those eligible voters who might have difficulty securing the documents needed for government ID. And the statewide voter registration system has eliminated many of the bad records at the root of the problem.
How does the Board define "true incidences of voter fraud"?
I don't think the report reveals that cases of voter fraud were few.
How does the Board define "few"?
The editorial is nothing but spin to prop up the Democrat position against a photo ID requirement.
The Board attempts to gloss over the soiled election results of November 2, 2004, by citing "bad management."
According to the Editorial Board, those management problems are history, because now elections in Milwaukee are going "swimmingly." I don't know how the Board can state with certitude that the election of 2006 and the February 19, 2008 primary were clean.
As long as there is same day on-site registration and no photo ID requirement, there is no way one can know that. The potential for fraud is there.
Furthermore, Wisconsin's statewide voter registration system has not been a panacea for the management problems.
The LEGISLATIVE AUDIT BUREAU report from November 2007, "An Evaluation: Compliance with Election Laws," reveals things aren't going along as "swimmingly" as the JS Editorial Board asserts.
From the report:The federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 requires all states to have a centralized statewide voter registration system. To identify individuals who are ineligible to vote, the Elections Board planned to match data in the system with data maintained by the departments of Corrections (DOC), Health and Family Services (DHFS), and Transportation (DOT).
However, electronic matching failed for the November 2006 general election and the spring 2007 election. As a result, the Elections Board took other action to identify ineligible individuals. For example, it provided municipal clerks with paper lists of 35,013 individuals who were ineligible to vote in November 2006 because they were serving felony sentences, including probation or parole.
We found that 16 municipal clerks we contacted did not use the lists consistently. We also found that the lists included 1,537 individuals whose sentences ended before Election Day and who were likely eligible to vote.
Elections Board officials now believe that the data matching will not work during Wisconsin’s presidential primary in February 2008. The Elections Board is contemplating legal action against the vendor that developed the $22.7 million statewide voter registration system.
Municipal clerks we contacted noted problems with the statewide voter registration system’s ability to process absentee ballots and suspend voter registrations. Close scrutiny is warranted because of these implementation difficulties and the Elections Board’s dispute with the vendor.
The Elections Board mails address verification cards to verify the accuracy of addresses provided by individuals registering to vote by certain methods, such as on Election Day. Undeliverable cards are returned by the postal service to municipal clerks, who are responsible for reviewing them and determining whether to designate individuals as ineligible to vote. We followed up on concerns in our 2005 audit, which found that cards were not consistently used as required to verify residency or investigate improper registrations.
In October 2006, the Elections Board mailed 106,620 cards to registered voters. We reviewed 874 cards returned to nine municipal clerks and found that the clerks had received them too late for review before the November 2006 general election.
Right. Swimmingly. The JS Editorial Board echoes Tom Barrett's assertion that the "bad management" problems have been resolved thanks to improved training.
About that training...The Elections Board had not yet promulgated the administrative rules as of August 2007 but indicated that it is working to do so. In addition, it has trained municipal clerks in election procedures since August 2007, although officials were unable to provide information indicating the number of clerks who have completed the training.
We questioned 16 municipal clerks about the usefulness of training they received from the Elections Board on using the statewide voter registration system. Three of the 16 municipal clerks rely on their county clerks to manage the statewide voter registration system and, therefore, did not attend the training; 7 indicated they were adequately trained, and 6 indicated they were not.
Not good. The LAB report is 103 pages.
I suggest that the Editorial Board read the full report here.
Back to "A case not made"--Voter ID might catch that isolated individual intent on casting more than one vote, but it could bar others from voting. Eliminating same-day registration might make things easier, but the likely trade-off is fewer people voting.
Can it get better? Certainly. But let's concentrate on fixing the system rather than devising unfair or self-defeating work-arounds.
Translation: We are going to continue to write lame editorials to assist the Democrats' efforts to ensure that Wisconsin remains a land of opportunity when it comes to voter fraud.
"An Appreciation of William F. Buckley," the February 27, 2008 episode of Charlie Rose, was bittersweet.
It was a compilation of segments from interviews William F. Buckley, Jr. had done with Charlie Rose through the years.
The hour passed much, much too quickly.
At the end of the program, Rose paid tribute to his friend. It was truly very touching. Rose was visibly moved.
As a viewer, so was I.
Rose said:So Bill Buckley left us this morning. He was probably more ready than we were.
As much as anyone, I valued him. When I came to this city and started doing this show 16 years ago, I was little-known and had not made my mark in life. He came on and then he sent me a hand-written note with enormous flattery and I live with the hope I didn't disappoint his early prophesy.
We became friends. Several years ago when I was sick and came back from near death, he called and wanted to take me to dinner. He wanted me to sail and I never accepted; until one evening he said to me, "I'm not sailing anymore. I'm not doing a lot of the things I used to do anymore."
Why don't I ever learn? There is not always tomorrow.
I last saw him at Pat's memorial service and I knew her death was the last crushing disappointment for him. People were walking by as he sat in a chair in the front row after the service. I was last in line and when I stopped he looked up, and he saw me, then he started crying. And I said, "I'll come see you," thinking there will always be a tomorrow.
And now he is gone. There is no tomorrow. But what a life, what a man, and what a friend!
We think of the wife he joins, and the son he leaves, and the rest of the Buckley clan.
Goodnight, Bill. Goodnight to you.
_________________
The program is definitely worth watching.
Video here.
Barack Obama is afraid. He's afraid that the American people might think he's a Muslim.
So, Obama is on a mission to distance himself from the appearance of having any significant personal Muslim connections.WASHINGTON -- For Barack Obama, it is an ember that he has doused time and again, only to see it flicker anew: links to Islam fanned by false rumors, innuendo and association. Obama and his campaign reacted strongly this week when a photo of him in Kenyan tribal garb began spreading on the Internet.
And the praise he received Sunday from Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan prompted pointed questions — during Tuesday night's presidential debate and also in a private meeting over the weekend with Jewish leaders in Cleveland.
During the debate, Obama repeated his denunciation of Farrakhan's views, which have included numerous anti-Semitic comments. And, after being pressed, he rejected Farrakhan's support in the presidential race.
The Democratic candidate says repeatedly that he's a Christian who took the oath of office on a family Bible. Yet on the Internet and on talk radio — and in a campaign introduction for John McCain this week — he is often depicted, falsely, as a Muslim with shadowy ties and his middle name, Hussein, is emphasized as a reminder of Iraq's former leader.
"If anyone is still puzzled about the facts, in fact I have never been a Muslim," he told the Jewish leaders in Cleveland, according to a transcript of the private session.
...Obama has become careful in denouncing the links, lately noting that some rumors about him also have been insulting to Muslims. Jim Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute, said many Arab Americans are drawn to Obama because of his cultural background.
"It is clear he wants to have a broader relationship with the Muslim world," Zogby said. "He has a biography that connects him to the Muslim world."
Jim Kuhnhenn of the Associated Press does his best to dispel those awful "links to Islam fanned by false rumors, innuendo and association."
He provides a list of some "rumors and allegations about Obama [that] are clearly not true, yet still spread, often anonymously."
Ooooooh. Islam. Scary.How embarrassing! I think it's disrespectful for Obama to downplay the reality of his Muslim ancestors.
Here we have this African-American candidate making history, a giant leap for the country, breaking down barriers.
On the flip side, we have that same candidate and his supporters acting like there's something wrong with being a Muslim.
I can understand why Obama would want people to know the truth about him. He's a Christian, not a Muslim. OK. Lies are lies.
Still, there's something troubling about the way he and his campaign have equated connections to Islam as something so negative and derogatory.
Uttering his middle name is a slur. Apologies are required if one strings Hussein between Barack and Obama. That makes no sense to me. Why is it OK to say his first and last names? Why aren't they also unmentionable. They aren't exactly white-bread names.
Underlying all of this is a weird bigotry, not only on the part of those disseminating the Obama/Islam rumors but also on the part of Obama's camp. I don't think it's wise for the campaign to consider connections to Islam to be a terrible affront. That in itself smacks of bigotry.
Furthermore, the assumption by the Obama campaign is that Americans are bigots. Apparently, they've determined that Americans wouldn't vote for a Muslim or someone they perceive to have connections with Islam.
Why? I thought Obama believed in the American people. I thought the country, meaning the people, made wife Michelle Obama proud for the first time in her adult life. Something doesn't add up here.
It's unfortunate that Obama rejects his Muslim heritage, sending out aides to put as much distance as possible between himself and anything related to Islam.
Why?
Another candidate was dogged by an M-word -- Mitt Romney. The mainstream press were constantly bringing up his Mormonism, chanting the mantra that Americans won't vote for a Mormon, and all the while promoting Mormonism as a dark cult. They were on a mission to keep Romney on defense. Members of the press and political pundits actively attacked the religion.
For example, Lawrence O'Donnell went completely berserk and mercilessly bashed Romney and disparaged all Mormons.
Where was the outrage then?
The Associated Press certainly didn't come to Romney's aid. I didn't hear any presidential candidates condemn O'Donnell's shameful remarks the way John Sidney McCain condemned what Bill Cunningham had to say -- Obama's middle name. In spite of the thoroughly despicable slams on Mormonism, by the press and by at least one Republican candidate, Romney's campaign made no orchestrated effort to muzzle anyone. Romney didn't back away from his faith. Instead, he displayed great character, integrity, and patience.
It's a totally different story with Obama.
Only Obama can make reference to his Muslim roots when it's convenient and politically expedient. If anyone else does, it's hateful and fear-mongering.
That's very, very wrong.
On last weekend's episode of Living our Faith, Archbishop Timothy Dolan talked with Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke.Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke talks with Archbishop Dolan about how his upbringing and faith life influences his work as a law enforcement official.
Watch the segment.
Diana Mijares and her daughter Megan (Photo/ABC)Ah, technology.
Diana Mijares wanted to know what was going on in her daughter's classroom and she found out.Teacher to 4-Year-Olds: 'You Are All Just Stupid Kids'
A Houston mother, who said her daughter was well-behaved at home, was worried about what was going on in her child's classroom because the girl had been suspended four times for bad behavior.
So, Diana Mijares decided to secretly bug her daughter's backpack and was shocked to hear what was on the tape.
"It made us concerned," Mijares said on "Good Morning America" today. "It was enough and we needed answers."
Megan Mijares' digital tape recorded mostly mundane moments at Memorial Elementary School's prekindergarten class, but then it captured the teacher yelling at the group of 4- and 5-year-olds. All of it happened without Megan's or her teacher's knowledge.
"You're just a bad kid," the teacher says on the six-hour tape. "You're mean to me, so I get to be mean to you."
The teacher, who was not identified, continues to harshly scold the children.
"You are all just stupid kids. I swear to God," the teacher says. "You are just all stupid kids."
...In response to the allegations, the Houston Independent School District is investigating the case and the school's principal has reassigned the teacher.
Mijares worries that action will not be enough.
"My fear is that if she's reassigned that maybe possibly this could happen to other children," said Mijares, who added she only was trying to protect the children.
"They are learning bad manners and they don't need this," Mijares said.
The teacher has a history of parental complaints. Another mother told ABC News Houston affiliate KTRK that the teacher yelled at her young son and then slapped his face in December.
Houston school officials confirmed a slapping allegation was reported to the principal. After an investigation, the principal found evidence the teacher slapped a student and she was disciplined.
"She was suspended for one day without pay back in December," said district spokesperson Terry Abbott.
...The teacher's attorney told ABC News the 30-year veteran "wishes to apologize to the students and the students' parents. Her actions that day were an aberration & the result of medication that she was taking as a result of a recent hospital visit."
What sort of medication makes a 30-year veteran teacher treat 4- and 5-year-old children that way?
That's an incredibly lame excuse.
Diana Mijares did the right thing.
Speaking from the floor of the U.S. Senate, Joe Lieberman delivered a heartfelt tribute to William F. Buckley, Jr.I will end with a quote from President Reagan on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the National Review in 1985. Reagan said that when he first picked up his first issue of National Review he received it in a plain brown wrapper. Still anxiously awaited his bi-weekly edition but no longer in a plain brown wrapper, but this is what Reagan said of Buckley:
You didn't just part the Red Sea. You rolled it back, dried it up, and left exposed for all the world to see the naked desert that is Statism. And then, as if that were not enough, you gave the world something different, something in its weariness it desperately needed: the sound of laughter and the sight of the rich, green uplands of freedom.
_______________
Watch Lieberman's Senate speech.
By the Editors of National Review:William F. Buckley, Jr., R.I.P.
Our revered founder, William F. Buckley Jr., died in his study this morning.
If ever an institution were the lengthened shadow of one man, this publication is his. So we hope it will not be thought immodest for us to say that Buckley has had more of an impact on the political life of this country — and a better one — than some of our presidents. He created modern conservatism as an intellectual and then a political movement. He kept it from drifting into the fever swamps. And he gave it a wit, style, and intelligence that earned the respect and friendship even of his adversaries. (To know Buckley was to be reminded that certain people have a talent for friendship.)
He inspired and incited three generations of conservatives, and counting. He retained his intellectual and literary vitality to the end; even in his final years he was capable of the arresting formulation, the unpredictable insight. He presided over NR even in his “retirement,” which was more active than most people’s careers. It has been said that great men are rarely good men. Even more rarely are they sweet and merry, as Buckley was.
When Buckley started National Review — in 1955, at the age of 29 — it was not at all obvious that anti-Communists, traditionalists, constitutionalists, and enthusiasts for free markets would all be able to take shelter under the same tent. Nor was it obvious that all of these groups, even gathered together, would be able to prevail over what seemed at the time to be an inexorable collectivist tide. When Buckley wrote that the magazine would “stand athwart History yelling, ‘Stop!’” his point was to challenge the idea that history, with a capital H, pointed left. Mounting that challenge was the first step toward changing history’s direction. Which would come in due course.
Before he was a conservative, Buckley was devoted to his family and his Church. He is survived by his son Christopher. Our sadness for him, and for us, at his passing is leavened by the hope that he is now with his beloved wife, Patricia, who died last year.
_______________
Reaction from The Corner
UDPATE, November 2, 2009: Joel Cain receives life sentence.__________________
UDPATE, July 24, 2009: Joel C. Cain was found guilty of murdering Pam Roberts.__________________
What is going on in Milwaukee?
Bullets aren't just flying after dark. Recently, a number of shootings, including some murders, have occurred in broad daylight.
Monday morning, Sanchaz Conley was shot to death while on his way to start a new job.
On Tuesday, Pam Roberts was found murdered after an apparent robbery at Coop's Tiny Tap, 5501 W. Vliet St.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:Bartender Pam Roberts was such an institution at Coop's Tiny Tap that once, to celebrate her 50th birthday, the message "Happy Birthday Pam" was posted in giant letters on the billboard atop the tavern's roof.
Tuesday evening, just hours after she was found dead inside the bar at 5501 W. Vliet St., her name appeared on a chalkboard across the street at the Wonder Bar - above a message that read, "I miss you already."
...Late Tuesday, police were investigating whether robbery was a motive behind the death of Roberts, 58, who was found by a vendor about 1:20 p.m. and pronounced dead at the scene a short time later.
..."We believe it's a homicide," said Lt. William Jessup of the Criminal Investigation Bureau.
According to Jessup, surveillance video from inside the bar shows a man who also appears on surveillance videos from "more than one location in the area," including another business.
The intruder was masked but Roberts did not appear to be afraid of him when he entered the tavern, police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said.
"In the video it appears that either the victim knew the suspect or she was very comfortable with him in the bar," Schwartz said.
Still photos taken from the bar's surveillance system show what appears to be a heavy-set man wearing a gray, hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans and black cross-training gloves. He wore what appeared to be a red bandanna over the lower portion of his face and is shown in one photo standing in front of an open cash register.
Roberts' friends are grief-stricken.
She was a mother, a grandmother, and a wonderful person.
But some thug wanted money and he killed her.
Roberts went to work on what she probably thought would be a day like any other day, but this one was her last.
It's absolutely heartbreaking.
How can people have so little respect for life?
I hope someone with information and a conscience comes forward to assist the police in solving Roberts' murder.
Right now, this thug is on the streets. Clearly, he's dangerous.
Not to worry. Don't forget Milwaukee is a "remarkably safe" city.
God be with Pam Roberts' family and friends.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:Abelina Zalazar, 25, is accused of forcing her son, Uriel Zalazar, to run around their apartment and then stand in a cold shower Saturday morning as punishment for hitting his younger brother, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday by Kenosha County Deputy District Attorney Michael D. Graveley.
Taking a cold shower immediately after vigorous exercise induced heart failure in Uriel, who was found unconscious in the bathtub by his mother and died of hypothermia, according to the complaint.
...Abelina Zalazar was charged with first-degree reckless homicide and physical abuse of a child. Vilchiz, 33, who lived with Zalazar and told police that he had seen Zalazar abuse Uriel in the past, was charged with failure to act to prevent bodily harm to a child. Both were being held on $100,000 cash bail.
This story makes me sick.
Zalazar's sister-in-law Sandie King said that Zalazar "would never do anything bad to her children."
What she allegedly did to her eight-year-old son is as bad as it gets.
Maureen Dowd has been critical of Barack Obama, but she's relentless when it comes to bashing Hillary Clinton.
Today, she writes another installment, "Begrudging His Bedazzling."
She writes:David Brody, the Christian Broadcasting Network correspondent whose interview with Hillary aired Tuesday, said [Senator Clinton] seemed “dumbfounded” by the Obama sensation.
She has been so discombobulated that she has ignored some truisms of politics that her husband understands well: Sunny beats gloomy. Consistency beats flipping. Bedazzling beats begrudging. Confidence beats whining.
Those aren't just truisms of politics. They're truisms of life.
If only Dowd would quit ignoring those truisms when she writes her columns. ...The fact that Obama is exceptionally easy in his skin has made Hillary almost jump out of hers. She can’t turn on her own charm and wit because she can’t get beyond what she sees as the deep injustice of Obama not waiting his turn. Her sunshine-colored jackets on the trail hardly disguise the fact that she’s pea-green with envy.
After saying she found her “voice” in New Hampshire, she has turned into Sybil. We’ve had Experienced Hillary, Soft Hillary, Hard Hillary, Misty Hillary, Sarcastic Hillary, Joined-at-the-Hip-to-Bill Hillary, Her-Own-Person-Who-Just-Happens-to-Be-Married-to-a-Former-President Hillary, It’s-My-Turn Hillary, Cuddly Hillary, Let’s-Get-Down-in-the-Dirt-and-Fight-Like-Dogs Hillary.
Just as in the White House, when her cascading images and hairstyles became dizzying and unsettling, suggesting that the first lady woke up every day struggling to create a persona, now she seems to think there is a political solution to her problem. If she can only change this or that about her persona, or tear down this or that about Obama’s. But the whirlwind of changes and charges gets wearing.
By threatening to throw the kitchen sink at Obama, the Clinton campaign simply confirmed the fact that they might be going down the drain.
Hillary and her aides urged reporters to learn from the “Saturday Night Live” skit about journalists having crushes on Obama.
“Maybe we should ask Barack if he’s comfortable and needs another pillow,” she said tartly in the debate here Tuesday night. She peevishly and pointlessly complained about getting the first question too often, implying that the moderators of MSNBC — a channel her campaign has complained has been sexist — are giving Obama an easy ride.
Beating on the press is the lamest thing you can do. It is only because of the utter open-mindedness of the press that Hillary can lose 11 contests in a row and still be treated as a contender.
Oh, good grief.
Did you find Hillary's changing hairstyles when she was first lady to be "dizzying and unsettling"?
I didn't. I see no connection between her hair in the 1990s and her 2008 presidential campaign.
I don't agree with Dowd that Hillary is struggling to find a persona. She knows herself and she's comfortable in her own skin.
Hillary's problems aren't about some weird insecurities and an unstable image. They stem from her struggle to find a way to stop the erosion of support she has experienced since the Obama-mania fad took hold. Rather than being herself, she's taking wild stabs at trying to be what voters want. That's her mistake. Rather than remaining calm, she panicked when Obama surged.
Moreover, "beating on the press" is NOT the "lamest thing you can do," as Dowd suggests. Her complaints about the press have been ineffective, but they also have been valid. I can imagine her frustration.
Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson received unfavorable press. As a result, their campaigns fizzled. That doesn't mean they weren't qualified. They were superior candidates compared to John McCain, but they couldn't undo the damage done by a hostile or disinterested press.
The lamest thing Dowd can do is say that Hillary is still considered a contender because of the "utter open-mindedness of the press."
What a joke!
Hillary is still a contender based on the delegate count, not because the press is open-minded. Unreal.
I support John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, on a host of issues.
I greatly admire his service to our nation. He's an American hero.
I think he will be a relatively strong candidate and I think he has a real chance of winning in November.
That said, John McCain can also be a real doofus. CINCINNATI, Ohio -- A conservative radio talk show host who helped introduce Senator John McCain before a rally here Tuesday used Senator Barack Obama’s middle name, Hussein, three times, while disparaging him, prompting Mr. McCain to apologize and repudiate the comments afterward.
Bill Cunningham, who hosts “The Big Show” with Bill Cunningham, a local program here that is also syndicated nationally, was part of a line of people lauding Mr. McCain and revving up the crowd before his appearance here before several hundred people at a theater here.
He lambasted the national media, drawing cheers from the audience, for being soft in their coverage of Mr. Obama compared to the Republican candidates, declaring they should “peel the bark off Barack Hussein Obama.”
He went on to rail, “at one point, the media will quit taking sides in this thing and start covering Barack Hussein Obama.”
John McCain made no reference to Cunningham's remarks during his half hour speech. Afterward, during a news conference, McCain condemned Cunningham for his remarks. Responding to questions from reporters, Mr. McCain said he did not hear what Mr. Cunningham said, saying that when he arrived, Mr. Portman was on stage.
“Whatever suggestion that was made that was any way disparaging to the integrity, character, honesty of either Senator Obama or Senator Clinton was wrong,” he said, “I condemn it, and if I have any responsibility, I will take the responsibility, and I apologize for it.”
He called Mr. Obama a “man of integrity” and said he was someone he had come to know “pretty well and I admire.”
He also said that it was not appropriate to invoke Mr. Obama’s middle name in the course of the campaign.
“I absolutely repudiate such comments,” he said. “It will never happen again.”
Good grief.
McCain says that it wasn't appropriate to use Obama's middle name.
I trust Obama will return the favor and make sure that no one at any of his rallies will say, "John Sidney McCain."
Sidney. It could be that McCain is sensitive about middle names.
Later on Tuesday, Cunningham responded to McCain's slap. Sitting at a microphone in an office, Mr. Cunningham said:
Only Democrats, Air America, New York Times, talk-show hosts and newspaper reporters have freedom of speech. I have the right to speak my mind any way that I would like. If I consider Obama to be a hack Chicago politician from the Daley political machine, taking money from this Tony Rezko dude under threat of federal indictment, can’t I speak truth to power?
Mr. Cunningham said the media often say “nasty, negative things” about President Bush and Vice President Cheney, and that The Times had “smeared” John McCain on its front page.
Treat all the politicians the same. We’re not dealing with the messiah here. Obama cannot heal the sick and make the blind see. He’s a hack Democratic politician from Chicago, that’s all he is. Let’s treat him like every other hack Democratic or Republican politician.
Then he continued:
I’m angry at McCain. Why would John McCain repudiate me? I’ve been able to unite McCain and Obama against me. I might become a supporter of Ralph Nader.
McCain has a problem with Bill Cunningham just because he said Hussein.
That's an inappropriate reaction.Watch video of Cunningham's remarks.Cunningham wasn't as rough on Obama as McCain was on Mitt Romney. I don't think McCain ever apologized to Romney, though I do remember him being nice when he accepted Romney's endorsement.McCain's hypocrisy is troubling. If McCain believes that Obama isn't eventually going to throw him under his Straight Talk Express bus, he's being incredibly naive. ____________________
Watch John Sidney McCain throw Bill Cunningham under the bus. _____________________
Recall the always respectful John Sidney McCain LAUGHED when a woman at a campaign event asked him, "How do we beat the bitch?"
How does McCain's reaction to that reference to Hillary Clinton's character fit with McCain's condemnation of Cunningham's remarks?“Whatever suggestion that was made that was any way disparaging to the integrity, character, honesty of either Senator Obama or Senator Clinton was wrong,” he said, “I condemn it, and if I have any responsibility, I will take the responsibility, and I apologize for it.”
It doesn't.
Hypocrisy, thy name is John Sidney McCain.
CLEVELAND -- Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama clashed over trade, health care and the war in Iraq Tuesday night in a crackling debate at close quarters one week before a pivotal group of primaries. Charges of negative campaign tactics were high on the program, too.
"Senator Obama has consistently said I would force people to have health care whether they can afford it or not," said Clinton, insisting it was not true.
Responding quickly, Obama countered that former first lady had consistently claimed his plan "would leave 15 million people out ... I dispute that. I think it is inaccurate," he said.
The tone was polite yet pointed, increasingly so as the 90-minute session wore on, a reflection of the stakes in a race in which Obama has won 11 straight primaries and caucuses and Clinton is in desperate need of a comeback.
Clinton also said as far as she knew her campaign had nothing to do with circulating a photograph of Obama wearing a white turban and a wraparound white robe presented to him by elders in Wajir, in northeastern Kenya.
The gossip and news Web site The Drudge Report posted the photograph Monday and said, without substantiation, that it was being circulated by "Clinton staffers."
The Drudge Report is a "gossip and news Web site."
It's funny the way the AP feels the need to get in that swipe. "We have no evidence where it came from," Clinton said, making clear that's not the kind of behavior she wants in her campaign.
"I take Senator Clinton at her word that she knew nothing about the photo," Obama said.
...Obama also sought to distance himself from an endorsement from Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan, the controversial Chicago-based minister who has made numerous anti-Semitic comments in the past.
Obama said he hadn't sought the endorsement, and that he had denounced the remarks.
Clinton interjected at one point, saying that in her initial Senate campaign in New York in 2000, she was supported by a group with virulent anti-Semitic views.
"I rejected it, and said it would not be anything I would be comfortable with." She said rejecting support was different from denouncing it, an obvious jab at Obama.
He responded by saying he didn't see the difference, since Farrakhan hadn't done anything except declare his support. But given Clinton's comments, he said, "I happily concede the point and I would reject and denounce."
The audience applauded at that.
Yes, that's right. The audience loves Obama and so does the Associated Press. So does Tim Russert and so does Brian Williams.
Early in the debate, Hillary claimed that she wasn't being treated fairly by the moderators.
Transcript:MR. WILLIAMS: I -- well, here's another important topic, and that's NAFTA, especially where we're sitting here tonight. And this is a tough one depending on who you ask. The Houston Chronicle has called it a big win for Texas, but Ohio Democratic Senator Brown, your colleague in the Senate, has called it a job-killing trade agreement. Senator Clinton, you've campaigned in south Texas. You've campaigned here in Ohio. Who's right?
SEN. CLINTON: Well, can I just point out that in the last several debates, I seem to get the first question all the time. And I don't mind. I -- you know, I'll be happy to field them, but I do find it curious, and if anybody saw "Saturday Night Live," you know, maybe we should ask Barack if he's comfortable and needs another pillow. (Laughter, boos.) I just find it kind of curious that I keep getting the first question on all of these issues. But I'm happy to answer it.
I knew Hillary would work last weekend's opening SNL skit into the debate somehow.
Too bad she didn't mention Tina Fey's "bitch is the new black" line.
That would have caused a few sparks to fly.
Hillary was rather restrained, almost too restrained given what she has on the line. She needed to do more than not make any mistakes. She needed to wipe the floor with Obama. She didn't.
Again, Obama was spewing his talking points about his "ethics package."
Whenever Obama says anything about ethics it drives me nuts.
What about TONY REZKO?
When will the mainstream media quit giving Obama a free pass on his shady dealings?
It really bugs me. Hillary shut up about him after that picture of her, Bill, and Rezko surfaced.
Then when Tim Russert quizzed Hillary on Putin's successor, it really ticked me off.RUSSERT: What can you tell me about the man who's going to be Mr. Putin's successor?
CLINTON: Well, I can tell you that he's a hand-picked successor, that he is someone who is obviously being installed by Putin, who Putin can control, who has very little independence, the best we know. You know, there's a lot of information still to be acquired. That the so-called opposition was basically run out of the political opportunity to wage a campaign against Putin's hand-picked successor, and the so-called leading opposition figure spends most of his time praising Putin. So this is a clever but transparent way for Putin to hold on to power, and it raises serious issues about how we're going to deal with Russia going forward.
I have been very critical of the Bush administration for what I believe to have been an incoherent policy toward Russia. And with the reassertion of Russia's role in Europe, with some of the mischief that they seem to be causing in supporting Iran's nuclear ambitions, for example, it's imperative that we begin to have a more realistic and effective strategy toward Russia. But I have no doubt, as president, even though technically the meetings may be with the man who is labeled as president, the decisions will be made by Putin.
RUSSERT: Who will it be? Do you know his name?
CLINTON: Medvedev -- whatever.
RUSSERT: Yes.
CLINTON: Yes.
Russert didn't play his gotcha game with Obama.
"Who will it be? Do you know his name?"
Russert treats Hillary like she's a Republican.
There's obviously still bad blood between them.
Another thing I didn't like was hearing Obama talk about Terri Schiavo.RUSSERT: Senator Obama, any statements or vote you'd like to take back?
OBAMA: Well, you know, when I first arrived in the Senate that first year, we had a situation surrounding Terri Schiavo. And I remember how we adjourned with a unanimous agreement that eventually allowed Congress to interject itself into that decisionmaking process of the families.
It wasn't something I was comfortable with, but it was not something that I stood on the floor and stopped. And I think that was a mistake, and I think the American people understood that that was a mistake. And as a constitutional law professor, I knew better.
And so that's an example I think of where inaction...
RUSSERT: This is the young woman with the feeding tube...
OBAMA: That's exactly right.
RUSSERT: ... and the family disagreed as to whether it should be removed or not.
OBAMA: And I think that's an example of inaction, and sometimes that can be as costly as action.
And Obama says he's the guy who can bring the nation together.
Apparently, his unity plan doesn't include people who believe in the sanctity of life.
Summary:
The country is screwed.
Barack Obama's middle name is Hussein.
That's what his mother and father named him.
So why do Dems and John McCain consider it a slur to refer to Obama by including his middle name?
If Obama is ashamed of it, then he should change it. He can legally change his name. He can distance himself from the name his parents gave him. That's his prerogative.
Do Obama and his people seriously think that Americans won't vote for him because his middle name is Hussein?
If that's the case, then they don't have much confidence in Obama and his qualifications to be president. They don't have faith in the American people.
It's absurd to consider uttering Hussein to be a slur.
It's not as if people don't refer to candidates' middle names.
For eight years now, we've heard President Bush referred to by his middle name. Well, actually, Bush isn't know by his middle name. He's known by his middle initial -- Dubya.
Dubya, Dubya, Dubya.
Bush is also called Shrubya, a combination of Dubya and Shrub, a name that Molly Ivins first used.
If Bush can be called Dubya, I think it's fair to note that Obama's middle name is Hussein.
I just don't get how it can be considered a slur to use his real middle name. It is what it is.
It's Barack Hussein Obama. It is.
