Does Zogby See McCain Ahead? Google and Youtube Are on Board for Obama.

ZOGBY: MCCAIN MOVES INTO LEAD 48-47 IN ONE DAY POLLING -Drudge Report

ZOGBY SATURDAY: Republican John McCain has pulled back within the margin of error... The three-day average holds steady, but McCain outpolled Obama 48% to 47% in Friday, one day, polling. He is beginning to cut into Obama's lead among independents, is now leading among blue collar voters, has strengthened his lead among investors and among men, and is walloping Obama among NASCAR voters.

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McCain is up against some very tough tactics that go way beyond the disgraced US media active campaign to elect Obama. I am convinced that Google has also got into the act and has salted the search engines to favor Obama. Clearly something has happened at Youtube over the last few days. All the stories that are against McCain or pro Obama appear to flood out anything that supports McCain. This is happening regardless of the amount of views.

This campaign should wake up a lot of Americans to the fact that the Left has gone beyond being only an adversary. If Obama loses we will see just how ugly it is.

David Petraeus May Be the Most Important Man in America

The Iraq 'surge' general will have to deal with the growing Islamic militant threat in a poorer and nuclear Pakistan. Yet that is only a part of his responsibility for Middle East and central Asia. The political situation in Pakistan worsens daily.

Pakistan is also stone cold broke. Pakistan needs about $15-billion to stay afloat.

Petraeus is uniquely qualified to fulfill his new role, but he will need a lot of help.

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Petraeus takes charge of US Central Command



Mark Tran and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Friday October 31 2008 11.13 GMT

David Petraeus, the general who directed the Iraq "surge", today takes charge of US Central Command, where he will head American military operations in the Middle East and central Asia.

Petraeus has signalled his priority will be Pakistan, the first country he will visit after today's swearing-in ceremony in Tampa Bay, Florida.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan faces a growing Islamist threat, has had to ask for financial help from the International Monetary Fund, and faces impatient calls from the US to crack down on Taliban and al-Qaida militants operating from Pakistan into Afghanistan.

Petraeus, an expert on counter-insurgency, comes into his new job credited with pulling Iraq back from the brink of disintegration. During the surge, sectarian violence fell off dramatically and the US military speaks glowingly of a newly confident Iraqi army.

The general has been cautious about Iraq's prospects, insisting that the job is far from finished. He has said the war in Afghanistan is likely to prove even longer and harder.

Pakistan is shaping up to be just as difficult. Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, has warned that any future terror attack on the US would come from Pakistan's western tribal regions, where the central government has little or no control. For US strategists, Pakistan may be considered a bigger immediate threat than either Iraq or Afghanistan.

"Dealing with Pakistan, where America's mortal foe al-Qaida is nestled alongside the Taliban, is clearly the most pressing problem we face," Bing West, a retired marine and former assistant secretary of defence, wrote in National Interest, the journal of international affairs and diplomacy.

Petraeus has acknowledged Pakistan will probably be altogether different from Iraq, where his counter-insurgency tactics succeeded. "Pakistan is going to do this on their own," he told rightwing thinktank the Heritage Foundation this month. "They have a very keen sense of sovereignty."

In an interview in Washington this week, a senior Pakistani official said his government was drawing up a more comprehensive strategy for fighting the insurgency, now regarded as the gravest threat to the government.

It would be carried out in cooperation with the US, but not on a US timetable, the official said. "We are going to run this."

There is tension between the US and Pakistan over the insurgency in tribal areas. The Bush administration has stepped up sending drone aircraft to attack targets in remote border areas inside Pakistan. Resulting civilian casualties have caused uproar among Pakistanis.

Petraeus's arrival at Central Command was not the original plan. The US secretary of defence, Robert Gates, wanted to move Petraeus from Iraq to the less demanding job of commanding US and Nato forces in Europe.

But Admiral William Fallon unexpectedly announced his retirement in February after a year at Central Command and Petraeus was named as his replacement.

Philadelphia is Number One

The LA Times and the Pathetic US Apathy.

A picture tells a thousand words and the sad fact is that if this is an indication of the level of US indignation over press control of the news, then we deserve Barack Obama. We are just not smart enough to do better.

Phillies 4-1, Second World Series Win in Franchise History. Will McCain Win PA?

The Phillies have their second World Series victory. The first was in the 1980 Series over the Kansas City Royals. The second occurred on October 29, 2008 when the Phillies defeated the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 5 for a 4-1 Series win and their second world championship.

The Phillies also made the World Series in 1915, 1950, 1983, and 1993 but lost each time.

The McCain quest for the Presidential race will end in a win or loss in Pennsylvania and be determined by the turnout in Philadelphia and three surrounding counties.

The Dallas Morning News Performs Fellatio on Obama

Another Pulitzer Prize performance from the American Media.

Quick Take: Obama looks polished, presidential in 30-minute ad

12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, October 30, 2008
Getting Down with The Dallas Morning News

In his most polished performance yet, Barack Obama looked presidential, like a man who loves his family and country.

That's why his slick 30-minute commercial that aired on network television Wednesday (at a cost of about $4 million) is certain to have changed some minds in his favor, while reinforcing the support of those already in his camp.

Of course, there will be some voters who were turned off by the Hollywood-quality production.

And can you blame Philadelphia Phillies fans for being angry that pre-game festivities for the World Series were pre-empted?

Bottom line, though: Mr. Obama flawlessly used his 30 minutes. If he wins over only a handful of voters, it was millions of dollars well spent.

What's more, the commercial summed up the key themes of Mr. Obama's campaign: his plans to stimulate the economy, retool the auto industry, reform health care, end the war in Iraq and renew direct diplomacy with our enemies.

The passages about his mother reading to him at 4 a.m. were touching.

But even more effective were the personal stories about common Americans – most from swing states – trying to make do in a country seemingly off track.

Despite the gap in the polls, the presidential race isn't over. As John McCain has pointed out, there are valid reasons not to vote for Mr. Obama, and the partisan divide in this country will provide some Election Day drama.

On Wednesday, however, Mr. Obama provided a video portrait on why he believes he's the best choice for America.

Those who saw it may find it more engaging than any stump speech, mailer or regular television ad.

The Apple iPhone Revolution

OCTOBER 30, 2008
Some Shed Their Gadgets by Turning to One: iPhone
By SARA SILVER WSJ

Lower-income households are turning in force to Apple Inc.'s iPhone and may be doing so to save the cost of a separate broadband connection and music devices, according to the media measurement firm comScore Inc.

A comScore study, set to be released Thursday, shows that the fastest growth in iPhone sales over the summer months came from households that earn less than the median income. ComScore noted sales to lower-income consumers accelerated since the July appearance of the iPhone 3G, which offers high-speed Internet access.

"We see that lower-income consumers are increasingly turning to mobile devices to access the Internet, to listen to music and for email," said Mark Donovan, senior analyst at comScore. "A 'Swiss-Army knife of a device' like the iPhone offers a phone, a music player, a camera and a way to connect to the Internet, which may appeal to consumers cutting back their spending on gadgets."

Ownership of the iPhone rose 48% from June 1 to the end of August among households earning between $25,000 and $50,000 a year, compared to 21% overall, the study showed. Adoption of smart phones in this segment grew 16% over that period, ahead of the market average of 12%. Mobile-browser use grew 4.9% among lower-income consumers, versus 2.7% overall, and their mobile music-listening rose 4.7%, compared to an overall decline of 0.3%. Email use, however, slightly lagged.

The study tracked changes in comScore's monthly online survey of 33,962 mobile-phone users. There were 2.6 million U.S. users of the iPhone at the end of August, which represented just 1% of U.S. cellphone users, according to comScore. The trend of rising sales and usage among lower-income consumers emerged despite a slight decline in the number of such households, which contain a large number of retired women and consumers ages 25 to 34.

While consumers have long used cellphones to substitute for landlines, U.S. telecom operators have recently also reported sharp slowdowns in the number of households adding broadband lines to access the Internet from home. Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Vodafone PLC and Verizon Communications Inc., on Monday said it lost 96,000 DSL subscribers in the quarter.

Already, lower-income and older consumers are less likely to subscribe to broadband than average, according to a recent report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, and 35% of dial-up Internet users cite price as the primary reason for not upgrading.

Others believe that the surge in popularity of the iPhone among lower-income consumers is related more to the decline in price to about $200. "You had this device that inspired gadget lust suddenly put within reach," said George Calhoun, a professor and entrepreneur-in-residence at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J.

John McCain for US President

 

This photo of Obama is a mistake. He gains nothing by dressing like this trying to convince people that he has the right stuff to be President. He is showing a lot of confidence that he already has it wrapped up. The American voter wants to see a leader not a basketball star.

Khalidi Obama Video: How LA Times Manipulates the News

The L.A. Times Suppresses Obama’s Khalidi Bash Tape

Sarah Palin or Michelle Obama Hanged. Which is More Amusing ?

"it does not rise to the level of a hate crime. In fact, there is no crime being committed at this point,"

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tuesday, October 28th 2008, 2:00 PM

Francis/AP
A Halloween themed effigy of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin decorates a house in West Hollywood, Calif.

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - A Halloween themed effigy has generated several complaints because a mannequin — dressed in vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's trademark updo, glasses and a red business suit — is hanging by the neck from a noose.
Some concerned callers complained that the display was a hate crime. However, the department's hate crime unit said "it does not rise to the level of a hate crime. In fact, there is no crime being committed at this point," Los Angeles County sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

Think anyone in the press would mind this little amusing joke?

The Bush Legacy: Obama-Pelosi-Reid

October 28, 2008
Obama's First 100 Days
By Patrick Buchanan

Undeniably, a powerful tide is running for the Democratic Party, with one week left to Election Day.

Bush's approval rating is 27 percent, just above Richard Nixon's Watergate nadir and almost down to Carter-Truman lows. After each of those presidents reached their floors -- in 1952, 1974, 1980 -- the opposition party captured the White House.

Moreover, 80 percent to 90 percent of Americans think the nation is on the wrong course, and since mid-September, when McCain was still slightly ahead, the Dow has lost 4,000 points -- $5 trillion to $6 trillion in value.


Leading now by eight points in an average of national polls, Barack Obama has other advantages.

Not a single blue state is regarded as imperiled or even a toss-up, while Obama leads in six crucial red states: Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Missouri and Colorado. Should McCain lose one of the six, he would have to win Pennsylvania to compensate for the lost electoral votes. But the latest Pennsylvania polls show Barack with a double-digit lead.

Lately moving into the toss-up category are Nevada, North Dakota, Montana and Indiana. All voted twice for George W. Bush.

Not only is Obama ahead in the state and national polls, he has more money, is running far more ads, has a superior organization on the ground, attracts larger crowds, and has greater enthusiasm and more media in camp. And new voter registrations heavily favor the Democrats.

Though Congress is regarded by Americans with a disdain bordering on disgust -- five of six Americans think it has done a poor job -- Democratic majorities are certain to grow. Indeed, with Democrats favored by 10 points over Republicans, Nancy Pelosi's majority could grow by 25 seats and Harry Reid could find himself with a filibuster-proof majority of 60 senators.

Democrats already have 49, plus two independents: Socialist Bernie Sanders and Independent Joe Lieberman. Their challengers are now ahead in New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, New Mexico, Minnesota, Oregon and Colorado, with a chance of picking up Georgia, Alaska, Kentucky and Mississippi.

We may be looking at a reverse of 1980, when Reagan won a 10-point victory over Jimmy Carter, and Republicans took the Senate and, working with Boll Weevil Democrats, effective control of the House.

With his tax cuts, defense buildup and rollback policy against the "Evil Empire," Reagan gave us some of the best years of our lives, culminating in America's epochal victory in the Cold War.

What does the triumvirate of Obama-Pelosi-Reid offer?

Rep. Barney Frank is calling for new tax hikes on the most successful and a 25 percent across-the-board slash in national defense. Sen. John Kerry is talking up new and massive federal spending, a la FDR's New Deal. Specifically, we can almost surely expect:

• Swift amnesty for 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens and a drive to make them citizens and register them, as in the Bill Clinton years. This will mean that Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona will soon move out of reach for GOP presidential candidates, as has California.
• Border security will go on the backburner, and America will have a virtual open border with a Mexico of 110 million.
• Taxes will be raised on the top 5 percent of wage-earners, who now carry 60 percent of the U.S. income tax burden, and tens of millions of checks will be sent out to the 40 percent of wage-earners who pay no federal income tax. Like the man said, redistribute the wealth, spread it around.
• Social Security taxes will be raised on the most successful among us, and capital gains taxes will be raised from 15 percent to 20 percent. The Bush tax cuts will be repealed, and death taxes reimposed.
• Two or three more liberal activists of the Ruth Bader Ginsberg-John Paul Stevens stripe will be named to the Supreme Court. U.S. district and appellate courts will be stacked with "progressives."
• Special protections for homosexuals will be written into all civil rights laws, and gays and lesbians in the military will be invited to come out of the closet. "Don't ask, don't tell" will be dead.
• The homosexual marriages that state judges have forced California, Massachusetts and Connecticut to recognize, an Obama Congress or Obama court will require all 50 states to recognize.
• A "Freedom of Choice Act" nullifying all state restrictions on abortions will be enacted. America will become the most pro-abortion nation on earth.
• Affirmative action -- hiring and promotions based on race, sex and sexual orientation until specified quotas are reached -- will be rigorously enforced throughout the U.S. government and private sector.
• Universal health insurance will be enacted, covering legal and illegal immigrants, providing another powerful magnet for the world to come to America, if necessary by breaching her borders.
• A federal bailout of states and municipalities to keep state and local governments spending up could come in December or early next year.
• The first trillion-dollar deficit will be run in the first year of an Obama presidency. It will be the first of many.
  

Welcome to Obamaland!

Obama is a Socialist. On the radio, Barack Obama states his preference for redistribution.

Hat Tip: Doug

"Constitution is a charter of negative liberties"... wants to break free of "negative" constraints of the founding fathers...the state must do things on your behalf because "we suffer from not having redistributive change" - Barack Obama

Listen to the man's words before he was running for President. In this 2001 radio interview, while Barack Obama was a state senator, Obama states that through legislation and Court decisions, minorities have acquired the right to vote, to eat where they choose, but fell short in "economic justice." Then Obama laments that the legislation and the Court stopped short of "redistribution of wealth.“ Obama gives us an insight in to what a community organizer does and how community organization is necessary to redistribute your wealth.

He states political and economic justice cannot be helped by the US Constitution because the US "Constitution is a charter of negative liberties."

He states that we still suffer from not having redistributive change.

Obama is a socialist. He claims the courts and legistlative branch cannot do enough to make redistribution happen. Now a President is something else again is it not. Now there is a community organizer.

If you are white and own property and you believe that you owe some of your property to blacks because they do not have their fair share, then by all means vote for Barack Obama or against John McCain. He will redistribute your wealth.

Let us see just how many ignorant and how many stupid Americans fall for this dangerous charlatan.

If you look at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement and its litigation strategy in the court, I think where it succeeded was to vest formal rights in previously dispossessed peoples. So that I would now have the right to vote, I would now be able to sit at the lunch counter and order and as long as I could pay for it I’d be okay.

But the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and sort of more basic issues of political and economic justice in this society.

And to that extent as radical as people tried to characterize the Warren court, it wasn’t that radical. It didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution, at least as it’s been interpreted, and the Warren court interpreted it in the same way that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. It says what the states can’t do to you, it says what the federal government can’t do to you, but it doesn’t say what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf. And that hasn’t shifted. One of the I think tragedies of the civil rights movement was because the civil rights movement became so court focused, I think that there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributed change and in some ways we still suffer from that. - Barack Obama in 2001

Now it is the Hedge Funds. "One of the greatest fiascos of banking in 100 years"

Some very bleak words from the Telegraph. It was a momentous calamity allowing the US home market to fall into bankruptcy and expecting a market solution of "letting them get their just desserts" as a policy. Some of us warned that the housing collapse should be contained but it wasn't and the consequences are becoming frightening. A policy of allowing bankruptcy courts to reset mortgages was sound then and probably the last line of defense now. This is a time for bold leadership without regard for public opinion, but we are reaching a point of no return.

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GLG chief Emmanuel Roman warns thousands of hedge funds on brink of failure
Emmanuel Roman, the co-chief executive of Europe’s biggest hedge fund GLG, has warned that thousands of hedge funds are on the brink of failure as the global economy contracts with unexpected severity.

By Rowena Mason Telegraph

Last Updated: 5:50PM BST 24 Oct 2008

Emmanuel Roman, of GLG Partners, said 25pc-30pc of the world’s 8,000 hedge funds would disappear "in a Darwinian process", either going bust or deciding meagre profits are not worth their efforts.

"This will go down in the history books as one of the greatest fiascos of banking in 100 years," said Mr Roman, who with Noam Gottesman, co-runs GLG, a former division of Lehman Brothers Holdings with assets of $24bn (£14.8bn). "There need to be some scapegoats, and the regulators are going to go hunt people. That will be good in the long run."

His views were echoed by Professor Nouriel Roubini, a former US Treasury and presidential adviser known for his accurate prediction of financial crises, who estimated that up to 500 hedge funds would fail within months.

Both men were speaking at the same hedge fund conference in London yesterday, and Prof Roubini said he would not be surprised if the US and other countries soon had to close their stock markets for more than a week to halt descent into "sheer panic".

The economist warned that the world is heading for a protracted recession that will end the US’s financial dominance.

"It’s the beginning of the decline of the US financial empire. The Great Depression ended in a massive war. I hope that’s not going to happen but it’s pretty ugly now," Prof Roubini said.

He added that turmoil over world trade, currency markets and debt is likely to cause geopolitical tensions between the Western world and emerging superpowers such as Russia, China and "a bunch of unstable oil states".

The conference saw analysts, economists and hedge fund managers discussing the possibility that global recession could now last two years on fears that government bail-outs and nationalisations have failed to stop the markets slumping.

"We’re now paying the price for the biggest asset and credit bubble in history," Prof Roubini said, advising investors to stay clear of risky assets and keep money in cash. "The bail-outs have not worked because the markets are no longer rallying, and the policy-makers have run out of options.
"
The global financial meltdown accelerated this month, with the UK and US governments being forced to take stakes in some of the world’s biggest banks. Stock markets around the world have fallen sharply this month as investors’ concern switches to the impact on the wider economy.

"It’s like we’re walking blind in a minefield," said Prof Roubini. "Every situation has become risky and no one can trust each other. The banks are too big to be allowed to fail, but they’re also too big to save."

Research from Hedge Fund Intelligence (HFI) shows that despite one of the worst months on record for credit funds, US hedge funds alone still have $1.7trillion (£1trillion) in assets.

Biden Flashes His Pained Toilet Porcelain White Teeth

I know, you have already seen this, but it is so delicious, I am sure that you want a second slice. Bon Appétit.In one of Biden's remarks he claims that McCain was an ACORN supporter. I found this video clip where McCain spoke at a community college in Miami where he was looking for support for the failed immigration bill. No news there.

US Constitution Too Vague for an Ordinary Citizen

JUDGE SURRICK'S PHOTO HAS BEEN SWEPT FROM THE INTERNET

The same judiciary that finds rights and privileges and meanings and new law anywhere and everywhere in the US Constitution finds that a citizen has no right to question whether the Constitution is being followed by requiring a candidate to prove they meet the qualifications to be President.

Hat Tip:bobal

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Judge tosses lawsuit challenging Obama citizenship


Oct 25, 3:37 PM (ET)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging Barack Obama's qualifications to be president.
U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick on Friday night rejected the suit by attorney Philip J. Berg, who alleged that Obama was not a U.S. citizen and therefore ineligible for the presidency. Berg claimed that Obama is either a citizen of his father's native Kenya or became a citizen of Indonesia after he moved there as a boy.

Obama was born in Hawaii to an American mother and a Kenyan father. His parents divorced and his mother married an Indonesian man.

Internet-fueled conspiracy theories question whether Obama is a "natural-born citizen" as required by the Constitution for a presidential candidate and whether he lost his citizenship while living abroad.
Surrick ruled that Berg lacked standing to bring the case, saying any harm from an allegedly ineligible candidate was "too vague and its effects too attenuated to confer standing on any and all voters."

13,000 Christians to flee Mosul, Sunni Arabs and Kurds blamed

"The Christians know very well armed groups belonging to some of the ruling political parties in Baghdad, are behind the 'veiled' attacks and the threats against them," wrote the bilingual newspaper. "Many, among them a great part of the Christians, are quietly pointing their accusations in the direction of the powerful Kurdish community in Mosul, who dominate the provincial council and constitute the majority of the city's armed forces. Observers say the Kurds want to show that Mosul cannot be controlled without them." AINA

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Killings force 13,000 Christians to flee Mosul

• UN agency sends aid to beleaguered community
• Sunni Arabs and Kurds blamed for violence ( I thought the Kurds were the good guys)

Aidan Jones
The Guardian, Saturday October 25 2008

The full scale of the persecution of Christians in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul became apparent last night when the UN's refugee agency said about 13,000 had been hounded from their homes this month - more than half of the city's Christian community.

The UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) said it was sending aid to thousands of Christian refugees fleeing Mosul after a three-week campaign of killing and intimidation. About a dozen Christians have reportedly been killed in the recent violence, prompting many members of the community to seek sanctuary in churches and homes in outlying villages, or in Syria. "Many left with little money and need help," said Ron Redmond, UNHCR spokesman, in a briefing from Geneva. Christian neighbourhoods had been bombarded with threatening phone calls, letters and messages pinned to doors for months, but the killing began a few weeks ago, he said.

Recounting the story of a woman named Mariam, Redmond said she left her home when she heard of a Christian who was murdered.

"We were the hard core that never wanted to leave Iraq, even with the tense environment," the woman, who fled to Syria, was quoted by UNHCR as saying.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks, but suspicion has fallen on Sunni extremists intent on turning the historic city into a stronghold.

Local Sunni officials deny the allegation, pointing the finger at Kurdish militias who, it is said, want to empty the city of Christians before upcoming local elections. The Kurdish regional government also denies the claims.

Mosul, Iraq's third biggest city after Baghdad and Basra, has remained mired in violence despite the US military surge. Al-Qaida insurgents regrouped in the city after being flushed out of neighbouring Anbar province, taking advantage of its proximity to Syria.

After a period of relative calm roadside bombs and assassinations gradually returned to Mosul, giving it the reputation as the Iraq's most dangerous city.

The province of Nineveh, which has Mosul at its heart, has been home to Assyrian and Chaldean Catholics for 2,000 years. Before the fall of Saddam Hussein Iraq's Christian population numbered about 1.2 million.

But the upsurge of violence has prompted a mass exodus, with 20% of the 1.5 million Iraqi refugees in Syria thought to be Christians.

The return of sustained religious violence will also raise fears over Iraq's fragile security and lend weight to calls for the Iraqi government to give US troops a legal mandate to maintain security for a further three years.

Meanwhile a Shia cleric, Jalaluddin al-Saghir, yesterday endorsed a draft US-Iraqi security pact. "The country is passing through a most critical stage," Saghir said. "The politicians should think about Iraq's interests. They should not seek to break the unity of Iraqi society. This is not a game." The proposed agreement has been opposed by a number of critics, including the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who say it infringes Iraq's sovereignty.

‘I made a mistake,’ admits Greenspan

‘I made a mistake,’ admits Greenspan
By Alan Beattie and James Politi in Washington, Financial Times
October 23 2008 21:26


Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, said on Thursday the credit crisis had exceeded anything he had imagined and admitted he was wrong to think that banks would protect themselves from financial market chaos.

“I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interest of organisations, specifically banks and others, was such that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders,” he said.

Who is John Galt?

Powerline PrintOctober 23, 2008 Posted by Scott at 6:52 AM

We've previously noted the gusher of illegal campaign contributions flowing into the Obama campaign from contributors such as "Doodad Pro" and "Good Will." More recently, incidents have been reported in which people have seen credit card charges surface suggesting they donated to Barack Obama when they did not. Matthew Mosk and Sarah Cohen noted one such incident earlier this week:

Now comes the story of Mary T. Biskup, of Manchester, Missouri. Biskup got a call recently from the Obama campaign, which was trying to figure out why she donated $174,800 to the campaign -- well over the contribution limit of $2,300.

The answer she gave them was simple. "That's an error."

Is the Obama campaign knowingly receiving illegal contributions? Yesterday one of our readers reported the results of an experiment he conducted:

I've read recent reports of the Obama campaign receiving donations from dubious names and foreign locales and it got me wondering: How is this possible?

I run a small Internet business and when I process credit cards I'm required to make sure the name on the card exactly matches the name of the customer making the purchase. Also, the purchaser's address must match that of the cardholders. If these don't match, then the payment isn't approved. Period. So how is it possible that the Obama campaign could receive donations from fictional people and places? Well, I decided to do a little experiment. I went to the Obama campaign website and entered the following:

Name: John Galt
Address: 1957 Ayn Rand Lane
City: Galts Gulch
State: CO
Zip: 99999

Then I checked the box next to $15 and entered my actual credit card number and expiration date (it didn't ask for the 3-didgit code on the back of the card) and it took me to the next page and... "Your donation has been processed. Thank you for your generous gift."

This simply should not, and could not, happen in any business or any campaign that is honestly trying to vet it's donors. Also, I don't see how this could possibly happen without the collusion of the credit card companies. They simply wouldn't allow any business to process, potentially, hundreds of millions in credit card transactions where the name on the card doesn't match the purchasers name.

In short, with the system set up as it is by the Obama camp, an individual could donate unlimited amounts of money by simply making up fake names and addresses. And Obama is doing his best to facilitate this fraud. This is truly scandalous.

Our reader was not yet done. He tried the experiment on the McCain site: "I tried the exact same thing at the McCain site and it didn't allow the transaction." He then repeated the experiment at the Obama site:

I went back to the Obama site and made three additional donations using the names Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Bill Ayers, all with different addresses. All the transactions went through using the same credit card. I saved screenshots of the transactions.

Our reader reports, incidentally, that he was using his MasterCard for the contributions. We submit this report in the spirit of inquiry and would especially appreciate hearing from readers who can illuminate how credit card procedures might (or might not) allow this to happen.

UPDATE: Readers have replicated the experiment reported in this post. We will have to revisit the issue tonight or tomorrow and appreciate any information you can provide in the meantime.

John McCain - 1967 Video - How Would You Cut It?

The food was not like in Paris.

Are White Voters Getting Fed Up With Racial Hypocrisy ?

There was no more blatant racial preference than when Oprah Winfrey and Colin Powell rejected the obvious white candidate and selected Barack Obama. Blacks are supporting Obama by 97%.

The elite whites in the media and academia will twist and turn and to demonstrate their multi-culturalism, shuck and jive to avoid the obvious conclusion that blacks are voting black. The subtleties and refined nuances of racial sensitivities are being missed by 'lesser educated whites." Let me translate that for you. Working class whites know bullshit when they hear it, and are coming around to McCain. The MSM was sort of hoping they would not notice. They are.

I wonder how Obama came so far? Lest we forget.

ABOARD THE STRAIGHT TALK AIR — Sen. John McCain on Wednesday blasted President Bush for building a mountain of debt for future generations, failing to pay for expanding Medicare and abusing executive powers, leveling his strongest criticism to date of an administration whose unpopularity may be dragging the Republican Party to the brink of a massive electoral defeat.

"We just let things get completely out of hand," he said of his own party's rule in the past eight years.

In an interview with The Washington Times, Mr. McCain lashed out at a litany of Bush policies and issues that he said he would have handled differently as president, days after a poll showed that he began making up ground on Sen. Barack Obama since he emphatically sought to distance himself from Mr. Bush in the final debate.

more Washington Times

Are we bogged down in two wars with no end in sight?

Andrew Bacevich, retired army soldier, scholar and father of an army officer killed in Iraq, thinks that we are and that it will make no difference which candidate wins the election.

Nancy Bacevich, center front, mother of fallen U.S. Army First Lt. Andrew Bacevich, is escorted to his grave site by U.S. Army General William Wallace, front right, as Bacevich's father Andrew Bacevich, second from right, follows while holding a flower at the Rural Cemetery, in Walpole, Mass., Monday, May 21, 2007. Bacevich was killed May 13, 2007, when an improvised device exploded while he was on a combat patrol in the Salah Ad Din Province, in Iraq.

The grand illusion of American power
By H.D.S. Greenway
October 21, 2008

THE OTHER DAY I went to hear my favorite soldier-scholar, Andrew Bacevich, give a talk at Boston University, where he teaches. A retired colonel and Vietnam veteran, Bacevich's new book is called "The Limits of Power, The end of American Exceptionalism."

Bacevich has migrated from a conservative outlook to what might be called a neo-Niebuhrean position - his thinking being influenced by the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, whom Bacevich calls "the most clear-eyed of American prophets."

Niebuhr warned against "dreams of managing history," a combination of arrogance and narcissism that posed a moral threat. That's why Niebuhr is often held in contempt by neo-conservatives for whom power is everything. Bacevich's concern is that the dream has become a physical threat that could lead to America's inevitable decline.

There is a mythical American narrative, according to Bacevich, that the United States is a nation "providentially set apart in the New World and wanting nothing more than to tend to its own affairs," only grudgingly responding to calls for global leadership "in order to preserve the possibility of freedom." In reality, the United States has sought expansion, first by pushing west until it reached the sea, then through a brief period of direct colonialism, and more recently through a ruthless if indirect imperial policy of control. It worked spectacularly. The United States became a great power replete with material abundance.

Right around the time of the Vietnam War, Bacevich argues, this began to unravel. Trade imbalances, federal deficits, "mushrooming entitlements, plummeting savings rates, and energy dependence" led us to become a debtor nation, counting on others to foot the bill. "The positive correlation between expansion, power, abundance, and freedom began to become undone . . . Further efforts at expansionism have led to the squandering of American power," according to Bacevich.

The actions of the Bush administration after 9/11 may have been designed to make the United States safe from another attack. But the chosen method was nothing less than to "assert American power throughout the Greater Middle East . . . to transform this region, to employ American power, both hard and soft, to impose order while ensuring stability, order, access, and adherence to American norms - in essence to establish unambiguous US hegemony so that the Islamic world will no longer serve as a breeding ground for terrorists who wish to kill us."

The grand illusion of American power as a transformative agent is evident in what Bush's lieutenants had to say. "We have a choice," said Donald Rumsfeld in September, 2001. Either we change the way we live, "which is unacceptable," or we "change the way they live, and we chose the latter. " Or as Douglas Feith would later put it: America's purpose was to "transform the Middle East and the broader world of Islam generally."

This grand imperial overreach never had a chance. Transforming Islam can only be done by Muslims themselves, in their own due time. The new "liberated" Iraq has not changed the Middle East. The passions of the Middle East have transformed Iraq, perhaps more stable now than a year ago but in no way destined to achieve what Bush, Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, et al wanted and expected.

The net result is that much of the world now looks on the Bush administration's resurrection of Woodrow Wilson's ideals and the expansion of democracy as a cover for coercion and bare-knuckle dominance. As Bacevich says, Bush always confused strategy with ideology.

Militarily, we threw containment and deterrence out the window, banking on the "shock and awe" of preventive war. It hasn't worked. We are bogged down in two wars with an end to neither in sight.

Bacevich doesn't see the November election as necessarily producing a beneficial change. John McCain touts the stalemated Iraq war as a success, while Barack Obama calls for more effort in Afghanistan. In Bacevich's view, it is the entire doctrine of preventive war that has proved a failure. There has to be a better way than occupying Muslim countries.

Both McCain and Obama "implicitly endorse the global war on terror as the essential core of US policy," while in reality it's the entire concept that needs to be rethought.

First Lieutenant Andrew J. Bacevich , killed on May 13, 2007 by a bomb blast in Balad, Iraq.

H.D.S. Greenway's column appears regularly in the Globe.

Are the Democrats Insane? Vote for Obama and Invite War.

When I first heard the Biden remarks, I was not totally surprised. I mentioned in a thread some months ago that my personal experience with Biden was that he loved to be the center of attention. Well he certainly exceeded my expectations. Now I need to say one thing to the McCain campaign:

Talk about nothing else but this, Bill Ayers and Reverend Wright.

Talk about nothing else but this, Bill Ayers and Reverend Wright.

Talk about nothing else but this, Bill Ayers and Reverend Wright.

Talk about nothing else but this, Bill Ayers and Reverend Wright.

67 Million Catholics Could Decide the US Presidency

There is no other greater block of voters. Catholics outnumber blacks 2:1 and their votes are critical in every key state. Catholics have held every political and economic office in the country and have provided more numbers to the US military than any other religious group. They have their own schools hospitals and political organizations. In sheer numbers there are more Catholics in the world than Muslims. However in their sheer numbers lies both their strength and weakness as a voting block. Catholics cover so many nationalities and is so inclusive as a religion, that they rarely vote as a block.

Also hidden in their numbers is the fact that many Catholics are nominal participants in their religion. Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry are all Catholics.

This video is a call to arms.

67 Million Catholics could decide the US Presidency. If they show up in their numbers and vote their faith and doctrine, McCain will win.

From American Thinker:

Eileen McDevitt

Disgusted and perhaps outraged at the false and misleading statements made by apostate Catholics Nancy Pelosi and Joseph Biden, Catholics (but not the Church itself) have responded with a request to the devout to email and circulate a video that captures both their faith -- and their belief in America.

Whether or not you agree with all the principles held dear by the faithful, it is a moving and well-presented piece.

Once upon a time political campaigns followed the same tenor; campaigners sought to inspire and draw people into a fellowship of pride. Groundswells of patriotism, not anger, were once the norm."

Hold Your Breath and Say Your Prayers for Tuesday.

I confess that when I first heard about hedge funds and derivatives, I was perplexed. I could not understand them at first and when I did I was convinced that I was wrong and did not understand them because they seemed unnecessarily complicated.

I had no idea that they were both complicated and almost unregulated. They were also about money, serious money, a lethal combination just begging for abuse. Unfortunately, I was not the only one not to understand them.

On Tuesday, the failed Lehman Brothers' legacy will be determined. Hope and Pray all goes well as our Rulers and Masters stand back in stunned amazement to see how the financial witch doctors unravel the snake that is strangling the global financial system.

_______________________

Markets hold breath as $360bn Lehman swaps unwind

The $54trillion credit derivatives market faces a delicate test as $360bn worth of contracts on now-defaulted derivatives on Lehman Brothers are due to be settled on Tuesday.

By Louise Armitstead and Peter Koenig
18 Oct 2008 Telegraph

Due to the opacity of the market, which is one of the most complex, least regulated and least understood in the global financial system, it is still not clear how many contracts have to be settled or which institutions will take the ultimate hits once the billions of dollars worth of contracts have been unravelled. The collapse of Lehman Brothers, is expected to trigger credit default swap (CDS) protection pay-outs of about $400bn but because the contracts were sold many times through different counterparties it is not yet known who will be liable.

One commentator said: “This will be the greatest illustration of the follies of Wall Street and how unnecessarily complicated the wild off-track betting became in the past few years.”

Five years ago Warren Buffett, the iconic American investor, warned that the chaotic profusion of derivatives used by companies and hedge funds to fund financial growth were “financial weapons of mass destruction.’’

Bankers in the City and on Wall Street are bracing for yet another round of turbulence as the contracts are unwound.

The Bank of England and the Federal Reserve in America have said they will keep their special liquidity windows open late on Tuesday night to allow the contracts to settle.
“We’re in unchartered waters here and it may all prove an anti-climax,” said a senior City banker on Friday, “but everyone will be watching the situation and wondering what’s going to happen.”

An earlier auction of Lehman-related derivatives on October 10 prompted early fears that banks and investors could lose $400 billion. In the event, the discounts on the Lehman-related paper that day realised losses of only $6 billion.

At the core of Tuesday’s cash exchange between banks stands a quasi-insurance product, the credit default swaps. Investors buy CDS’s to protect themselves against the possibility of default on securities issues by firms such as Lehman. During the boom years, banks’ insurers and hedge funds created and sold CDS’s to raise what appeared to be risk-free cash in the form of premium payments.

On September 16, Lehman filed for bankruptcy, leaving them obliged to payout on CDS’s written to protect investors against the possibility of a default on Lehman paper.
City bankers say that Lehman also holds a portfolio of CDS’s written to protect against other institutions defaulting and these, too, could get caught up in Tuesday’s action.

“This will arguably be the biggest cash-exchange day and somebody will fail,” one analyst warned last week.

Let's Have Einstein Sort it Out for Us.

Obama Lied. Ayers Connection to Barack Obama Found

LOOK AT THIS:



Now put this photo of Bill Ayers in context:

Obama, supported by the propagandists in the MSM, has asserted that Bill Ayers was a man who happened to live in his neighborhood. At the time this photograph was taken, Obama and Ayers were serving together on the board of the Woods Fund. It was in 2001 when Ayers donated $200 to Obama's State Senate campaign fund. Well guess what?

A Blogger at Zomblog did the job MSM missed. He went into the archives of the Chicago Tribune and found an undigitized photo of an Obama review of the Ayers’ book and Obama says, “A searing and timely account of the juvenile court system, and the courageous individuals who rescue hope from despair.” Obama calls Bill Ayers a courageous individual.
Zomblog



Zomblog

Just a few weeks before this review was published in the Chicago Tribune, Obama and Ayers appeared together on a panel about juvenile justice organized by Michelle Obama on November 20, 1997:

Children who kill are called “super predators,” “people with no conscience,” “feral pre-social beings” — and “adults.”

William Ayers, author of A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court (Beacon Press, 1997), says “We should call a child a child. A 13-year-old who picks up a gun isn’t suddenly an adult. We have to ask other questions: How did he get the gun? Where did it come from?”

Ayers, who spent a year observing the Cook County Temporary Juvenile Detention Center in Chicago, is one of four panelists who will speak on juvenile justice at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20, in the C-Shop. The panel, which marks the 100th anniversary of the juvenile justice system in the United States, is part of the Community Service Center’s monthly discussion series on issues affecting the city of Chicago. The event is free and open to the public.

Ayers will be joined by Sen. Barack Obama, Senior Lecturer in the Law School, who is working to combat legislation that would put more juvenile offenders into the adult system; Randolph Stone, Director of the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic; Alex Correa, a reformed juvenile offender who spent seven years in Cook County Temporary Detention Center; Frank Tobin, a former priest and teacher at the Detention Center who helped Correa; and Willy Baldwin, who grew up in public housing and is currently a teacher at the Detention Center.

The quick and glib "CHANGE" Artist

Look at the truth about Obama and listen to slick Obama in his own words.

The New World Order?

"The People are suffering through no fault of their own."

With the recent economic downturn, Gordon Brown, the embattled and belittled Prime Minister of Great Britain has gone from being written off as a "has been" to Savior of the Banking World. Reports are that W. has been receptive to Brown's ideas which are being feted in Europe as a world solution to the current crisis. But at what cost to free enterprise?

European leaders press for new economic order


Fri Oct 17, 2:19 PM EDT

The idea is ambitious: World leaders joined by aides to the new U.S. president-elect would gather before the year's end in New York and attempt to forge a new vision for the global economy.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has teamed up with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to press for such a summit, and the French leader travels to Camp David this weekend to lobby President Bush to sign on.

Brown, buoyed by the praise he won for engineering a British bank bailout that inspired U.S. and European rescues, is proposing "radical changes" to the global capitalist system, including a cross-border mechanism to monitor the world's 30 biggest financial institutions. Sarkozy has floated the idea of reforming rating agencies and even exploring the future of currency systems.

Details remain vague and the obstacles are many.

But the political pendulum, at least in Europe, is swinging decisively in the direction of tighter control and supervision, away from the laissez-faire economics that fueled a colossal global boom and appear to have enabled an equally dramatic bust.

In Brown's view, what's needed is nothing less than a new version of the 1944 Bretton Woods conference that brought together Allied leaders and established a post-World War II global monetary and financial order, laying foundations for the International Monetary Fund and a currency exchange regime that lasted for three decades.

"This is a defining moment for the world economy," Brown wrote in Friday's Washington Post. "The old postwar international financial institutions are out of date. They have to be rebuilt for a wholly new era."

Behind the lofty rhetoric, Brown and Sarkozy are backed by a degree of clout.

They have proved instrumental in the past two weeks in corralling European governments to dig deep into taxpayers' pockets to shore up banks, unfreeze credit, and soothe markets.

But experts wonder whether leaders at the proposed summit will truly be able to set aside national interests and clashing legal and business cultures to agree on a common vision. In exchange for global financial stability, nations could be forced to sacrifice autonomy and economic growth under tighter regulatory shackles.

The gathering aims to bring together the Group of Eight industrial powers as well as emerging players like China and India — and countries at different stages of economic maturity will bring different needs to the table, as climate change talks have made abundantly clear.

Officials in the waning Bush administration are also politely dismissing global regulation and some observers are skeptical Europeans can sell the idea to any U.S. president.

"I'm very dubious that much can be done," said Charles Wyplosz, an international economics professor in Switzerland.

The White House is playing down the likelihood Bush will agree to a time and place for a summit when he meets this weekend with Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

For Brown, the banking bailouts are only phase 1 in getting finance working again. Phase 2, he argues, will require global action as sweeping as that which gave birth to the United Nations, the World Bank and the IMF in the 1940s.

At a European summit this week, Sarkozy and Brown started to flesh out their proposals, backed by Barroso and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The most eye-catching proposal from Brown — albeit one based on a proposed European system — envisions a cross-border monitoring program for the 30 biggest giants of global finance, such as America's Citigroup Inc. or Britain's HSBC PLC.

He also called for the 185-nation IMF to be turned into an "early warning system for the world economy," with international monitoring powers. Such reform would mark a revival for the IMF, which has receded to the sidelines of the global economy in recent years.

Sarkozy cast his net even wider. The conservative — who has in recent weeks sounded increasingly like a leftist — wants discussion on tax havens, hedge and sovereign wealth funds, the "folly" of big pay bonuses for risk-taking executives and even how many major currencies the world needs.

Some of his harshest words were for ratings agencies, hinting that he wouldn't be sorry to see them disappear altogether in the financial architecture that he and Brown say they want built.

"Do we keep them?" he asked. "What do we replace them with?

"Should they only be American?" he added, in a statement bound to get attention from U.S.-based Moody's and Standard & Poors.

As always, Sarkozy is in a hurry. Waiting three months until John McCain or Barack Obama is sworn in runs the risk of the crisis getting worse or getting better, which could frustrate the drive for fundamental reform, the French leader warned.

He suggested instead that the winner of the November election send economic aides with Bush to the summit. Sarkozy is pushing for a November or December meeting in New York, "where everything started."

"Europe wants it, Europe is asking for it, Europe will get it," he said. "If we wait for the new president that means, in the best case scenario, we would get together in the spring ... It's much too late and not acceptable."

But obstacles abound.

Brown's talk of "very large and very radical changes" could prove highly problematic in a capitalist system that has grown increasingly complex and intertwined since the end of the Cold War.

Experts say experience shows that getting nations to agree on specific rules that could crimp their economic strengths can be a long, frustrating and sometimes fruitless process. And politicians now howling that capitalism needs curing turned a deaf ear to warnings of flaws in the banking system when economic times were good, they point out.

Wyplosz predicted that leaders will find, once they get down "to the nitty gritty," that reforming the World Bank and IMF is going to be difficult.

And he was pessimistic about the prospects for effective cross-border policing of banks, saying countries have a habit of wanting to protect their own banking champions from outside meddling.

"There will be a lot of talk but the discussions will go nowhere and two or three years from now the urge to change things will be gone," he said.

On closer inspection, Brown's still ill-defined proposal to better supervise big financial groups may also not live up to the billing of radical reform.

A British Treasury spokesman, who could not be identified under government policy, said Brown was referring to creation of committees that would meet regularly to swap information on big banks' behavior.

Each committee would be made up of regulators from an array of countries, likely including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland, Britain and the United States, the spokesman said.

He added: "It's not a regulatory thing, it's about information sharing and keeping each other informed."

Julian Jessop, chief international economist at London-based Capital Economics, said "this could be just another set of ghastly committees with a bunch of countries on them."

Some experts are also concerned that a summit with such an ambitious yet vague agenda could distract leaders from far more concrete and pressing steps, not least forcing banks to squirrel away more money so they can better ride out tough times.

"The French are always good at launching very conceptual discussions," said Harald Benink, a professor of banking and finance in the Netherlands. "That doesn't address the fundamental problems that have become all too obvious."

______

AP Business Writers Aoife White in Brussels and Emily Vencat and Pan Pylas in London contributed to this report.

_________________________

Do you get the impression that panicked leaders are grasping at straws in a post-Katrina political world?

Periods of strong economic growth are neither sustainable or desirable for too long a period. Long periods of boom inevitably lead to periods of bust or as we like to say, market corrections.

We've seen the effects of the recent long boom. While millions worldwide were lifted out of poverty, millions in the first world were added to the ranks of millionaires. Remember the Millionaire Next Door ? During the heyday, it was reported that more Americans than ever owned mutual funds or shares in individual companies. The term "Day trading" made its way into the lexicon as many ordinary Americans made a very nice living for a while. McMansions began to dot the landscape as more boomers than ever inherited their parents wealth and saw their paper assets swell as tech start-ups raised unprecedented amounts of IPO capital. Tech Shares traded at ungodly multiples and wiser heads puzzled at how their Price to Earnings ratios dwarfed the old stalwarts of business and industry. Brick and mortar became passe as the public was sold on the unlimited, hightech future of a world online. Happy days, heady days until that market collapsed. The panicked herd then ran to real estate and a new race was on as house flipping became the latest theme for television shows and gist for office water cooler conversations. Everyone was invited to the party. "No job? No income? No Problem! Come on in!" Times were so good that cash littered the street as the ubiquitous armored cars were often involved in accidents or guards became nonchalant about security procedures.

Ah, the good old days, before 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and 500-year floods in England when we were suddenly reminded that civilization has a thin veneer and a government that is tone-deaf to manmade and natural disasters puts itself in jeopardy.

Now we find ourselves in the "bust" phase of a free-market system. Human nature being what it is, this was our inevitable destination as greed triumphed over wisdom and experience. Now, it is obligatory for our politicians to solemnly acknowledge, "the people are suffering." Having learned their lessons, they will not be seen as callous lackeys for Wall Street, the City or any other capitalist center of free enterprise. Instead, they see this as a time to console the downtrodden speculators and busted fatcats like Joe Six-Pack whose portfolio has taken quite a hit in recent months. The nanny-state must be seen as doing everything in its power to evacuate Joe from the rising flood waters of the deregulated financial tsunami. Even in America, Joe's hand is out. He wants whatever the government is offering.

Damn the consequences, dire times call for dire measures, right? Spend whatever it takes, do whatever it takes, just make the pain go away. Worry about tomorrow, tomorrow.

America seems to want a nanny-state but the politicians need to do as the nanny in my life, my mother, did. After we suffered a scrape or a bump, she said, "It's okay, it will feel better when it quits hurting." Then she sent us out of the house, back into the world to again take our lumps and bumps.

Himno Colombia

Hat Tip: trisha

Bush presses for Colombia trade deal Obama opposes

By Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush pressed Congress on Thursday to approve a free trade pact with Colombia, one day after Republican presidential candidate John McCain went after his Democratic opponent Barack Obama for opposing the agreement.

"Congress is coming back to Washington next month. One of the top priorities should be to approve this vital agreement with Colombia as well as (other trade pacts) with Panama and South Korea," Bush said at a ceremony to sign a bill to renew expiring trade benefits for Andean countries.

His words reinforced McCain's attempt during the final presidential debate on Wednesday night to portray Obama as hostile to free trade.

McCain argued the pact would bolster ties with an important regional ally "helping us try to stop the flow of drugs into our country that's killing young Americans," while leveling the playing field for U.S. goods.

"Free trade with Colombia is something that's a no-brainer. But maybe you ought to travel down there and visit them and maybe you could understand it a lot better," McCain said.

"Actually, I understand it pretty well," Obama shot back. "The history in Colombia right now is that labor leaders have been targeted for assassination on a fairly consistent basis and there have not been prosecutions."

Obama insisted he supported free trade.

"But I also believe that for far too long, certainly during the course of the Bush administration with the support of Sen. McCain, the attitude has been that any trade agreement is a good trade agreement," Obama said.

The United States and Colombia signed the free trade pact shortly after the November 2006 election in which Democrats won control of the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.

Since then, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, has refused to take up the agreement, leading to a showdown with Bush earlier this year.

Pelosi first cited concerns about a long history of murder and other violence against trade unionists in Colombia as the main reason Democrats wanted to delay the pact.

After Bush tried in April to force a vote, Pelosi said Congress needed to pass a second economic stimulus package and legislation to expand the federal "trade adjustment assistance" program before she would allow action.

Some business lobbyists still see a long-shot chance Congress will approve the Colombia pact this year, but their labor group opponents say that is far-fetched.

Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador have received duty-free treatment for most of their exports to the United States under a program that dates back to 1991 to create jobs outside the region's huge illegal drug sector.

Congress approved a trade deal with Peru last year locking in those benefits, but it has not gone into force.

The bill Bush signed on Wednesday extends trade benefits for Colombia and Peru through the end of 2009.

It also provides a six-month extension for both Bolivia and Ecuador and gives the White House the authority to renew benefits for both countries another six months.

In Bolivia's case, the extension could be moot since Bush began steps last month to suspend it from the program.

"Unfortunately Bolivia has failed to cooperate with the United States on important efforts to fight drug trafficking. So sadly, I have proposed to suspend Bolivia's trade preferences until it fulfills its obligations," Bush said.

Why not? Hat Tip: doug.

"We're going to change the country and change the world."

Barack Obama vows to 'change the world'
Barack Obama has vowed that he will "change the world" even as he urged his supporters to guard against complacency.

By Toby Harnden in Londonderry, New Hampshire
Telegraph 18 Oct 2008

The supremely confident demeanour and exalted rhetoric of the Democratic nominee at a New Hampshire event betrayed that he is a man convinced he is poised to make history.

While his Republican opponent John McCain, trailing in the polls, is pursuing a strategy of eking out a victory in traditional swing states, Mr Obama is transferring resources to conservative strongholds like Georgia, West Virginia and even Kentucky in pursuit of a landslide victory.

Speaking in an apple orchard against the picture-perfect New England backdrop of an red, green and yellow autumn foliage on a stage adorned with pumpkins and hay bales, Mr Obama reminded voters of the dangers of hubris.

Polls indicated that the young Illinois senator was cruising towards a crushing victory over Hillary Clinton in the state's Democratic primary. His rallies were two or three times the size of hers. The media had declared him the victor, a conclusion shared by Obama aides.

On election day, however, Mrs Clinton won. "We are 19 days away from changing this country. Nineteen days away. But for those who are getting a little cocky, I've got two words for you: New Hampshire," said Mr Obama.

"I learned right here, with the help of my great friend and supporter Hillary Clinton, that you cannot let up, you can't pay too much attention to polls. We've got to keep making our case for change. We've got to keep fighting for every single vote. We've got to keep running through the finish line."

At a glitzy fundraising event in Manhattan at which Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel performed Mr Obama warned high-roller supporters: "Don't underestimate the capacity of Democrats to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Don't underestimate our ability to screw it up."

But much of Mr Obama's speech in Londonderry - punctuated by cries of "We all love you Obama", "I love you" and "We will work with you" - was devoted to the kind of quasi-religious sentiments and motivational-coach style exhortations, the kind of pride that set him up for a big fall in January.

"I want you to believe," said the candidate, clad in an open-necked shirt and barn jacket. "Not so much believe just in me but believe in yourselves. Believe in the future. Believe in the future we can build together. I'm confident together we can't fail."

There was a carnival atmosphere among the crowd of some 4,000, who almost drowned Mr Obama out as he reached his crescendo and said: "I promise you. We won't just win New Hampshire. We will win this election and, you and I together, we're going to change the country and change the world."

Mr Obama was described as "preternaturally confident" in a gushing endorsement by the Washington Post on Friday.

His supreme self-belief has also been the target of late-night comedians. "With just 19 days left until the election, Barack Obama warned supporters today to guard against overconfidence," Tina fey of Saturday Night Live reported.

"Then he boarded Air Force One, blasted 'We Are The Champions' and shouted 'I'm King of the World'."

Both Democrats and Republicans in New Hampshire appear convinced that Mr Obama will win.

"We feel we're on the brink of a whole new life in this country," said Betsy Whitman, 69.

"Sure, he'll win," said Marlene Hulme, 70, at the Londonderry event. "Our expectations were high today and he knocked it out of the park."

A lone McCain supporter at the rally said she too was convinced that the Republican nominee was finished. "McCain has lost," said Deborah Barnhart, 48, who runs a landscaping business.

"He's lost because the Messiah has spoken and we're going to change the world. That's all people want to hear after eight years of Bush. Obama thinks he's won. Everyone here thinks he's won."

Nicaragua, Hamas, Hezbollah, Gaugazia and Trans-Dniester still love Russia.

Former US President, electoral observer and full time horse's ass, Jimmy Carter shakes hands with candidate Daniel Ortega from the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) 06 November 2006, in Managua.

The Russian stock market is down seventy percent this week from its high in May and the speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament said on Thursday that Russia could resume a naval presence in Yemen. With a severe recession in the offing and oil prices halved, will Putin's Russia become more pleasant?

Although I am sure we can rest assured that Vladimir will be impressed with Obama's coolness.

___________________________

The Axis of Moscow
It's lonely out there for Vladimir Putin.

Where would Russia be without Daniel Ortega? Even more isolated than the Kremlin now finds itself after its August adventure in Georgia.

Wall Street Journal

Two months after the war in the Caucasus, Mr. Ortega's Nicaragua is the lone country to follow Moscow's recognition of the "independence" -- in effect, Russian annexation -- of Georgia's South Ossetia and Abkhazia provinces. Given Russia's serious diplomatic onslaught, that's an embarrassing outcome for Vladimir Putin.

Consider the rogue's gallery that refused to go along: Hugo Chávez's Venezuela, the Castros' Cuba, Bolivia, Iran and Syria. The club of seven authoritarian former Soviet republics known as the Collective Security Treaty Organization also demurred. Even Moscow's puppet autocrat in Belarus, Aleksander Lukashenko, deferred to his toothless parliament; in other words, nyet, for now. Russia was rebuffed by China and India at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

There is of course a long line of goons happy to take military, energy or economic handouts from the Kremlin, though the dramatic drop in oil prices and Russian stocks will limit its ability to buy people off. Mr. Lukashenko could well be holding out his support for cheaper natural gas. But Russia's erratic and aggressive behavior in the Caucasus has apparently given even him pause about its possible intentions against Belarus.



In addition to Mr. Ortega, Russia did manage recognition by Hamas, Hezbollah and the Moldovan regions of Gaugazia and Trans-Dniester. But that is little solace for a Kremlin whose bigger goal in the war was to declare a Monroe-ski Doctrine for its "near abroad" and lead a new anti-American block. Fyodor Lukyanov, the editor of Russia in Global Affairs, summed up the strategy: "Our long effort to become part of the West is over. The aim now is to be an independent power in a multipolar world in which Russia is a major player."

McCain Razzing Obama - Good Stuff

Let's Destroy Joe the Plumber

Hat Tip: Bobal

I knew that the Politico was nothing more than another shill for the Left. They are worried that Joe owes $1,289 in back taxes. Why that could qualify him to be in charge of the Ways and Means Committee would it not, and oh my Joe is not a member of the plumbers union or guild.

Oooh, you mean he is not part of the scam tax and restraint of trade racket practiced by the union construction trades in America? We cannot have that.

Goodness, Washington DC is a right to work City last time I checked and if you need some real cheap labor, you can go to many many street corners and find all the non-union workers you want and these guys are all non everything, no ID, no SSN, no nothing. The MSM and the Democrats would defend their rights to be there illegally because they are only looking to be part of the American dream. Why the Democrats would be signing them up to vote as well. Those guys are the Democrats ideal of real Americans. Joe, however is a problem.

Joe is a real native American, white, not on welfare, and has a brain to express an opinion. He is also a Republican, sort of. He asks questions of candidates. He did not get a tingle in his leg when in the presence of the messiah. He asked better questions than the pompous prince of mumble, Tom Brokaw. By all means, Joe is dangerous and needs to be taken down a yard or so.

This is a new America and Joe is not the image that we want. He does not have the Michelle Obama anger. Joe does not have to be led out of the wilderness by Barack.

By all means let's destroy Joe the Plumber and show him what it is like to be a real new American.

Brothers in Harlem Support Obama - Howard Stern finds Out why.

"Take from Joe, give to the bro" ain't gonna win it. - bobal

Joe the Plumber

Joe Wurzelbacher - Joe the Plumber, part of the American rich not paying his fair share, sitting in his smoking jacket and watching the debate from his palatial estate.

Who Won?

Who Would You Rather Smoke a Joint With, Barack or My Guy?

Better The Devil We Know?

Hat Tip: American Thinker

Maybe We Should Bow

Why (some) women don't scrub up as well as men
By Jeremy Laurance
The Independent
Wednesday, 15 October 2008



A fifth of women in the study carried faecal bacteria on their hands

In matters of personal hygiene, it is men who are viewed as the grimy sex while women strive to keep them scrubbed. But a survey has revealed that female cleanliness is a myth. Women were up to three times more likely to have dirty hands than men.

The difference between the sexes was starkest in London, where 21 per cent of women were carrying faecal bacteria on their hands, compared with 6 per cent of men. Women in Birmingham and Cardiff also outranked men for bacterial contamination, but in the north – Newcastle and Liverpool – stereotypes reasserted themselves and men had the filthiest hands.

The Dirty Hands study was conducted to highlight poor hygiene habits as part of the first Global Handwashing Day today. Commuters' at five train stations were swab-tested for bacteria. The results, analysed by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical medicine, also revealed a north-south divide. Commuters in Newcastle were up to three times more likely than those in London to have the bacteria on their hands – 44 per cent versus 13 per cent. More than a third in Liverpool were contaminated, compared to less than a quarter in Birmingham and Cardiff.

The bacteria were all from the gut and do not necessarily cause disease, although they indicate that hands have not been washed properly.

Val Curtis, director of the Hygiene Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "We were flabbergasted so many people had faecal bugs on their hands. If these people had been suffering from a diarrhoeal disease, the potential for it to be passed round would be greatly increased by their failure to wash their hands after going to the toilet."

Where Is the US Department of Justice on Voting Fraud?

Listen to the brother

We sent three armies to Iraq to bring democracy to the Middle East. We raid chicken factories looking for Mexicans and we pull blue haired white lady octogenarians out of airport lines searching for contraband, but we do not have a president with a testosterone level high enough to investigate and prosecute an overwhelmingly radical left wing black criminal organization determined to undermine the integrity of US elections.

I seem to recall the white outrage when black voters were turned away from voting polls in the South because they could not pass a literacy test. Today we have black felons corrupting an election and the US is afraid to take them on because they are black. There is no other explanation. If Acorn were a white Republican group the response would be predictable, immediate and applauded by the press. Not so with Acorn.

The American government, press and public, overwhelmingly white, has been reduced to a hushed whimper. Fear of the truth is pathetic and whatever the consequences, it will be deserved if the level of outrage is a dribble.

What Would Obama Do?

If Bailout Plan Is Too Socialistic, Just Wait For Obama Leviathan By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Tuesday, September 30, 2008 4:20 PM PT Election '08: Have Americans been so lulled by Barack Obama's smooth talk that they don't realize his plans would expand government into a massive socialist behemoth? His is a soft-spoken, hard-left agenda.

During Friday night's debate in Mississippi, Obama disparaged what he called "this notion that the market can always solve everything and that the less regulation we have, the better off we're going to be."

But the subprime crisis Washington is dealing with is the result of three decades of the federal government pressuring banks — via the regulatory demands of the Democrats' 1977 Community Reinvestment Act, which was expanded by Bill Clinton — to make tens of billions of dollars in bad loans to poor people with lousy credit ratings.

It was Democrats' regulatory and litigious assaults upon the mortgage market in pursuit of "social justice" that left our economy in its precarious position of today; indeed as an attorney, Obama himself in 1994 represented a client suing Citibank, accusing it of systematically denying mortgages to blacks.

But if the taxpayer rescue of Wall Street and Uncle Sam's taking over the banking system scares you, the broader socialism planned by the Democratic presidential nominee should leave you petrified.

Here are a few examples, with price tags provided by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation:

• Politicized financial regulation: Obama would establish a Financial Market Regulation and Oversight Commission to "end our balkanized framework of overlapping and competing regulatory agencies" and "which would meet regularly and report to the president, the president's financial working group and Congress on the state of our financial markets and the systemic risks that face them."

Translation: more centralized and heavy-handed regulatory power over businesses for Washington.

• Government-managed medicine: Even left-leaning health care experts concede that Obama's expanded coverage plan will cost $100 billion; with no real cost containment, that will mean a second wave of reform that could impose full socialized medicine on our country.

Obama declares that "governments at all levels should lead the effort to develop a national and regional strategy for public health, and align funding mechanisms to support its implementation."

His plan also presumes racial discrimination, "requiring hospitals and health plans to collect, analyze and report health care quality for disparity populations and holding them accountable for any differences found."

• Community health centers: Your local doctor may become obsolete in Obama's brave new world in which $6.7 billion will be spent over five years building "community health centers" featuring "preventive, diagnostic and other primary care services."

• Antitrust enforcement: Promising this "is how we ensure that capitalism works for consumers," a President Obama would "stop or restructure those mergers that are likely to harm consumer welfare, while quickly clearing those that do not" and "working with foreign governments to change unsound competition laws."

Behind this harmless-sounding rhetoric is the misguided belief that the government must shield companies of its choosing from their competitors' lower prices and innovative practices. Courts and government bureaucrats under Obama could be expected to use antitrust to claim the existence of imaginary monopolies and squash mergers and other business transactions.

• Required IRAs: Under Obama, "employers who do not currently offer a retirement plan will be required to automatically enroll their employees in a direct deposit IRA account."

Costing $292 billion annually, according to the NTUF's latest analysis, Obama's plans are far more than just "change"; they would transfigure American society into full-blown socialism. With little more than a month to go before this most consequential election, voters seem not to appreciate the danger.

• Dictatorial energy policy: Obama would spend $150 billion over a decade "to advance the next generation of biofuels and fuel infrastructure, accelerate the commercialization of plug-in hybrids" and create other ways to force uneconomical forms of energy on the auto and oil industry.

A Clean Technologies Deployment Venture Capital Fund would artificially finance the environmentalist pet projects in which private investors have little faith.

Negating the global labor market, the Illinois senator also promises to "provide specific tax assistance and loan guarantees to the domestic auto industry to ensure that new fuel-efficient cars and trucks" are built within the U.S.

• Bullying utilities: The Chicago Democrat would require that 25% of electricity consumed in the U.S. be "derived from clean, sustainable energy sources, like solar, wind and geothermal by 2025." Unless those alternative sources get cheap fast, that likely means a big escalation in consumers' electric bills.

Obama also proposes "to 'flip' incentives to state and local utilities by ensuring companies get increased profits for improving energy efficiency, rather than higher energy consumption."

• Billions for teachers unions: Instead of school choice for parents, in which competition would improve public educations and give the poor access to private education, Obama proposes "an accountability system that supports schools to improve, rather than focuses on punishments."

His five-year, $90 billion education plan would dole out "a $200 million grant program for states and districts that want to provide additional learning time for students in need," double federal funding for afterschool programs, provide "professional development and coaching to school leaders, teachers and other school personnel," "develop multi-tiered credentialing systems that encourage principals to grow professionally," and cook up other ways to keep public school teachers on the clock longer.

Uncle Sam would also "collect evidence about how prospective teachers plan and teach in the classroom" in an Obama administration.

• Required public service: In return for the federal government paying the first $4,000 of college tuition through a tax credit — which would be tough for most American families to turn down — Obama would require recipients "to conduct 100 hours of public service a year."

• Required sick leave: Spending $1.5 billion over five years, Obama would "encourage" the states to adopt paid-leave systems that "guarantee workers seven days of paid sick leave per year."

• Thought police: In what sounds like the outdated and unconstitutional Fairness Doctrine on steroids, Obama would "encourage diversity in the ownership of broadcast media, promote the development of new media outlets for expression of diverse viewpoints, and clarify the public interest obligations of broadcasters who occupy the nation's spectrum."

What would the "public interest obligations" of liberal Democrats' opponents within the media end up being in an Obama administration?

• Green Corps: Barack Obama would spend $390 million over five years to fund "an energy-focused Green Jobs Corps to engage disconnected and disadvantaged youth . . . to improve the energy efficiency of homes and buildings in their communities, while also providing them with practical skills and experience in important career fields of expected high-growth employment."

It's a quasi-paramilitary organization dedicated to environmentalism that promises inductees that they would be getting practical employment training for future "green jobs."

• Teaching parents parenting: The senator would spend $300 million over five years establishing "Promise Neighborhoods in cities that have high levels of poverty and crime and low levels of student academic achievement." A key feature would be "parenting schools for parents."

• Housebuilding army: the Youthbuild program would be expanded from 8,000 to 50,000 over eight years at a cost of $257 million to "construct and rehabilitate affordable housing for low-income and homeless families."

• Patent reform: Obama's idea of "opening up the patent process to citizen review" would make it much tougher for businesses to challenge the government's judgment on the ownership rights of an invention, which will have a negative effect on the incentives to innovate.

• Private parklands regulation: Obama would "do more to encourage private citizens to protect the open spaces and forests they own and the endangered species that live there . . . and encourage communities to enhance local greenspace, wildlife and conservation areas."

The Obama campaign uses the word "encourage" over and over in numerous areas of policy. Expect it to be the form of encouragement practiced by Don Corleone — making you an offer you can't refuse.

• Autism czar: If you weren't convinced that the Democratic nominee intends to use the federal government's powers to solve every known problem, consider his promise to spend $2.5 billion over four years on appointment of an "Autism Czar" to "ensure that all federal funds are being spent in a manner that prioritizes results."

Obama is a Fraud

Hat tip: Charles

Obama Born In Kenya? His Grandmother Says Yes
Monday, October 13, 2008 - By: Yonah, Tamar Israel News

Someone is lying. According to Obama's Kenyan (paternal) grandmother, as well as his half-brother and half-sister, Barack Hussein Obama was born in Kenya, not in Hawaii as the Democratic candidate for president claims. His grandmother bragged that her grandson is about to be President of the United States and is so proud because she was present DURING HIS BIRTH IN KENYA, in the delivery room. -This, according to several news sites and Pennsylvania attorney Philip J. Berg (see video ABOVE) who is, surprisingly, a life long democrat himself. Berg is the former Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania, and he has an impressive background in his activities as a democrat, but his support for the party seemingly stops when it comes to his trust in Barack Hussein Obama.

Many U.S. voters are suspicious of the Democratic candidate's past, and Berg filed a lawsuit to force Barack Hussein Obama to produce a certified copy of his original birth certificate to prove that he can run for the office of President of the United States. However, he is being fought. The DNC On Sept. 24 filed a motion to dismiss the Berg action. Why? What is there to hide? Why not produce the original birth certificate and be done with all the suspicions against Barack Hussein Obama?

A few months back, a birth certificate WAS posted on the internet which shows that Obama was born in Hawaii. Yet some say this birth certificate is a forgery and again, his grandmother states that she was present at the birth, in Kenya. So what is the truth?

One explanation is that Obama's mother Ann Dunham, flew to Kenya in 1961 with Obama's father to meet his family. According to some news reports, Ann Dunham, was not accepted well by her husband's family because she was white:
"Obama's family did not take to Stanley Ann Dunham Obama very well, because she was white, according to Sarah Obama. Shortly after she arrived in Kenya Stanley Ann decided to return to Hawaii because she later said, she did not like how Muslim men treated their wives in Kenya. However, because she was near term the airline would not let her fly until after the birth of her baby. Obama's grandmother said the baby—Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.—was born in Kenya and that shortly after he was born, Stanley Ann returned to Hawaii."

more

The Market is Surging this Morning.

The markets are up this morning after the weekend news that governments around the world had acted to "rescue" their banking systems. Let us hope that the market bottom was hit last Friday because its no secret, to work properly, socialism needs lots and lots of money. One populist tendency we're seeing recently is the political pandering to class warfare. We must be careful not to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

stolen from Rush Limbaugh.

According to Barack Obama, 95% of the American Taxpayers will get a tax cut under his plan. He says that no one making under $250,000 per year will see their taxes increase.

It seems to me that those numbers, like much else about Obama, have been very "fluid" lately. I don't believe that I have ever seen a Presidential candidate get away with so much obfuscation about his past or his political agenda. Getting a straight answer about his past political and religious associations with the likes of Ayres, and Wright has been an exercise in frustation. For nearly two years, the media has reported that Obama was a community organizer. Until recently, there was no explanation of what a community organizer did or who Obama worked for. Even now, in regard to the subprime meltdown, you hear very little about Obama's efforts on behalf of ACORN. Obama says that he may be the most scrutinized candidate in US history. If that is the case, the MSM has been constitutionally negligent in their Obama whitewash. What about Obama's ties to the socialist New Party? The MSM won't go near it nor have they published one investigative story on the education reform which Obama and Ayres were carrying out in Chicago. But why would the media tells us the truth about that, when they neglect to report on Obama's prevarications and contradictions regarding his past? Maybe it's because the MSM fear that if Main Stream America learns the truth about Obama, there's no way in hell they will elect him to be the next President.

Remember, the most important things this election are "hope and change." Keep hope alive!

Saddam Protected the Christians in Iraq. How is Maliki Doing?

This is a photo of Iraqi Christians seting up tents in a football stadium in Burtulla yesterday. They had to flee for their lives to escape a campaign against Christians by Islamic extremists in Mosul. Remember Mosul? But that is only a part of the story. Under Saddam there were 1,000,000 Iraqi Christians.

After seven years the number is down to 250,000. There is not one, repeat, not one Christian nation where Muslims are discriminated against or terrorized. It seems that the democracy crusade may have fallen a little short of the mark.

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Police pour into Mosul to protect Christians from sectarian killings

"One of the world's oldest Christian communities is being forced to flee the Iraqi city in their thousands." writes Patrick Cockburn

Monday, 13 October 2008
The Independent

The Iraqi government was yesterday rushing 1,000 police to Mosul to try to stop a murderous campaign against Christians which has forced thousands to flee the northern city.

Officials say about 4,000 people have taken flight in the past week to escape the killings being carried out by Islamic extremists intent on wiping out one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. "The violence is the fiercest campaign against the Christians since 2003," said the provincial governor of Mosul, Duraid Kashmula. "Among those killed over the last 11 days were a doctor, an engineer and a handicapped person." At least three houses belonging to Christians were blown up in the Sukkar district of Mosul, regarded as a bastion of al-Qa'ida in Iraq, on Saturday night.

Since 28 September, at least 11 Christians have been killed in the mostly Sunni Muslim city that lies on the river Tigris some 200 miles north of Baghdad. Most of the refugees fleeing the violence are moving to Christian villages, schools and monasteries elsewhere in the Nineveh province.

"We left everything behind us. We took only our souls," said Ni'ma Noail, a middle-aged Christian civil servant, who has taken refuge with his three children in a church in Bartila, a Christian village east of Mosul. "Relatives in other cities and friends in Mosul, including Muslims, advised me to leave after recent events."

No Christians in the city feel safe. Last week the owner of a pharmacy was shot dead by a man who claimed to be a plain-clothes policeman and asked for his identity card. Traditionally there have been more Christians in Mosul than in any other Iraqi city. Police say they have found the bullet-riddled body of seven other Christians this month, including a day labourer killed on Wednesday.

The Christian community in Mosul claims to have been founded by St Thomas. Many belong to the Chaldean or Assyrian churches but, even before the present wave of killings, the number of Christians in the city had dropped from 20,000 to 10,000. In March, the Chaldean archbishop of Mosul, Paul Faraj Ranho, was kidnapped and his body was later found in a shallow grave.

The Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, said he will do everything to guarantee the safety of Christians whose community in Iraq, which numbered 800,000 five years ago, is now down to 250,000. "Two national police brigades were sent to Christian areas in Mosul and churches were surrounded and put under tight security," said an Interior Ministry spokesman, Abdul-Karim Khalaf.

The sectarian killings in Mosul are a setback to the Iraqi government's effort to persuade the 4.2 million Iraqis who have fled their homes since the fall of Saddam Hussein that it is now safe to return. Of these, two million are refugees within Iraq and a further 2.2 million took refuge abroad, mostly in Syria and Jordan. So far only 20,000 families, or 120,000 individuals, have returned, according to Abdul-Khaliq Zanqana, a member of the Iraqi parliament's displacement and migration committee.

Some Iraqis living abroad have been coming back this year after hearing Iraqi government and US claims of improved security and living conditions but often do not stay long. "My father came back from Syria where he has been living for three years," said Sami Hamoud Khalas, a 39-year-old Sunni taxi driver from west Baghdad. "But he went back after a couple of weeks because of the lack of electricity, checkpoints everywhere and because it is still dangerous."

Security is better than it was in 2006-07 when 3,000 bodies, often mutilated by torture, were turning up every month. But it is still very poor compared to any other country in the world. There are few mixed areas left in Baghdad. It is very dangerous for people to try to reclaim their house if it was in a Sunni area and they are Shia, or vice versa.

One Shia family which returned to their old Sunni neighbourhood in west Baghdad found it stripped of furniture, electrical plugs and even taps. "They decided to sleep on the roof of their house," recalls Menas Mohammed Ibrahim, a secondary school teacher. "But in the night some Sunni came and cut off the husband's head, threw it off the roof and told his wife and children: 'This will happen to any more of you Shia who try to come back.'"

Returning Sunni and Shia often do not reclaim their homes but rent accommodation in a part of Baghdad where their community predominates. The city remains divided by concrete blast walls and checkpoints which increase security but paralyse ordinary activities.

Iraqis are generally cynical about efforts by their government to persuade them that normal life is resuming. Most of the senior members of the government live in the heavily fortified Green Zone protected by US troops and with a permanent electricity supply and clean water. "They say security is good but they hide behind their concrete barriers," said Salman Mohammed Jumah, a 31-year-old primary school teacher. "They do not know what is happening on the ground. They only go out in their armoured convoys."

Is this a religious war?

India: Evidence Concocted Against Christians In Murder Of Hindu Leader
October 11, 2008

Orissa police confirm Maoists killed Saraswati; thousands flee amid continued violence. NEW DELHI, (Compass Direct News) - After police in the eastern state of Orissa confirmed this week that Maoists killed Hindu nationalist leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, a Hindu extremist group circulated allegedly forged documents in an attempt to implicate a local church in the Aug. 23 murder.

The Hindu Jagaran Samukhya (Society for Revival of Hinduism or HJS) circulated documents saying the plan to kill Saraswati in Kandhamal district was made at a meeting at Bethikala Church on May 25 attended by 17 people following a briefing and command from religious leaders, the Press Trust of India news agency reported yesterday.

Local Christian leaders responded by saying they will file defamation charges.

"We will file both civil and criminal defamation cases against the person who made such allegations," Father Joseph Kalathil from the Catholic Archbishop House in Bhubaneswar and the Rev. Fr. Prafulla Ku Sabhapati, president of the Bethikala Parish Council of Kandhamal, said in a statement. "Not only our signatures were forged, the contents of the documents were also fabricated."

On Oct. 6 Orissa state police confirmed that Maoists killed Saraswati, a day after the chief of the Orissa unit of the banned Communist Party of India-Maoist, Sabyasachi Panda, told NDTV 24X7 news that his organization was behind the murder.

The Maoists killed Saraswati because he was a key leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council or VHP), Panda told the channel. The VHP, he said, used non-tribal traders' money to build VHP's youth wing, Bajrang Dal, and ran a campaign against Christians, falsely accusing them of forced conversions and killing cows, considered holy by Hindus.

"This forced us to attack him," Panda said. "We left two letters claiming responsibility for the murders. But the [Chief Minister Naveen] Patnaik government suppressed those letters. It is a BJP [Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party] government; they will support the VHP. The state government made it look like Christian groups were responsible for the attack. The Christian community in Orissa does not have any Maoist organization supporting them here."

There were also reports, however, of the Orissa police having arrested three tribal Christians in connection with Saraswati's murder. The Indian Express reported that the three had confessed their involvement.

A representative of the Christian Legal Association told Compass that according to sources, the police had tortured the three Christians to pressure them to confess a crime they did not commit.

After the assassination of Saraswati, Hindu extremist groups blamed local Christians and began attacks on them, their houses and their churches. The worst violence against Christians in modern India erupted in spite of the Orissa police and media stating on the day of the murder that suspected Maoists killed Saraswati.

According to the All India Christian Council, more than 60 people have been killed, more than 18,000 injured and around 4,500 houses and churches destroyed in the "retributive" violence. Two Christian women, including a nun, were also gang-raped. The violence, which later spread to at least 14 districts of Orissa, has left more than 50,000 people homeless.

Attacks Continue

Orissa's Kandhamal district remained tense even 48 days after the violence began.

Yesterday about 15 houses were burned down by a mob in the Lansaripalli village in Kantamal Block of neighboring Boudh district, The Hindu reported. The attackers came from the Gochhapada area of Kandhamal district.

"Thursday's was the third incident in Boudh district," added the daily. "More than 100 houses were burnt down in two separate attacks in the past few days."

On Wednesday (Oct. 8), a mob burned and looted at least 25 houses belonging to Christians in the Balligada village under Daringbadi police station in Kandhamal's Nuagam Block, Father Ajay Singh of the Catholic Archdiocese of Bhubaneswar told Compass.

On Tuesday (Oct. 7), over five houses were torched in Jalespanga area under Phiringia police jurisdiction in Kandhamal. Another house was burned in the Sujeli village of G. Udayagiri Block the same day.

The Hindu also said the more than 16,000 Christians living in various relief camps were not returning to their villages, fearing attacks on them if they refused to convert to Hinduism.

Fr. Singh from the Bhubaneswar Archdiocese told Compass that over 12,000 Christians from various relief camps had moved out of Kandhamal to other districts and states, as they feared more attacks.

Supporting Violence

The president of the VHP, Ashok Singhal, told Zee News channel on Sunday (Oct. 5), "What Hindu organizations including the VHP, the Bajrang Dal and the RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, India's chief Hindu nationalist group] are doing in Orissa is all legal and is the reaction of the murder of VHP leader Saraswati, who was like Jesus Christ to us."

In an interview with The Week magazine (Oct. 5), Singhal said that Hindu youth are "ready to die and, if necessary, to kill. [Their] patience is ebbing."

Singhal added that a "Hindu uprising" had begun, "and the political parties will have to rethink and reinvent themselves, for their own existence. If there is no arrangement for Hindus' security, they'll do it on their own. The Hindus will not die. If that self-defence is militancy, so be it ... the Hindu never went around the world for suzerainty or to convert ... now they are here, undermining us. That causes anger. In fact many want to fight back this harvesting of Hindus."

In addition, a leader of the Bajrang Dal in the southern state of Karnataka admitted to supporting recent attacks on churches while speaking to The Week magazine. "We supported those who attacked the churches, as it is a justified fight," Bajrang Dal convenor Mahendra Kumar said.

The violence in Orissa spread to several other states, including Karnataka, where around 20 churches were destroyed and 20 Christians were attacked in the recent weeks.

As many political parties and rights groups have demanded a ban on the Bajrang Dal for attacking Christians and churches in Orissa and other states, the federal government ruled by the United Progressive Alliance has mandated the National Integration Council to give its recommendations, reported the Times of India today.

The Bajrang Dal, however, warned that any such move would have "grave consequences" for the government politically, saying there was "no legal ground" for such an action.

There are 897,861 Christians in Orissa, which has a population of 36.8 million.

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Barack Acorn Obama, Community Organizing America

When you rob from Peter to pay Paul you will ALWAYS get Paul's vote.

Hat tip: American Thinker

No problem here? No connection to the economic downfall? Do you seriously think that it will not get worse? How much evidence does it take for one to understand exactly what Barack Obama is all about?

Forget the relevance to Obama's middle name being Hussein, it should be Acorn, and from little acorns come some mighty big trees, and these trees are going to continue to shade out a lot of American productive growth.

When you rob from Peter to pay Paul you will ALWAYS get Paul's vote.

The World Financial Collapse and the Growing Security Risk

Financial crisis: Countries at risk of bankruptcy from Pakistan to Baltics

A string of countries face the risk of "going bust" as financial panic sweeps Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, raising the spectre of a strategic crisis in some of the world's most dangerous spots.

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Telegraph

10 Oct 2008

Nuclear-armed Pakistan is bleeding foreign reserves at an alarming rate leading to fears that it could default on its loans.

There are mounting fears that Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Argentina could all now slide into a downward spiral towards bankruptcy, while western banks exposed to property bubble across Eastern Europe have seen their share price crushed.

The markets are pricing an 80pc risk that Ukraine will default, based on five-year credit default swaps (CDS) – an insurance policy on a country being able to pay its debts.

The country's banking system has begun to break down after years of torrid credit growth; its steel mills are shutting as demand collapses; and the political crisis is going from bad to worse.

President Viktor Yushchenko dissolved parliament this week in a dispute that risks bitter conflict with the country's Russian bloc. Diplomats fear Moscow could be drawn into the crisis – or even use it as a pretext to occupy territory in a replay of the Georgia invasion this summer.

Ukraine's government seized Prominvestbank this week, suspending payments to creditors. It closed the Kiev stock market, which has fallen 73pc this year.

Emerging market stocks have been tumbling since their peak in October, when investors were still betting that rising stars such as the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China) were now strong enough to shake off a US crisis. That illusion has been shattered.

The International Monetary Fund said it is mobilising a "rapid-fire" fund worth several hundred billion dollars to stop a domino collapse across the developing world.

The trigger for the latest round of capital flight has been the lightning implosion of Iceland. BNP Paribas warned clients yesterday that the island is heading for "sovereign default" with contagion risks for other economies that have been living beyond their means on foreign credit.

Hungary had to intervene yesterday to prop up its markets following a run on country's biggest lender OTP. The Budapest bourse fell 13pc. The treasury had to scrap a bond auction.

The most new mortgages in Hungary are in Swiss francs, leaving the homeowners facing a vicious squeeze as the forint plunges against the franc.

In Pakistan, the rupee has fallen to an all-time low. Standard & Poor's downgraded the country's sovereign debt to near write-off levels of CCC-plus. The central bank's foreign reserves have fallen to $4.7bn (£2.73billion).

"The danger of default is hovering," said Professor Kaisar Bengali from Karachi University.

"Pakistan may not be able to re-pay its debt or import anything," he said, adding that the country cannot assume that it will be bailed out for strategic reasons.

Default risk on Kazakhstan's top banks has risen to 70pc as property bubble bursts in the former Soviet republic and reliance in foreign credit comes back to haunt.
The country has mortgaged its future to oil prices, which crashed below $80 a barrel yesterday as the whole nexus of commodities (except gold) buckled in a wave of forced selling.

Analysts warn that it is leading indicator for what could happen if Russia if crude falls much further.

Culture Wars Capitulation - Not So Great Britain

Is it art? One of the controversial images from the clay sculpted frieze, which will complete St Pancras International Station's Meeting Place statue


Welcome to Britain? The shocking frieze which will greet visitors to London's Eurostar terminal
By BETH HALE
Daily Mail
11th October 2008

From next summer, travellers stepping off the train at St Pancras International will be greeted with an artwork that sums up modern Britain. But it might not be the Britain we'd like them to see.

A copulating couple. A vagabond carrying a bottle. And a hoodie expressing himself with his middle finger.

All these are 'concept' designs for the bronze frieze which is to be installed in the station.

The frieze will sit around the base of the towering Meeting Place statue of an embracing couple, which was unveiled last year.

Designs in clay by the sculptor, Paul Day, were unveiled on Friday at the station.
London and Continental Railways, which commissioned the piece - thought to have cost half a million pounds - admits that the images will be 'bold and edgy'.
However, a spokesman for the company said the image of a man 'giving the finger' was an early concept and would not be in the final work.

The frieze will wrap right around the plinth at the base of the existing statue and will depict different journeys on a railway theme.
The images of contemporary life will be punctuated by historical flashbacks, some that echo the station's past and others that reflect how railways have defined modern society.



Artist Paul Day said the art work was ultimately upbeat and he did not think it would be a negative welcome to those arriving in Britain from abroad.

'It represents the richness and diversity of our lives.'

Everybody Knows.

"...give or take a night or two."

Democrats, Obama, Community Organization, Acorn and Your Money

Hat tip: Linearthinker

I guarantee you that if someone explains this connection to the working people of Pennsylvania and Ohio, Barack Hussein Obama will become a footnote in history. Let Sarah Palin do it and keep her in those two states. YOU HAVE TO WATCH THIS VIDEO.

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Thousands of voter registration forms faked, officials say

CROWN POINT, Indiana (CNN) -- More than 2,000 voter registration forms filed in northern Indiana's Lake County by a liberal activist group this week have turned out to be bogus, election officials said Thursday.

An official enters the Las Vegas, Nevada, ACORN office, which is under investigation for alleged voter fraud.

The group -- the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN -- already faces allegations of filing fraudulent voter registrations in Nevada and faces investigations in other states.

And in Lake County, home to the long-depressed steel town of Gary, the bipartisan Elections Board has stopped processing a stack of about 5,000 applications delivered just before the October 6 registration deadline after the first 2,100 turned out to be phony.

"All the signatures looked exactly the same," Ruthann Hoagland, a Republican on the board. "Everything on the card filled out looks exactly the same."

The forms included registrations submitted in the names of the dead -- and in one case, the name of a fast-food restaurant, Jimmy Johns. Sally LaSota, a Democrat on the board, called the forms fraudulent and said whoever filed them broke the law. Watch how dead people are turning up on voter registration forms »

"ACORN, with its intent, perhaps was good in the beginning, but went awry somewhere," LaSota said.

Over the past four years, a dozen states have investigated complaints of fraudulent registrations filed by ACORN. On Tuesday, Nevada authorities raided an ACORN office in Las Vegas, Nevada, where workers are accused of registering members of the Dallas Cowboys football team. And the group has become the target of Republican attacks on voter fraud, a perennial GOP issue.

A subsidiary of the group was paid $800,000 by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign to register voters for the 2008 primaries, and ACORN's political wing endorsed Obama back in February. But Obama's campaign told CNN that it "is committed to protecting the integrity of the voting process," and said it has not worked with ACORN during the general election.

Brian Mellor, an ACORN attorney in Boston, said the group has its own quality-control process and has fired workers in the past -- including workers in Gary. But he said allegations that his organization committed fraud is a government attempt to keep people disenfranchised. Watch more about this investigation »

"We believe their purpose is to attack ACORN and suppress votes," Mellor said. "We believe that by attacking ACORN, they are going to discourage people that have registered to vote with ACORN from voting."

CNN was unable to reach ACORN officials in Gary and in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the group's Indiana operation is based. Offices in both cities were empty when reporters visited.

Lake County elections officials have set aside all 5,000 of the ACORN-submitted applications in what Hoagland called the "fake pile" for later review. But she said every one will be reviewed before the election to make sure no legitimate voters are skipped.

There has been no evidence of voter fraud yet, because voters have yet to go to the polls. But elections officials say they will be sending their information to prosecutors, who will determine whether any investigation will begin.

"We have no idea what the motive behind it is," she said. "It's just overwhelming to us."

Pretend that it is Christmas. Do Not Open the Market.

"The time to act is now. You may think that things can’t get any worse — but they can"

As we wake this morning, we are at the abyss.

Iceland, its currency, banks,investments and financial independence lies shattered like a fallen icicle. Full hair raising panic rules in Asia and Europe.

Our Rulers and Masters have done too much for too long and then too little too late. The wisest thing they can do today is pretend that it is Christmas. Do not open the market. Get on the planes and follow Paul Krugman's advice.

Did I just say Paul Krugman?

___________________________

Moment of Truth

By PAUL KRUGMAN New York Times
Published: October 9, 2008

Last month, when the U.S. Treasury Department allowed Lehman Brothers to fail, I wrote that Henry Paulson, the Treasury secretary, was playing financial Russian roulette. Sure enough, there was a bullet in that chamber: Lehman’s failure caused the world financial crisis, already severe, to get much, much worse.

The consequences of Lehman’s fall were apparent within days, yet key policy players have largely wasted the past four weeks. Now they’ve reached a moment of truth: They’d better do something soon — in fact, they’d better announce a coordinated rescue plan this weekend — or the world economy may well experience its worst slump since the Great Depression.

Let’s talk about where we are right now.

The current crisis started with a burst housing bubble, which led to widespread mortgage defaults, and hence to large losses at many financial institutions. That initial shock was compounded by secondary effects, as lack of capital forced banks to pull back, leading to further declines in the prices of assets, leading to more losses, and so on — a vicious circle of “deleveraging.” Pervasive loss of trust in banks, including on the part of other banks, reinforced the vicious circle.

The downward spiral accelerated post-Lehman. Money markets, already troubled, effectively shut down — one line currently making the rounds is that the only things anyone wants to buy right now are Treasury bills and bottled water.

The response to this downward spiral on the part of the world’s two great monetary powers — the United States, on one side, and the 15 nations that use the euro, on the other — has been woefully inadequate.

Europe, lacking a common government, has literally been unable to get its act together; each country has been making up its own policy, with little coordination, and proposals for a unified response have gone nowhere.

The United States should have been in a much stronger position. And when Mr. Paulson announced his plan for a huge bailout, there was a temporary surge of optimism. But it soon became clear that the plan suffered from a fatal lack of intellectual clarity. Mr. Paulson proposed buying $700 billion worth of “troubled assets” — toxic mortgage-related securities — from banks, but he was never able to explain why this would resolve the crisis.

What he should have proposed instead, many economists agree, was direct injection of capital into financial firms: The U.S. government would provide financial institutions with the capital they need to do business, thereby halting the downward spiral, in return for partial ownership. When Congress modified the Paulson plan, it introduced provisions that made such a capital injection possible, but not mandatory. And until two days ago, Mr. Paulson remained resolutely opposed to doing the right thing.

But on Wednesday the British government, showing the kind of clear thinking that has been all too scarce on this side of the pond, announced a plan to provide banks with £50 billion in new capital — the equivalent, relative to the size of the economy, of a $500 billion program here — together with extensive guarantees for financial transactions between banks. And U.S. Treasury officials now say that they plan to do something similar, using the authority they didn’t want but Congress gave them anyway.

The question now is whether these moves are too little, too late. I don’t think so, but it will be very alarming if this weekend rolls by without a credible announcement of a new financial rescue plan, involving not just the United States but all the major players.

Why do we need international cooperation? Because we have a globalized financial system in which a crisis that began with a bubble in Florida condos and California McMansions has caused monetary catastrophe in Iceland. We’re all in this together, and need a shared solution.

Why this weekend? Because there happen to be two big meetings taking place in Washington: a meeting of top financial officials from the major advanced nations on Friday, then the annual International Monetary Fund/World Bank meeting Saturday and Sunday. If these meetings end without at least an agreement in principle on a global rescue plan — if everyone goes home with nothing more than vague assertions that they intend to stay on top of the situation — a golden opportunity will have been missed, and the downward spiral could easily get even worse.

What should be done? The United States and Europe should just say “Yes, prime minister.” The British plan isn’t perfect, but there’s widespread agreement among economists that it offers by far the best available template for a broader rescue effort.

And the time to act is now. You may think that things can’t get any worse — but they can, and if nothing is done in the next few days, they will.

The Blame Game

The Elephant in the Room: Meltdown has many culprits

Sure, Wall Street deserves some of the blame. But so do lots of U.S. borrowers.


By Rick Santorum Philadelphia Inquirer

Who's to blame?

During the last few weeks, we've seen a bellyful of finger-pointing. But who really caused the financial meltdown?

Greedy Wall Street CEOs are the most popular whipping boys. A Wall Street friend told me that what went on there was nothing short of "collective insanity."

The Federal Reserve's easy-money policy, some regulatory relaxation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, new investment vehicles that made traditional products look so yesteryear, foolish decisions about the quality of these vehicles by the ratings agencies - all played key roles.

Hopping aboard these flashy new vehicles, Wall Street took a ride on a high-leverage roller coaster that seemed only to go up. The firms raced along, accumulating high-yield assets that, in saner times, would have been off-loaded as junk.

Given the heights to which this coaster ascended, the ride down is sure to be scary. But where did this junk come from?

Our current problems stem from the dramatic decline in the value of investments backed by the high-risk mortgages of everyday citizens. These mortgages might involve no money down, interest-only payments, adjustable rates, super-low introductory rates, "stated income" (also known as "liars' loans," as no proof of income was required), and so-called "NINJA" loans - an acronym for "no income, no job, no assets."

Why would lenders take on these high-risk subprime loans? They didn't. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae did, by agreeing to purchase them from the lenders.

Why would these government-sponsored organizations, with the implicit guarantee of Uncle Sam, back these loans? Politics. Democratic lawmakers conspired with the Democratic operatives who ran Freddie and Fannie in another failed government attempt to help the poor.

As a Senate Banking Committee member, I was lobbied nonstop by Freddie and Fannie executives when, along with John McCain, I tried to toughen regulation of this dangerous practice. Not a single Democrat joined us. Even though we passed the bill out of committee in 2005, it was killed on the Senate floor.

When energy-price spikes fanned inflation and squeezed borrowers, the Fed was forced to raise interest rates, causing payments on adjustable-rate mortgages to soar. The bubble in real estate values began to burst, wiping out whatever equity borrowers had.

None of this financial collapse would have occurred, however, without the participation of one last group of bad actors, a group so powerful that most politicians have avoided railing against it:

American borrowers.

This group includes homeowners who were delinquent on their mortgages - whether the unsophisticated, lured by the unscrupulous with promises of better living, or the savvy, who thought they could make a buck with little risk.

But many others also benefitted from easy-money policy. The truth is we all enjoyed the ride, with record credit-card debt, a negative savings rate, and home-equity loans.

What happened to living within our means, saving whatever we could, deferring gratification, and planning for the future?

We, and I include myself, have gone from "keeping up with the Joneses" to keeping up with the Madisons - Madison Avenue, that is. We have bought the line that "stuff" will make us happy, and that we deserve it, regardless of affordability. That goes for Wall Streeters and their estates in the Hamptons, middle managers and their suburban McMansions, and newlyweds and their starter homes.

I am often asked why, as a senator, I "harped" on cultural issues. The answer is that our beliefs, our choices and our character are not just private matters. They ultimately affect others. If enough people are privately irresponsible, whether financially or otherwise, all Americans suffer. Sometimes the suffering can even be measured in dollars and cents.

We are on our fourth bailout, with a fifth proposed Tuesday by McCain, and the crisis only deepens. Now, both he and his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, want to shield Americans from the consequences of their behavior by bailing out irresponsible borrowers.

Anyone for a call to pay the piper, combined with an appeal for thrift, modesty, simplicity and sacrifice? Let's hope so.

Teresita and the EB, Together Again.

A point of order.

T has stated she wishes to reconsider her withdrawal from the Board. I have valued her contributions to the dialogue. Without objection it is so ordered.

I would also wish that Trish accept election.

The purpose of the board is to recognize individual contribution, civil, honest and thoughtful discourse. We all respect independent and defensible ideas and positions. Teresita has been nominated by two board members and although gout ridden, still has all her bark in place. She is our ninth member.

I thank her for her loyal support and contribution.

"Why isn't McCain 25 behind given what is happening in this economy?"

My Guy

Think about it. The debate that we were punished with on Tuesday should have ended two careers. Clearly the wrong anchor at NBC had the fatal heart attack. Tom Brokaw and John McCain reinforced the obvious, both have been around too long. Brokaw is a foolish old bore and can be switched off. McCain is not so easy. We need McCain.

McCain is in a viable position to become President, because there are many people, including this one, who believe Obama is far worse. Why is this race even close?

______________________

Polls: McCain On The Rebound
By Joe Murray, The Bulletin
10/09/2008

The mad dash to the White House has become a horserace again with a new poll showing John McCain closing the gap and coming within striking distance of Barack Obama.

A Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby daily tracking poll, taken before Tuesday night's debate in Nashville, shows Mr. McCain trailing Mr. Obama by a 47 percent to 45 percent margin; well within the poll's 2.8 percent margin of error. Seven percent remain undecided.

"This represents a bit of a recovery by McCain, who had been sliding in some polls before his running mate, Sarah Palin, put in a strong performance in her one and only debate performance last Thursday," the poll read.

This, however, was not the only good news for a McCain camp trying to get out from under a dark cloud.

A CBS News poll released on the eve of the second presidential debate, showed Mr. McCain trailing Mr. Obama by a four-point margin. Mr. Obama led Mr. McCain 47 percent to 43 percent with seven percent undecided.

Among likely voters, Mr. Obama's lead shrinks to a three-point margin of 45 percent to 48 percent. This poll was also taken after last Thursday's vice presidential debate.

"Why isn't he (Mr. McCain) 25 behind given what is happening in this economy?" asked Pat Buchanan while appearing on MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show."

"People's nest eggs are gone, jobs are being lost, companies can't borrow, it is a disaster, [President George W.] Bush is unpopular and he (Mr. McCain) is still hanging in there."
Mr. Buchanan, as well as folks at the RNC, credit Mrs. Palin for Mr. McCain's resilience and claim the American voter islooking beyond attempts to define the Alaskan governor as a liability.

"Barack Obama, with the assistance of the mainstream media, would love to caricaturize Gov. Palin to distract voters from her fresh perspective and proven record of reform," said Blair Latoff, spokeswoman for the RNC. "Last week, the American people saw Gov. Palin without the lens and editing of the mainstream media and once again Americans reacted very favorably to her running with John McCain."

But Mrs. Palin cannot win this election for Mr. McCain alone, especially in light of the economic crisis. Other factors, such as perceived economic ability and supporter enthusiasm, are equally pivotal.

Mr. McCain has made inroads rehabilitating his image on the economy, a sore sport for a Republican running during a time of economic crisis unfolding on a Republican president's watch and has continued to distance himself from President George W. Bush in the minds of voters.

Fifteen percent are "very confident" Mr. McCain would make the right choices on the economy, while 38 percent are "somewhat confident," the CBS poll found. Forty-four percent are "not confident" in Mr. McCain's economic prowess. The numbers changed little from the poll taken prior to the first presidential debate.

While Mr. Obama still leads Mr. McCain in terms of economic decision, he has lost some ground since the first presidential debate.

Twenty-four percent are "very confident" the Democrat could handle the economy, down from 29 percent pre-debate, while 34 percent are "somewhat confident." Those "not confident" Mr. Obama would make the right economic decision shot up to 41 percent, a seven point jump from the pre-date numbers.

And while the Obama camp has feverishly been trying to link Mr. McCain to the policies of Mr. Bush, whose approval ratings are now the lowest of any modern American president, the charge does not appear to be sticking among voters, a good sign for the McCain camp.

When asked what Mr. McCain would do if elected president, 38 percent responded he would continue the policies of Mr. Bush. This number is down from 46 percent in mid-September.

Mr. Obama continued to win out in terms of supporter enthusiasm. Though it dropped three points after the vice presidential debate, 58 percent of Mr. Obama's supporters enthusiastically support him, while 31 percent support him with reservations (up from 29 percent on Oct. 1).

Enthusiasm for Mr. McCain, on the hand, remains relatively mild as 38 percent of his supporters enthusiastically support his candidacy, while 44 percent support the maverick Republican with reservations.

Eighty-two percent of Obama supporters and 81 percent of McCain supporters responded their support cannot be swayed between now and Election Day, thus leaving only one in five voters uncommitted. The poll showed the number of uncommitted voters are down from the week preceding the vice presidential debate.

Joe Murray can be reached at jmurray@thebulletin.us

The Ugly Underbelly of America

Rampant violence is Latin America's 'worst epidemic'
Rory Carroll in Caracas
The Guardian, Thursday October 9 2008

Violent crime in Latin America kills more people and wreaks more economic havoc than Aids, the head of the Organisation of American States warned this week. Drug trafficking, gang warfare, kidnapping and other crimes pose one of the gravest threats to the region's stability, said José Miguel Insulza. "It is an epidemic, a plague on our continent that kills more people than Aids or any other known epidemic. It destroys more homes than any economic crisis."

The warning came amid a backdrop of horrific violence in Mexico, where drug cartels are waging war against the state, and evidence that cities from Caracas to Buenos Aires are becoming more dangerous.

The number of people killed by gun crime in central and south America is four times the world average, according to UN estimates, with a homicide rate of more than 25 per 100,000 people. In parts of El Salvador, Guatemala and Venezuela the rate is more than 100 per 100,000.

The violence has been blamed on factors including poverty, inequality, cocaine trafficking, the legacy of civil wars, a bountiful supply of guns and corrupt, ineffective state institutions, notably the police, prisons and courts.

Anger at crime and distrust of the police often leads to lynchings, with several suspects recently beaten and hacked to death in Bolivia, Guatemala and Peru. There are even grimmer stories from jails which are controlled by inmates.

Crime stories, often accompanied by grisly images, dominate media coverage and rank at or near the top of public concerns. Most victims are impoverished slum-dwellers but the perception of danger still hinders tourism and investment, with several Caribbean countries feeling the sting of recent high-profile murders.

Some studies suggest Latin America"s income could be 25% higher if its crime rate, which began soaring in the 1980s, was similar to the rest of the world.

Insulza made his dramatic warning at a two-day security meeting of the OAS in Mexico City. He praised the host government's controversial decision to deploy 20,000 soldiers against powerful drug cartels, a move which provoked a vicious backlash. Thousands have died, the state has lost control of several areas and headless bodies are discovered with numbing regularity.

Mexico's president, Felipe Calderón, called for a pan-regional database on criminals and a "continental front" which would include the US. "We must attack simultaneously not only drug smuggling, but the world's main market," he said.

Some countries, such as Costa Rica, are relatively untouched by the violence and in Colombia, once-notorious cities such as Bogotá and Medellín have enjoyed a renaissance as leftwing insurgency has ebbed before a US-supported military offensive. Brazil's favelas, however, remain killing zones for gangs and police and a perceived crime wave in Argentina has driven anxious middle-class families into South Africa-style gated communities.

Last Night Ronald Reagan Rolled Over in His Grave

The following sounds like what John McCain announced at the debate last night. He said that mortgages would be renegotiated and claimed the intellectual rights of the proposal. Apparently the Democrats owe him.

Barney Frank's Bankrupt Ideas
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, October 06, 2008 4:20 PM PT

Financial Rescue: Democrats created the mortgage crisis by forcing banks to give loans to people who couldn't afford them. Now Obama and Biden want bankruptcy judges to bail out the same deadbeat homeowners. And once again, Barney Frank is helping.

It's been said that history is a lie agreed upon. Democrats are trying to rewrite history by blaming the Bush administration for the current crisis and claiming that the rescue bill is necessary to save the economy from Republican mismanagement.

More blarney from Barney.

Last Thursday on Fox News, when Bill O'Reilly tried to suggest that both parties might share the blame, House Finance Committee Chairman Frank, in a not atypical meltdown, disowned any responsibility for his lack of oversight over the last two years and his complicity before that.

Frank also claimed: "The fact is, it was 1994 that we passed a bill to tell the Fed to stop the subprime lending. We tried to get them to do it." In other words, those rascally Republicans did it all when they took control of Congress that November.

The legislation he spoke of was the Homeowners Equity Protection Act. It was supposed to empower the Federal Reserve to set the rules on mortgages. Problem was, the Clinton administration had its own ideas of what the rules should be.

The Community Reinvestment Act, first passed in 1977 under Jimmy Carter, was intended to increase minority homeownership. It grew out of charges that banks were "redlining" entire inner-city neighborhoods as bad credit risks. Banks now were forced to perform outreach to these areas.

In the '70s and '80s, banks could show that they were trying to do that by advertising in minority newspapers and having representatives sit on the boards of local groups. In other words, they were rated on the effort made and not on the results achieved. Creditworthiness still mattered.

In 1995, as Howard Husock pointed out eight years ago in City Journal, "the Clinton Treasury Department's 1995 regulations made getting a satisfactory CRA rating much harder. The new regulations de-emphasized subjective assessment measures in favor of strictly numerical ones. Bank examiners would use federal home-loan data, broken down by neighborhood, income group, and race, to rate banks on performance."

Creditworthiness and due diligence no longer mattered. As a 1999 New York Times editorial observed: "Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Bill Clinton administration to expand mortgage loans among low- and moderate-income people and felt pressure to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits."

On Frank's and Clinton's watch, the Community Reinvestment Act was changed to force the issuance of bad loans. Banks would be rated on the number of loans, not on their soundness. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were then encouraged to buy them up. It was all about affordable housing, even if the housing was unaffordable.

"From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us," Peter Wallison, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said back in 1999. "If they fail, the government will have to step in and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry."

That prediction came true, but it didn't have to.

On Sept. 11, 2003, the Bush administration proposed to Congress a new agency under the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie and Freddie. The new agency would have had the authority to set capital-reserve requirements, veto new lines of business and determine whether the two quasi-government lenders were adequately managing the risk of their ballooning portfolios.

When former Treasury Secretary John Snow pleaded for Frank to support Fannie and Freddie reform, Frank responded: "These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis. The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing."

Democrats believe in affordable housing even if it's at the expense of the vast majority who watch their credit, work hard and pay their mortgages on time. But for the deadbeats, particularly Democratic constituencies, they have ways to make affordable the housing you couldn't afford. So first, they forced them into housing they couldn't afford, and now they give them a financial mulligan.

In the vice presidential debate, Sen. Joe Biden said that "what we should be doing now — and Barack Obama and I support it — we should be allowing bankruptcy courts to be able to re-adjust not just the interest rate you're paying on your mortgage to be able to stay in your home, but be able to adjust the principal that you owe, the principal you owe."

To get this bill passed, Obama made a lot of phone calls — particularly to members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including caucus chief Rep. James Clyburn — assuring this would happen.

Those paying their mortgages on time don't get that break.

Rep. Elijah Cummings said Obama told him that, if elected president, he would direct a Treasury Department official to work with homeowners in foreclosure to restructure their loans. Cummings said Obama also told him he'd seek changes in bankruptcy laws allowing judges to reduce what borrowers owe on their home loans.

Section 110 of the rescue legislation has the Orwellian title of "Assistance to Homeowners" — but only for the deadbeats.

It describes somebody called a "Federal property manager" who "holds, owns or controls mortgages, mortgage-backed securities, and other assets secured by residential real estate."

Section 110 speaks of "modifications" that this manager can make to these mortgages including not only the reduction of interest rates but the reduction of loan principal.

Not only is Uncle Sam now the world's largest landlord. He can also arbitrarily set the value of property and the amount owed on it at will, thus distorting the free market.

The vast majority of homeowners who pay their mortgages on time get the shaft. They're the ones who'll take up the others' slack.

Why? And why is the Community Reinvestment Act still law?

-------------------------------------------

Apparently, we're in a race to the bottom and the only question is which party or candidate can get us there first.

If you're a free market, small government conservative, you might want to move to the country and turn off the news.

Who Will You Trust With the Economy?

This is a billion mark note. It represents failure. The cost of government failure can cost you everything. It has happened before.

Who do you trust in difficult times?

Kenya Detains US Citizen Investigating Obama

Hat Tip: Bobal

Kenya detains Corsi during Obama probe
Officials scuttle WND reporter's news conference on investigation
Posted: October 07, 2008
7:26 am Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

WND senior staff writer Jerry Corsi

NAIROBI, Kenya – The government of Kenya is holding WND senior staff reporter Jerome Corsi in custody at immigration headquarters after police picked him up at his hotel just prior to a scheduled news conference in which he planned to announce the findings of his investigation into Barack Obama's connections in the country.

Corsi, the author of the No. 1 best-selling book "The Obama Nation," was picked up by authorities at his hotel at 9:45 a.m. and is being detained at Nyayo House, the provincial headquarters for Nairobi.

"Just as we were about to start the 10 a.m. press conference at the Grand Regency Hotel in Nairobi, Kenyan immigration approached us and detained us," Corsi told WND by telephone this morning. "Tim Bueler, my publicist, and I are now in the immigration offices, with our passports taken. The immigration officer told the press, 'There is no problem, and Dr. Corsi is a friend of Kenya.'"

Corsi had extensive meetings with top Kenyan officials upon his arrival. His visit and his activities during his stay have been well-known to authorities at the highest levels.


A senior immigration official in charge of investigations, Carlos Maluta was quoted by the Associated Press as saying: "We still haven't decided what to do with him."

Despite reports elsewhere to the contrary, Corsi has not been arrested or charged with any offense.

Corsi remains in continual contact with WND editors by telephone and text messaging.

Obama has a long history of connections in Kenya, where his father worked as a government economist. Corsi documented this history in his book and went to Kenya to find answers to lingering questions – particularly about the links between the presidential candidate and Kenya Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

Corsi had promised a news conference today that would "expose details of deep secret ties between U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and a section of Kenya government leaders, their connection to certain sectoral groups in Kenya and subsequent plot to be executed in Kenya should Senator Obama win the American presidency."

Meanwhile, the management of the hotel where Corsi was scheduled to hold the press conference has repudiated its plans to provide the facility.

In a press release, the hotel said: "We would like to assure our business partners and the public at large that Laico Regency Hotel is a law-abiding institution and does not condone any smear campaigns. The management cannot allow such activities to take place."

Corsi told WND he has been assured he will be released soon. He had planned to leave the country tomorrow, arriving in London first and the U.S. Friday.

A hotel worker in Nairobi told Reuters Corsi was picked up as soon as he walked into the hotel for the scheduled press conference: "He was walking in and then some immigration officers who were following him snatched him. It happened so fast, they just vanished with him."

"Obama is revered in Kenya for his paternal roots here and as a flagbearer for Africa on the international stage," explained the Reuters dispatch.

Kenyan TV station KTN said Corsi may be sent home due to lack of a work permit. However, Corsi met with top officials in Nairobi earlier this week explaining in detail the purpose of his visit and sharing copies of his news releases and books.

Corsi told WND Editor Joseph Farah by telephone that Kenyan authorities claimed they were holding him because the immigration forms his party filled out for customs had been lost.

Corsi was set to show Obama and Odinga have been in direct contact since the senator's visit to Kenya in 2006. He was to claim Obama advised Odinga on campaign strategy and helped him raise money in the U.S. for the Kenya presidential campaign.

Corsi was to report Odinga's 2007 presidential campaign strategy called for exploiting anti-Kikuyu tribal sentiments, claiming victory and charging voter fraud even if the campaign knew the election had been legitimately lost. Odinga, Corsi said, also was willing to fan the flames of ethnic tribal tensions and use violence as a last resort by calling for mass action that led to the destruction of properties, injuries, loss of life and the displacement of over 500,000 Kenyans. The purpose was to compel the Electoral Commission of Kenya to declare him the winner or enable him to declare himself the winner by force.

Even though Odinga has not fulfilled his campaign promises to the Muslims who voted for him, he continues to cause concern among Kenyans because he has not declared his position on Shariah law, Corsi said.

Corsi said Obama remained in active phone contact with Odinga through the New Hampshire Democratic Party primary in January. The Illinois senator continued to support Odinga, he said, turning a blind eye to an agreement signed with Muslims and the post-election violence instigated as part of the campaign strategy.

'Apres US, le deluge'

Folks if the US does not lead and enough of the EU does not follow, it ain't going to happen. Forget the nonsense and the rubbish about the foreign reserves of the hapless Russians or the inscrutable Chinese, it will be the G-5, in lockstep with G1 that will do it or not. It will not mean a squib on how many other G's follow. The US leads Germany, France, Britain and Japan and we have a shot or we go over the cliff.

_________________________

Telegraph

Investors will learn today whether the Paulson bail-out - fattened to $850bn (£480bn) by Congress - can begin to halt the death spiral in the credit system. So far, the response looks terrible.

Germany is now in the hot seat. The collapse of a rescue deal for Hypo Real Estate on Saturday threatens a €400bn (£311bn) bankruptcy that nearly matches the Lehman Brothers debacle for sheer scale.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has been forced to pull her head out of the sand, guaranteeing all German savings, a day after she rebuked Ireland for doing much the same thing. Reality intrudes.

During the past week, we have tipped over the edge, into the middle of the abyss. Systemic collapse is in full train. The Netherlands has just rushed through a second, more sweeping nationalisation of Fortis. Ireland and Greece have had to rescue all their banks. Iceland is facing an Argentine denouement.

The US commercial paper market is closed. It shrank $95bn last week, and has lost $208bn in three weeks. The interbank lending market has seized up. There are almost no bids. It is a ghost market. Healthy companies cannot roll over debt. Some will have to sack staff today to stave off default.

As the unflappable Warren Buffett puts it, the credit freeze is “sucking blood” out of the economy. “In my adult lifetime, I don’t think I’ve ever seen people as fearful,” he said.

We are fast approaching the point of no return. The only way out of this calamitous descent is “shock and awe” on a global scale, and even that may not be enough.
Drastic rate cuts would be a good start. Central bankers still paralysed by a misplaced fear of inflation – whether in Europe, Britain, or the US – have become a public menace and should be held to severe account by our democracies. The imminent and massive danger is now self-feeding debt deflation.

The lesson of the 1930s is that any country trying to reflate in isolation will be punished. The crisis will ricochet from one economy to another until every one is crippled. We are seeing it play again in this drama as our leaders fail to rise above their narrow, parochial agendas.

The European Central Bank – which raised rates into the teeth of the crisis in July – has played a shockingly destructive role in this enveloping slump. Its growth predictions this year have been, and still are, delusional. Neglecting its global role, it has vastly complicated the fire-fighting efforts of Washington.
It could have offered “cover” to the US Federal Reserve this spring when Ben Bernanke was forced by events to slash rates to 2pc. It could at least have signalled an end to monetary tightening. That is how an ally ought to behave.

Instead, it stuck maniacally to its Gothic script, with equally unhappy consequences for both sides of the Atlantic, as well as for China, Japan, and India. The euro rocketed yet further, which it turn set off an oil shock as crude metamorphosed into an anti-dollar with leverage.

The ECB policy was self-defeating, even on its own terms. It merely drove headline inflation even higher, while deeper forces of underlying debt deflation pulled the real economies of Germany, Italy, France, and Spain into a recessionary vortex.
Far from offering reassurance, the weekend mini-summit of EU leaders served only to highlight that nobody is in charge of this runaway train. There is still no lender of last resort in euroland. The £12bn stimulus package is risible.

Angela Merkel has revealed her deep limitations. It was she who vetoed French efforts to launch a pan-EU rescue package, suspecting that any lifeboat fund would prove to be Trojan Horse – a way of co-opting German taxpayers into colossal transfers of wealth to Latin Europe.

In that she is right, but it is too late now for dysfunctional EU political games. By demanding that those who caused the damage should pay for it, she crossed the line into caricature, or worse.

Her comments echo word for word the “we’re alright Jack” attitudes of Euro-pols during the first US banking crises in 1930-1931, until the storm hit Europe and the entire cast was swept away by furious electorates, or simply shot. Thankfully, this EU stupidity is at last drawing serious criticism.

“We have to make sure Europe takes its responsibilities, like the US: action must be taken quickly and in a concerted manner,” said IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
As for the US itself, it has not yet exhausted its policy arsenal. It can escalate further up the nuclear ladder. The Fed can cut interest rates from 2pc to zero. If that fails, it can let rip with the mass purchase of US debt.

“The US government has a technology, called a printing press,” said Fed chief Ben Bernanke in November 2002. (His helicopter speech).

In extremis, the Treasury/Fed can swoop into any market to shore up asset prices. They can buy Florida property. They can even buy SUV guzzlers from the car lots in Detroit, and mangle them in scrap yards. As Bernanke put it, the Fed can “expand the menu of assets that it buys.”

There is a devilish catch to this ploy, of course. It assumes that foreign creditors will tolerate such action.

Japan entered its Lost Decade as the world’s top creditor, with a vast pool of household savings to cushion the slump. America starts its purge with net external liabilities of $3 trillion, and a savings rate near zero. Foreigners own over half the US Treasury debt, and two thirds of all Fannie, Freddie, and other US agency bonds.
But the risk of a dollar collapse is one for the distant future. Right now the world faces the opposite problem. There is a wild scramble for dollars as a $10 trillion pyramid of global lending based on dollar balance sheets “delevers” with a vengeance.
This is a “short squeeze” on those who have used the dollar for a vast global carry trade. International banks are facing margin calls on their dollar leverage. It is why the Fed is having to provide $1.25 trillion in dollar liquidity for the entire global system, according to estimates by Brad Setser from the Center for Geoeconomic Studies.
The crisis engulfing Europe, Asia and emerging markets, makes life easier for Washington. The United States is becoming a safe-haven again.

The Fed can now hope to pursue monetary stimulus “a l’outrance” without being slapped down by the currency, debt, and commodity markets. Take comfort where you can.

World Markets in Turmoil

Global Stocks, U.S. Index Futures Fall as Credit Crisis Widens

By Adria Cimino and Chua Kong Ho

Hat tip: Trish

Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Stocks tumbled around the world, the euro fell the most against the yen since its debut and oil dropped below $90 a barrel as the yearlong credit market seizure caused bank bailouts to spread through Europe. Government bonds rallied.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index headed for its steepest drop since October 1997 as Russia's Micex Index fell 17 percent, before trading was halted. BHP Billiton Ltd. slid 7.8 percent and UBS AG lost 9.4 percent as commodities producers and banks dropped the most in the MSCI World Index. The gauge of 23 developed countries is down 30 percent this year, the worst annual performance since at least 1970.

The euro weakened the most against the yen since 1999 after the German government and state banks were forced to pledge $68 billion to rescue Hypo Real Estate Holding AG. Crude dropped 39 percent from its record on July 11 as the global economy slowed. Investors seeking the safety of government bonds pushed yields on two-year Treasury notes to 1.5 percent, 50 basis points below the Federal Reserve's main interest rate.

``It's like a fire,'' said Emmanuel Soupre, a fund manager at Neuflize OBC Asset Management in Paris, which oversees the equivalent of $33 billion. ``It's easier to extinguish five minutes after the start. Now we're about an hour into it. We have to act quickly to assure the continuity of the financial system to avoid an irreversible contamination of the entire economy.''

The MSCI World Index lost 2.5 percent to 1,110.04 at 1:19 p.m. in London as all 10 industry groups decreased. National markets in China, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea and the U.K. fell more than 4 percent.

The Fed said today it ``stands ready'' to foster ``liquid money market conditions.''

`Seeing Panic'

Europe's Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index sank 5.1 percent as BNP Paribas SA said it will take control of Fortis in Belgium and Luxembourg. Only six stocks in the index rose. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 4.4 percent. Futures on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index slipped 2.5 percent, as JPMorgan Chase & Co., the biggest U.S. bank by deposits, fell 5.3 percent.

``We're seeing panic all over the markets right now,'' said Javier Barrio, head of equity sales for Spanish clients at Banco BPI SA in Madrid. ``Governments are taking steps to try to reduce investors' fears but confidence is weak.''

National benchmark indexes sank in all 18 western European markets. France's CAC 40 slumped 5.3 percent, and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 decreased 4.6 percent. Germany's DAX fell 4.9 percent.

In Asia, Japan's Topix index lost 4.7 percent, and South Korea's Kospi slipped 4.3 percent. China's CSI 300 Index fell 5.1 percent, as trading resumed after a one-week holiday.

Emerging Markets

Indonesian stocks plunged the most since the 2002 Bali bombings and the rupiah and bonds dropped as investors exited commodities and emerging markets to limit losses in a global rout.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index dropped 6.2 percent. Turkey's ISE National 100 Index sank 7.1 percent, while Saudi Arabia's Tadawul All-Share Index tumbled 9.8 percent.

Accelerating bailouts of financial companies and bank credit losses and writedowns approaching $600 billion has spurred the rout in global equities. The MSCI World is valued at 13.2 times the earnings of its companies, the lowest since at least 1995, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Europe's Stoxx 600 trades at 10.4 times earnings, near the lowest since at least 2002, while the S&P 500 is valued at 20.9 times earnings.

`Challenged'

UBS, the European bank worst hit by credit crisis, lost 9.4 percent to 21.72 francs. The bank's earnings power may be ``challenged for some time,'' and UBS may write down $3.1 billion in the third quarter, Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Meredith Whitney wrote in a note to clients. The Swiss bank has posted $44 billion in losses, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Japan's largest bank, fell 9.2 percent to 806 yen. Mizuho Financial Group Inc. dropped 7.8 percent to 402,000 yen.

JPMorgan slid 5.3 percent to $43.48 in trading before the U.S. stock market opened.

BNP Paribas dropped 3.5 percent to 68.84 euros. France's biggest bank agreed to take control of Fortis in Belgium and Luxembourg for 14.5 billion euros ($19.8 billion) after an earlier government rescue failed to ensure the company's stability.

Hypo Real Estate plunged 36 percent to 4.78 euros. The German government and the country's banks and insurers agreed on a 50 billion-euro rescue package for the commercial property lender after an earlier bailout faltered.

`Complete Reform'

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the government will guarantee savings of private account holders to prevent a rush of withdrawals from the nation's banking system.

U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said Britain is ``ready to do whatever it takes'' to help its banks, while Denmark said commercial lenders will provide as much as 35 billion kroner ($6.4 billion) over the next two years to a fund to insure depositors against losses.

U.S. President George W. Bush last week signed a $700 billion rescue package into law to stem a banking crisis that has claimed Bear Stearns Cos. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

The euro earlier reached $1.3540. It fell to 141.97 yen, the weakest since May 18, 2006, as investors cut holdings of higher-yielding currencies funded in the Japanese currency.

``The euro zone is the second domino of the globe to be falling over after the U.S.,'' said Alex Sinton, a senior currency dealer at ANZ National Bank Ltd. in Auckland.

Money Market

The cost of borrowing in dollars overnight jumped, the British Bankers' Association said. Asian money-market rates stayed at the highest in more than nine months.

BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company, sank 7.8 percent to 1,095 pence. Rio Tinto Group, the third-biggest, slipped 10 percent to 3,060 pence.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's biggest oil company, dropped 5.4 percent to 1,540 pence. PT Bumi Resources, Indonesia's biggest power-station coal producer, tumbled 32 percent to 2,175 rupiah, extending a six-day, 19 percent slide.

[...]

______________

Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

A week's worth of Ayers v. Keating oughta take care of it, though. Or at least make for a nice diversion while the third rate, dime store ideologues hitch up their pants and go to work. - Trish

Obama Youth Indoctrination

Explain to me again on how an Obama Presidency will be good for US. Join the Movement. Change

WELCOME TO STUDENTS FOR BARACK OBAMA

Senator Obama’s candidacy for President has inspired millions of young Americans to believe in their power to make America great again. Students for Barack Obama, founded in the summer of 2006, began with a few students using Facebook to petition Senator Obama to run for President in 2008. The passion and dedication of thousands of students has transformed that movement into the official student organization of Obama for America — and one of the largest grassroots student organizations in history.

Bring Senator Obama’s message of hope, action, change to your school today by finding a chapter at your school or creating your own chapter of Students for Barack Obama!

Hugo Chávez Funds Oliver Stone Film to Help Obama.

Hugo Chávez: Has he funded the film "W." by Oliver Stone? You bet he has and Stone is not the first to get financing from Chávez. In September of last year Venezuela gave the American actor Danny Glover almost $18m to make a film about a slave uprising in Haiti.

_____________________________________

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hollywood is coming out this fall with a slew of political movies that hit all the hot-button topics as the tight U.S. presidential campaign nears its climax.

From religion to patriotism, gay rights and the presidency of George W. Bush, directors are wearing their political colors on their sleeves, using comedy, true stories and fantasy to send not-so-subtle messages to Americans preparing to choose between Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain on November 4.

"There is a sense now that these political films can really be successful, and they're a genre aimed at one side of the political spectrum or the other," said Robert Thompson, professor of media and popular culture at Syracuse University.

Next week, controversial director Oliver Stone lands his satirical biopic "W." that attempts to deconstruct Bush's faith and marriage and the days leading up to the 2003 Iraq invasion.

Tom Ortenberg, executive producer of "W.", said filmmakers were mirroring society, even if the release date of the Stone movie could be seen as politically charged.( more from Reuters)

Palin Finds Her Sea Legs

ENGLEWOOD, Colorado (CNN) -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Saturday slammed Sen. Barack Obama's political relationship with a former anti-war radical, accusing him of associating "with terrorists who targeted their own country."

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin lashed out at Sen. Barack Obama's ties to controversial figure William Ayers.

Palin's attack delivered on the McCain campaign's announcement that it would step up attacks on the Democratic presidential candidate with just a month left before the November general election.

"We see America as the greatest force for good in this world," Palin said at a fund-raising event in Colorado, adding, "Our opponent though, is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country."

Palin made similar comments later at a rally in Carson, California.

Obama's Chicago, Illinois, home is in the same neighborhood as Bill Ayers, a founder of the radical Weather Underground, which was involved in several bombings in the early 1970s, including the Pentagon and the Capitol, and the two have met several times since Obama's 1995 campaign for a state Senate seat.

Palin cited an article in Saturday's New York Times about Obama's relationship with Ayers, now 63. But that article 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, whom he has called 'somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.' "

New York Times, 1999, on Fannie Mae Lending to Minorities.

Hat tip: American Thinker

YOU NEED TO READ THIS AND PASS IT ON.

______________________

Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending

By STEVEN A. HOLMES New York Times
Published: September 30, 1999

In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.

The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New York metropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.

Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.

In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates -- anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans.

''Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990's by reducing down payment requirements,'' said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chairman and chief executive officer. ''Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.''

Demographic information on these borrowers is sketchy. But at least one study indicates that 18 percent of the loans in the subprime market went to black borrowers, compared to 5 per cent of loans in the conventional loan market.

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.

''From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,'' said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ''If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.''

Under Fannie Mae's pilot program, consumers who qualify can secure a mortgage with an interest rate one percentage point above that of a conventional, 30-year fixed rate mortgage of less than $240,000 -- a rate that currently averages about 7.76 per cent. If the borrower makes his or her monthly payments on time for two years, the one percentage point premium is dropped.

Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, does not lend money directly to consumers. Instead, it purchases loans that banks make on what is called the secondary market. By expanding the type of loans that it will buy, Fannie Mae is hoping to spur banks to make more loans to people with less-than-stellar credit ratings.

Fannie Mae officials stress that the new mortgages will be extended to all potential borrowers who can qualify for a mortgage. But they add that the move is intended in part to increase the number of minority and low income home owners who tend to have worse credit ratings than non-Hispanic whites.

Home ownership has, in fact, exploded among minorities during the economic boom of the 1990's. The number of mortgages extended to Hispanic applicants jumped by 87.2 per cent from 1993 to 1998, according to Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. During that same period the number of African Americans who got mortgages to buy a home increased by 71.9 per cent and the number of Asian Americans by 46.3 per cent.

In contrast, the number of non-Hispanic whites who received loans for homes increased by 31.2 per cent.

Despite these gains, home ownership rates for minorities continue to lag behind non-Hispanic whites, in part because blacks and Hispanics in particular tend to have on average worse credit ratings.

In July, the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed that by the year 2001, 50 percent of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's portfolio be made up of loans to low and moderate-income borrowers. Last year, 44 percent of the loans Fannie Mae purchased were from these groups.

The change in policy also comes at the same time that HUD is investigating allegations of racial discrimination in the automated underwriting systems used by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to determine the credit-worthiness of credit applicants.

Why in The New York Times Publishing Obama's Radical Connections?

Some 15 years later, left-leaning backers of Mr. Obama have the same complaint. “We’re fully for Obama, but we disagree with some of his stands,” said Tom Hayden, the 1960s activist and former California legislator, who helped organize Progressives for Obama. His group opposes the candidate’s call for sending more troops to Afghanistan, for instance, “because we think it’s a quagmire just like Iraq,” he said. “A lot of our work is trying to win over progressives who think Obama is too conservative.”

Mr. Hayden, 68, said he has known Mr. Ayers for 45 years and was on the other side of the split in the radical antiwar movement that led Mr. Ayers and others to form the Weathermen. But Mr. Hayden said he saw attempts to link Mr. Obama with bombings and radicalism as “typical campaign shenanigans.”

“If Barack Obama says he’s willing to talk to foreign leaders without preconditions,” Mr. Hayden said, “I can imagine he’d be willing to talk to Bill Ayers about schools. But I think that’s about as far as their relationship goes.”

It is very simple and quite cynical.

The New York Times has learned that the Republicans are going to make a major campaign against issue of Barack Obama and his radical connections during the last weeks of the election.

At the end of a week when all attention is on the economy the New York Times made the political decisions to assist Barack Obama in all ways possible. They are spinning the story in the best light possible and are working to do their best to limit the affectivness of the McCain campaign tactic.

The final act of the Left Wing putsch in America is unfolding. Once they get a hold of all levers in the US Government, they will never willingly let go. They will game the system and fix it so that it will be impossible to lawfully release them from control.

As a side note, do you care to guess why the Left and Bill Ayers are so interested in education?

You betcha it is time to fire back.

Here is the NY Times article, Obama and ’60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths

OJ Simpson, Thank God Almighty, Guilty at Last.

Guilty on all counts

The jury has reached a verdict in O.J. Simpson's armed robbery and kidnapping trial in Las Vegas, a defense lawyer and a court official said Friday. GUILTY


The jury reached the verdict 13 years to the day O.J. Simpson was acquitted of two murders.

The jury of nine men and three women, none of them African-American, heard from 22 witnesses over 12 days of testimony. Chief among the witnesses were seven of the nine people inside Room 1203 of the Palace Station Hotel and Casino for the September 13, 2007 confrontation.

The evidence included testimony from the two dealers, four co-defendants who cut plea deals and cooperated with prosecutors and hours of often-profane, crackling, secretly recorded audiotapes.

Forget the Polls....Focus on the Pole Dancer

Meanwhile beware of static electricity:



Wardrobe malfunction: Elizabeth Hurley speaks to the crowd, unaware her underwear is on show at the Bloomingdale's Goes Pink launch last night in New York City-Daily Mail

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Democrats and the Housing Debacle

The RNC sent me this link.

Dominic Lawson: Democrat fingerprints are all over the financial crisis
The least well off are going to face the most stringent terms for mortgages
Friday, 3 October 2008
Independent

Of all the characteristics of a successful politician, none is more essential than bare-faced cheek. Never has this been more evident than in the past fortnight, as senior Democrat members of the US legislature have sought to lay all the blame for the country's financial crisis on the executive arm of Government and Wall Street.

Neither of these two institutions is blameless – far from it. Yet when I see such senior Democrats as Barney Frank, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and Christopher Dodd, Chairman of the Senate's Banking Committee, play the part of avenging angels – well, I can only stand in silent awe at the sheer tight-bottomed nerve of it. These are men with sphincters of steel.

What is the proximate cause of the collapse of confidence in the world's banks? Millions of improvident loans to American housebuyers. Which organisations were on their own responsible for guaranteeing half of this $12 trillion market? Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the so-called Government Sponsored Enterprises which last month were formally nationalised to prevent their immediate and catastrophic collapse. Now, who do you think were among the leading figures blocking all the earlier attempts by President Bush – and other Republicans – to bring these lending behemoths under greater regulatory control? Step forward, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd.

In September 2003 the Bush administration launched a measure to bring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under stricter regulatory control, after a report by outside investigators established that they were not adequately hedging against risks and that Fannie Mae in particular had scandalously mis-stated its accounts. In 2006, it was revealed that Fannie Mae had overstated its earnings – to which its senior executives' bonuses were linked – by a stunning $9.3billion. Between 1998 and 2003, Fannie Mae's executive chairman, Franklin Raines, picked up over $90m in bonuses and stock options.

Yet Barney Frank and his chums blocked all Bush's attempts to put a rein on Raines. During the House Financial Services Committee hearing following Bush's initiative, Frank declared: "The more people exaggerate a threat of safety and soundness [at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae], the more people conjure up the possibility of serious financial losses to the Treasury which I do not see. I think we see entities that are fundamentally sound financially." His colleague on the committee, the California Democrat Maxine Walters, said: "There were nearly a dozen hearings where we were trying to fix something that wasn't broke. Mr Chairman, we do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac and particularly at Fannie Mae under the outstanding leadership of Mr Franklin Raines."

When Mr Raines himself was challenged by the Republican Christopher Shays, to the effect that his ratio of capital to assets (that is, mortgages) of 3 per cent was dangerously low, the Fannie Mae boss retorted that "our assets are so riskless, we could have a capital ratio of under 2 per cent".

Maxine Walters' complaint about previous attempts to bring the great state-sponsored housing finance bodies under stricter control was partly a reference to Bill Clinton's efforts. Last week the former President acknowledged that "responsibility" for the absence of proper regulation rested "with Democrats who were resisting any efforts of Republicans in Congress, and earlier when I was President and tried to impose tighter standards on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac". Then, as now, members of his own party saw all such initiatives as unwonted attacks on the chances for low-earners, and particularly African-Americans, to own their own homes.

From its inception in 1938 Fannie Mae (and later Freddie Mac) was designed to make housing finance available to "ordinary Americans". This was a noble aim. In the 1970s another Democrat President, Jimmy Carter, introduced legislation which demanded that such bodies enhance their lending to minorities. Again, this was based on a noble idea: to stamp out racism in the mortgage market. Thus by 1998 you had the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston producing a document entitled "Closing the Gap: a Guide to Equal Opportunities Lending", which instructed banks that an applicant's "lack of credit history should not be seen as a negative factor" in obtaining a mortgage. As Stephen Malanga of the Manhatta *Institute notes: "Of course the new federal standards couldn't just apply to minorities. If they could pay back loans under these terms, then so could the majority of loan applicants. Quickly, these became the new standards in the industry. As the housing market boomed, banks embraced these new standards with a vengeance. Between 2004 and 2007, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac became the biggest purchasers of subprime mortgages from all kinds of applicants, white and minority, and most of these loans were based on lending standards promoted by the Government."

One of the few journalists to see where this would lead was Jeff Jacoby, of the Boston Globe. Last week he reminded his readers what he had written in 1995: "Our banks are knowingly approving risky loans to get the feds and the activists off their backs... When the coming wave of foreclosures rolls through the inner city, which of today's self-congratulating bankers, politicians and regulators plans to take the credit?". Jacoby adds now: "Barney Frank doesn't. But his fingerprints are all over this fiasco."

It's true that the improvident lending was not initiated by Fannie and Freddie: their role in this was to buy these loans and sell them on – but then the music stopped. Cynical students of the American political system will note that the biggest recipient of campaign contributions from the munificent duo of Fannie and Freddie over the past 20 years was one Christopher Dodd, Democrat Chairman of the Senate's Banking Committee.

Rather surprisingly, given that he has only been in the Senate for four of those years, the second biggest beneficiary was Barack Obama. In August the Washington Post reported that Obama's presidential campaign team had sought the advice of Franklin Raines "on mortgage and housing policy matters". Perhaps Mr Obama's team just wanted to know where all the bodies are buried – there are rather a lot of them.

The saddest outcome of all this within America – apart from the crippling cost to the nation's taxpayers – is that the very people the Democrats had intended to help will be the biggest victims: for many years to come banks will demand the most stringent terms for mortgages to the least well off.

In the meantime, let us praise Congressman Artur Davis of Alabama, who confessed this week: "Like a lot of my Democrat colleagues I was too slow to appreciate the recklessness of Fannie and Freddie when in retrospect I should have heeded the concerns raised. I wish my Democrat colleagues would admit that we were wrong." I fear Congressman Davis will not go far with this attitude – but at least he will be able to look at himself in the mirror.

d.lawson@independent.co.uk

Barnie Frank Gets Carpet Bombed by Bill O'Reilly

Hat tip: Doug

Who Will a President Obama Put on the Supreme Court?

It will not be Hillary.

Obama Snubs Hillary for Supreme Court

Thursday, October 2, 2008 12:08 PM

By: Jim Meyers

Bill and Hillary Clinton are only half-heartedly working to help elect Barack Obama president because he wouldn’t guarantee Hillary a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court if he wins the White House, sources told The New York Post.

One insider said: “Hillary wants an assurance that if she shows loyalty and goes out there like a good soldier, she will be rewarded with a nomination for the Supreme Court should a seat become available.”

A representative for Hillary sent an e-mail to The Post’s “Page Six” column on Wednesday calling the report: “Absurd. Nonsense. Rubbish. Hogwash. Malarkey.”

But The Post asserted on Thursday: “The problem is, we’re told, Obama ‘balked’ at promising Hillary the judgeship, perhaps because he still resents how the Clintons attacked him during the primaries.”

Bill Clinton has recently called Obama’s Republican rival John McCain a “good man” and a “friend,” and said he understands why GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin “is hot out there.”

© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

I See a Bailout Coming

The Stupid Son of a Bitch, Harry Reid

How much more irresponsible can you get than this horse's ass. More from our rulers and masters:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., raised eyebrows at a press conference Wednesday when he said a member of his party caucus had talked about a major insurance company being on the verge of bankruptcy. At the time, Reid referred to the company as "one with a name that everyone knows."

Today, however, Reid's office sought to clarify the comment. His spokesman, Jim Manley, said Reid "is not personally aware" of any particular company being in trouble and has "no special knowledge" on the topic. Reid, the spokesman said, meant to refer in general terms about the financial sector and "regrets any confusion his comments may have caused."

-USA Today

Britain and The US, Humbled?

Something snapped in the last ten days. You can feel it. It is undeniable that the change is historic and unlike anything we have known in our living history. Everybody feels it. Many are beginning to know it is not temporary, at least in the relatively short span of an average life. A line has broken. The blame game has already started.

What does it mean?

_________________________

Adrian Hamilton: It won't be long before the British blame foreigners

What won't go away is the sense of humiliation in this crisis
Thursday, 2 October 2008

Politicians and bankers still don't get it, on this side of the Atlantic no more than on the other. Out they have trooped – Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling, George Osborne and David Cameron – to say that they understand the anger of ordinary people in this crisis.

No they don't. Not for a moment. It's not about the end of capitalism. You could argue the opposite. It's precisely because people have accepted the Thatcher-Reagan doctrine, and knuckled down to a world of insecurity and rapid change, that they are so furious with the banks. Main Street played by the rules, Wall Street didn't and is being saved from the consquences of its irresponsible ways.

And then there is the anger of helplessness. Declining industries can be understood. What people really dislike is the sense that the markets are driving this crisis and the authorities are powerless to stop them. If Gordon Brown mentions the phrase "decisive action" one more time, I personally will go to Downing Street to throttle him. There's nothing decisive about what's happening now, more a rush to the first aid when the next bank starts failing. The Lloyds-HBOS deal still isn't settled. No onereally knows what taxpayers' full exposure will be in Bradford & Bingley and Northern Rock. France has joined Ireland in guaranteeing all deposits. Will we follow, or keep to a £50,000 limit?

Anger dies down as helplessness and passivity take over, and as more people watch the shake-out of thousands of jobs in the City. Shared suffering is a great leveller. What won't go away is something that people have paid much less attention to, which is the sense of humiliation aroused by this crisis.

For America, of course, the sense of humiliation is particularly acute. The US emerged from the Cold War as masters of the universe, militarily and financially. President Bush threw the former away in Iraq. He has now presided over the collapse of America's reputation for the latter. The symbolism of the world's only remaining hyperpower having to go cap-in-hand to the sovereign wealth funds of theMiddle East, India and China could not be more devastating.

But just because the Britishpublic has remained relatively quiescent compared to our American cousins doesn't mean they don't feel the sense of shame of it. For the last generation, workers have been told not to worry about the loss of jobs in cars, coal and steel. Those were old-fashioned businesses that could be left to others. Politicians of both parties boasted about the way we had moved on from manufacturing to services. They wallowed in the success of the City, the imagination used in the instruments of finance, the fact that it could compete with New York and even surpass it.

Not any more, they don't. Britain may be one of the first (the first say some) major economy to move from industry to services, but it is also too far down that path easily to return. What makes that adjustment particularly painful is the sense that the problems have come from abroad and that so have the winners in this financial debacle.

For years, the public reluctantly accepted that its football clubs would be owned from abroad and packed with foreign stars because at least it meant that the best clubs in the world were based here. They went along with the sale of our biggest companies abroad because we somehow accepted that foreigners could manage them better than us. And for the past decade we looked on at the purchase of our merchant banks, brokers and demutualised building societies because that was felt to put them at the forefront of the most recent trends.

Now our last bastions are falling, and again to foreigners. We've just sold our nuclear industry to the French, we're selling Bradford & Bingley to the Spanish and the UK part of Lehman Brothers is being dismembered by the Japanese.

I am not a little Englander. I've always believed in globalisation to throw open our businesses to all talents and the goods we consume to the best and cheapest producer. But for the first time since the 1970s I sense the mood is pulling away.

The British voter judged the government of Harold Wilson harshly for the rush for an IMF loan, and John Major for the frantic exit from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. But they didn't take it as a judgement on themselves and on the way the economy was operating. Now the feeling of being misled by the entire government class is more palpable, and I fear the force of nationalism it may unleash and the populism it will encourage in all the parties.

The test of government is to make people feel better about themselves when all is going wrong. Our political leaders haven't even begun to appreciate that.

a.hamilton@independent.co.uk

Chez al Bob

Why did the Drone Snap?

Rogue U.S. drone malfunctions kills five in Pakistan

whit,

Tue Sep 30, 5:20 PM ET

Kabul, Afghanistan, US Officials report that a US drone malfunctioned Tuesday evening, flying off course into Pakistan and performing an unauthorized attack which resulted in the deaths of five terrorists. Officials refuse to speculate on the reasons why this may have occurred but adamantly deny that the drones are "stretched too thin and on overload."

Frustrated by an intensifying Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, rogue U.S. drones have in the past month carried out six missile strikes on the Pakistani side of the border.

In the latest attack, a drone malfunctioned, flew into Pakistan and fired two missiles at a house near the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan, at about midnight Tuesday (1800 GMT), two intelligence agency officials said.

The area is a known sanctuary for Pakistani Taliban and foreign militants near the Afghan border.

"We have reports of five dead including foreign militants," said one of the officers, who declined to be identified as he is not authorized to speak to the media.

He also said that a shortage of US software engineers was making it difficult to properly service the US drone fleet in South Asia. Officials add that recent attacks in the Khyber Pass have made it difficult to bring software technicians into Afghanistan.

The drones have been on continuous duty since the invasion and some drone advocates have predicted that the devastating malfunctions may intensify.