This is not good. The greatest threat to fighting crime, especially when it comes to drugs, are corrupt police. The situation along the Mexican border is becoming a serious threat.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Newsweek: "Where Have You Gone," John McCain?
This article from Jonathan Alter wonders whatever happened to the 'Maverick' John McCain. Now he's just become another establishment Republican.
In the middle of John McCain's dopey Britney & Paris attack ad, the announcer gravely asks of Barack Obama: "Is He Ready to Lead?" An equally good question is whether McCain is ready to lead. For a man who will turn 72 this month, he's a surprisingly immature politician—erratic, impulsive and subject to peer pressure from the last knucklehead who offers him advice. The youthful insouciance that for many years has helped McCain charm reporters like me is now channeled into an ad that one GOP strategist labeled "juvenile," another termed "childish" and McCain's own mother called "stupid." The Obama campaign's new mantra is that McCain is "an honorable man running a dishonorable campaign." Lame is more like it. And out of sync with the real guy.
Of course, it might work. Maybe depicting Obama as a presumptuous and vaguely foreign presence will resonate. (Why else would one of McCain's slogans be "An American president for America"?) Maybe voters will agree with McCain campaign manager Rick Davis, who played the fussy card last week by arguing the central importance to the future of the republic of Obama's taste for "MET-Rx chocolate roasted peanut protein bars and bottles of a hard-to-find organic brew called Black Forest Berry Honest Tea." (Davis somehow forgot to mention McCain's own preference for $520 Ferragamo shoes.) Maybe convincing nervous white voters that Obama is another Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson in his use of racial grievance politics will carry McCain to the White House.
But this is not 1988, when Vice President George Bush turned Michael Dukakis into an unpatriotic coddler of criminals. (Bush that year had a popular president and a strong economy behind him.) And it's not 2004, when his son Swift-Boated John Kerry. (The president would have likely won anyway by playing on post-9/11 fear.) This year, McCain is running under a tattered Republican banner, with more than 80 percent of the public thinking the country is on the wrong track. Without some compelling vision beyond support for offshore drilling, the negativity may well boomerang. "It's hard to imagine America responding to 'small ball' when we have all these problems," says John Weaver, McCain's chief strategist in 2000 who was pushed out of the campaign last year.
Obama Agrees to 3 Debates with McCain
And it won't include any third party candidates.
Democratic candidate Barack Obama's campaign has accepted a proposal by the Commission on Presidential Debates for three debates with Republican candidate John McCain and one between their vice presidential candidates.
In a letter sent Saturday to the commission, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said Congressman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois will be their representative in further discussions about the debates.
Plouffe signed off on debates for September and October.
Now watch McCain whine about how Obama won't debate him because he is afraid.
Democratic candidate Barack Obama on Saturday backed away from rival John McCain's challenge for a series of joint appearances before the political conventions, agreeing only to the standard three debates in the fall.
In May, when a McCain adviser proposed a series of pre-convention appearances at town hall meetings, Obama said, "I think that's a great idea." In summer stumping on the campaign trail, McCain has often noted that Obama had not followed through and joined him in any events.
On Saturday, in a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said the short period between the last political convention and the first proposed debate made it likely that the commission-sponsored debates would be the only ones in the fall.
"We've committed to the three debates on the table," campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Saturday in an interview. "It's likely they will be the three appearances by the candidates this fall."
Asked by The Associated Press if that meant Obama would not agree to any other debates, Psaki said, "We're not saying that." She said the McCain campaign had rejected Obama's proposal for two joint town hall meetings.
The McCain campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Republican Governor Releases Murderer Sentenced to Life
And Haley Barbour is supposed to be a conservative, too. I guess there goes the law and order issue for the Republicans in the Fall.
The last thing a governor wants - and especially a law-and-order Republican governor - is a controversy over a pardon or commutation of sentence, especially when it involves someone convicted of a brutal murder. But that's exactly what Miss. Gov. Haley Barbour got this week.
Barbour's decision to let out the man convicted of the 1989 killing of Adrienne Klasky after serving 19 years of a life sentence has triggered rage among those who knew her and who remember the brutal crime.
Barbour earlier this month suspended the life sentence of Michael Graham, who had been working as a trusty in the Governor's Mansion. Much like a parole, Graham is restricted in where he can live and has to report to monthly meetings with corrections officials.
Graham, Klasky's ex-husband, was convicted of her murder. Witnesses said Graham stalked Klasky for three years before pulling up next to her at a Pascagoula intersection and shooting her in the head as she waited for a light to change.
Obama Town Hall Interrupted by Protestors
Obama shows he's no empty suit when he responds to militant African-Americans at a Florida town hall meeting.
Senator Stevens Indictment: Arrogance of Power
He's been powerful for so long he thinks he can do whatever he wants. If you a Republican or Democrat in Congress your job is essentially for life. And the longer your in power the more influence you acquire. This is how we've developed a two-party dictatorship in America. What we really have is one incumbency party. It is also why Congress' job approval rating is going straight throw the floor. Many naively believed that giving control to the Democrats in 2007 would change things. Now many believe that electing Barack Obama will really "change" things for the better in our government. If you believe that then you are just as mistaken. Only a revolution will save our country. For now, the word "change" is only a word.
For the first time since his indictment, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has spoken publicly about his legal situation — and how it affects his re-election campaign this year.
The longest-serving Republican in the Senate tells NPR that he's, "not worried" about the charges against him and that prosecutors "have a right to come to their conclusion. But I have a right to be presumed innocent just like anybody else."
Stevens made the comments as he returned home to Alaska, landing in Ketchikan, where he was greeted by a handful of applauding supporters.
The federal indictment announced Tuesday accuses Stevens of concealing $250,000 worth of gifts and favors from an oil services company.
Stevens would not go into specifics about the allegations, saying that talking about the charges right now would be bad legal strategy. But hew was willing to talk about how his legal strategy ties in with his campaign strategy. Stevens has asked for the soonest possible trial date.
"I'm entitled to a speedy trial," he tells NPR, "and I asked for one and I'm delighted, I think it's a good thing. That way when the voters vote, they'll be voting knowing I was right all along."
NBC Executive Admits Theft
We don't often hear about corruption involving media empires. I wonder why. This article appeared in FOXNews owned rag newspaper.
A former treasury manager at NBC Universal yesterday admitted he teamed up with his boss to rip off over $1.3 million in corporate money that the duo blew on a lavish, jet-setting lifestyle.
James Walsh, 35, pleaded guilty to wire fraud for personally pocketing up to $400,000 in petty cash from NBC and corporate parent General Electric in a two-year scam that had a less-than-petty outcome.
Despite his lower job title and smaller cut of the cash, Walsh is set to take a bigger fall than boss Victor Jung, the company's ex-treasurer.
Obama Opposes Slavery Reparations
This will go a long way towards ending racial division in America. Although it will cost Obama votes from some militant blacks, this issue does nothing but create resentment. The answer is to further racial equality through creating a equal playing field for all our citizens. I just wished Obama would come out against affirmative action. Although he opposes racial quotas.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama opposes offering reparations to the descendants of slaves, putting him at odds with some black groups and leaders.
The man with a serious chance to become the nation's first black president argues that government should instead combat the legacy of slavery by improving schools, health care and the economy for all.
"I have said in the past - and I'll repeat again - that the best reparations we can provide are good schools in the inner city and jobs for people who are unemployed," the Illinois Democrat said recently.
Some two dozen members of Congress are co-sponsors of legislation to create a commission that would study reparations - that is, payments and programs to make up for the damage done by slavery.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People supports the legislation, too. Cities around the country, including Obama's home of Chicago, have endorsed the idea, and so has a major union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Obama has worked to be seen as someone who will bring people together, not divide them into various interest groups with checklists of demands. Supporting reparations could undermine that image and make him appear to be pandering to black voters.
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