Does America really want a change?

[coreyschucky]

Palin once blessed to be free from 'witchcraft'

By GARANCE BURKE, Associated Press Writer Thu Sep 25, 7:11 AM ET

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A grainy YouTube video surfaced Wednesday showing Sarah Palin being blessed in her hometown church three years ago by a Kenyan pastor who prayed for her protection from "witchcraft" as she prepared to seek higher office.
ADVERTISEMENT

The video shows Palin standing before Bishop Thomas Muthee in the pulpit of the Wasilla Assembly of God church, holding her hands open as he asked Jesus Christ to keep her safe from "every form of witchcraft."

"Come on, talk to God about this woman. We declare, save her from Satan," Muthee said as two attendants placed their hands on Palin's shoulders. "Make her way my God. Bring finances her way even for the campaign in the name of Jesus. ... Use her to turn this nation the other way around."

Palin filed campaign papers a few months later, in October 2005, and was elected governor the next year.

Palin does not say anything on the video and keeps her head bowed throughout the blessing. The Republican vice presidential candidate was baptized at the church but stopped attending regularly in 2002.

A spokesman for the McCain campaign declined to comment. A person who answered the phone at the Wasilla church confirmed the video was from May 2005 but declined further comment.

Palin was baptized Roman Catholic as a newborn.

Pentecostals are conservative in their reading of the Bible. Unlike most other Christians — including most evangelicals — Pentecostals believe in "baptism in the Holy Spirit." That can manifest itself through speaking in tongues, modern-day prophesy and faith healing, which includes the laying on of hands.

Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for the McCain-Palin campaign, has said Palin attends different churches and does not consider herself Pentecostal.

On a visit to the church in June 2008, Palin spoke fondly of the Kenyan pastor and told a group of young missionaries that Muthee's prayers had helped her to become governor.

"Pastor Muthee was here and he was praying over me, and you know how he speaks and he's so bold," she said. "And he was praying 'Lord make a way, Lord make a way' ... He said, 'Lord make a way and let her do this next step.' And that's exactly what happened."

The Rev. Zipporah Ndiritu, who studied under Muthee in the Kiambu, Kenya-based Word of Faith Church, said the bishop is revered among evangelicals there. In a phone interview from Mombasa, Kenya, she said church doctrine focuses on ridding the world of demons — and witches.

"Even in the days of Jesus Christ, according to the Bible there were witches who were manifesting through demonic forces," she said. "You can seek from the Lord, and if you find demonic forces you cast them out."

Ndiritu said she did not know Palin.

[coreyschucky]

Letterman rails against McCain for no-show
‘This is not the way a tested hero behaves,’ host says of cancellation


Today show



NEW YORK - “Late Show” host David Letterman treated John McCain’s decision to cancel an appearance on his talk show more like a stupid human trick than the act of a statesman.

The Republican presidential candidate said he was halting his campaign activities Wednesday, citing the need to deal with the nation’s financial crisis, and called Letterman to drop out of the show’s late-night lineup. On the air Wednesday night, Letterman assailed McCain’s rationale and, with prickly humor, questioned whether the nominee — now trailing in some polls — was in trouble.

“This doesn’t smell right,” Letterman said. “This is not the way a tested hero behaves. Somebody’s putting something in his Metamucil.”
Story continues below ↓advertisement

McCain spokeswoman Nicole Wallace said Thursday that the campaign “felt this wasn’t a night for comedy.”

“We deeply regret offending Mr. Letterman, but our candidate’s priority at this moment is to focus on this crisis,” Wallace said on NBC’s “Today” show.

Letterman called McCain “a true American hero” but told his viewers: “This is not the John McCain I know, by God. It makes me believe something is going haywire with the campaign.”

Instead of suspending a campaign, Letterman said, a presidential candidate should go to Washington to deal with a crisis and let his running mate shoulder the burdens of politicking.


Video

McCain suspends campaign
Sept. 24: Sen. John McCain announces he is suspending his presidential campaign and returning to Washington D.C. to work on finance reform.

MSNBC
“That’s what you do. You don’t quit. ... Or is that really a good thing to do?” Letterman said, a reference to McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. “What’s the problem? Where is she? Why isn’t she doing that?” he asked.

Letterman later asked: “Are we suspending it because there’s an economic crisis or because the poll numbers are sliding?”

Making matters worse for McCain, his replacement was MSNBC’s “Countdown” host Keith Olbermann, a constant critic of the Arizona senator. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture between NBC and Microsoft.)


McCain told the CBS show that he was immediately flying back to Washington, Letterman told his audience. Then Letterman showed a TV feed of McCain being made-up for an appearance on news anchor Katie Couric’s “CBS Evening News.”

“Doesn’t seem to be racing to the airport, does he?” Letterman said. “This just gets uglier and uglier.”

As McCain spoke to Couric, Letterman shouted at the feed: “Hey, John, I’ve got a question. Do you need a ride to the airport?”

Letterman later said: “We’re told now that the senator has concluded his interview with Katie Couric and he’s now on Rachael Ray’s show making veal piccata. ... What are you going to do?”

[coreyschucky]

Palin: Who's the boss?
Posted: Thursday, September 25, 2008 9:16 AM by Carrie Dann
Filed Under: 2008, Palin

The AP’s headline: "Who's running Alaska with Palin on stump?" Apparently, the McCain campaign. "The McCain campaign is speaking for the Alaska state government these days, especially when it wants to ensure that nothing embarrassing about Gov. Sarah Palin emerges before Election Day… Even Palin's lieutenant governor, Sean Parnell, said keeping in touch has been difficult. And since hackers broke into Palin's Yahoo e-mail account last week, he said, it has dropped off entirely… In Palin's absence, messages left with the governor's office are usually returned by the McCain campaign. A recent request for information was answered by a governor's spokesman with a sad smile and a shake of the head. Even a message left on the cell phone of a hometown friend of Palin was returned by a McCain campaign staffer."

"A grainy YouTube video surfaced Wednesday showing Sarah Palin being blessed in her hometown church three years ago by a Kenyan pastor who prayed for her protection from 'witchcraft' as she prepared to seek higher office. The video shows Palin standing before Bishop Thomas Muthee in the pulpit of the Wasilla Assembly of God church, holding her hands open as he asked Jesus Christ to keep her safe from 'every form of witchcraft.' 'Come on, talk to God about this woman. We declare, save her from Satan,' Muthee said as two attendants placed their hands on Palin's shoulders. 'Make her way my God. Bring finances her way even for the campaign in the name of Jesus. ... Use her to turn this nation the other way around.'"

"Palin said Wednesday that the United States could be headed for another Great Depression if Congress doesn't act on the financial crisis. Palin made the comment in an interview with 'CBS Evening News' anchor Katie Couric while visiting New York to meet foreign leaders for the first time in her political career. As Palin sought to establish her credentials in world affairs, first lady Laura Bush said Palin lacked sufficient foreign policy experience but was 'a quick study.' Recent surveys have shown that Palin's popularity, while still strong, has begun to fade."

Don’t miss this exchange between Couric and Palin…
COURIC: You've said, quote, "John McCain will reform the way Wall Street does business." Other than supporting stricter regulations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two years ago, can you give us any more example of his leading the charge for more oversight?
PALIN: I think that the example that you just cited, with his warnings two years ago about Fannie and Freddie -- that, that's paramount. That's more than a heck of a lot of other senators and representatives did for us.
COURIC: But he's been in Congress for 26 years. He's been chairman of the powerful Commerce Committee. And he has almost always sided with less regulation, not more.
PALIN: He's also known as the maverick though. Taking shots from his own party, and certainly taking shots from the other party. Trying to get people to understand what he's been talking about--the need to reform government.
COURIC: I'm just going to ask you one more time, not to belabor the point. Specific examples in his 26 years of pushing for more regulation?
PALIN: I'll try to find you some and I'll bring them to you.

[coreyschucky]

Fiorina Scarce as McCain Adviser After Gaffe, CEO-Pay Spotlight

Indira A.R. Lakshmanan Thu Sep 25, 12:01 AM ET

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- When Republican presidential hopeful John McCain convened a high-profile roundtable to discuss the financial crisis with 12 economic advisers in New York yesterday, one absence was notable: Carly Fiorina.
ADVERTISEMENT

For months, the former Hewlett-Packard Co. chief executive officer was the face of the McCain campaign in scores of televised interviews. She was mentioned as a possible vice president, a Washington outsider who could bolster the Arizona senator's economic credentials and draw women voters.

Now, she is on the sidelines: After at least six national TV appearances last week, Fiorina, 54, has stopped granting interviews and has spoken at just one campaign event since her Sept. 16 comment that none of the presidential or vice presidential candidates -- including the ones she is advising -- was qualified to run a major corporation.

Meanwhile, the emergence of CEO severance packages as a major issue in the banking-bailout debate has stirred memories of her own eight-figure payout when she was ousted from Hewlett- Packard in 2005.

``Her comments were inappropriate and certainly diminished her credibility,'' said Ed Rollins, former White House political director under President Ronald Reagan. ``That, combined with her history of being asked to leave with a large parachute, and I don't think that's a story you want repeated.''

Status `Unchanged'

McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said Fiorina hasn't been marginalized. ``Her status with the campaign remains unchanged,'' he said, though he wouldn't comment on her absence from interviews or campaign events.

The sudden, unflattering spotlight trained on her underscores the unforgiving terrain of the campaign season, said Republican strategist Vin Weber.

``If someone makes a gaffe, the first reaction is, `How do we keep this from being repeated again and again?''' said Weber, a former U.S. representative from Minnesota. ``And the easiest way to do this is to take the person off the road till it settles down.''

McCain, 72, has seized on a proposal for a massive government bailout as the financial markets undergo the worst crisis since the Great Depression to rail against payouts for dismissed or discredited CEOs. His campaign is running ads linking Jim Johnson and Franklin Raines, the former CEOs of failed mortgage giant Fannie Mae, to Democratic candidate Barack Obama and is demanding they return their shareholder-funded payouts.

Johnson acted as an adviser to Illinois Senator Obama, 47, before quitting in June when questions were raised about his tenure at Fannie Mae, which was taken over by federal regulators this month. Raines never advised Obama.

`Proud of Her Record'

Asked on Sept. 23 if Fiorina should surrender her golden parachute, too, McCain dismissed the comparison. ``I'm proud of her record,'' he said. ``I want everyone to know Carly Fiorina is a person that I admire and respect.''

Fiorina's backers said there is an important difference between her payout and that awarded to Johnson and Raines. While Johnson and Raines weren't charged with wrongdoing, federal regulators said Fannie's books had been manipulated to maximize executive bonuses.

Fiorina, who was forced out in a management dispute with Hewlett-Packard's board, was never accused of wrongdoing.

Stock Options

Her payout was valued at $21.4 million in cash in 2005; a New York Times report at the time estimated the value of her package was $42 million, including stocks, options and pension. A shareholder lawsuit filed in 2006 asserted that her cash payment exceeded a limit set by shareholders, and demanded she refund $7.4 million that the plaintiffs claimed her board overpaid her. The suit was dismissed this year and is on appeal.

In an interview with NBC's Today Show on Sept. 22, McCain was challenged about Fiorina's payout from a company that laid off 20,000 employees. ``She is an example of exactly the kind of person you say is at the root of the problem,'' said anchor Meredith Vieira.

``I don't think so,'' McCain said. ``I think she did a good job as CEO in many respects. I don't know the details of her compensation package, but she's one of many advisers that I have.''

Republican strategist Whit Ayres said the campaign is keeping Fiorina out of view until the controversy blows over.

``If someone says something that has been misinterpreted or used by the opposition, it only makes sense to have the surrogate or adviser lay low till the media beast is on to something else,'' Ayres said. It's not ``a good time for a former CEO to be in the news, period.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Indira Lakshmanan in Washington at ilakshmanan@bloomberg.net .

[coreyschucky]

Palin's Troopergate Moves Getting Bad Reviews in Alaska
By Nathan Thornburgh / Anchorage Tuesday, Sep. 23, 2008
Sarah Palin
Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin on Monday
Mandel Ngan / AFP / Getty



On Monday, Sarah Palin's lawyers announced the Alaska governor's intention to cooperate with the Troopergate investigation.
Related
Photos
Sarah Palin Hits the Campaign Trail
Elephant-Donkey
Start a Face-off
Stories

* Todd Palin (Among Others) a No-Show at Troopergate Hearing
* Palin and Troopergate: A Primer

More Related

* Todd Palin (Among Others) a No-Show at Troopergate Hearing
* Sarah Palin’s E-mail Hacked
* Palin and Troopergate: A Primer

Sort of.

Palin won't actually cooperate with the original investigation — the one approved unanimously by a majority Republican committee in the state legislature this summer, which Palin welcomed in a spirit of transparency and accountability before she became the Republican Party's vice-presidential nominee. The Alaska Senate Judiciary Committee had started the inquiry when former public safety commissioner Walt Monegan alleged that he might have been dismissed for not firing the allegedly loutish state trooper Mike Wooten, who was in a bitter custody battle with Palin's sister Molly McCann and was accused of threatening members of the governor's family. The investigation has since been painted by John McCain and Palin backers as a purely partisan exercise, particularly because the committee chair, state senator Hollis French, is an Anchorage Democrat who made several seemingly prejudicial statements to the media early on, including that the probe could yield an "October surprise" right before the election. Palin spokeswoman Meg Stapleton says French has already made up his mind about the governor's guilt and at this point is "just leading people into an ambush."

Instead, Palin plans to cooperate with an investigator from the state personnel board. That investigator is a Democrat, but the board's three members are political appointees who ultimately answer to the governor herself. (One was appointed by Palin, the other two by her predecessor.) They got involved only after Palin took the unusual step of filing an ethics complaint against herself in early September to spark an investigation that her lawyers hoped would overshadow — and effectively kill — the legislature's inquiry.

But the Alaska senate inquiry is moving ahead. Last week, after many of Palin's aides and associates, as well as her husband, reversed their positions and refused to testify in front of the legislative committee, French said the senate investigator would issue findings on the matter in early October with or without their testimony. As if to parry that move, Palin's lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, met with the personnel board's investigator on Monday and promised that he would furnish a list of who would be interviewed on Tuesday. The McCain campaign told the Associated Press that after Tuesday, the entire personnel board process would be confidential and that the campaign would have no further comment. The Alaska personnel board is "the only legal forum in the state for the Monegan inquiry," Palin's spokeswoman explained.

For many Alaskans, all this maneuvering is a bit too clever. Palin's jockeying doesn't just clash with her previous image as a good-government reformer. It strikes some here almost as a matter of state sovereignty. There was grumbling when the McCain campaign brought in a high-powered cheechako (that's an outsider), former federal terrorism prosecutor Ed O'Callaghan, to dictate the governor's strategy and deal with the media. Spokeswoman Stapleton says O'Callaghan is in Alaska because she and Van Flein need the extra help, and that the media have made this a national issue, so bringing in advisers from outside of Alaska is only appropriate. But the campaign's public bashing of Monegan, a widely respected, longtime public official in the state, didn't help its case. Now that O'Callaghan's hardball tactics are becoming clearer, the complaints have grown louder, from all sides of the political spectrum.

As the Anchorage Daily News wrote in a blistering op-ed over the weekend: "Is it too much to ask that Alaska's governor speak for herself, directly to Alaskans, about her actions as Alaska's governor?" One longtime observer — a Palin fan who says she's done "brilliant" things in the state — worried aloud to me over coffee in downtown Anchorage that allowing the McCain campaign to antagonize both parties in the legislature on Palin's behalf could even lead to her eventual impeachment, if her bid to become Vice President fails and she returns to the state with a little less political luster.

That seems far-fetched, but the whole affair is a rarity in Palin's charmed career: a political miscalculation. To many observers, the underlying accusations in Troopergate are not all that damning. Many Alaskans have sympathy for the anxiety and frustration the Palins felt over Wooten's continued employment. In Anchorage, I've heard time and again that Palin could have avoided further scrutiny with a single convivial mea culpa at the outset, apologizing in particular for her initial inaccurate denial that anyone in her administration, including herself, had contacted Monegan about Wooten. Stapleton says the firing was a personnel matter that the state attorney general advised Palin not to comment on initially. But still, Alaskans say that if Palin had ignored that advice and spoken openly to the public, she could have defanged any investigation and signaled to Alaskans that even as the vice-presidential nominee, she would still be the same supposedly straight-talking Sarah they had voted for overwhelmingly.

But almost every move she has made related to Troopergate since she was named McCain's running mate has damaged her credibility and standing. Most recently the shifting public explanations for why Monegan was fired have looked shaky — at one point, it was that they didn't share the same general law enforcement priorities, at another it was that he hadn't done enough to crack down on rural bootlegging, and most recently it was for his unauthorized travel to Washington to lobby for federal dollars. After many Democrats complained that the McCain campaign appeared to be trying to run out the clock on the investigation, the campaign's announcement that Palin would work with the personnel board is designed to blunt such criticism and show voters nationwide a renewed openness in the case. But it's unclear whether the board will actually reach any findings before the Nov. 4 election.

Even in iconoclastic Alaska, there are rabid Democrats and rabid Republicans who now view Troopergate only through the lens of national politics. But far more people, on both sides, see this as a more nuanced situation, and one that may end up costing Palin more here than it ever should have.

[dananderson32]

by the way how bad you think johnny mac loves the fact hes got rick "i didn't take money from freddie mac" davis as his campaign chair?

[homedawg]

"Where Is Obama?"


<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rdWjjvpH1Qw&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rdWjjvpH1Qw&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

[homedawg]

McCain Speaks at Clinton Initiative

By Michael D. Shear, Washington Post
September 25, 2008

NEW YORK -- The morning after he declared he would suspend his presidential campaigning and return to Washington to deal with the U.S. economic crisis, Sen. John McCain made one last campaign stop, speaking at a conference on global issues organized by former president Bill Clinton.

Addressing his dramatic call for a pause in the intense presidential campaign, McCain said he intends to "join" the debate in Washington over how to address the meltdown in the country's financial institutions.

"I cannot carry on a campaign as though this dangerous situation had not occurred, or as though a solution were at hand, which it clearly is not," McCain said. "With so much on the line, for America and the world, the debate that matters most right now is taking place in the United States Capitol -- and I intend to join it. Senator Obama is doing the same. America should be proud of the bipartisanship we are seeing." . . .

Following McCain's visit to the conference, called the Clinton Global Initiative, the Republican nominee is scheduled to return to Washington and his Senate office to begin discussions about the economic rescue package.

Later in the afternoon, McCain and his rival, Sen. Barack Obama, are scheduled to meet at the White House with President Bush and congressional leaders.

"This kind of cooperation has made all the difference at crucial turns in our history," McCain said. "It has given us hope in difficult times. It has moved America forward, through all adversity. And now, in this crisis, we must work together again and put our country first." . . .

McCain declared his support for efforts to combat global warming . . . "To make the great turn away from carbon-emitting fuels, we will need all the inventive genius of which America is capable," he said. "We will need as well an economy strong enough to support our nation's great shift toward clean energy."

He pledged support for the organization's efforts to combat malaria, saying that "should I be elected, I will build on these and other initiatives to ensure that malaria kills no more."

McCain promised that as president he will work to improve world health and combat AIDS, in part by promoting free trade and ending unfair subsidies for medicine and other goods. . . .

Clinton introduced McCain by saying that he "could never have known the circumstances that would be present today, with an American financial system teetering and under assault." . . .

And Clinton gave McCain credit for being willing to examine the issue of global warming when many in his party did not believe that it was a danger to the future.

"When most people in his party were thinking that global warming was overstated and maybe even a myth . . . he decided to look into it," Clinton said.

[homedawg]

Lawmakers Agree on Outline of Bailout

WASHINGTON — House and Senate negotiators from both parties said Thursday that they had reached general agreement to move forward with the administration’s proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial system, authorizing unprecedented government intervention to prevent what President Bush warned could be a widespread economic collapse.

Emerging from a nearly three-hour meeting in the Capitol, Republicans and Democrats said the legislation would include limits on the pay packages for executives of firms that seek assistance and a mechanism for the government to take an equity stake in some firms, so taxpayers have a chance to profit if the bailout plan works.

The announcement that lawmakers had reached an accord came on a day of political theater at the Capitol and at the White House where President Bush met with Congressional leaders and the presidential candidates, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois.

“We’re in a serious economic crisis,” Mr. Bush told reporters as the meeting began, shortly before 4 p.m. in the Cabinet Room of the White House. “This meeting is an attempt to move the process forward. My hope is we can reach an agreement very shortly.”

Mr. McCain was seated at one end of a long conference table, Mr. Obama at the other, with the president and congressional leaders between them. Neither spoke, though Mr. McCain smiled broadly as reporters shouted questions that went unanswered by President Bush.

[homedawg]

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/cVDaOvL4OJM&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/cVDaOvL4OJM&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

[homedawg]

Terrorist William Ayers and Obama (Updated)

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zXGk8mvaVoQ&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zXGk8mvaVoQ&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

[homedawg]

Disgraced Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson — Obama adviser — survives Obama bus crash
September 25, 2008
Ben Smith at The Politico reported September 24, 2008:

Former Fannie Mae chairman Jim Johnson was dumped from Obama’s vice presidential search team, but he’s still playing a behind-the-scenes role on the campaign.


Former Senator Tom Daschle, a top Obama backer, emailed a select list this afternoon that he and Johnson would be leading a briefing intended largely for Clinton’s campaign brain trust next month.

“Jim Johnson and I have scheduled another informal breakfast discussion and update on the campaign early next month,” he wrote to a list including Senator John Kerry, James Carville, and Richard Holbrooke, as well as Clinton’s former top campaign aides, including Howard Wolfson, Geoff Garin, and Harold Ickes.

Johnson’s involvement comes at a moment when political association with the failed mortgage giants is particularly toxic. He was already the subject of a McCain ad attacking Obama.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5w9ZVr_1oBg&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5w9ZVr_1oBg&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Let’s take a little stroll down memory lane for those who may have missed all the drama a couple months ago — June 11, 2008: “The Obama bus has crashed!!!!”

Ben Smith wrote:

Obama and his campaign staunchly defended Jim Johnson against the charge that his ties to the troubled mortgage lender Countrywide disqualified him from sitting on Obama’s vice presidential search committee, but just pulled the plug: He resigned as chairman of the steering committee just now.

“Jim did not want to distract in any way from the very important task of gathering information about my vice presidential nominee, so he has made a decision to step aside that I accept. We have a very good selection process underway, and I am confident that it will produce a number of highly qualified candidates for me to choose from in the weeks ahead. I remain grateful to Jim for his service and his efforts in this process,” said Barack Obama.

Nedra Pickler of the Associated Press stated briefly:

A leader of Democrat Barack Obama’s vice presidential research team has resigned amid criticism over his personal loan deals.

Obama announced in a statement Wednesday that Jim Johnson was stepping aside to avoid distracting from the vetting process.

Johnson served on the vetting team with former first daughter Caroline Kennedy and former Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder.

Expecting the “inevitable”
Jim Geraghty at the Campaign Spot/National Review remarked “Everyone and their brother expects the inevitable, ‘This isn’t the Jim Johnson I once knew.’”

Too little, way too late
Just in case you missed it, about two hours prior to Johnson’s “resignation”, Obama “surrogate” and head cheerleader Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) “weighed in, when asked on a conference call if he’d advise Senator Obama to retain Johnson’s services.”

“Let me just say first of all, I would never reveal what I do or don’t recommend to either a sitting president or somebody running for president, I think those conversations are personal and private and they belong that way,” Kerry replied. Of course the ‘04 Democratic nominee himself utilized Johnson’s services while vetting his own VP short list.

The ex-candidate called the controversy one of those “Washington grab stories” about someone who is performing a “voluntary function” for Obama. Kerry then praised Johnson for the role he performed in 2004. “He’s proven himself somebody who has a great skill at gathering that information, keeping it personal and private. You will recall there were zero leaks from my process. No person involved in it felt upset or violated by the process…he did an outstanding job in that capacity and I have no complaint about what he did for me,” Kerry said.

The Real Barack Obama

[homedawg]

RezkoTrialWatch: Feds may indict Blagojevich
September 25, 2008



Iraqi British billionaire businessman Nadhmi Auchi and Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich


According to the UPI, the CBS-owned station WBBM-TV Chicago reports:

U.S. federal agents say they have enough evidence to indict Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich for fraud and conspiracy,… [but that] an indictment of Blagojevich, the first Democrat elected to Illinois’ governorship in 30 years, was “not imminent.”

Neither the FBI, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald nor Blagojevich’s office had any immediate comment on the report.

Fitzgerald’s office said June 30, 2006, it was looking into “very serious allegations of endemic hiring fraud” in the Blagojevich administration.

Prosecutors also mentioned Blagojevich in an indictment as the intended beneficiary of at least one extortion attempt by Blagojevich fundraiser and businessmen Antoin “Tony” Rezko.

The political fixer and Obama’s personal real estate fairy was “convicted June 4 on 16 of the 24 counts against him [and] awaits sentencing in October on mail and wire fraud, aiding and abetting bribery and money laundering convictions. He still faces two more trials.”

Although the Chicago Sun-Times and others have suggested “Rezko could cut his prison time significantly by cooperating in investigations of other public figures, including Blagojevich”, Rezko’s lawyer, Joseph Duffy, has “called the idea of his client’s involvement in other prosecutions ‘bogus’.”

Once again stepping into the RBO Wayback Machine, we direct your attention to April 2004 and that now-infamous reception held for Iraqi-British billionaire businessman Nadhi Auchi at Chicago’s Four Seasons Hotel that was arranged by Rezko, hosted by Blagojevich, and during which Obama “dropped in"

[homedawg]

Obama & DNC Hide Behind Legal Issues While Betraying Public in not Producing a Certified Copy of Obama’s “Vault” Birth Certificate and Oath of Allegiance
Country is Headed to a Constitutional Crisis

(Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania – 09/24/08) - Philip J. Berg, Esquire, the Attorney who filed suit against Barack H. Obama challenging Senator Obama’s lack of “qualifications” to serve as President of the United States, announced today that Obama and Democratic National Committee [DNC] filed a Joint Motion to Dismiss on the last day to file a response, for the obvious purpose of delaying Court action in the case of Berg v. Obama, No. 08-cv-04083.

Their joint motion indicates a concerted effort to avoid the truth by delaying the judicial process, although legal, by not resolving the issue presented: that is, whether Barack Obama was “natural born.”

It is obvious that Obama was born in Kenya and does not meet the “qualifications” to be President of the United States pursuant to our United States Constitution. Obama cannot produce a certified copy of his “Vault” [original long version] Birth Certificate from Hawaii because it does not exist.

[homedawg]

by the way how bad you think johnny mac loves the fact hes got rick "i didn't take money from freddie mac" davis as his campaign chair?

Dan, I started this thread over 2 months ago, to give everyone reasons; to NOT vote OBAMA

and also to give reasons; to VOTE McCAIN,

Two and a half months later, I have given many reasons why you should NOT vote Obama,
and many reasons why you should VOTE McCAIN

All you have done is jumped in with trivial **** on McCain and attacks on Palin! :pud:

Why haven't you started your own thread? :conf: