Politicians at election time are surrounded ny many people... some they know, some they barely know, some are mere acquantances and some they don't know at all, much less about their business or associations, etc.  Out of all those, how many did Obama actually seek to have around him, and how many sought to surround themselves around him, perhaps for five minutes of fame?  To say Obama is surrounded by terrorists is rather narrow minded and myopic... and to say he is tied to Hamas because that organisation prefers him to McCain IS fearmongering... to say the least.

What I notice is that nobody has pinned anything solid regarding terrorists on Obama, that those who see things for what they really are are calling a spade a spade.

bitch slap to the head dept.

stellar ! bravo ! lol

ID, you've been blinded by too many commercials. McCain has surrounded himself with questionable people just as much if not more so than Obama. Don't fool yourself. there are quite a few shady people and dealings in McCain's past, too. the same can be said for you and me. we've all done something we aren';t proud of. I don't use the race card! If you want to vote for McCain, do so. I feel badly for you or anyone else who truly believes McCain is a man worthy of leading this country. He's proven his unworthiness with the completely shoddy methods of campaigning recently, his dishonesty about events in his life, and his pick of Palin. Hell, Palin still she she didn't do anything unethical in Alaska. Obviously, she can't read the report. I think the trooper should have been fired immediately for using the stun gun on his step-son. He's an ass for doing that. the fact is, she refuses to admit her wrong-doing.

I have my beliefs, you have yours. I hope the man I vote for wins. Experiance means nothing when it comes to being the Pres. Neither candidate has the qualifications to be Pres. It's always been a job that has on the job training. There's nothing a person can do to prepare himself/herself for the responsiblilites of that job.

Steve, you need to get your facts straight before posting, bud! Obama was NOT raised a Muslim! he attended a public school while his family lived in Indonesia after his step-father moved them there for a year. public schools there teach Islam. that doesn't mean he was raised a Muslim. he also attended a Catholic school for 3 years, also. does that make him a Catholic? no. by your reasoning, he's been raised a Catholic 3 times as much as he was a Muslim. your reasoning sucks! know what you're talking about before posting.

Once upon a time and far, far away from mainstream America, lived a U.S. senator named Barack Obama. Mr. Obama had a gift, a truly wondrous gift. He could spin troublesome facts into political gold. And perhaps, with enough spinning, he could even spin himself into the White House.

Bill Clinton understood this. He called Mr. Obama's spin "the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen." Like other fairy tales, this one requires a total suspension of disbelief. Jack (of Jack and the Beanstalk fame) had his magic beans. Mr. Obama has his magic facts. Consider the following so-called facts:

-- Magic Fact No. 1: Senator Obama will cut income taxes "for 95 percent of working families, 95 percent."

It would be truly magical to be able to cut income taxes on 95 percent of working families when only 68 percent of tax filers actually pay the federal income tax. According to the Internal Revenue Service, of the 136 million income tax returns filed in 2006, 43 million returns reported positive adjusted gross income but had no income tax liability because of assorted deductions, exemptions and tax credits.

So how do you give a tax cut to someone who doesn't pay income taxes? Mr. Obama proposes a massive program of "refundable tax credits." Those on the receiving end would simply get a check from the federal government. In other words, they would pay a "negative tax."

By wrapping a thoroughly liberal position - larger welfare benefits - in the mantle of tax cuts, Mr. Obama has very nearly managed to neutralize one of the defining issues of this presidential campaign. If that sleight of hand isn't magic, we don't know what is.

-- Magic Fact No. 2: Mr. Obama pays "for every dime" of his proposals.

According to the nonpartisan National Taxpayers Union Foundation, Mr. Obama has offered 73 proposals that would collectively increase federal spending $365.6 billion annually. That's literally a $1 billion-a-day spending increase. And, unfortunately, that figure doesn't include the cost of Mr. Obama's 88 other spending proposals for which no reliable cost estimates exist.

How does Mr. Obama propose to pay for these new and expanded spending programs? He begins by squeezing defense spending. He would then repeal "the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans." (Never mind that the Bush tax cuts are already scheduled to expire and that the revenue is already included in the government's budget forecasts.) Finally, he would "close corporate loopholes, [and] stop providing tax cuts to corporations that are shipping jobs overseas."

These steps would not come close to paying for the senator's spending proposals. Assuming they offset $100 billion of new spending, paying for the other $265.6 billion (still ignoring the cost of Mr. Obama's other 88 programs) would require an across-the-board income tax increase of 19 percent. And, of course, this figure does not reflect the tax increase that would be necessary to pay for Mr. Obama's "tax cuts."

The IRS reported earlier this year that the top-earning 5 percent of taxpayers shouldered 60 percent of the federal income tax burden in 2006. If Mr. Obama insists upon having a tiny fraction of Americans shoulder the cost of his spending and tax proposals, the tax increase on those taxpayers would have to be huge - far larger than the 19 percent tax increase described above. This would slow investment, employment and economic growth - and, yes, total governmental receipts.

Sen. Hillary Clinton once threatened, "We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." Perhaps she would have been Mr. Obama's ideal running mate after all.

-- Magic Fact No. 3: Economists overwhelming favor Mr. Obama's economic policies.

The Obama campaign likes to say it has the support of professional economists. Yet, that "fact" is based on two, methodologically flawed polls circulating the Internet. True enough, majorities of those surveyed said they favor Mr. Obama's economic policies. What else would you expect from a poll where Democrat responders outnumbered Republicans by nearly 3-to-1? Only 17 percent of the surveyed economists were Republican. In the second poll, Democrats outnumbered Republicans nearly 5-to-1. Only 10 percent of the respondents were Republican.

Meanwhile, more than 500 economists from across the country, including five Nobel Laureates, have signed a statement supporting Sen. John McCain's economic plan. (For the text of the statement and a complete list of the signatories, see www.economistsformccain.com.)

The fairy tale candidate may yet become the fairy tale president. But will the story end with "and the American people lived happily ever after?"

James E. Carter, a deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury from 2002 to 2006, is an economist with the U.S. Senate. James C. Miller III served as President Reagan's budget director from 1985 to 1988 and is now a senior adviser at Husch Blackwell Sanders, LLP.

This guy's political philosophy has been informed and shaped by his associations over the past twenty years, including people BO himself has acknowledged as 'mentors' and admired leaders including Saul Alinsky, Farrakhan and Jeremiah Wright.  Bill Ayers, at a time when BO knew exactly who he was and exactly what he had done, was his recruiter for CAC and a principal mover behind his entry into politics.  Yet you do this pathetic slip-slide shuffle and claim these people used Obama for their '5 minutes of fame', as if nobody had ever heard of these people before?

Christ, you are deluded.

Night Train -

That is worthy of a thread of its own.

What people blew up buildings and killed people inside the U.S. has McCain been hanging around with?  Better yet, did McCain launch his political career with one?  Well 0Bama did.

Actually he was.  These are things that the media doesn't report, but it's well known and even his familiy acknowledges it.  Why is 0bama hiding his background?  Ayers, Rezko, Khalid Al-Mansour, etc.  The list goes on and on.

LOL. Yes, your personal interpretation defines universal truth.

On the same token:

You know, it really gets a bit old seeing the same bullshit over and over from some of you.

If people hold different political philosophies and opinions from you, it's not because they're necessarily ignorant or racist or stupid.  

Sometimes people can look at the same data and come to a different conclusion. A little respect for other people's intelligence can go a long way.

Nothing bugs me more than when people insist that their opinions are the same as facts.

As someone who wouldn't be caught dead voting for either Obama or McCain, I am just shocked at the patronizing and arrogance directed towards other individuals purely because their political philosophies are different.

I won't vote for McCain because I don't like his political positions. But I certainly think he's "worthy" of leading the country. Similarly, while I won't vote for Obama, I don't think he's some sort of terrorist. But I think there's plenty of legitimate concern that the man has surrounded himself by people (Ayers, Wright, etc.) who overtly hate our society as it is and whose motto is "change" without defining very explicitly what he hopes to change. It certainly makes me nervous.

But I think both people are decent people and that people support these men not out of ignorance but because they believe that these men represent the way they think the United States should be administered.

If you're for Obama, you probably are unhappy with Bush's foreign policy decisions, you believe that it isn't fair that some people make so much more money than other people, and think that the federal government should ensure a basic standard of living for its citizens.

If you're for McCain, you probably support, to a certain degree, Bush's foreign policy including the invasion of Iraq. You probably believe that it is not the government's business how much people make and that generally, the federal government should try not to be involved in people's daily lives.

I hold the latter position but won't support McCain because he doesn't really have a political ideology other than getting elected (Campaign Finance Reform, poor undertanding of economics, etc.). He might make a good secretary of defense but not a very good President.

But nothing pisses me off more than seeing people showing such naked intolerance for the opinions of other individuals. Thinking Obama would be a terrible President does not make someone ignorant or evil or stupid or racist. 

Well gosh there ID and Daiwa you would think that the FBI would be compelled to arrest BO by now.  Wow, they must really be slacking, lax or bribed not to have arrested him by now.  Especially, since your word for it is so good.

Personally, since reality is irrelevant and ya just have to fling it, I heard McPhalin was part of a secret organization of Commi sympathisers who are planning on taking all the equity the government buys up with taxpayer IOUs from the bailout and gifting over to China and Russia.  It's all part of the secret right wing neo-cons socialism plot for America.

I didn't say Obama was a terrorist, nor do I think he is.  However, there is no doubt this man has very questionable associations, that are being covered up by the media, and lied about by 0bama himself.  If you are not concerned with that, then once again, there is nothing else to say.

Whoa, you know the McCain camp is losing ground when even dyed-in-the-wool and dead in the eyes conservatives are jumping ship. First Bill Kristol abandoned his position as puppetmaster Sarah Palin supporter and told McCain to fire his entire campaign staff, Charlie Crist is much too busy going to Disneyland to help McCain's campaign in Florida and now snarly conservative/crazy man Dennis Hopper is even calling it for Obama:

“I voted for Bush, father and son, but this time I’ll vote for Obama,” Hopper said in Paris, which is also in the tank for Obama. “I pray God that Barack Obama is elected.”

You can almost see the Newsbuster headline right now: Easy Riding Drug Fiend Supports Liberal Candidate

Regardless, conservatives just lost a big supporter with Hopper. Now who will star in pro-American-themed films like American Carol and Swing Vote? If Obama manages to win over James Woods, there will be no Neo-cons left in Hollywood besides Andrew Breitbart. Then the Jewish bankers will have won

If he's surrounded himself with terrorists as you put it aren't you trying to compel people to believe he's also terrorist?

I effing hope so.... it'll be the only way I'll get thu this without losing my sanity and end up counting the beads on grandma's rosary as I sit in the corner of my padded cell for some intellectual discussions with the lunatic I call my psychiatrist.

Yup, I suppose you could pick up a 200 page book on Barack Obama and end up reading 300... er, read more into it than there really was, but at the end of the day it'll have the same pages it was published with.

In other words, Barck Obama may have said that he admired/respected certain individuals for various reasons, but no matter how little he may have said regarding them, whether or not he had a close personal relationship with somebody with a skeleton or two in the closet, McCain/Palin followers will make a mountain out of a molehill and have him committing acts of terrorism and/or treason to further their cause.

What total bollocks!  McCain is trailing in the polls and 99.99% of it is sour grapes.  McCain is a senile doddering old fool who has lost his grip ages ago, and Palin comes across as a bigoted redneck with a pitbull mentality... and that's exactly what you'd get if you vote for that ticket.  McCain is not likely to finish a 4 year term, given his age, health and rapidly losing the plot... I mean, what was he thinking, getting Palin to ride on his ticket... cos she is the last person on Earth any sane person would want as their president. Nope, she should do herself and everybody else a favour, go back to Alaska and sell moose burgers and yellow snow slushies.

I have no trouble admitting that I didn't like the woman at first sight (on TV with the sound turned down)... just her facial expressions and body language told me that she was beffudled and in over her head... not to mention slimy with her own skeletal remains back home in the closet... and then I turned up the volume.  What I heard was apprehension, evasiveness and confusion throughout the interview... and not something I'd want in somebody who may just be a heartbeat away from the Commander in Chief of my country.

And do I think Sarah Palin is a racist?  You bet yer sweet bippy I do.  I heard one of her racist diatribes, thinly veiled as patriotism, and I was disgusted at the crap she was spewing forth about Barack Obama to appease an equally ignorant and racist audience that was thriving on her every (racist) world

If there's anything I hate more than a lying politician, it's a racist lying politician... especially a narrow minded bigot who has eff all idea what she's talking about...re blacks and Islam, etc.  My first wife was/is black (Australian Palm Island Aborigine) and I have a white son and black daughter with her, both of whom are great kids that I love equally, so I am very intolerant of racism and religious bigotry, being she (my first wife) was brought up a non-Christian and taught my kids in the Aboriginal way about God, which as their mother was her right, and didn't bother me cos my kids learned some valuable lessons and grew up to be decent people and good parents themselves.

Anyhow, I'm out of here... gotta wind down for a wedding on Satuday (my mother is remarrying, aged 75) and I want to clear my mind of all this political heavy stuff to better enjoy/celebrate the day with her.

I suppose people have to justify themselves backing a poor candidate and that's why we see so much back and forth BS. I side with Frogboy in that I will not be voting for either because I don't believe in voting against someone. Looks like I'll be voting Walken!

ayres may not be apologetic for what he did but obama has never said he agreed with the beliefs of ayres. my ex-wife's second husband is a three-time convicted child molester. does that make her guilty by association? no, it doesn't. she honestly didn't know. his family and friends never told her about it. when she found out, she divorced him. obama has denounced the actions of ayres. get over it, people! i don't agree with the beliefs of many people posting here but still consider tham as friends. does that make me a republican? hell, i'm not a democrat, either.

ok, i'm done. take care, folks.  

As to Ayers, he did know.

OK, Starkers, I'll leave you alone for awhile, 'till you can heal a bit, even if you're still pretending Ayers was 'just a guy who lived on BO's street'.

I just came across an excellent article... remember we are all friends.

Idealists once looked at this presidential campaign, between two candidates who fancy themselves as free of conventional party ties, and thought it might produce the election that finally pulls Washington out of the deep rut of partisan divisiveness it fell into in the 1990s.

Today, three weeks before Election Day, it sure doesn't look that way.

If it were Election Day today, who do you think would win?

Instead, partisan animosity is growing rather than waning. Democrats charge, essentially, that the McCain campaign is engaging in character assassination against their candidate, Barack Obama. The Republican National Committee says it is spending $2 million to beef up security at campaign offices because of acts of vandalism and "violent intimidation tactics" by Obama supporters. Campaign rallies are turning ugly; charges of racism are starting to appear.

Pollster Peter Hart has found some startling new evidence of high tensions. In surveying voters over the weekend, Mr. Hart found that more than a third of each candidate's supporters say they have grown to "detest" either John McCain or Sen. Obama so deeply that they would have a hard time accepting the one they don't support as president.

"How do you knit a nation back together with this kind of animosity?" asks Mr. Hart, who co-directs the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

Some of the tension now being seen is, of course, natural in the final days of an important and hard-fought campaign. Still, the atmosphere is a far cry from what once seemed possible, perhaps even likely, this year.

At the outset of Campaign 2008, part of the appeal of Sens. Obama and McCain was that they presented themselves as unconventional presidential contenders who could break out of the partisan patterns that have come to grip Washington.

Sen. Obama portrayed himself explicitly as a "postpartisan" candidate not trapped in the baby boomer right-left debate that sometimes seemed to consume a Congress led by Republican Newt Gingrich and a White House led by President Bill Clinton.

Sen. McCain was the now-fabled "maverick" whose biggest congressional achievements included legislation molded in partnership with liberal Sens. Ted Kennedy and Russell Feingold. His best friend on the campaign appeared to be a Democrat, Sen. Joseph Lieberman.

So what happened?

Read the rest...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122393387064230201.html?ic

Pssst... Hey Daiwa   http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTQ0YjhlOGVhYjQ0OWRhZjI2MmM4NTQ4NGM5Mjg0MzU=

Fox's Respected "Citizen Journalist" Respected Only in the Jew-Hating Community

Yesterday, we were formally introduced to Andy Martin, the anti-Semitic "prodigious filer of lawsuits" who was the first man on record to incorrectly claim that Barack Obama is a Muslim. Now the Smoking Gun has gotten its hands on a fundraising letter Martin penned while making an unsuccessful bid for a congressional seat in Connecticut back in 1986. Martin is actually crazier-sounding than you'd think!

"Lest you think that the Jew threat is remote, or exists only in the Middle East, I can assure you that Jews are lurking in every city, or every street, in Connecticut, hoping to steal your home, your job," he intones, before railing against "blood-sucking Jew doctors," "Jew lawyers," "Jew corporate raiders," "Jew babies," and the "so-called Holocaust" (which he claims was really just a way to kill guilty "Jew spies.")

None of this, of course, was brought up on October 5 by Fox New's Sean Hannity, when he introduced Martin as an "Internet journalist" and allowed him to declare without proof that Obama was once "in training for radical overthrow of the government." Nor did Hannity bring up the fact that Martin is currently a wanted man in New York and Florida on outstanding warrants for harassment and a criminal contempt conviction. In the five smiley mug shots the Smoking Gun has posted, it's hard to see how his charm didn't come through on election day!

Those Crazy Konservatives....

National Review Ousts Buckley's Son For Saying Nice Things About Black Guy

Very verbose way of implying something without stating it.  He offered his resignation and when it was accepted the headline is he was ousted?

As in John McCain coming to BO's defense at his campaign rallies?

I really like how Seansky uses character assassination to criticize character assassination.