The sort-of debate Sat night Aug 16, 2008 made very clear many major differences between McCain and Obama.

Obama presented himself as a walks-the-walk and talks-the-talk salesman of fine and polished things, carefully parsing out and finessing the controversial and politically incorrect issues. His polished Harvard Law school training was there for all to see. His major advisors are wife, mom and grandma.

McCain presented himself as an executive who sees issues as challenges to be addressed and solved. His major advisors are outstanding people in the fields he sees as very high on the presidential to-do list. He confronted head-on all the controversial issues of our time with a what-you-see is what-you-get directness and openness.

On the issues Obama went directly down the standard old left-Democrat path.
On the issues McCain showed true political diversity, supporting the paths he feels is right for the country and the future.

The choice is clear, we can have a smooth left-wing talker or we can have a middle-of-the-road doer!

Not found in the media.

Obama outspends everyone in history,
The National Democrat Convention starts
and then: Gallup does an update to their poll and the results are:
Obama drops 3 points to below McCain

Clearly there will only be one poll that counts, however, it’s certainly clear that this news doesn’t make Michelle proud!

Bill increases ethanol output, would mandate a fivefold increase in production by 2022.

More GM vehicles to run on ethanol.

No relief in sight at the grocery store. Increasing corn prices impacting: hogs, cows, poultry and cereal and dough.

So the Democrat Congress, surrogate for the little-people, in a totally misguided leap to do something, anything, for global-warming decided to mandate virtually all our corn resources to make ethanol to burn in vehicles.
Ethanol is of course a carbon-based fuel that requires large amounts of carbon-based fuels to produce and which then results in lots of CO2 emissions when burned.

And how does Congress “mandate” ethanol production? Sound like something the old Kremlin did back in the “good old days”. How many acres of corn do Reid and Pelosi plant each year? How many refineries are they going to build? Here in Virginia we just rejected a proposal to build an ethanol refinery and the Editors of the Roanoke Times had a celebration party.

It just took Virginia over four (4) years for an energy company to get “initial” approval to build a small wind-farm facility. How much longer to get “final” approval and to prep the site, build the towers, install the turbines and extend the power-line to the facility?

Doesn’t appear that Gov Kaine and his administration are very interested in getting “green energy” and “energy independence” established in Virginia. It’s great to talk about it, but let’s not do anything.

We’re pounding our Food into Fuel!
The bottom line is that we’re making decisions about energy that have a BIG impact on other things, like food, and the “new improved majority Democrat” Congress has just piled-on with massive additional requirements that will increase these impacts even more. Let’s not make that clear. Let’s bury that so that folks don’t start to question the “new improved” Democrat energy plan they’re touting.

More signs of the ethanol increase: Four Dollars a Gallon

The $4/gal is not gasoline – it’s the price of milk in Chicago.
The fallacy of pounding our food into fuel is resulting in the chickens coming home to roost. But not to worry – we’re putting into production many of the acres that we’ve been paying “farmers” to NOT grow anything on. What a deal.

Large facilities are being developed and built to provide ethanol as a substitute to some of our gasoline demand. This is encouraging the growth of more corn, but because the demand for ethanol-corn is expanding faster than the supply, the price of corn is going up. The increased cost for corn-based foods and corn-fed animals is resulting in higher food prices and eventually world-wide impacts to food supplies.

The best solution to this world-wide problem is hydrogen-fuel-cell power in which the hydrogen is generated by nuclear powered electricity.
Why hasn’t Pelosi/Reid already established an exit strategy for gasoline-powered-cars and passed a Bill focused on this approach with funding and time-lines and check-points?

1. The election of 2000 was stolen by Bush and the Supreme Court.

TRUTH: Bush won by a few thousand votes in Florida. Bush won by every count that took place and that's a fact. The entire hanging chad crap and the chicanery leading up to it, propagated by a bunch of bald-faced liars tried everything to sway public opinion against a vote tally.



2. Bush lied to get us into the war.

TRUTH: The war in Iraq was part of the war on terror. Bush has admitted the intel on WMD was flawed, and he never lied about it. And getting rid of Saddam was a good thing.



3. Throw this one in the mix of liberal lies."I'm a conservative libertarian!"



4. Global Warming is all our fault.
False: We are in a natural 250 global warming from the earth.

5. The rich don't pay their "fair" share of the taxes.

Truth: the wealthiest 10% of the country pays 90% of the taxes.

6. There are so many conservatives because they are brainwashed by Fox News.



Truth: there are so many liberals because they are brainwashed by CNN, NBC, ABC, BBC....

7. Conservatives are greedy and don't care about the common good

Truth: conservatives donate almost twice more money (based on a percentage of their income) to charities than liberals do.



And please, add your list of liberal lies to my blog.

The above is McCain's depiction of Obama's energy plan -- which is for all Americans to inflate their tires. McCain is giving you one of these for a $25 donation! How funny! So, you can get one!

People are laughing!

Obama's position on drilling is in opposition to 70% of Americans who want it, and want it now.


"It's (off-shore drilling) not going to provide short-term relief or medium-term relief or in fact long-term relief. It won't drop prices in this administration or in the next administration or in the administration after that." -Barack Obama

McCain's response:

"We need oil drilling and we need it now offshore and we need it now. He has consistently opposed it. He has opposed nuclear power. He has opposed reprocessing. He has opposed storage. And the only thing I’ve heard him say is that we should inflate our tires. So he has no plan for addressing the energy challenges that we face.”

Here's how the story unfolded:

The McCain campaign handed tire gauges out to reporters in celebration of Obama's birthday today.

The McCain campaign also used the tire gauge gimmick in a fundraising plea today.

"Today, I'm asking for your help in putting Senator Obama's 'tire gauge' energy policy to the test,' McCain campaign manager Rick Davis wrote to potential donors. "With an immediate donation of $25 or more, we will send you an 'Obama Energy Plan' tire pressure gauge. Will simply inflating your tires reduce the financial burden of high gas prices on your wallet?"

The Obama campaign responded in an email:

"As Senator McCain knows, Barack Obama has a comprehensive plan to provide real relief to Americans struggling with soaring prices and make the long-term investments we need to break our addiction to oil. And while the McCain team may is busy amusing themselves, the fact is that the idea they’re attacking is supported by, among others, top McCain surrogate Joe Lieberman, conference call host Mike Rogers, Governors Charlie Crist and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Department of Energy, and NASCAR — all of whom have urged Americans to help save energy by minding tire pressure."

All I can say is if Obama wins better get to pumping...your tires, that is!







Obama says, There are things you can do individually, though, to save energy. Making sure your tires are properly inflated — simple thing. But we could save all the oil that they’re talking about getting off drilling — if everybody was just inflating their tires? And getting regular tune-ups? You’d actually save just as much!

Apparently, none of our colleagues on the port side of the blogosphere can figure out why Barack Obama’s suggestion that the energy crisis could be solved through tire inflation and tune-ups was such a gaffe, or why the John McCain campaign’s distribution of pressure gauges skewers Obama. One blogger goes so far as to point out that the Bush administration actually recommends that motorists inflate tires properly for efficient use of gasoline.

Obama didn’t intend this as some sort of offhand comment about conservation and efficiency. No one doubts that proper tire inflation can help with efficiency, and no one thinks it’s silly to maintain one’s vehicle for a variety of reasons. However, Obama clearly stated that we could get just as much oil from tire inflation and tune-ups as we can get from drilling — a ludicrous statement well deserving of ridicule.
Jim Geraghty calculated at the time that, assuming a 10% improvement in gas efficiency, we could save about 330,000 barrels of oil a day through proper tire inflation. Most experts put the actual improvement at 3%. With our present consumption of 20 million barrels a day, that comes to a savings of 1.65% at the most generous assumptions, and more likely about 0.5%. Current production of American oil is 8 million barrels a day; expanding drilling to the OCS and to interior shale would eventually provide millions more per day, not just the 100,000 barrels we’ll get out of our tires.

So yes, inflate your tires properly and get regular tune-ups. But if you think that will solve the supply crisis or make us independent of foreign oil, then you probably won’t get the joke no matter how many times we explain it.

Republican John McCain portrayed his Democratic presidential election rival Barack Obama as a national security neophyte who was dishonestly misrepresenting him on Iraq. Intensifying his assault, McCain questioned Obama's plan to leave a "strike force" of US troops in the Middle East after an eventual withdrawal from Iraq, and accused him of being "disingenuous" about his own Iraq stance.

Obama, who has pledged to end the war in Iraq in 2009, if he is elected, said this week that he would leave enough troops in the country to defend the US embassy, along with a strike force in the region to hobble Al-Qaeda. "I think somebody ought to ask what in the world he's talking about, especially since he has no experience or background at all in national security affairs," McCain said in an MSNBC interview.

McCain also hit out at Obama for claiming he wants to wage a 100 year war in Iraq, saying he was deliberately taking his remarks about a South Korea or Japan-style multi-generational peacekeeping presence out of context. "Senator Obama is being disingenuous, because he knows better."

In a Fox News interview, McCain said Obama was being "dishonest." "No one could have interpreted that exchange as me saying that we are going to be in a war for 100 years. And so for Senator Obama to interpret (it) that way is obviously willful distortion."

Arizona Senator McCain, on a week-long biographical tour, is turning increasing fire on Obama, apparently positioning for a general election showdown.

Little Suzy had a box of very small kittens that she was trying to give away, so she had them out on the street corner with a sign 'FREEKITTENS' next to them.
Suddenly a long line of big black cars came upwith a policeman on a motorcycle in front. The cars all stopped and atall man stepped out from the biggest car. 'Hi, little girl, what do you have there in the box?' he asked. 'Kittens' Little Suzy says. 'They're so small, their eyes are not even open yet.'
'What kind of kittens are they?' he asked. 'Democrats' says Little Suzy. The tall man smiled, returned to his car and they drove away. Sensing a good photo opportunity, Sen. Obama called his campaign manager and told him about the little girl with the kittens. It was planned that they would return the next day, have all the media there and tell everyone about these 'democrat' kittens.
The next day, Little Suzy is standing out on the corner with her box of kittens with the 'FREE KITTENS' sign and the big motorcade of black cars pulled up with all the vans and trucks from ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN. Everyone had their cameras ready and then Sen. Obama got out of his limo and walked up to Little Suzy. 'Now don't be frightened,' he said, I just want you to tell all these nice news people just what kind of kittens you're giving away today.'
'Yes sir,' Suzy said, 'they are all REPUBLICAN kittens.'
Taken by surprise, Sen. Obama said, 'But yesterday you told me they were DEMOCRATS.'
Little Suzy says, 'Yes, I know. But today, they have their eyes open.'

When in England , at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of 'empire building' by George Bush.
He answered by saying, 'Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.'
..You could have heard a pin drop.

There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American.
During a break one of the French engineers came back into the room saying
'Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intend to do, bomb them?'

A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly:
'Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people;
they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities;
they have three cafeterias wth the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day,
they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day,
and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck.
We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?'
..You could have heard a pin drop.

A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included admirals from the U.S , English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of Officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that, 'whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English.' He then asked, 'Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?'

Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied 'Maybe it's because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German.'

..You could have heard a pin drop.

Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on. 'You have been to France before, monsieur?' the customs officer asked sarcastically.
Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously . Then you should know enough to have your passport ready.' The American said, 'The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it.' 'Impossible. Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France !'

The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained. 'Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in '44 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen to show a passport to.'
..You could have heard a pin drop.

http://www.bohemionews.com/news.php?nid=2537

JERUSALEM – The board of a nonprofit organization on which Sen. Barak Obama served as a paid director alongside a confessed domestic terrorist granted funding to a controversial Arab group that mourns the establishment of Israel as a "catastrophe" and supports intense immigration reform, including providing drivers licenses and education to illegal aliens.

The co-founder of the Arab group in question, Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi, also has held a fundraiser for Obama. Khalidi is a harsh critic of Israel, has made statements supportive of Palestinian terror and reportedly has worked on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization while it was involved in anti-Western terrorism and was labeled by the State Department as a terror group.

In 2001, the Woods Fund, a Chicago-based nonprofit that describes itself as a group helping the disadvantaged, provided a $40,000 grant to the Arab American Action Network, or AAAN, for which Khalidi’s wife, Mona, serves as president. The Fund provided a second grant to the AAAN for $35,000 in 2002.

Obama was a director of the Woods Fund board from 1999 to Dec. 11, 2002, according to the Fund’s website. According to tax filings, Obama received compensation of $6,000 per year for his service in 1999 and 2001.

Obama served on the Wood’s Fund board alongside William C. Ayers, a member of the Weathermen terrorist group which sought to overthrow of the U.S. government and took responsibility for numerous bombings of government buildings.

Ayers, who still serves on the Woods Fund board, contributed $200 to Obama’s senatorial campaign fund and has served on panels with Obama at numerous public speaking engagements. Ayers admitted to involvement in the bombings of U.S. governmental buildings in the 1970s. He is a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

The $40,000 grant from Obama’s Woods Fund to the AAAN constituted about a fifth of the Arab group’s reported grants for 2001, according to tax filings obtained by WND. The $35,000 Woods Fund grant in 2002 also constituted about one-fifth of AAAN’s reported grants for that year.

The AAAN, headquartered in the heart of Chicago’s Palestinian immigrant community, describes itself as working to "empower Chicago-area Arab immigrants and Arab Americans through the combined strategies of community organizing, advocacy, education and social services, leadership development, and forging productive relationships with other communities."

It reportedly has worked on projects with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, which supports open boarders and education for illegal aliens.

The AAAN in 2005 sent a letter to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson in which it called a billboard opposing a North Carolina-New Mexico joint initiative to deny driver’s licenses to illegal aliens a "bigoted attack on Arabs and Muslims."

Speakers at AAAN dinners and events routinely have taken an anti-Israel line. The group co-sponsored a Palestinian art exhibit, titled, "The Subject of Palestine," that featured works related to what some Palestinians call the "Nakba" or "catastrophe" of Israel’s founding in 1948.

According to the widely discredited Nakba narrative, Jews in 1948 forcibly expelled hundreds of thousands - some Palestinians claim over one million - Arabs from their homes and then took over the territory.

Historically, about 600,000 Arabs fled Israel after surrounding Arab countries warned they would destroy the Jewish state in 1948. Some Arabs also were driven out by Jewish forces while they were trying to push back invading Arab armies. At the same time, over 800,000 Jews were expelled or left Arab countries under threat after Israel was founded.

The theme of AAAN’s Nakba art exhibit, held at DePaul University in 2005, was "the compelling and continuing tragedy of Palestinian life … under [Israeli] occupation … home demolition … statelessness … bereavement … martyrdom, and … the heroic struggle for life, for safety, and for freedom."

Another AAAN initiative, titled, "Al Nakba 1948 as experienced by Chicago Palestinians," seeks documents related to the "catastrophe" of Israel’s founding.

A post on the AAAN site asked users: "Do you have photos, letters or other memories you could share about Al-Nakba-1948?"

That posting was recently removed. The AAAN website currently states the entire site is under construction.

Pro-PLO advocate held Obama fundraiser, describes Obama as ’sympathetic. AAAN co-founder Rashid Khalidi was reportedly a director of the official PLO press agency WAFA in Beirut from 1976 to 1982, while the PLO committed scores of anti-Western attacks and was labeled by the U.S. as a terror group. Khalidi’s wife, AAAN President Mona Khalidi, was reportedly WAFA’s English translator during that period.

Rashid Khalidi at times has denied working directly for the PLO but Palestinian diplomatic sources in Ramallah told WND he indeed directed WAFA. Khalidi also advised the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid Conference in 1991.

During documented speeches and public events, Khalidi has called Israel an "apartheid system in creation" and a destructive "racist" state.

He has multiple times expressed support for Palestinian terror, calling suicide bombings response to "Israeli aggression." He dedicated his 1986 book, "Under Siege," to "those who gave their lives … in defense of the cause of Palestine and independence of Lebanon." Critics assailed the book as excusing Palestinian terrorism.

While the Woods Fund’s contribution to Khalidi’s AAAN might be perceived as a one-time run in with Obama, the presidential hopeful and Khalidi evidence a deeper relationship.

According to a professor at the University of Chicago who said he has known Obama for 12 years, the Democratic presidential hopeful first befriended Khalidi when the two worked together at the university. The professor spoke on condition of anonymity. Khalidi lectured at the University of Chicago until 2003 while Obama taught law there from 1993 until his election to the Senate in 2004.

Khalidi in 2000 held what was described as a successful fundraiser for Obama’s failed bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, a fact not denied by Khalidi.

Speaking in a joint interview with WND and the John Batchelor Show of New York’s WABC Radio and Los Angeles’ KFI Radio, Khalidi was asked about his 2000 fundraiser for Obama. "I was just doing my duties as a Chicago resident to help my local politician," Khalidi stated. Khalidi said he supports Obama for president "because he is the only candidate who has expressed sympathy for the Palestinian cause."

Khalidi also lauded Obama for "saying he supports talks with Iran. If the U.S. can talk with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, there is no reason it can’t talk with the Iranians."

Asked about Obama’s role funding the AAAN, Khalidi claimed he had "never heard of the Woods Fund until it popped up on a bunch of blogs a few months ago." He terminated the call when petitioned further about his links with Obama.

Contacted by phone, Mona Khalidi refused to answer WND’s questions about the AAAN’s involvement with Obama.

Obama’s campaign headquarters did not reply to a list of WND questions sent by e-mail to the senator’s press office.

Obama, American terrorist in same circles

Obama served on the board with Ayers, who was a Weathermen leader and has written about his involvement with the group’s bombings of the New York City Police headquarters in 1970, the U.S. Capitol in 1971 and the Pentagon in 1972.

"I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough," Ayers told the New York Times in an interview released on Sept. 11, 2001

"Everything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon," Ayers wrote in his memoirs, titled "Fugitive Days." He continued with a disclaimer that he didn’t personally set the bombs, but his group set the explosives and planned the attack.

A $200 campaign contribution is listed on April 2, 2001 by the "Friends of Barack Obama" campaign fund. The two taught appeared speaking together at several public events, including a 1997 University of Chicago panel entitled, "Should a child ever be called a ’super predator?’" and another panel for the University of Illinois in April 2002, entitled, "Intellectuals: Who Needs Them?"

The charges against Ayers were dropped in 1974 because of prosecutorial misconduct, including illegal surveillance.

Ayers is married to another notorious Weathermen terrorist, Bernadine Dohrn, who has also served on panels with Obama. Dohrn was once on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted List and was described by J. Edgar Hoover as the "most dangerous woman in America." Ayers and Dohrn raised the son of Weathermen terrorist Kathy Boudin, who was serving a sentence for participating in a 1981 murder and robbery that left 4 people dead.

Obama advisor wants talks with terrorists

The revelations about Obama’s relationship with Khalidi follows a recent WND article quoting Israeli security officials who expressed "concern" about Robert Malley, an adviser to Obama who has advocated negotiations with Hamas and providing international assistance to the terrorist group.

Malley, a principal Obama foreign policy adviser, has penned numerous opinion articles, many of them co-written with a former adviser to the late Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, petitioning for dialogue with Hamas and blasting Israel for numerous policies he says harm the Palestinian cause.

Malley also previously penned a well-circulated New York Review of Books piece largely blaming Israel for the collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations at Camp David in 2000 when Arafat turned down a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and eastern sections of Jerusalem and instead returned to the Middle East to launch an intifada, or terrorist campaign, against the Jewish state.

Malley’s contentions have been strongly refuted by key participants at Camp David, including President Bill Clinton, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and primary U.S. envoy to the Middle East Dennis Ross, all of whom squarely blamed Arafat’s refusal to make peace for the talks’ failure.

No doubt, the media, and all the liberal Jews and other Obama supporters will ignore this.

An article has appeared on the ISM affiliated website Electronic Intifada (EI) by one of its co-founders, Ali Abunimah, in which Abumimah recounts his close past working relationship with Obama prior to the presidential campaign and how Abunimah believes Obama is merely giving lip service to the Jewish community to get elected, and that once in office he will work for the Palestinian cause. Abunimah lists himself and is mentioned in subsequent Obama articles in the mainstream press merely as a “Palestinian activist.” Abunimah insists that Obama will “come around” once elected.

But Ali Abunimah is more than just some “Palestinian activist” based in Chicago, the same location as Reverend Wright and the Trinity United Church of Christ. He is, in fact, one of the founders of the fiercely anti-Semitic ISM Arab group Al Awda, the Palestine Right of Return Coalition. Abunimah is a high level international leader of the ISM for the Arabs who travels extensively between Chicago, Europe and Ramallah.

Al Awda in Arabic means “The Return,” and the group not only calls for the complete destruction of Israel, even denying Israel’s current existence on its website and urging boycotts against not only Israelis, but American Jews and their businesses, but also calls for specifically supporting Arab terrorists in Iraq who kill US soldiers. Among its more than 130 chapters across the US and Canada, Al Awda’s New Jersey chapter is led by a young woman named Charlotte Kates who has called Israeli children killed by suicide bombers “fair game.” The ISM’s Al Awda openly supports terrorism as “legitimate resistance” in ISM revolutionary lingo.

Al Awda’s anti-Semitism has also linked to neo-Nazi groups in promoting the boycott and divestment from Israel on American campuses and in the US business community. It became so virulent that the group was booted by the UC Riverside campus administration from holding an international conference on that campus last year. Ali Abunimah, even today, is featured on the Al Awda website supporting terrorism against Israelis because he considers that “nonviolence is overrated.”

In short, Obama saw no problem being lobbied in the past by someone who openly promotes terrorism and discrimination against Jewish-Americans.