Speaking to a Georgia morning news show last Thursday, GOP congressional candidate Rick Goddard criticized an MSNBC reporter’s sharp questioning of former House speaker Newt Gingrich at the Republican National Convention. Goddard called the African-American reporter, Ron Allen, “uppity“:
I[base ']Äôll tell you one thing, I think we[base ']Äôre going to have a very, very strong, capable president in John McCain. Last night, Newt Gingrich disarmed a very uppity newscaster who tried to question him on the capabilities and leadership of Governor Palin. There[base ']Äôs simply no comparison between a governor and a community organizer.
Also last Thursday, another prominent Georgia political figure — Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R) — used the racial epithet in reference to Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL). Watch the segment between Allen and Gingrich here.
The McCain/Palin GOP is already in the process of stealing the Ohio vote, as was done in 2004. Among those at the center of the GOP strategy is Bush Family computer operative Michael Connell, who programmed the key vote counting mechanisms that were used to give George W. Bush his second term.
Except for John Kennedy in 1960, no candidate since 1856 (James Buchanan) has won the White House without carrying the Buckeye State.
In his new book “The War Within,” Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward disclosed “the existence of secret operational capabilities developed by the military to locate, target and kill leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgent leaders.” Asked by a caller on Larry King Live last night if the capabilities could be used “to catch bin Laden,” Woodward replied that “maybe they can use it on bin Laden.” He then mused that it’s possible that “the September or the October surprise is going to be the apprehension or the death of bin Laden.” Watch it:
Yesterday, former right-wing senator Rick Santorum heaped lavish praise on Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) on Laura Ingraham’s radio show. To explain why “feminists” haven’t jumped on the Palin bandwagon, Santorum declared that she is “the Clarence Thomas for feminists,” whom Santorum said African-Americans and civil rights groups “obviously” should have supported:
SANTORUM: Sarah Palin is the Clarence Thomas for feminists. The civil rights community, the African-American community obviously should have rallied behind Clarence Thomas an his achievement, but they hammered him because he was a conservative. And the civil rights establishment was first and foremost liberal and then for the liberal rights of — as liberals saw it, what blacks should have in this country. And the same thing with the feminist community.
Listen to it:
Since Santorum feels that all African-Americans should “obviously” have celebrated Thomas’ “achievement,” it’s unclear whether he realizes Thomas was not, in fact, the first black Supreme Court Justice. That “achievement” was made by the far more progressive Thurgood Marshall. Of course, neither is Palin the first female vice presidential candidate, that spot being taken by the progressive candidate Geraldine Ferraro.
Santorum finds it shocking that black Americans could have possibly opposed a black candidate for the Supreme Court — despite Thomas’s long history of standing in the way of civil rights. Not only is Thomas a well-known opponent of affirmative action, but also, while working at the Department of Education, he made it more difficult to file class action lawsuits for racial discrimination, which angered many civil rights groups.”
What’s more, Santorum’s praise for Palin’s so-called feminist perspective is bizarre, considering his own traditional opposition to working mothers. In his book, “It Takes a Family,” he blames “radical feminists” for refusing to acknowledge “the essential work women have done in being the primary caregivers” of children, and he rails on the selfishness of working parents:
In far too many families with young children, both parents are working, when, if they really took an honest look at the budget, they might confess that both of them really don’t need to, or at least may not need to work as much as they do… And for some parents, the purported need to provide things for their children simply provides a convenient rationalization for pursuing a gratifying career outside the home.
PARIS — The Church of Scientology and seven of its top members are to stand trial in Paris on fraud charges after an investigation into allegations by a former member that the church swindled her out of more than $28,000.
French judicial officials said Monday that the church _ considered a sect in France _ and the seven members are to face charges of "fraud in an organized group" and "illegally acting as a pharmacy." They spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. A trial date has not yet been set.
The Paris prosecutor's office had recommended the charges be dropped.
The charges stemmed from a 1998 complaint by a woman who joined the church after she was recruited at a subway station. The woman, 33 at the time, invested thousands of mostly borrowed euros in Scientology courses and so-called purification packs containing vitamins and other pills.
The woman's lawyer, Olivier Morice, hailed the decision to hold a trial as "courageous," saying the case will strengthen France's fight against sects.
France has had a contentious relationship with the Church of Scientology. In 2002, a French court fined the Paris regional branch of the church for a data protection violation but acquitted it of attempted fraud and false advertising charges.
Established in 1945 by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, the Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology teaches that technology can expand the mind and help solve problems. It claims 10 million members around the world, including celebrity devotees Tom Cruise and John Travolta.
McCain Backed Abolishing The Department Of Education Barack Obama's campaign is reminding voters today that John McCain, during the heady days of the "Republican Revolution," once declared that he favored abolishing the Department of Education.
"I would certainly favor doing away with the Department of Energy and I think that given the origins of the Department of Education," the Senator said on CNN's Late Edition in December 1994. "I would favor doing away with it as well."
Linking McCain to "ideologues," Obama declared in his speech Tuesday, "you certainly don't reform our education system by calling to close the Department of Education. That would just make it harder for us to give out financial aid, harder for us to keep track of how our schools are doing, and lead to widening inequality in who gets a college degree."
Republican officials and McCain staffers, meanwhile, are in full-out counter-attack mode, criticizing Obama for his education policies and claiming that the Senator is misrepresenting McCain's proposals on the matter.
"Senator Barack Obama's new campaign attack ad on education," wrote spokesman Tucker Bounds this morning, "claims that John McCain's economic plan will divert money from public education without any factual citation or basis." The campaign provided a list of resolutions increasing funding for federal education efforts that McCain supported.
But Bounds' statement made no mention of McCain's previous support for doing away with the Department of Education. Neither did two counter-attack emails blasted out by the Republican National Committee.
The matter clearly complicates McCain's criticism of Obama's plan and raises questions as to what, exactly, the Republican nominee's education policy would be if he ascends to the White House. Bounds, in his statement, said that "nothing that John McCain has proposed would reduce funding for public schools." But McCain also has <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/14/mccain-aide-calls-for-ful_n_112598.html";>not been the steadfast champion of funding No Child Left Behind, as his campaign purports.
While the idea of eliminating the Department of Education certainly is not the Senator's policy as it stands in this campaign -- despite support for the idea among many conservatives -- it remains far-fetched for the McCain campaign to argue that there is no "factual basis" to the Obama camp's attacks over education policy.
Last night on Fox’s Hannity and Colmes, right-wing host Sean Hannity angrily insisted no one at Fox News had ever insinuated that Obama was a Muslim. When his guest said that McCain did not “accuse [Obama] of being a Muslim,” Hannity jumped in: “Neither has anyone on Fox.” Watch it:
In fact, it was Fox News who originally gave a national voice to the whisper campaign about Obama’s religion. Last January, Fox’s Steve Doocy triumphantly declared that Obama “was a Muslim…raised as a Muslim, went to a madrassa.” He described the madrassa as “financed by Saudis, they teach this Wahhabiism, which pretty much hates us.” “The big question,” Doocy wondered, “is was that on the curriculum back then?”
What’s more, Hannity’s show has given ample airtime to Jerome Corsi, author of a factually inaccurate smear book about Obama, to repeatedly raise questions about Obama’s religion. Just last month on Hannity’s show, Corsi said, “When he [Obama] says he has never had Islamic instruction, that’s not true.” Watch it:
As Brave New Films has documented, Fox constantly raised questions about whether Obama is or was a Muslim — and it continues to do so. Just this summer, Laura Ingraham insinuated that Obama’s father being a Muslim was enough to prove the case: “I mean, because if your Jewish, your mother is Jewish, you’re considered Jewish, right?” she said. In June, Fox host Brit Hume used an unsubstantiated news article to declare that although Obama says he is a committed Christian, “Obama’s half brother is not so sure.“
I[base ']Äôll tell you one thing, I think we[base ']Äôre going to have a very, very strong, capable president in John McCain. Last night, Newt Gingrich disarmed a very uppity newscaster who tried to question him on the capabilities and leadership of Governor Palin. There[base ']Äôs simply no comparison between a governor and a community organizer.
Yesterday, former right-wing senator Rick Santorum heaped lavish praise on Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) on Laura Ingraham’s radio show. To explain why “feminists” haven’t jumped on the Palin bandwagon, Santorum declared that she is “the Clarence Thomas for feminists,” whom Santorum said African-Americans and civil rights groups “obviously” should have supported: