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Ralph Nader, "Back on the table"!
sign the petition to get ralph in debates http://www.petitiononline.com/GoogleNO/petition.html
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MSNBC catches Fox using old footage to make McCain look younger
MSNBC's Dan Abrams was all smiles on Thursday as he aired what he described as proof of Fox News going over the line in an attempt to make Republican presidential candidate John McCain look good.
"If you have any question whether Fox News is in the tank for McCain," exclaimed Abrams, "this should wipe any doubt from your mind. Fox is actually trying to make John McCain look younger."
MSNBC and Fox have recently been at war over their respective coverage of the presidential campaign, with Fox being particularly critical of Keith Olbermann's apparent partisanship. Earlier this month, Fox anchor Chris Wallace accused MSNBC of being "in the tank" for Obama -- and Abrams was clearly thrilled at the chance to hit back.
"Take a good look at the senator and the video they use," Abrams stated. He then showed a clip in which Fox used video of a strangely youthful and vigorous-looking McCain at a campaign rally to accompany a story about McCain's current campaign schedule. However, the video also prominently features a sign reading "www.mccain2000.com," which at one point is even waved in front of McCain's face.
"Fox is actually using eight year old video to discuss today's activities," Abrams marveled. He concluded cheerfully, "They report -- you decide."
In addition to going after Fox, Abrams also aired a recent segment from CNN's Headline News, during which which host Glenn Beck and conservative commentator Ben Stein attempted to cast a negative light on Barack Obama's announcement that he will make his speech accepting the Democratic nomination in a large sports stadium rather than inside the convention hall.
"75,000 people in an outdoor sports palace," began Stein, using carefully loaded language. "Well, that's something the Fuehrer would have done."
"I've been saying that we're headed towards a Mussolini-style presidency," Beck added. "It's crazy."
"It's scarily authoritarian," Stein agreed.
"Are they kidding?" wondered Abrams. "A lot of people want to see Obama and that's bad?" MSNBC's Dan Abrams was all smiles on Thursday as he aired what he described as proof of Fox News going over the line in an attempt to ... more -
New Statesman - Obama, the prince of bait-and-switch
The US and its allies are dropping record numbers of bombs on Afghanistan. This is not news. In the first half of this year, 1,853 bombs were dropped: more than all the bombs of 2006 and most of 2007. "The most frequently used bombs," the Air Force Times reports, "are the 500lb and 2,000lb satellite-guided . . ." Without this one-sided onslaught, the resurgence of the Taliban, it is clear, might not have happened. Even Hamid Karzai, America's and Britain's puppet, has said so. The presence and the aggression of foreigners have all but united a resistance that now includes former warlords once on the CIA's payroll.
The scandal of this would be headline news, were it not for what George W Bush's former spokesman Scott McClellan has called "complicit enablers" - journalists who serve as little more than official amplifiers. Having declared Afghanistan a "good war", the complicit enablers are now anointing Barack Obama as he tours the bloodfests in Afghanistan and Iraq. What they never say is that Obama is a bomber.
In the New York Times on 14 July, in an article spun to appear as if he is ending the war in Iraq, Obama demanded more war in Afghan istan and, in effect, an invasion of Pakistan. He wants more combat troops, more helicopters, more bombs. Bush may be on his way out, but the Republicans have built an ideological machine that transcends the loss of electoral power - because their collaborators are, as the American writer Mike Whitney put it succinctly, "bait-and-switch" Democrats, of whom Obama is the prince. The US and its allies are dropping record numbers of bombs on Afghanistan. This is not news. In the first half of this year, 1,853 bom... more -
CNN Duped By Fake USC College Republican
The president of the College Republicans at the University of Southern California is charging that CNN used a "fake College Republican" in its broadcast report today, claiming there was a lack of enthusiasm for the GOP candidate, Sen. John McCain.
A CNN spokeswoman now says it was an inadvertent error.
In its Thursday morning report, according to a news release from the student organization, CNN interviewed someone identified as Eric Pearlmutter, who was said to be a USC student and College Republican.
"We try to get people out to our College Republican meetings, but we can't seem to get the same amount of support," he said.
Ben Myers, the president of USC College Republicans, said, "I have never met Eric Pearlmutter. I have never seen him at a College Republican meeting. He is not on our membership roster. I don't know why someone would think he speaks for us. As far as I know, he could be a Democrat."
The president of the College Republicans at the University of Southern California is charging that CNN used a "fake College Republican... more -
Pastor Hagee's Extreme Makeover
ANP: John Hagee gets a new "face", but is it really still the same old song and dance?
American News Project: In late May, after three months of deliberation, John McCain called Pastor John Hagee "crazy" and renounced his endorsement. But Hagee has come back stronger than ever -- thanks to friends like William Kristol, Joe Lieberman . . . and the public relations firm W5, which also represents Microsoft, Snoop Dogg and Pamela Anderson. This week in Washington, D.C., Hagee's non-profit organization, Christians United for Israel (CUFI), brought together five thousand supporters of the bedeviled pastor, and a new regime of media relations was much in evidence. Hagee avoided issues that have caused controversy in the past (Armageddon, homosexuals, God's purposes for the Holocaust, Hurricane Katrina, etc.). By pulling back the veil and conducting unauthorized interviews with several of Hagee's Christian Zionist followers, ANP reveals the fanatical ideology that still lies behind the CUFI's more restrained rhetoric. ANP: John Hagee gets a new "face", but is it really still the same old song and dance? ... more -
Obama arrives in Paris to meet Sarkozy
Barack Obama arrived in Paris today to meet with French president Nicolas Sarkozy, after delivering a sweeping speech on US-European relations before a crowd of 200,000 in Berlin.
Obama is expected to move on to London today, where he will visit Gordon Brown, his predecessor Tony Blair, and Conservative party leader David Cameron. The young Democratic nominee plans a rare solo press conference outside Downing Street after meeting with Brown.
Although Sarkozy is known in the US as one of George Bush's closest allies – earning him the nickname "Sarko the American" – he has also signalled open arms for Obama.
"Obama? He's my pal," the French president told Le Figaro newspaper today. "Unlike my diplomatic advisers, I never believed in Hillary Clinton's chances. I always said that Obama would be nominated."
One Obama priority may not be as controversial in Paris as it was in Berlin: the US call for Nato allies to contribute more troops to the war in Afghanistan.
Even as Obama tried for subtle pressure by telling crowds in Berlin that "we must" recommit to the fight against the Taliban, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, was putting the brakes on troop levels.
Germany recently approved a further 1,000 troops for Afghanistan, adding to its current contingent of 3,500, but Merkel said she has no plans to go further. The US has 19,000 soldiers in the Nato mission, a number Obama has pledged to strengthen while withdrawing troops from Iraq.
Sarkozy has taken a more cooperative approach to Afghanistan, however, agreeing to send more French troops to train the country's nascent army and security forces.
The 200,000-strong crowd that greeted Obama yesterday in Berlin with calls of Hoffnung (hope) one of his campaign buzzwords — appears to have been the candidate's largest. The 75,000 spectators who flocked to an Obama rally in the US state of Oregon set the previous record earlier this year.
Barack Obama arrived in Paris today to meet with French president Nicolas Sarkozy, after delivering a sweeping speech on US-European r... more -
Russia eyes new Cuba nuclear bases
Russia is said to be considering the use of bases in Cuba as a refuelling point for its nuclear bombers, in a move reminiscent of the 1962 missile crisis.
The move would be in retaliation for the Bush administration's plan to site a missile defence shield in Europe. Russia says America's proposal for the shield in Poland and the Czech Republic poses a direct threat to its security.
Citing a "highly placed military source", a report in Monday's Izvestiya said the Kremlin wanted to use Cuba as a base for its long-range Tu-160 and Tu-95 strategic nuclear bombers. "While they are deploying the anti-missile systems in Poland and the Czech Republic, our long-range strategic aircraft already will be landing in Cuba," the source told the paper. No final decision on landing bombers in Cuba had been taken, it added.
Link to this audio
'Russia is hacked off with Bush'
In 1962 Nikita Khrushchev, Russia's then leader, attempted to site nuclear missiles on the Caribbean island. His aim was to lessen the then strategic nuclear gap with the US. He eventually backed down and withdrew the missiles. The US secretly removed its missiles from Turkey.
Izvestiya is owned by Russia's state gas giant Gazprom and reflects official thinking. It is frequently used by the Kremlin as a vehicle for leaking information. The possible use of Cuba as a nuclear base dominated yesterday's Russian newspapers. Komsomolskaya Pravda said "our bombers" could be stationed under America's "belly", threatening the US in the same way it threatens Russia.
But Russia's defence ministry poured cold water on the report yesterday. "Russia, guided by its peaceful policy, is not creating military bases at the borders of other states," Russian news agencies quoted Ilshat Baichurin, acting head of the defence ministry's information department, as saying.
US and European diplomats also played down the report, saying they did not regard the threat as realistic even though General Norton Schwartz, who has been nominated as the US air force commander, warned on Tuesday that such a move by Moscow would amount to crossing a dangerous threshold.
Russian defence analysts told the Guardian there was little strategic point in using Cuba as a base and the idea seemed to have been floated to irritate the US.
Russia's nuclear aircraft have a range of up to 1,900 miles, allowing them to fire a nuclear missile at the US from much further away than Cuba, defence expert Pavel Felgenhauer said.
It was unclear yesterday whether Cuba had agreed to Russia's proposal. In a brief note on a government website, Fidel Castro said his brother Raúl, Cuba's president, was wise not to respond to the report. Most observers believe that the president would be unlikely to agree to any request from Moscow.
Russia is said to be considering the use of bases in Cuba as a refuelling point for its nuclear bombers, in a move reminiscent of the ... more -
Obama rocks Germany!
BERLIN (AP) - Before an enormous crowd, Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama on Thursday summoned Europeans and Americans together to "defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it" as surely as they conquered communism a generation ago.
"The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand," Obama said, speaking not far from where the Berlin Wall once divided the city.
"The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes, natives and immigrants, Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand," he said.
Obama said he was speaking as a citizen, not as a president, but the evening was awash in politics. His remarks inevitably invited comparison to historic speeches in the same city by Presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, and he borrowed rhetoric from his own appeals to campaign audiences in the likes of Berlin, N.H., when he addressed a crowd in one of the great cities of Europe.
"People of Berlin, people of the world, this is our moment. This is our time," he said.
Obama's speech was the centerpiece of a fast-paced tour through Europe designed to reassure skeptical voters back home about his ability to lead the country and take a frayed cross-Atlantic alliance in a new direction after eight years of the Bush administration.
Republicans, chafing at the media attention Obama's campaign-season trip has drawn, sought to stoke doubts abut his claims.
In Die Welt, the German publication, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich., said: "No one knows which Obama will show. Will it be the ideological, left-wing Democratic primary candidate who vowed to 'end' the war rather than win it, or the Democratic nominee who dismisses the progressing coalition victory as a 'distraction'? Will it be the American populist who has told supporters in the United States that he will demand more from our allies in Europe and get it, or the liberal internationalist hell-bent on being liked in Europe's salons?"
Obama met earlier in the day with German Chancellor Angela Merkel for a discussion that ranged across the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, climate change, energy issues and more.
Knots of bystanders waited along Obama's motorcade route for him to pass. One man yelled out in English, "Yes, we can," the senator's campaign refrain, when he emerged from his car to enter his hotel.
Obama drew loud applause as he strode confidently across a large podium erected at the base of the Victory Column in Tiergarten Park in the heart of Berlin.
This video is from CNN.com, broadcast July 24, 2008.
BERLIN (AP) - Before an enormous crowd, Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama on Thursday summoned Europeans and Americans to... more -
Iran cuts off cooperation with UN nuclear arms probe
VIENNA, Austria - Iran signaled Thursday that it will no longer cooperate with U.N. experts probing for signs of clandestine nuclear weapons work, confirming the investigation is at a dead end a year after it began.
The announcement from Iranian Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh compounded skepticism about denting Tehran's nuclear defiance, just five days after Tehran stonewalled demands from six world powers that it halt activities capable of producing the fissile core of warheads.
Besides demanding a suspension of uranium enrichment — a process that can create both fuel for nuclear reactors and payloads for atomic bombs — the six powers have been pressing Tehran to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency's probe.
Iran, which is obligated as a signer of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty not to develop nuclear arms, raised suspicions about its intentions when it admitted in 2002 that it had run a secret nuclear program for nearly two decades in violation of its commitment.
The Tehran regime insists it halted such work and is now only trying to produce fuel for nuclear reactors to generate electricity. It agreed on a "work plan" with the Vienna-based IAEA a year ago for U.N. inspectors to look into allegations Iran is still doing weapons work.
At the time, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei hailed it as "a significant step forward" that would fill in the missing pieces of Tehran's nuclear jigsaw puzzle — if honored by Iran. He brushed aside suggestions Iran was using the deal as a smoke screen to deflect attention from its continued defiance of a U.N. Security Council demand for a halt to uranium enrichment
VIENNA, Austria - Iran signaled Thursday that it will no longer cooperate with U.N. experts probing for signs of clandestine nuclear w... more -
CBS News omitted a second McCain falsehood: calling Iraq war "the first major conf...
Keeping up with John McCain's foreign policy gaffes is becoming a cottage industry these days, and a progressive radio host has caught another slip-up from the Republican presidential nominee talking about the war on terror. Keeping up with John McCain's foreign policy gaffes is becoming a cottage industry these days, and a progressive radio host has caught... more
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Dalai Lama meets McCain
Republican presidential candidate John McCain planned to meet with the Dalai Lama today in a show of solidarity with the Tibetan spiritual leader and as a rebuke to China's treatment of the people he represents.
"I've been a great admirer of the Dalai Lama," McCain told reporters Thursday while campaigning in Ohio, calling the Dalai Lama "a transcendent international role model and hero."
McCain's remarks come two weeks before the start of the Beijing Olympics.
China in recent months has imprisoned hundreds of Tibetans who held marches for greater autonomy and freedoms. China took Tibet by force in 1951, burning hundreds of Buddhist temples and killing many priests.
The Dalai Lama, the head of the faith in Tibet, went into exile in 1959 and has waged a campaign for decades in the West to have China loosen its grip on his country. He remains an immensely popular figure among the Tibetan people.
The Dalai Lama is attending a symposium in Aspen, Colo., on his homeland's culture. His planned meeting there with McCain comes four months after the Dalai Lama sent him a letter thanking him for his "concern" over the Chinese military crackdown in Tibet.
Support for Tibet and opposition to China's stifling of dissent are two points of agreement on foreign policy between McCain and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Both have said if they were president they would boycott the Aug. 8 opening ceremonies in Beijing.
The White House announced July 3 that President Bush would attend the opening ceremonies. He said on July 6 that he has often talked about religious freedom and human rights with the Chinese, and "I don't need the Olympics to express my concerns."
Bush said a boycott would have been an "affront" that may have made it harder to "speak frankly with the Chinese leadership."
The Dalai Lama was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in October in a ceremony attended by the president. China issued a statement lashing out at Bush for taking part in the honor.
Regarding America's policy with China, McCain has said he supports cooperation on "a wide variety of strategic, economic and diplomatic fronts," but that Chinese leaders need to understand that "in our modern world, how a nation treats its citizens is a legitimate subject of international concern."
Michael Green, former top Asia adviser in the Bush administration, said he doubted that McCain would use the meeting with the Dalai Lama to bash China.
Green, now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the McCain meeting and Obama's comments should send a message to China that Tibet will be an important issue to the next president.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain planned to meet with the Dalai Lama today in a show of solidarity with the Tibetan spiri... more -
Obama and the case of the missing 'thesis'
Conservative provocateurs have been hunting for it. Investigative journalists have been on the prowl, too. Even a former professor has been searching through old boxes for his copy of it. But today Barack Obama made it official: He doesn’t have and can’t release any copies of the thesis-length paper he wrote 25 years ago while a senior at Columbia University.
“We do not have a copy of the course paper you requested and neither does Columbia University,” Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt told NBC News.
The hunt begins
The hunt for Obama’s senior “thesis” began with a throwaway line in a newspaper article last October. The New York Times story, on Obama’s early New York years, mentioned in passing that the presidential contender had majored in political science at Columbia and had spent his time “writing his thesis on Soviet nuclear disarmament.”
Journalists began hounding Columbia University for copies of the musty document. Conservative bloggers began wondering if the young Obama had written a no-nukes screed that he might come to regret. And David Bossie, the former congressional investigator and “right-wing hit man,” as one newspaper described him, took out classified newspaper ads in Columbia University’s newspaper and the Chicago Tribune in March searching for the term paper. Conservative provocateurs have been hunting for it. Investigative journalists have been on the prowl, too. Even a former professor has... more -
Young Republicans worry about McCain's appeal
From cyberspace to college campuses, many young conservatives are worried that Sen. John McCain is not appealing to their generation.
Sen. John McCain says he knows how important young voters are.
At a town hall meeting in Ohio this month, a student told McCain that Republicans were a dying breed on his campus.
"I understand the challenge I have, and I understand that this election is really all about the people of your generation," McCain said.
Many young Republicans said Sen. Barack Obama, the 46-year-old junior senator from Illinois, is inspiring voters their age, but McCain, the 71-year-old Arizona senator who has been in office since the early '80s, is not.
Eric Pearlmutter, a member of the Young Republicans at the University of Southern California, said the roaring enthusiasm that follows Obama is missing among conservatives his age.
"We try to get people out to our college Republican meetings, but ... we can't seem to draw the same kind of vocal support," he said From cyberspace to college campuses, many young conservatives are worried that Sen. John McCain is not appealing to their generation. ... more -
McCain Gaffe -- Iraq Was the First Major Conflict After 9/11. What about Afghanis...
There is one more John McCain gaffe that the media missed from the now famous CBS interview with Katie Couric.
This is the same interview in which McCain claimed the surge led to the Anbar Awakening, which is demonstrably false. But watch below for another gaffe when McCain says Iraq was the first major conflict after 9/11.
Was Afghanistan not major enough for him? It almost reminds you of when Don Rumsfeld was not impressed with invading Afghanistan because it did not provide a rich enough target environment. He needed something more major.
In all likelihood, this was a simple mental mistake for McCain, among a litany of others recently. But it does go toward state of mind. They never saw Afghanistan as a priority
There is one more John McCain gaffe that the media missed from the now famous CBS interview with Katie Couric. ... more -
Obama warns Germans of potential 'new walls'
"Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, speaking to thousands of Germans crowded into the heart of the city, is warning Thursday of "new walls" that could divide trans-Atlantic allies and said Europe and America must reunite to tackle wars, nuclear threats and genocide.
"In this new world, such dangerous currents have swept along faster than our efforts to contain them," he said. "That is why we cannot afford to be divided. No one nation, no matter how large or powerful, can defeat such challenges alone."
The Illinois senator hinted at strains between Europe and the United States in recent years and said that "if we're honest with each other, we know that sometimes, on both sides of the Atlantic, we have drifted apart, and forgotten our shared destiny."
Police estimated the crowd, which began gathering hours before the speech, at over 200,000, according to Michael Bengsch, media relations for the Berlin police. Many waved American flags, some shouting Obama's campaign slogan: "Yes We Can"." "Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, speaking to thousands of Germans crowded into the heart of the city, is warning Thurs... more -
McCain visits German restaurant in Ohio
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Republican presidential candidate John McCain had his own German experience Thursday — at a restaurant in Ohio. He asserted that he was happy to devote his time this week to touring the nation's heartland.
"I'd love to give a speech in Germany. But I'd much prefer to do it as president of the United States rather than as a candidate for president," McCain told reporters after a meal of bratwurst with local business leaders at Schmidt's Sausage Haus und Restaurant in Columbus' German Village neighborhood.
As Barack Obama delivered a high-profile speech in Berlin, McCain said he was focusing his attention this week on economic issues, including soaring food and fuel costs. He has been busy campaigning and raising funds in key battleground states like Ohio.
In what was clearly not a coincidence, McCain spoke with reporters shortly before Obama began his speech at Berlin's Victory Column.
At the same time, the Republican National Committee was running anti-Obama ads in Berlin, Pa., and other namesake villages in Wisconsin and New Hampshire.
Read link for more info
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Republican presidential candidate John McCain had his own German experience Thursday — at a restaurant in Ohio. He a... more -
Gook: John McCain's racism and why it matters
The UpTake's Chuck Olsen interviews author Irwin Tang about his book, "Gook: John McCain's Racism and Why It Matters."
McCain first used the word "gook" in the mass media in his 1973 article for US News & World Report. The word appears twelve times in the article and is available online here.
Most recently, McCain used the term in his 2000 presidential campaign, as documented by the San Francisco Chronicle.
To learn more about Mr. Tang's book, which also details McCain's connection to white supremacist groups, visit his web site: http://irwinbooks.com/ The UpTake's Chuck Olsen interviews author Irwin Tang about his book, "Gook: John McCain's Racism and Why It Matters." ... more -
George W Bush Whoops It Up While America Suffers - Video
George W. Bush whoops it up at a "R": fundraiser, laughing and joking while
Americans suffer in silence. This time, Cenk Uygur, (The Young Turks) is very angry at the Bozo-In-Chief... Watch video and feel his rage, and his sorrow.
Bush - "Wall Street Got Drunk"
George W. Bush whoops it up at a "R": fundraiser, laughing and joking while ... more -
Photos: McCain's Week of Horrible Images
The images from Barack Obama's trip abroad have been, one might say, picture perfect. From the stern shot of Obama with Gen. David Petraeus to the somber photos from Israel's Holocaust Museum, one guesses that Obama's campaign couldn't be more pleased.
As for John McCain -- well, that's another story (see link for pics)
The images from Barack Obama's trip abroad have been, one might say, picture perfect. From the stern shot of Obama with Gen. David Pet... more -
Vote Vets Come Down On McCain Iraq Policy
The ad features Brandon Woods, an Iraq War veteran from New York .
In the ad, Brandon says, "What did we fight for in Iraq ? I have some idea. I fought in Operation Iraqi Freedom. And "freedom" means when the Iraqi people and their Prime Minister ask us to make a plan to leave, we do. But, Senator McCain would occupy Iraq indefinitely, against their wishes. That's not what freedom means. That's not what we fought for. Senator, I thought you would know better." The ad features Brandon Woods, an Iraq War veteran from New York . ... more
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