Bush also commuted the prison sentences of John Edward Forte of North Brunswick, N.J., and James Russell Harris of Detroit, Mich. Both were convicted of cocaine offenses.
Forte, a well-known hip hop artist, worked with the Fugees, Wyclef Jean and Herbie Hancock.
Pardon orders never give a reason, but NBC News' Pete Williams reported that in Forte's case, it is likely the mandatory minimum sentences required in drug cases. Here's how fans of Forte's put it on a Web site dedicated to him:
"John Forte's life was forever changed in July of 2000. He agreed to transport a package, and in turn was arrested on a drug trafficking charge. He did not accept the plea bargain offered him, as he maintained that he was innocent of the charges against him.
"In 2001, John Forté stood trial in a Texas court and was convicted of this non-violent crime. It was his first offense. Due to the outdated mandatory minimum sentencing laws currently in place, he received the only prison term available for the judge to hand down — 14 years in a federal penitentiary. John is not eligible to be released until he is at least 38 years old."
Under the Constitution, the president’s power to issue pardons is absolute and cannot be overruled.Some high-profile individuals, such as Michael Milken, are seeking a pardon on securities fraud charges. Two politicians convicted of public corruption — former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Calif., and four-term Democratic Louisiana Gov. Edwin W. Edwards — are asking Bush to shorten their prison terms.
One hot topic of discussion related to pardons is whether Bush might decide to issue pre-emptive pardons before he leaves office to government employees who authorized or engaged in harsh interrogations of suspected terrorists in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Some constitutional scholars and human rights groups want the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama to investigate possible war crimes.
If Bush were to pardon anyone involved, it would provide protection against criminal charges, particularly for people who were following orders or trying to protect the nation with their actions. But it would also be highly controversial.
At the same time, Obama advisers say there is little — if any — chance that his administration would bring criminal charges.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Obama's victory, Democratic gains will change Washington agenda
Democrats will have firm control of the White House and both houses of Congress. With voters clamoring for change, the party will have a tall task to live up to expectations.
By Janet Hook
11:10 AM PST, November 5, 2008
Reporting from Washington -- The nation's capital woke up today to a political landscape upended by voters clamoring for change, delivering to Democrats more raw power than they have wielded in more than a quarter of a century.
With Barack Obama's election as president and Democrats' gains in the House and Senate, the party is now poised to rewrite the capital's agenda and interrupt a generation of conservative dominance.
"There is a wave of hope that swept the country," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told National Public Radio. "We had a historic mandate; not a mandate for any political party or any ideology, but a mandate to get over those things that divide us and focus on getting things done."
The victory unleashes pent-up demand for a host of Democratic causes, including expanding labor union rights, providing universal healthcare and raising taxes on the wealthy. Conservative politicians and interest groups who have been allied with President Bush, for eight years carried by Washington's political tide, now have to swim upstream.
For Democrats, this abrupt power promotion presents vast risks as well as the opportunity to begin undoing the legacy left by eight years of the Bush administration.
But Obama and the expanded Democratic majority in Congress are shouldering a big burden as they try to satisfy the enormous demand for change in a nation where, according to the latest Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll, 80% or more say the country is on the wrong track.
"Obama has to show that he is prepared immediately to take aggressive steps to deal with the economy," said Matt Bennett, vice president of the centrist Democratic group Third Way. "But Obama is a moderate. People who ignore that do so at their peril."
Given the choice between cautious pragmatism and boldness, the party's left wing has high expectations.
"His instincts will be to be very cautious, but the economic situation gives him no choice but to be bold," said Bob Borosage, head of the liberal Campaign for America's Future.
But Al From, president of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, said he was encouraged by reports that Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), a former advisor to President Clinton, would be tapped as Obama's chief of staff. A Democratic official on Capitol Hill told The Times this morning that Obama has offered the post but that Emanuel, chairman of the House Democratic Campaign Committee, has not yet accepted.
"He took on all the hard issues," From said of Emanuel, citing the Clinton-era crime legislation, trade agreements and welfare reform, "the things where Clinton had to form bipartisan coalitions."
Hook is a Times staff writer.
janet.hook@latimes.com
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Ugly election incidents show lingering U.S. racism
By Carey Gillam
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - Two weeks before an election that could install the first black U.S. president, scattered ugly incidents have reflected a deep residue of racism among some segments of white America.
A cardboard likeness of Barack Obama was found strung from fishing wire at a university, the Democratic presidential nominee's face was depicted on mock food stamps, the body of a black bear was left at another university with Obama posters attached to it.
Though the incidents are sporadic and apparently isolated, they stirred up memories of the violent racial past of a country where segregation and lynchings only ended within the last 50 years.
And some feared that Obama could be a target for people who reject him on racial grounds alone. The Illinois senator leads Republican rival John McCain in polls ahead of the November 4 election and has a big following in many sections of Americans, from liberals to conservatives, black and white, poor and wealthy.
"Many whites feel they are losing their country right before their eyes," said Mark Potok, who directs the Southern Poverty Law Center that monitors hate groups. "What we are seeing at this moment is the beginning of a real backlash."
Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod said the incidents were disappointing but he said there were fewer than some had predicted.
"We've always acknowledged that race is not something that's been eradicated from our politics," said Axelrod. "But we've never felt that it would be an insuperable barrier and I don't think that it will be."
The latest incident occurred on Monday when the body of bear cub was found on the campus of Western Carolina University in North Carolina. Obama campaign signs were placed around the dead animal's head. School officials said it was a prank.
Earlier a cardboard likeness of Obama was strung up with fishing wire from a tree at a university in Oregon and an Ohio man hung a figure bearing an Obama sign from a tree in his yard. The man told local media he didn't want to see an African-American running the country.
ANGRY INDIVIDUALS
Potok said the displays of racism did not appear orchestrated as part of a campaign of racial intimidation, but were rather the acts of angry individuals. Their voices are often heard in radio call-back shows or letters to editors.
Many Americans "see the rise of minority rights, gay rights, women's rights as a threat to the world they grew up in and that their parents grew up in. They see huge demographic changes," he said.
"They see jobs disappearing to other countries, and now they see a man who is African American and who will very likely become president of the United States. For some of those people that symbolizes the end of the world as they know it."
He estimated there were as many as 800 white supremacy or nationalist groups in the United States, with at least 100,000 as "an inner core" of membership and many more on the fringes.
One such group, the League of American Patriots, last month distributed literature about why a "black ruler" would destroy the country.
Michigan State University professor Ronald Hall, writing in his new book "Racism in the 21st Century," said racism remains one of the most pressing U.S. social problems, though it now takes forms that are more subtle than the lynchings and mob violence seen decades ago in some parts of the country.
Some groups tagged with racist acts deny the charge.
In California, a Republican group said it intended no racial overtone when its October newsletter depicted a fake food stamp bearing a likeness of Obama's head on a donkey's body surrounded by fried chicken, watermelon and other images evoking insulting stereotypes about African-Americans.
Some acts have targeted not Obama's black heritage -- his father was Kenyan and his white mother was from Kansas -- but the false notion that he is a Muslim.
A derogatory billboard in West Plains, Mo., went up last month showing a caricature of Obama wearing a turban.
"There are a lot of Republicans and McCain supporters who find it hard to believe that a black guy whose middle name is Hussein is going to be the next president of the United States," said David Bositis, senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.
David Wolff, a 52-year-old white Pennsylvania voter who plans to cast his ballot for Obama, said he commonly hears racist comments and thinks such sentiments are deeply rooted across America.
"One thing that could speed up the eradication of racism would be to have a charismatic, inspirational, transformational, generational black president," he said.
(Additional reporting by Deborah Charles and Matthew Bigg; Editing by David Storey)
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - Two weeks before an election that could install the first black U.S. president, scattered ugly incidents have reflected a deep residue of racism among some segments of white America.
A cardboard likeness of Barack Obama was found strung from fishing wire at a university, the Democratic presidential nominee's face was depicted on mock food stamps, the body of a black bear was left at another university with Obama posters attached to it.
Though the incidents are sporadic and apparently isolated, they stirred up memories of the violent racial past of a country where segregation and lynchings only ended within the last 50 years.
And some feared that Obama could be a target for people who reject him on racial grounds alone. The Illinois senator leads Republican rival John McCain in polls ahead of the November 4 election and has a big following in many sections of Americans, from liberals to conservatives, black and white, poor and wealthy.
"Many whites feel they are losing their country right before their eyes," said Mark Potok, who directs the Southern Poverty Law Center that monitors hate groups. "What we are seeing at this moment is the beginning of a real backlash."
Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod said the incidents were disappointing but he said there were fewer than some had predicted.
"We've always acknowledged that race is not something that's been eradicated from our politics," said Axelrod. "But we've never felt that it would be an insuperable barrier and I don't think that it will be."
The latest incident occurred on Monday when the body of bear cub was found on the campus of Western Carolina University in North Carolina. Obama campaign signs were placed around the dead animal's head. School officials said it was a prank.
Earlier a cardboard likeness of Obama was strung up with fishing wire from a tree at a university in Oregon and an Ohio man hung a figure bearing an Obama sign from a tree in his yard. The man told local media he didn't want to see an African-American running the country.
ANGRY INDIVIDUALS
Potok said the displays of racism did not appear orchestrated as part of a campaign of racial intimidation, but were rather the acts of angry individuals. Their voices are often heard in radio call-back shows or letters to editors.
Many Americans "see the rise of minority rights, gay rights, women's rights as a threat to the world they grew up in and that their parents grew up in. They see huge demographic changes," he said.
"They see jobs disappearing to other countries, and now they see a man who is African American and who will very likely become president of the United States. For some of those people that symbolizes the end of the world as they know it."
He estimated there were as many as 800 white supremacy or nationalist groups in the United States, with at least 100,000 as "an inner core" of membership and many more on the fringes.
One such group, the League of American Patriots, last month distributed literature about why a "black ruler" would destroy the country.
Michigan State University professor Ronald Hall, writing in his new book "Racism in the 21st Century," said racism remains one of the most pressing U.S. social problems, though it now takes forms that are more subtle than the lynchings and mob violence seen decades ago in some parts of the country.
Some groups tagged with racist acts deny the charge.
In California, a Republican group said it intended no racial overtone when its October newsletter depicted a fake food stamp bearing a likeness of Obama's head on a donkey's body surrounded by fried chicken, watermelon and other images evoking insulting stereotypes about African-Americans.
Some acts have targeted not Obama's black heritage -- his father was Kenyan and his white mother was from Kansas -- but the false notion that he is a Muslim.
A derogatory billboard in West Plains, Mo., went up last month showing a caricature of Obama wearing a turban.
"There are a lot of Republicans and McCain supporters who find it hard to believe that a black guy whose middle name is Hussein is going to be the next president of the United States," said David Bositis, senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.
David Wolff, a 52-year-old white Pennsylvania voter who plans to cast his ballot for Obama, said he commonly hears racist comments and thinks such sentiments are deeply rooted across America.
"One thing that could speed up the eradication of racism would be to have a charismatic, inspirational, transformational, generational black president," he said.
(Additional reporting by Deborah Charles and Matthew Bigg; Editing by David Storey)
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Africa: Time to Return to Our Original African Values
Ray Morphy
One thing that is clear from the economic meltdown ravaging the entire world today is that the age of consumerism is almostover. And accompanying the death of consumerism is the collapse of the false and contrived socio-economic system called capitalism. Capitalism is false because it is abnormal to the natural behaviour of the majority of the human race. It is incontrovertible that capitalism and its adjunct consumerism are both inventions of the modern man of the Western hemisphere. It is a system that has no foundation in the natural interactions and inclinations for mankind.
For most of the human race, communalism is the practice of natural tendency and preference. It is a system wherein most resources are owned communally and are used by everyone according to his need. Status in such a society is not indicated by acquisitions and material symbols; rather, people are respected as a result of their contribution to the welfare of the whole group. There is no pressure, as it were, for people to exploit either the society or the environment. Each man is more or less his brother's keeper. It is the practice of communalism that has assisted humanity to survive this long. But with the coming of the Judaeo-Christian ideals of selfish concerns, egotistical acquisition and personal prosperity or salvation, emphasis moved from the group to the individual. Consequently, man lost his natural God-given inclination to good neighbourliness and kindness.
Here in Africa, man, from time immemorial, has lived in tune with the environment. The activities of our ancestors were largely in tandem with the nature of the earth and its sustenance. Our natural way of life neither hurt the earth nor depleted its resources. Our lifestyles and world view conditioned us to acquire only what we needed, unlike the Western model where men not only took what they did not need, they also killed any tribes or people who stood in their way, hence the genocidal wars of this world. Of course, we Africans had battles with neighbours, but they were mere skirmishes that were quickly settled. Nowhere in the history books is it stated that indigenous communities engaged in genocide, until African people began to adopt the decadent materialistic systems of the Western hordes. As a matter of fact, morally, our ancestors were in advance of the West. Today, it is clear that the Western acquisitive model is the woe of the world and would bring the earth to ruin unless mankind abandons that unworkable self- destructive social model wherein status is indicated by material symbols. Clearly, human development need not have such massive negative consequences on the ecosystem and humanity as is being felt around the world. Consider the threat of global warming and the economic and financial meltdown. Mankind has progressed through several epochs, but no other period has mustered a threat higher than the current one the white race constructed and foisted on the world.
Nevertheless, we in Nigeria must decide whether to continue to follow the failed Western model or return to the African communal model that is hallmarked by hospitality and a concern for one another. The communal model of life developed by our ancestors places score on human beings rather than on material things. That is why a truly rich man in the African sense is the man who has a large number of people in his family, which includes his children, wives and relatives. A man's strength in that system is defined by his ability to organise, farm and dance. It also includes his generosity during communal feasts and festivals. Men assisted one another in building houses, in farm work and burials.
Inbuilt was a welfare system in which the weak and the sick were cared for by their own relatives. Nobody was really poor because anyone could get food to eat and receive social support from his age grade, his clan or kindred.
How many Nigerians today realise that, in the true African communal setting that our forefathers left for us, there were no jails because there was no crime the way we see it today? Misdemeanours were kept in check by a strong taboo system to which everyone in the community subscribed, unlike in the adopted Western model where only the weak get punished for social infractions. Stealing, murder and looting were unheard of in these shores until the white man introduced his decadent humanity of materialism. Only the old can recall this.
In those days, buyers took what they needed and placed the appropriate sum indicated in the display tray. Try that now and even the neighbourhood kids would steal you blind. Our value system has gone down so abysmally because we blindly adopted the white man's crazy materialism.
We must find a way of regaining the much more sensible values of our forefathers that we have erroneously abandoned. Had we stayed with our own value systems, there is no way our society would have degenerated to this level where the self is the denominator of rulership.
No way would an authentic African see any sense in buying a car for N50 million when many in his family cannot afford school fees. It would have been sacrilegious for anyone to approve N100 million for a house renovation where many people live in cartons and zinc houses. In the African moral system, such a person would be prayed for and sacrifices ordered to cleanse the land. For me, there is no choice except for us to return to our roots, both in our moral conduct and religious practices. That way, our society would regain the respect for life rather than the current situation where people are willing to kill in order to be rich.
One thing that is clear from the economic meltdown ravaging the entire world today is that the age of consumerism is almostover. And accompanying the death of consumerism is the collapse of the false and contrived socio-economic system called capitalism. Capitalism is false because it is abnormal to the natural behaviour of the majority of the human race. It is incontrovertible that capitalism and its adjunct consumerism are both inventions of the modern man of the Western hemisphere. It is a system that has no foundation in the natural interactions and inclinations for mankind.
For most of the human race, communalism is the practice of natural tendency and preference. It is a system wherein most resources are owned communally and are used by everyone according to his need. Status in such a society is not indicated by acquisitions and material symbols; rather, people are respected as a result of their contribution to the welfare of the whole group. There is no pressure, as it were, for people to exploit either the society or the environment. Each man is more or less his brother's keeper. It is the practice of communalism that has assisted humanity to survive this long. But with the coming of the Judaeo-Christian ideals of selfish concerns, egotistical acquisition and personal prosperity or salvation, emphasis moved from the group to the individual. Consequently, man lost his natural God-given inclination to good neighbourliness and kindness.
Here in Africa, man, from time immemorial, has lived in tune with the environment. The activities of our ancestors were largely in tandem with the nature of the earth and its sustenance. Our natural way of life neither hurt the earth nor depleted its resources. Our lifestyles and world view conditioned us to acquire only what we needed, unlike the Western model where men not only took what they did not need, they also killed any tribes or people who stood in their way, hence the genocidal wars of this world. Of course, we Africans had battles with neighbours, but they were mere skirmishes that were quickly settled. Nowhere in the history books is it stated that indigenous communities engaged in genocide, until African people began to adopt the decadent materialistic systems of the Western hordes. As a matter of fact, morally, our ancestors were in advance of the West. Today, it is clear that the Western acquisitive model is the woe of the world and would bring the earth to ruin unless mankind abandons that unworkable self- destructive social model wherein status is indicated by material symbols. Clearly, human development need not have such massive negative consequences on the ecosystem and humanity as is being felt around the world. Consider the threat of global warming and the economic and financial meltdown. Mankind has progressed through several epochs, but no other period has mustered a threat higher than the current one the white race constructed and foisted on the world.
Nevertheless, we in Nigeria must decide whether to continue to follow the failed Western model or return to the African communal model that is hallmarked by hospitality and a concern for one another. The communal model of life developed by our ancestors places score on human beings rather than on material things. That is why a truly rich man in the African sense is the man who has a large number of people in his family, which includes his children, wives and relatives. A man's strength in that system is defined by his ability to organise, farm and dance. It also includes his generosity during communal feasts and festivals. Men assisted one another in building houses, in farm work and burials.
Inbuilt was a welfare system in which the weak and the sick were cared for by their own relatives. Nobody was really poor because anyone could get food to eat and receive social support from his age grade, his clan or kindred.
How many Nigerians today realise that, in the true African communal setting that our forefathers left for us, there were no jails because there was no crime the way we see it today? Misdemeanours were kept in check by a strong taboo system to which everyone in the community subscribed, unlike in the adopted Western model where only the weak get punished for social infractions. Stealing, murder and looting were unheard of in these shores until the white man introduced his decadent humanity of materialism. Only the old can recall this.
In those days, buyers took what they needed and placed the appropriate sum indicated in the display tray. Try that now and even the neighbourhood kids would steal you blind. Our value system has gone down so abysmally because we blindly adopted the white man's crazy materialism.
We must find a way of regaining the much more sensible values of our forefathers that we have erroneously abandoned. Had we stayed with our own value systems, there is no way our society would have degenerated to this level where the self is the denominator of rulership.
No way would an authentic African see any sense in buying a car for N50 million when many in his family cannot afford school fees. It would have been sacrilegious for anyone to approve N100 million for a house renovation where many people live in cartons and zinc houses. In the African moral system, such a person would be prayed for and sacrifices ordered to cleanse the land. For me, there is no choice except for us to return to our roots, both in our moral conduct and religious practices. That way, our society would regain the respect for life rather than the current situation where people are willing to kill in order to be rich.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell: "I'll be voting for Senator Obama" By Christopher Hass - Oct 19th, 2008 at 11:44 am EDT
From the transcript:
So when I look at all of this and I think back to my Army career. We’ve got two individuals, either one of them could be a good president. But which is the president that we need now? Which is the individual that serves the needs of the nation for the next period of time? And I come to the conclusion that because of his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America, because of who he is and his rhetorical abilities – and we have to take that into account – as well as his substance. He has both style and substance. He has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president. I think he is a transformational figure. He is a new generation coming in to the world, on to the world stage, on to the American stage. And for that reason, I’ll be voting for Senator Barack Obama.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Saturday, October 11, 2008
This is what Americans should be doing!!
Anti-capitalist student protestors clash with police as they demonstrate in the financial district of the City in London October 10, 2008. Britain's top share index slid 8.2 percent by midday on Friday in a global sell-off in equities as investors feared government efforts to unclog liquidity strains would not avert a global recession.
REUTERS/Luke Macgregor
The Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama By FRANK RICH Published: October 11, 2008
IF you think way back to the start of this marathon campaign, back when it seemed preposterous that any black man could be a serious presidential contender, then you remember the biggest fear about Barack Obama: a crazy person might take a shot at him.
Some voters told reporters that they didn’t want Obama to run, let alone win, should his very presence unleash the demons who have stalked America from Lincoln to King. After consultation with Congress, Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, gave Obama a Secret Service detail earlier than any presidential candidate in our history — in May 2007, some eight months before the first Democratic primaries.
“I’ve got the best protection in the world, so stop worrying,” Obama reassured his supporters. Eventually the country got conditioned to his appearing in large arenas without incident (though I confess that the first loud burst of fireworks at the end of his convention stadium speech gave me a start). In America, nothing does succeed like success. The fear receded.
Until now. At McCain-Palin rallies, the raucous and insistent cries of “Treason!” and “Terrorist!” and “Kill him!” and “Off with his head!” as well as the uninhibited slinging of racial epithets, are actually something new in a campaign that has seen almost every conceivable twist. They are alarms. Doing nothing is not an option.
All’s fair in politics. John McCain and Sarah Palin have every right to bring up William Ayers, even if his connection to Obama is minor, even if Ayers’s Weather Underground history dates back to Obama’s childhood, even if establishment Republicans and Democrats alike have collaborated with the present-day Ayers in educational reform. But it’s not just the old Joe McCarthyesque guilt-by-association game, however spurious, that’s going on here. Don’t for an instant believe the many mindlessly “even-handed” journalists who keep saying that the McCain campaign’s use of Ayers is the moral or political equivalent of the Obama campaign’s hammering on Charles Keating.
Your request is being processed... John Lewis Warns McCain: You're "Sowing The Seeds Of Hatred And Division" October 11, 2008 04:51 PM
Georgia congressman and Civil Rights leader John Lewis, reacting to the increasingly incendiary atmosphere at McCain-Palin campaign rallies, condemned the GOP for using tactics that are creating a mood not unlike the one created by George Wallace, the former segregationist governor and presidential candidate. Lewis accused the Republicans of "sowing the seeds of hatred and division," and warned the McCain campaign that they are "playing with fire:"
"As one who was a victim of violence and hate during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, I am deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign," Lewis said in a statement. "Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse."
The veteran Democrat even invoked one of the most divisive figures in recent U.S. history. "During another period, in the not too distant past, there was a governor of the state of Alabama named George Wallace who also became a presidential candidate. George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama," said Lewis.
He warned, "As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all. They are playing a very dangerous game that disregards the value of the political process and cheapens our entire democracy. We can do better. The American people deserve better."
The McCain campaign reacted quickly to push back against Lewis' statement:
Congressman John Lewis' comments represent a character attack against Governor Sarah Palin and me that is shocking and beyond the pale. The notion that legitimate criticism of Senator Obama's record and positions could be compared to Governor George Wallace, his segregationist policies and the violence he provoked is unacceptable and has no place in this campaign. I am saddened that John Lewis, a man I've always admired, would make such a brazen and baseless attack on my character and the character of the thousands of hardworking Americans who come to our events to cheer for the kind of reform that will put America on the right track.
I call on Senator Obama to immediately and personally repudiate these outrageous and divisive comments that are so clearly designed to shut down debate 24 days before the election. Our country must return to the important debate about the path forward for America.
The Obama campaign declined to compare McCain's campaign with that of Wallace's, but backed Lewis' warning against the "hateful rhetoric" being used at some McCain-Palin campaign rallies:
Senator Obama does not believe that John McCain or his policy criticism is in any way comparable to George Wallace or his segregationist policies. But John Lewis was right to condemn some of the hateful rhetoric that John McCain himself personally rebuked just last night, as well as the baseless and profoundly irresponsible charges from his own running mate that the Democratic nominee for President of the United States 'pals around with terrorists.' As Barack Obama has said himself, the last thing we need from either party is the kind of angry, divisive rhetoric that tears us apart at a time of crisis when we desperately need to come together. That is the kind of campaign Senator Obama will continue to run in the weeks ahead.
The criticism from Lewis is especially sharp considering McCain has called him one of the "wisest" men he knows, one whose advice he would seek should he win the presidency.
Your request is being processed... Working Class White Voters Are Ditching McCain
KITTANNING, Pa. — The steel mills and coal mines of western Pennsylvania helped fuel the nation's economic engine. Today, old factory shells and boarded-up storefronts stand as bleak reminders of those once-prosperous times.
But the voters in working-class enclaves such as this still are a sought-after prize in presidential politics, and many are belatedly backing Democratic nominee Barack Obama.
In the Democratic primaries, working-class whites consistently supported Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Later polls showed them overwhelmingly favoring Republican nominee John McCain.
Now, driven by fears that their personal finances could further deteriorate, many see Obama as the better choice _ their thinking in some cases driven more by concern about how McCain would handle the economy than any growing admiration for his rival.
"I don't know that there's anything I particularly like about him (Obama), but I dislike McCain, and I dislike the way the country is, and Republicans need to change," said lifelong Republican Ruth Ann Michel, 64, a retiree shopping in a market in Butler on a recent day. She said her vote for Obama would be her first for a Democratic presidential candidate.
While talk in these parts is mostly about the economy, a prominent _ if not unspoken subtext _ is race. A study of the impact of racial attitudes on the election conducted by The Associated Press with Yahoo News and Stanford University found that whites without a college education were much more likely to hold negative views of blacks than those with a college education.
Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell says a drowning man doesn't care what color the person is who throws him a life preserver.
"This election is going to be decided when a husband and wife sit at a kitchen table, or a single parent sits at the kitchen table, looks at their bills and figures out who is most likely to help them with their financial condition," Rendell said. "If the answer's Barack Obama, nobody's going to care whether he's black, green, orange, purple, fuchsia or whatever."
View more...
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Does the Flu Vaccine Really Protect Kids? By Alice Park Monday, Oct. 06, 2008
Getting a flu shot is an annual rite of passage — or at least, according to U.S. health officials, it should be. For the first time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends this year that all children aged six months through 18 years receive the flu vaccine; previous advisories included children only up to five years old.
More Related
* Can We Fend Off Bird Flu?
* Briefing: The Bird Flu
* How Long Does Flu Immunity Last?
Government data indicate that the flu shot is more necessary than ever. The rate of flu deaths among children, while not high, are continuing to rise — more than 80 deaths were recorded in the 2007-2008 flu season, according to the CDC — highlighting the potential benefit of vaccination.
Yet a new study published Oct. 6 in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine suggests otherwise — that the flu shot in children doesn't necessarily protect them from illness. Led by Dr. Peter Szilagyi, researchers at University of Rochester studied 414 children aged 5 and younger, who came down with the flu during the 2003-2004 or 2004-2005 flu seasons. These children were compared with over 5,000 controls who did not have influenza during the same seasons. Turns out that flu shots seemed not to make much difference: Kids who got immunized did not get the flu at lower rates than unvaccinated kids. In fact, the immunized youngsters were just as likely to be hospitalized or to visit the doctor as kids who never received the vaccine.
But before you decide to skip the flu shot this year, experts warn that results of flu studies like this are all about design. Depending on how a particular trial is set up — which populations are studied, which vaccine is used and how many subjects are included — the results can vary, and quite significantly. The Rochester study, for example, happened to look at the effectiveness of a vaccine during two seasons in which the flu strain included in the vaccine was not well matched to the predominant circulating strain that was making people sick. That could explain the lack of protection among the vaccinees — the shot may have been protecting against the wrong flu proteins. Targeting the correct strain is a always a bit of a guessing game, however; researchers make their best scientifically based prediction as to which flu virus will be making the rounds in a coming season, but they often have to make these predictions up to nine months ahead of time, in order to keep up with the lengthy vaccine manufacturing process. "In some circumstances, it is like forecasting the weather," says Dr. Geoffrey Weinberg, professor of pediatrics at University of Rochester. "Sometimes we are right on, and sometimes we are off."
Another reason for the flu shot's failure may have been the fact that certain forms of the vaccine are more effective than others in children. In this study, most of the children received the injected vaccine, but recent studies have shown that the nasal spray, known as FluMist, appears to be better at protecting youngsters from influenza (offering about the same level of protection as the injected vaccine in adults). In kids, says Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and an advisory member of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the nasal spray may help the immune system launch a broader and more diverse immune defense, since the vaccine contains weakened forms of live flu virus that replicate rapidly in the mucosal tissues. Such furiously multiplying viruses may actually benefit vaccine effectiveness in flu seasons like those included in the study, when there is significant mismatch — or "drift" — between the circulating flu strains and the vaccine strains, because the faster the viruses divide, the more likely they are to develop more mutations, some of which may actually end up matching those circulating in the community.
Finally, notes Weinberg, who was not involved in the new study but is familiar with its design and results, the lack of effectiveness could have been due in part to the trial's small sample size. "The bigger numbers you have, the better," he says. "Five hundred subjects may sound like a lot, but once you start stratifying them by age, by whether they received all of their shots, or which year they were immunized, your total number gets smaller."
All of which means that, as this study's results show, we need to become more realistic when it comes to our expectations of the annual flu shot. There is no guarantee that it will work, but on a population level, odds are that it's better to get a flu shot than not. "We all recognize that the influenza vaccine is not as effective as the polio vaccine, or the measles vaccine," says Schaffner. "It's not a great vaccine, but it is quite a good vaccine. We are not going to eliminate influenza through the use of this vaccine. But we can mitigate its devastating impact on the population if we get immunized."
Corsi in Kenya: Obama's Nation Boots Obama Nation Author By Nick Wadhams / Nairobi Tuesday, Oct. 07, 2008
Jerome Corsi has jousted lucratively with Barack Obama, tackling the presidential candidate's reputation with a bestselling if factually challenged book that accuses the Senator of, among other things, ties to militant Islam. But he may have gone a little too far into enemy territory when he flew into Kenya, birthplace of Obama's father. Kenyan immigration officials deported Corsi, they said, over problems with his visa. They made their move before Corsi was scheduled to give a press conference at which he promised to expose secret ties between Obama and Kenyan leaders as well as a mysterious plot that would be launched should the Democratic nominee win the U.S. election.
Related
Stories
* Dreams from Obama's Grandmother
More Related
* The Blogger Behind the Obama Hit Job
* Dreams from Obama’s Grandmother
* An Antichrist Obama in McCain Ad?
Corsi, author of The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, was in Kenya writing dispatches for World Net Daily at the invitation of Christian missionaries who fear the rise of Islam in Kenya. According to World Net Daily, he wanted to answer "lingering questions" about Obama's ties to Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
Corsi was detained for about four-and-a-half hours before he was expelled. Immigration officials said that the author did not have a proper permit to work in Kenya. But, as he was on his way to the airport, Corsi's publicist Tim Bueler told TIME that they were assured the visas and passports were in order. Corsi said he had been upfront about his intentions when he arrived. According to Corsi and Bueler, the author was told that the government had misplaced the immigration card each visitor fills out upon arrival at the Nairobi airport. "Dr. Corsi can return to Kenya any time," said Bueler. "They said our passports were OK and our visas were OK, but they had lost our immigration cards."
Apart from debuting his book in Kenya (so far it is unavailable at bookstores here) and providing details about what he says are Obama's ties to Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Corsi had said that his press conference would "expose details of deep secret ties between the U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and a section of Kenya government leaders, their connection to certain sectoral groups in Kenya and subsequent plot to be executed in Kenya should Senator Obama win the American presidency."
Corsi claims that Obama has strong ties to Odinga, whom the author says fomented Kenya's post-election violence last January in a bid to secure the presidency after the results declared incumbent President Mwai Kibaki the winner. In fact, independent observers disputed Kibaki's victory and a commission looking into the vote recently determined that Kenya would never know if Odinga or Kibaki truly won. In his writings Corsi has sought to link the Luos — the tribe of Odinga as well as Obama's ancestors — with Muslims and to pit both of them against Kikuyus, the tribe of Kibaki.
"The whole world became very concerned about the violence in Kenya and wanted a negotiated setlement because they realized the outcome was not what Kenyans voted for," says Odinga adviser Salim Lone, commenting on Corsi's alleged Obama-Odinga-Islamist nexus. "Raila became prime minister because of the view that the unrest would continue. Islam had nothing to do with it, and in any event the violence in Muslim areas was minimal as compared to the others. It has absolutely no basis in fact."
Corsi also claims that Obama was in close contact with Odinga, advising the Kenyan politician on strategy after the results were announced. Lone says he was there the one time that Obama called Odinga, and he says it wasn't to talk campaign strategy but rather, according to Lone, to demand that the violence end and that Odinga and his rival, President Kibaki, come to a peaceful solution to the crisis.
The Obama campaign had no comment on Corsi's deportation. It has denounced his book in a 41-page rebuttal. If anything, Corsi seems to have seriously underestimated the broad Kenyan support for Obama, whose father was a Kenyan and who has several half-siblings here. While there is animosity between Luos and Kikuyus, and they were responsible for much of the post-election violence, Obama is immensely popular across ethnic lines in Kenya. Ever since Odinga became prime minister in a power-sharing agreement with Kibaki, his own approval ratings have soared.
In a news story on Tuesday announcing Corsi's press conference, the Standard newspaper said the American author's media invitation "makes no secret of the intention to hurl dirt at Obama and undermine his campaign from his ancestral home." Among the scrum of reporters waiting for Corsi outside Kenya's immigration office on Tuesday, one local Kenyan television correspondent was wearing an "Obama 08" t-shirt.
Corsi had also planned to deliver a $1,000 check to Obama's half-brother George, who lives in a slum in Nairobi. One Republican ad has accused Obama of abandoning his brother, who was recently reported in Italian Vanity Fair to be living on a dollar a month. But George Obama has repeatedly denied that he said any such thing or that he feels abandoned by Obama. George Obama is currently in school studying to be an auto mechanic and says he has plenty to eat.
"The inclusion of the 'philanthropic' [tour] in Corsi's programme is seen in bad taste and an extension of the campaign to undermine Obama's bid to become the first black American president," the Standard said. In an interview with TIME last week, Obama's half-sister Auma called Corsi's book "blatant lies." "It's reached a point where people will write what they write and people will assume what they want to assume and interpret things the way they want to interpret them, and you can't chase everybody," Auma Obama said. "Otherwise you stop living your own life."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)