Obama Nabs Powell Endorsement, Raises $150 Million in September

By Maureen Hoch on October 20, 2008

Louis Farrakhan Calls Obama the Messiah

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."

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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.
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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.
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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."

Why Some Women Hate Sarah Palin By Belinda Luscombe Thursday, Oct. 02, 2008 A woman holds an anti Sarah Palin sign.

Some polls are suggesting that after gaining an initial bump, McCain's campaign is being hobbled by Sarah Palin's vice-presidential candidacy. The voters who are deserting her fastest, some of whom are even calling on her to withdraw, are mostly women.


Ah, women, the consistently, tragically underestimated constituency. What the Democrats learned during the primaries and the Republicans might now be finding out the hard way, I learned at my very academic, well-regarded all-girls high school: that is never to discount the ability of women to open a robust, committed, well-thought-out vat of hatred for another girl.

Women are weapons-grade haters. Hillary Clinton knows it. Palin knows it too. When women get their hate on, they don't just dislike, or find disfavor with, or sort of not really appreciate. They loathe — deeply, richly, sustainingly. I do not say this to disparage my gender; women also love in more or less the same way.

When men disagree, the steps to resolution are reasonably clear and unsophisticated. Acts of physical violence are visited upon one another's person or property, and the whole thing blows over. Women? Nu-unh. We savor the discord. We draw it out. We share our contempt with our friends, like a useful stock tip, or really good salsa. And then we all go hate together: a mutually encouraging group activity for when the book group gets quiet.

The hatred women have for Sarah Palin, and others had for Hillary before her, is not necessarily about politics. Anybody can run the numbers on how many people Palin's pro-life, pro-gun, socially conservative policies will seduce and how many they will alienate. Rather, the test that the McCain campaign failed to put her through was the Abbotsleigh Ladies College test. (Named after my high school. Go, green and gold!). It's a simple three-point pass-fail exam: Will the other girls like her?

Here's why Palin doesn't make the grade:

1. She's too pretty. This is very bad news. At school, pretty girls tend to be liked only by other pretty girls. The rest of us, whose looks hover somewhere around underwhelming, resent them and whisper archly of their "unearned attention." So, if everyone calls your candidate "hot," you're in a whole mess of trouble. If the Pakistani head-of-state more or less hits on her, well, yes, she'll get a sympathy vote, but we're in Dukakis-in-the-tank territory. It's an admiration vaporizer. (Of course a candidate can't be too ugly, or it will scare the men, who are clearly shallow as a gender.)

2. She's too confident. This also bodes ill. Women have self-esteem issues. But they also have other-women's-esteem issues. As almost any woman — from the head of the Budgerigar Breeders association to Queen Elizabeth — can attest, it's almost impossible to get confidence right. Too timid and you're a pushover. Too self-aggrandizing and you're a bad word unless it's about a dog, or Project Runway's Kenley. Or Michelle, my best friend until 9th grade, after she won that debating prize and got cocky.

3. She could embarrass us. History is not on Palin's side. Every time a woman gets a plum job, be she Hewlett-Packard's ex-boss, Carly Fiorina, or CBS's Katie Couric, there's always that whispery fear that people will think she got the job just because she's a woman. So if things don't go well — and a couple of YouTube clips have suggested that they're certainly not going well for Palin — women are the first to turn on her for making it harder for the rest of us to louse up at work.

The fact of the matter is once a female decides it's over with another female, it's like an end-stage marriage. No matter how seemingly benign, every attribute becomes an affront: the hair, the voice, the husband, the moose-shooting, the glasses, the big family, the making rape victims pay for their own rape test kits.

I know, I know. With all this extra baggage a female candidate has to bear, the chances of finding a woman whom other women won't hate seem skinnier than last year's jeans. But don't despair, if all else fails, we could just do what we always do and just vote in some guy. It's worked so well for us in the past.

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