Newsweek Poll: Obama Now Leads McCain 52 % To 41%

Emmanuel Dunand / AFP-Getty Images

Obama on the campaign trail in Columbus, Ohio.

By Jonathan Darman | Newsweek Web Exclusive

Oct 10, 2008

The global financial meltdown has caused a dramatic shift in the 2008 presidential race, according to the latest NEWSWEEK poll. With four weeks left in the presidential campaign, Barack Obama now leads John McCain by double digits, 52 percent to 41 percent among registered voters—a marked shift from the last NEWSWEEK poll, conducted one month ago, when the two candidates were tied at 46 percent.

Underlying Obama’s surge in support: An historic boiling over of dissatisfaction with the status quo. An astounding 86 percent of voters now say they are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States, while a mere 10 percent say they are satisfied. That’s the highest wrong track/right track ratio ever recorded in the NEWSWEEK poll.

For context on just how toxic these numbers could be for the Republic party, consider that in October, 2006, weeks before the Democrats swept control of both houses of Congress, only 61 percent of voters expressed dissatisfaction. Twenty-five percent of voters say they approve of the job President Bush is doing in the White House, a record low for any president in the NEWSWEEK poll and close to the historic low-approval rating of 22 percent the Gallup poll recorded for President Truman, in 1952. Voters are crying out for change and, for now, believe that the Democratic presidential candidate has a greater likelihood of delivering it. Asked which ticket they thought was most likely to bring about change if elected, voters said Obama-Biden over McCain-Palin 52 percent to 37 percent. A month ago, Obama-Biden led by only five points, 47 percent to 42 percent.

Obama appears to have broadened his coalition of support and made inroads with groups that have not reliably embraced him over the course of the long presidential campaign. He now leads McCain among both men (54 percent to 40 percent) and women (50 percent to 41 percent). He now wins every age group of voters—including those over 65 years of age, who back him over McCain 49 to 43 percent. Supporters of Hillary Clinton, as many as a fifth of whom had at one point told pollsters they’d support McCain over Obama, now back the Democratic nominee 88 percent to 7 percent.

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CBS: Man Brought “Obama” Monkey To Palin Event In Ohio

CBS: Man Brings “Obama” Monkey Doll to Palin Event

Daily Kos- by Iceman2008

Sat Oct 11, 2008 at 01:15:32 PM PDT

This video speaks for itself.  From the cbsnews.com website:

“A man brought a stuffed monkey doll wearing an Obama sticker to a Palin campaign event in Johnstown, Ohio. Realizing he was caught on camera, he passed it off to a child he didn’t know.”

Update: I forgot to mention that I found this video after watching the “McCain-Palin Mob” videos created by Blogger Interrupted and featured in (Kagro X’s Diary) post from yesterday afternoon .  I read Blogger Interrupted’s rant from Thursday about how the mainstream media is ignoring these displays of bigotry and decided to go looking to see what I could find.  Lo and behold, I found this video soon after it went up on the CBS website.

• Iceman2008’s diary :: ::

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Here it is on youtube (just in case the CBS video doesn’t work.)

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Evening Jukebox… Imagine

John Lennon- Imagine

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John Lewis Warns McCain Campaign That They Are “Playing With Fire”

John Lewis Warns McCain: You’re “Sowing The Seeds Of Hatred And Division”

Huffington Post |  Nicholas Graham   |   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.”

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frank schaeffer is a real american

i came across this post from a blog buddy of mine- lisa allender.  her blog- lisa allender writes- is a mix of personal and uplifting to fire and brimstone when she gets fired up.  always inspiring and her heart shines through.  thank you lisa.

frank schaeffer writes about barack obama

“Great presidents are made great by horrible circumstances combined with character, temperament and intelligence. Like firemen, cops, doctors or soldiers, presidents need a crisis to shine.

Obama is one of the most intelligent presidential aspirants to ever step forward in American history. The likes of his intellectual capabilities have not been surpassed in public life since the Founding Fathers put pen to paper. His personal character is also solid gold. Take heart, America: we have the leader for our times.”

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What Do McCain/Palin Supporters Talk About At Their Gatherings?

I attended a McCain/Palin meetup tonight.

Daily Kos- by Florida4Obama

Fri Oct 10, 2008 at 07:05:16 PM PDT

It was a complete accident.  I went down to my local Tampa Starbucks where of course I expected to find the Obama Elite.  I knew something was wrong as soon as I pulled into the parking lot.  Typically in Tampa, you see far more Obama bumperstickers than McCain, but not tonight.  In the Starbucks parking lot I saw 9 McCain bumper stickers.  I thought to myself, what the heck is going on.  I fear at first that Tampa had suddenly swung back to the dark side.

Follow me below the fold to find out what I discovered.

• Florida4Obama’s diary :: ::

Upon entering Starbucks, I immediately realized that the McCain/Palin folks were having a little meeting.  I saw several women in dresses wearing pink buttons proclaiming “Women for McCain/Palin”.  A few of them brought their husbands who were sporting buttons saying things such as “Sportsman for McCain/Palin” and “NOBama”.  I sat down at the table next to the group just as they were starting their meeting.

As soon as the last member of their group came in, they prayed.  In their prayer they begged that God “deliver the country from the evil socialists” and even prayed that “Obama find God”.  Well, damn, how offensive I thought to myself.

After their prayer they began to discuss their Get Out The Vote efforts.  One of the women proclaimed that her whole Bible study group was going to vote early.  One of the men piped up and said he was going to ask people to vote early after church one Sunday.  The next person lamented that their whole office was voting for Obama.  The McCain/Palin supporters called that person’s co-workers “sinners” and said that they “needed Jesus”.  Damn, I’m offended again.

Next they started talking about policy positions.  This was quite amusing.  They were all upset that Obama had voted for the bailout.  Then, one of them said, “McCain supported it too.”  Then they talked about how upset they were about McCain’s proposal to buy mortgages directly from homeowners.  One of the gentlemen proclaimed, “McCain sounds like a socialist.  You’d think he were a Democrat”.  At that point the other gentleman stated that he had thought of voting for Bob Barr.  He opened his lap top and pulled up Barr’s website for the others to see.  They liked what they saw.  One woman said that Barr was the “conservative that McCain used to be.”

They talked a little more about how Obama would destroy our country with “free health care” and “gay marriages”.  The [they] feared his daughters would probably play loud rap music in the White House while world leaders were staying.  They feared that Muslim would become our official religion.  One of them even feared that “the Muslim language would be taught in schools.”  Priceless.

They went back to the fact that they all believed McCain would lose this election, but they were excited that Palin would probably run in 2012.  They talked about the fact that their local “Victory Office” was so disorganized and the morale was low.  Apparently one of the lead volunteer organizers walked out of the office yesterday and hasn’t come back.  They all feared they were wasting good time phonebanking and canvassing.  They just couldn’t believe this great country would elect “that man”.  They couldn’t believe God would allow it.  One woman even thought that God may be punishing the country by giving us Obama.

At that time, I decided to pull out my laptop.  You see, I have an Obama sticker on it.  Well, one of them noticed and gave the rest of them a look and said SHHHH!  One of the men didn’t notice and kept talking.  He said that “Obama is part of a sleeper cell and he will use our own nuclear weapons against us.”  One of the women nodded her head in agreement.  Finally, the woman who noticed me said in a soft voice, “there’s an Obama supporter behind us…BE QUIET”.  The group suddenly got quiet.

They changed the subject for a while, but on the way out the door one of the men told me “you are a disgrace to white people if you vote for that man.”  I told him he was a disgrace to people who think by voting for McCain.

Well, that was a long story, and I’m sure nobody will read it.  It’s good to be an Obama supporter, especially when you see how scared and dejected the other side is.

UPDATE:  Yes, unfortunately this story is 100% true.

Wow, the rec list?  I think this is my first visit!  Thank you!

UPDATE #2 Since many have asked, this was at the Gandy Blvd location.  Also, you betcha Starbucks is a Republican hangout now.  Didn’t you hear Sarah Palin read something on a cup there and then misquoted it!

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Palin: Promoting Religious Causes At Alaskan Taxpayers Expense

Palin Blurs Line Between Church And State As Governor

GARANCE BURKE | October 11, 2008 11:41 AM EST |

WASILLA, Alaska — The camera closes in on Sarah Palin speaking to young missionaries, vowing from the pulpit to do her part to implement God’s will from the governor’s office.

What she didn’t tell worshippers gathered at the Wasilla Assembly of God church in her hometown was that her appearance that day came courtesy of Alaskan taxpayers, who picked up the $639.50 tab for her airplane tickets and per diem fees.

An Associated Press review of the Republican vice presidential candidate’s record as mayor and governor reveals her use of elected office to promote religious causes, sometimes at taxpayer expense and in ways that blur the line between church and state.

Since she took state office in late 2006, the governor and her family have spent more than $13,000 in taxpayer funds to attend at least 10 religious events and meetings with Christian pastors, including Franklin Graham, the son of evangelical preacher Billy Graham, records show.

Palin was baptized Roman Catholic as a newborn and baptized again in a Pentecostal Assemblies of God church when she was a teenager. She has worshipped at a nondenominational Bible church since 2002, opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest and supports classroom discussions about creationism.

Since she was named as John McCain’s running mate, Palin’s deep faith and support for traditional moral values have rallied conservative voters who initially appeared reluctant to back his campaign.

On a weekend trip from the capital in June, a minister from the Wasilla Assembly of God blessed Palin and Lt. Gov Sean Parnell before a crowd gathered for the “One Lord Sunday” event at the town’s hockey rink. Later in the day, she addressed the budding missionaries at her former church.

“As I’m doing my job, let’s strike this deal. Your job is going be to be out there, reaching the people _ (the) hurting people _ throughout Alaska,” she told students graduating from the church’s Masters Commission program. “We can work together to make sure God’s will be done here.”

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Sarah Palin Broke The Ethics Law In Alaska, And Can Be Impeached

posted @ 15:17

Rev. Bill McGinnis | OpEdNews | October 10, 2008

Sarah Palin Broke The Ethics Law In Alaska, And Is Subject To Impeachment And Removal From Office If The State Legislature Chooses To Do So

I might be wrong, but this is the way I read the facts, the law, and the Alaska state constitution.

The Recently-Released Report Says:

“Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: To get Trooper Michael Wooten fired,”

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aXKt37HYgjK4&refer=home

Note: The report uses the vague term “personal agenda” rather than the more precise term “personal interest,” which is a specific violation of state law.

But it seems to me that the “personal agenda” of firing Trooper Michael Wooten is exactly the same thing as a “personal interest” in firing Trooper Michael Wooten. And this makes her “impermissible pressure” an actual violation of Alaska state law, not merely an improper thing to do.

It appears to me that she violated both Sec. 39.52.110 (Scope of code) and Sec. 39.52.120. (Misuse of official position)

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Northern Exposure: Sarah Palin’s Toxic Paradise

posted @ 15:03 BST

 

Sheila Kaplan and Marilyn Berlin Snell | The New Republic | Wednesday, October 22, 2008

There’s no reason to doubt Sarah Palin’s sincerity when she talks about her commitment to family and–more specifically–special-needs kids. When she introduced her son, who has Down syndrome, to the audience at the Republican convention, the family tableau drew cheers. And she issued a promise. “To the families of special-needs children all across this country, I have a message for you,” she told the crowd. “For years, you’ve sought to make America a more welcoming place for your sons and daughters, and I pledge to you that, if we are elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House.”

Unfortunately, as governor of a state with a birth-defect rate that’s twice the national average, and which has the gloomy status as repository of toxic chemicals from around the world, Palin has pursued environmental policies that seem perfectly crafted to swell the ranks of special-needs kids. It’s true that Alaska’s top leaders have placed industry wishes over environmental protection for years. But, instead of correcting this problem, she’s compounded it. Peer into her environmental record, and Palin ends up looking a lot like George W. Bush.

In the past 20 years, research has shown that exposure to some metals and to chemicals such as pesticides, flame retardants, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) can cause birth defects and permanent developmental disorders both prenatally and in the first years of childhood. And Alaska is vulnerable to some of the worst environmental pollutants out there. In a state whose wealth depends on the exploitation of its natural resources, the toxic byproducts of mining and energy development, such as arsenic, mercury, and lead, are particular problems. Alaska Natives, such as the Inuit people, eat a diet that is heavy in fish, seals, and whales–animals that are high on the food chain and therefore more likely to be contaminated with high doses of PCBs and mercury. And the state is vulnerable not only to homegrown pollution, but also to industrial pollution: Trace gases and tiny airborne particles are contaminating the polar regions, carried there on atmospheric and oceanic currents, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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‘Collateral Damage’ Not Much Different from Targeted Killing

posted @ 11:53 BST

But now I ask a question. When US troops massacre Iraqi civilians in Haditha because their buddy has been murdered, what is the difference between their revenge and that of Saddam? When a Taliban attack on Nato forces in Afghanistan provokes a US air strike on a village and leaves women and children torn to pieces in the ruins – this now seems the inevitable result – what is the difference between those innocent deaths and the destruction of the families of Abdullah’s grandchildren in Dujail?

Robert Fisk’s World: ‘Collateral damage’ or targeted killing, the effect is much the same

One grandfather lost all his sons and grandsons. His family line came to an end

Saturday, 11 October 2008

An Afghan woman mourns on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2008, as she holds a poster with photos of her family members, who were killed on August 22, 2008 during a US led raid in Azizabad village of Shindand district of Herat province west of Kabul, Afghanistan. The bodies of at least 10 children and many more adults covered in blankets and shrouds appear in videos obtained by The Associated Press, lending weight to Afghan and U.N. allegations that the U.S.-led raid in August killed more civilians than the U.S. reported. (AP Photo/Fraidoon Pooyaa)

All kinds of horrors flop on to my Beirut doormat. There’s The Independent’s mobile phone bill, a slew of blood-soaked local Lebanese newspapers – “Saleh Aridi’s blood consolidates [Druze] reconciliation”, was among the goriest of the past few days – and then there are files from the dark memory lane through which all Middle East history has to pass.

The repulsive Baath party archives of Saddam Hussein are the latest to find a place on my coffee table, all marked “Secret”, unpublished – though they formed the basis for the old man’s trial and for his depraved hanging by the Iraqi government more than two years ago. I reprint them now without excuse, for they have a bitter taste in the “new” Iraq and in the “new” Afghanistan about which we still fantasise as we send more Nato troops into Asia’s greatest military graveyard.

The documentary evidence of Saddam’s brutal inquiry into the killings at the Shia Muslim village of Dujail in 1982 provides frightening, fearful testament to the earnestness and cruelty of totalitarianism, the original files of Saddam’s mukhabarat security services in their hunt for the men who tried to assassinate the Iraqi dictator more than a quarter of a century ago. Saddam was then the all-powerful leader of a nation at war with Iran – an eight-year conflict that would cost the lives of more than a million Muslims on both sides – and whose most ruthless enemies were members of the Iranian-supported Al-Dawa Party (including a certain Nouri al-Maliki). Saddam’s closest allies at this time were the Gulf oil sheikhdoms – and the United States, which was sending military supplies, chemical precursors and satellite reconnaissance photographs to Baghdad to assist Saddam in his war against Iran, a nation he had invaded two years earlier.

On his passage through Dujail, Saddam’s heavily armed convoy was attacked by 10 villagers armed with Kalashnikov rifles. All were killed at the time or hunted down and murdered later. In their subsequent investigations, however, the mukhabarat – in this case operating under the ominous title of the “Regime Crimes Liaison office” – were able to use the system of tribe and sub-tribe in Dujail to tease out the names of everyone associated with the attackers.

The patriarchal lineage – wherein all males carry their father’s, grandfather’s, and great-grandfather’s names, sometimes back eight generations – enabled the secret police to trace the male line of entire families and thus to liquidate them all. Their womenfolk were tortured, many of them raped. The men were butchered. One grandfather lost all his sons and grandsons. His “treacherous” family line came to an end. The ruthlessness of Saddam’s “Crimes Liaison Office” comes across in their surviving reports.

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