100,000 Turn Out For Obama Rally In St. Louis (PHOTOS)

Obama Rally In St. Louis Draws 100,000

Huffington Post |   October 18, 2008 at 03:28 PM

Barack Obama drew a crowd of 100,000 at a rally near the Gateway Arch in St. Louis on Saturday, the AP reports. McCain spent the day campaigning in North Carolina.

The focus on the stump Saturday for both Obama and McCain continued to be taxes, and the candidates traded sharp criticisms of each other’s plans.

More from the AP:

McCain, trailing in the polls, fired the first volley, likening his rival to the socialist leaders of Europe and saying he wanted to “convert the IRS into a giant welfare agency, redistributing massive amounts of wealth at the direction of politicians in Washington.”
McCain added, “Raising taxes on some in order to give checks to others is not a tax cut; it’s just another government giveaway.”

Obama responded a few hours later in appearance before an enormous crowd, saying his Republican rival “wants to cut taxes for the same people who have already been making out like bandits, in some cases literally.”

“John McCain is so out of touch with the struggles you are facing that he must be the first politician in history to call a tax cut for working people ‘welfare,'” Obama said.

MORE HERE

More photos and videos from Daily Kos HERE

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Kansas City Grandmother Sues McCain & Palin For Hate Speech (VIDEO)

Grandmother sues McCain for hate speech

Raw Story- David Edwards and Stephen C. Webster
Published: Friday October 17, 2008

A Kansas City grandmother is suing John McCain and Sarah Palin for promoting hate speech. Mary Kay Green told KSHB that some statements at McCain campaign rallies terrify her as much as the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

“I know the secret service is on this case, but John McCain and Sarah Palin can stop some of this by a statement that they abhor these death threats and will not tolerate them,” said Green.

The 66-year-old civil attorney, a lifelong Democrat, claims in the suit that the McCain campaign has intentionally and recklessly portrayed Barack Obama as a terrorist.

Green said, “You have to take these things seriously.”

Green believe that Palin has been working crowds into a frenzy. There have been reports from McCain campaign rallies with words like “kill him,” “off with his head,” and “Muslim terrorist.”

According to Green, her father managed the Nebraska campaigns of John and Robert Kennedy. After both were felled by assassins, her father died “of grief.”

“I think John McCain and Sarah Palin have no understanding of what we went through as a nation,” she said. “[The lawsuit] will be dismissed as soon as I hear public statements from these two candidates that they abhor these death threats and that they will not tolerate these intruders in their audiences.”

KSHB has more details here.

This video is from MSNBC.com, broadcast October 17, 2008.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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Associated Press-Yahoo! News Poll: McCain Losing Ground

AP/Yahoo! News Poll: Public’s Regard For McCain “Has Deteriorated Across-The-Board”

AP |  ALAN FRAM and TREVOR TOMPSON   |   October 18, 2008 05:45 PM

When it comes to the public’s image of John McCain, it’s as if somebody dialed the electricity down in the past month. For Barack Obama, the juice is still flowing.

People’s regard for the Republican presidential nominee has deteriorated across-the-board since September, an Associated Press-Yahoo! News poll showed Friday, with McCain losing ground in how favorably he’s seen and in a long list of personal qualities voters seek in White House contenders.

Perceptions of Obama have improved or remained steady. Beyond views of the two rivals’ character traits, McCain faces another problem — Obama is more trusted on the economy, the contest’s commanding issue, including a 15-percentage-point edge for better grasping how the raging financial crisis is affecting people.

Obama’s image has been sturdy even as voters’ views of the overall campaign have tumbled downhill since September. The portion of people saying the contest excites them has sunk to 32 percent while those calling it frustrating have grown to 41 percent — and in both cases, six in 10 of those whose feelings have worsened are McCain backers.

Negative campaigning and a month of intense public focus on collapsing global economic and financial markets have not been kind to McCain. The new AP-Yahoo! News poll of likely voters, conducted this month by Knowledge Networks, shows more people viewing him favorably than unfavorably by just 5 percentage points, down from a 21-point difference in mid-September.

During the same period, Obama went the other way, increasing a 5-percentage-point net favorable rating to 15 points. Now, Obama is seen favorably by 57 percent and McCain by 52 percent — a close margin that masks the opposite direction the two rivals’ ratings are heading.

MORE HERE

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75,000 Turn Out For Obama Rally In Kansas City, Missouri (PHOTOS)

More photos from Daily Kos HERE

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Evening Jukebox… The Rising

Bruce Springsteen-  The Rising

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Voters Say They Were Tricked Into Registering As Republicans

YPM, a group hired by the GOP, allegedly deceived Californians who thought they were signing a petition. YPM denies any wrongdoing. Similar accusations have been leveled against the company elsewhere.

By Evan Halper and Michael Rothfeld, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
October 18, 2008

SACRAMENTO — Dozens of newly minted Republican voters say they were duped into joining the party by a GOP contractor with a trail of fraud complaints stretching across the country.

Voters contacted by The Times said they were tricked into switching parties while signing what they believed were petitions for tougher penalties against child molesters. Some said they were told that they had to become Republicans to sign the petition, contrary to California initiative law. Others had no idea their registration was being changed.

MORE HERE

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Michelle Bachman R Minn revives McCarthyism

by Geezer Power…11:09

McCarthyism

Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period of intense anti-communist suspicion inspired by the tensions of the Cold War. He was noted for making claims that there were large numbers of Communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers inside the federal government and elsewhere. Ultimately, McCarthy’s tactics and his inability to substantiate his claims led to his being discredited and censured by the United States Senate. The term “McCarthyism,” coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy’s practices, was soon applied to similar anti-communist pursuits. Today the term is used more generally to describe demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents.

The Palins’ un-American activities

Salon

Imagine if the Obamas had hooked up with a violently anti-American group in league with the government of Iran.

By David Talbot

Oct. 7, 2008 | “My government is my worst enemy. I’m going to fight them with any means at hand.”

This was former revolutionary terrorist Bill Ayers back in his old Weather Underground days, right? Imagine what Sarah Palin is going to do with this incendiary quote as she tears into Barack Obama this week.

Only one problem. The quote is from Joe Vogler, the raging anti-American who founded the Alaska Independence Party. Inconveniently for Palin, that’s the very same secessionist party that her husband, Todd, belonged to for seven years and that she sent a shout-out to as Alaska governor earlier this year. (“Keep up the good work,” Palin told AIP members. “And God bless you.”)

AIP chairwoman Lynette Clark told me recently that Sarah Palin is her kind of gal. “She’s Alaskan to the bone … she sounds just like Joe Vogler.”

So who are these America-haters that the Palins are pallin’ around with?

Before his strange murder in 1993, party founder Vogler preached armed insurrection against the United States of America. Vogler, who always carried a Magnum with him, was fond of saying, “When the [federal] bureaucrats come after me, I suggest they wear red coats. They make better targets. In the federal government are the biggest liars in the United States, and I hate them with a passion. They think they own [Alaska]. There comes a time when people will choose to die with honor rather than live with dishonor. That time may be coming here. Our goal is ultimate independence by peaceful means under a minimal government fully responsive to the people. I hope we don’t have to take human life, but if they go on tramping on our property rights, look out, we’re ready to die.”

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“Joe The Plumber” Arizona Driver License Suspended

Joe Wurzelbacher, or as Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain dubbed him during Wednesday's presidential debate, "Joe The Plumber", laughs while chatting with the press outside of his home in Holland, Ohio, Thursday Oct. 16, 2008. Wurzelbacher was cited by the GOP presidential candidate as an example of someone who wants to buy a plumbing business but would be hurt by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama's tax plans. Wurzelbacher said he was surprised that his name was mentioned so many other times. The Associated Press

October 17, 2008 – 4:38PM
Updated: October 17, 2008 – 7:25PM

‘Joe the Plumber’s’ AZ driver license suspended

Comments 30 |

Daniel Newhauser, For the Tribune (East Valley Tribune- Metro Phoenix’s East Valley Region)

A plumbing license is not the only license “Joe the Plumber” is having troubles with. The former Mesa resident has a suspended driver’s license and outstanding court fines in Arizona, according to Mesa Municipal Court records.

“Joe,” whose real name is Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, was referred to more than 20 times by Republican Sen. John McCain in Wednesday night’s presidential debate for questioning Democratic Sen. Barack Obama’s tax policy.

The man portrayed by McCain to be the typical, hardworking American revealed this week that he actually does not have a plumbing license, and now court records show he should not have a driver’s license either, making it potentially even harder for him to get to work.

Wurzelbacher, who lived in Mesa in 2000 and had an Arizona driver’s license, had his driver’s license suspended by the Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division on May 4, 2000, following a nonpayment of a court-imposed fine for civil traffic violations, according to court records.

America’s new political icon, who owes nearly $1,200 in back taxes, according to public records, still owes more than $700 to the Mesa court system.

Records show he was cited for failure to stop at a red light and for failure to provide proof of insurance on Feb. 9, 2000, in a black Dodge truck at the intersection of Dobson and Baseline roads in Mesa.

After failing to pay his original fine of $627.50 issued in March 2000, his license was suspended and the fine was handed over to a collection agency along with a 16 percent surcharge. The now-resident of Holland, Ohio, still owes $727.90 to the Mesa Municipal Court, according to court records.

Nevertheless, Wurzelbacher’s driver’s license is still valid in Ohio, according to the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, and was renewed as recently as May 2005. Ohio law requires a license to be renewed every four years, meaning Wurzelbacher likely obtained an Ohio license in 2001, one year after having his Arizona license suspended.

With a suspended license in one state, it should not be possible to get a new license in another, said Cydney DeModica, spokeswoman for the Arizona MVD.

The only way “Joe the Plumber” could have slipped through the cracks is a clerical error in which his driving records were not entered into the Problem Driver Pointer System, the national database of information about people with a checkered driving past, said Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles spokeswoman Lindsay Komlanc.

Komlanc added if the Ohio BMV were to receive the information, appropriate action could be taken, including suspension of his Ohio license.

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Petition For Congress To Censure Michele Bachmann (VIDEOS)

Tell Congress to Censure Michele Bachmann

On the October 17 episode of MSNBC’s Hardball, Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota claimed that Barack Obama and other members of Congress share anti-American views.

Bachmann thinks that anyone who disagrees with her personal political agenda is unpatriotic. But she is the one who has a lot to learn about what it means to love America.

Her fellow members of Congress need to take a stand and tell Michele Bachmann that her disgusting accusations have no place in our country. Tell Congress to censure Rep. Bachmann.

Watch the videos, and then sign the petition below!

SIGN THE PETITION HERE

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Obama’s Editorial Endorsements: including Washington Post, Fidel Castro, Richard Lugar, Chuck Hagel, & more!

Video: Lilibet Hagel Endorses Obama/Biden

Recent newspaper endorsements of Obama, selected for the quality of their writing and the depths of their insights

By Stephen Fox | OpEdNews | October 17, 2008

Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times endorsed Barack Obama on Oct. 5:

We now face a future fraught with difficulty. It is no time to fear, but rather to change directions and unite behind a dynamic, thoughtful and progressive leader, Democrat Barack Obama.

He has stirred hope among millions of Americans, many of whom were alienated from politics or marginalized in society. He has restored a sense of idealism and promise that American values will again be our respected guide in the world, that the American dream is still very much alive in our nation, and that what is wrong can be fixed.

Sen. Obama’s opponent, Republican John McCain, has long served his country, and as a young man, at great personal sacrifice. But he is not ready to lead America in the 21st century. His view of the world is outdated and unduly restricted by a military lens.

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