Family Guy

I was reading the news this morning having my coffee, and I read that Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy, has been given $100 million dollars to keep the popular cartoon going!

Do you watch Family Guy?

MacFarlane, 35, is creator and executive producer of "Family Guy," Fox's top-rated prime-time 'toon (yes, even more popular than "The Simpsons"), one of the all-time best-selling TV-on-DVD titles, and a show that spearheaded the digital-download video phenomenon.

So it's no wonder the studio recently served up a $100 million production deal to keep their "Family" man happy. MacFarlane also is at the helm of the Fox 'toon "American Dad!" and is working on a "Family Guy" spin-off series, "Cleveland."

"In all honesty, my representative said I could get that much money and I didn't stop him," MacFarlane said. "Can I spend a hundred million dollars? No. I'll spread it around a much as I can."

Spreading the wealth? Clearly, MacFarlane is an Obama man. He did some campaigning for the Democratic presidential candidate, and even took a shot at the Republican competition on "Family Guy."

Note how CNN takes a stab at him for supporting Barack Obama.

The guy is definitely a winner. Not that many people have been that successful with a cartoon, and it has taken lots of hard work and sacrifice.

Despite the amount of wealth he has acquired, he still sounds "down to Earth." When asked how the $100 million could change his life, Seth replied, "Nothing I can do can really live up to that amount of money on a daily basis, so my view of it ... (is that) I gave them all of my 20s, which are irretrievable. (I put my) heart and soul into that show, and, in turn, they give me $100 million. I think that's fair. One of those is replaceable, the other isn't."

Voter Fraud

The Republicans and John McCain are trying real hard to connect Barack Obama to voter fraud. The problem is, Obama hasn't done any wrong. Companies are hired by both Democrats and Republicans to gather votes, and here is the latest news regarding Republican toes to voter fraud.

From: GOP voter registration fraud case leads to arrest

The owner of a firm that the California Republican Party hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year was arrested in Ontario late last night on suspicion of voter registration fraud.

State and local investigators allege that Mark Jacoby fraudulently registered himself to vote at a childhood California address where he no longer lives so he would appear to meet the legal requirement that signature gatherers be eligible to vote in California.

How much voter fraud has gone on through this company?

How tied is the Republican party to this group?

If McCain and the Republicans want to portray Barack Obama as taking part in voter fraud, when they themselves are connected to companies committing the same offenses. Possibly even worse?

From: McCain renews claims of voter fraud

Republicans are stepping up pressure on election authorities over alleged voter fraud by a grassroots group with past ties to Barack Obama, setting the stage for a potential legal battle should the Democrat win next month's election by a narrow margin.

Maybe McCain should keep clean out the skeletons in his own closet before accusing Barack Obama of doing anything fraudulent.

Not only did this company commit voter fraud, they actually tricked people into registering "Republican." And were paid for each voter they registered.

Jacoby's arrest by state investigators and the Ontario Police Department comes after dozens of voters said they were duped into registering as Republicans by his firm, Young Political Majors, or YPM. The voters said YPM tricked them by saying they were signing a petition to toughen penalties against child molesters. The firm was paid $7 to $12 for every Californian it registered as a member of the GOP.

Several agencies had launched investigations into Jacoby's activities, including the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, which issued the warrant for his arrest earlier this month on felony charges of voter registration fraud and perjury.

Sounds like McCain and the Republicans have been up to their own voter fraud tricks?

McCain has ridden the news soundbytes with "ACORN," now let's see how he faces his own voter fraud case.

Colin Powell Endorses Barack Obama

The moment many have been waiting for.

According to the BBC:

US President George W Bush's first Secretary of State, Colin Powell, has endorsed Democratic election candidate Barack Obama for the White House.

He backed his fellow African-American over John McCain, the Republican Party's choice to succeed Mr Bush in the 4 November election.

He told NBC Mr Obama had the "ability to inspire" and was "inclusive".

"All Americans... not just African-Americans" would be proud of an Obama win, he argued.

He nails it. Barack Obama inspires people, can bring about unity and change. People are tired of the same old divisive politics in America.

We want to vote for someone who can help us get this country back on track.

As more news articles come out about this, we will get a glimpse into his reasoning behind this endorsement, but the certainly adds to the excitement of this election.

From CNN: Colin Powell endorses Obama

"I think he is a transformational figure, he is a new generation coming onto the world stage, onto the American stage, and for that reason I'll be voting for Sen. Barack Obama," Powell said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"I think that's inappropriate. I understand what politics is about -- I know how you can go after one another, and that's good. But I think this goes too far, and I think it has made the McCain campaign look a little narrow. It's not what the American people are looking for," he said.

"Obama displayed a steadiness, an intellectual curiosity, a depth of knowledge," Powell said.

"He has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president," he said.

Above are some quotes from Colin Powell about Barack Obama and why he endorses him.

What do you think of this highly public endorsement?

Chicago Tribune Endorses Obama

The first time it has endorsed a Democrat.

However this election turns out, it will dramatically advance America's slow progress toward equality and inclusion. It took Abraham Lincoln's extraordinary courage in the Civil War to get us here. It took an epic battle to secure women the right to vote. It took the perseverance of the civil rights movement. Now we have an election in which we will choose the first African-American president . . . or the first female vice president.

In recent weeks it has been easy to lose sight of this history in the making. Americans are focused on the greatest threat to the world economic system in 80 years. They feel a personal vulnerability the likes of which they haven't experienced since Sept. 11, 2001. It's a different kind of vulnerability. Unlike Sept. 11, the economic threat hasn't forged a common bond in this nation. It has fed anger, fear and mistrust.

On Nov. 4 we're going to elect a president to lead us through a perilous time and restore in us a common sense of national purpose.

The strongest candidate to do that is Sen. Barack Obama. The Tribune is proud to endorse him today for president of the United States.

Obviously the best part is the end, but its worth reading the whole thing.

The Tribune in its earliest days took up the abolition of slavery and linked itself to a powerful force for that cause--the Republican Party. The Tribune's first great leader, Joseph Medill, was a founder of the GOP. The editorial page has been a proponent of conservative principles. It believes that government has to serve people honestly and efficiently.

With that in mind, in 1872 we endorsed Horace Greeley, who ran as an independent against the corrupt administration of Republican President Ulysses S. Grant. (Greeley was later endorsed by the Democrats.) In 1912 we endorsed Theodore Roosevelt, who ran as the Progressive Party candidate against Republican President William Howard Taft.

The Tribune's decisions then were driven by outrage at inept and corrupt business and political leaders.

We see parallels today.

The Republican Party, the party of limited government, has lost its way. The government ran a $237 billion surplus in 2000, the year before Bush took office -- and recorded a $455 billion deficit in 2008. The Republicans lost control of the U.S. House and Senate in 2006 because, as we said at the time, they gave the nation rampant spending and Capitol Hill corruption. They abandoned their principles. They paid the price.

The give reasons why they do not endorse McCain.

We might have counted on John McCain to correct his party's course. We like McCain. We endorsed him in the Republican primary in Illinois. In part because of his persuasion and resolve, the U.S. stands to win an unconditional victory in Iraq.

It is, though, hard to figure John McCain these days. He argued that President Bush's tax cuts were fiscally irresponsible, but he now supports them. He promises a balanced budget by the end of his first term, but his tax cut plan would add an estimated $4.2 trillion in debt over 10 years. He has responded to the economic crisis with an angry, populist message and a misguided, $300 billion proposal to buy up bad mortgages.

McCain failed in his most important executive decision. Give him credit for choosing a female running mate--but he passed up any number of supremely qualified Republican women who could have served. Having called Obama not ready to lead, McCain chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. His campaign has tried to stage-manage Palin's exposure to the public. But it's clear she is not prepared to step in at a moment's notice and serve as president. McCain put his campaign before his country.

The Chicago Tribune also states why it has chosen Obama.

We do, though, think Obama would govern as much more of a pragmatic centrist than many people expect.

And a great ending

Obama is deeply grounded in the best aspirations of this country, and we need to return to those aspirations. He has had the character and the will to achieve great things despite the obstacles that he faced as an unprivileged black man in the U.S.

He has risen with his honor, grace and civility intact. He has the intelligence to understand the grave economic and national security risks that face us, to listen to good advice and make careful decisions.

When Obama said at the 2004 Democratic Convention that we weren't a nation of red states and blue states, he spoke of union the way Abraham Lincoln did.

It may have seemed audacious for Obama to start his campaign in Springfield, invoking Lincoln. We think, given the opportunity to hold this nation's most powerful office, he will prove it wasn't so audacious after all. We are proud to add Barack Obama's name to Lincoln's in the list of people the Tribune has endorsed for president of the United States.

Good job, and go Obama!

McCain RoboCalls

Have you gotten one of these McCain "robocalls" everyone is talking about? Things are heating up on the campaign trail. The McCain campaign is getting aggressive, more than ever.

ABC News' Teddy Davis and Rigel Anderson report: Embattled Republican Sen. Susan Collins is calling on Sen. John McCain to stop paying for automated phone calls which describe Sen. Barack Obama as having "worked closely" with "domestic terrorist Bill Ayers."

"These kind of tactics have no place in Maine politics," said Collins spokesman Kevin Kelley. "Sen. Collins urges the McCain campaign to stop these calls immediately."

We shall file this one under "propaganda."

Ayers is the former leader of the Weather Underground. To protest the Vietnam War, his organization ran a domestic bombing campaign which resulted in fatalities.

Obama, who was 8 years old at the time, has repudiated those acts as "despicable." Friday's statement from the Collins campaign came after Maine's Democratic Party issued a press release earlier in the day challenging the Republican incumbent to denounce what it called "blatantly false phone calls personally attacking" Obama.

Collins' Democratic opponent was not satisfied.

"If she truly feels that strongly about it," said Carol Andrews, communications director to Democratic Rep. Tom Allen, "she should resign as co-chair of McCain's campaign in Maine."

Here is the transcript of the McCain Robocall.

"Hello. I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC because you need to know that Barack Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, whose organization bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge's home and killed Americans. And Democrats will enact an extreme leftist agenda if they take control of Washington. Barack Obama and his Democratic allies lack the judgment to lead our country. This call was paid for by McCain-Palin 2008 and the Republican National Committee at 202-863-8500."

How effective are these types of things during an election?

Republican Vito Fossella Drunk Driving & Having Affair

What's worse than getting busted drinking and driving? Getting busted for drinking and driving and having an affair at the same time. Ooooops!

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A judge has has convicted Rep. Vito Fossella of drunken driving and will later decide if he should serve time in jail.

The New York Republican was arrested May 1 in the suburbs outside Washington, leading to revelations he had fathered a child from an extramarital affair. After the scandal, he decided not to seek re-election.

Alexandria, Va., General District Court Judge Becky Moore found Fossella guilty, and scheduled a Dec. 8 hearing to decide if prosecutors had met the legal requirement for high blood alcohol content, which would mean a mandatory five-day jail sentence.

Rep. Vito Fossella, on trial for drunken driving, insisted from the witness stand Friday that he had only two glasses of wine the night he was busted. He sought to clear himself in a case that derailed a promising political career and may lead to time in jail.

"I had no more than a glass and a half" of wine with dinner, plus a few more sips of wine at a tavern in the hours before he was arrested, Fossella testified.

Fossella, the lone Republican in Congress from New York City, was arrested just after midnight on May 1 in suburban Virginia. He had spent the previous afternoon at the White House celebrating the New York Giants' Super Bowl victory.

"There was a strong odor of alcoholic beverage coming from the car and his lips were stained red," police officer Jamie Gernatt testified in Alexandria General District Court. The police officer said Fossella told him he'd had two or three glasses of wine.

The non-jury trial was expected to take a day. Police say his blood-alcohol level was 0.17 percent, and under state law anyone convicted of having a BAC above 0.15 must serve a mandatory five-day jail term.

Doesn't every person busted for DUI claim "all I had was a beer or two officer." LOL

Police said the married 43-year-old told them he was headed to see his sick daughter. Given that his wife and children live in New York, that statement set off alarms and eventually led to the revelation he had secretly fathered a daughter, now 3 years old, with a Virginia woman named Laura Fay, a former Air Force officer and congressional liaison.

After admitting the relationship, Fossella announced he would not seek re-election, a drastic fall for a politician once viewed as a potential mayor of New York City. His downfall has also created an opportunity for Democrats to gain a seat in Congress in November.

Fossella's troubles have only further hurt his state party's election chances next month. If a Democrat wins Fossella's seat, it will mark the first time in 35 years that all of New York City has been represented by Democrats.

Vito Fossella busted for drinking and driving and having an affair.

Former UCLA exec pleads guilty to body trafficking

Go ahead an file this one under "creepy." Here is another winner for Friday night.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The former chief of UCLA's cadaver program pleaded guilty Friday for his role in selling donated body parts to medical, drug and research companies in a scheme that netted up to $1 million, prosecutors said.

Henry Reid, 58, pleaded guilty in Los Angeles County Superior Court to one count of conspiracy to commit grand theft, with a special allegation that he damaged or destroyed more than $1 million worth of school property, which refers to the donated bodies.

Under a plea agreement, Reid could be sentenced to four years and four months in state prison. He also agreed to cooperate in the trial of a co-defendant and to repay $100,000 to $1 million to the program at the University of California, Los Angeles, according to a statement from the county district attorney's office.

A judge will determine the actual restitution figure, the statement said.

"My client accepted responsibility for the mistake he made concerning his activities as director of the Willed Body Program at UCLA and is extremely remorseful about the situation," his attorney, Melvyn Sacks, said after the hearing. "He deeply regrets the outcome of his actions."

The "mistake?" How do you make the mistake of selling people's body parts after they are dead??? Sounds like it took a little more than an accident to negotiate and sell that amount of body limbs and organs.

Prosecutors said Reid sold hundreds of parts of donated bodies between 1999 and 2004 to Ernest Nelson, who operated a business transporting body parts. Nelson then resold them to more than 20 medical, drug and research companies, prosecutors said.

Nelson has said he believed he was acting under the university's authorization when he received the donated torsos. He cut them up and kept the frozen parts in a rented warehouse until they were sold.

The scheme unraveled in 2003 after a state health investigator became concerned about a sale and contacted the university. Reid and Nelson were arrested in 2004, then freed while an investigation continued.

The men eventually were indicted on one count each of conspiracy to commit grand theft and one count each of grand theft and grand theft of personal property. The remaining theft counts against Reid will be dismissed at his Jan. 30 sentencing hearing as part of his plea deal, prosecutors said.

Am I the only one that is creeped out by this?

UCLA said it instituted new procedures to prevent future abuses, including new donor forms and security and tracking systems for the bodies.

yeah, hopefully the school can put an end to this type of activity. Man that is creepy.

After The Final Presidential Debate

What I saw at the Final Presidential Debate was John McCain acting like a desperate old politician trying very hard to make negative attacks, the other candidate Barack Obama doing a great job at not letting the smear tactics get the best of him.

CNN says: "John McCain came out of the gate strong, but Barack Obama gained strength as the night progressed Wednesday in the final presidential debate where each candidate tried to convince voters that he is better equipped to steer the nation through these troubled times.

Hours before the debate, CNN changed its Electoral Map. The new estimate shows that Obama now has 277 electoral votes to McCain's 174. To win the White House, a candidate needs 270."

I liked the split screen moments, where we could see one opponent speak while watching the reaction on the face of the other. I liked that.

McCain definitely came off as sarcastic, I can't stand that hissing like tone in his voice at times, nor do I consider it presidential the way he turns nasty and you can almost see that fury bubbling to the top. I have heard of his temper tantrums before, and you can see, even from these debates, that McCain is a hot head. Barack Obama kept his cool, calm temper, while McCain went on the attack, and McCain's snake-like grinning while he tries to tie Obama to terrorism turns me off as a voter. Obama is not connected to terrorists, and to see McCain lie over and over again, makes me never want to see him in politics after this. When is his term up???

Barack Obama did a good job on trying to remain on the issues, on topic, and McCain seemed willing, from the start, to try and dodge an issue but come in with a negative attack. We are tired of this, we want answers to the problems facing America, not more of this political back and forth.

McCain didn't get his knockout, and Barack Obama made him look even worse by sticking to the issues and dodging the negative attacks. In this debate, Obama did the right thing by taking the high road and not being tricked into defending himself against baseless accusations. McCain did bring up Ayers of The Weather Underground, and Obama did the right thing by addressing it, but he did not stick on that topic for long and quickly moved to ACORN, and the next attack McCain tried to deliver. I was proud of Barack's focus, and would be proud to have this man as my President. For the first time in my adult life, I will actually ben not only fond, but proud of the leader of my country. President Obama, I look forward to your leadership.

The people who wanted to see McCain strike and attack, will be happy. Those that like the calm mannered Barack will say he did a great job at withstanding McCain's constant attempts at causing Obama to waste his time defending himself versus stating his position. Obama did a great job at not letting those attacks become the focus of the discussion, and kept pulling the debate back to the economic crisis and what is really facing America.

Off topic, but I wanted to mention this: ExxonMobil was the biggest advertiser for the post debate commercials! Those big meany oil companies and their profits!!! ;)

I thought it was highly amusing, that ExxonMobil came up in the debate, their tax breaks and higher fuel efficient cars. Why? Because this is the company McCain wants to give billions of dollars in tax breaks to. Barack Obama specifically named them in the debate, and their ad was for? None other than, those fuel efficient cars we've been waiting for. However, just as in the documentary Who Killed The Electric car, you can tell how the commercial was made not to promote the idea of hydrogen vehicles or biofuel cars, but to show the schematics for tiny box cars that have no room or power. Ads of this nature have been documented by all car advertisement watchers. I won't go into it further here, this is part of my lifelong study of ads, watch Who Killed The Electric Car to gain a further understanding of that I am talking about here. Researchers compare the commercials made for fuel efficient cars vs Hummers, Titans, and other gas guzzlers. You'll be surprised to see how one vehicle is marketed, while the other commercials have negative messages regarding the vehicle they show, to keep people wanting the gas guzzler and not the "tiny sized" hybrid cars.

In the end, to use a McCain campaign line, Barack Obama won... hands down.

Waterboard Barack Obama

As I sit here, reading the news, awaiting the final Presidential Debate, I felt the need to prove Sean Hannity wrong.

"Nobody in the Republican Party has resorted to overtones of "race and fear" in attacking Obama."

Not only has it been shown that high ranking Republican leaders are training vote recruiters in talking points, to smear Obama claiming he has ties to Osama Bin Laden, we can prove Sean Hannity wrong by simple showing a graphic used by the Republican Party in California, on their official website.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is how the Republicans plan on gaining votes... "Waterboard Barack Obama" ads.



This was used on the official Republican website, although since removed, it shows how far this political party is willing to go to try and make Barack Obama look bad by claiming he has ties to Osama Bin Laden, totally false.

Here is what FoxNews had to say about it...

A California county's Republican Party Web site encouraged readers to "Waterboard Barack Obama" and compared Obama to Usama bin Laden, drawing criticism on Wednesday from Democrats and Republicans in the state.

The Web site of the Sacramento County Republican Party posted five illustrations saying that the terrorist group Hamas supported Obama and that "the only difference between Obama and Osama is BS." Another attacked Michelle Obama, reading, "Hey Obama! Want to see bitter?"

The graphics were removed from the site by Wednesday, after the state GOP urged the local group to take them down.

The state Republican Party learned of the controversial content when it received a phone call from a reporter, said party spokesman Hector Barajas.

"I called the Sacramento county chairman and I had them remove it," Barajas said. "I also noted to them that this is a complete distraction from what we're trying to do, and that's elect John Mccain and Sarah Palin as the next president and vice president of the United States."

I also posted about the GOP leaders in Virginia, equating Obama with Osama, and training vote recruiters to use the talking point that Obama and Osama are friends.

Anyhow, back to the topic of proving Sean Hannity wrong for his comment that no one in the Republican party has resorted to fear or race in this campaign. As you can see that is plainly, not the case.

Official Republican leaders have used racist graphics, as well as, images that promote fear. Not to mention, not only does the "Waterboard Obama" ad insinuate he is connected to Osama Bin Laden, the ad encourages torture against a United States Senator. Before John McCain switched his stance on waterboarding, he was against it. He said it amounted to torture, and American military had no place in torturing people. He has since, flip flopped, changed his policy and believes in torture as a means to gather info. The old McCain would have shunned this type of advertisement, and it shows the length to which these politicians will go to gain a vote during an election.

Even though the "Waterboard Obama" ad has been removed, it still proves that Sean Hannity did a little more than stretch the truth by claiming no one in the Republican party had stooped this low. They have. Here's the proof, Seany Boy.

I would also like to take this time to prove yet another point I have tried to make before. Notice how these racist things happening on the campaign trail, are actually not in the South? Notice how people say "oh the South is so racist." As I look at the electoral maps today, I see Obama is making gains in Southern states, while not suffering the hateful rhetoric he is getting from other states!

The latest hate is in California, not the South! Imagine that...

Seattle Times reports...

The Sacramento Bee asked Craig MacGlashan about the content after seeking his reaction to hate-filled graffiti that was spray-painted over an Obama display on a fence in Sacramento.

In recent weeks, MacGlashan, an attorney, joined local Democratic party officials in condemning vandalism to political displays.

The vandalism to the Obama display appeared to have been done overnight Monday. A racial epithet, profanity, "KKK" and the words "white power" were clearly visible from the roadway. Six of the nine fence panels were defaced.

"What you are describing to me is not free speech, it's vandalism. We don't condone it," MacGlashan said.

Those people spraying "KKK" on signs, and "white power" are nowhere near the South. As a matter of fact, due to population, there are more registered hate groups in California than the southern states combined, believe it. California has more registered race hating groups, than if you combined all the hate groups in the south. And as the news reports, you can see where all the hate is taking place. Not in the South.

Using fear like this in an election campaign in the year 2008, amounts to terrorism in my opinion. Our political climate should be free of these types of advertisements coming directly from the Republican Party. Sure, some wackos will always make racist ads or propaganda, but to have it being shown on Republican party web sites takes it to a whole new level.

You are wrong Sean, your party has in fact, stooped that low.

Obama = Osama Bin Laden

What a very dumb thing to say, or think. You'd have to be a very uneducated person to say such a thing. But, wait. Isn't that what a leader of the Republican Party, a GOP leader, just said? Yes, yes it is. Although, now he wants to say it "was a joke."

Pay attention to how he says it, he is not joking. This was not a joke, nor was it ever intended to be... clear case of smear tactics being used by the Republican party.

In the Washington Post, ...

"It is just the hard facts. It's terrible that it can be said, but it can," Frederick said. "It's shocking. Here is a guy who is one step away from the presidency, who is one step away from being commander in chief, who has a friend who bombed the Pentagon. It's just shocking to me." He added, "And there is no denying that Osama bin Laden had a role in bombing the Pentagon."

Where, in the above, is the injected humor? Where is the funny part? He is making a propaganda statement, and releasing it to the public. This is not just some guy on the street the Mccain campaign can write off, this is a Republican leader.

Anyone with a brain can tell he was not joking, not in the slightest way. That was calculated, worded carefully, and presented to the media.



"Del. Jeffrey M. Frederick heads Virginia's GOP." A real winner.

This incident is just as bad, if not worse, than the Barack Osama ballots being released to voters. However, it serves the same purpose. Fear. To scare voters into voting one way. Barack Obama is not a terrorist. Stop trying to say he is. He is a United States Senator, and this shows how far these people are willing to go to make him look bad, just to win the election. It's been reported, that Frederick stood on top of a folding table, and announced this as the "talking point" to smear Obama. This is what is being told to people before they go door-to-door? Yes...

According to TIME:

With so much at stake, and time running short, Frederick did not feel he had the luxury of subtlety. He climbed atop a folding chair to give 30 campaign volunteers who were about to go canvassing door to door their talking points — for instance, the connection between Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden: "Both have friends that bombed the Pentagon," he said. "That is scary." It is also not exactly true — though that distorted reference to Obama's controversial association with William Ayers, a former 60s radical, was enough to get the volunteers stoked. "And he won't salute the flag," one woman added, repeating another myth about Obama. She was quickly topped by a man who called out, "We don't even know where Senator Obama was really born." Actually, we do; it's Hawaii.

At this time, according to the Washington Post, even 40 year Black republicans are taking offense to this type of hatred in the election.

Donald Scoggins, a prominent African-American Republican in Prince William County, has condemned Virginia Republican Party Chairman Jeffrey M. Frederick for comparing Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) to Osama bin Laden.

Scoggins said he's been involved in the Republican Party for 40 years, but said Frederick's remarks are "totally unacceptable." Scoggins once headed Republicans for Black Empowerment, which sought to recruit more African-Americans Republicans to run for office.

"At this point in time, not just in Virginia, but all over, there needs to be a lowering of the decibel of hatred and that was very much uncalled for," said Scoggins, who has been in touch with other GOP activists and leaders this morning to discuss Frederick's remarks. "For him to equate (Obama) with someone as vile and destructive as bin Laden is just very much beyond the pale."

Americans need to realize, these type of people, harm our politcal climate more than encourage nonpartisan efforts to fix the problems facing this country.

Stop letting these racists scare you into voting for someone. This is terrorism, not politics. Using fear in an election campaign, is no different than using bombs. Wake up people. These GOP leaders want to scare you away from voting Obama because he is a terrorist? Barack Obama is a well respected member of the US Senate. Show some respect.

Final Presidential Debate

Tomorrow is the big day, and for many Americans, this has been a much anticipated moment.

The Final Presidential Debate of 2008 is upon us. And remarks, made this week, by John McCain may indicate this could be the most exciting of the debates of this election. McCain has vowed to "whip Barack's you-know-what." How Presidential.



The final presidential debate airs at 9 pm EST, 6 PST. The run time is about 90 minutes, and will be aired on every major network. CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX and CNN etc...

According to Associated Press, and as I've mentioned previously by barack showing leadership on foreclosures, the two candidates will both try and show themselves as a leader in the debate.

Barack Obama and John McCain will both pursue the image of a strong leader in troublesome economic times as they meet Wednesday night for their third and final presidential debate.

Joe Biden says he will be disappointed if John McCain brings up William Ayers.

"In my view, the ads that are being run picturing Barack Obama and people saying 'known terrorist' -- I think that's over the top."

As he continued his two-day bus tour across the Buckeye State stopping at Lisbon's Steel Trolley Diner for lunch, Biden said "Barack Obama was eight years old when this guy Ayers was doing bad things."

Biden said he felt "good" about tomorrow's debate, expressing "total confidence" in Obama.

Biden warned that he would be "disappointed" to see McCain bring up Ayers in Wednesday's third and final debate, though McCain has threatened to do so in response to Obama's suggestion that the Republican candidate doesn't have the guts to raise the issue to his face.

All Obama has to do, Biden says, is "repeat the performance he's had the last two times out."

Biden said the debates have contrasted "a guy who’s confident and steady and a guy who's not quite sure of where he wants to take the country."

Accusations of voter fraud in battleground states are beginning to make the nightly news, and we just await election day. I plan on voting early, and so should you! And make sure you tune in for the final debate of the presidential election 2008.

Christopher Buckley Resigns Over Obama Support

Wow, earlier I said it must have taken some courage to publically endorse Barack Obama the way he did. Well, he has now resigned from the National Review over it.

(Washington Note) The late William Buckley's son, the talented writer and thinker -- Christopher Buckley -- surprised many with his brave decision to endorse Barack Obama recently.

His announcement created a storm among National Review editors. According to reports, he offered to resign. And it took a nanosecond for the magazine to accept that resignation.

Some will think that this is good. I don't. It's not wise to have such rigid ideological lines in publications that fair-minded thinking can't be supported, debated, and embraced in process if not in substance.

Bill Buckley opposed George W. Bush's war in Iraq. He was an independent thinker who also would have difficulties with the Republican party that has been recently sculpted.

The father would not have accepted the resignation of the son -- and instead might have debated him in a set of catchy columns.

So true. Like him or not, William Buckley would have, and I would have loved to see it, taken this opportunity to debate this. Would've been historic!

It would have been as great as any sports event. But, to get back on topic, how far are people going to go to try and punish those who have opposing views in modern journalism and/or politics?

I'll keep following the Christopher Buckley resignation as it plays out over the next few days.

Even Pepsi Cutting Jobs

Looks like even Pepsi is cutting jobs, over 3,000 this time.

Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- PepsiCo Inc., the world's largest snack maker, said it will cut 3,300 jobs after profit fell more than analysts estimated and the company lowered its forecast for the rest of the year. The shares dropped as much as 14 percent in New York trading.

PepsiCo wants to save $1.2 billion over three years as it closes as many as six plants and pares 1.8 percent of its workforce, including ``overlapping'' marketing and sales jobs, Chief Financial Officer Richard Goodman said today in an interview.

The maker of Gatorade and Pepsi-Cola will use some of the savings to boost marketing of its beverages in North America, which make up a fourth of PepsiCo's annual revenue. Drink sales in the U.S. and Canada decreased 3 percent in the third quarter as consumers cut back on soft drinks in groceries and convenience stores to better afford higher priced gasoline and food.

``The initiatives come at a time when it's evident they're necessary,'' Mark Swartzberg, a New Jersey-based analyst with Stifel Nicolas & Co., said today in an interview. ``Beverage performance in North America continues to be challenging and worse than expected.'' He recommends holding the stock.

Full-year earnings excluding some costs will be $3.67 to $3.68 a share, lower than its prediction of $3.72 in July, the Purchase, New York-based company said. The dollar's increase against other currencies will hurt profit in the fourth quarter, it said.

PepsiCo, the world's second-largest soda maker, dropped $5.44, or 8.8 percent, to $56.33 at 9:41 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares decreased 19 percent this year before today, compared with a 23 percent decline for Coca-Cola Co.

Americans are spending less on soda, to afford gas prices right now?

Karl Rove: Obama Has The Electoral

Despite the excitement over Americans casting their vote for who they feel is the best President is the United States, the electoral vote is what actually elects the President. So how is Barack Obama doing in the electoral college?

Well, even according to Karl Rove, Barack Obama has the electoral votes to win! All you need is 270.

Republican strategist Karl Rove said over the weekend Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) has clearly pulled ahead of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). But Rove also cautioned that the race could still drastically change, just as it has in the last two weeks when news of McCain's suspending his campaign, Congress' financial bailout package and the first presidential debate affected voters' perceptions.

Rove said on Sunday on his website that Obama had reached more than the 270 required electoral votes to win an election. Citing 39 new state polls in the first three days of October, Rove said the freshman Democrat now has 273 electoral votes while McCain has 163 and 102 votes remain in a toss-up.

LA Times has Obama at 277 electoral votes.

National electoral map: McCain gains Indiana while Obama holds 277

Nearly two dozen new state polls in recent days show the Democratic Party ticket headed by Sen. Barack Obama holding strong with 277 hypothetical electoral votes, 7 more than needed for election, but Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin have regained traditionally Republican Indiana from the tossup category.

This according to the latest state-by-state poll research compiled by Karl Rove & Co. and published in The Ticket by permission every few days.

With Indiana's 11 electoral votes, the first time since early September that the Republican ticket has gained, McCain-Palin now hold 174 electoral votes while another 87 remain in the tossup category.

Barack Obama is outspending McCain, who is running 100% negative ads right now, that many feel is not helping his campaign.

Couple those factors with a massive spending edge for Obama on television, and it's not hard to understand why the Illinois senator sits above 300 electoral votes for the second week of Fix picks in a row.

And, even this map may undersell Obama's strength somewhat as his heavy advertising in places like Florida, North Carolina and Indiana -- 53 total electoral votes -- have turned all three states into true tossups. If Obama were to sweep those three states, he would stand at 364 electoral votes -- the most since Bill Clinton won re-election over former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole with 379 electoral votes in 1996.

While it is important that people get out and vote on Election Day, it is vitally important for Barack Obama to gain the "electoral vote."

Negative McCain Ads Reach 100% - Even Twitter

I noticed even the John McCain twitter ad in the election category, is negative! I heard that John McCain had stepped up his negative ads to 100% percent, but I didn't believe it until I looked it up.



Even on twitter, he is trying to make Obama "look bad," but not delivering any answers to the problems facing America. The Barack Obama twitter ad, on the other hand, links a positive event, a speech of Joe Biden and others, including Hillary Clinton, about the issues facing this country.

Negative ads will always be part of our political process, or circus. But how effective are they, at a time, when people are struggling, even to keep up with the current gas prices in America?

Sarah Palin Abuse Of Power

Uh oh, it looks like the report findings on Troopergate are surfacing on the Internet, and making their way from blog to blog now. Get ready...

The first paragraph of these articles always contain the best sentences!



Quotes are from MSNBC:

A legislative committee investigating Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has found she unlawfully abused her authority in firing the state's public safety commissioner.

Zing! Busted! So how will this come into play in this election now?

The Republican vice presidential nominee has been accused of firing a commissioner to settle a family dispute. Palin supporters have called the investigation politically motivated.

How come every time a politician is under investigation, they claim, almost always, it is "politically motivated?" The investigation was started long before she was picked as VP running mate.

Walter Monegan says he was dismissed as retribution for resisting pressure to fire a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce with the governor's sister. Palin says Monegan was fired as part of a legitimate budget dispute.

The legislative panel met for six hours before making a unanimous decision to release the so-called "Troopergate" report. The vote was 12-0 to release the report, except for certain parts they consider confidential.

Alaska lawmakers on Friday began reviewing the lengthy and politically sensitive investigative report focusing on whether Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin abused her authority as governor.

The first-term Alaska governor has been accused of firing a state commissioner to settle a family dispute. But the report is also expected to touch on whether Palin's husband meddled in state affairs and whether her administration inappropriately accessed employee medical records.

Palin fired Monegan on 7/13/08, was being investigated in that same month, and was not tapped as VP pick until 8/29/08. Which brings up a question of judgment on John McCain's choice of Vice President, in my opinion, choosing someone already under investigation for abuse of power?

The full investigative report can be found here.

McCain Camp Defends Kill Him! Crowd

I have already posted that I have started to view John McCain and Sarah Palin much differently after watching them ignore, although aware of, the hateful comments their supporters are shouting at their political speeches. Chants such as "kill him" when Barack Obama's name is mentioned, or words like "terrorist" or "traitor" and so on.

I feel that if they actually disapproved of such behavior they would have stopped speaking, and corrected the vulgar hecklers. But instead, they either smile or smirk, and look away, and continue their speech. Allowing their supporters to turn into a frenzied mob looking for blood.

In an effort to spin this, McCain's campaign has released statements, defending the supporters, and trying to twist it around to somehow make Barack Obama look bad. How could someone screaming "kill him" about a U.S. Senator, actually be spun to make the Senator look bad?

Here's how they tried... and failed.

McCain's Senior adviser Nicolle Wallace had this to say:

"Barack Obama's assault on our supporters is insulting and unsurprising. These are the same people obama called 'bitter' and attacked for 'clinging to guns' and faith. He fails to understand that people are angry at corrupt practices in Washington and Wall Street and he fails to understand that America's working families are not 'clinging' to anything other than the sincere hope that Washington will be reformed from top to bottom."

"Attacking our supporters is a new low for the campaign that's run more millions of dollars of negative ads than any other in history."

Please keep in mind, McCain's campaign is running way more negative ads than Obama. In fact, lets look at the negative ads.

According to the Chicago Tribune:

Yet McCain has outdone Obama in a negative ad war that has grown personal. McCain, who for some time has portrayed Obama as "dangerously unprepared" for the presidency, is questioning his very character. Obama, for his part, is painting a picture of an over-the-hill rival dwelling in the past.

Since the start, the Wisconsin Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin at Madison reports that 73 percent of the ads McCain has aired and 61 percent of Obama's have been negative.

Don't you just love the spin? McCain's campaign has been much more negative, anyone who has paid attention to the election can see that.

Let's get back to the "defending McCain supporters."

McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers released this:

“Barack Obama’s attacks on Americans who support John McCain reveal far more about him than they do about John McCain. It is clear that Barack Obama just doesn’t understand regular people and the issues they care about. He dismisses hardworking middle class Americans as clinging to guns and religion, while at the same time attacking average Americans at McCain rallies who are angry at Washington, Wall Street and the status quo."

Grinning ear to ear, on video, while your supporters yell "terrorist" or "kill him" while a United States Senator's name is mentioned in your speeches, should not be defended. It's made America look at McCain and Palin much differently.

SS Drops Obama Threat Investigation

Well, that didn't last too long.

I sure hope, for Obama's sake, that nothing happens to him. You would think that the Secret Service would do a more thorough investigation regarding someone shouting "kill him" about Senator Barack Obama. But, as it seems, the case has already been dropped, with the person responsible, never being found.

Who was it that screamed "kill him?" What if they are now plotting an attempt on our next President's life? Will the next person who scream it be taken seriously? This is serious stuff, and I am worried that this type of acceptance, when it comes to threats on Obama, will be overlooked from now on.

According to AP:

The US Secret Service has investigated an alleged death threat against Democrat Barack Obama shouted Monday at a rally for his Republican rival John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin, an agency spokesman told AFP Thursday.

The probe by the service that protects US presidents, past and present, visiting world leaders and US presidential candidates, stems from a report by The Washington Post about a shout, "kill him," heard during the rally when Obama's name came up.

The alleged threat was made when Palin was speaking of Obama's relations with former 1960s radical Bill Ayers, whose group "The Weathermen" carried out a series of attacks in protest against the Vietnam War.

"We take every threat very seriously. Every time we receive or are reported information like that, we follow up," said Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan.

However, he cautioned that at the McCain rally, "no Secret Service agent overheard any threatening statement and no threatening statements were reported by law enforcement or the general public."

"We did make some inquiries after the Washington Post reported on Tuesday that a someone had yelled 'kill him,'" he added.

What irks me, is no Secret Service heard anything???

Donovan said it wasn't clear whether the threat was actually vocalized or, if so, if it was meant for Obama or even Ayers, both of whose names were uttered by Palin at that moment in her speech.

For those reasons, he added, the investigation was dropped.

Not vocalized? Then how did people hear it then?

I have begun thinking very differently about Sarah Palin and John McCain after this event. I have watched them give their speeches while people shout "kill him" and "terrorist" about Barack Obama, and they stand by and do nothing. How can John McCain sit there and raise questions about his "connections to terrorists" when Obama is a U.S. Senator, this isn't some new guy off the street? Barack has served this country as honorably as McCain has. Obama is not connected to terrorists, and by allowing their hateful mobs to rally and cheer on things like "kill him" at political events, its embarrassing to me, not just as an American, but as a human.

Rednecks For Obama

Some things just make ya proud to be an American.



This picture from Associated Press captures the moment perfectly. Americans in the street, showing their support, holding a "Rednecks for Obama" banner, being greeted by Senator Barack Obama.

When Barack Obama's campaign bus made a swing through Missouri in July, the unlikeliest of supporters were waiting for him -- or rather two of them, holding the banner: "Rednecks for Obama."

In backing the first African-American nominee of a major party for the US presidency, the pair are on a grassroots mission to bridge a cultural gap in the United States and help usher their preferred candidate into the White House.

Tony Viessman, 74, and Les Spencer, 60, got politically active last year when it occurred to them there must be other lower income, rural, beer-drinking, gun-loving, NASCAR race enthusiasts fed up with business as usual in Washington.

Viessman had a red, white and blue "Rednecks for Obama" banner made, and began causing a stir in Missouri, which has emerged as a key battleground in the run-up to the November 4 presidential election.

Being from the South, I grew up seeing a good bit of racism, some of it I will never forget, nor feel the need to go into here. However, when you look at stories like this, and understand that the New South, is not what it once was, you can see that fine thing that makes America what it is. People no matter the skin color, down in the South, learn that we are all in this mess together, and hating each other because of skin color will get you nowhere.

"I didn't expect it would get as much steam and attention as it's gotten," Spencer told AFP on the campus of Washington University in Saint Louis, the state's biggest city and site of last week's vice-presidential debate.

"We believe in him. He's the best person for the job," Viessman, a former state trooper from Rolla, said of Obama, who met the pair briefly on that July day in Union, Missouri.

The candidate bounded off his bus and jogged back towards a roadside crowd to shake hands with the men holding the banner.

"He said 'This is incredible'," Spencer recalled.

It's been an unexpectedly gratifying run, Viessman said.

Rednecks4obama.com claims more than 800,000 online visits. In Denver, Colorado, Viessman and Spencer drew crowds at the Democratic convention, and at Washington University last Thursday they were two of the most popular senior citizens on campus.

"I'm shocked, actually, but excited" that such a demographic would be organizing support for Obama, said student Naia Ferguson, 18, said after hamming it up for pictures behind the banner.

"When most people think 'redneck,' they think conservatives, anti-change, even anti-integration," she said. "But America's changing, breaking stereotypes."

A southern comedian, Jeff Foxworthy, defines the stereotype as a "glorious lack of sophistication".

Philistines or not, he said, most rural southerners are no longer proponents of the Old South's most abhorrent ideology -- racism -- and that workaday issues such as the economy are dominating this year's election.

"We need to build the economy from the bottom up, none of this trickle down business," Spencer said. "Just because you're white and southern don't mean you have to vote Republican."

Stories like this are great and should make us all proud to be American. I do not like reading the stories about hearing people shouting "kill him" or "terrorist" when Barack Obama's name is mentioned, things like this show us the side of humanity that is often loss in the negative campaigning and ads. I do enjoy reading stories showing everyday citizens doing something, getting involved, whatever they can do. That's nice. That's American.

The Rednecks for Obama are definitely winners!

After Second Presidential Debate

Here's a brief look at some of the things that have happened after the Second Presidential Debate last night. Oddly enough, quite a few things have happened...

While clicking around on political sites and blogs today, I noticed a lot of Barack Obama ads, and I thought to myself, "he must be spending a lot on those." Well, I clicked around a little more and then I found this blog entry on a WSJ blog: Obama’s Big Day: $3.3 Million Spent on TV Ads

Barack Obama spent $3.3 million on TV ads on Monday alone—a remarkable one-day expenditure that more than doubled rival John McCain’s spending that day, according to the ad tracking firm, Campaign Media Analysis Group.

The Obama campaign has been ratcheting up its ad spending over the last month, increasing it by about 20% per week.

Wow, nice strategy, and very impressive.

In addition to referring to Americans as "my fellow prisoners" today, Cindy McCain also jumped into the negative campaign fun and had her own moment.

Cindy McCain got in on the attack action Wednesday while introducing her husband, Republican presidential nominee John McCain, at a rally here.

The mother of four, including two sons in the military, challenged Democrat Barack Obama to “change shoes” for a day. “The day that Sen. Obama decided to cast a vote to not fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill through my body,” she said

McCain’s charge is based on a single vote Obama cast as a senator. Factcheck.org called the claim “misleading” based on the fact that Obama voted in favor of troop funding on 10 different occasions. The only time he voted against it was a vote in which President Bush vetoed a version that included a date for withdrawal.

So by that logic, George Bush is actually the one to blame for not funding her son. Barack Obama has voted 10 times to fund the troops!

Hey! Remember that Sarah Palin email hacker that busted Palin's use of multiple Yahoo accounts for government business? Well, he pleaded not guilty today.

Today, David Kernell, son of Mike Kernell, chairman of Tennessee’s House Government Operations Committee, pleaded not guilty in federal to charges that he intentionally accessed Palin’s e-mail account without authorization. He was charged under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

It's been an eventful day in politics so far, and it's not over yet! Let's see if anything else happens today/tonight. But what could top the "