links for 2008-10-16

The California Teachers Association reported donating $1 million to oppose Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban, on Tuesday.
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And, who said they didn't want to teach gay marriage or homosexual lifestyle issues in the schools.

The San Francisco Chronicle's Carla Marinucci caught up with first lady Maria Shriver to chat about her Women's Conference next week in Long Beach. Along the way she got Shriver, the daughter of a former presidential and vice presidential candidate, to talk about GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin:
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Maria Shriver is the daughter of Sargeant Shriver who failed to win the Vice Presidency and the NEICE of President John Kennedy.
A dyed in the wool Democrat why would Shriver say anything nice about Sarah Palin? And, her judgment? She married Arnold Schwarzeneger – bwahahahahaha

Democratic Rep. John Murtha said Wednesday his home base of western Pennsylvania is racist and that could reduce Barack Obama's victory margin in the state by 4 percentage points.

The 17-term Democratic congressman told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in a story posted Wednesday on its Web site: "There is no question that western Pennsylvania is a racist area."

Murtha said it has taken time for many Pennsylvania voters to come around to embracing a black presidential candidate, but that Obama should still win the state, though not in a runaway.
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WTF?

Stephen Harper's Conservatives won a muscular minority mandate Tuesday night as Canadian voters entrusted the prime minister with the levers of government in tough economic times – but not a blank cheque.

The outcome saw the Liberals sink to their lowest level of popular support since the election of 1867 – and surely means a third change of leadership in five years for what was long dubbed Canada's natural governing party.

Aided by vote-splitting in Canada's most populous province, the Tories climbed to within a dozen seats of a majority. They did it without significantly boosting their share of the popular vote.

The Conservatives won 143 seats, up from 124 in the last election, while the Liberals were down to 76 from 103. The NDP was up by eight seats to 37, and the Bloc Quebecois shed one seat to 50. Two Independents also won.

In terms of vote share, the Conservatives got 38 per cent, the Liberals 26, the NDP 18, the Bloc 10, and the Greens 7.

On another issue, Murtha said he has cautioned Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, if elected, to avoid the same mistakes in Afghanistan that the Soviets made more than 20 years ago.

"I told Obama's people, 'Don't get your feet too far in Afghanistan,'" Murtha said.

Obama has said he wants to send more troops to Afghanistan.

Murtha remembers visiting Afghanistan when small bands of Mujahideen were routing the better-equipped Soviet Army. They're professional soldiers, different from those fighting U.S. forces in Iraq, Murtha said. More troops won't be enough to stabilize the country, he said.

PREPARE for a new America: That's the message that the Rev. Jesse Jackson conveyed to participants in the first World Policy Forum, held at this French lakeside resort last week.

He promised "fundamental changes" in US foreign policy – saying America must "heal wounds" it has caused to other nations, revive its alliances and apologize for the "arrogance of the Bush administration."

The most important change would occur in the Middle East, where "decades of putting Israel's interests first" would end.

Jackson believes that, although "Zionists who have controlled American policy for decades" remain strong, they'll lose a great deal of their clout when Barack Obama enters the White House.
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But, American Jews will vote 80 plus per cent for Obama. So, say what?

John McCain is at odds with many of his top advisers over launching a renewed attack on Barack Obama's ties to his long-time pastor and mentor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, according to campaign sources.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and several top campaign officials see a sharp attack on Wright as the best — and perhaps last — chance to rattle Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill. ) and force voters to rethink their support of him. But McCain continues to overrule them, fearing a Wright attack would smack of desperation and racism, the officials said.

With McCain unlikely to budge, GOP officials are hoping groups outside of the campaign will finance an ad attack on Obama-Wright ties. It is unclear if any conservative group has the cash to bankroll a serious effort, however.
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As Flap said before: McCain lacks the fire in his belly to win this race.

Gov. Sarah Palin met with a group of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s former supporters Tuesday evening at a special fund-raising reception organized for them on behalf of the Republican ticket.

The reception, which organizers said brought in more than $500,000, was part of an extended evening of fund-raising for Ms. Palin and Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign at the Grand Hyatt in New York that officials estimated raised more than $8 million.

On August 21st, 2008, the MV Iran Deyant, 44,458 dead weight bulk carrier was heading towards the Suez Canal. As it was passing the Horn of Africa, about 80 miles southeast of al-Makalla in Yemen, the ship was surrounded by speedboats filled with members of a gang of Somalian pirates who grab suitable commercial ships and hold them and their cargos and crews for ransom. The captain was defenseless against the 40 pirates armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades blocking his passage. He had little choice other than to turn his ship over to them. What the pirates were not banking on, however, was that this was no ordinary ship.

And while they have made it clear that they want Obama in the driver’s seat, congressional Democrats are providing the horsepower for a potential $300 billion economic stimulus bill that could be five times the size of the package approved by the House in September. They’re calling it an “economic recovery” plan instead of a stimulus, and would fill it with Democratic priorities ranging from an extension of unemployment benefits to infrastructure spending.

Some aides are even floating trade-offs that might sweeten the pot for Senate Republicans and President Bush, including the Colombia free trade agreement, long seen as a possible lame-duck item.

Whether Democrats actually intend to even introduce a stimulus bill before the next Congress and president take office is an open question. Even with a Democratic landslide in November, moving a new stimulus bill could be difficult given the Democrats’ narrow 51-49 edge in the Senate and Bush’s veto power.