Del.icio.us Links Flap’s Quick Links for October 30, 2008 October 30, 2008 / The Columbus Dispatch : Checks on ‘Joe’ more extensive than first acknowledged A state agency has revealed that its checks of computer systems for potential information on “Joe the Plumber” were more extensive than it first acknowledged. Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, disclosed today that computer inquiries on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher were not restricted to a child-support system. The agency also checked Wurzelbacher in its computer systems to determine whether he was receiving welfare assistance or owed unemployment compensation taxes, she wrote. Jones-Kelley made the revelations in a letter to Ohio Senate President Bill M. Harris, R-Ashland, who demanded answers on why state officials checked out Wurzelbacher. Harris called the multiple records checks “questionable” and said he awaits more answers. “It’s kind of like Big Brother is looking in your pocket,” he said. ++++++ Big Brother? – just wait until the Obama Administration, brother. TAGS joe_wurzelbacher West Hollywood Sarah Palin effigy taken down | Los Angeles Times A California couple who hung a controversial effigy of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin from a noose off the side of their house have removed the display under pressure from city officials. ChadMichael Morrisette, the man who constructed the mannequin as part of a Halloween display, told The Times that he decided to remove the Palin mannequin on Wednesday after meeting with West Hollywood Mayor Jeffrey Prang. Originally he’d vowed to keep the display up until Saturday. Earlier in the day, about half a dozen of Morrisette’s neighbors had protested the display and tried to block it from the view of passing motorists, according to Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. ++++++++ Did they take it down because of California Proposition 8 and the attention it was bringing to West Hollywood’s Gay Carnaval on Friday. Too late, morons. TAGS sarah_palin Found in a rundown Boston estate: Barack Obama’s aunt Zeituni Onyango – Times Online Barack Obama has lived one version of the American Dream that has taken him to the steps of the White House. But a few miles from where the Democratic presidential candidate studied at Harvard, his Kenyan aunt and uncle, immigrants living in modest circumstances in Boston, have a contrasting American story. Zeituni Onyango, the aunt so affectionately described in Mr Obama’s best-selling memoir Dreams from My Father, lives in a disabled-access flat on a rundown public housing estate in South Boston. +++++++ Nice and a contributor as well.Hey Barry how about sharing the wealth for your own family… TAGS barack_obama Palin Stumps with Joe the Plumber, Mocks the LA Times – Washingtonpost.com “This associate, Rashid Khalidi, he — in addition being a political ally of Barack Obama — is a former spokesperson for Palestinian Liberation Organization,” Palin continued, brushing aside Khalidi’s denial that he was ever a PLO spokesman. “The twist here is there’s a videotape of a party for this person. A celebration of him. Barack was there. Some very derogatory things were said there of Israel and America’s support for that great nation. Among other things, Israel was described there as the perpetrator of terrorism rather than the victim. What we don’t know is how Barack Obama responded to these slurs on a country that he professes to support, and the reason we don’t know is the newspaper that has this tape, the Los Angeles Times, refuses to release it.” Then, the Alaska governor openly mocked the L.A. Times as pandering to Obama (the paper has said it cannot release the tape because it received it from a source on condition that it not be published and intends to honor that com TAGS sarah_palin rashid_khalidi losangelestimes Tip: Two quotes from the Obama-Khalidi videotape Saw a clip from the tape. Reason we can’t release it is because statements Obama said to rile audience up during toast. He congratulates Khalidi for his work saying “Israel has no God-given right to occupy Palestine” plus there’s been “genocide against the Palestinian people by Israelis.” It would be really controversial if it got out. Tha’s why they will not even let a transcript get out. +++++++ Will someone at the LA Times sneek the video out? TAGS barack_obama losangelestimes israel Rashid_Khalidi Hidin’ Biden: Reining In a Voluble No. 2 – TIME It would have been nice to ask that question of Biden himself, but a campaign spokesman told me the Senator was suffering from a cold that made it a strain to give interviews. (I didn’t glean evidence of any symptoms during the four speeches that I watched him give over two days.) The spokesman also said Biden would consider it “presumptuous” to talk about how he would perform the job for which he is running. Or maybe it simply wasn’t in the script. +++++++ Hiding the GAFFE machine…… TAGS joe_biden John Murtha is running scared; new internal poll shows virtual dead heat – Michelle Malkin The momentum has shifted. National media and politicos are paying attention. Veterans are standing up against the troop-slandering incumbent. The polls are tightening. (A new one posted at GrassrootsPA shows a virtual dead heat: MURTHA 45.5% RUSSELL 43.7%.) And John Murtha is squealing like the pig he is. Here he is cursing his head off and attacking Russell as a carpetbagger. House Democrats have pitched in funds to try and bail him out of his self-created mess. +++++++ So goes Murtha may go McCain in Pennsylvania. mccain john_murtha California Catholic Daily – “Do not betray the trust the public has placed in you†Despite a personal plea from the auxiliary bishop of San Diego and a large demonstration by supporters of traditional marriage outside their chambers, the San Diego City Council voted on Monday afternoon to oppose Proposition 8, which would outlaw same-sex marriages in California. ++++++ Should California Proposition 8 fail, the Homosexual lobby will begin the push for more forced relgious re-education. Watch Catholic services end adoption services in California. TAGS gaymarriage Is This Much-Touted Democratic Wave Skipping Certain Districts? – Geraghty Patrick Ruffini echoes the theme of this post — that for what’s supposed to be a terrible cycle for Republicans, they’re poised to knock off some Democratic incumbents, something they couldn’t do at all in 2006 — and points to another House races where the GOP is overperforming. In Georgia, Democratic Congressman Bobby Scott is only up by 5 percent, and is way below 50 percent. A couple readers responded to yesterday’s post by pointing to anecdotal evidence that their Democratic congressman is in trouble. In most cases, I’ll believe it when I see it, but it’s interesting that we’re being told that it’s a Democratic wave election, but the wave isn’t showing up in certain districts — and these are districts in swing states like Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Florida. Ruffini is right — “If you’re a no name challenger who gets 40 to 45 percent next Tuesday, you’re in excellent position to come back in 2010.” ++++++ Indeed GOP losses have started to bottom out in this cycle. TAGS GOP