'Unethical?'

'Unethical?'
October 27, 2008
A McCain-Palin/RNC ad claims Obama 'rewards his friends with your tax dollars.' It's off the mark.

Summary
An ad released jointly by the McCain-Palin campaign and the RNC claims Obama "rewards his friends with your tax dollars" and calls his actions "unethical." Some of what the ad says is false or misleading. Here are the facts:

The ad claims that Obama supporter and Chicago real estate developer Allison Davis received $20 million in taxpayer money. That's false. Davis didn't get this money. Instead, the federal grant went to the Chicago Housing Authority, replacing money it had already put forward for a mixed-income housing project on which Davis was a developer. The grant didn't go to Davis, nor did it help him pocket any additional funds.

The ad says Obama gave Tony Rezko $14 million of taxpayer money. That's misleading. It's true the housing project Rezko was working on cost $14 million in taxpayer cash. Rezko and his partner netted $855,000 in fees.

Obama worked to get Kenny Smith a $100,000 grant to build a park, which Smith later failed to complete. Smith has since caught the attention of the state attorney general. But, according to reports, Obama isn't under investigation for helping Smith get the grant.

The RNC and McCain may consider Obama's actions to be "unethical"; that's a matter of opinion. But the fact is, as far as these three incidents are concerned, Obama has not been officially accused of any wrongdoing, and there's been no report that his actions are the subject of any official investigation.

McCain compared himself to Harry Truman

McCain scoffs at Obama for taking victory lap:

MESILLA, New Mexico (Reuters) – Republican presidential nominee John McCain, trailing in the polls, accused Democrat Barack Obama of already taking a "victory lap" by allowing an inaugural address to be drafted for him -- a charge disputed by the Obama camp.

The Obama campaign said McCain's charge was "completely false." A campaign official said by email: "The 'address' is from a book John Podesta wrote before Obama was the nominee. It's not a sample address for Obama. It's a sample address he wrote for whoever became the nominee."

FALSE: Queen Michelle Obama's $447 Waldorf-Astoria Snack

Snopes: False

New York Post retraction:

October 21, 2008 --

THE source who told us last week about Michelle Obama getting lobster and caviar delivered to her room at the Waldorf-Astoria must have been under the influence of a mind-altering drug. She was not even staying at the Waldorf. We regret the mistake, and our former source is going to regret it, too. Bread and water would be too good for such disinformation.

Lie seen here and regretted here.

McCain says Obama “will say anything to get elected”

McCain says Obama “will say anything to get elected” by Mosheh Oinounou:

CINCINNATI, OH - John McCain did not mince any words in characterizing Barack Obama at his final rally on Wednesday.

“He will say anything to get elected,” he said to more than 10,000 supporters at an airport hangar event alongside Sarah Palin.

Obviously a lie.

Election result rests in God's hands

Palin says election result rests in God's hands:

DENVER – Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin describes herself as a "hard-core pro-lifer" and expresses confidence that in spite of disheartening polls, "putting this in God's hands, that the right thing for America will be done at the end of the day on Nov. 4."

"It is that intercession that is so needed and so greatly appreciated," Palin told Dobson. "And I can feel it too, Dr. Dobson. I can feel the power of prayer, and that strength that is provided through our prayer warriors across this nation."

She continued: "When we hear along the rope lines that people are interceding for us and praying for us, it's our reminder to do the same, to put this all in God's hands, to seek his perfect will for this nation, and to of course seek his wisdom and guidance in putting this nation back on the right track."

Sarah Palin is just like the average small town hockey mom

The Internet: The Cure For Campaign Lies?

Arianna Huffington writes in the Huffington Post, The Internet and the Death of Rovian Politics:

Age has finally become an issue for John McCain. But the problem isn't the candidate's 72 years; it's the antediluvian approach of his campaign.

McCain is running a textbook Rovian race: fear-based, smear-based, anything goes. But it isn't working. The glitch in the well-oiled machine? The Internet.

Micah L. Sifry writes on techPresident: The Crowd-Scouring of the Presidency (and the End of Rovian Politics?):

...this is the rise of the "sound-blast" over the sound-bite. I don't know why the McCain campaign hasn't made more use of this potential by sitting McCain in front of a camera in a setting most congenial to him, but you can be sure that this will be the last Republican presidential candidate to miss this opportunity.

Arianna makes one last point:

Back in the Dark Ages of 2004, when YouTube (and HuffPost, for that matter) didn't exist, a campaign could tell a brazen lie, and the media might call them on it. But if they kept repeating the lie again and again and again, the media would eventually let it go (see the Swiftboating of John Kerry). Traditional media like moving on to the next shiny thing. But bloggers love revisiting a story. So when Palin kept repeating her bridge to nowhere lie, bloggers kept calling her on it. Andrew Sullivan, for one, has made a cottage industry of calling Palin on her lies. And eventually, the truth filtered up and cost McCain credibility with his true base: journalists.

The Internet may make it easier to disseminate character smears, but it also makes it much less likely that these smears will stick.

Well, we don't know how true this statement is, yet, do we? Would more Americans believe that Obama is a Muslim if the Internet didn't exist? Or less? Given how quickly the net can now find and spread a compelling message, will it make the events of the next 14 days even more volatile?

If anything, the next two weeks are the final test for Arianna's thesis. It's been said that "A lie can run around the world before the truth can get its boots on." Can the Internet catch lies and expose them faster than it can spread them? And will low-information voters--the people least likely to be paying attention to the net--get the message?

If there's any silver lining here, it's that once the election is over, these new habits and tools will get aimed at making government more honest, open and effective. That's my hope, anyway.

McCain Defends His Campaign's Robocalls

When one resorts to smearing, one has already lost… if not the battle, definitely the soul.

McCain Defends His Campaign’s Robocalls (via tpmtv)

via [ Zadi Diaz ]

McCain's Robocalls: An All Out Assault

McCain and his allies are attacking Barack Obama with negative robocalls and mail. Reports are coming in from around the country -- and you can be part of that. If you've received an attack mailer, phone call or anything else produced by dirty politics, head over the http://FightTheSmears.com/Report and let the Obama campaign know.

McCain supporter Rep. Michelle Bachman (MN): Obama is anti-American

Wikipedia: Michelle Bachman

Rep. Michelle Bachman (MN)

DUMP MICHELE BACHMANN

YouTube video response: Katrina Vanden Heuvel Responds to Bachman's Call for McCarthy like Investigation of Members of Congress.

Barack Obama - Born on Krypton?

Barack Obama:

"I was not born in a manger. I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father, Jor-el, to save the Planet Earth," he said, in a reference to Superman.

via BBC

"Nearly 100 percent" of McCain ads between September 28-October 4 were negative

Final Presidential Debate Fact Check:

Ads
10:42 p.m.
Obama was wrong to state that "100 percent" of McCain TV ads have been negative. According to a survey by the Wisconsin Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin, 73 percent of the ads McCain has aired since the start of the campaign have been negative while 61 percent of Obama's ads have been negative. According to a Nielsen survey, both candidates had roughly similar numbers of negative ads beteen June 3, when the primaries ended and September 7. During that period, the McCain campaign ran 76,192 negative ads against Obama while the Obama campaign ran 75,246 negative ads against McCain.

It's possible Obama was referring to recent ads aired by McCain. The Wisconsin Advertising project reported that "nearly 100 percent" of McCain ads between September 28-October 4 were negative.
--Michael Dobbs

McCain on CNN

McCain on CNN: "I'm happy where we are. We've got him just where we want him. I'm happy where we are."

McCain on CNN: Lying about William Ayers "Unrepentant terrorist." Wrong.

McCain on CNN on terrorist and traitor comments at McCain rallys: "I've heard the same thing at Obama rally's said about me." LIE. LIAR!

Interviewer on CNN: "Are you feeling well?" McCain: "Thank you for having me on." What?

Massachusetts greyhound racing adoption rate

Question 3 Facts:

FALSE CLAIM:
“Massachusetts greyhound racing achieves 100% adoption rate”

SOURCE:
Newspaper advertisement, No on 3 website, No on 3 YouTube video.

THE FACTS:
According to the State Racing Commission, the actual adoption rate is only 31%.

via [ Question 3 Facts ]

The wesite should link to the YouTube videos they cite.

Here you go:

All Vote No on 3 YouTube videos.

YouTube: Adopt A Massachusetts Greyhound Vote No on Question 3.

Obama was born in America

Ancestry of Barack Obama:

Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to a Kenyan father and an American mother. According to the U.S. Senate Historical Office, he is the fifth African American Senator in U.S. history and is one of the Democratic candidates for President in 2008.

Barack Obama's Family Tree. Barack Obama's father Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. was born in Alego, Kenya.

BARACK OBAMA IS STILL A CHRISTIAN.

Leave William Ayers Alone

McCain again raises Obama's ties with 1970s radical:

WAUKESHA, Wisconsin (Reuters) - Trailing in opinion polls, Republican presidential nominee John McCain pressed his effort to raise doubts about Barack Obama's character on Thursday with a fresh attack on his Democratic rival's contacts with a former radical who became a college professor.

Former radical.

Bill Ayers: He is now a professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, holding the title of Distinguished Professor.

No bombs:

Much of the controversy about Ayers during the decade since 2000 stems from an interview he gave to The New York Times on the occasion of the memoir's publication.[19] The reporter quoted him as saying "I don't regret setting bombs" and "I feel we didn't do enough", and, when asked if he would "do it all again" as saying "I don't want to discount the possibility."[14] Ayers has not denied the quotes, but he protested the interviewer's characterizations in a Letter to the Editor published September 15, 2001: "This is not a question of being misunderstood or 'taken out of context', but of deliberate distortion."[20]
In the ensuing years, Ayers has repeatedly avowed that when he said he had "no regrets" and that "we didn't do enough" he was speaking only in reference to his efforts to stop the United States from waging the Vietnam War, efforts which he has described as ". . . inadequate [as] the war dragged on for a decade."[21] Ayers has maintained that the two statements were not intended to imply a wish they had set more bombs.[21][22]

Views on his past expressed since 2001:

Ayers was asked in a January 2004 interview, "How do you feel about what you did? Would you do it again under similar circumstances?" He replied:[24] "I've thought about this a lot. Being almost 60, it's impossible to not have lots and lots of regrets about lots and lots of things, but the question of did we do something that was horrendous, awful? ... I don't think so. I think what we did was to respond to a situation that was unconscionable." On September 9, 2008, journalist Jake Tapper reported on the comic strip in Bill Ayers's blog explaining the soundbite: "The one thing I don't regret is opposing the war in Vietnam with every ounce of my being.... When I say, 'We didn't do enough,' a lot of people rush to think, 'That must mean, "We didn't bomb enough shit."' But that's not the point at all. It's not a tactical statement, it's an obvious political and ethical statement. In this context, 'we' means 'everyone.'"[25][26]

There is nothing to condemn about Ayers’ leadership over the past 20 years:

Obama does, indeed, know Bill Ayers as more than just a guy from the neighborhood. So do a host of civic leaders in Chicago. For example, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge board included Susan Crown of the General Dynamics Corp. family; Patricia Graham, former dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Arnold Weber, past president of Northwestern University and of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago. Indeed, just about everyone active in Chicago school reform in the early days saw Ayers as a colleague. No one ever accused them of being radical because of their association with Bill Ayers.

Whatever one thinks of Ayers’ actions 40 years ago, there is nothing to condemn, and much to admire, about his leadership and commitment over the past 20 years in making schools better places to teach and learn. And there is nothing to condemn, and much to applaud, in Obama’s close association with those efforts.

Leave William Ayers Alone.

Obama and Ayers are not close friends

McCain is a Liar and a Coward:

The McCain crew had been busy for for a couple of days trying to sell the absurd notion that Obama and Ayers are close friends and some how that then 8 year old Obama is in some way tied to Ayers actions during the Vietnamese War.

Michelle Obama refutes the lie on Larry King Live last night:

John McCain is Not My Friend

"John McCain said "my friends" a grand total of 21 times. After a while, it just got annoying."

Lie of omission? John McCain's Medical Records

John McCain's health records must be released:

The state of John McCain's health is an issue of grave concern for all Americans, regardless of political persuasion. Given the fact that he has been treated for an invasive melanoma and other maladies, it is important that he release his full health records.

The Real McCain: John McCain's health records must be released

Sarah Palin Caught Up In Rape Kit Lies

The Lies Of The Boston Globe-Democrat By Michael Graham:

The lead editorial in the Globe-Democrat today is entitled “Wasilla Made Rape Victims Pay.” This headline is what’s known in the news business as a “lie.”

The lies continue:

ONE QUESTION that Sarah Palin should answer during tomorrow's debate is why, during her tenure as mayor of Wasilla, the town started charging rape victims or their insurers for hospital emergency-room rape kits and examinations.

Now, that’s a great question. And if the Boston Globe-Democrat is telling the truth—if Sarah Palin “started charging rape victims” for rape kits, something that hadn’t happened before and that nobody else was doing—that would be a powerful question. And since the Boston Globe-Democrat says it happened, it must have, right?

But if it didn’t happen, if no rape victim or her insurance company was ever charged for a rape kit, then this sentence is an outrageous and horrifying lie. Would the Boston Globe-Democrat really run such an indefensible lie? That’s a great question, too.

And it is so easily answered. All the Globe-Democrat has to do is show a single incident of “the town charging rape victims or their insurers” for rape kits. Just one. That’s all. Should be easy, right? After all, Rene Loth & Co. (editorial page editor of the Boston Globe-Democrat) are reporting it as fact. Surely, Rene, you have the facts. So just publish them.

National Review: The Boston Globe Lies Repeatedly About The Rape Kits

PoliFact.com: The Palin 'rape kit' controversy By Bill Adair

Palin claim appears devoid of any reasonable context

Image by j*ryu © All rights reserved.

Huffington Post - Say It Ain't So, Sarah: Palin Smears Obama With Year-Old Discredited Attack:

During an appearance on Fox News this Friday, Sarah Palin claimed that Barack Obama should be disqualified from serving as president because he had once proclaimed that troops in Afghanistan were "air raiding villages and killing civilians."

If the charge seemed oddly and painfully familiar it's because it has been levied at Obama - and subsequently dismissed - several times before during this election season.

RAW DATA: Transcript of FOX News' Interview With Palin:

Palin: I wanted to talk about Barack Obama increasing taxes, which would lead to filling jobs. I wanted to talk about his proposal to increase government spending by another trillion dollars. (AUDIO GAP) that he's made about the war that I think make my world -- disqualify someone from consideration as the next commander in chief. Some of the comments that he's made about Afghanistan, what we're doing there, supposably, just air raiding villages and killing civilians. That's reckless and I want to talk about things like that.

VP Debate Fact Check: Palin HIred Friends

DEBATE REALITY CHECK: APPOINTEES:

Tonight, Sarah Palin said: “You do what I did as governor. And you appoint people regardless of party affiliation. Democrats, independents, Republicans, you walk the walk, don't just talk the talk.” [Vice Presidential Debate, 10/2/08]

FACT: PALIN HIRED HER FRIENDS TO KEY ADMINISTRATION POSITIONS

Link

The Truth About Sarah Palin

Rolling Stone - The Truth About Sarah Palin:

Sarah Palin's credentials as a "reformer" are nothing but spin. She has sided with Big Oil, lobbied to increase pork spending and abused her public power to carry out personal vendettas.

Here's a guide to separating myth from fact.

Keith Olbermann pays $100 to charity every time Sarah Palin lies

Keith Olbermann makes good on his promise to pay $100 to charity every time Sarah Palin lies or repeats a lie in the course of campaigning. This week Keith donates $3,700 to the Alaskan Special Olympics Fund and