Political Rhetoric, Explained - Steven Pinker

Political Rethoric language often tends to be vague, empty, and bland.

US has barred HIV-positive travellers and potential immigrants from entering the country since 1987.

An Aug 16 rally in support of lifting all travel restrictions on HIV positive visitors to the United States took place at the Peace Arch at the Canada-US border. Canadian Martin Rooney, who was denied entry into the United States in 2007 because he is HIV positive, organized the event. “Please Mr Obama lift this ban now,” said Rooney to approximately 30 attendees. “There is no medical science to support that HIV is a contagious disease that presents a threat to public health or national security of the United States.” He said the immediate publication of new regulations removing remaining travel restrictions would be “an enormous step forward” in treating HIV positive people with the dignity they deserve.”Former US president George W Bush lifted an outright ban in 2008, but HIV positive visitors are still required to submit a waiver before entering the United States. On World AIDS Day 2006, Bush instructed the secretary of homeland security to “initiate a rulemaking that would propose a categorical waiver for HIV-positive people seeking to enter the United States on short-term visas.”At the time, AIDS activists were cautiously optimistic but wary about what shape the new rules would take.The US has barred HIV-positive travellers and potential immigrants from entering the country since 1987. Congress codified this policy in 1993, as part of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), meaning it would take an act of Congress to reverse the ban completely.Under the new rules, waiver applicants would have to agree to give up the ability to apply for a change in status while in the US, including applying for legal permanent residence.Applicants would also have to travel with all of their HIV meds needed during the trip, prove they have medical insurance accepted in the US, and prove they won’t engage in behaviour that might put the American public at risk.David Parsons, who enjoys travelling to Seattle to watch professional sports, spoke about his experience with the new waivers. “Once you figure out the process, it takes maybe five days to get [the waiver],” he said. “It’s pretty easy and it costs $135. It’s not the best but it’s an improvement. You just go to an American consulate website and click on visa and you just follow the instructions from there.”But Rooney opposes the waiver on principle.“If I have a contagious disease of significant public threat to the United States and its people then $135 US doesn’t make me any less of a threat,” he said. “So on those grounds alone I will not apply for the United States waiver.”The restrictions, according to many rally attendees, serve as a reminder of the stigma faced by people living with HIV and AIDS. Sonia Marino, who works for an AIDS service organization, says she knows many people who face discrimination at the border due to their perceived HIV status.

Continue reading here: http://www.xtra.ca/public/Vancouver/Please_Mr_Obama_lift_this_ban_now_Rooney-7372.aspx

Secrecy or Transparency: Shed sunshine on police records of drunk arrests.

Why it's not obviously silly for police to enforce and prevent public intoxication laws in bars. Whatever the legal justification for the policy in question, it still ought to be abandoned if it doesn't produce results than just racial profiling and lawsuits.
And I check on the internet and I found out a good evidence that there is a controversy on arresting people specially latinos. Check this site: Where it clearly denoted that 3/4 of those arrest are Latinos or Hispanics.

Shed Sunshine on Police records of drunk arrests.
By Skyler Porras is the director of the San José office of the ACLU of Northern California.

Amid the swirling controversy over the San Jose Police Department's practice of arresting large numbers of people — especially Latinos — under the state public-intoxication law, the department is damaging its reputation by choosing secrecy over transparency.
Before the city council hearing on Nov. 18, the American Civil Liberties Union submitted a formal request that these arrest reports be made public under the state open-records law. But days after the mayor and council said they wanted "broad-based community input" on the issue, the police department refused to publicly release the arrest records.
The council has directed the city manager to form a task force of community stakeholders to address this issue. But how will the task force members accurately identify the scope and nature of the problem if they are denied access to the most important records documenting it?

Simple questions

The Mercury News' reporting on this subject and analysis of the available arrest data have put two very simple, if uncomfortable, questions at the feet of local public officials:
Has the police department been making large numbers of false arrests for public drunkenness?
If so, are Latinos much more likely to be the victims of these bad arrests?
According to state law, people cannot be lawfully arrested for public intoxication unless they are so intoxicated that they are a danger to themselves or others or are obstructing use of sidewalks or streets. Officers must document these facts in a police report. Therefore, the obvious starting point for any serious examination of whether police are misusing this law is to review the police reports for these arrests. As the Mercury News reported, there were a whopping 4,661 of them in 2007. Fifty-seven percent of those arrested were Latinos.
The law is crystal clear that police officials have the discretion to release these records. But in the absence of a strong local sunshine ordinance in San Jose, as exists in some other California cities like Oakland and San Francisco, they do not have to do so.
The official justification for stamping these arrest reports "top secret" was the claim that they are "records of investigations." But releasing the police reports wouldn't compromise any future investigations because simple intoxication busts don't lead to any further investigation. And any prosecutions or further proceedings for public intoxication arrests that took place in 2007 were closed long ago.

Secrecy is bad policy

Chief Rob Davis has been a vocal opponent of a local sunshine ordinance that would require the police to make these sorts of records public. It's not a big surprise that a police agency would act to shield unlawful and embarrassing tactics from public scrutiny. But it's poor public policy to allow it. Unnecessary secrecy has a corrosive effect on public trust and closes doors to cooperative approaches.
Stonewalling community concerns about possible police misconduct doesn't lead to resolution. It leads to lawsuits. It leads to investigations by outside agencies — like the about-to-be-revived Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice: During the tenure of the presumptive Obama Attorney General Eric Holder at the Justice Department, the agency targeted local police departments for investigations specifically if they appeared to be stonewalling legitimate local concerns.
A well-conceived sunshine law would create a strong local legal presumption in favor of openness. Isn't it time for San Jose to adopt one?

Anti-immigrant Politics is no sure path to Electoral Victory.

Now that most of the Republican xenophobes in Congress were given their pink slip, and the once Grand Old Party has shrunk to non-existence in D.C., maybe common sense can be used to pass an immigration reform bill once and for all.

And now that we have a new president Barack Obama, there will be some rather interesting changes...including a new head of the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Now that the head of ICE, Michael Brown clone Julie Myers, will be replaced, and a large amount of Latinos pulling the lever for Obama, you can count on pressure to placed on the new administration to revise the policies of ICE raids across the country.

Here is a quick review for some Anti Immigrants measures:

Oregon Measure 58, which would have prohibited teaching Non English-Speaking public schools students in a language other than English for more than two years. Failed. The Proposition was widely opposed by teachers' groups and Immigrants rights advocates.

Missouri did pass a mostly meaningless English Only measure which states that English is the Official language for Government Meetings. This will not produce any changes to the current status quo.

Arizona Prop 202, failed to pass. It would have weakened the existing employer sanctions, but added penalties for ID theft against Undocumented Immigrants.

In an example of race where Immigration drove the debate, Lou Barletta, the staunchly Anti Immigrant Mayor of Hazelton, Pa; Lost his challenge to incumbent democratic Congressman Paul Kanjorski, demostrating the inneffectiveness of his Anti Immigrant platform for voters interested in real solutions to the Increasingly gloomy economic outlook.

In case you weren’t watching the Escondido City Council elections, coffeehouse owner Olga Diaz unseated incumbent Ed Gallo, breaking up the trio of Gallo, Sam Abed and Marie Waldron that made national news with their unsuccessfull attempt to deny rental housing to undocumented immigrants. This is good news

Clearly, anti-immigrant politics is no sure path to electoral victory, especially if it is the central message -- a lesson that the Republicans should have learned from their 2006 losses. But neither was it the case that the victories of Dole’s and Barletta’s opponents were primarily due to their pro-immigrant, pro-immigration positions.

In North Carolina, Dole’s loss was mainly due to surge in those who voted straight-ticket Democratic. According to post-election analysis by Dr. Michael Bitzer, associate professor of political science at Catawba College in North Carolina, the 52-44% victory of state senator Kay Hagan over incumbent Dole would have been a 51-49% victory for Dole without the straight ticket votes. Also, the heavy early voting, central to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's grassroots effort to get people registered and to the polls, heavily favored Hagan in the state.

America rejected the GOP rethoric language.

From a major party to a divided and Regional party. I wasn’t at all surprised by the generosity of spirit reflected in McCain’s speech last night, but it immediately made me wonder: what awful character deficiency made McCain put his campaign in the hands of such human filth as Karl Rove, William Kristol, Adolph Guiliani, Charlie Black, and the rest of the thugs whose jobs consist of whipping the authoritarians of the Republican base into a foaming-at-the-mouth racist mob.

America rejected their rethoric language. And I for one will not simply forget how The Republican party and; McCain supporters so quickly went to calling areas of the country un-American, hinted the PRESIDENT ELECT was friends with terrorists, and sought to label different views on tax policy as unacceptable, terrifying socialism.

Mistakes has been made and opting for money over love; lies over truth; status over service; and power over wisdom. He wanted everything he felt his name and status was about, but he overlooked the honor and service they were really about in favor of superficialities. There comes a point where all that catches up with you, where there is no going back, and no salvaging what you've done. The ancient Greeks would say McCain made the kind of mistake the Fates don't forgive. But his real tragedy is that he will never realize that until way too late.

Though McCain is touted as a "maverick" who knows how to reach across party lines and evince a degree of clarity and sane non-partisanship in American politics, there was little evidence of that during his campaign, including his concession speech where loud "boos" and nasty comments came out of the crowd. In contrast, members of the Obama rally kindly applauded McCain and his campaign efforts. The difference in each crowd's reaction made it clear to me what kind of campaign each candidate has run and how vastly different the country would be under each administration.

Obama has proven that he is the better man to help end the nation's divisive and petty habits, a potential he's shown by pulling more young people to the polls than ever; a millions of middle-aged voters who never thought they would go for this untried and unestablished candidate; and even the most small-minded among us who saw some potential in his cool, intelligent approach to the nation's troubles. Well changes has been made.

The Republican party suffered greatly last night and will likely not win another election until it undergoes a vast transformation. The era of the culture war must come to an end: it must win back its intellectual establishment -- the articulate urban "elites" who helped to build the party's ideology, like William F. Buckely -- and show itself as a party with strong socially conservative values while remaining articulate and sympathetic to every citizen's ills, as was the case during the Eisenhower administration half a century ago. It must also distance itself from self-aggrandizing zealots who espouse racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, and sexist propaganda that do nothing but alienate more potential supporters. Only then will their journey continue. Now it's time to take a deep breath, stop looking back, and move forward. McCain did the best he could with what he had to work with - end of story. Another page of History open and another one closed. Amen.

Change has come . Si se pudo.

Barack Obama has been sensationally crowned as America's first black President.
In his first speech as President elect he told a mass rally in Chicago: "Change has come to America".
The Senator Obama smashed Republican rival John McCain as he made history with a landslide victory.

He continued: “No matter how they cast their ballots, all Americans can be proud of the history that was made yesterday.”

He also promised “complete cooperation" in the governmental transition and extended an invitation to the White House to Obama and his wife, Michelle.

Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell called Obama’s election "historic" today and claimed Obama will be president for all Americans.
Obama said his victory showed that Americans had "sent a message to the world" and marked that "we are, and always will be the United States of America".

Senator Obama won the race for the White House at precisely January 4, 2008 and will become the 44th United States President.

He passed the magical 270 votes needed with 349 Electoral votes to secure the White House after securing the key states of Florida and Virginia.

Thousands of screaming supporters burst into cheers and began flying the Stars and Stripes as they waited for the first black President to appear.

He told those gathered: "It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America."

He said in his first words as president: “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.”

His victory speech was delivered before a multiracial crowd that city officials estimated at 125,000 in Grant Park, and possibly thousands more in the surrounding area.

Many cried and nodded their heads while he spoke, surrounded by clear bulletproof screens on his left and right.

He appeared on stage with his wife, Michelle, and daughters Malia, ten, and Sasha, seven, poised to become the first family of colour ever to occupy the White House.

Every family member dressed in black and red, and Obama told his daughters during his speech that they would get the puppy he promised would come with a victory.

“Even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime - two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century,” he said.

“There is new energy to harness and new jobs to be created; new schools to build and threats to meet and, for us to lead, alliances to repair.”
He was already suggesting a second term to accomplish his goals, saying he expected “setbacks and false starts.”

“We may not get there in one year or even one term,” he said. “But America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you - we as a people will get there.”

To those who voted against him, he said, “I will be your president, too.”

Obama, an Illinois senator born 47 years ago of a white American mother and a black African father, sprinkled his address with references to the civil rights struggle.

He paid tribute to Ann Nixon Cooper, a 106-year-old daughter of slaves born at a time when women and blacks could not vote. She cast her ballot in Atlanta Tuesday, Obama said.

America voted in record numbers, standing in lines that snaked around blocks and in some places in pouring rain.

Voters who queued up and the millions who balloted early propelled 2008 to what one expert said was the highest turnout in a century.

It looks like 136.6 million Americans will have voted for president this election, based on 88 percent of the country’s precincts tallied and projections for absentee ballots, said Michael McDonald of George Mason University.

Using his methods, that would give 2008 a 64.1 per cent turnout rate
That would be the highest turnout rate that we’ve seen since 1908,” which was 65.7 percent, McDonald said.

It also would beat the old post World War II high of 63.8 per cent in the famed 1960 John F Kennedy-Richard Nixon contest.

The total voting in 2008 easily outdistanced 2004’s 122.3million, which had been the highest grand total of voters before.

Obama entered the final hours of the election with a seven per cent poll lead over his rival but many held their breath for fear that Americans would never put a black man in the Oval Office.

But yesterday the map of America turned progressively blue as states fell to Obama's romping Democratic Party.

The first sign of history changing came as Pennsylvania backed Obama.

McCain had poured millions of dollars into the state and regarded it as a must win.

But an hour later Ohio was projected to go Democrat in what was a crushing blow to the Republican effort.

Iowa was also due to fall to Obama – another hammer blow to the McCain camp.

Obama was projected to have netted 200 electoral votes and with California's 55 votes guaranteed, he was a dead cert to smash the magic 270 needed to take Office.

Early projections said Obama was on course to hit 311 electoral votes to just 163 for Republican rival McCain.

Obama swept to victory as expected in Democratic states in the east and Midwest of America.

The changes has come to America and for the World.

Michelle Malkin Hypocrisy is not a Family Value.

Michelle Malkin is all about law and order when it comes to immigrants. But, when it comes to some other matters law and order doesn't often figure into her equation. Read here: Were Kyledeb at Citizen Orange exposed how Michelle Malkin use her Anti Immigrant sentiment towards Obama Aunt.

Malkin was born in Philadelphia to Filipino parents, Dr. Apolo and Rafaela Maglalang as née Maglalang who gave birth to her soon after arriving in the US, while they were in the United States on student visas. She opposes the granting of automatic U.S. citizenship to babies born to Undocumented Immigrants, tourists, and temporary workers. Malkin discussed her position on these so called "anchor babies" in a 2003 Jewish World Review column, which ended, "Citizenship is too precious to squander on accidental Americans in Name Only."

I read this quote from her dreadful book In Defense of Internment: The Case for 'Racial Profiling' in World War II and the War on Terror :

"I was compelled to write this book after watching ethnic activists, historians, and politicians repeatedly play the World War II internment card after the September 11 attacks. The Bush Administration’s critics have equated every reasonable measure to interrogate, track, detain, and deport potential terrorists with the "racist" and "unjustified” World War II internment policies of President Roosevelt. To make amends for this "shameful blot" on our history, both Japanese-American and Arab/Muslim-American activists argue against any and all uses of race, ethnicity, nationality, and religion in shaping current homeland security policies. Misguided guilt about the past continues to hamper our ability to prevent future terrorist attacks."

The Republican Politics of Hate and Fear.

We'd like to talk about the pressing issues facing our country: the woeful economy, rising unemployment, the housing crisis, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But we can't talk about them because John McCain and Sarah Palin have distracted us with the politics of hate and fear.

Instead of discussing the real issues plaguing Americans, McCain and Palin have turned to fear-mongering and race-baiting, stoking the prejudices of their supporters. The situation has become so critical that we've teamed up with Color of Change to put an end to these dangerous mob scenes.

Things have gotten so out of control that some conservatives have come forward to denounce McCain and Palin's hate-mongering. In an Op-Ed for The Baltimore Sun, Frank Schaeffer writes: "John McCain: If your campaign does not stop equating Sen. Barack Obama with terrorism, questioning his patriotism and portraying Mr. Obama as "not one of us," I accuse you of deliberately feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate, and therefore of potentially instigating violence

Honor a quien Honor Merece: Senator Gil Cedillo. Si se pudo.

I want to congratulate the California Senator Gilbert Cedillo on his recent selection of Honor by National Hispanic Media. I am so proud of Mr. Gilbert Cedillo. I have been a longtime Student of his work as well as Mr. Joe Baca, Antonio Villaraigosa, Luis Gutierrez, Jose Serrano, and many more. And in my mind it's about time they finally recognized his accomplishment, encourage and talent. In Fact, I believe his recognizion is long overdue. Once again Mr. Gilbert Cedillo, My sincere congratulations on your nomination. With State Senator Gilbert Cedillo, the old proverb should be: "If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try, try, try, try, again."

He also advocates legislation designed to permit children of Undocumented immigrants to apply for scholarships for California-sponsored colleges and to create pathways to citizenship for all immigrants to, "build on foundation of this nation and continue our legacy as a nation of immigrants."

Gilbert Anthony Cedillo (born March 25, 1954 in Barstow, California) is an American politician and a member of the Democratic Party. He is currently serving in the California State Senate, representing the 22nd District, which covers the diverse cities of Los Angeles, Alhambra, Maywood, San Marino, South Pasadena and Vernon.
Cedillo grew up in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles and is a lifelong resident of the 22nd District. His father worked as a mechanic at American Can in Vernon and was a member of the United Steelworkers of America. His mother was a garment worker at Sears and Times-Mirror Press. Senator Cedillo attended Lorena Street and Euclid Avenue Elementary, Stevenson Junior High and Roosevelt High where he met and became close friends with Antonio Villaraigosa, now Mayor of Los Angeles. At Roosevelt, he was varsity quarterback and excelled academically as well, receiving a full academic scholarship to the University of California, Los Angeles.
Cedillo graduated from UCLA with a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology in 1979 and receiving a Juris Doctor from the People's College of Law in 1983. However, Gilbert Cedillo is not a member of the California Bar.
Cedillo worked for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Los Angeles County's largest union, where he served as general manager from 1990 to 1996. In his years as general manager, he protected public libraries,[citation needed] youth programs and played a critical role in securing $364 million in federal assistance to ensure that the Los Angeles County Health Care system remained afloat. President Bill Clinton stated that his decision to provide funding "was reached after critical consultations with SEIU.".
After his tenure at the SEIU, Cedillo served three terms in the California State Assembly from 1997 to 2002. In 2002, he was elected to his current office in the state Senate. While he is most widely known for his attempts to reinstate driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, Cedillo has also worked on protecting the rights of working men and women[citation needed], increasing and expanding access to health care, developing regional solutions to combat homelessness and encouraging economic development in his downtown Los Angeles district.
Cedillo was reelected in 2006 in a landslide, defeating South Pasadena City Councilman Mike Ten, a Republican. Cedillo received 71,199 votes, Ten received 18,581 votes, and Murray Levy, the Libertarian candidate, received 3,469 votes. He is Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Immigration and the Economy and is a member of the Senate standing committees on Appropriations, Health, Public Safety, Rules, and Transportation and Housing.

Cedillo is among many public figures featured in the United For Obama video produced in support of Sen. Barack Obama's 2008 presidential , Si Se Puede Cambiar. Si se Pudo, Si Se Pudo.

MacTheSame.Misleading Americans.

On one of the key issues in the campaign is- who is telling the truth about taxes?. McCain included in his economic message another shot at Obama mocking Barack's claim to be a tax cutter meanwhile Sen. John McCain on Tuesday sought to discredit Sen. Barack Obama's economic record, telling voters that "perhaps never before in history have the American people been asked to risk so much based on so little."

As the Arizona senator outlined his new economic proposals, he used some of his most pointed language to date to describe what he said was the difference between himself and Obama on the economy.
As the Arizona senator outlined his new economic proposals, he used some of his most pointed language to date to describe what he said was the difference between himself and Obama on the economy.
"He's an eloquent speaker, but even he can't turn a record of supporting higher taxes into a credible promise to cut taxes. What he promises today is the opposite of what he has done his entire career," McCain said at a rally in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania.
"Perhaps never before in history have the American people been asked to risk so much based on so little. You can look at the record of what he's done or you can just go with your gut, but either way you're left with the same conclusion: Sen. Obama is going to raise your taxes, and in this economy, raising taxes is the surest way to turn a recession into a depression."
McCain repeated his claim that Obama voted 94 times to raise taxes. According to a CNN fact check, that claim is misleading. Fact check: Did Obama vote 94 times to raise taxes?
Obama told reporters Tuesday that he hadn't reviewed the details of McCain's latest proposals, but said that in the past few weeks McCain has put forth some "very bad ideas" as well as "some good ideas."
To counter charges that their candidate would raise taxes, the Obama campaign on Tuesday posted an online calculator that allows users to compare what their tax cuts would look like under each of the candidate's proposals.
The campaign said they expect McCain to "lie about Obama's tax plan" during the final presidential debate, which takes place Wednesday in Hempstead, New York.
Obama on Tuesday was in Toledo, Ohio, to prepare for the debate.
McCain criticized Obama as a "man who now presents himself as a tax cutter and champion of middle-class America" despite revising his tax plans "with each new poll."
Obama's tax plan would cut taxes for most taxpayers, but raise them for the wealthiest. The largest increases would be on the top 1 percent of earners, according to analysis by the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan research group whose staff includes former economic advisers to the White House and Congress under both Republicans and Democrats. Fact check: Does Obama want to raise taxes?
By comparison, the Tax Policy Center analysis says McCain would offer tax cuts across the board.
McCain on Tuesday told voters his "plan for economic recovery does not require guesswork or blind faith from the American people."
"You know my record. You don't have to hope I will do what I promise," he said.
McCain outlined his new economic proposals, which the campaign says will help those who are "hurting the most" in the face of the ongoing financial crisis.
The proposals come one day after Obama detailed his "economic rescue plan" for the middle class. The Democrat's plan focuses on stabilizing the financial system, providing relief for families and communities, and helping struggling homeowners. Watch more on the candidates' economic plans »
McCain's plan, called "the pension and family security plan," builds on the Arizona senator's "American home ownership resurgence plan," which was introduced last week.
That proposal called for using $300 billion of the $700 billion financial bailout package to keep Americans in their homes, stop declining housing values, and stabilize the financial markets.
McCain's new plan includes specific proposals to help seniors, those saving money and homeowners. Watch analysis of McCain and women voters »
The plan will help seniors by lowering taxes on withdrawals from their retirement accounts and suspending tax rules that force them to sell their stocks during the financial crisis, the campaign said.
The plan will help those saving money by accelerating the tax write-offs for those forced to sell stocks at a loss in the current market and reducing capital gains taxes for 2009 and 2010 to raise the incentive to save and invest, according to the campaign.
To provide relief for homeowners, the plan includes a proposal to purchase mortgages directly from the homeowners and mortgage servicers and replace them with manageable, fixed-rate mortgages.
To assist workers, the plan would eliminate taxes on unemployment benefits, according to the campaign.
Obama's campaign said McCain's proposals are "a day late and 101 million middle-class families short." Fact check: McCain's plan gives 100 million no relief?
The campaign said McCain's plan doesn't offer enough tax relief for working families and small businesses.
McCain has his work cut out for him when it comes to the economy, according to recent polls.
The most recent CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll suggests that Americans think Obama would do a better job than McCain when it comes to the economy. 57 percent of those polled said Obama would do a better job dealing with the economy, with 37 percent saying McCain would do better.
Some conservative leaders have warned that if McCain doesn't step it up on the economy, he'll lose the election. Watch analysts discuss what it would take for McCain to win »
"Either McCain wins the argument over the economy or he loses," Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, told Politico.
McCain's No. 2, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, gave an interview Tuesday on Rush Limbaugh's radio show, just minutes before taking the stage at a rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Limbaugh asked Palin if she had thought about her political future after this election. She told the conservative talker and his millions of listeners: "That's a good question."
But she then quickly re-assured Limbaugh that her focus was on winning the White House with McCain.
"No, because I am thinking about November 4, and I am just so absolutely passionate about the job that we have in front of us from now to November 4," she said. Link here:

Republican Conservatives tearing apart the party....

A poll of 1,015 conservative activists shows that 77 percent are either seriously disappointed with Republican Congressional leaders or want them totally replaced.The poll/survey also found that 54 percent of conservatives feel so abandoned by the current crop of Congressional leaders and President Bush that they plan to reduce their contributions and/or grassroots work for GOP candidates in the coming election. And 70 percent would support a principled conservative challenger running against an established incumbent Republican in a GOP primary.

Conservatives, which form the GOP's base, provided most of the volunteers and money to elect a Republican-controlled House and Senate — and wound up with bigger government as a result. Now more than half of these committed activists say they'll reduce or end their involvement in the upcoming elections — which could prove devastating for the GOP.

The GOP-controlled Congress, 73 percent gave it a D or F on "controlling government spending;" 73 percent gave it a D or F on "reducing Undocumented immigration;" and 54 percent gave it an "overall grade" of D or F.Sixty-three percent gave Bush a D or F on controlling government spending.

The rebellion of conservative House Republicans that greatly complicated efforts to enact the financial industry “rescue” (or “bailout”) plan came in the midst of one of the most fiercely contested national elections in years, as Republicans fight to stave off a Democratic takeover of the White House and big gains that would reinforce the Democrats’ current majorities in the House and the Senate.
But the rebels on the Republican right were looking beyond this election day and at the future direction of their party when they defied President Bush, their own congressional leaders and Arizona Sen. John McCain , the party’s presidential nominee, who initially drew attention to the House conservatives’ concerns when he jumped into the bailout negotiations a couple of weeks back but ultimately supported the measure and worked to persuade Republican colleagues to vote for it.
The Battle of the Bailout may ultimately be viewed as the first major skirmish in the fight for control of the GOP whose “brand” has been badly damaged by the collapse of support for Bush during his second term as president and by the foibles that have made the Republicans in Congress at least as unpopular as Bush. This fight will occur even if McCain is somehow able to reverse his slide in the presidential race polls and pull out what would now be regarded as an upset victory over Illinois Sen. Barack Obama , the Democratic nominee.
In fact, the election of McCain — whose campaign leans heavily on the handful of issues on which he disagrees with the conservative wing of his own party — would likely complicate the efforts by the Republican Party to define itself and revive its overall fortunes.
This was highlighted on Tuesday when McCain, during a televised debate with Obama, sprung a proposal to have the federal government buy up and renegotiate failing mortgages.
While McCain has heavily promoted his proposal as proof that he is on the side of beleaguered homeowners, many conservatives in his Republican base have expressed outrage over what they view as an even bigger federal intervention into the private sector that will put taxpayers’ dollars at even greater risk and hold harmless banks and other firms whose actions helped send the economy into a tailspin.
After the Republicans lost control of Congress in the 2006 elections, a number of observers said the party needed to temper the image of unbridled conservative partisanship that many voters attributed to the party and show that its members could work with the Democrats to forge compromises on issues of major public concern.
But members of the conservative activist wing of Republican lawmakers see it otherwise. Under the banner of the Republican Study Committee (RSC) — which claims membership of more than 110 of the 199 Republicans who currently hold U.S. House seats — these Republicans claim their party’s fortunes have fallen because it is not conservative enough.
The RSC, headed by figures such as Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling , the current chairman, and past chairman Mike Pence of Indiana, argues that “big government conservatism” practiced by Bush and Republican leaders in Congress has robbed the party of its identity and has prompted voters to see the GOP as little different from the Democratic Party.
They point to the political horse-trading under the past House leadership of now-departed Republicans such as Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois and Tom DeLay of Texas that contributed to the explosive growth in federal spending “earmarks;” the outright corruption scandals that played big roles in the Republican downfall in 2006; and the creation under Bush of the No Child Left Behind education law and the prescription drug benefit program under Medicare, which many conservatives see as vast expansions of federal spending and intrusion.
If the RSC crowd’s demands that the Republican Party return to its “core principles” draw public support, they could lead to a reinvigoration of the GOP’s prospects in coming elections. If they are wrong, and the Democrats’ advances are sustained by a center-left shift among American voters, the conservative activists’ efforts to grab the party reins could consign it to a long wander in the minority-party wilderness.
The sharp decline in Bush’s job approval ratings since his re-election in 2004 have liberated party conservatives to be much more vocal with their criticisms.
Ari Fleischer, Bush’s first presidential press secretary, made an unintentionally funny comment in the wake of the House defeat of the original version of the House bailout bill, when he said there was so much opposition to the plan from so many different ideological directions that it would have failed even if Bush’s job approval ratings had been 70 percent, instead of the mid-to-high 20s where they have come to rest.

The fact is that during Bush’s first term, when his job approval ratings were very high, congressional Republicans followed him just about everywhere, resulting in record-high presidential support and party unity scores among GOP lawmakers in Congressional Quarterly’s vote studies.
House Republicans voted 183-33 in favor of No Child Left Behind in 2001. The House version of the prescription drug benefit legislation that passed the House by one vote in 2003 was favored by 207 Republicans and opposed by just 19 (most Democrats opposed it because they said it provided to few benefits to consumers and too many for big drug companies). And virtually all Republicans provided unquestioning support to Bush’s 2002 request for authorization to use military force against Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq, which passed with 215 Republican “yeas” and six “nays” in the House.
Nonetheless, criticism of Bush from the right had already rising sharply when it reached a crescendo over the past month. The trigger was the president’s pronouncement that flawed mortgage-lending practices had caused such a massive crisis in the nation’s financial industry that it could only be stanched by giving the Treasury Department authorization to buy up to $700 billion in bad loans that threatened to freeze the nation’s credit markets and precipitate a deep recession.
After years of Bush and fellow Republicans preaching the glories of free-market economics, many conservatives could not swallow the huge proposed government intervention, even in the face of stern warnings that the nation might be facing the greatest economic calamity since the Great Depression.
They created a bloc of opposition to the bailout bill, helping to prevent the passage of the original version and still comprising a majority of House Republicans in voting against the modified version, crafted in the Senate, that ultimately passed.
The contrast between efforts by McCain and congressional conservatives on the bailout bill underscore their difficult relationship — and suggest the difficulty McCain would have maintaining party unity if he were to follow his oft-repeated promise that he would reach across party lines to address key issues such as the economy, energy development, health care, education and global climate change.
McCain’s first reactions to the economic crisis perplexed party conservatives. After first pronouncing that the fundamentals of the economy are sound, McCain began channeling William Jennings Bryan+
, the Democratic populist of a century ago, as he blamed the mess on Wall Street “greed” and “corruption.”
McCain briefly gained praise from some conservatives after he broke off from the campaign trail, returned to Washington and advocated on behalf of House Republicans who complained their more market-oriented proposals to remedy the financial industry’s morass were being ignored by leaders of both parties. But he then disappointed conservatives again by voting for the Senate’s modified version of the bailout bill and working the phones to persuade Republicans to vote for it.
The epilogue, in which McCain has produced a federal mortgage buy-out plan that has its origins in liberal circles of the Democratic Party, just serves as a reminder to conservative activists of why so many of them were skeptical of McCain’s bid for president in the first place.
Although — as Obama points out almost every day — McCain has voted with Bush and fellow Senate Republicans most of the time, he has taken outspoken positions against party orthodoxy on issues such as global warming and campaign finance regulation. These actions, which provide the foundations for McCain’s claims that he is a “maverick” who would “shake up Washington” as president, are seen by some on the Republican right as evidence that they cannot trust him to govern as a conservative.
It will be hard to find a Republican member of Congress who would renounce his support for McCain in the presidential campaign. Who among them, after all, would want to be held responsible by other Republicans for helping elect Obama as president? And some conservatives, to find solace, have virtually flipped the Republican ticket, focusing on the much harder ideological line conveyed by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin , the party’s vice presidential nominee.
But you can count on these newly mobilized conservatives to make a bid to put their purist stamp on the Republican Party in the years going forward, regardless of whether McCain wins or loses.

Seems like Obama needs a debate with Joe Biden by Proinmigrant

Sen. Joe Biden, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's incoming chairman, and running know for Vice President wants to get tough with Mexico, calling it an "erstwhile democracy" with a "corrupt system" responsible for illegal immigration and drug problems in the U.S.

Biden, D-Del., was in Columbia months ago in his first post election trip to this first-in-the-South presidential primary state.
During a question-and-answer session before more than 230 Columbia Rotary Club members, Biden was asked about immigration problems.

Biden, who favors tightening the U.S.-Mexico border with fences, said immigration is driven by money in low-wage Mexico. On my opinion I will said driven by the unscrupulous NAFTA trade agreement who put Millions of Mexicans away from their Jobs, Their Lands, Their Families and their Country.

"Mexico is a country that is an erstwhile democracy where they have the greatest disparity of wealth," Biden said. "It is one of the wealthiest countries in the hemisphere and because of a corrupt system that exists in Mexico, there is the 1 percent of the population at the top, a very small middle class and the rest is abject poverty."

Unless the political dynamics change in Mexico and U.S. employers who hire illegal immigrants are punished, illegal immigration won't stop. "All the rest is window dressing," he said.

An even bigger problem are illegal drugs "coming up through corrupt Mexico," he said. "People are driving across that border with tons, tons — hear me — tons of everything from byproducts for methamphetamine, to cocaine, to heroine." I hear you clearly and loud Mr. Biden but seems to me like you listen to the dubious and Anti Immigrant Lou Dobbs at CNN where there is no other point of Entry of Drugs, of people; Shame on you Mr. Biden....There had been found many indoors marijuana plants farms within the States, many Labs producing methamphetamine and other drugs and for that source I shouldn't use Lou Dobbbs either CNN. You should check FBI website.

Covering a variety of topics, Biden kept most of the crowd in their seats for an hour — twice as long as scheduled.
"I warn all of you, all of you making more than a million bucks — I hope you all are — I'm taking away your tax cut," Biden said. "I'm not joking."
Sounds like Barack Obama will need to have a debate with Joe Biden, in addition to John McCain.