Daniel Ruddy: No American President Ever Bowed to a Foreign Leader — Until Now (Newsmax, 11/15/09).
No president of the United States in the more than 230 years since the country was founded in 1776 had ever bowed to a member of royalty. That was until Barack Obama’s presidency. In April, President Obama bowed to the Saudi king during the G-20 meeting. At the time, Obama’s deferential bow was somewhat obscured, and the White House insisted that the president simply had leaned forward to shake the king’s hand. But the president's recent demonstration of royal deference to the Japanese emperor and empress suggests his earlier action was no aberration. When President Obama bows before a foreign leader, the whole country bows with him. When it comes to bowing before foreign leaders, there is a fine line between showing politeness and servility, between respect and weakness. When he as president bows before a Saudi king or a Japanese emperor, he is sending an implicit message to millions of people around the world that the leader of the free world accepts the notion that some people are born to a higher rank than others. F.D. Roosevelt never bowed to the king or queen — or any foreign royalty, for that matter. No president better exemplified the republican virtues of the country than Thomas Jefferson, who had a purely American disdain for the pretensions of royal power which he believed were not legitimately derived from the people. He argued that since “all men are created equal” a government should exist by “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Jefferson understood that symbolism was important. When the monarch’s new ambassador to the United States called for the first time to present his credentials he was not required to bow in front of the nation’s sovereign. In accordance with American values, he was assumed to be an equal, not a subject.

William J. Federer: OBAMA - A STUDENT OF HISTORY?
In fact, the very concept of "Europe" was a result of Islamic invasion, as previously, Europe viewed itself as innumerable independent kingdoms. (Worldview Times, 07/01/09). In his speech in Cairo, Egypt, June 4, 2009, President Obama stated: "As a student of history, I also know civilization's debt to Islam. It was Islam that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe's Renaissance." Civilization is indeed indebted to Islam for Europe's Renaissance, but the President's speech was conspicuous in its omission of certain details. The Renaissance was a revival of interest in Greek art, architecture, sculpture and philosophy, brought about by Greeks fleeing the Islamic invasion of the Byzantine Empire.
Fjordman: To President Obama: Regarding Islam and Science.
“Western colonization of nearby Muslim lands lasted 130 years, from the 1830s to the 1960s. Muslim colonization of nearby European lands lasted 1300 years, from the 600s to the mid-1960s. Yet, strangely, it is the Muslims…who are the most bitter about colonialism and the humiliations to which they have been subjected; and it is the Europeans who harbor the shame and the guilt. It should be the other way around.”...How come that "the Middle East went from being a global center of civilization to being the global center of anti-civilization it arguably is today. This was not caused by smallpox or because zebras are more difficult to domesticate than water buffaloes; it was caused by Islam, which remains the main cause of the backwardness of this region."
John J. O’Neill: Did Islam Destroy the Classical Civilization?
(Islamwatch, 12 July 2009). While Islam is viewed as the savior and nurturer of the Classical Greek Civilization, there is an alternative story to this near-universal widsom of our time. Islam may well have had initiated the death of the Classical Civilization.... For the truth is that when the Arabs reached southern Italy and Spain they found not a bunch of primitive savages, but a highly sophisticated Latin civilization, a civilization rich in cities, agriculture, art and literature, and presided over by completely Romanized Gothic kings.... Classical civilization, just as the Belgian medievalist Henri Pirenne said in Mohammed and Charlemagne (1938) years ago, did not end in the fifth century; it ended in the seventh; and it was terminated by the Arabs.... And in the centuries after the first Arab conquests, the influence of Islam became profound: It was this influence that would definitively terminate Classical civilization and give birth to the theocracy we now call "Medieval Europe".... From the Muslims the Christians learned "Holy War"; from them they learned too that the Jews were an accursed race and the enemies of God. Islamic fatalism, founded on the conviction that Allah could not be bound by any kind of natural or scientific laws, was lethal to the rationalism of Greece and Rome, which now began to die. Parallel with this development, there appeared, first in Islamic Spain and then throughout Europe, that obsession with sorcery and witchcraft which was to be one of the hallmarks of the Middle Ages. From Islam too the Europeans breathed the essence of fanaticism. Islamic law decreed death to be the only fit punishment for a heretic or an apostate. No such idea had ever existed among Christians...
John J. O’Neill is the author of the upcoming book, Holy Warriors: Islam and the Demise of Classical Civilization (Felibri, August 2009).

Ergebnisse (Spiegel)

Dumb as a mud wall: Sarah Palin quits.
By Richard Cohen, WP July 7, 2009.
Dodging an Alaskan Bullet... Naming Palin to the GOP ticket -- a top-down choice by McCain -- was the most reckless decision any national politician has made in the longest time, and while it certainly says something about McCain, it says even more about his party. It has lost its mind. ...Political operatives of both parties analyzed her move to see if she is really very clever or as dumb as a mud wall....A recent Vanity Fair article clarifies just how awful a vice president (or president) Palin would have made. During the campaign, she proved allergic to briefings and remained determined to stay uncorrupted by knowledge. More recently, she explained her decision to cut and run as Alaska governor by lapsing into no known language...

Is Obama Bringing Too Much Religion into the White House? By Liliana Segura, AlterNet. March 5, 2009.

“Who should we believe, Obama or Wafa Sultan?” June 12, 2009. Wafa Sultan: Mr. Obama is a politician, and a very astute one. However, his speech revealed that his view is unduly influenced by naïve desire. The president pandered to Muslims: praised their accomplishments, commiserated with their grievances, and apologized for injustices done to them by centuries of colonialism -- without once mentioning the history of rampant and violent Arab colonialism. He avoided any mention of Jihadi tenets, or of the Islamic political ideology of supremacy over non Muslims -- principles embedded in Sharia law. These are taught and sanctioned openly by Al-Azhar, the university that hosted him, the foremost center of Sharia studies. Most disturbing was the president’s call to defend Muslims against negative stereotypes. A dangerous precedent is set when freedom of speech is silenced and ideological criticism forbidden. I did not hear an exhortation to the Islamic world to open itself to diversity, to accept women as equal citizens with the same rights and protection under law as men. I did not hear a challenge to the Muslim world to accept other religions and their ability to practice openly within the Islamic world -- where the practice of Christianity, Judaism and other religions could cost an individual his or her life. I did not hear a call to erase for all time, Dhimmi racism -- the Sharia law-based dictate that Christians and Jews are inferior and should be suppressed. Are these “…the principles of justice, tolerance and dignity for human beings”?

Obama's Muslim Advisor: Dalia Mogahed, a hijab-clad American Muslim, has made history being the first Muslim woman appointed to a position in President Barack Obama's administration. She sets on a newly-formed interfaith advisory board the administration hopes will improve relations with Muslims in the US and across the globe. The Egyptian-born American heads the Gallup American Center for Muslim Studies, a research center that produces studies on Muslim public opinion worldwide. See interview at Islamonline on April 28, 2009. "I see my role as offering the voices of the silenced majority of Muslims in America and around the world to the council so that our deliberations are informed by their ideas and wisdom. Many have claimed that terrorists have 'hijacked Islam'. I disagree. I think Islam is safe and thriving in the lives of Muslims around the world... Islamphobia in America is very real. Gallup finds that Muslims are among the most unfavorably viewed groups in the US and only a little over a third of Americans say they have no prejudice against Muslims. This presents a grave danger to America as a whole. The disease of racism, by definition, is a bias in judgment."
Gudrun Eussner: Barack Hussein Obama. Beraterin Dalia Mogahed

Conservative Republicans see communism ahead at CPAC: Routed at the polls, the bedrock conservatives see their worst dreams of big government becoming a legislative reality. One word that has surfaced repeatedly here in speeches and interviews has been "socialism." "Lenin and Stalin would love this stuff," Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told a packed ballroom on Thursday. "We now have moved a major step in the direction of socialism," Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) said Friday, adding: "We are close to a fascist system where the government has control of our lives and our economy." (Joel Achenbach, WP, 3/1/09)

Radical in the White House. By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN (NYT, January 20, 2009). I hope Obama really has been palling around all these years with that old Chicago radical Bill Ayers. I hope Obama really is a closet radical. Not radical left or right, just a radical, because this is a radical moment. It is a moment for radical departures from business as usual in so many areas. We can’t thrive as a country any longer by coasting on our reputation, by postponing solutions to every big problem that might involve some pain and by telling ourselves that dramatic new initiatives — like a gasoline tax, national health care or banking reform — are too hard or “off the table.” So my most fervent hope about President Obama is that he will be as radical as this moment — that he will put everything on the table.

Rahm Emanuel to be Obama's chief of staff (JP, 11/9/08). Emanuel, who served in the Clinton White House, has Israeli family and spent significant amounts of time in Israel. He now serves as the fourth-highest member of the House of Representatives, is known as a skilled political operator who helped engineer the gains the Democrats made in Congress in 2006. In an interview with Ma'ariv, Emanuel's father, Dr. Benjamin Emanuel, said he was convinced that his son's appointment would be good for Israel. "Obviously he will influence the president to be pro-Israel," he was quoted as saying. "Why wouldn't he be? What is he, an Arab? He's not going to clean the floors of the White House." The Ma'ariv article also quoted Dr. Emanuel as saying that his son spends most summers visiting in Tel Aviv, and that he speaks Hebrew, but not fluently.

Leon de Winter: Barack Obama, ein knallharter Opportunist (Welt, 31.12.08).

Jared Israel: The Weatherman Whitewash. Part 1: Bill Ayers: The Provocateur Exhumed. Part 2: Obama's "I-was-only-8" Lie. Part 3: Obama Forgets the Early '80s. Part 4: A Weatherman Dream in New York. Part 5: St. Joan of Arc, and Broadway Baby.
(Jared Israel was co-leader of the Worker-Student Alliance (WSA) caucus, the Maoist force (Progressive Labor Party, the PLP-faction) within Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in the sixties.)

Bill Ayers: The Real Bill Ayers (NYT, 12/5/08). "The antiwar movement in all its commitment, all its sacrifice and determination, could not stop the violence unleashed against Vietnam. And therein lies cause for real regret. Yet we were inadequate to end the killing of three million Vietnamese and almost 60,000 Americans during a 10-year war."

Jared Israel: A Nightmare of Human Potential: Reply to Bill Ayers' N. Y. Times Editorial.

Hillel Italie (AP, 9.11.08): Writers welcome a more literary president-elect in Barack Obama

McCain und Palin rechnen miteinander ab (Spiegel, 6.11.08)

George F. Will: Call Him John the Careless. From the invasion of Iraq to the selection of Sarah Palin, carelessness has characterized recent episodes of faux conservatism. Some polls show that Palin has become an even heavier weight in John McCain's saddle than his association with George W. Bush. Did McCain, who seems to think that Palin's never having attended a "Georgetown cocktail party" is sufficient qualification for the vice presidency, lift an eyebrow when she said that vice presidents "are in charge of the United States Senate"? She may have been tailoring her narrative to her audience of third-graders, who do not know that vice presidents have no constitutional function in the Senate other than to cast tie-breaking votes. Perhaps Palin's confusion about the office for which she is auditioning comes from listening to its current occupant, Dick Cheney... Palin may be an inveterate simplifier; McCain has a history of reducing controversies to cartoons. A Republican financial expert recalls attending a dinner with McCain for the purpose of discussing with him domestic and international financial complexities that clearly did not fascinate the senator. As the dinner ended, McCain's question for his briefer was: "So, who is the villain?" (WP, October 30, 2008).

Local Florida touch - Palm Beach Post endorses Cara Jennings (a self-proclaimed Anarchist) of the Green Party as Lake Worth Commissioner: "On Nov. 4, voters should return Ms. Jennings to the District 2 seat. Her politics might be radical, but her political style is careful. She is well-prepared, asks lots of questions and is constantly involved with residents. Ms. Jennings showed political courage when she took the lead on establishing an immigrant labor center. It will provide education that will help immigrants adapt and move those seeking jobs off street corners." (26th Oct. 2008).

Kathleen Parker: McCain's Crush on Sarah Palin. McCain took Palin to his favorite coffee-drinking spot down by a creek and a sycamore tree. They talked for more than an hour, and, as Napoleon whispered to Josephine, "Voilà." One does not have to be a psychoanalyst to reckon that McCain was smitten. Science provides clues. A study in Canada, published by a British journal in 2003, found that pretty women foil men's ability to assess the future. "Discounting the future," as the condition is called, means preferring immediate, lesser rewards to greater rewards in the future. That men are at a disadvantage when attractive women are present is a fact upon which women have banked for centuries. Ignoring it now profits only fools. McCain spokesmen have said that he was attracted to Palin's maverickness, that she reminded him of himself. Recognizing oneself in a member of the opposite sex (or the same sex, as the case may be) is a powerful invitation to bonding. Narcissus fell in love with his own image reflected in the river, imagining it to be his deceased and beloved sister's. In McCain's case, it doesn't hurt that his reflection is spiked with feminine approval. McCain the mortal couldn't mind having an attractive woman all but singing arias to his greatness. Cameras frequently capture McCain beaming like a gold-starred schoolboy while Palin tells crowds that he is "exactly the kind of man I want as commander in chief." This, notes the writer Robert Draper, "seemed to confer not only valor but virility on a 72-year-old politician who only weeks ago barely registered with the party faithful." (WP, 10/24/08).

Sarah Palin: Cheney with a moose gun. By Cynthia Tucker (ACJ, 21.9.08). "She has shown a genuine flair for telling lie after lie to conceal her misdeeds from public view and trying to destroy those who dare disagree with her. She has proven a quick study of the Sith lord." (In "Star Wars" a person characterized by a single-minded lust for power and disdain for sentient life, who uses the dark side to attain power at any cost. Dick Cheney repeatedly is referred to as "Darth Vader", a particular evil member of the Sith order, by various columnists). "She’s read the playbook, and, like the current vice president, she believes she’s above the law. Who says she’s not qualified to fill Cheney’s shoes?"
Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker: Palin Problem - She’s out of her league. (WP, September 26, 2008). "Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League. No one hates saying that more than I do. Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there’s not much content there. Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first."

Assassination Attempt: Two white supremacist skinheads were arrested in Tennessee over plans to go on a killing spree and eventually shoot Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, court documents showed on Monday. Daniel Cowart and Paul Schlesselman were charged in a criminal complaint with making threats against a presidential candidate, illegal possession of a sawed-off shotgun and conspiracy to rob a gun dealer. (Reuters, 10/28/08).

NYT-Endorsement (10/24/08): The American financial system is the victim of decades of Republican deregulatory and anti-tax policies. Those ideas have been proved wrong at an unfathomable price, but Mr. McCain — a self-proclaimed “foot soldier in the Reagan revolution” — is still a believer. Senator John McCain of Arizona has retreated farther and farther to the fringe of American politics, running a campaign on partisan division, class warfare and even hints of racism. His policies and worldview are mired in the past. His choice of a running mate so evidently unfit for the office was a final act of opportunism and bad judgment that eclipsed the accomplishments of 26 years in Congress. Mr. McCain’s long interest in foreign policy and the many dangers this country now faces make his choice of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska more irresponsible. Unfortunately, Mr. McCain, like Mr. Bush, sees the world as divided into friends (like Georgia) and adversaries (like Russia). Mr. McCain, whom we chose as the best Republican nominee in the primaries, has spent the last coins of his reputation for principle and sound judgment to placate the limitless demands and narrow vision of the far-right wing. This country needs sensible leadership, compassionate leadership, honest leadership and strong leadership. Barack Obama has shown that he has all of those qualities.

The Real Plumbers of Ohio By PAUL KRUGMAN (NYT, October 20, 2008). John McCain’s strategy, in this final stretch, is based on the belief that Republicans can still pursue plutocratic policies while claiming to be the party of regular guys.

Colin Powell Endorses Obama (WSJ, 20.10.08): Since Ronald Reagan's victory in 1980, Republicans have built their coalition on small-government conservatives, social conservatives moved by issues such as opposition to abortion rights and gay rights, and pro-military voters -- with some support from older, more moderate Republicans. The Palin pick was intended in part to assuage social conservatives who have long been leery of Sen. McCain. While it seems to have succeeded on that score, it may also have driven off moderate Republicans. Late last week, conservative radio talk-show host Michael Smerconish endorsed Sen. Obama, as did conservative columnist Christopher Buckley, the son of National Review founder William F. Buckley. The Chicago Tribune endorsed Sen. Obama last week, the first time the paper has endorsed a Democrat in its 161-year history. Gen. Powell, a secretary of state under George W. Bush, echoed many conservative intellectuals in his criticism of Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, saying: "I don't believe she's ready to be president of the United States....That raised some questions as to the judgment that Sen. McCain made."

Rosa Brooks (LAT, 16.10.08): Thinking conservatives: MIAs of the GOP. Paranoid, rage-driven, xenophobic nuts are taking over the Republican Party. One by one, the nation's more reputable conservatives have been edging away from the Republican presidential ticket. It started with John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate. Thinking conservatives -- as of a couple of months ago, there were still a few left -- were distinctly underwhelmed. In the New York Times, David Brooks chastised McCain for "throw[ing] away standards of experience and prudence" by picking Palin. In the Washington Post, Charles Krauthammer said Palin was "not ready" for prime time. David Frum, a former Bush speechwriter and fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, complained that Palin had "thoroughly -- and probably irretrievably -- proven that she is not up to the job." In the National Review, conservative columnist Kathleen Parker said Palin was "clearly out of her league" and urged her to "bow out."

Palm Beach Post (10/19/08): Why Obama? His record, judgment, temperament. With regard to Israel, Sen. Obama's top Middle East adviser is Dennis Ross, a Middle East negotiator in two administrations who worked previously at a pro-Israel think tank in Washington. Republicans have tried to scare voters by saying that Israel would be less safe under Sen. Obama because he would deal directly with Iran. As Ambassador Ross pointed out in The Post, Iran is stronger because of the Iraq invasion, and a diplomatic effort with our allies is the best way to counter that strength and prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Weapons of Mass Discussion. 77 Percent of Americans Think It ’s Impossible to Candidly Discuss Politics. A new study shows that for the majority of Americans, talking politics with friends and family can be nasty, difficult and downright unpleasant. So they don ’t. According to a recent poll conducted by VitalSmarts and the New York Times bestselling authors of Crucial Conversations , 77 percent of people avoid discussing politics, and one in ten even report that they stay away from political banter at all costs. “This is a tragedy for democracy, ” reports Joseph Grenny, coauthor of Crucial Conversations . “Our founding fathers believed spirited public discourse was the crucible of democratic decision-making. And here we have evidence that dialogue has all but ceased. The result is a public whose opinions are rarely tested and challenged.” “People no longer feel safe discussing politics, ” says Grenny. “These discussions quickly turn from casual conversation into personal attacks on people ’s values and interests. ” (Business Wire, 22.9.08).

John McCain: “I admire Senator Obama and his accomplishments, I will respect him.” A woman stood up at the meeting, held at Lakeville South High School in a far suburb of Minneapolis, and told Mr. McCain that she could not trust Mr. Obama because he was an “Arab.” Mr. McCain replied: “No, ma’am, he’s a decent family man, citizen who I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues. And that’s what this campaign is all about.” (NYT, 10.10.08).

Leonard Pitts Jr. (Miami Herald, 15.10.08): It is worth remembering there were once two compelling arguments for a McCain presidency. The first, he was a man of long experience, and experience matters. The second, he was a man of honor, of such fierce moral courage that he would never put that which was political above that which was right. McCain took the first argument off the table when he chose as his running mate the former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, a woman of such meager substance that even conservatives have been lining up to denounce her. He is now in the process of taking a sledge hammer to the second argument. It's not a pretty sight. McCain and his surrogates have embarked upon a mudslinging campaign whose ferocity is exceeded only by its ugliness.

Joe the Plumber's tale has a few leaks (Miami Herald, 17.10.08).

Christopher Hitchens: Vote for Obama. McCain lacks the character and temperament to be president. And Palin is simply a disgrace. (Slate, 13.10.08).

“Who is Barack Obama?” Mr. McCain asked at a recent rally in New Mexico. The answer came back: “Terrorist!” At another rally in Pennsylvania, someone shouted, “He is a bomb!” At yet another rally, a supporter called out, “Off with his head!” (NYT, 11.10.08).

Bob Herbert: Remember voodoo economics? Americans, including the Joe Sixpacks, soccer moms and hockey moms, were repeatedly told that the benefits lavished on the highfliers would trickle down to them. Someday. Now the mask has slipped. As we survey the wreckage of the American economy and the real-life suffering associated with the financial crackup of 2008, it would be well for voters to draw upon the lessons of history and think more seriously about the consequences of the ballots they may cast in the future. (NYT, 10.10.08).

NYT Editorial (7.10.08): Senator John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin have been running one of the most appalling campaigns we can remember. They have gone far beyond the usual fare of quotes taken out of context and distortions of an opponent’s record — into the dark territory of race-baiting and xenophobia. Senator Barack Obama has taken some cheap shots at Mr. McCain, but there is no comparison...Ms. Palin, in particular, revels in the attack. Her campaign rallies have become spectacles of anger and insult... Her demagoguery has elicited some frightening, intolerable responses. A recent Washington Post report said at a rally in Florida this week a man yelled “kill him!” as Ms. Palin delivered that line and others shouted epithets at an African-American member of a TV crew.

The Hannity Show (Sean Hannity, friend of Neo-Nazi/white supremacist Hal Turner) on Fox uses anti-semite author/politician Andy Martin to smear Barack Obama as a muslim and leftwing radical. The NYT (7.10.08) reports: The Republican Party of Florida decided against backing his (Andy Martin's) bid for the State Senate in 1996 after receiving documents from his Congressional race 10 years earlier in Connecticut listing the purpose of one of his political committees as “to exterminate Jew power in America and to impeach the judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York City.”

McCain Ad Hits Obama Hard on Ties to Ayers (newsmax, 9.10.08, video included). “Barack Obama and domestic terrorist Bill Ayers. Friends. They've worked together for years. But Obama tries to hide it. Why?"
Former '60s Radical Is Now Considered Mainstream in Chicago: Bill Ayers (WP, 18.4.08). In the 1960s, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn saw themselves as urban guerrillas who just might be able to overthrow the U.S. government and force an end to the Vietnam War. They were members of the Weather Underground, a radical offshoot of the antiwar movement, who went into hiding for a decade after a bomb accidentally exploded, killing three members of the group.
DINITIA SMITH (NYT 11.9.2001): No Regrets for a Love Of Explosives; In a Memoir of Sorts, a War Protester Talks of Life With the Weathermen. Bill Ayers: ''Fugitive Days'' (Beacon Press, Sept. 2001) ''I don't think you can understand a single thing we did without understanding the violence of the Vietnam War,'' he said, and the fact that ''the enduring scar of racism was fully in flower.'' Mr. Ayers pointed to Bob Kerrey, former Democratic Senator from Nebraska, who has admitted leading a raid in 1969 in which Vietnamese women and children were killed. ''He committed an act of terrorism,'' Mr. Ayers said. ''I didn't kill innocent people.''
GAIL COLLINS (NYT, 8.10.08): Clearing the Ayers. I have a confession to make. When I was a college student, I believe I attended a party with Bernardine Dohrn. This was pre-Weather, when Dohrn was a leader of the Students for a Democratic Society, better known as S.D.S. Some of my friends wanted to meet her because they were interested in establishing an S.D.S. chapter at our campus. I was opposed, under the presumption that S.D.S. meant Students for Decent Styles, a group that had been active in fighting spaghetti-strap dresses at my high school. Still, under the new rules, I believe I may now be held partly responsible for all of Dohrn’s misdeeds, including aggravated battery, bail jumping, the Days of Rage and unreadable political tracts.
Bill Ayers: Would you see a movie about Obama's secret pal? (LAT, 6.10.08)

Obama und SDS/ Weather Underground: Obama and ’60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths. By SCOTT SHANE (NYT, 3.10.08).

Andy Martin - The Man Behind the Whispers About Obama. By JIM RUTENBERG (NYT, 10/12/08). In various court papers, Mr. Martin had impugned Jews. A motion he filed in a 1983 bankruptcy case called the judge “a crooked, slimy Jew who has a history of lying and thieving common to members of his race.” In another motion, filed in 1983, Mr. Martin wrote, “I am able to understand how the Holocaust took place, and with every passing day feel less and less sorry that it did.”

Hillary Clinton Quiet About Own Radical Ties. "The very things she's accusing Barack of could be said of her with much greater evidence," said Tom Hayden, a leading anti-Vietnam War activist, author and self-described friend of the Clintons. Clinton's associations date to her years as a student leader at Wellesley from 1965 to 1969. It was the height of student opposition to the Vietnam War, and Carl Oglesby, the president of Students for a Democratic Society, came to campus to speak. Clinton interned at Treuhaft (former member of the PCUSA), Walker and Burnstein while attending Yale Law School. The firm defended the Black Panthers, including Angela Davis, and Clinton had been editor of the Yale Review of Law and Social Action, which included articles about Black Panther leader Bobby Seale's murder trial in New Haven, Conn. (WP, May 19, 2008).
NYT (17.4.08): ’60s Radicals Become Issue in Campaign of 2008. After Mrs. Clinton criticized Mr. Obama for not severing all Ayers ties, Mr. Obama said, “By Senator Clinton’s own vetting standards, I don’t think she would make it, since President Clinton pardoned or commuted the sentences of two members of the Weather Underground.” That referred to commutations by Mr. Clinton in January 2001, shortly before leaving office, for Linda Evans and Susan Rosenberg. Ms. Evans had been convicted of weapons and explosives charges connected with eight bombings in the mid-’80s and sentenced to 40 years in prison. Ms. Rosenberg had been charged in connection with a 1981 armed robbery in which two police officers and a security guard were killed, and was serving 58 years after being convicted of weapons charges in a 1984 case.
A.L. Bardach: The GOP's Bill Ayers? The McCain campaign has its own questionable connections to bombers and assassins. (Slate, 15.10.08).

John McCain - The War Criminal: After the prefabricated Tonking-Incidence LBJ, Kennedy's successor, ordered an all out war against North Vietnam, an illegal war from day one. Michael Moore puts McCain's achievements ("Heroism") into perspective: Michael Moore: What's So Heroic About Bombing Innocent Civilians? John McCain flew 23 bombing missions over North Vietnam in a campaign called Operation Rolling Thunder. During this bombing campaign, which lasted for almost 44 months, U.S. forces flew 307,000 attack sorties, dropping 643,000 tons of bombs on North Vietnam (roughly the same tonnage dropped in the Pacific during all of World War II). Though the stated targets were factories, bridges, and power plants, thousands of bombs also fell on homes, schools, and hospitals. In the midst of the campaign, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara estimated that we were killing 1,000 civilians a week. That's more than one 9/11 every single month -- for 44 months. (Doing the math by the webmaster: If we consider the average killing per attack then McCain murdered at least 13 Vietnamese innocent civilians.)
McCain Abschuss

Vietnamese save McCain's life

Joe Klein: McCain's Radical Pal - David Ifshin (LAT, 18.10.08). Ifshin, you see, had been a vehement anti-Vietnam radical. He had even gone to Hanoi at the height at the war and given a speech denouncing the American pilots dropping bombs on North Vietnamese civilians as “war criminals.” The speech was broadcast repeatedly in the Hanoi Hilton, where McCain was being held captive. More than a few people thought Ifshin was guilty of treason.

Bush Strategist Matthew Dowd: McCain Knows He Put Country At Risk With Palin Pick

Michael Finnegan: Sarah Palin's ties to Alaskan Independence Party (AIP) are played down (LATimes, 9/3/08).
David Talbot, The Palins’ un-American activities (Salon.com, 7.10.08): The Republican ticket is working hard this week to make Barack Obama’s tenuous connection to graying, ’60s revolutionary Bill Ayers a major campaign issue. But the Palins’ connection to anti-American extremism is much more central to their political biographies....(AIP founder) Joe Vogler’s greatest moment of glory was to be his 1993 appearance before the United Nations to denounce United States “tyranny” before the entire world and to demand Alaska’s freedom. The Alaska secessionist had persuaded the government of Iran to sponsor his anti-American harangue. That’s right … Iran. The Islamic dictatorship. The taker of American hostages. The rogue nation that McCain and Palin have excoriated Obama for suggesting we diplomatically engage. That Iran.
Max Blumenthal and David Neiwert (Salon.com, 10.10.08): Meet Sarah Palin’s radical right-wing pals. During the 1990s, when Mark Chryson directed the AIP, he and another radical right-winger, Steve Stoll, played a quiet but pivotal role in electing Palin as mayor of Wasilla and shaping her political agenda afterward. Both Stoll and Chryson not only contributed to Palin’s campaign financially, they played major behind-the-scenes roles in the Palin camp before, during and after her victory. Palin backed Chryson as he successfully advanced a host of anti-tax, pro-gun initiatives, including one that altered the state Constitution’s language to better facilitate the formation of anti-government militias. She joined in their vendetta against several local officials they disliked, and listened to their advice about hiring. She attempted to name Stoll, a John Birch Society activist known in the Mat-Su Valley as “Black Helicopter Steve,” to an empty Wasilla City Council seat....The AIP’s affiliation with neo-Confederate organizations is motivated as much by ideological affinity as by organizational convenience....Another far-right organization with whom the AIP has long been aligned is Howard Phillips’ militia-minded Constitution Party. The Constitution Party boasts an openly theocratic platform that reads, “It is our goal to limit the federal government to its delegated, enumerated, Constitutional functions and to restore American jurisprudence to its original Biblical common-law foundations.” In its 1990s incarnation as the U.S. Taxpayers Party, it was on the front lines in promoting the “militia” movement, and a significant portion of its membership comprises former and current militia members. At its 1992 convention, the AIP hosted both Phillips — the USTP’s presidential candidate — and militia-movement leader Col. James “Bo” Gritz, who was campaigning for president under the banner of the far-right Populist Party....Just months before Palin burst onto the national stage as McCain’s vice-presidential nominee, she delivered a videotaped address to the AIP’s annual convention: “I share your party’s vision of upholding the Constitution of our great state,” Palin told the assembly of AIP delegates. “My administration remains focused on reining in government growth so individual liberty can expand. I know you agree with that … Keep up the good work and God bless you.”
David Neiwert: Palin's Pals: Talking about those Alaska fringe alliances on CNN. (14.10.08). Rick Sanchez was particularly focused on Palin's connections to the Alaskan Independence Party, so that was the bulk of our discussion. [Here is the transcript.]. If Team McCain wants to convince anyone this is merely a "smear", they're going to have to demonstrate some falsity or distortion first.
Lynette Clark, chairwoman of the Alaskan Independence Party: “I’ve admired Sarah from the first time I met her at the 2006 (AIP) convention. She impressed me so much. She’s Alaskan to the bone; she’s a damn good gal. “As I was listening to her, I thought she sounds like what we’ve been saying for years. I thought to myself, ‘My God, she sounds just like Joe Vogler’”(the AIP founder). And what did Vogler have to say? “I’m an Alaskan, not an American. I’ve got no use for America or her damned institutions.” “The fires of hell are glaciers compared to my hate for the American government.” “The problem with you John Birchers is that you are too damn liberal!” (From David Talbot, Freedom fighter, in Salon.com, 10.9.08).

Palin administration is shrouded in loyalty and secrecy (By Jo Becker, Peter S. Goodman and Michael Powell, IHT, 14.9.08).
Active role for Palin's husband in Alaska government (William Yardley, IHT, 14.9.08).
SEAN COCKERHAM: Exposure changes Palin image for good, bad (Anchorage Daily News, 14.10.08)
.Tony Strong, an attorney and Tlingit Indian, said Palin was no friend to Alaska Natives. (adn, 12.10.08).

Unbequeme Details aus Sarah Palins Vergangenheit (Spiegel, 2.9.08). Palin hat ihr Amt missbraucht (FAZ, 11.10.08).

Sarah Palin - the Death Mom. by Arash Karamangeer.

David A. Love: Palin Hates Native Alaskans, Black Folks Too (3.10.08). With a quarter of its population as people of color, including one-fifth Native- Americans and around 10 percent African - and Asian-Americans combined — Alaska is far more diverse than one would conclude at first glance. Yet there is ample evidence that the governor has little else than utter disrespect for Alaskans of a darker hue. As for Alaska Natives, who have experienced years of being treated as less than human, crowded out and pushed aside to make way for White settlers, Palin has continued the policy of degrading and suppressing the state’s first inhabitants. She opposes tribal sovereignty, and has refused to acknowledge native languages and give them the respect they deserve. A federal court ordered Palin to provide voter materials in indigenous languages. Then, there is Palin’s disrespect for Alaska’s African American population. According to Gwen Alexander, head of the African-American Historical Society of Alaska, Palin told the group that she did not have to hire any Blacks, and didn’t intend to hire any.
Skrimshaw: She has called Native Alaskans “Arctic Arabs.” (mudflat, 8.10.08).
Alaska Natives make up about 20 percent of the population. (hp, 14.10.08).
Kevin Abourezk: What's Palin's Record on Native Issues? (reznet, 2.9.08).
Matt Halling (zmag, 11.9.08): The AIP's language ultimately obscures the real victims of Alaska's colonial past. It should always be remembered that the people allowed to yell the loudest about Alaska's oppression by the United States are its native peoples. As noted over 20 years ago by then University of Washington Professor Russel Lawrence Barsh, it was the natives who were the real disenfranchised in the vote for Alaska's statehood. Every time Vogler references native Alaskans in his essay it is to complain that they are being given too much by the Alaska and federal governments. For Joe Vogler to say that his Alaska was "discriminated against" because the government (under ANCSA) blocked development on 40 million acres of land for the native peoples to resettle on is ridiculous. The natives had their traditional lands taken from them for oil drilling, were forced to resettle, and he's a victim because the land can't be developed?! Vogler also absurdly includes granting the natives fishing and hunting preferences on their land (just "because of their living in the bush") in the section on injustices done to Alaska following statehood. These statements feel like they have a xenophobic undertone, reinforced by the AIP's allegiance with the moratorium on immigration endorsing Constitution Party. (in: Evaluating the Alaska Independence Party’s Case for Secession).
David Neiwert: Why does Sarah Palin have such strained relations with minorities? (14.10.08).
Palin's racist use of "Arctic Arabs" spit towards Indigenous peoples suggests oil theft by overturning governments; or, in this case hoping the ice melts to steal the oil. In that same dark light, Palin's use of "f**king Eskimo's" suggests resentment over the fact theInuit have laid a claim in the Arctic region themselves. (http://www.nativeamericannetroots.net/showDiary.do?diaryId=152).

Nick Jans (Nick Jans has lived in Alaska for 30 years. He is the author of "The Grizzly Maze: Timothy Treadwell’s Fatal Obsession with Alaskan Bears,” a member of USA Today’s board of editorial contributors and a contributing editor of Alaska Magazine.) Sarah Palin: The view from Alaska. As for that frontierswoman shtick, take another look at that hairpiece-augmented beehive and those stiletto heels. Coming from a college-educated family, living in a half-million-dollar view home, basking in a net worth of $1.25 million, and having owned 40-some registered motorized vehicles in the past two decades (including 17 snowmobiles and a plane) hardly qualifies Palin and her clan as the quintessential Joe Six-Pack family unit — though the adulation from that quarter shows the Palins must be fulfilling some sort of role-model fantasy. Palin can claim to know Alaska; the fact is, she’s seen only a minuscule fraction of it — and that doesn’t include Little Diomede Island, the one place in Alaska where you actually can see Russia. So she can ride an ATV and shoot guns. Set her down in the bush on her own and I bet we’d discover she’s about as adept at butchering a moose and building a fire at 40 below zero as she is at discussing Supreme Court decisions. And that mountain-woman act is only the tip of a hollow iceberg. ..What’s with the smug posturing, recently adopted fake Minnesota accent, and that gosh-darn-it hockey mom pitch? Maybe it plays well in Peoria (and presumably Duluth), but it’s all an act. Palin’s attempt to cash in on the Eau d’Alaska mystique as she supports its destruction sickens those of us who do love this land, not for what it will be some day, after the roads and mines and pipelines and cities and malls are all in, but for what it is now. What we see before us is the soul of an ambitious, ruthless, Parks Highway hillbilly — a woman who represents the Alaska you probably never want to meet, and the one we wish never existed. (Salon.com, 11 Oct 2008).

Amy Schalet (assistant professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst): has a Question for Sarah Palin - "Should public school students be taught that contraception and condoms can prevent unintended pregnancy and disease?" Like some other controversies at the heart of the culture wars, this problem -- which, after receding nationally since the early 1990s, appears to be worsening again -- need not exist. High teen pregnancy rates result in part from our inability to talk honestly and wisely about teen sexuality. And they are exacerbated by policies that prohibit such talk. American teenagers grow up in environments that inhibit them from making conscious choices about sex and using contraception effectively. Sarah Palin supports programs that contribute to that environment, favoring policies that prohibit teachers from explaining the benefits of contraception and condoms and that require teaching that sex outside of marriage is unacceptable....In the Netherlands, young people become sexually active at the same age as their American and other counterparts across the developed world -- around 17 -- but teenage pregnancy rates are six times lower than they are here.(WP, 8.10.08).

RACHEL D'ORO (AP, 18.10.08): Alaska's minorities feel ignored by Palin. In Alaska, the issue of race relations usually focuses on Alaska Natives, who make up 18 percent of the population. Blacks, in contrast, make up just 4 percent. Among Palin's 417 appointments or reappointments to boards and commissions since taking office in December 2006, 240 have voluntarily identified their ethnicity. Eight are black, 49 Alaska Native, six Asian or Pacific Islander and one is Hispanic.

A Telling Palin Scandal: Her Environmental Record. By Leonard Doyle, Independent UK. Posted September 10, 2008. Trish Rolfe, who runs the Sierra Club's Alaska office, thinks Governor Palin has been a disaster for Alaska's environment. "The idea that she stands up to the oil companies is a joke," she says. (alternet).

Sarah Palin's Record on Aerial Wolf Hunting. As Governor of Alaska, Republican Vice Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin has championed the cruel aerial killing of wolves to artificially boost game populations for mainly out-of-state trophy hunters. Palin’s Administration issues permits to shoot wolves from low-flying aircraft or chase them to exhaustion and kill them at point-blank range. To encourage more killing, she even proposed a $150 bounty for the left foreleg of each dead wolf.

Ralph Z. Hallow: Evangelical faith drives Palin's pro-Israel view (Wash.Times, 4.9.08). Mrs. Palin was baptized as a teenager at the Wasilla Assembly of God Church. She frequently attends the Juneau Christian Center, which is also part of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God. Her home church is the Church of the Rock, an independent congregation. "Historically, the Assemblies of God have been dispensationalists, which means they believe in 'the rapture' of Christians that takes them out of the world," said Mr. Matthews. "Central to that position is a very strong support for Israel. It's integral to their view of both prophecy and politics. Denying Israel is almost like denying the faith."
Justin Raimondo: John McCain = Atilla the Hun (Antiwar.com). The mixture of religious and militaristic imagery is the overarching vision of this convention, the worship of the leader...John McCain was “rebellious” — and rebelliousness, oddly enough, is being celebrated in this panegyric, at this convention where there is not a single sign of dissension. (They didn’t even allow Ron Paul on the convention floor, never mind have him speak)....Militaristic nationalism trumps party loyalty. USA USA USA!

Patrick Martin: Mit Palins Ernennung beugt sich McCain der extremen Rechten (Wsws, 4.9.08).

Mary Mitchell (Chicago Suntimes, 10.10.08):The potential elevation of Palin into the second-highest position in the country shows that we have finally sunk as low as we can go.

Patrick Martin: Der politische Direktor von NBC Chuck Todd berichtete auf der Web Site des Senders: "Immer mehr Reporter finden heraus, wie weit McCains Vorbereitungen schon gediehen waren, Joe Lieberman als seinen Vize zu erwählen. Wenn meine Quellen stimmen, dann war vor zehn Tagen für McCain eigentlich alles klar für Lieberman. Aber dann redeten sein oberster Berater Charlie Black und sein Wahlkampfleiter Rick Davis ihm diese Wahl wieder aus". (wsws, 5.9.08).

John McCains Vize Sarah Palin hat sich als Vertreterin traditioneller Familienwerte einen Namen gemacht und genießt großes Ansehen gerade an der religiös-konservativen Basis der Partei. So lehnt sie etwa Sexualaufklärung an Schulen ab und befürwortet stattdessen Programme, die sexuelle Enthaltsamkeit von Teenagern fördern sollen. (Spiegel, 1.9.08). She staunchly opposes abortion, favors the teaching of "intelligent design" in the public schools and generally embraces the agenda of the religious right. (WP, 9/2/08).
Republikaner- Parteitag: Palins Privatleben wird zur Belastung für McCain (Spiegel, 2.9.08).
AP Investigation: Palin got zoning aid, gifts By BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE, AP Writer Sep 28, 2008
Sarah Palin: Cheney with a moose gun. By Cynthia Tucker (ACJ, 21.9.08). "She has shown a genuine flair for telling lie after lie to conceal her misdeeds from public view and trying to destroy those who dare disagree with her. She has proven a quick study of the Sith lord." (In "Star Wars" a person characterized by a single-minded lust for power and disdain for sentient life, who uses the dark side to attain power at any cost. Dick Cheney repeatedly is referred to as "Darth Vader", a particular evil member of the Sith order, by various columnists). "She’s read the playbook, and, like the current vice president, she believes she’s above the law. Who says she’s not qualified to fill Cheney’s shoes?"
Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker: Palin Problem - She’s out of her league. (WP, September 26, 2008). "Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League. No one hates saying that more than I do. Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there’s not much content there. Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first."
Kathleen Parker again: "The real Sarah Palin is free at last. She’s not just a hockey mom after all. She’s Palin the Impaler. Pit bulls beware. No one who watched the vice presidential debate should be surprised. Palin’s performance, notwithstanding her adorable dodges of questions she didn’t like, was essentially a cri de coeur to America’s non-elite... While Democrats heard non-answers, superfluous segues and cartoon words — shout-out, I’ll betcha, doggone, extra credit — Republicans heard God, patriotism, courage, victory. It’s called code, and Republicans are fluent. Neither McCain nor Palin would dare mention Obama’s middle name, Hussein, but they can play up Obama’s past associations and let others connect the dots. Terrorist. Muslim. Dangerous. Other....McCain may want to call off his pit bull before this war escalates." (WP, 7.10.08).

Peggy Noonan (WSJ, 17.10.08): Palin's Failin' - What is it she stands for? After seven weeks, we don't know. We have seen Mrs. Palin on the national stage for seven weeks now, and there is little sign that she has the tools, the equipment, the knowledge or the philosophical grounding one hopes for, and expects, in a holder of high office. She is a person of great ambition, but the question remains: What is the purpose of the ambition? She wants to rise, but what for?...She is not as thoughtful or persuasive as Joe the Plumber, who in an extended cable interview Thursday made a better case for the Republican ticket than the Republican ticket has made. In the past two weeks she has spent her time throwing out tinny lines to crowds she doesn't, really, understand. This is not a leader, this is a follower, and she follows what she imagines is the base, which is in fact a vast and broken-hearted thing whose pain she cannot, actually, imagine. She could reinspire and reinspirit; she chooses merely to excite. She doesn't seem to understand the implications of her own thoughts.In the end the Palin candidacy is a symptom and expression of a new vulgarization in American politics. It's no good, not for conservatism and not for the country. And yes, it is a mark against John McCain, against his judgment and idealism.

Moderate columnist Thomas Friedman: "Sarah Palin defended the government’s $700 billion rescue plan. She defended the surge in Iraq, where her own son is now serving. She defended sending more troops to Afghanistan. And yet, at the same time, she declared that Americans who pay their fair share of taxes to support all those government-led endeavors should not be considered patriotic....That is not putting America first. That is selling America first." (NYT, 7.10.08).

Richard Cohen: "In her debate against Joe Biden last week, she mischaracterized Barack Obama's tax plan and his offer to meet with foreign adversaries of the United States. She found whole new powers for the vice president by misreading the Constitution, if she ever read it at all. She called one moment for the federal government to virtually disappear and a moment later lamented the lack of its oversight of the financial markets. She asserted that she "may not answer the questions the way that either the moderator or you [Biden] want to hear" because, apparently, the rules don't apply to her on account of her being a hockey mom. Fer sure." (WP, 7.10.08).
Larry KING: Now joining us, two very interesting, outspoken ladies, Michelle Laxalt -- they're both in Washington. Michelle is the Republican consultant who says she has serious doubts about supporting John McCain as long as Sarah Palin is on the ticket. What are the concerns, Michelle? MICHELLE LAXALT, REPUBLICAN NOT SUPPORTING PALIN: The concerns center around, number one, the fact that Senator McCain made this decision predicated upon, Larry, a one hour meeting with Governor Palin. And beyond that, we're looking at the oldest potential president in our country's history. He has had melanoma three times. So we cannot look at a vice president in the abstract. In this instance, we have to look at a vice president and ask ourselves can that vice president assume the presidency from day one? And I'm telling you that I have a huge difficulty with answering yes to that question when it's posed to me, for instance, by my daughters. KING: May I ask if your father, the distinguished former Senator Paul Laxalt, agrees with you? LAXALT: My father and I, as you well understand, do not discuss issues upon which we disagree. I did not broach this with him for fear that we would disagree. Although remember this, it was senator Paul Laxalt, a young United States senator, who along with Ronald Reagan, chose in 1976 to challenge a very popular sitting Republican president, Gerald Ford. So independence is something that is ingrained I think in my DNA. ... In terms of her capacity to master a stage and master a script, she is unequalled. We haven't seen anyone like her for years. She is extraordinary on a scripted basis. The question that has caused people like me great pause, as well as a lot of other Republicans throughout this country, is on an unstructured basis, namely, when she's being asked very simple, softball questions by arguably the most softball interviewer in the world, Katie Couric, and being stumped for too many common sense answers. That gave me a great deal of pause. She can --...(CNN, 3.10.08)
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Fascist writer Westbrook Pegler, an avowed racist who Sarah Palin approvingly quoted in her acceptance speech for the moral superiority of small town values, expressed his fervent hope about my father, Robert F. Kennedy, as he contemplated his own run for the presidency in 1965, that “some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in public premises before the snow flies.” (Huffington Post- Posted September 15, 2008 ). Pegler denounced the civil rights movement, embraced antisemitism, and in the early 1960s wrote for the John Birch Society, until he was invited to leave because of his extreme views. His embrace of the label "racist," "a common but false synonym for Nazi, used by the bigots of New York"; or his habit of calling Jews "geese," because, "they hiss when they talk, gulp down everything before them, and foul everything in their wake," characterized his beliefs in the latter portion of his life. Interest in Pegler was revived when a line originally written by him appeared in Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin's acceptance speech at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. "We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty and sincerity and dignity", she said, attributing it to "a writer."^[8] The speech was written by Matthew Scully, a senior speech writer for George W. Bush.^{[9]
(wikipedia)}Sarah Palin pflegt Freundschaft mit der Alaska Independence Party. The AIP is clearly a secessionist movement. It had delegates both at the First North American Secession Convention in 2006, but also at the Second North American Secession Convention in 2007 – alongside fellow members the League of the South (the most prominent neo-Confederate organization and an SPLC-designated “hate group”); the Republic of Texas (a militia/Patriot group whose members at one time engaged in an armed standoff with Texas law enforcement); and Christian Exodus (which advocates creating an all-white homeland, either in South Carolina or in Idaho, depending on who’s in charge). You can also find links to these groups at AIP’s links page.
Josh Horwitz: It is Palin's relationship with the secessionist Alaskan Independence Party (AIP) that is truly disturbing. In addition to advocating for Alaska's independence from the United States (party founder Joe Vogler once stated he had "no use for America or her damned institutions"), the AIP makes the NRA look positively moderate on the issue of firearm ownership. Troubling is AIP's embrace of insurrectionism--the belief that the Second Amendment grants individual citizens the right to confront their government with force of arms when they feel it has become "tyrannical" (the same view which Timothy McVeigh used to justify his attack on the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City). AIP founder Vogler once stated, "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government." AIP Vice Chairman Dexter Clark recently hinted at the potential for a violent uprising at the Second Secessionist Convention in 2007, stating, "The longer this situation continues, the harder it's going to become for a peaceful solution." Sarah Palin attended the AIP's annual convention in 2006 and addressed their 2008 convention through a videotaped speech while serving as governor, calling their gathering "inspirational" and telling the party's members to "keep up the good work." Her husband, Todd Palin, was a registered member of the Alaskan Independence Party for seven years between 1995 and 2002.(HP, Sept. 4, 2008).
Michael Finnegan: Sarah Palin's ties to Alaskan Independence Party are played down (LATimes, 9/3/08).

“We Are Not Terrorists”: Activists with the RNC Welcoming Committee Speak Out Against Police Crackdown & Terrorism Charges (DemocracyNow). ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN): -- Police faced off with crowds of protesters outside the Republican National Convention, arresting 396 people after using tear gas and percussion grenades to turn them back. Thursday's arrests brought the total for the week to 818, authorities said. Proteste in St. Paul: 300 Festnahmen (Spiegel, 2.9.08).

Republikaner- Parteitag: Palins Privatleben wird zur Belastung für McCain (Spiegel, 2.9.08).
AP Investigation: Palin got zoning aid, gifts By BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE, Associated Press Writer Sep 28, 2008
Unbequeme Details aus Sarah Palins Vergangenheit (Spiegel, 2.9.08).
Sarah Palin - the Death Mom. by Arash Karamangeer. A Telling Palin Scandal: Her Environmental Record. By Leonard Doyle, Independent UK. Posted September 10, 2008. Trish Rolfe, who runs the Sierra Club's Alaska office, thinks Governor Palin has been a disaster for Alaska's environment. "The idea that she stands up to the oil companies is a joke," she says. (alternet).
Ralph Z. Hallow: Evangelical faith drives Palin's pro-Israel view (Wash.Times, 4.9.08). Mrs. Palin was baptized as a teenager at the Wasilla Assembly of God Church. She frequently attends the Juneau Christian Center, which is also part of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God. Her home church is the Church of the Rock, an independent congregation. "Historically, the Assemblies of God have been dispensationalists, which means they believe in 'the rapture' of Christians that takes them out of the world," said Mr. Matthews. "Central to that position is a very strong support for Israel. It's integral to their view of both prophecy and politics. Denying Israel is almost like denying the faith."

US-BÜRGER UND BÜRGERINNEN FORDERN EINEN "CHANGE" BEI DER OBAMA- VERANSTALTUNG AN DER BERLINER SIEGESSÄULE.
Barack-Obama-Kampagnen-Leitung: „Plakate und Transparente sind verboten“
Obama's speech/Rede in Deutsch/English in SZ, 24.7.08.
Robert Misik: Durch Barack Obama schlägt der Amerikahass in Amerikaliebe um. (taz, 26.7.08).

BARACK OBAMA: Now is the time to stand by Israel as it writes the next chapter in its extraordinary journey. Now is the time to join together in the work of repairing this world. (Speech about his stand on Israel at AIPAC on June 4, 2008).

Hate Groups' Newest Target: Barack Obama (WP, 22.6.08). Neo-Nazi, skinhead and segregationist groups have reported gains in numbers of visitors to their Web sites and in membership since the senator from Illinois secured the Democratic nomination June 3. His success has aroused a community of racists, experts said, concerned by the possibility of the country's first black president. One Web site is run out of a house in 203 Lakeland Dr., West Palm Beach, Fla. 33405. Don Black (married to Chloe H Duke, the ex-wife of close Black associate and former “Grand Wizard” of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke) spends 16 hours each day on his laptop computer reading hundreds of derogatory Obama comments posted on Stormfront.org, a Web site with the motto "white pride world wide." Black, a former Ku Klux Klan leader, launched the site in 1995 to create a central meeting place for the white power movement. A site that drew a few thousand visitors per day in 2002 has expanded into Black's full-time job, attracting more than 40,000 unique users each day who can post on 54 different message boards, he said. Black has enlisted 40 moderators and his 19-year-old son to help run Stormfront....
John Lantigua (PBPost, 07/26/08): Will racist "white power" organizations, such as Stormfront, be stronger or weaker if Obama is elected president? Local West Palm Beach (Florida) organizer, other supremacists say Obama's run boosts their cause.

US Wahlen 2008
John McCain / Sarah Palin
versus
Barack Obama / Joe Biden

Ergebnisse (Spiegel)

Leon de Winter: Barack Obama, ein knallharter Opportunist (Welt, 31.12.08).

Hillel Italie (AP, 9.11.08): Writers welcome a more literary president-elect in Barack Obama

McCain und Palin rechnen miteinander ab (Spiegel, 6.11.08)

The Real Plumbers of Ohio By PAUL KRUGMAN (NYT, October 20, 2008). John McCain’s strategy, in this final stretch, is based on the belief that Republicans can still pursue plutocratic policies while claiming to be the party of regular guys.

Joe the Plumber's tale has a few leaks (Miami Herald, 17.10.08).

A Comparison of Obama and McCain On Defense Spending. By BOB DEANS (Cox News Service, Friday, October 10, 2008). Almost no difference...

Obama und SDS/ Weather Underground: Obama and ’60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths. By SCOTT SHANE (NYT, 3.10.08).

Bush Strategist Matthew Dowd: McCain Knows He Put Country At Risk With Palin Pick

Unbequeme Details aus Sarah Palins Vergangenheit (Spiegel, 2.9.08). Palin hat ihr Amt missbraucht (FAZ, 11.10.08).

Sarah Palin - the Death Mom. by Arash Karamangeer.

Patrick Martin: Mit Palins Ernennung beugt sich McCain der extremen Rechten (Wsws, 4.9.08).

BARACK OBAMA: Now is the time to stand by Israel as it writes the next chapter in its extraordinary journey. Now is the time to join together in the work of repairing this world. (Speech about his stand on Israel at AIPAC on June 4, 2008).

US Wahlen 2008 John McCain / Sarah Palin versus Barack Obama / Joe Biden

Ergebnisse (Spiegel)

Leon de Winter: Barack Obama, ein knallharter Opportunist (Welt, 31.12.08).

Hillel Italie (AP, 9.11.08): Writers welcome a more literary president-elect in Barack Obama

McCain und Palin rechnen miteinander ab (Spiegel, 6.11.08)

The Real Plumbers of Ohio By PAUL KRUGMAN (NYT, October 20, 2008). John McCain’s strategy, in this final stretch, is based on the belief that Republicans can still pursue plutocratic policies while claiming to be the party of regular guys.

Joe the Plumber's tale has a few leaks (Miami Herald, 17.10.08).

A Comparison of Obama and McCain On Defense Spending. By BOB DEANS (Cox News Service, Friday, October 10, 2008). Almost no difference...

Obama und SDS/ Weather Underground: Obama and ’60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths. By SCOTT SHANE (NYT, 3.10.08).

Bush Strategist Matthew Dowd: McCain Knows He Put Country At Risk With Palin Pick

Unbequeme Details aus Sarah Palins Vergangenheit (Spiegel, 2.9.08). Palin hat ihr Amt missbraucht (FAZ, 11.10.08).

Sarah Palin - the Death Mom. by Arash Karamangeer.

Patrick Martin: Mit Palins Ernennung beugt sich McCain der extremen Rechten (Wsws, 4.9.08).

BARACK OBAMA: Now is the time to stand by Israel as it writes the next chapter in its extraordinary journey. Now is the time to join together in the work of repairing this world. (Speech about his stand on Israel at AIPAC on June 4, 2008).

US Wahlen 2008
John McCain / Sarah Palin
versus
Barack Obama / Joe Biden