Better late than never, I suppose. The McCain campaign released this ad today entitled sweat equity following on the Joe the Plumber theme. The ad is a 30 second spot.

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The video from WFTV.

WFTV or WTF? Here are the questions asked of Senator Biden:

* If Biden is “embarrassed about the blatant attempt to register phony voters by ACORN,” since Senator Obama worked with the organization in the past.

* If Obama’s comment about wanting tax policies that “spread the wealth” is “a potentially crushing political blunder”.

* “You may recognize this famous quote: ‘from each according to his abilities to each according to his needs.’ That’s from Karl Marx. How is Senator Obama not being a Marxist if he intends to spread the wealth around?”

* Regarding Biden’s comment that the world would test Obama and the Obama-Biden administration will need the support of Americans since it might not be immediately apparent Obama did the right thing — “Are you forewarning Americans that nothing will be done and America’s days as the world’s leading power are over?”

* “What do you say to the people that are concerned that Barack Obama will want to turn America into a Socialist country like Sweden?”

If Obama were to turn the US into a Sweden, the country with the lowest Gini Co-efficient, I’d be voting for him. But he’s not.

From the Orlando Sentinel:

WFTV-Channel 9’s Barbara West conducted a satellite interview with Sen. Joe Biden on Thursday. A friend says it’s some of the best entertainment he’s seen recently. What do you think?

West wondered about Sen. Barack Obama’s comment, to Joe the Plumber, about spreading the wealth. She quoted Karl Marx and asked how Obama isn’t being a Marxist with the “spreading the wealth” comment.

“Are you joking?” said Biden, who is Obama’s running mate. “No,” West said.

West later asked Biden about his comments that Obama could be tested early on as president. She wondered if the Delaware senator was saying America’s days as the world’s leading power were over.

“I don’t know who’s writing your questions,” Biden shot back.

Biden so disliked West’s line of questioning that the Obama campaign canceled a WFTV interview with Jill Biden, the candidate’s wife.

“This cancellation is non-negotiable, and further opportunities for your station to interview with this campaign are unlikely, at best for the duration of the remaining days until the election,” wrote Laura K. McGinnis, Central Florida communications director for the Obama campaign.

McGinnis said the Biden cancellation was “a result of her husband’s experience yesterday during the satellite interview with Barbara West.”

WFTV news director Bob Jordan said, “When you get a shot to ask these candidates, you want to make the most of it. They usually give you five minutes.”

Jordan said political campaigns in general pick and choose the stations they like. And stations often pose softball questions during the satellite interviews.

“Mr. Biden didn’t like the questions,” Jordan said. “We choose not to ask softball questions.”

Jordan added, “I’m crying foul on this one.”

What is it about Americans and their fear of socialism? And does anyone seriously think that Obama is a socialist? A Marxist?

Kudos to Barbara West for demonstrating unparalleled stupidity, a sheer and complete lack of understanding of basic historical terminology. When did we become a country of idiots?

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“Where does a lot of that earmark money end up anyway? […] You’ve heard about some of these pet projects they really don’t make a whole lot of sense and sometimes these dollars go to projects that have little or nothing to do with the public good. Things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not.”

Ah yes, let’s attack scientific research. Her stupidity is increasingly and plainly evident and I’ve had my fill. No one studies fruit flies for the sake of studying fruit flies. Fruit flies are invaluable in the study of genetics because of the number of generations that can be observed (among many other reasons) or fruit flies are studied for their impact on agriculture. In the case of the study whose merits she is questioning, it’s the olive fruit fly being studied. The reason? The olive fruit fly is an invasive pest that is threatening California’s multi-million dollar olive crop. It is a $211,500 grant made to the Louis Pasteur Institute and a request made by Representative Mike Thompson (D-CA).

But let’s score political points. Governor Palin’s lack of a basic understanding of science has become simply to much for me to bear. I didn’t care for her views on global warming and yet I looked past them. I didn’t care for her creationism and yet I looked past them. But I will no longer look past gratuitous assaults on science.

What’s even more appalling is that fruit fly research has contributed to advances in the study of autism and its causes.

Now scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have shown that a protein called neurexin is required for these nerve cell connections to form and function correctly.

The discovery, made in Drosophila fruit flies may lead to advances in understanding autism spectrum disorders, as recently, human neurexins have been identified as a genetic risk factor for autism.

Whatever merits Sarah Palin has as a crusading reformer of government have become overshadowed by an appalling lack of common knowledge. She is very much the fruit of Republican education policies, an intentional dumbing down of America. She has no conception of what the Constitutional role of the Vice President is. She might be able to see Russia from her backyard but I wonder could she place it on a map?

I should note that the rest of her speech was a welcomed addition to the national conversation but it’s sad that whatever good might come from it was undone by a likely careless remark on scientific research. This may be more the fault of Palin’s handlers than of Palin herself. The McCain campaign is a study in chaos at this point. Her remarks do speak to a lack of thoroughness and fact-checking by the McCain campaign.

I kid you not.

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In Israel, Prime Minister designate Tzipi Livni of the Kadima party has failed to persuade the Shas and Degel Hatorah parties, both religious parties, to join a governing coalition. Livni, a former Mossad agent and the first woman to lead an Israeli government since Golda Meir, will tomorrow ask Israeli President Simon Peres to dissolve the Knesset and call for general elections within 90 days.

From the Jerusalem Post:

Kadima leader Tzipi Livni has failed to form a viable coalition and will recommend going to general elections when she meets President Shimon Peres on Sunday afternoon.

Sources in Kadima said Livni made the decision at a meeting held late Saturday night with her advisers, among them Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz.

The move came after Shas and Degel Hatorah, which constitutes half of the United Torah Judaism faction in the Knesset, announced over the weekend that they would not join a Livni-led government.

“I’m sick of this extortion,” Livni was quoted as telling her advisers. “We’ll see all these heroes in 90 days.”

(more…)

Here are six articles from both the US and international media about the US Presidential race. Highlights of each article provided with a link to the full article.

Awash in Money, The Democrats May Turn This into a Party Tsunami
By Eleanor Clift in Newsweek.

Seven million dollars a day: That’s how much money the Obama campaign is raking in. Together with the eye-popping $150 million the campaign amassed in September, we are witnessing the equivalent of a collective scream from the voters. In the spirit of the Supreme Court ruling that declared political contributions are a form of speech, millions of donors to the Obama campaign are shouting that they’re mad as hell, and they’re not going to take it anymore.

Funny, I’ve been describing it as tsunami for days now.

Camp Followers
By Patrick Buchanan for Real Clear Politics. I don’t agree with Pat’s politics but as political analyst, I find him very insightful and honest.

Perhaps the only institution in America whose approval rating is beneath that of Congress is the media.

Both have won their reputations the hard way. They earned them.

Consider the fawning indulgence shown insider Joe Biden with the dripping contempt visited on outsider Sarah Palin.

Twice last weekend, Biden grimly warned at closed-door meetings that a great crisis is coming early in the term of President Obama:

“Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. … Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said … we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”

A “generated crisis”? By whom? Moscow? Beijing? Teheran?

This is an astonishing statement from a chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee who has access to the same intelligence as George Bush. Joe was warning of a crisis like the Berlin Wall of July 1961, where JFK called for a tripling of the draft and ordered a call-up of reserves, or the missile crisis where U.S. pilots like John McCain were minutes away from bombing nuclear missile sites in Cuba and killing the Russians manning them.

Is Russia about to move on the Crimea? Is Israel about to launch air strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites? What is Joe talking about?

If one assumes Joe is a serious man, we have a right to know.

I do think that there is something that ol’ smokin’ Joe ain’t telling us.

Tom Ridge: Race Would Be Different if I Were VP Pick
By Brad Bumsted in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review.

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge said today that John McCain can’t become president without carrying Pennsylvania and that the race would be different if McCain had chosen him as his running mate.

“I think the dynamics would be different in Pennsylvania,” Ridge said when asked if he should have been chosen to run as vice president over Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. “I think we’d be foolish not to admit it publicly.”

Ridge, the campaign’s national co-chairman, said McCain “had several good choices and I was one of them.”

(more…)

With another week of continued turbulence on Wall Street and the world’s financial markets, the prospects of the contagion affecting emerging markets has begun to loom larger and larger. As the week began, credit loosened up and global stock markets slowly regained some of their lost ground, but just as there was a sigh of relief, fears of a global recession on Wednesday brought another sharp drop in the Dow Jones Index and other stock indices as investor worries grew that economies around the world are weakening rapidly.

Consider this: some of the billion poorest people in the world, 70% of whom live in Africa, have been recipients of foreign aid from Western nations. Yet despite this aid, during times of immense global success there have been tremendous development failures. This edition of Riz Khan explores how the developing nations will be affected in the face of a potential global economic crisis.

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The US military left the Philippines in 1991 after nearly a century of continuous presence there. But the US has return to the country quietly and in fewer numbers assisting the Filipino government in Mindanao, a largely Muslim region with separatist aspirations. Hundreds of US troops have been working in the southern Philippines since 2002. Their role is to help train local soldiers in the battle against insurgents of Moro Liberation Front. Still their presence divides local opinion as the above video from Al Jazeera suggests. Nonetheless the story is one of the most ignored and under-reported stories in recent times, but also perhaps one of the most successful fronts in the Bush administration’s Global War on Terror.

As part of the Joint Special Operations Task Force, US troops train their Philippine counterparts in counter-terrorism and provide financial and logistical support. Their presence coincides with a stepped-up US aid budget enabling better roads, schools, health clinics, ports and more. Winning hearts and minds in this remote corner of the Islamic world is the goal.

Officially the US troops are not involved in any combat operations. Nor has there been any major terrorist attack in the region in recent years though fighting still persists between the Moro Liberation Front and the forces of the Philippine army.

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Here is the Saturday, October 25th, 2008 edition of what’s making news and interesting reads from around the world. Also please note that off to the left there are two widgets with updates on news from Asia and the world in a separate page: Around Asia & Around the World New Feeds.

Britain Officially Enters Recession
The Bank of England was under intense pressure last night to cut interest rates after new figures showed the economy had contracted for the first time in 16 years as it heads into recession.

The news hammered the FTSE 100 index, which lost as much as 9% of its value at one point, wiping £90bn off the value of leading shares. It also clobbered the pound, which suffered its biggest fall against the dollar since 1992, to below $1.53 – a six-year low. As recently as July, the pound would buy $2, but it has been falling rapidly on evidence that the economy is slumping. The pound also hit a record low against the euro yesterday of just under 82p. Official data showed gross domestic product contracted by 0.5% in the July to September period – a much bigger amount than expected, the first fall since early 1992 and the biggest drop since the fourth quarter of 1990. More from the UK Guardian.

Foreign Currency Debt Troubles Mount
Foreign-denominated debt is squeezing countries from Romania to South Korea as their local currencies falter. All told, borrowers in emerging markets owe some $4.7 trillion in foreign-denominated debt, up 38 percent over the past two years. Many developing countries still look strong on paper, with big foreign reserves and healthy trade surpluses. But the statistics can mask heavy dependence on offshore loans to keep economies buoyant. “It’s amazing that people don’t pay attention,” says Mark Mobius, head of Templeton Emerging Markets Fund (EMF). Borrowers have been taking out “mortgages in yen and Swiss francs because they thought the money was so cheap.” More from Der Spiegel.

Yen’s Surge Brings Bad News for Japan’s Exporters
Japan’s stock and currency markets dealt the world’s No. 2 economy a heavy blow Friday. The yen surged, battering shares of Japan’s top exporters as the country nears recession. In Tokyo, the yen reached a 13-year high against even the rising U.S. dollar. In late afternoon trading Friday in New York, the euro was at 119.05 yen, a six-year low and down sharply from 125.12 yen Thursday. The dollar was at 94.6 yen. The full story in the Wall Street Journal.

Asian and European Put on a Happy Face in Beijing
Whatever was happening on market floors around the world, at the meeting of Asian and European leaders in Beijing, the message was solidarity and optimism. The Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said the global financial situation was a severe shock. The European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said it was down to the people there to sort it out. “In this room we represent three-fifths of the world’s population, and produce half of global GDP. Our combined action can and should make a difference.” More from Euro News.

Dollar and Yen Soar as Other Currencies Fall and Stocks Slip
Fear that the financial crisis is infecting once-healthy economies created another white-knuckle day for investors Friday, causing stocks to tumble from Tokyo to New York. Uncertainty also roiled currency markets as investors continued to turn to the security of the United States dollar and the Japanese yen and drove down currencies of developing countries like Brazil, Ukraine and South Korea and even of developed countries like Britain. In the United States, where the crisis began, investors were less alarmed than elsewhere. A rout in Asian and European stock markets sent the Dow Jones industrial average swooning by more than 500 points in early trading in New York, but trading recovered enough ground through the day to leave the Dow down 312.30 points, or 3.6 percent. Just a year ago, a drop of that size would have been considered a black day in the markets, but in these days of routine triple-digit declines, it offered a modicum of relief to traumatized investors. The full story in the New York Times.

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