Countdown Campaign Comment on the Ashley Todd racist hoax: Senator McCain, Speak Up and Lead!
By Heather Wednesday Oct 29, 2008 9:00am
From Countdown, Monday Oct. 27, 2008. Keith tells John McCain that he needs to speak out against those who would use Friday's racist hoax attack perpetrated by Ashley Todd as a means to re-open the racial divide in America.
Transcript available here:
OLBERMANN: Finally, a "Campaign Comment" about the fraudulent race attack claim since acknowledged and recanted by a John McCain campaign volunteer in Pennsylvania. You know the story well, by now. It's a sad and demoralizing tale of a woman who could be summarized by the awful term B actress. Ashley Todd was not sexually assaulted by a big black man. He did not carve the letter B on her face to punish her for supporting John McCain.
It apparently never dawned on her it resembled less a cut than an abrasion done by a weapon no more sinister than a nail file. She was not even at the ATM where she claimed the attack took place. It apparently never dawned on her that the machine had security video and she would not be on it. And clearly, somewhere in her mind was a calculation that a story like this one with layer upon layer of racial threat could be some kind of game changer for the presidential candidate she worked to get elected in at least two states for at least two months. Her saga is pathetic. She now claims mental illness. If this too is not true, Miss Todd might think she's pulling another fast one over on the rest of us. In fact her claim seems to be accurate, whether she knows it or not.
And much more disturbingly, so was her calculation. At least until her story, in retrospect a ludicrous confection, fell apart and she had to confess her crime. She had inspired dozens, perhaps hundreds of journalists and bloggers and all those in between on both political sides to stand over this nation's ever present tinderbox of racial prejudice and racial fear and racial hatred. And she had brought them all matches. We already know what the executive vice president of Fox News had written while his organization was perched next to that tinderbox waiting for the slightest excuse to light it and our nation ablaze. The over the top, caveat thrown in for window dressing balance with not the slightest intention that it ever be taken seriously. Quote, "If the incident turns out to be a hoax Senator McCain's quest for presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting." That is the well-known part of what John Moody wrote. What preceded it was far less publicized and far more important. "Part of the appeal of, and the unspoken tension behind, Senator Obama's campaign," he wrote, "is his transformational status as the first African-American to win a major party's presidential nomination. That does not mean that he has erased the mutual distrust between black and white Americans and this incident could become a watershed event in the 11 days before the election.
If Ms. Todd's allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists, with due respect to Representative John Murtha, but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee."
Moody wrote that. It wouldn't be racism to suddenly blame Barack Obama for an attack on a white woman by a black man intending to punish her for not supporting another black man. It would instead by a watershed moment because it somehow meant, "They suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee." Its only connection would have been racial. But the response would not be racism. The tinderbox again, and a very large match provided by John Moody. I know that man. He is not stupid. Not careless. He has in fact an education background identical to my own, right down to the same college radio station. He knew what he was writing. A rationalization for racism. That Moody should be fired goes without saying. But if not fired that he should resign in shame is also obvious. Neither will happen because there is no one of sufficient authority to reproach him. And the others, who but for Ashley Todd's inability to maintain her inner hoaxster for more than two days would have solemnly and grimly and some secretly, happily set this presidential campaign on its ear and knocked this nation's tenuous grip on the relationship between the races off its axis. Because there was nobody to say, "No. Don't." This is where you come in, Senator McCain. No histrionics from me to you this time, Senator. No yelling. Just a plea. Say something about this. Now. Say something strongly and succinctly about the unacceptability of what happened, and how some of your supporters tried to exploit it. I am not asking you to assume the responsibility for this. No matter how your campaign pushed this story, I have no doubt that in the mirror image scenario many of Senator Obama's supporters would have done the same. But I also have no doubt that by this point in that mirror image scenario, Senator Obama would have said something to try to stop the next Ashley Todd, or the next John Moody. Senator, of all the things I don't like about you or your campaign, I have never thought you a racist. As imperfect as was your moment with that Minnesota woman mumbling about Arabs, I thought it was the finest moment of your campaign. I believe that you feel as I do, that racial prejudice and hatred have no place in this campaign, nor in this country. I believe that you feel as I do, as Clarence Darrow said in a different time and a different context, "I am pleading for the future. I am pleading for a time when hatred and cruelty will not control the hearts of men. When we can learn by reason and judgment and understanding and faith." Sometimes, Senator McCain, it is as if we are almost there. And then some unthinking act like the one by that Ashley Todd throws us back against the rocks and we barely escape with our ship intact. In that time of foundering, Senator McCain, far too few of us have a chance to personally right the ship. To heal instead of to stand idly by. To make a difference in this oldest and most wearying of our struggles as a nation. This chance, sir, is yours. Say something. Or better yet, say something with Senator Obama, about race and how we live with one another and how we can. Let this last week of the campaign be remembered, no matter how it turns out next Tuesday, as something other than the time Ashley Todd lied, and the John Moodys threatened, and you said nothing. Senator McCain, once again, grab the microphone. Thank you.
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I have to say. Keith is getting a bit old. First of all, he's preaching to the choir. I get it already.. I'm voting for Obama. Second, he's really walking on thin ice by constantly calling for people to be fired for things they say. That may come bite Keith in the ass some day. Lets remember, Keith, there is freedom of speech in this country. We don't have to listen to those who say things we don't agree with. So stop calling for peoples jobs before someone starts calling for yours.
You argue that, 'We don't have to listen to those who say things we don't agree with,' but then promptly insist on the opposite - that Olbermann STFU before someone takes offense at his words.
Imagine the most important causes of our times - from the beginnings of independence to the abolition of slavery, women's suffrage to civil rights - and how they might have suffered or failed outright because no one had the gumption to speak up?
As Edward R. Murrow - one of Olbermann's idols - put it:
"We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep into our own history and our doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes which were for the moment unpopular."
I'm not saying Keith should STFU. I like Keith very much and have watched his show since it began a few years ago. I'm glad the voice of the left has grown on cable news and is finally living up to the reputation that the right wing has falsely given it for years.
But, lately, I can't watch his show. Especially his special comments. It just seems too forced. My parents still eat him up. I watch him when I'm visiting them, but can't on my own anymore.
My real problem with this special comment is that he says Moody should be fired from his job for what he wrote. Is this the standard that we want to live with in our society?
If Moody called Obama an 'N' or was out right obscenely racist in what he wrote, I would agree that he should be fired. But that is not the case.
He was wrong when he said Don Imus should be fired and he is wrong on this one. And I don't even listen to Imus, ever.
Keith's standards for calling for someones job is rather low and he should be careful.
I agree that we need Keith and programming like his show to properly balance the mess in the news system that we saw after 9/11 and during the run up to the war where every news outlet, sans The Daily Show, waived the flag in support of the white house.
But, personally, Keith just is not reaching me nowadays. He especially loses me when it comes to calling for people to be fired.
Anyway, do you think McCain is going to mention the hoax, really?
the problem I see is the term 'obscenely'. People have been killed or banned or fired or worse by an implication...The old brand of racist in the South is what I heard....
Mccain can not face these innuendos --he is too busy telling his own lies in his own voice and attempting to control his kneejerk Vp pic...
Interesting that they put this Todd person in charge!!!
Out of control and dishonorable.
I disagree he's not preaching to the choir. He has a show on national TV that reaches all political types and can wake up an asleep America. He is an important part of bringing back honesty and fairness in an age of faux news imbalance and propaganda in journalism.
I'm in an uproar about this stupid, vicious Ashley Todd and those who sought to profit by her lies.
This college-young-republican fool tried to start a race war.
Have you ever experienced race riots?
I remember the Cleveland race riots of the mid sixties. The blacks had finally had enough and began shooting and burning in response to real police brutality in their neighborhoods.
I remember the National Guard in the streets and wondering if the violence would reach my neighborhood.
Perhaps you never had the experience of living through that kind of situation.
I hope that you never do.
Ms. Todd, Mr. Moody and that idiot from the McCain Campaign should be charged with terrorism under the Patriot Act.
But I guess that those laws don't apply to the Family Values Republican Party...
It's always seems so odd that when someone calls out the acts of some Republican (like Keith called out Ashley and Moody on)... that there are people who say it's unfair for some reason. That someone like Moody shouldn't be pointed to for doing a heinous partisan thing that could result in serious disaster.
This stupid little McShame trollop tried to start a Race War... and so did Moody... He's a pig.
Go hang with your other buds over at The Big Giant Head site.
I don't believe, for a moment, that this stupid eacist stunt was conceived by Ashley. She was merely a McCane supporter following a directive that she was given by the McCain Campaign. The message that McCain was trying to send was "Barrack is a dangerous person with a very dark agenda. Therefore, vote for McCain".
If this had been an Obama supporter...surely the right wing would be seeking prosecution of this offense as a hate crime...and they would be filling the airwaves with calls for justice...and humiliating her family members...and questioning her association with the guy she may have blown three years ago after getting drunk at a college mixer who turned out to once have been a member of the Worker's Party or other marginal affiliation...and of course that would make her an enemy combatant and eligible for real justice in GITMO.
Why does Palin support a Marxis group Alaskan Independant Party who's motto is “ I’m an Alaskan, not an American I’ve got no use for America or her damned institutions". She gave the opening speech at their convention and husband Todd is a member.
If Todd was a Liberal or a Democrat who claimed a McCain supporter assauted her and was to be proved a fraud, MSM would be in a frenzy. I can't wait till the election to be over. I can't take much more of this Bullshit.
Save your breath Keith. Nothing any one says that disagrees with McCain means a thing to him just like it did with GWB. Remember? That is why he's called McSame. The dirty tricksters did their best, fortunately they failed... let it go. There are bigger fish to fry.
Keith is always preaching to the choir, but the good news is the choir's growing. he's getting higher ratings than his nemesis, BillO; is the only place liberals can go to hear someone scream what no one else will whisper, and all he asked was for McCain to step up and repudiate the racially-tinted act his own volunteer did.
what i don't understand, and maybe someone, somewhere can explain this to me: Why has no one - save one journalist - touched on McCain's toxic past; his POW history, why he had it classified, and why he has been POW families' worst nightmare since becoming a senator?
on every site, I keep seeing Vets posting over & over - why do they keep being ignored? Why do so many believe he's a traitor?
Vets, former POWs & MIAs and their families have been speaking out against McCain for 20 yrs, there for anyone willing to google
'McCain POW MIA' or 'Veterans against McCain.'
according to them: he has used his seat in the senate to disavow the survival of POWs and hamper efforts to rescue/retrieve them, intimidating their families, all to cover up the extent of his collaboration with the Vietcong while a prisoner.
Don't take my word for this: Google McCain and Sydney Schanberg (pulitzer prize winning author; The Killing Fields) - he's documented everything.
why is ALL media - even you guys - ignoring these people? Are they ALL lying? for 20 yrs? Or is no one brave enough to speak for them?
Please, before my head and heart explode, someone tell me WTF is going on.
being a veit vet myself
if people ca'nt see through mcain , you ai'nt LOOKING
BTW.. check out the USS Forrestal fire
Histrionic, though it may be at times, a lot of people may never hear the stunts of the Lunatic Fringe Rethugs, so IMHO, Keep on keepin' on KO.
To bushisaliar poster: Hope you are well, and thank you for your service. I lost a brother to mutliple brain tumors from Agent Orange.
I have been harping on the USS Forrestal Fire to anyone who will listen. The info on Wikipedia, though very good, is incomplete. The cause of the fire, and the lives lost, is a tragedy beyond comprehension. How the hell could this happen, without ALL THE FACTS BECOMING PUBLIC?
Never mine, A FORTUNATE SON WAS INVOLVED!!!!!! Classy guy.
Power to the Peaceful~~~~~
Excuse me.......meant "mind" not "mine."
For your service.
But your suggestion--I checked it out. My God, is it possible that one man could be so well protected after being responsible for something like this! how could he possibly even be vetted?
what in the hell has happend to US?
He needs to stop putting out these 'election comments' I am voting Obama, but you couldn't honestly expect McCain to bring this back up after it has faded from the public consciousness. Should he have spoken up on Friday/Saturday? Yes. Does it make sense to reignite this issue now? No. It has faded.
I wonder if tonight's special comment will be about how McCain ran ads saying Obama wanted kindergartners to receive sex ed. Terrible thing McCain did there, but it was also a long time ago. Find something timely to bitch about or don't bitch.
Where is your much self-advertised honor now, Senator McCain?
We thought so.
Keep up the good work Keith, you vent so I don't have to. After all these years of right wing B.S. it's so good to here Keith and Rachel call out all the repub crimes and lies.
It would be real interesting if this girl was paid by the MCCain campaign to do this despicable act.
The same thought has and is still crossing my mind. But, like the quote Faux put out.......McNasty's campaign is NOW OVER, right??
America,, you have a real hero here
a man unafraid to speak truth to power
Anyone who suggests that this race carding bitch is also a victim(she diagnosed herself to be mentally ill) has no idea of the many times this lie from the bigots ten commandments of excuses has been used in this Nation's sad racial history. Many innocent black men have been lynched or imprisoned based on that hate filled phrase. Todd knew of the incendiary repercussions(racially and politically) of her vile lies. Pretty thoughtful for someone with a "mental illness".
Ashley Todd committed a hate crime.
"Ashley Todd committed a hate crime."
AMEN!
McCain made his choice already. That it bothers him or not, I can't say but regardless he's chosen to exploit the ugliest side of the American electorate, its who he is. If he were willing to say something or try to stop it then we wouldn't even be here now.
As I read the title of this thread, it is asking McCain-WHERE is your leadership? I have been asking myself that about McCain for a L-O-N-G time!. So much has been bandied about regarding experience,especially vis-a-vis Obama,and,Palin. I'd like to know just WHAT executive experience John MCain brings to the plate? Has he ever held a job?Run a business? Run a state? Run anything but his mouth and his campaign and party aground-and several planes,and maybe a car,too?Hell,PALIN has more exec experience than HE does!
AMEN!
Looks like Obama's calm, cool demeanor has rubbed off on KO.
Well said but McCain will not address this race baiting race card.
It is just too ugly even for his ignorant base.
Indeed, the act may cross the line to crime. We have seen numerous examples of fraud, race baiting, phony stories, phony pundits, Joe this, and Joe that. The acts that have crossed the line and become crimes however don't seem to be getting a lot of attention by the press.
That is the story and the crime.
Keith's periodic rants barely register on the Richter Scale when compared to the incessant 24/7 right wing rantings heard on every tv and radio network news broadcast, talk show and panel discussion.
Did anyone see Bob Schrum on Hardball last nite. The man was crazed.
AND...he is so full of shit. He accused Obama of being "ideological"...as if what the GOP has practiced the last 30 years was not an "economic ideology" war.
Schrum...and those like him are crazed...because he and they KNOW that this IS an ideological battle...and their ideology is losing...big time. This election is a referendum on the tax policies and defacto redistribution of national wealth from the poor and middle class UPWARD to the rich. Policies that undermined social programs for all citizens, including children, and destroyed the safety net for those decimated by falling wages and lost jobs and destroyed the helping hands that would assist low and middle income children from attending good schools and getting educational assistance for learning disabilities and economic limitations.
THAT is what this election is about...and Schrum knows it.
THEY...the GOP and the right wing conservative nutcases wanted a ideological and societal war...and now they are bitching because they've gotten what they've wanted...and they are about to be repudiated...totally...and finally. Their economic and social views and policies have been revealed for what they really were...a return to an American caste system where workers and the poor are chattle to the whims of the elite and corporate robber barons.
The American People have figured out that the wool was pulled over their eyes, and now they are angry, and they're anger is being directed now...not at the boogie men created by the right wing...but at the right wing themselves...who created and propagated the destruction of the middle class and the American Dream.
figure that out...and you will understand the motivation for this so-called "leak".
He said nothing and that is, in and of itself, evidence that he does not understand the dynamics of such events. Sarah Palin spoke on it as well... She did nothing when she and everyone in the campaign rally crowd heard a woman yell an epithet loud and clear behind her. Oh sure. The moment caught her off guard, but instead of speaking out against it she moved along in her derogatory speech against Obama.
Both have said plenty by not saying anything. By not responding to such bigotry... Why did they not? Because they do not want to offend their base, or to be fair the fringes of their base. So overwhelming is their hunger for power that they will do and say, or refrain from saying, anything.
Actually Pervez Musharraf has almost as bad a human-rights reputation as Saddam Hussein, but he was promoted as our ally on the war on (t)error.
Additionally, our ally Saudi Arabia routinely beheads people, and chop off hands as forms of punishment.
you wouldn't understand what liberals want.
It deals with things like acceptance of others, historical accuracy, honesty, dignified and intellectual debate.
I know how the right struggles with those concepts.
They don't struggle WITH those concepts...they struggle to BURY them!
[Deleted. Off topic-Sitemonitor]
You are wrong on every point there sparky...
Seeing as you're not able to discern it from previous comments:
If someone, say a guy named Duece, were to approach me and say, "Hey, did you know that Katie Schieffer-Brokaw has a tape that shows Candidate X meeting with Terrorist Ooga Ali Bin-Boogiedown," my answer would be:
1. What does the tape show, and have you seen it?
2. How did you learn of it?
3. What are your sources?
If you were interviewed and had NO FACTS, just a bunch of 'it's clear there's something fishy here' and 'there are serious and legitimate questions that need to be asked,' you would be rightly regarded as having no standing.
Having failed to 'make your point,' you then take the out of accusing the people who didn't stoop to play your little game, and throw in the old 'tax and spend' garbage, doubly useless when we're facing a crashing economy and spiraling debt.
No, Sir, it's you who have failed utterly at conducting any form of intellectual discourse. It's you that have engaged in dishonest questions and evasions, and when you can't sandbag the C&L regulars, you stoop to weak political namecalling.
I would say people have to wait until after some kind of observation or testing of Ashley Todd. That's pretty much routine in cases like this. She could possibly be an o/c cutter. The mentally ill are as discriminated against in this country as any other minorities.
with open disclosure...so...let's see ALL of McCain's medical records, ALL of the closed testimony comprised during the troopergate investigation, Palin's medical records, her connections to Sen. Stevens, McCain's closed records on the Forrestal investigation, McCain's involvement in Congressional Hearings regarding MIAs in Viet Nam, McCain's closed files on the Keating Five....
want me to go on?
Thank you!
i love you right now. would love it if someone actually did open all those files.
just imagine: documented vs conjecture--what a concept!
wanna know the difference between a hero and a traitor? its not lipstick, it's the disclosure.
Absolutely! How about the tapes/records of McCain's collaboration with the enemy re: making propaganda tapes for N. Vietnam? How come we can't see those?
Because it proves only one thing: McCain has only ever been out for himself. He's not patriot, he's a coward.
What did happen with that story about mcgramps and Victoria Isemann?
Oh yeah, I guess we don't need to dig up a dirty story to help us.
(Him being so chummy with lobbyist like her and on his campaign staff are a different matter all together.)
Release the tape Period.
Its a video of Deuce morbidly obese in his underwear lip syncing Hannah Montana songs.
...all over the country. People are hurting, losing jobs, homes, health benefits, savings, and you clowns are stuck on stupid TMZ stories.
No solutions, just bullshit attacks.
What is worse, the LAT, a private institution not releasing a tape of which the contents were described, though I admit if they are hiding something that wouldn't matter much.
OR
The govt breaking the law to cover-up a car accident McCain was involved in?
Okay, release the tape. What does that signify?
That Obama has been in the same room with Bill Ayers? Hate to break it to you, but that works against a large swath of Chicago politics. I will not condone Ayers' work with the Weather Underground, but he has since redeemed himself. He is a distinguished scholar, has won Citizen of the Year and has served on the board of directors for a philanthropic foundation. The whole basis of this slur implies terrorist activity right now, which like so many other Republican smears, is not based in fact.
But if you insist on this "guilt by association" then will you similarly condemn the video of McCain with G. Gordon Liddy? How about Ahmad Chalabi? Charles Keating?
Will you demand the health records of a 72 year old man (whose father died at 70) with a history of melanoma?
Will you find out why he's sought to suppress his records as a POW? I think that knowing whether the president has sought treatment for PTSD or has NEVER sought treatment is a critical one.
How about his gambling? Will you demand to know why that doesn't show up on his taxes? Doesn't that speak to his character?
To bring this back to THE TOPIC (something a little too nuanced for you), will you demand to know why someone in the McCain's Pennsylvania office knew about Ashley Todd's attacks before the police and called the media to report it?
Or do your standards merely lie with the partisan attempt to create a controversy to hide a campaign swirling down the toilet?
... of rain last Monday does not mean it never rains on Mondays, or that there's some ethereal agency conspiring to keep it from raining on Monday.
Your premise is flawed. "The LAT won't release the tape, therefore there must be something damaging to Obama on it, because we all know he was engaged in terrorist snuggle-bunnies with Bill Ayers in a hidden bomb-making workshop."
You can't prove the bit about terrorist snuggle-bunnies, of course, so if a secret tape isn't being released, it must clearly contain the evidence you so desperately need.
On the other hand, McCain NOT releasing his records is not the same thing, because we do know, and it is reported as fact that he has suffered from malignant melanoma in the past.
With a farewell dinner given for a renowned middle east scholar as he leaves the U of C for I believe it's Dartmouth. Because I have no problem with Obama toasting someone the McCain FUNDED. Go ahead, release it.
Keith Olbermann has a tape, of what
Kaopectate?
I have to admit I'm a little concerned that this election won't end next Tuesday. Although I know the outcome I want, in either case, passions have been stoked too high over it.
I saw a news story yesterday on telly, that here in Texas sales of automatic weapons are going up. The buyers and sellers sounded reasonable enough. They expect if Obama wins, they'll be harder to get and more expensive. Some are hoping they will get more expensive and see them as investments.
However, the way the political bickering is going now days, I almost expect a cross-fire.
Let him repeat his bullshit.
Ignore him...I'm gonna do my best to ignore him. Now }:)>
are of a cocktail party involving poetry reading.
How subversive!!
Ya see...Obama needed to be at a real conservative cocktail party...involving caviar, hookers and white guys lighting cigars with $10 bills.
No Dominican boys and Viagra?
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/10/27/ashley-t...
In March, Ms. Todd was asked to leave a grass-roots group of Ron Paul supporters in Brazos County, Texas, group leader Dustan Costine said. He said Ms. Todd posed as a supporter of former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and called the local Republican committee seeking information about its campaign strategies.
"She would call the opposing campaign and pretend she was on their campaign to get information," Mr. Costine said last night. "We had to remove her because of the tactics she displayed. After that we had nothing to do with her."
About a month earlier, he said, Ms. Todd sent an e-mail to the Ron Paul group saying her tires were slashed and that campaign paraphernalia had been stolen from her car because she supported Mr. Paul. "She's the type of person who wants to be recognized," Mr. Costine said.
Thanks JetSetter!
Yeah...she's GOT to be a loony if she's a Ron Paul campaign reject...
Way to pick 'em McSpain!
There may be a tape of McCain fellating Charles Keating balls during a cocktail party held in the vault of a Keating S&L. $100 dollar bills were used as napkins and $5 bills as toilet paper.
Neil Bush was allegedly there and he was reliving himself on a copy of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.
But, the source of the tape has requested that it not be released.
See..how easy was that.
I know, Keith Olbermann has a tape-worm.
That always makes me cranky.
)O(
The only thing I'm curious about is whether "Duece" realizes he's misspelled Deuce. While we all make typos from time to time very few consistently misspell their own name.
Too funny!!!
I'm not Deuce Bigalow.
I thought Adam Sandler was a Republican
You're not?
I don't.
I just spell mine the way it sounds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQzvGWoXgSI
the tape isn't about Ayers.
The issue is that the poetry and discussion was anti-Israel in nature. And that the rhetoric was..quote...Ahmanijanizad-like in its intensity..unquote..in other words...a veiled reference to calling for the destruction of Israel.
This whole thing is about ONE THING...the Jewish vote in Florida.
It is so utterly transparent...that it's childlike.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/10/29/mcca...
I'm sure that there's some anti-Jewish slur in their as well, I just want Duece to say what it would prove.
Isn't that the liberal doctrine? The people got to know.
The Huffington PostOctober 29, 2008
McCain Funded Work Of Palestinian His Campaign Hopes To Tie To Obama
The latest guilt-by-association target that the McCain campaign is using to hit Barack Obama could carry some collateral damage for its own candidate.
As Politico's Ben Smith reported on Tuesday, the McCain campaign is demanding that the Los Angeles Times release video in its possession of a party attended by Barack Obama and Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi.
In regards to Khalidi, however, the guilt-by-association game burns John McCain as well.
During the 1990s, while he served as chairman of the International Republican Institute (IRI), McCain distributed several grants to the Palestinian research center co-founded by Khalidi, including one worth half a million dollars.
A 1998 tax filing for the McCain-led group shows a $448,873 grant to Khalidi's Center for Palestine Research and Studies for work in the West Bank. (See grant number 5180, "West Bank: CPRS" on page 14 of this PDF.)
The relationship extends back as far as 1993, when John McCain joined IRI as chairman in January. Foreign Affairs noted in September of that year that IRI had helped fund several extensive studies in Palestine run by Khalidi's group, including over 30 public opinion polls and a study of "sociopolitical attitudes."
Of course, there's seemingly nothing objectionable with McCain's organization helping a Palestinian group conduct research in the West Bank or Gaza. But it does suggest that McCain could have some of his own explaining to do as he tries to make hay out of Khalidi's ties to Obama.-------------Seth Colter Walls,Huff Po,October28,2008
Is this about Khalidi? Jesus...Duecebag. Do you realize under McCain's chairmanship the International Republican Institute repeatedly funded an organization Khalidi founded, the Center for Palestine Research and Studies... to the tune of about half a million dollars.
The Swamp - In reporting on Obama's presence at the dinner for Khalidi,'' the Times reported, "the article noted that some speakers expressed anger at Israel and at U.S. foreign policy, but that Obama in his comments called for finding common ground.''
McCain repeated the call in an interview with a Cuban radio station,
Cuba - FLORIDA
Hannity and Levin were apoplectic about this yesterday...and screaming about Iran and Israel, Obama, Iran, Israel...
Oh...and thanks for the news report blurb.
I know what MCCAIN'S MOTIVES are...I'm asking Duece what his are.
With all the tapes in circulation of people screaming every filty epithet their puny minds can grasp at mcgramps/palin campaign stops, one would have to be awful selective to take offense at anything else.
I get gone now so I can hopefully finish a novel that sucks
Dracula.
Have you ever read Christopher Moore?
He has a very funny vampire novel called You Suck. He also has one called Lamb that sounds like it might be up your alley. It's a novel in the point of view of Jesus's best friend, Biff. It actually does a great job of exploring comparative religions through the years that we don't hear about Jesus in the Bible.
I might need to check that out. But I've been working on a novel in my head from 1980-1992 sorting it out, 1992-1995 writing it, and only last year started editing it. It too is a comedy about vampires.
I keep getting the wind knocked out of me by the appearance of The Lost Boys, the 1992 Dracula movie because I had fangs "unsheathing" and resheathing (I started typing the book in July of that year and a few months later the movie was released). Now I've just recently learned of the Vampire Empire series of books and wonder if it might be the death blow of my book.
People I've let read portions of it thought it was borderline pornagraphic because of the level of sex and violence. My film instructor said so of the first chapter and I laughed and said, "If you think that's bad, you should see the rest of the chapters." It also unnerved him that when I would go into a moody stretch he never knew whether it was going to lead to something sickening violent or to a punchline.
Of course mine is a comedy though that ends in tragedy and madness.
Nicole Belle
I know what MCCAIN'S MOTIVES are...I'm asking Duece what his are.
The site monitor yelled at me. : 0 (
I'm goin' home. I don't wanna play anymore.
LOL!
I miss all the good stuff.
Duece still won't answer me either....:(
I guess he didn't really want to discuss it.
My Mom asked me to clean the litter box.
What was your question?
I responded to your off topic thread hijack.
I still don't know what it signifies.
wasn't a big fuss about this LAT issue with liberals. I couldn't get any answers until filthyharry backed into it.
Does ANYONE expect a vampire to donate blood?
During World War II Bela Lugosi volunteered to give blood to the Red Cross, and they even made a mini-film of it to encourage others to give to the war-cause.
It was very tongue and cheek, seemed to confuse werewolves and vampires, he was in a short sleeved plaid shirt, smiling pleasantly as he eats a donut after his donation. So it was also an opportunity besides doing something for the country he loved, to playing down the vampire image.
http://www.youtube.com/user/machosauceproduction
what does this have to do with anyone?
Are you Zo?
..and thought he had a lot of good points.
For someone who has hijacked this thread demanding others respond to you in the way you deem acceptable, you sure don't hold yourself to the same standards.
Curious, that.
They can't help but have double-standards...it's in their very nature.
I'm bouncing all over this thread.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCkkwNxpcbY
Duece still won't answer me either....:(
I guess he didn't really want to discuss it.
Maybe he made like Warner Wolf...and went to the video tape!
I meant to emphasize. I'm quite confident I understand McCain's motives.
And I'm not a site monitor. Those guys beat me up on occasion too. You should see some of the emails that go back and forth.
I haven't read the whole thread yet...but...Has ANYONE from the McCain campaign issued ANY comment?
Ashley Todd should be in a cold, dark cell right now.
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