WASHINGTON – The Obama administration threw open the curtain on years of Bush-era secrets Monday, revealing anti-terror memos that claimed exceptional search-and-seizure powers and divulging that the CIA destroyed nearly 100 videotapes of interrogations and other treatment of terror suspects.
The Justice Department released nine legal opinions showing that, following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Bush administration determined that certain constitutional rights would not apply during the coming fight. Within two weeks, government lawyers were already discussing ways to wiretap U.S. conversations without warrants.
Sen. Barack Obama will defeat Sen. John McCain to become the next U.S. president, CNN projects. Projected wins in West Coast states helped give the Democrat the magic number of electoral votes.
WASHINGTON – With voters’ increased confidence in his ability to serve as commander in chief, as well as a majority who now believe he would do a good job as president, Barack Obama has opened up his biggest advantage over John McCain in the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
With two weeks to go until Election Day, Obama now leads his Republican rival by 10 points among registered voters, 52 to 42 percent, up from 49 to 43 percent two weeks ago.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama is canceling nearly all his campaign events Thursday and Friday to fly to Hawaii to visit his suddenly ill 85-year-old grandmother, his spokesman said.
John McCain didn’t just fail to get the game-changer he needed — he was trounced in this third and final debate, if the instant post-debate polling provides any indication.
The results over at CBS show Obama to have scored the biggest victory to date: “Fifty-three percent of the uncommitted voters surveyed identified Democratic nominee Barack Obama as the winner of tonight’s debate. Twenty-two percent said Republican rival John McCain won. Twenty-four percent saw the debate as a draw.”
It is, the site writes, “a clean sweep” for the Illinois Democrat.
Iraq and the United States have finally agreed on a security pact which would mean that US forces would withdraw from Iraq by 2011, American and Iraqi officials said yesterday.
The accord became a major test of strength between the Iraqi government and Washington since negotiations began in March with the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, pictured below, demanding US concessions on the date of the troop withdrawal and immunity for US troops. The pact replaces the UN Security Council resolution enacted after the American invasion of 2003.
The agreement still needs to be approved by the council of Iraqi leaders, the cabinet and the Iraqi parliament. Mr Maliki saw the highly influential Shia religious leader, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, last week and was assured that he would not stand in the way of the pact if approved by parliament.
For free? Move over Ted Stevens, John McCain is up to bat!
This isn’t funny. That would be an illegal corporate contribution to the McCain campaign. And it’s bribery of a sitting US Senator. Especially after AT&T admits that this is why they gave McCain the free goods – BECAUSE he’s running for president. Are they mad? John McCain wasn’t the Republican candidate yet – and even if he were, corporations can’t donate free favors to his campaign – McCain was one of the many men running for the GOP nomination. (And did AT&T and Verizon offer these donations to other presidential candidates – I’ll bet lots of candidates don’t get good cell coverage at one of their 12 homes.) McCain was a nobody, campaign-wise – how does his being simply a candidate justify AT&T and Verizon giving him a huge illegal bribe? Are AT&T and Verizon stupid?
WASHINGTON — Why exactly would anybody want this job?
The candidate who wins the White House on Nov. 4 will face the most calamitous economy for any new president since Franklin Roosevelt took over amid the Depression in 1933. He’ll assume command of the biggest wartime deployment of U.S. troops since Richard Nixon was sworn in during the Vietnam War in 1969.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose reformer image took a hit in a report concluding she abused her powers to settle a family score, has skirted state ethics rules before for personal benefit and used her office to help friends and supporters, according to an Associated Press review of records.
Palin’s first try at statewide office, after six years as mayor of Wasilla, was an unsuccessful run for lieutenant governor in 2002. To raise money, she improperly used her City Hall office and equipment, city records show. A year later she would make headlines by blasting a fellow Republican for, among other things, improperly using his government position to boost his campaign.
Last week we noted unconfirmed sightings of an “Obama for President” billboard in the Xbox 360 racing game Burnout Paradise. Today we’re able to report that it is, in fact, an official advertisement placed by the senator’s campaign team. “I can confirm that the Obama campaign has paid for in-game advertising in Burnout,” Holly Rockwood, director of corporate communications at Electronic Arts, the game’s publisher, told me via email, noting that EA regularly allows ad placements in their online games. “Like most television, radio and print outlets, we accept advertising from credible political candidates,” she continued. “Like political spots on the television networks, these ads do not reflect the political policies of EA or the opinions of its development teams.”
Obama holds a more than 20-point edge when it comes to understanding voters’ needs and problems, with 64 percent saying Obama does and 43 percent saying McCain does.
The Republican nominee does hold a clear advantage on being seen as prepared to be president, as he has throughout the campaign. That measure does not appear to be boosting his support, however, perhaps because while 64 percent say McCain is prepared for the job, more than half say Obama is as well.
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Special Comment: Control your campaign, Senator!
October 15, 2008Keith Olbermann delivered a scathing, empassioned Special Comment tonight, calling out John McCain and Sarah Palin’s dangerous, out-of-control hate rallies and their responsibility for stoking them.
http://crooksandliars.com/silentpatriot/special-comment-control-your-campaig
Posted in Election 2008 | Tagged Barack Obama, Barack Obama presidential campaign 2008, John McCain, keith olbermann, Obama McCain, politics, Sarah Palin, special comment | Leave a Comment »