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Now if this isn’t just plain peachy…

Gwen Ifill, the PBS reporter who’s show of disgust and disdain for Sarah Palin during her acceptance speech resulted in scores of complaints to PBS Ombudsman, Michael Getler, is moderating the Vice Presidential debate on Thursday. She’s also writing a pro-Obama book, “The Breakthrough,” scheduled for release on election day.

From WorldNetDaily:

Gwen Ifill, of the Public Broadcasting Service program called “Washington Week,” is promoting “The Breakthrough,” in which she argues the “Black political structure” of the civil rights movement is giving way to men and women who have benefited from those struggles over racial equality.

Ifill moderated the debate 4 years ago between John Edwards and Vice President Dick Cheney. It wasn’t pretty for Cheney, who also got treated with a bit of “attytood” by Ifill.

When cornered on her obvious looks of disgust while reporting on Palin from the convention, Ifill responded, “I assume there will always be critics and ( I ) just shut out the noise. It is surprisingly easy.

Again, WorldNetDaily reports:

Ifill, who also works with PBS’ “NewsHour,” is making preparations to moderate this week’s debate between the two candidates for vice president, and told BlackAmericaWeb.com that she thinks debates “are the best opportunity most voters have to see the candidates speaking to issues.”

She said she is concerned only about getting straight answers from candidates.

“You do your best to get candidates to answer your question. But I also trust the viewers to understand when questions are not answered and reach their own conclusions,” Ifill told BlackAmericaWeb.

“Four years ago, when neither John Edwards nor Dick Cheney proved capable of answering a question about the domestic epidemic of AIDS among African-American women, viewers flooded me with reaction,” she said.

She said she will make her own decisions about what questions to ask, and “the big questions matter.”

I guess the MSM already has this one in the bag for Biden…Sarah needs to be well versed on “African American” issues, among other things, if she wants to win this debate.

I can only begin to speculate on the lopsidedness of the questions that will be asked of the two candidates Thursday:

“Governor Palin, what do you think the U.S. government needs to do to quell the spread of AIDS in the lower grades in African American charter schools, and do you think that better school lunch programs will educate the children in a positive needle exchange program, or do we just give them bleach and how does this differ with the programs initiated in the Inuit community in your home state of Alaska? You have 30 seconds to respond.”

“Senator Biden…What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream? Take all the time you need, Senator.”

Read the entire WorldNetDaily article by clicking the link below:

VP debate moderator Ifill releasing pro-Obama book

*****UPDATE*****

I received this comment this morning. Feel free to bombard this woman with emails demanding they pull Gwen Ifill as moderator of this debate.

Wednesday’s Child said…I just emailed the Executive Commissioner for the debates and demanded they pull Ifill as moderator. Her name is Janet Brown, email address is jb@debates.org or you can call and raise hell with the commission at 202-872-1020.

It’s time for another Boston Tea Party!

I’ve just sent the following email to Janet Brown…feel free to use it ias a basis for your own email to her:

Dear Ms. Brown.

I am writing to ask you to pull Gwen Ifill as moderator for the vice presidential debate.

Ms. Ifill has written a book touting the accomplishments of Barack Obama, scheduled to be released on election day. Having such a partisan person moderating a debate in what may just be the most important election in our country’s history is not only wrong, it’s akin to stacking the deck in favor of one candidate over another. It reeks of cheating.

Please do the right thing, in the spirit of fairness.

The world is watching, Ms. Brown. Bloggers are picking up on this story as I write this email…what will you do?

Sincerely,

Bill Shaw
writemarsh@gmail.com
writemarsh.blogspot.com

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Bishop Joseph Martino of the diocese of Scranton has brought up the election in his pastoral letter for the upcoming Respect Life Sunday.

Here are two important quotes from the letter:

While the Church assists the State in the promotion of a just society, its primary concern is to assist men and women in achieving salvation. For this reason, it is incumbent upon bishops to correct Catholics who are in error regarding these matters. Furthermore, public officials who are Catholic and who persist in public support for abortion and other intrinsic evils should not partake in or be admitted to the sacrament of Holy Communion. As I have said before, I will be vigilant on this subject.

My dear friends, I beg you not to be misled by confusion and lies. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, does not ask us to follow him to Calvary only for us to be afraid of contradicting a few bystanders along the way. He does not ask us to take up his Cross only to have us leave it at the voting booth door. Recently, Pope Benedict XVI said that “God is so humble that he uses us to spread his Word.” The gospel of life, which we have the privilege of proclaiming, resonates in the heart of every person – believer and non-believer – because it fulfills the heart’s most profound desire. Let us with one voice continue to speak the language of love and affirm the right of every human being to have the value of his or her life, from conception to natural death, respected to the highest degree.

October is traditionally the month of the Rosary. Let us pray the Rosary for the strength and fortitude to uphold the truths of our faith and the requirements of our law to all who deny them. And, let us ask Our Lady to bless our nation and the weakest among us.

May Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Lord of Life, pray for us.

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John, I am reminded of  Jill Greenberg’s photos of crying babies to be used in an anti-Bush campaign.  Ms. Greenberg, who was noted most recently for her doctored up cover photo of John McCain for Atlantic Monthly, provoked the children into crying by taking away toys or candy.  She called it “manipulation”.  Others called it “abuse”.  But apparently the parents were all at the shoot and, according to Greenberg, they were all “fine with it.”

And I’m sure, as the great hug fest indicates at the end, all of these parents were “fine with” their children being “manipulated” for political purposes.

The song itself is tuneless and forgettable, but I guess we’re supposed to ignore that and say, “Awwww, look how cute those little tykes are when they are beng exploited.”

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I sure hope they didn’t serve Kool-Aid to these kids:

Exit question: Is this just freaky-deaky and cult-like or does it cross the line into child abuse?

Exit question 2: The events of this movie happened on a Sunday afternoon. Considering that it’s likely that at least some of the children are Christians, did this happen after church or instead of church? Or perhaps in place of church?

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How did I miss this earlier? YEAH, STEELERS!!! Heinz Field was rockin’ after that second TD!

Man, did the Ravens blow it or what?! The game was all theirs and they completely let it slip through their fingers. It was even worse than when the Eagles failed to TD on that 2nd and 1 (and Goal) the other day. *Ahem*

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Congress takes the day off and the market rebounds 500 points.  Coincidence?  I think not.

It kind of flies in the face of all of that manufactured urgency of the past week, doesn’t it?  Maybe the solution to the financial crisis really is to let the markets shake out for themselves.

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Alex, are you just trying to be cute again?

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They couldn’t get him for dinner, but they get him for lunch…. or brunch…. or a cup of coffee.

Friday. Details unknown.

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Great, GREAT new ads! Put the blame for our economic 9/11 where it belongs – on the Democrats who demanded that banks lend to people who couldn’t afford it, and then spent years blocking any attempt to fix the problems before they boiled over into this financial nightmare!

And this disaster makes Obama’s entire economic plan a big pile of useless garbage. So when we’re in a recession, Obama’s going to punish big business? Are you kidding me? You want to cause a Depression? Then you kick businesses when they’re down, which is EXACTLY what Obama wants to do!

Obama’s taxes on “the rich” will almost certainly destroy a number of businesses, putting thousands if not millions of people out of work. But don’t worry – he’s going to steal enough money from the oil companies to give everyone in the middle class a $1000 tax cut. So, have fun with that tax cut when you’re unemployed and are waiting in lines for $10 a gallon gas because Obama has driven the oil companies to the brink of bankruptcy.

Obama, a socialist, is exactly what we DON’T need right now. McCain, who I opposed throughout the primaries as everyone knows, is apparently exactly what we DO need. Why? Because he’s a bipartisan reformer. He is probably one of the only people who can lead us out of this disaster.

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Yet another quality ad from the McCain camp.

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Another McCain / Palin ad running in swing states, including our own.

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This story is of particular interest to me, as I am both a scout parent (Scraps is a First Class scout), and a troop committee member/mentor.

It looks like the Boy Scouts Cradle of Liberty Chapter has the city back in it’s sights.

A judge has ruled that the lawsuit brought against the city does have Constitutional merit on First Amendment issues.

The lawsuit was filed in Federal court this past May by Cradle of Liberty (COL), just prior to the city ordering the scouting organization to vacate the building that the scouts built and gave to the city, in return for rent of $1.00 a year.

The city, in it’s infinite wisdom, decided that because the boy scouts do not permit openly gay people in leadership positions, they have violated the city’s Fair Practices Ordinance. the outcome? Revoke the trust agreement and charge the COL full market value rent on a building that the Scouts GAVE TO THE CITY IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!!!!

Egregious, no?

The City of Philadelphia is going to lose this case. Why? Because, Nutter cut funding to youth programs paid for by tax dollars. The scouts take no monies from the city to run their organization. By taking the headquarters, and/or charging an outrageous amount of rent to the COL, the city is effectively taking non-tax dollars away from a youth program that works. It would be in their best interests to let it go and continue their agreement with the COL as if nothing has happened.

As far as the COL being solely discriminatory? The City gives the Daughters of the American Revolution (a society that excludes those who cannot trace their lineage to the Revolutionary war) cheap rent for two Fairmount Park buildings to use as their headquarters. In the grand scheme of things, this, too is discrimination.

Click on the link below to read the latest from the Philadelphia Daily News on this developing story:

Court advances Boy Scouts suit against the city

Cross posted on writemarsh!

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Ok… that was a hell of a kick.

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The Democrats allowed the bill to fail. They did not want to bear the electoral consquences of it, so they attempted to blame the GOP. All fine and dandy as far I am concerned, becuase whether Pelosi’s attempt to rewrite history works or not, the GOP still comes out better. Further evidence that the Demorats didn’t want this to pass is that they were telling the media before the bailout failed that it would not reach the Senate until Wednesday at the earliest. If the Democrats had wanted the legislation, they would convened on the weekend and passed it then.

I am hearing that the House is adjourning until Thursday. This means it is very possible there will be no bailout, at least for the next several months. There are virgins to be sacrificed on Wall Street, and it is likely that there will be several more high-profile failures over the next two weeks. The bright side is that the bloodshed will last only about two weeks absent any government intervention, and many analysts believe that the market could recover to current levels by mid-December. I would expect the Dow to have similar losses for the next week or so, and it should hopefully end at about 7500 or 8000.

There is a chance for McCain here. With the failure of the bipartisan effort, there is now a chance that the Democrats will try to force through legislation that has all of the goodies of last week. The House GOP will not yield on pressure, as seen today. If Bush signs that bill, as I expect him to, McCain should come out in opposition to it. This would allow him to run against everyone in Washington and I believe he would get an immediate bump in the polls. I personally don’t think the Democrats will take that chance.

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A reader writes to Jay Nordlinger on NRO’s The Corner:

Just thought I’d send some thoughts from small-business America. My husband’s business is a canary in the coalmine. When tax policies are favorable to business, he hires more guys, buys more goods, etc. When he is taxed more heavily, he fires people, doesn’t buy anything new, etc. Well, duh. So, at the mere thought of a President Obama, he has paid off his debt, canceled new spending, and jotted a list of whom to “let go.”

 

The first of the guys will get the news tomorrow. And these are not minimum-wage earners. These are “rich” guys, making between $200,000 and $250,000 a year.

 

My husband will make sure that we’re okay, money-wise, but he won’t give himself a paycheck that will just be sent to Washington. He’ll make sure that he’s not in “rich guy” tax territory. So, he will not spend his money, not show a profit, and scale his workforce down to the bare minimum.

 

Multiply this scenario across the country and you’ll see the Obama effect: unemployment, recession, etc. No business owner will vote for this man, but many a “middle-class worker” will vote himself out of a job. Sad the Republican can’t articulate this. 

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A must-watch. Every American should see this video:

RNC, make an ad out of this. NOW.

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Here’s how Pa legislators voted:

For:

Robert Brady, Michael Doyle, Chaka Fattah, Paul Kanjorski, Patrick Murphy, John Murtha, John Peterson, Allyson Schwartz, Joe Sestak

Against:

Jason Altmire, Christopher Carney, Charles Dent, Philip English, Jim Gerlach, Tim Holden, Tim Murphy, Joe Pitts, Todd Platts, Bill Shuster

Republicans in bold.

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Running in Pennsylvania.

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Obama is moving out to a big lead in most polls and the real numbers are probably even worse for McCain than the polls show. The reason — the polls don’t include enough Obama supporters. The Mystery Pollster (Mark Blumenthal) explains why here.

It looks as though it’s gonna be a long, hard, mean four years wandering in the wilderness.

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Ok, the bailout is going to go through.  I still think this will have negative long term consequences.  The part that is especially troubling to me is the reasoning behind the bailout – not even the arguments about CEO pay or anything like that.  The statements that are troubling to me are statements about how we need to save our credit system.

Here’s the most recent example – Rich Galen posted the following statement in his most recent Mullings:

I have two Amex cards – one for business use one for personal – a Visa ATM card and a MasterCard. Four. Which, according to an article in the San Jose Mercury News is the number the average American has in his or her wallet.

In fact, there are just short of a BILLION Visa, MasterCard and American Express cards in circulation in the US representing a total debt a little shy of a TRILLION dollars.

Credit cards have been the fuel behind the extraordinary growth in the US economy which has been largely based upon consumer spending.

I’m all for economic growth.  I fully embrace the free market system – which is why I think this bailout is a bad deal.

My problem is this – have we allowed ourselves to grow the economy on money that was not there?  This statement is troubling to me because what it tells me is that the only way our economy can grow is by keeping people in debt.  How is that a good thing?

Debt can be good – it’s how we “buy” our homes because who has a couple hundred thousand dollars laying around to actually buy a home.  I’m not against credit.  I’m against the mentality that says gee I don’t have the $4 for a cup of coffee, I’ll just put it on a credit card.  The $4 cup of coffee turns out to be a $20 cup of coffee after you finally pay it off.  There is no self-restraint for long term gratificition.  It’s all short term gratification and that is very dangerous.  If we are all short term in our thinking about wants and needs, then we are in big trouble.  A $700 billion bailout won’t solve the problem – it will make it worse because it will enable people to continue to live beyond their means, stay in crushing debt, and suffer the consequences of that debt.

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