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Enthusiastic crowd listens intently to Sen. Sam Brownback at campaign event in New Hampshire



Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) addresses students and faculty at St. Anselm College in Manchester, NH yesterday.

According to the school's website, Sen. Brownback was to speak on social security reform at the Roman Catholic college. Brownback is a Roman Catholic. One would think that in the spirit of charity, they could have gotten a few more students to show up, sort of as a sympathy gesture.

I guess this is good news for John McCain. If he thought his campaign was dead, all he has to do is look at Brownback's campaign to feel better immediately. Of course, McCain has been reduced to speaking before captive high school student body audiences lately. One boy asked McCain if he didn't think he was too old to be running for president. McCain concluded his response with "thanks for the question, you little jerk. You're drafted." Of course, McCain was supposed to be joking but there is not doubt that he wasn't thrilled with that question being the exchange that made it onto all of the network news programs.

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Originally Posted by Aragorn

Well I'm still throwing my hard earned money, not to mention my efforts, into the Ron Paul coffers. I just...<GAK> registered Republican just so I can vote for him in the Primary. My wife and I are going to see about becoming delegates.

Don't get your hopes up. Ron Paul has absolutely no chance whatsoever of winning the nomination. People vote for him in the online polls following the televised debates based on his colorful comments and the fact that his positions are in opposition to the other Republican candidates. Because he's a non-interventionist, he's all in favor of withdrawing troops from Iraq and Afghanistan immediately.

It's one thing to be a non-interventionist and to be in favor of a reduced federal government but Paul wants to practically abolish the federal government. He wants to abolish the IRS and the Federal Reserve System. He supports the right of citizens to peacefully resist paying income taxes if they don't agree with government policies.

He wants to make Social Security participation optional. A young person entering the work force would have the option of signing up for Social Security or not. If not, they would be entirely on their own to save for their retirement or possible disability. In other words, he wants to take us back to the Hoover administration.

He's against any form of universal health care. He believes that taxpayers should receive tax credits instead and then they would be free to pay for their health care from private hospitals. He also favors abolishing all VA hospitals.

He wants to repeal the 17th Amendment. That's the one that allows the citizens of each state to vote for their state's U.S. senators instead of having them selected by the state legislature or governors as was done in the beginning of our country. Paul wants to go back to having U.S. senators selected by state legislatures instead of by a vote of the people.

He wants to immediately withdraw from NATO, the United Nations and the World Trade Organization. He wants to close most U.S. military bases abroad. He wants to abolish the CIA and most cabinet positions.

He wants absolutely no U.S. intervention in any other countries under any circumstances. In other words, situations like Darfur call for a U.S. resolution of concern according to Paul but no action on the part of the U.S. This is really a radical position. Of course, if we were no longer a member of the U.N. or NATO, any intervention by the U.S. would be unilateral and chances of success would be diminished. Paul said he wants no entangling alliances with other countries. In other words, he's a classical isolationist in the truest sense of the term.

The bottom line is that Ron Paul is still a Libertarian. He's also a full year older than John McCain. McCain would be 72 when elected, Paul would be 73.

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The Republican candidates had a debate tonight on Fox

They started out by commenting on the absence of former Sen. Fred Thompson, who chose to tape his announcement earlier this afternoon for broadcast tonight on Jay Leno's show. John McCain said it was because they were probably up past Fred's bedtime. McCain is six years older than Frederick of Hollywood.

They agreed that the surge in Iraq is working. McCain criticized Romney for saying it is "apparently working." McCain said it is positively working. Period. Romney said we should wait until after Gen. Petraeus and Amb. Crocker deliver their "report" to Congress first before reaching any conclusions. Ron Paul, of course, wants to bring the troops home immediately, but he's always the odd man out at these Republican debates.

The GOP candidates are all pretty much in agreement (except for Paul, of course) that we should maintain the surge as long as necessary to complete the mission. We should not leave Iraq until the job is finished. When asked if they're willing to stay in Iraq "indefinitely," the response was overwhelming yes.

Tancredo criticized all of the other candidates for being late to the anti-illegal immigration weenie roast. He's more anti-illegal immigration than all of them put together. He got very emotional when he scolded his fellow Republicans for being soft on immigration. In fact, he even wants to impose a freeze on all legal immigration but they didn't ask him about that tonight.

Giuliani criticized the leading Democratic candidates for their lack of experience. Rudy said none of the Democratic candidates can hold a candle to his experience. None of the Democrats has ever run a major city or a state or even a large corporation. Rudy said his personal life has nothing to do with his job performance. He didn't say anything about it reflecting on his character, just his job performance.

Many of the other candidates were picking on Rudy tonight. In particular, they got on him about his illegal alien-friendly policies when he was mayor of New York City. Rudy said that was because he had more than 400,000 illegal aliens in New York City and he had to be nice to them so that they would help the police identify the bad illegal aliens -- the ones who committed crimes. And besides, Rudy didn't want 60,000 illegal alien children running around on the streets getting into trouble, so that's why he was all in favor of providing all the well-behaved illegal aliens with services. I'm not being critical of Rudy's policies in dealing with New York City's large illegal alien population, I'm just pointing out that the other GOP candidates thought this was some sort of mortal sin or something.

The Democrats were very wise to decline an invitation to appear on Fox. That would have been a disaster. This is so totally a propaganda arm of the Republican Party.

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Frederick of Hollywood

YouTube video clip of Fred Thompson during his 1994 senatorial campaign. Looks like Freddie's sensitive to the fact that his old red pickup truck was rented for him by his campaign as a Hollywood prop and he doesn't like having the people of Tennessee reminded that he spent the previous two decades as a highly-paid Washington lobbyist for foreign interests.

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The Real Rudy

YouTube video clip of Rudy Giuliani lying his ass off to Chris Wallace of Fox News. Notice that even Fox News knows he's lying but when they call him on it, Rudy just laughs it off.

They're asking him why he located the emergency command center on the 23rd floor of the World Trade Center in spite of the fact that all of his department heads advised against it. Rudy lies and tells Chris that his department heads recommended that location. Then we see clips of the department heads calling Rudy a liar.

Clip also includes interviews with some policemen and firemen and families of the victims of 9/11. In the video clip, they say Rudy located the emergency command center in the World Trade Center because it was walking distance from his office and because it was a sweetheart deal with one of his major campaign contributors. Another even more personal reason was because Rudy wanted a location close to his office to take his girlfriends for quickies. He had an elaborate private suite at the emergency command center.

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Fred Thompson threw a party in Salt Lake City and only 4 people showed up.

Frederick of Hollywood not drawing so well in Mormonland.

A handful of Utah "Fredheads" - political activists supporting the late entry of Republican Fred Thompson into the presidential sweepstakes - gathered Thursday in Salt Lake City to kick off their campaign for the oldest fresh face in the race.

Just four Thompson supporters showed up at Utah Republican Party headquarters for the event, leaving dozens of untouched cookies and vegetable snacks provided in hopes a much bigger crowd would materialize.

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LARRY FLYNT: "SENATOR DAVID VITTER IS A LIAR."


September 5, 2007

THE HUSTLER PUBLISHER CHALLENGES VITTER:

FORMER NEW ORLEANS ESCORT WENDY CORTEZ, WHO CLAIMED AN AFFAIR WITH VITTER, PASSED A POLYGRAPH TEST. LET’S SEE THE SENATOR DO THE SAME.

In 2002, New Orleans escort Wendy Cortez told local reporters she had an extended affair with U.S. Senator David Vitter in 1999, when he was a Louisiana state representative. The allegations, first reported by political columnist Christopher Tidmore in the Louisiana Weekly, were published anew by the Times-Picayune in the wake of Vitter’s admission that he had called D.C. Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey in 2001. Despite being a self-confessed client of the D.C. Madam, Vitter told the entire country that the stories in the New Orleans press were “not true.”

Suspecting that Vitter was again lying, Larry Flynt sought out Wendy Cortez, whose real name is Wendy Ellis, and flew her to Los Angeles for a lie-detector test. The polygraph examination was conducted by Edward Gelb, recognized by his peers as the leading polygraphist in the country. Asked if she had a sexual relationship with Vitter through a New Orleans escort service for at least four months, Ellis answered in the affirmative. According to Gelb, the result of both the manual and computerized scoring was “NDI,” meaning “no deception indicated, with a probability of deception of less than .01.” In other words, Wendy Ellis passed the test with flying colors.

Larry Flynt has now proven that Vitter repeatedly lied to the American people and is unfit to legislate in their name. When he apologized for “a serious sin” in his past, Vitter glossed over the fact that the D.C. Madam’s phone records show he “sinned” at least five times. Now, with the vindication of Wendy Ellis’s account, we know that Vitter was a frequent patron of “escort” services even before he went to Washington.

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Rachel Maddow talks about Fred Thompson's secret weapon: his sex appeal!

Here.

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Republicans love to pretend that they're the party of reduced government spending and fiscal responsibility. Yeah, right! They're also the party of "family values."

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Frederick of Hollywood explains that he attends church occasionally when in Tennessee but never when he's in Washington, D.C.

Oh, my!

Does this mean the fundies have to reconsider Multiple Choice Mitt?

"I attend church when I'm in Tennessee. I'm in McLean right now,'' he said referring to the Virginia suburb of Washington, where he lives with his wife, Jeri, and their two young children. "I don't attend regularly when I'm up there.''

Thompson, 65, said he usually goes to church when visiting his mother, who attends a Church of Christ in Brentwood, Tennessee, outside of Nashville. Thompson said he isn't a member of any church in the Washington area.

Here.

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Happy Rudy Giuliani Day

Rudy is everywhere today. I can't believe it. He just now rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange. The Dow had a nice day today, up 181. That's a lot better than last Friday when it fell 250.

Oil hit a new record high today, above $78/bbl, because OPEC announced an increase of 500,000 bbls/day in production but the market was expecting an increase of at least a million bbls. Saudi Arabia was only able to force through the half million increase. So oil went up in spite of the fact that OPEC voted to increase production.

Gold is back above $700/oz again. Spot gold closed in New York at $711.10 today. December gold is hovering around $725.

And the dollar hit a 15-year low today. The euro is above $1.38. Heck, the loonie is approaching par with the dollar. It's above 96 cents right now. That's because Canada is a net exporter of oil The loonie has risen about 50% in value against the dollar in the past few years! Canadians are probably making more shopping trips south of the border now than they used to. (P.S. added 9/12/07: The dollar hit an all-time low against the euro today. The euro is above $1.39 for the first time ever. And crude oil is at a new all-time high right now: $79.40/bbl.)

Happy Rudy Giuliani Day. "America's Mayor" is doing his best to appear at as many different places as possible before midnight.

P.S. -- President Bush was disappointed that he wasn't invited to the OPEC summit. Last week in Australia, after Bush screwed up and said he was happy to be at the OPEC summit, he recovered and corrected himself by saying that of course he's at the APEC summit but he will ask Prime Minister Howard to invite him to the next OPEC summit meeting. That obviously didn't work out because neither Australia nor the United States are members of OPEC. Bush later, in the same speech, talked about Howard's visit to the "Austrian" troops in Iraq. A few years ago, Bush referred to the citizens of Greece as the "Grecians." I think Andover ($37,200/yr tuition), Yale and Harvard all owe Poppy a refund.

[zhenya]

I think Andover ($37,200/yr tuition), Yale and Harvard all owe Poppy a refund.

They owe him nothing because he is the one that made a dud. OPEC, APEC.., who can remember all this crap when you have so much fun and Condi is by your side and all that...

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Pay no attention to the following as it will have no effect whatsoever on the GOP's chances of capturing the White House in 2008:

The dollar hit any all-time low today against the euro. The euro is above $1.39 for the first time ever.

Crude oil traded above $80.00/bbl today and closed at a new all-time high of $79.91/bbl in New York.

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Run, Newtie! Run!

The Moonie Times is reporting that Newt Gingrich is moving closer to announcing his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination.

Newtie says he sees an opening in the GOP ranks right now. Evidently there aren't enough hypocritical, family values candidates who are known for their "open and notorious adultery" and Newtie hopes to fill that gap... in more ways than one.

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Queen for a Day!


God save our gracious Queen, long live our noble Queen, God save the Queen.

Yesterday was Rudy's Day. In respect for 9/11 he shut down his website with a notice that 9/11 was not a day for politicking. All of the other candidates from both parties refrained from making any political appearances or appearing at any memorial services, since they rightly felt that that would be seen as a crass attempt to politicize the tragedy of 9/11.

The Queen of 9/11, however, showed up at every possible venue he could squeeze in, including showing up at the official New York 9/11 memorial ceremony where he read some of the victims' names. Rudy said that as a survivor of 9/11 himself, his appearance was a personal appearance and NOT a political appearance. He even joined family members of the 9/11 victims to ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

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Speaking of Rudy and 9/11, we shouldn't forget his police commissioner, Bernie Kerik...



Bernie has fallen on tough times lately but his good pal and former business partner, Rudy Giuliani is sticking with him. On June 30, 2006, Bernie pleaded guilty to a couple of misdemeanor ethics violations (accepting gifts from New Jersey construction companies with alleged mob ties that were attempting to do business with the city) and was ordered to pay $221,000 in fines. The following month, the two New Jersey contractors were indicted on perjury charges and accused of lying to the grand jury in the Kerik investigation.

On March 31, 2007, Kerik rejected a deal offered him by federal prosecutors who are investigating him for tax fraud. It seems they think that Kerik forgot to pay taxes on all those gifts he received from his mob friends. He's also under investigation for conspiracy to eavesdrop on someone's husband who was suspected of having an affair. Bernie rejected the plea bargain the feds offered him because it involved jail time in addition to huge fines. With any luck, Kerik's problems with the IRS will come to a head just before the first GOP primaries.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has removed Kerik's name from the Manhattan Detention Complex, a New York jail that had been renamed in Kerik's honor on December 21, 2001 by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

Mob ties are nothing new to Rudy Giuliani, but every time this topic is raised, Rudy screams that it's anti-Italian American slander. Rudy's father, Harold Giuliani, a convicted violent felon who did prison time for robbery, later worked as a collector for the mayor's mob-tied uncle.

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[schrocat]

ouch.

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Just think of it: Show tunes AND opera! Rudy's ambition was to be another Caruso but he didn't have the vocal talent.

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Originally Posted by Ninong

Help me out here. Is that Joel Grey or Lisa Minelli?

On the right, he looks more like Mae West but I understand that he thinks of himself as Marilyn Monroe, so I guess that's supposed to be Marilyn Monroe as she would have looked if she were alive today.