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Archive for the ‘News’ Category
ROSS GOLDBERG, The New York Sun
The presidential race is tightening in New York State, where Senator Obama’s lead has slipped by 10 points since June.
According to a poll released yesterday, the Democrat leads Senator McCain by 47% to 39%, a healthy advantage that has nevertheless deteriorated significantly over the course of the summer. The poll, conducted by the Siena Research Institute, also indicated that Governor Paterson’s “call to action” on the state’s budget crisis is resonating with voters. Nearly half of them describe New York’s fiscal condition as poor, yet the governor’s approval ratings are increasing.
Mr. Obama is currently eight points ahead of Mr. McCain in New York, down from a 13-point lead in July and an 18-point lead in June. The chairman of Mr. McCain’s New York campaign, Ed Cox, said that the Republican senator is making gains in the state largely because of his credibility on national security issues. (more…)
By Michael Gerson, The Washington Post
It is now clear why Barack Obama has refused John McCain’s offer of joint town hall appearances during the fall campaign. McCain is obviously better at them.
Pastor Rick Warren’s Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency — two hours on Saturday night evenly divided between the relaxed, tieless candidates — was expected to be a sideshow. McCain and Obama would make their specialized appeals to evangelicals as if they were an interest group such as organized labor or the National Rifle Association. Evangelicals would demonstrate, in turn, that they are not rubes and know-nothings. And Americans would turn en masse to watch the Olympics.
What took place instead under Warren’s precise and revealing questioning was the most important event so far of the 2008 campaign — a performance every voter should seek out on the Internet and watch. (more…)
Albany Times Union Editorial
It’s an old and frustrating story, with no resolution in sight. Classic Albany, in other words.
It involves state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and his outside law practice. Mr. Silver, who holds one of the most powerful positions in state government, is also “of counsel” with the Manhattan firm of Weitz & Luxenberg, one of the state’s largest tort law firms. He maintains that his private law practice does not present any conflict of interest with his public responsibilities as a legislative leader. It’s difficult to refute him, because Mr. Silver has seen to it that legislators are required to disclose only the most cursory details of their outside income. (more…)
By Pamela Geller
I have been researching, documenting and studying thousands upon thousands of Obama’s campaign donations for the past month. Egregious abuse was immediately evident and I published the results of my ongoing investigation. Each subsequent post built a more damning case against Obama’s illegal contribution activity.
The media took little notice of what I was substantiating. I went so far as to upload the documents so that anyone could do their own research. I asked readers to download the documents and a number of folks pitched in.
Despite dropping the groundbreaking bombshell story of “Palestinian” brothers from the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza who donated $33,000 to Obama’s campaign, no big media picked up the story. Jihadis donating to Obama from Gaza? Could there be a bigger story? Foreign donations are illegal, but this story was all that and so much more. The “Palestinian” brothers were proud and vocal of their “love” for Obama. Their vocal support on behalf of “Palestinians” spoke volumes to Obama’s campaign.
And yet still no media. (more…)
By John McCain
For anyone who thought that stark international aggression was a thing of the past, the last week must have come as a startling wake-up call. After clashes in the Georgian region of South Ossetia, Russia invaded its neighbor, launching attacks that threaten its very existence. Some Americans may wonder why events in this part of the world are any concern of ours. After all, Georgia is a small, remote and obscure place. But history is often made in remote, obscure places.
As Russian tanks and troops moved through the Roki Tunnel and across the internationally recognized border into Georgia, the Russian government stated that it was acting only to protect Ossetians. Yet regime change in Georgia appears to be the true Russian objective. (more…)
The Associated Press
YORK, Pa. (AP) — Politicians often give long answers to short questions. Republican presidential candidate John McCain did the opposite Tuesday when a woman challenged his conservative fervor.
Speaking to more than 2,000 people in York, Pa., McCain won deafening applause when he answered only ”yes” to the woman, who read her statement from notes.
”We conservatives believe that you dismissed our serious quest for responsible, limited government,” she began. ”In your quest for the presidency, we want to know if it is in you to become a passionate and forceful leader with a conservative agenda to fight the lure of socialistic programs promoted by Sen. (Barack) Obama.” (more…)
Michael Cooper, New York Times
HARRISBURG, Pa. — The intensifying warfare in the former Soviet republic of Georgia has put a new focus on the increasingly hard line that Senator John McCain has taken against Russia in recent years, with stances that have often gone well beyond those of the Bush administration and its focus on engagement.
Mr. McCain has called for expelling what he has called a “revanchist Russia” from meetings of the Group of 8, the organization of leading industrialized nations. He urged President Bush — in vain — to boycott the group’s meeting in St. Petersburg in 2006. And he has often mocked the president’s assertion that he got a sense of the soul of Vladimir V. Putin, who was then Russia’s president and is now its prime minister, by looking into his eyes. “I looked into his eyes,” Mr. McCain said, “and saw three letters: a K, a G and a B.” (more…)
JAMES N. TEDISCO, Editorial, NY Post
LAST Friday, during a special session, the state Senate passed property-tax-cap legislation, marking an excellent start to solving New York’s growing proper ty-tax crisis.
New Yorkers pay some of the highest property taxes in America. Our local taxes are 79 percent above the national average. Is it any wonder why so many people and small businesses leave the state each year? (more…)
KIRSTEN POWERS, New York Post
The punditocracy is perplexed.
Why isn’t Barack Obama trouncing John McCain in the polls?
Some credit the McCain camp’s ads ridiculing Obama as a celebrity airhead; others think his overseas trip made Americans feel neglected. But it’s more likely that oil prices, not cheering German crowds, are swaying cranky voters. (more…)
JOSEPH SPECTOR, Albany bureau, Gannett News Service
ALBANY — Senate Republicans will pass legislation Friday that would cap school districts’ costs for teachers’ pensions as part of a sweeping mandate-relief package, aides said Tuesday.
The pension cap would limit the growth of districts’ costs to 4 percent annually with the state picking up the rest of any increase. It is one of several mandate-relief proposals Senate Republicans will approve when they return Friday to Albany, aides said.
The measures come as Senate Republicans have made approving Gov. David Paterson’s tax-cap plan a centerpiece of their agenda heading into the November elections. Republicans cling to a 31-30 seat majority.
The tax cap would limit the growth in school taxes to 4 percent a year. But Republican leaders said they recognize that it needs to be coupled with mandate relief for schools, which fear a tax cap alone would infringe on their ability to fund classroom education. (more…)
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