Archive for October 15th, 2008

On Monday, I wrote about Democrat candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dick Wood, taking a two week trip on an African Safari.  His campaign has denied it up and down with his campaign manager Kathy Dale saying that “Wood is in South Africa for two weeks visiting schools, learning about what is going on in education globally”.  They even have a nifty picture on their website (seen to the left) of him visiting the Lubasi Orphanage and School in Livingstone, Zambia to back up their story.  But here’s where the lie breaks down.

The caption next to the photo says:

Truly committed to life long learning, Dr. Wood and his wife Carol, on a Road Scholar Program in Africa where among other things, they are visiting schools and experiencing how children live and learn in other parts of our world. (emphasis added is mine)

Aha! We’ve been able to get a hold of Dick Wood’s African Safari itinerary and we’ve been able to see what these “among other things” actually are. They include:

(See what exactly happens on a two week tour of schools learning about global education after the leap) (more…)

That pretty much describes Jill Long Thompson’s performance last night in the final gubernatorial debate of this election cycle.  Think that’s me just being partisan?  Guess again.

Matt Tully writes in his column today:

With a petty performance, Democrat Jill Long Thompson spoiled what could have been an insightful gubernatorial debate Tuesday evening.

The two other candidates in the debate, Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels and Libertarian Andrew Horning, actually provided plenty of insight and even a touch of introspection as they answered questions intended to give voters a glimpse into their leadership styles. But Long Thompson repeatedly used her response time to take out-of-place potshots at Daniels.

Tully went on to give positive performances of Governor Daniels (though noting one miscue in a comeback of his own to a Long Thompson attack that Tully also deemed petty) and Andy Horning, calling their portions of the debate insightful.

But one thing that came out of JLT’s attacks were out of the blue comments about investments of the state’s money in the stock market, specifically Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, claiming we’ve lost millions (or as one uninformed, supposedly objective commenter put it, “billions”).  As I mentioned on Abdul this morning, the Governor isn’t responsible for how our state’s money is invested.  And as Abdul rightly noted, only the State Treasurer can direct where the state’s money does go when it’s invested.

Bill Ruthhart, in his column, notes:

(Read more after the leap) (more…)

It seems The One’s campaign is getting caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Right now a caller to Rush is talking about a credit card that was charged $15.00 to the Campaign. This person called the Campaign and the campaign staffer tried to convince the person to let the charge stand, though it was fraudulent. The staffer apparently would not reverse the charge. So the person called their credit card company and had the charge removed, the credit card issuing bank would do a merchant chargeback.

During the call Rush mentioned an AP article which stated some individuals in Missouri are having the same problem. I’m looking for the mentioned AP article but it’s not yet posted to various other places (Drudge, MyWay, Breitbart, etc.)

The campaign will no doubt attribute to “clerical error”. Riiiigght…..

*Update from Josh* - It was a story from the Kansas City Fox affiliate.  Special thanks to Walt Gilbert for the heads up.

A North Kansas City couple has been left scratching their heads after they became the victims of a political scam.

Steve and Rachel Larman say a strange credit card charge appeared on their statement this month — a $2300 donation to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. The Larman’s say they don’t want this to be about their political affiliation, but they say they’re not about to give the Obama campaign any help from their pocketbook.

They said they notified Chase, their credit card bank, to report the fraud.

“(They) said that they had seen-they were familiar with this,” said Steve Larman. “It was fraud, they believe through telemarketing but they were going to be doing some more investigations.”

The Larman’s don’t want their politics to enter into what is essentially just a fraudulent charge. But they say that the charge involves the Obama campaign adds insult to injury for the registered Republicans.

“They (Chase) kept on asking me ‘are you sure you wouldnt have gone to a site in support of Obama’,” said Rachel Larman. “And I repeatedly said ‘Im voting for McCain - I would not be going to an Obama site’.”

Chase dropped the charge from the Larman’s card.

*Update from Josh #2* - Another case of bogus Obama credit card charges has arisen in Kansas City.

His lips are moving.

I’ve got an alert now whenever this guy opens his mouth. Yesterday it was in Lafayette where he claims FSSA is doing disappointing work because not enough people are on Food Stamps.

And, because (GASP!) welfare recipients are being forced (against their will I’m sure) to call into a faceless call center.

But, like I said, Cardwell has a problem with the truth…on both accounts.

First of all, FSSA says that there are nearly 60,000 more individuals on Food Stamps in Indiana now than the same time last year. Although Cardwell thinks this is too little, in my opinion, I think it’s way too many. That’s your tax dollars and my tax dollars.

Second, Cardwell claims in Lafayette that welfare recipients are unable to go into the local welfare office to speak directly to a case worker. This is entirely false….again.

But of course, it would be too much to ask the newspapers to ask any difficult questions of Mr. Cardwell now wouldn’t it?

Woops!  Looks like Barack Obama forgot to put on his “my tax plan is actually pure socialism” filter when talking to this plumber.

Craig Fry doesn’t think so.  In fact, his home is in Michigan and not in his Mishawaka (read, not in Indiana) district.  But I guess we shouldn’t let Craig Fry have it so hard.  He does own one house in Indiana.  But it’s in Indianapolis, three hours south of Mishawaka.

His constituents will have this bomb dropped on them today.

It’s the last presidential debate.  Will McCain be able to land a badly needed body blow?  Either way we’re interactively live blogging it!  Check back at around 8:45 tonight.

Bonus feature to the live blog (if we can get it to work), you’ll be able to view the debate in our webcast screen!

**Update By Mike - We’ll have audio of the debate on the live blog for your convenience. We won’t have video.

Click here to watch and participate.

Disgusted with vapid voting trends

Are the voters of the United States of America going to allow themselves to be manipulated by netroots trolls, Obama-mania, the major media and “prevailing opinion?”

First the facts:

• The race for President is actually too close to call
• Millions of new registrations have been submitted to vote, but they are untested voters who may or may not even show up at the polls.
• When polling registered voters Obama tends to lead by a larger amount than when polling “likely” voters.
• No one won the debates, I can’t even say the debates were all that interesting

But, with all this said, the television media is reporting that Obama is running away with the election. How?

For an interesting read, that will turn your stomach, read Sack/Smurf/Freepfest on Daily Kos and see how the left is manipulating the American voting public. It’s working by the way. So I return to my original question: Are voters going to allow themselves to be that easily tricked and told what to do?

I’m afraid the answer is yes. When the media tells the average voter that Obama would handle the economy better, they believe. When the media tells the average voter that Obama would help them get a job, make more money, get free healthcare, or a whole host of goodies, they believe. I’m just a bit frustrated today with Americans. When a couple hundred bloggers can sack the online polls, twist the issues, and manipulate the voting public .. what have we become but lazy and irresponsible democracy.

PREVIOUS POST: Presidential Race tightens to 4 points

Represented by harassing voters in Evansville.

And the reported presence of ACORN in Bloomington (where they have, I am told, been raided).

Barack Obama’s America is one in which being human just isn’t enough to warrant care and protection. It is an America where the unborn may legitimately be killed without legal restriction, even by the grisly practice of partial-birth abortion. It is an America where a baby who survives abortion is not even entitled to comfort care as she dies on a stainless steel table or in a soiled linen bin. It is a nation in which some members of the human family are regarded as inferior and others superior in fundamental dignity and rights.

-Robert P. George Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University

(Read the rest of Professor George’s essay)

(H/T - RedState)