Jon Henke has been carefully reading what the Democrats have been pushing to the press-here are just a few juicy bits:

Barack Obama is running as the sort of Uniter-Not-Divider politician who can bring us all together in rapturous harmony. But he keeps finding himself having to explain his choice in spiritual advisors and campaign committee members. The most recent story points out Obama’s “connection to another racially divisive public figure—the stridently homophobic Rev. James T. Meeks,” who was named by the Southern Poverty Law Center as one of the “10 leading black religious voices in the anti-gay movement.” Incidentally, James Meeks was also behind the Halloween “hell house” which “housed a few denizens of “hell,” including a pedophile trolling the Internet for a young victim, a meditating Buddhist, and two mincing young men wearing body glitter who were supposed to be homosexuals.” Considering how the Progressives reacted to Obama’s association with Donnie McClurkin, I would imagine this won’t make people happy.

Hey, let’s be fair and balanced!

Hillary Clinton is running on her experience. But it turns out she might not be quite so eager to discuss some of that experience, such as the meeting she had with a fellow who was apparently, illegally lobbying for Saddam Hussein, and who says Hillary Clinton “passed a message to the State Department” about the need to implement the oil-for-food deal…”

You’re gonna have to click through for the links and all the rest of the list.

Sweet.

John McCain’s blogger outreach guy, Patrick Hynes (originally from Ankle Biting Pundits), has made a debut on the official McCain blog. Stop in and say hello after you read “Biography as character witness.”

Congratulations to Patrick for the well-deserved recognition in the Washington Times today, too!

Even as talk radio was brutalizing Sen. John McCain in the Republican presidential primaries, conservative bloggers reached a respectful truce with the Arizona senator over touchy issues and gave him what the campaign called a “tremendous positive psychological” boost.

The main reason: Mr. McCain’s blogger outreach, the most extensive of any presidential campaign in either party, helped keep him afloat in the dark days last summer when the major press was sizing up his campaign grave. During those times, Mr. McCain got attention and digital ink from the bloggers he invited to biweekly conference calls, and got a chance to talk policy.

I’ve always said it was Hynes whom I credit for bringing me around, just as the article says. His impact on this election has been immense, and I expect it will serve him well in the future. I’ll write more about this later. For now, go read.

Patrick Ruffini

Lord Bitememan pointed out in a comment that some states are moving from the D’s to toss-ups, with the latest coming in from New Hampshire.

On Sunday, New Hampshire moved from Leans Democratic to Toss-Up in the Rasmussen Reports Balance of Power Calculator. This change comes as a result of Rasmussen Markets data showing a closer race.

Remember the “President of New Hampshire?” Things might go well for him there, along with some other unexpected places.

Rasmussen’s latest “Balance of Power Calculator”:

Here’s where it counts.

Thirteen states with 159 Electoral Votes are either a pure Toss-Up or just slightly leaning to one party or the other. These are likely to be the early battleground states of Election 2008: Florida (27), Pennsylvania (21), Ohio (20), Michigan, (17), Virginia (13), Missouri (11), Minnesota (10), Wisconsin (10), Colorado (9), Iowa (7), Nevada (5), New Mexico (5), and New Hampshire (4).

As of now, these states poll as follows:

‘Memba a few days ago, the Left was all up in arms about “McCain guru linked to subprime crisis?” All the usual players on the Left were linking that article. I wonder what they will do with this one?

Hillary Clinton spends considerable time on the campaign trail bemoaning unscrupulous lenders who have left millions of Americans scrambling to keep their homes but all the while her campaign manager, Margaret “Maggie” Williams, has sat on the board of one of the nation’s once-largest and now-bankrupt sub-prime mortgage lenders.

Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson told FOXNews.com late Sunday that Williams, a longtime Clinton ally, didn’t join Clinton’s Democratic presidential campaign as a volunteer until after Delta Financial Corporation — for which Williams is a director — went bankrupt in December 2007.

Well well well, that is very interesting. About as interesting as Clinton and Obama taking over a million dollars in campaign donations from subprime lenders.

Senator McCain has stated: “It is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers.” For taking a position that empowers adult Americans to be responsible for their own actions, Obama and Clinton assaulted him. Their idea is to pump millions and millions into rescuing people who made bad deals, did not read the contracts, and failed to hold up their end of the agreement. Do I feel bad for these people? Sure. I bet McCain does, too. But, it is not my responsibility to give them my money to help them out of a problem they made, and it is certainly not the governments.

So, we have all the violence in Tibet, the crackdowns and human rights offenses by China, yet, not a peep from the United Nations. But a movie sends them into hissy fits

Secretary-General today led a chorus of United Nations condemnation of the Internet broadcast of a video made by the Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders, describing it as “offensively anti-Islamic,” while he also called on those upset by the film to remain calm.

In a statement issued by his spokesperson after last night’s airing of the film, entitled Fitna, Mr. Ban said “there is no justification for hate speech or incitement to violence. The right of free expression is not at stake here.

“I acknowledge the efforts of the Dutch Government to stop the broadcast of this film and appeal for calm to those understandably offended by it. Freedom must always be accompanied by social responsibility.”

Hmm, I suppose we could think that Ban Moon-Ki is just a-scared of Islamics running hog wild and creating mayhem, violence, and murder, as they typically do in situations as this. But, more then likely, it is just PC run amock by people whose britches have gotten way too big.

Interestingly, in that final paragraph I excerpted, we have the General Secretary of the United Nations calling for censorship.

Curt at Flopping Aces: No opinion from the SG about the hate speech depicted in the film, guess that will come at a later date…..

The American Thinker: Oddly he was talking about the movie, not the Islamic violence portrayed in it, or that which is feared in response to it. In doing so, Ban places the UN at the head of the Islamic mobs which do indeed put the right of free expression at stake here.

I guess John McCain is right about needing to replace the United Nations.

My friend Justin Hart (a Romney supporter from day one) says about Mitt campaigning for John McCain,

He has his eye on the real issue… President Obama or Clinton would be very, very bad.

Governor Romney is a good man, and knows what’s at stake in this election. His support will be crucial-and much appreciated.

Be warned, there are some graphic portions.

Via Michelle Malkin and The Jawa Report (which highlights the Muslim outrage that has already begun). Not finding anything about it on the DU or other Surrender Monkey sites yet.

And guess when it was (AP thru SF Gate)

Saddam Hussein’s intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

The three anti-war Democrats made the trip in October 2002, while the Bush administration was trying to persuade Congress to authorize military action against Iraq. While traveling, they called for a diplomatic solution.

Sorry, slight interlude. The Bush Admin was not try to persuade Congress to authorize military action. That is entirely to simplistic, and not quite correct. The Bush admin was asking for authorization IF Saddam would not comply with the United Nations resolutions that had previously been passed. There had to be a stick to go with the carrot for when Resolution 1441 was passed by the UN on November 8, 2002.

Prosecutors say that trip was arranged by Muthanna Al-Hanooti, a Michigan charity official, who was charged Wednesday with setting up the junket at the behest of Saddam’s regime. Iraqi intelligence officials allegedly paid for the trip through an intermediary and rewarded Al-Hanooti with 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil.

The lawmakers are not named in the indictment but the dates correspond to a trip by Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California. None was charged and Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said investigators “have no information whatsoever” any of them knew the trip was underwritten by Saddam.

OK, we are not saying here that any of the three knew that Saddam was sponsoring the trip. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt (which the Left would not extend were it Republicans involved.) But, was it really necessary to make the trip? They came back, especially Baghdad Jim McDermott, sounding like a Saddam/Iraq spokesman. Which is not entirely surprising when it comes to Democrats.

Oh, and let’s not forget the $5,000 donation McDermott recieved from Shakir al Khafaji, who was allegedly involved in teh Oil For Food Scandal, which was later returned.

Bluto at The Jawa Report: They say they wouldn’t have gone if they’d known who was footing the bill. They don’t say why they didn’t bother to find out who was footing the bill.

See more at Memeorandum.

John McCain is scheduled to speak on foreign policy later today in Los Angeles. In his speech he will address his feelings regarding war.

“When I was five years old, a car pulled up in front of our house in New London, Connecticut, and a Navy officer rolled down the window, and shouted at my father that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. My father immediately left for the submarine base where he was stationed. I rarely saw him again for four years.

My grandfather, who commanded the fast carrier task force under Admiral Halsey, came home from the war exhausted from the burdens he had borne, and died the next day.

In Vietnam, where I formed the closest friendships of my life, some of those friends never came home to the country they loved so well.

I detest war. It might not be the worst thing to befall human beings, but it is wretched beyond all description. When nations seek to resolve their differences by force of arms, a million tragedies ensue. The lives of a nation’s finest patriots are sacrificed. Innocent people suffer and die. Commerce is disrupted; economies are damaged; strategic interests shielded by years of patient statecraft are endangered as the exigencies of war and diplomacy conflict.

Not the valor with which it is fought nor the nobility of the cause it serves, can glorify war. Whatever gains are secured, it is loss the veteran remembers most keenly. Only a fool or a fraud sentimentalizes the merciless reality of war. However heady the appeal of a call to arms, however just the cause, we should still shed a tear for all that is lost when war claims its wages from us.”

The men in my life have been familiar with war. My father was a veteran of World War II, my husband is a Vietnam Veteran and now my son is a veteran of the Global War on Terror. I have never heard one of them talk about loving war. I have heard my husband say that no man who has been to war would ever want there to be a war. None of them are the ‘war mongers’ as they are categorized by the left. They simply understand the awful necessity of war. They understand history and the nature of the world. They know that appeasement is not the answer to the aggression of our enemies and they have the courage to face the harsh realities that we are faced with in this world.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

crossposted at Blue Star Chronicles

You too can play along!!!!

DETROIT - Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, a one-time rising star and Detroit’s youngest elected leader, was charged Monday with perjury and other counts after sexually explicit text messages contradicted his sworn denials of an affair with a top aide.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy also charged the popular yet polarizing 37-year-old mayor with obstruction of justice and misconduct in office. Kilpatrick, who was to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon, could face up to 15 years in prison and be expelled from office if convicted.

Let’s do a search in Firefox by hitting the edit tab, then “find in this page.” D-e-m. Oops, “phrase not found.”

That’s the AP story, which most of those in the Credentialed Media seem to be using. cBS, MSNBC, ABC checked. CNN has their own story, nope, no mention of being a Democrat.

Al Reuters does mention it, and responsibily! Was someone in the liquor cabinet?

Others playing “Guess The Party!”: Powerline (which mentions that Kilpatric is a Dem superdelagate), Don Surber, Hot Air, A Blog For All, Jammie Wearing Fool, Gateway Pundit, and more at Memeorandum.