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John McCain funded
by Soros since 2001
Candidate's Reform Institute also
accepted funds from Teresa Kerry

As Sen. John McCain assumes the GOP front-runner mantle, his long-standing, but little-noticed association with left-wing donors such as George Soros and Teresa Heinz Kerry is receiving new attention among his Republican critics.

In 2001, McCain founded the Alexandria, Va.-based Reform Institute as a vehicle to receive funding from George Soros' Open Society Institute and Teresa Heinz Kerry's Tides Foundation and several other prominent non-profit organizations.

McCain used the institute to promote his political agenda and provide compensation to key campaign operatives between elections.

In 2006, the Arizona senator was forced to sever his formal ties with the Reform Institute after a controversial $200,000 contribution from Cablevision came to light. McCain solicited the donation for the Reform Institute using his membership on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, he supported Cablevision's push to introduce the more profitable al la carte pricing, rather than packages of TV programming.

Yet, the Reform Institute still employs the McCain campaign's Hispanic outreach director, Juan Hernandez, as a senior fellow of its Comprehensive Immigration Reform Initiative.

As WND reported, Hernandez serves as a non-paid volunteer for the McCain campaign. A dual Mexican-U.S. citizen, he was a member of former President Vicente Fox's cabinet, representing an estimate 24 million Mexicans living abroad. Hernandez, with a "Mexico first" message, has argued aggressively against building a fence on the Mexican border, insisting the frontier needed to remain wide open so illegal immigrants could easily enter the U.S.

The July 6, 2001, homepage of the Reform Institute archived on the Internet lists founder McCain as chairman of the group's advisory committee.

Prominent senior officials on the McCain 2008 presidential campaign staff found generously paid positions at the Reform Institute following the senator's unsuccessful run for the White House in 2000.

Rick Davis, McCain's current campaign manager, was paid $110,000 a year by the Reform Institute for a consulting position, according to the group's 2003 Form 990 filing with the IRS.

In 2004, Davis advanced to the position of Reform Institute president, with an annual salary of $120,000, according to the group's 2004 Form 990.

In 2005, Davis remained president, but his salary dropped back to $45,000 a year, with a time commitment of five hours per week, according the 2005 Form 990.

Carla Eudy, a senior advisor on McCain's 2008 presidential campaign who until recently headed fundraising, was paid $177,885 in 2005 to serve as the Reform Institute's secretary-treasurer.

Other McCain presidential campaign staffers who have found employment at the Reform Institute include Trevor Potter, McCain's 2000 legal counsel, and Crystal Benton, the senator's former press secretary, who served as institute's communications director in 2005 for an annual salary of $52,083.

The Reform Institute regularly has supported McCain in various legislative efforts, including on campaign finance reform, global warming and "comprehensive immigration reform," all efforts widely opposed by many in the party's conservative base.

Arianna Huffington, syndicated columnist and creator of the HuffingtonPost.com, has served on the Reform Institute's advisory committee since the group's inception.

According to FrontPage Magazine, Teresa Heinz Kerry has provided more than $4 million to the Tides Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by anti-war activist Drummond Pike in 1976 with a history of funding causes such as abortion, homosexual-rights activism and open borders.

Financial contributors while McCain was chairman of the Reform Institute also have included the Educational Foundation of America, a group that supports abortion and opposes drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve.

The Soros-Kerry funding connection with McCain was first exposed by Ed Morrissey at the Captains Quarters blog in 2005.

Subsequently, David Horowitz's DiscoverTheNetworks.org website and Michelle Malkin's blog gave renewed attention to the Reform Institute's funding ties.

George Soros brains behind McCain-Feingold
'Activist wanted limits on advertising after Hillarycare defeat'

An investigative author says George Soros used Sen. John McCain to push for limits on issue advertising by grassroots groups because he was upset over the cataclysmic failure of Hillarycare, the all-encompassing government health care program proposed during Bill Clinton's first term as president.

The author, Richard Poe, whose earlier publications include Hillary's Secret War: The Clinton Conspiracy to Muzzle Internet Journalists, told WND that Soros later funded the senator's Reform Institute because of their work together on the McCain-Feingold Act.

"Money paid to the Reform Institute rewarded McCain for pushing the McCain-Feingold Act, a law which restricts the ability of grassroots groups to advertise on television, while allowing major media free rein to promote their favorite Democrat candidates," Poe told WND.

According to the author, Soros devised McCain-Feingold in 1994 in response to the failure of Hillarycare, the universal health care program Hillary Clinton championed.

Hillary, Soros and other Democrats blamed the defeat of Hillarycare on television advertising and, as a result, Soros resolved to choke off access to the TV airwaves to those opponents, Poe told WND.

A comment could not be obtained from the McCain campaign because of the holiday yesterday. But in their book, "The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party," co-authors David Horowitz and Poe trace Soros' determination to push for campaign finance reform back to a speech Soros gave at Columbia University's school of medicine on Nov. 30, 1994.

In that address, Soros spoke mainly about a new initiative he was launching called the Project on Death in America.

With his Project on Death in America, Soros sought to promote "palliative care," which means keeping patients comfortable while they are dying, but making no effort to save or extend their lives.

In their book, Horowitz and Poe argued that Soros had a "covert purpose," both in supporting Hillarycare and in funding the Project on Death in America, namely, "to save money by rationing healthcare."

Healthcare rationing was the essence of Hillary’s health plan in 1994, just as it is today, Poe said, when Hillary now promises to slash medical spending in America by $120 billion per year.

Horowitz and Poe saw Soros' Project on Death in America as a back-door effort to salvage a key feature of Hillarycare, seeking to implement Hillarycare through the private sector, after failing to pass the agenda politically.

Soros ended his Columbia University speech by promising to "do something" about "the distortion of our electoral process by the excessive use of TV advertising."

Horowitz and Poe argue that the "something" turned out to be the McCain-Feingold Act of March 27, 2002.

Still, Horowitz and Poe insisted that the McCain-Feingold Act was a "Trojan Horse."

"Its stated purpose was to clean up politics by tightly regulating the amount of money political parties and candidates could accept from donors," Horowitz and Poe wrote. "Its actual purpose, to use Soros' words, was to curb the 'use of TV advertising' in American politics."

Poe told WND that Soros' plan came to fruition with his funding of Arianna Huffington's "Shadow Conventions," which were designed to be held at the same time and in the same cities as the Republican and Democratic national nominating conventions in Philadelphia and Los Angeles in 2000.

Sen. Russ Feingold was the keynote speaker at the Los Angeles Shadow Convention during the Democratic Party's national nominating convention, while John McCain gave the keynote speech in Philadelphia during the Republican Party's national nominating convention.

An archived transcript from CNN shows McCain delivered the keynote address for Huffington's Shadow Convention on July 30, 2000, two days before he addressed the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.

In their book "The Shadow Party," Horowitz and Poe document what they call "Pewgate," a successful effort by Soros' Open Society Institute to get Pew Charitable Trusts to lead a group of foundations to contribute $140 million to promote campaign finance reform from 1994 to 2004.

"Without funding from George Soros' Open Society Institute and other Pewgate foundations, the Shadow Conventions could not and would not have occurred, any more than McCain-Feingold could eventually have passed into law," wrote Horowitz and Poe.

The Reform Institute opened its doors in July 2001, with John McCain listed as chairman on the organization's homepage and Arianna Huffington listed as a member of the Advisory Committee.

"McCain's Reform Institute for Campaign and Election Issues received generous funding from several Pewgate foundations, including the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Jerome Kohlberg, Jr. Revocable Trust, and George Soros' Open Society Institute," wrote Horowitz and Poe in "The Shadow Party."

After studying the Reform Institute's website, Horowitz and Poe concluded that "almost all of McCain's funders who have contributed more than $50,000 are left-wing foundations."

WND previously has reported McCain used the Reform Institute to provide salaries for his 2000 presidential campaign staff, including Rich Davis, McCain's campaign manager, who received six figure compensation from the Reform Institute in 2003 and 2004, first as a consultant, then as the Reform Institute's president.

WND has also reported the Center for Public Integrity in 2002 charged McCain with what amounts to influence peddling, based on evidence McCain and Davis used McCain's position as chairman of the influential Senate Commerce Committee to further the business interests of telecommunications clients of Davis's lobbying firm or to solicit contributions to the Reform Institute from telecommunications companies seeking favorable FCC rulings.

"It's the old game," Poe said. "These foundations are supposed to be non-partisan institutes formed to advance some public policy agenda, in keeping with their 501(c)(3) tax-exempt guidelines, but many engage in outright politicking."

"The Reform Institute became a virtual 'McCain for President' campaign headquarters, preparing for 2008," he continued. "The place was staffed up with McCain campaign personnel and the goal was to promote McCain as a 'reformer.'"

Despite the charges raised against McCain in "The Shadow Party," Horowitz has defended publicly the Republican frontrunner against conservative critics.

Poe supports McCain too, but reluctantly.

"McCain is all we've got," Poe told WND. "Republicans need to unite behind him, but we also need to hold his feet to the fire. McCain must break his ties with the Hillary-Soros machine."

McCain aide linked to Russian billionaire
Connection raises questions about candidate's opposition to Putin

Sen. John McCain has asserted his opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin a number of times, going so far as joining with Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., in 2005 to introduce legislation calling on President Bush to suspend Russia's membership in the Group of Eight.

That opposition, however, is being called into question by links that have been established in various reports between McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, and Ukrainian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, who is suspected of having ties to organized Russian crime.

Davis even arranged for McCain to meet Deripaska at a time when Davis' lobbying firm was working under contract with Ukrainian political leaders supported by Putin's regime in Moscow.

Moreover, Davis' decision to retain his position in his lobbying firm while serving as McCain's 2008 presidential campaign manager raises questions about McCain's sincerity in his self-avowed campaign to eliminate influence peddling from U.S. politics.

It was in 2006 when Davis arranged an introduction between McCain and Deripaska, a billionaire Russian aluminum magnate, during an international economic conference in Davos, Switzerland, according to a report by the Washington Post in January.

Davis, at the time of the meeting, was president of the George Soros-funded Reform Institute and managing partner in his Washington, D.C., lobbying firm, Davis, Manafort & Freeman.

Deripaska, whose net worth is estimated to exceed $13 billion, is widely reported to be a close ally of Putin.

At the time of the meeting, Paul Manafort, Davis' partner in the lobbying firm bearing their names, had a contract to advise Ukrainian politician and former prime minister Victor Yanukovych, the Putin-supported leader of the Party of Regions who in 2006 was then vying with Victor Yushchenko in the parliamentary elections in a bid to form a pro-Moscow government.

In 2006, McCain as chairman of the International Republican Institute, or IRI,openly supported Yushchenko, arguing Yanukovych's alleged ties to the Russian mafia and the KGB disqualified him from being the type of democratic leaders needed to advance the Ukraine's "Orange Revolution."

In the 2006 effort, McCain again was joined by Soros who was openly funding Yushchenko in the contest against Yanukovych.

The Washington Post reported Deripaska was sufficiently grateful for the introduction to write a thank you note, obtained by the Washington Post, to Davis and Manafort and offering to assist them in a subsequent business deal.

A WND phone call to McCain’s presidential campaign seeking an explanation of McCain's meeting with Deripaska went unanswered.

But McCain has frequently been a vocal opponent of Putin.

According to a CNN report at the time of his 2005 work with Lieberman, McCain urged Bush to rebuke Putin for turning away from democracy in Russia, accepting Yanukovych as Ukrainian prime minister in a heavily disputed election, and for encouraging Iran in the development of a covert nuclear weapons program under the guise of a nuclear energy program.

Deripaska already had a history of paying U.S. politicians for political favors.

In 2003, former Sen. Bob Dole, the Republican Party presidential candidate in 1996, was paid $300,000 to assist Deripaska obtain a visa to visit the United States, according to an April 2007 report that was published in the Wall Street Journal.

In 2005, when the State Department reversed its conclusion that Deripaska was a criminal who had used bribery, intimidation and violence to amass his aluminum-based fortune in Russia, Dole was paid another $260,000 to reward him for getting Deripaska a multi-visit visa to the U.S.

The same Wall Street Journal article reported Manafort had received fees and donations from Ukrainian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, reputedly Yanukovich's political patron.

Manafort served as a media consultant to Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign.

In July 2007, the State Department again reversed its decision, cancelling Deripaska's visa over continuing concerns he remained connected with the Russian mafia.

At the time, Deripaska was rumored to be at the center of a possible bid to buy ailing DaimlerChrysler.

McCain fortune traced to organized crime
Mob figures later implicated in Arizona savings and loan scandal

John McCain's personal fortune traces back to organized crime in Arizona, through his father-in-law, according to a report published by a multi-news agency team called Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc.

IRE reporters Amy Silverman and John Doherty, writing in the Phoenix New Times, note that the father of McCain's wife, James Hensley, was convicted by a federal jury in U.S. District Court of Arizona in March 1948 on seven counts of filing false liquor records. Hensley also was charged with conspiracy to hide from federal authorities the names of persons involved in a liquor industry racket with two companies he managed, United Sales Company in Phoenix and United Distributors in Tucson.

The umbrella company, United Liquor, at that time held a monopoly in Arizona, organized and managed by Kemper Marley, who was accused of mob ties by a reporter who was murdered in 1977.

Silverman and Doherty report that by 1955, Hensley had launched a Budweiser distributorship in Phoenix, "a franchise reportedly bestowed upon him by Marley, who was never indicted in the 1948 liquor-law-violation case – or a subsequent one – despite his controlling role in the liquor distribution businesses."

According to Marley's longtime public relations man, Al Lizanetz, the Marley liquor empire was founded by the Bronfman family dynasty of Canada which operated Allied Finance Company, Northern Export Company and Distillers Corporation – the Seagrams, Ltd. empire.

As chronicled by the "Rumrunners and Prohibition" video shown popularly on the History Channel, during the 1920s, the Bronfman family made millions in bootlegging, accounting for half the illegal liquor crossing the border, working in a profitable distribution deal with the infamous mobster Meyer Lansky, who later moved on to establish the crime syndicates in the casinos of Havana, Cuba, in the 1940s and 50s.

Arizona in the 1970s drew a "who's who" of organized crime figures seeking to retire in the sun, including Rochester, N.Y., mob boss Joe Bonanno, who spent his last days along the Lake Havasu shores and in a quiet home in Tucson.

In 1977, after Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles was killed when his car was blown up by the mob in a parking lot, a team of 36 journalists from 27 news organizations, known as IRE, published an 80,000 word 23-part series on organized crime in Arizona.

Dan Nowicki and Bill Muller, reporting in the Arizona Republic March 1, 2007, documented that in 1953, Hensley was again charged with falsifying records at Marley's liquor firms.

Hensley was found not guilty after being defended by William Rehnquist, the future chief justice of the Supreme Court, Nowicki and Muller wrote.

In 2000, Hensley, then 80 years old, still controlled the Budweiser distributorship valued as a $200 million-a-year business, with annual sales of more than 20 million cases of beer.

On Feb. 17, 2000, Pat Flannery reported in the Arizona Republic that Hensley's beer-distribution empire was the fifth largest in the nation, "a Budweiser franchise whose bigwigs hold the No. 2 spot on Sen. John McCain's all-time career list of corporate donors."

Since 1982, according to the Center for Public Integrity, Hensley & Co. officials have pumped $80,000 into the campaigns of McCain, Flannery wrote. More than a quarter of that has been donated since 1997.

Flannery further reported that in 2000, Cindy Hensley McCain, the senator's wife, held a 37.18 percent financial interest in her father's Budweiser distributorship, although she was not involved in day-to-day operations.

The McCain's four children held a combined 23.55 percent interest, though their interests were at that time held in trust.

Arizona crime connections again surfaced in the 1980s when McCain was implicated as one of the five U.S. senators named in the "Keating Five" scandal.

Charles Keating Jr. and his associates paid McCain some $112,000 in political campaign contributions between 1982 and 1987, while Keating was organizing a massive real estate fraud in the then FDIC federally insured Lincoln Savings and Loan Association.

In April 1986, McCain's wife and father-in-law also invested $359,000 in a Keating shopping center, before the savings and loan scandal broke.

Keating was sent to prison under civil racketeering and fraud charges for the $1.1 billion loss the investment scheme cost the public, although McCain and the other U.S. senators involved managed to avoid charges in the Senate, with McCain receiving only an Ethics Committee rebuke for exercising "poor judgment."

Even today, McCain's 2008 presidential campaign staff includes several prominent lobbyists, despite the senator's claim to be a campaign reform crusader whose goal is to take money out of politics.

WND previously reported McCain's 2000 and 2008 campaign manager Rick Davis took a six-figure salary as president of the Soros-funded Reform Institute in the intervening years and managed his own lobby firm of Davis, Manafort & Freeman in Alexandria, Va., operating at the same building in a suite down the hall from the Reform Institute.

In 2003 and 2004, Davis apparently solicited CSC Holdings, a subsidiary of the Cablevision Systems Corporation, headed by Charles F. Dolan, to make two separate $100,000 contributions to the Reform Institute.

In between the two separate $100,000 contributions Cablevision made to the Reform Institute, McCain, then chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, wrote a letter to the Federal Communications Commission supporting Cablevision's desire to continue packaging customer TV programming in a manner more profitable to Cablevision.

In this period of time, McCain worked with Vicki Iseman, a lobbyist representing telecommunications companies, including Cablevision.

WND also reported Davis arranged a 2006 meeting with Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska in Davos, Switzerland, a close supporter of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

McCain repeatedly has voiced opposition to Putin, even calling on President Bush to suspend Russia's membership in the Group of Eight.

In 2007, the U.S. State Department cancelled Deripaska's visa over continuing concerns he remained connected with the Russian mafia.

McCain’s Canal Zone Birth Prompts Queries About Whether That Rules Him Out

WASHINGTON — The question has nagged at the parents of Americans born outside the continental United States for generations: Dare their children aspire to grow up and become president? In the case of Senator John McCain of Arizona, the issue is becoming more than a matter of parental daydreaming.

Mr. McCain’s likely nomination as the Republican candidate for president and the happenstance of his birth in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936 are reviving a musty debate that has surfaced periodically since the founders first set quill to parchment and declared that only a “natural-born citizen” can hold the nation’s highest office.

Almost since those words were written in 1787 with scant explanation, their precise meaning has been the stuff of confusion, law school review articles, whisper campaigns and civics class debates over whether only those delivered on American soil can be truly natural born. To date, no American to take the presidential oath has had an official birthplace outside the 50 states.

“There are powerful arguments that Senator McCain or anyone else in this position is constitutionally qualified, but there is certainly no precedent,” said Sarah H. Duggin, an associate professor of law at Catholic University who has studied the issue extensively. “It is not a slam-dunk situation.”

Mr. McCain was born on a military installation in the Canal Zone, where his mother and father, a Navy officer, were stationed. His campaign advisers say they are comfortable that Mr. McCain meets the requirement and note that the question was researched for his first presidential bid in 1999 and reviewed again this time around.

But given mounting interest, the campaign recently asked Theodore B. Olson, a former solicitor general now advising Mr. McCain, to prepare a detailed legal analysis. “I don’t have much doubt about it,” said Mr. Olson, who added, though, that he still needed to finish his research.

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and one of Mr. McCain’s closest allies, said it would be incomprehensible to him if the son of a military member born in a military station could not run for president.

“He was posted there on orders from the United States government,” Mr. Graham said of Mr. McCain’s father. “If that becomes a problem, we need to tell every military family that your kid can’t be president if they take an overseas assignment.”

The phrase “natural born” was in early drafts of the Constitution. Scholars say notes of the Constitutional Convention give away little of the intent of the framers. Its origin may be traced to a letter from John Jay to George Washington, with Jay suggesting that to prevent foreigners from becoming commander in chief, the Constitution needed to “declare expressly” that only a natural-born citizen could be president.

Ms. Duggin and others who have explored the arcane subject in depth say legal argument and basic fairness may indeed be on the side of Mr. McCain, a longtime member of Congress from Arizona. But multiple experts and scholarly reviews say the issue has never been definitively resolved by either Congress or the Supreme Court.

Ms. Duggin favors a constitutional amendment to settle the matter. Others have called on Congress to guarantee that Americans born outside the national boundaries can legitimately see themselves as potential contenders for the Oval Office.

“They ought to have the same rights,” said Don Nickles, a former Republican senator from Oklahoma who in 2004 introduced legislation that would have established that children born abroad to American citizens could harbor presidential ambitions without a legal cloud over their hopes. “There is some ambiguity because there has never been a court case on what ‘natural-born citizen’ means.”

Mr. McCain’s situation is different from those of the current governors of California and Michigan, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jennifer M. Granholm, who were born in other countries and were first citizens of those nations, rendering them naturalized Americans ineligible under current interpretations. The conflict that could conceivably ensnare Mr. McCain goes more to the interpretation of “natural born” when weighed against intent and decades of immigration law.

Mr. McCain is not the first person to find himself in these circumstances. The last Arizona Republican to be a presidential nominee, Barry Goldwater, faced the issue. He was born in the Arizona territory in 1909, three years before it became a state. But Goldwater did not win, and the view at the time was that since he was born in a continental territory that later became a state, he probably met the standard.

It also surfaced in the 1968 candidacy of George Romney, who was born in Mexico, but again was not tested. The former Connecticut politician Lowell P. Weicker Jr., born in Paris, sought a legal analysis when considering the presidency, an aide said, and was assured he was eligible. Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. was once viewed as a potential successor to his father, but was seen by some as ineligible since he had been born on Campobello Island in Canada. The 21st president, Chester A. Arthur, whose birthplace is Vermont, was rumored to have actually been born in Canada, prompting some to question his eligibility.

Quickly recognizing confusion over the evolving nature of citizenship, the First Congress in 1790 passed a measure that did define children of citizens “born beyond the sea, or out of the limits of the United States to be natural born.” But that law is still seen as potentially unconstitutional and was overtaken by subsequent legislation that omitted the “natural-born” phrase.

Mr. McCain’s citizenship was established by statutes covering the offspring of Americans abroad and laws specific to the Canal Zone as Congress realized that Americans would be living and working in the area for extended periods. But whether he qualifies as natural-born has been a topic of Internet buzz for months, with some declaring him ineligible while others assert that he meets all the basic constitutional qualifications — a natural-born citizen at least 35 years of age with 14 years of residence.

“I don’t think he has any problem whatsoever,” said Mr. Nickles, a McCain supporter. “But I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if somebody is going to try to make an issue out of it. If it goes to court, I think he will win.”

Lawyers who have examined the topic say there is not just confusion about the provision itself, but uncertainty about who would have the legal standing to challenge a candidate on such grounds, what form a challenge could take and whether it would have to wait until after the election or could be made at any time.

In a paper written 20 years ago for the Yale Law Journal on the natural-born enigma, Jill Pryor, now a lawyer in Atlanta, said that any legal challenge to a presidential candidate born outside national boundaries would be “unpredictable and unsatisfactory.”

“If I were on the Supreme Court, I would decide for John McCain,” Ms. Pryor said in a recent interview. “But it is certainly not a frivolous issue.”

Group tied to al-Qaida
backs McCain for prez
'They will do all they can to turn Kosovo
into a jihadist camp in the heart of Europe'

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain has enjoyed strong support from a lobbyist group that backs the Kosovo Liberation Army despite allegations the KLA is a Muslim terrorist group with ties to criminal drug networks and al-Qaida.

The Albanian American Civic League, or AACL, regards the KLA as "freedom fighters," said the AACL's president, former Republican congressman Joe DioGuardi of New York.

They're "not terrorist, like the Serbs and Greeks say," DioGuardi insisted in an interview with WND.

But Islam expert Robert Spencer, editor of the popular website Jihad Watch, contends radical Islam is the driving force behind the Kosovo independence movement.

"There is no excusing the excesses of the Serbs under (former President Slobodan) Milosevic, but there is no denying also that jihadists have been pouring into Bosnia and Kosovo, preparing to use them as a base for jihad activity in Europe – and we have been helping them," Spencer told WND.

Spencer explained that the KLA is directly linked to the Kosovo independence movement.

"When Kosovo independence was declared, thousands of Kosovars gathered in Pristina and chanted, 'KLA!' 'KLA!' Spencer noted. "This was a telling indication of the broad popular support the KLA enjoys."

KLA members, however, continued Spencer, were trained in al-Qaida camps.

"There is little doubt that there are powerful elements in Kosovo who are Islamic supremacist and pro-Sharia (Islamic law)," he said. "They will do all they can to turn Kosovo into a jihadist camp in the heart of Europe."

Spencer pointed out Kosovo is about 90 percent Muslim, and the independence movement has grown by incorporating Albanian Muslims as members and supporters.

"Most of the Albanian Muslims are cultural Muslims who have not been radicalized," he added. "However, the Muslims in the Balkans have been subjected to heavy jihadists infiltration and recruitment for almost two decades now."

Spencer contends McCain, along with the Bush administration, which has recognized Kosovo's independence, "are on the wrong side of the fight … just as American policy in general has been on the wrong side of the Balkans conflict for years."

During the Balkans war in the 1990s, President Clinton committed U.S. troops to fight under NATO command, providing U.S. air support for NATO-directed attacks against the Serbs.

Today, President Bush's and Sen. McCain's support for Kosovo is equally clear.

On Feb. 17, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced the U.S. formally recognized Kosovo as a sovereign and independent state, saying, "As Kosovo today begins its life as an independent state, the United States pledges to be its close friend and partner."

McCain, in a written statement prepared for the Munich Security Conference Feb. 7, called on the U.S. and the European Union to recognize Kosovo's independence, saying, "For the first time the region is today poised to move forward, with final status for Kosovo and transitioning continuing responsibilities there to increasing European control – at long last closing the door on the region's painful past."

In April 1999, McCain and Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., co-sponsored the "Kosovo Self-Defense Act" with the goal of arming the KLA in their battle against the Serbs.

McCain co-sponsored the legislation despite serious concerns voiced at that time in Republican policy forums, warning the KLA was a criminal terrorist organization with ties to al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden.

The U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee issued a white paper March 31, 1999, concluding the KLA was closely associated with:

* "The extensive Albanian crime network that extends throughout Europe and into North America, including allegations that a major portion of the KLA finances are derived from that network, mainly proceeds from drug trafficking; and

* Terrorist organizations motivated by the ideology of radical Islam, including assets of Ian and of the notorious Osama bin-Laden – who has vowed a global terrorist war against Americans and American interests."

DioGuardi strongly disagrees with the conclusion.

"The Serbs and the Orthodox Christian church are fighting a medieval battle," DioGuardi said. "To them, anybody who is a Muslim is a problem."

DioGuardi delved into history, arguing the Albanians were also Christians until the Ottoman Turks occupied Albania.

"Albania is the only real friend the United States has in the Balkans," he said. "President Woodrow Wilson after World War I, in 1921, forced Yugoslavia to withdraw from Albania, thus saving Albania as an independent state. Today, Albania has about 600 troops fighting in Iraq with the United States, and Albania has offered to send more."

'Just another Serbian lie'

DioGuardi affirmed the AACL supported McCain in his 2000 presidential campaign and is supporting him in his current bid for the White House.

The Serbian Internet publication, Serbianna.com, ran a story Feb. 13, claiming that in the 2000 presidential campaign, McCain accepted contributions from the AACL totaling $1 million from an event at the St. Regis Hotel in midtown Manhattan.

DioGuardi said the $1 million figure "just another Serbian lie."

DioGuardi said the AACL had gotten some 1,000 Albanians to greet McCain's bus on Feb. 11, 2000, when the senator was coming to New York City to hold some fundraising events.

"We wanted to greet Sen. McCain and show him Albanians in New York were behind him in his race to be president," he argued. "We didn't raise $1 million for McCain at any fundraiser that day."

The Serbianna.com story included a photograph showing McCain, DioGuardi and a group of Albanian supporters in the St. Regis lobby.

Another photo of the event was published on Justin Raimondo's website, Anti-war.com, showing McCain and DioGiardi again with a small group of Albanian supporters.

WND asked if DioGuardi or the Albanian community had raised as much as $1 million for McCain, regardless how many events were involved.

"Not yet," DioGuardi answered.

He admitted to being a top fundraiser for McCain in 2008 and he said he was pledged to raise as much as $100,000 this year for the presidential campaign.

"The Albanian American Civic League also has a PAC, and we have already given the maximum we can give to McCain," DioGuardi affirmed.

OpenSecrets.org documents the Albanian American PAC has contributed $5,000 to McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, while making no contributions to any Democratic Party presidential candidate.

"Whenever there is a McCain fundraiser in New York, we notify our members who can write a check and ask them to attend," DioGuardi also admitted.

While FEC records track the employment of campaign contributors, no questions are asked to determine a contributor's interest group affiliation, making it nearly impossible to determine the exact amount contributed by AACL members or loosely affiliated sympathizers.

The AACL's support for the KLA, however, is a matter of public record.

In 1998, the group issued a public declaration, "In Defense of the Albanian National Cause," announcing its support for the KLA.

Albanian.com, a website that bills itself as the "Home of Albanians Online," currently credits McCain as becoming nationally known in 1999 for advocating NATO bombing of Serbia and suggesting the U.S. should send American troops into Kosovo to support the KLA.

"We support any politician, Republican or Democrat, who understands the problems of the Balkins the way we do," DioGuardi said.

McCain backs Jerusalem as 'Israeli capital'

1 hour, 13 minutes ago

JERUSALEM (AFP) - US Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Tuesday he supports Israel's claim to the holy city of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state.

"I support Jerusalem as the capital of Israel," McCain said in Jordan before heading to Israel where he arrived late Tuesday.

Israel annexed Arab east Jerusalem after the 1967 Middle East war and declared it part of its eternal undivided capital, a claim not recognised by the international community.

The fate of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest issues in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and renewed Israeli settlement activity in the occupied eastern part is hampering peace talks revived only in November.

The Palestinians, who want to make the eastern sector capital of their future promised state, said McCain's statements contradicted the two-state solution to the Middle East conflict laid out by US President George W. Bush.

"They do not represent the position of the US administration which considers all the Palestinian areas occupied by Israel in 1967, including east Jerusalem as occupied territories," senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.

"They also contradict the two-state vision of president Bush," he said in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The United States and other foreign governments maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv.

In June, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution urging Bush to move the embassy to Jerusalem and congratulating Israel "on the 40th anniversary of the reunification of that historic city."

A "Jerusalem Embassy Act" was passed by Congress in 1995, that "Jerusalem should be recognised as the capital of the state of Israel." However, successive presidents have deferred the actual move by six-month periods.

McCain, the Republican nominee for the November race for the White House, insisted that he supported the Middle East peace process.

"I am committed to pursuing the Israel-Palestinian peace process and make it a high priority," he told reporters after he toured the Roman Citadel site in downtown Amman.

"I know that the people of Israel and the Palestinian people want to see a peaceful settlement as both sides suffered enormously," he said.

"I think it will be enormously helpful if... Gaza is not governed by an entity that is committed to the extinction of the state of Israel."

McCain was referring to the Islamist movement Hamas, which in June evicted Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's forces from the Gaza Strip and seized control of the territory.

"One of the fundamentals of moving a peace process forward is recognising that the person you are negotiating with (has) the right to exist. I hope that is made clear by the United States government."

He also held talks with King Abdullah II, a key US ally, who urged Washington to "continue playing an effective role" in advancing the peace process, the palace said.

The Arizona senator was welcomed in Jerusalem by Israeli President Shimon Peres.

McCain was to tour Israel by helicopter with Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Wednesday to acquaint himself with its security problems, the minister's office said.

He was also to hold talks with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

McCain, who visited Baghdad on Sunday has voiced concern at what he said was Iran's influence in Iraq and its support for the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.

"If we pull out of Iraq, then obviously the Iranian influence is dramatically increased," he said.

McCain backs Jerusalem as 'Israeli capital' (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080319/wl_afp/mideastdiplomacyusmccain_080319001448;_ylt=Ashorl4pmNDZfAjXol3fAwtn.3QA)

McCain looking to cash in on Obama's Hamas 'chums'
GOP campaign trolls for dough after terrorists endorse Democrat

Republican presidential candidate John McCain is looking to cash in – literally – on the recent endorsement of Democrat Barack Obama by Hamas terrorists.

The campaign of the presumptive GOP nominee sent out a fundraising letter Friday, quoting last week's interview by WND's Aaron Klein and WABC Radio in which Ahmed Yousuf, Hamas' top political adviser in the Gaza Strip, said Hamas "hopes" Obama will win the presidential elections and "change" America's foreign policy.

"Barack Obama's foreign policy plans have even won him praise from Hamas leaders," the e-mail from McCain deputy campaign manager Christian Ferry says. "We need change in America, but not the kind of change that wins kind words from Hamas, surrenders in Iraq and will hold unconditional talks with Iranian President Ahmadinejad."

The McCain fundraising e-mail noted "kind words" for Obama from Hamas.

"John McCain's foreign policy provides a stark contrast to the policies of Barack Obama," writes Ferry. "While Senator Obama would surrender in Iraq and hold talks with the Iranian regime, John McCain will never surrender in the struggle with Islamic extremists. Please join our campaign today by making a generous donation of $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,000 or $2,300."

In the exclusive interview with WND and New York radio host John Batchelor, Yousuf said, "I hope Mr. Obama and the Democrats will change the political discourse. ... I do believe [Obama] is like John Kennedy, a great man with a great principal. And he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community, but not with humiliation and arrogance."

(Story continues below)

McCain's fundraising tactic is being blasted by Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., a supporter of Obama.

"John McCain likes to talk about the civil campaign he plans to run, and yet today he has engaged in a shameful, divisive, and cynical kind of politics that he pretends to reject – all in reckless pursuit of campaign dollars," Wexler told CNN, calling the message "empty tough talk and divisive fear mongering."

"We call on Senator McCain to reject this embarrassing and outrageous tone, and to join with Barack Obama in calling for an America that is united in its determination to isolate Hamas and support our ally Israel," he said.

One poster reacted to the letter on a CNN messageboard by stating: "Wow, after reading this my check to McCain's campaign couldn't be in the mail sooner. I mean, c'mon, can you imagine a world in which our 'enemies' actually wanted to hold talks with the American president?"

McCain to attend convention of 'reconquista' group
Republican presidential candidate launches Spanish campaign website

Sen. John McCain, the de facto Republican presidential nominee, announced today he will attend the national convention of La Raza, a radical Hispanic lobby tied to the movement to reconquer the Southwestern U.S. that was part of Mexico before the Mexican-American War that ended in 1848.

The convention will be held in San Diego July 14.

Though La Raza bills itself as a civil rights organization, the group's name literally means "The Race."

La Raza was condemned in 2006 by Rep. Charles Norwood, R-Ga., as a radical "pro-illegal immigration lobbying organization that supports racist groups calling for the secession of the western United States as a Hispanic-only homeland."

Norwood has called on La Raza to renounce its support of the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan – which sees "The Race" as part of an ethnic group that one day will reclaim Aztlan, the mythical birthplace of the Aztecs. In Chicano folklore, Aztlan includes California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and parts of Colorado and Texas.

McCain, who steadfastly opposed efforts to build a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border and supported legislation to permit illegal aliens to remain in the U.S., also announced the launch of his campaign's Spanish language website.

The announcements came on Cinco de Mayo, the day commemorating an 1862 battle fought by Mexican troops.

"Today, we join together to remember the sacrifice that these Mexican patriots endured, as well as the struggles of all those around the world striving for freedom," said McCain in the statement. "We recognize as well the important friendship that exists between our country and Mexico, and celebrate the many contributions Mexican-Americans have made to our society, culture, security and economy."

Reports keep surfacing that John McCain admitted shortly after the 2000 election that he did not vote for President Bush, even as the Arizona senator and his campaign reject the claims outright.

“It’s nonsense,” McCain told reporters Friday in Jersey City, N.J.

“Of course (I voted for him),” he told FOX News’ Bill O’Reilly Thursday. “And I voted … for Bush in 2000 and 2004.

“And not only that, far more important than a vote — I campaigned everywhere in America for him,” he said. “And I enjoyed it. I campaigned with him. I did everything I could to get him elected and re elected president.”

The presumptive GOP nominee defended himself after Arianna Huffington wrote in The Huffington Post Monday that McCain and his wife Cindy told her at a Los Angeles dinner party shortly after the 2000 election that neither of them voted for Bush. She wrote that Cindy McCain even said she voted for her husband as a write-in candidate.

The Los Angeles Times then claimed Wednesday that an anonymous source who attended the dinner confirmed the Cindy McCain account.

And Friday, The Washington Post and The New York Times reported two “West Wing” actors heard the same thing from the Arizona senator — only their version of the story was a little different.

According to the Post, actor Bradley Whitford said McCain told a group of people at the Hollywood dinner that Bush was “horribly unqualified and untested.”

Asked if he supported Bush, McCain then “put his finger up to his lips, shook his head and mouthed, ‘No way,’ ” according to Whitford.

Actor Richard Schiff gave a similar account. Neither remembered Cindy McCain describing how she voted.

I actually saw the interview with Bill O'Rielly last night and my impression was that he was lying when he told O'Rielly that he had voted for Bush, by his body language and facial expression. I turned to my parents (I was at their house) and said as much. They thought he was telling the truth. Did anyone else see this interview? What did you think? Also when asked about the illegals and sanctuary cities, he hemmed and hawed pretty good, because of course he wants the Latino votes.
It looks to me like it's going to be McCain vs Obama and then it will be a choice of choosing the steady decline of America as we have been witnessing or a rapid decline into hell. Nothing is going to get better folks and I really don't think McCain will get much of anything done in the four years he is allotted if he happens to win this one. He won't get re-elected because for 1) he is too old, and for 2) America will be in such a dissintergrated state in another four years that whatever Democrate running will gain office. Just my prediction. Any thoughts?

McCain pledges to combat climate change
'The facts of global warming demand our urgent attention'

~~Republican~~ Left Wing Nutl John McCain, differing sharply with President George W. Bush, said on Monday he would pursue mandatory U.S. curbs on greenhouse gas emissions if he wins the White House in November.

The Arizona senator vowed to take the lead in combating global climate change, seek international accords to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and offer an incentive system to make businesses in the United States cleaner.

"The facts of global warming demand our urgent attention, especially in Washington," McCain told an audience at the Vestas Wind Technology plant in Portland, where he signed the blade of a giant wind turbine and chatted with service technicians.

Soon after taking office in 2001, Bush rejected the Kyoto Protocol that sets limits on industrial countries' greenhouse gas emissions.

The Republican president has resisted mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions, saying they would hurt the U.S. economy.

'UNITED STATES WILL LEAD'

McCain's speech was aimed at independents and centrist Democrats whose votes he will need in the November election. His break with Bush comes as critics assert his candidacy amounts to little more than a third term for the current president.

"I will not shirk the mantle of leadership that the United States bears. I will not permit eight long years to pass without serious action on serious challenges," McCain said.

"I will not accept the same dead-end of failed diplomacy that claimed Kyoto."

On an issue that has complicated U.S. relations with other countries, McCain said he would "lead and lead with a different approach -- an approach that speaks to the interests and obligations of every nation."

McCain said he would push for "meaningful environmental protocols," which included developing industrial powers India and China, to seek to cut worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.

He planned to present a so-called cap-and-trade system to Congress setting clear limits on greenhouse gas emissions for U.S. businesses, while allowing the sale of rights to excess emissions, so as to "change the dynamic" of the U.S. energy economy.

"Those who want clean coal technology, more wind and solar, nuclear power, biomass and biofuels will have their opportunity through a new market that rewards those and other innovations in clean energy," he said.

McCain said the plan would set out specific goals on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, including a return by 2012 to 2005 levels of emission, and by 2020 to 1990s levels.

His proposals drew fire from Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama, who faces off against rival Hillary Clinton in Oregon's Democratic primary on May 20.

"It is truly breathtaking for John McCain to talk about combating climate change while voting against virtually every recent effort to actually invest in clean energy," Obama said in a statement.

McCain has campaigned on his support for alternative energy sources including wind, solar and biomass technologies, as well as support for nuclear power, although Democrats question his voting record on the issue in Congress.

McCain camp mocks Obama as Messiah-like
Fri Aug 1, 5:22 PM ET

PANAMA CITY, Florida (Reuters) - Republican John McCain's presidential team mocked Democrat Barack Obama on Friday as an overconfident, Messiah-like candidate with a tendency toward exaggeration in a Web ad that closed out a week of attacks.

The ad, e-mailed to supporters, refers to Obama as "The One" and uses rhetoric from some of Obama's high-flying speeches, making fun of quotes such as, "We are the ones we've been waiting for," and "This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal."

"It shall be known that in 2008, the world shall be blessed," the announcer intones. "They will call him: The One."

Even the late actor Charlton Heston makes an appearance as bearded Moses from the epic biblical movie, "The Ten Commandments." As Moses parts the seas by declaring, "Behold His mighty hand," the Obama for President seal comes forth.

"Barack Obama may be The One," the announcer says. "But is he ready to lead?"

The remarkably personal Web ad marked the end of a week in which the McCain campaign stepped up aggressive attacks against the Democrat, who would be America's first black president if he is elected on November 4.

A television advertisement on Wednesday compared his sudden fame to pop culture celebrities like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

And when Obama struck back by saying the McCain camp was attacking him because he has a "funny name" and his face is different from the white presidents on U.S. paper currency, McCain accused him of injecting racial politics into the campaign.

SENSE OF HUMOR

McCain, at a news conference, smiled as he talked about the new ad.

"We were having some fun with our supporters," he said. "We're going to display a sense of humor in this campaign."

Asked if the religious imagery was appropriate, he said: "That clip is Charlton Heston. It's a movie."

He said he was running a "very respectful campaign."

"I don't think our campaign is negative in the slightest," he said.

The Obama campaign was swift to denounce the new ad.

"It's downright sad that on a day when we learned that 51,000 Americans lost their jobs, a candidate for the presidency is spending all of his time and the powerful platform he has on these sorts of juvenile antics," said spokesman Hari Sevugan.

McCain is trying to knock Obama back on his heels and prevent him from taking a runaway lead in opinion polls ahead of the Democratic nominating convention in late August, where Obama would be expected to get a boost.

McCain appeared in Panama City with Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, often mentioned as a vice presidential running mate candidate for McCain.

Asked whether Crist was under consideration, McCain said he believed Crist has "earned a place in the Republican Party not just in the state of Florida but nationally."

But he said he would not talk about the vice presidential process. He is expected to name his choice this month.

Earlier in Orlando, McCain engaged in a spirited debate with participants in the annual conference of the National Urban League, an influential black group, 24 hours before Obama was to appear before them on Saturday.

They gave McCain a cordial welcome, standing politely and applauding as he was introduced. After his remarks, they quizzed the Arizona senator on a range of issues from equal opportunity in the job market for black Americans to prison rape.

One man wanted to know why McCain backed offshore oil drilling if, as some experts say, it would take 10 years to get the oil to gasoline stations.

McCain said he had spoken to oil industry executives and had been told it was possible to use existing facilities to produce gasoline from offshore oil within months.

"So we ought to drill now," he said.

McCain against gay adoption; Obama won't 'impose' faith on his kids
Republican John McCain told The New York Times in an interview published July 13 he opposes adoption by homosexual couples and believes children need a mother and a father, reports Baptist Press.

In a wide-ranging interview that covered everything from his faith to his beliefs on the teaching of evolution in public schools, the presumptive GOP nominee was asked whether he agreed with President Bush's opposition to homosexual adoption.

"I think that we've proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no I don't believe in gay adoption," McCain said, according to the transcript.

The newspaper then asked McCain if he would remain opposed to homosexual adoption "even if the alternative is the kid staying in an orphanage" or "not having parents."

"I encourage adoption and I encourage the opportunities for people to adopt children," McCain said. "I encourage the process being less complicated so they can adopt as quickly as possible. And Cindy and I are proud of being adoptive parents."

"But your concern," The Times' Adam Nagourney responded, "would be that the couple should [be] a traditional couple."

"Yes," McCain answered.

McCain also was asked if he considers himself an evangelical Christian.

"I consider myself a Christian," he said. "I attend church, my faith has sustained me in very difficult times. But I think it depends on what you call a quote evangelical Christian. Because there are some people who may not share my views on -– I mean, that covers a lot of ground. But I certainly consider myself a Christian."

McCain has been attending North Phoenix Baptist Church -- a Southern Baptist congregation -- for approximately the past 15 years when in Arizona. He's not a member, although his wife is. McCain said he doesn't attend church as often as he should.

"When Cindy and I are in Phoenix, we attend," he said. "We've been fortunate enough the last few weeks to be in Phoenix. During the primary before that we were not back in Phoenix much so -– again, not as frequently as I would like. I do appreciate the pastor of the North Phoenix Baptist Church, his name is Dan Yeary, and I talk to him frequently on the phone and I appreciate his spiritual guidance. He's a great believer in redemption."

On other issues, McCain said he believes the teaching of evolution in schools is "up to the school boards."

"That's what we have local control over education," he said. "My personal view is that children should be exposed to as much as they possibly can so that they can make their decisions and be the best informed."

McCain also reiterated his support for conservative Supreme Court justices -- even if those justices issue rulings he opposes, such as the striking down of campaign finance laws.

"I think that the role of the Supreme Court is to strictly interpret the Constitution of the United States of America," he said. "And I think [Justices John] Roberts and [Samuel] Alito are individuals I'm glad supported, even if they may take contrary opinions. Their position is Supreme Court justices; mine is a legislator. So I don't expect them to agree on every issue."

Roberts and Alito were President Bush's two Supreme Court nominees.

Camp McCain: The Left Loves Those Smears They Throw

It’s good to see the McCain campaign fighting against the biased media and against the most radical elements of the Left (which is, of course, the Democrat base nowadays), something we on the Right begged Dubya to do. Michael Goldfarb at John McCain 2008: Smears The Left Can Fight For:

Quote

In the least credible and most vicious corner of the internet, liberal bloggers at the Daily Kos are accusing John McCain of plagiarizing from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The story Solzhenitsyn told was of a prisoner who drew a cross in the dirt in a Soviet Gulag. McCain’s story is of a guard who drew a cross in the dirt in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp.

The only similarity between the two stories is a cross in the dirt, but it is hardly an unlikely coincidence that there were practicing Christians in both Russia and Vietnam, or that in the prisons of those two Communist countries the only crosses to be found were etched in the dirt, as easily disappeared as the Christians who drew them.

But those desperate to discredit Senator McCain’s record will have to impugn his fellow prisoners as well. Orson Swindle, who was held as a prisoner of war along with McCain, tells the McCain Report that he heard this particular story from McCain “when we first moved in together.” That was in the summer of 1971, Swindle said, though “time blurred” and he couldn’t be sure. He said it was some time around then that the Vietnamese moved all “36 troublemakers” into the same quarters, where they “talked about everything under the sun.”

It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman’s memory of war from the comfort of mom’s basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others. John McCain has often said he witnessed a thousand acts of bravery while he was imprisoned, and though not every one has been submitted into the public record, they are remembered by the men who were there (one such only recently reported by Karl Rove though it escaped mention in any of Senator McCain’s books, article following this post). But as Swindle said, this is a “desperate group of people trying to make something out of nothing.”

It’s funny how the left tells us that it is verboten to attack Obama over his character, his inability to show any patriotism, his wife’s America loathing (till Barry almost had the nomination in the bag), Jeremiah Wright, etc and so on, but it is OK to go after McCain on this. Go figure.

Getting to Know John McCain
By KARL ROVE

It came to me while I was having dinner with Doris Day. No, not that Doris Day. The Doris Day who is married to Col. Bud Day, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, fighter pilot, Vietnam POW and roommate of John McCain at the Hanoi Hilton.

As we ate near the Days' home in Florida recently, I heard things about Sen. McCain that were deeply moving and politically troubling. Moving because they told me things about him the American people need to know. And troubling because it is clear that Mr. McCain is one of the most private individuals to run for president in history.

When it comes to choosing a president, the American people want to know more about a candidate than policy positions. They want to know about character, the values ingrained in his heart. For Mr. McCain, that means they will want to know more about him personally than he has been willing to reveal.

Mr. Day relayed to me one of the stories Americans should hear. It involves what happened to him after escaping from a North Vietnamese prison during the war. When he was recaptured, a Vietnamese captor broke his arm and said, "I told you I would make you a cripple."

The break was designed to shatter Mr. Day's will. He had survived in prison on the hope that one day he would return to the United States and be able to fly again. To kill that hope, the Vietnamese left part of a bone sticking out of his arm, and put him in a misshapen cast. This was done so that the arm would heal at "a goofy angle," as Mr. Day explained. Had it done so, he never would have flown again.

But it didn't heal that way because of John McCain. Risking severe punishment, Messrs. McCain and Day collected pieces of bamboo in the prison courtyard to use as a splint. Mr. McCain put Mr. Day on the floor of their cell and, using his foot, jerked the broken bone into place. Then, using strips from the bandage on his own wounded leg and the bamboo, he put Mr. Day's splint in place.

Years later, Air Force surgeons examined Mr. Day and complimented the treatment he'd gotten from his captors. Mr. Day corrected them. It was Dr. McCain who deserved the credit. Mr. Day went on to fly again.

Another story I heard over dinner with the Days involved Mr. McCain serving as one of the three chaplains for his fellow prisoners. At one point, after being shuttled among different prisons, Mr. Day had found himself as the most senior officer at the Hanoi Hilton. So he tapped Mr. McCain to help administer religious services to the other prisoners.

Today, Mr. Day, a very active 83, still vividly recalls Mr. McCain's sermons. "He remembered the Episcopal liturgy," Mr. Day says, "and sounded like a bona fide preacher." One of Mr. McCain's first sermons took as its text Luke 20:25 and Matthew 22:21, "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's." Mr. McCain said he and his fellow prisoners shouldn't ask God to free them, but to help them become the best people they could be while serving as POWs. It was Caesar who put them in prison and Caesar who would get them out. Their task was to act with honor.

Another McCain story, somewhat better known, is about the Vietnamese practice of torturing him by tying his head between his ankles with his arms behind him, and then leaving him for hours. The torture so badly busted up his shoulders that to this day Mr. McCain can't raise his arms over his head.

One night, a Vietnamese guard loosened his bonds, returning at the end of his watch to tighten them again so no one would notice. Shortly after, on Christmas Day, the same guard stood beside Mr. McCain in the prison yard and drew a cross in the sand before erasing it. Mr. McCain later said that when he returned to Vietnam for the first time after the war, the only person he really wanted to meet was that guard.

Mr. Day recalls with pride Mr. McCain stubbornly refusing to accept special treatment or curry favor to be released early, even when gravely ill. Mr. McCain knew the Vietnamese wanted the propaganda victory of the son and grandson of Navy admirals accepting special treatment. "He wasn't corruptible then," Mr. Day says, "and he's not corruptible today."

The stories told to me by the Days involve more than wartime valor.

For example, in 1991 Cindy McCain was visiting Mother Teresa's orphanage in Bangladesh when a dying infant was thrust into her hands. The orphanage could not provide the medical care needed to save her life, so Mrs. McCain brought the child home to America with her. She was met at the airport by her husband, who asked what all this was about.

Mrs. McCain replied that the child desperately needed surgery and years of rehabilitation. "I hope she can stay with us," she told her husband. Mr. McCain agreed. Today that child is their teenage daughter Bridget.

I was aware of this story. What I did not know, and what I learned from Doris, is that there was a second infant Mrs. McCain brought back. She ended up being adopted by a young McCain aide and his wife.

"We were called at midnight by Cindy," Wes Gullett remembers, and "five days later we met our new daughter Nicki at the L.A. airport wearing the only clothing Cindy could find on the trip back, a 7-Up T-shirt she bought in the Bangkok airport." Today, Nicki is a high school sophomore. Mr. Gullett told me, "I never saw a hospital bill" for her care.

A few, but not many, of the stories told to me by the Days have been written about, such as in Robert Timberg's 1996 book "A Nightingale's Song." But Mr. McCain rarely refers to them on the campaign trail. There is something admirable in his reticence, but he needs to overcome it.

Private people like Mr. McCain are rare in politics for a reason. Candidates who are uncomfortable sharing their interior lives limit their appeal. But if Mr. McCain is to win the election this fall, he has to open up.

Americans need to know about his vision for the nation's future, especially his policy positions and domestic reforms. They also need to learn about the moments in his life that shaped him. Mr. McCain cannot make this a biography-only campaign – but he can't afford to make it a biography-free campaign either. Unless he opens up more, many voters will never know the experiences of his life that show his character, integrity and essential decency.

These qualities mattered in America's first president and will matter as Americans decide on their 44th president.

Flammables, duct tape, knives and urine, oh my!
Police raid uncovers 'RNC Welcoming Committee' weapons stash meant to disrupt GOP in Twin Cities

©2008 WorldNetDaily

Police in Minnesota raided a building in St. Paul and several homes in Minneapolis last night, confiscating materials believed to be stockpiled for protests, vandalism and riots by an anarchist group calling themselves the RNC Welcoming Committee.

Five people were arrested and more than 100 handcuffed, questioned and released when a Ramsey County police force – assisted by the FBI, Hennepin County, and Minneapolis law enforcement – executed a search warrant against a group considered a threat to launch violent protests during this week's Republican National Convention.

Ramsey County Sherriff Bob Fletcher read from a statement this morning, describing the RNC Welcoming Committee as "a criminal enterprise made up of 35 self-described anarchists who are intent on committing criminal acts before and during the Republican National Convention.

"These acts include tactics to blockade and disable delegate buses, breaching venue security and injuring police officers," Fletcher said.

Fletcher's statement also included a list of items found in the searches, including PVC pipe, chicken wire and duct tape – believed by police to be intended for locking protesters together in human barricades called "sleeping dragons" – five-gallon buckets of urine, throwing knives, flammable liquids, homemade caltrops (devices used to puncture tires, presumably bus tires), bolt cutters, sledgehammers, protective padding, and plastic buckets cut into shields.

A video claiming to advertise for the RNC Welcoming Committee's upcoming protests was posted on YouTube, showing a masked female running through streets to the lyrics, "One way or another, I'm gonna find ya, I'm gonna getcha," and distributing riot gear and homemade bombs from materials such as those found in last night's raids. The group did not respond to WND's request that it confirm authorship of the video, though the group's name and website are featured prominently throughout.

Both the video page and the group's website link to another group's stated plan for disrupting the RNC, which includes establishing blockades around St. Paul's Excel Center (where the convention is to take place), immobilizing delegates' buses and blocking the bridges that connect Minneapolis to St. Paul.

"Those plugging into this strategy," the plan states, "will be free to shape their actions as they see fit, using the tactics they consider appropriate."

The RNC Welcoming Committee released a statement late Friday, criticizing the police action.

"The police may claim that the raid was executed according to protocol – however, the violence inherent in this action may only be a hint of the violence to be expected on Monday and beyond, and is only a hint at the violence perpetrated daily by the police," the group said.

RNC Welcoming Committee member Tony Jones read from a statement calling the raids and effort to "derail RNC protest organizing efforts and to intimidate and terrorize individuals and groups converging on the Twin Cities to exercise what are supposed to be their basic civil rights."

St. Paul City Councilman Dave Thune, whose district includes the building rented by the RNC Welcoming Committee, joined the criticism.

"This is not the way to start things off," Thune told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. "This is sending the wrong message. Regardless of how you feel about these people … they have a right to be here."

"To me," Thune told the St. Paul Pioneer Press, "this smacks of preemptive strike against free speech."

St. Paul Mayor Christopher Coleman, however, defended the motivation behind the police action.

"We have worked very, very hard to make sure we've protected people's right to exercise free speech," Coleman told the Pioneer Press. "To pick up a protest sign, that's fine. If you're here to pick up a brick or some other instrument, there's a problem."

The Pioneer Press reports that the five people being held in jail are under arrest on suspicion of conspiracy to riot, conspiracy to commit civil disorder and conspiracy to damage property and that the St. Paul building that the RNC Welcoming Committee was leasing, found following the raid to be in violation of fire code, has since been turned back over to the property owner.

Wonder who organized it? Terrorist-Lover Obama, family and friends....?

McCain halts campaign
to tackle financial crisis
Calls on Obama to join him in Washington,
postpone Friday's debate on foreign policy

In a dramatic move, Republican Sen. John McCain announced he will suspend his presidential campaign tomorrow to focus on addressing the Wall Street crisis and called on Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama to do the same.

McCain also asked for suspension of the debate scheduled for Friday in Oxford, Miss., focused on foreign policy, considered his strong suit.

The Arizona senator said he believes the administration's $700 billion bailout bill in Congress will not pass and urged Obama to join him in working out a new deal before Monday.

A senior Obama campaign official, however, told ABC News, "The debate is on."

Asked his reaction to McCain's call to postpone the debate, Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., Obama's chief debate negotiator, told MSNBC "we can handle both."

Emmanuel said he believes lawmakers are making good progress on Capitol Hill and suggested the debate would not interfere.

McCain said lawmakers need to show the kind of patriotism displayed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and "temporarily set politics aside."

"If we do not act, every corner of this country will be impacted," he said. "We cannot allow this to happen."

The Obama campaign, according to Fox News, issued a statement suggesting it actually made the first move to set politics aside to address the country's financial woes.

Spokesman Bill Burton said Obama called McCain at 8:30 this morning "to ask him if he would join in issuing a joint statement outlining their shared principles and conditions for the Treasury proposal and urging Congress and the White House to act in a bipartisan manner to pass such a proposal."

Then, at 2:30 p.m., Burton said, McCain returned Obama's call and "agreed to join him in issuing such a statement."

"The two campaigns are currently working together on the details," the spokesman said.

President Bush is scheduled to make a nationally televised address to promote the administration's proposal tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern Time.

McCain said he met with a group of economic advisers this morning to talk about the congressional bill and also spoke with members of Congress to hear their perspective.

"It has become clear that no consensus has developed to support the administration' proposal," he said. "I do not believe that the plan on the table will pass as it currently stands, and we are running out of time."

McCain said his campaign will officially be suspended tomorrow after he speaks at the Clinton Global Initiative.

"I have spoken to Senator Obama and informed him of my decision and have asked him to join me," he said. "I am calling on the president to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama and myself. It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem."

McCain said he's confident a consensus can be achieved before the markets open Monday

Any bill, he said, should "stabilize our financial markets, protect taxpayers and homeowners and earn the confidence of the American people."

Quote from: Pastor Roger on October 13, 2008, 10:09:19 AM

There is one last debate coming up between the two of them. I am waiting to see what happens with that one. If McCain lets things go completely unchallenged there then I would have to agree with there being someone telling him what to do. Personally I would smell the odor of Soros and that isn't a pleasant odor.

Pastor Roger,

I was thinking exactly the same thing. I suspected it the very first time that McCain let a perfect opportunity slide. McCain even said in a recent speech that Obama was a good man and folks shouldn't be afraid if he got elected President. This being a false statement is not just a matter of politics. We should be very worried about COMMUNISTS WITH AGENDAS being elected to President. This would be before considering any violations of the law. To be LEFT far enough to be called a LIBERAL is one thing, but being SO FAR LEFT THAT ONE IS A COMMUNIST is quite another - a different story that Americans need to be thinking about! The last I heard, FREEDOM AND OUR WAY OF LIFE does NOT MIX WITH SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM BECAUSE THEY ARE OPPOSING SYSTEMS ON OPPOSITE ENDS OF THE SCALE FROM EACH OTHER. THAT'S RIGHT - IT'S THE OPPOSITE OF A FREE COUNTRY AND WHERE GEORGE SOROS WANTS TO TAKE US! If someone really needs a lesson about what SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM IS, LOOK UP RUSSIA, RED CHINA, AND NORTH KOREA! I feel quite certain that the vast majority of Americans don't want anything to do with that form of government, but maybe they don't realize YET what is being attempted! Folks had better wake up or we'll ALL get a graphic lesson about SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL! ONCE SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM TAKES ROOT, IT TAKES A BLOOD BATH TO GET RID OF IT! IS THIS WHAT AMERICANS WANT?

McCain must state obvious: Obama is a socialist
Star Parker - Syndicated Columnist - 10/20/2008 7:15:00 AM

As John McCain tries to salvage his presidential campaign over the few weeks he has left, he ought to think about the Coca Cola Company in 1985.

That was the year that Coca Cola, based on what the company thought was good internal market research, introduced a new, sweeter formula to replace the taste that American consumers had always associated with Coke.

The result was disaster. Consumers were unhappy with the new flavor that replaced a product that was more than a drink. It was a time-tested American tradition. In short order, Coca Cola brought the old traditional Coke back to market, and in a real feat of marketing gymnastics, was selling both New Coke and Coca Cola Classic.

Sales of Coca Cola Classic swamped sales of New Coke, and shortly thereafter, New Coke was gone.

Today John McCain heads the ticket of a Republican Party that many Americans have fallen out of love with. It's a Republican Party that Americans once knew but now, like New Coke, has confused its customers, the voting public.

Restoring a brand that has been damaged might be an even greater challenge than introducing a new product. You've got the added complexities of confusion. But this is what John McCain has got to do. And he doesn't have a lot of time to do it.

How can anyone be surprised that Americans are confused with the Republican brand? This was the party that once captured American hearts and minds by restoring focus to principles of limited government, traditional values, and personal responsibility.

Apologies to George W. Bush, but time is too precious for tiptoeing around the truth. We've seen the biggest growth of government over the last eight years since Franklin Roosevelt, and the country is in a mess. It's only natural psychology to associate the mess with Republicans.

McCain must disassociate from the mistakes of "new" Republicanism, show that these mistakes are exactly where Senator Obama wants to pick up, and re-establish the "classic" Republican brand. (See related video of John McCain)

His approach in the latest debate at Hofstra University showed he is grasping the marketing challenge in front of him. His pitch about Joe the Plumber, and his market-oriented stands on big issues like healthcare and education, showed that he understands he needs to do more than simply say he's not George Bush.

But he's still not being clear or aggressive enough.

McCain must paint with clarity the starkly different worlds that Americans will be buying into when they step into voting booths in November.

Barack Obama is a socialist. McCain must say it. It's not slinging mud but stating fact.

Perhaps a complicating factor in explaining freedom to Americans today is that when "classic" Republicanism was selling, we all still remembered the Soviet Union and communist China. The difference between the United States and the rest of the world then was clearer than today.

When someone said "socialist" or "communist,'' we could look abroad and know exactly what this meant.

There is nowhere where Senator Obama sees Americans suffering from excessive government. The opposite. He sees all our suffering from not enough.

The collapse of communism and socialism abroad was not accidental. Central planning is both dysfunctional and immoral.

Incredibly, Obama thinks that a huge and complex market like healthcare, where a few hundred million Americans spend almost two and half trillion dollars a year, can be improved with more government controls and spending.

And he thinks that parents, in a country that is supposed to be free, should not be given control over where they send their child to school and the type of education their child gets.

To turn things around, McCain must quickly reestablish the Republican brand of freedom and contrast this with Obama's clear socialism.

McCain must state obvious: Obama is a socialist (http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=293104)
~~~~~~~~~

Okay, I expect a little flack over this post.

McCain reminds Biden he's been tested in crisis
Oct 21 11:06 PM US/Eastern
By GLEN JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Republican John McCain told voters in this key electoral state Tuesday he was personally tested by the same kind of crisis that Democratic vice presidential nominee Joseph Biden warned Barack Obama will almost certainly face if elected president.

McCain recalled being ready to launch a bombing run during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which Biden said over the weekend tested a new President John F. Kennedy and was the template for the kind of "generated crisis" the 47-year-old Obama would face within six months of taking office.

"I was on board the USS Enterprise," McCain, a former naval aviator, said in the capital city of Harrisburg. "I sat in the cockpit, on the flight deck of the USS Enterprise, off of Cuba. I had a target. My friends, you know how close we came to a nuclear war."

As the crowd of several thousand began to swell with cheers and applause, he added with dramatic effect: "America will not have a president who needs to be tested. I've been tested, my friends."

Biden told two fundraising audiences in Seattle over the weekend that he expected world figures to test Obama early if he wins the election in two weeks.

"He's gonna need you—not financially to help him—we're gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him," Biden said.

Biden predicted Obama would fare well because he's "got steel in his spine." In citing the Cuban Missile Crisis, though, he evoked a historic event in which McCain played a part.

"The Enterprise, sailing at full speed under nuclear power, was the first U.S. carrier to reach waters off Cuba," McCain wrote in his memoir, "Faith of My Fathers." "For about five days, the pilots on the Enterprise believed we were going into action. We had never been in combat before, and despite the global confrontation a strike on Cuba portended, we were prepared and anxious to fly our first mission."

He added: "Pilots and crewmen alike adopted a cool-headed, business-as-usual attitude toward the mission. Inwardly, of course, we were excited as hell, but we kept our composure and aped the standard image of a laconic, reserved, and fearless American at war."

McCain spent all day Tuesday in Democratic-leaning Pennsylvania, worth 21 Electoral College votes, before heading Wednesday into New Hampshire, a formerly reliable GOP state which Obama has made competitive this year. Though it has only four of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency, New Hampshire could swing the election under some voting models which predict a very close Electoral College split.

The 72-year-old McCain regularly questions whether Obama—a first-term senator—has the experience to be president. He also questions whether the Illinois Democrat has the character to stand up to his own party and to stick with his core philosophical views.

In a region experiencing World Series fever, McCain underscored his argument by noting Obama had expressed support for both teams playing in the upcoming baseball championship.

Standing just miles north of Philadelphia, whose Phillies will represent the National League starting Wednesday against the American League champion Tampa Bay Rays, McCain noted Obama has identified himself with both teams while campaigning in their two politically important home states.

Obama said over the weekend in Philadelphia that while he was a Chicago fan, "Since the White Sox are out of it, I'll root for the Phillies now." On Monday in Tampa, Obama was introduced by a Rays pitcher and said, "I've said from the beginning that I am a unity candidate, bringing people together. So when you see a White Sox Fan showing love to the Rays—and the Rays showing some love back—you know we are on to something right here."

McCain told employees at TCI Millwork Inc. in Bensalem: "Now, I'm not dumb enough to get mixed up in a World Series between swing states. But I think I may have detected a little pattern with Sen. Obama. It's pretty simple really. When he's campaigning in Philadelphia, he roots for the Phillies, and when he's campaigning in Tampa Bay, he `shows love' to the Rays."

As boos echoed through a cavernous warehouse, he added:"It's kind of like the way he campaigns on tax cuts, but then votes for tax increases after he's elected."

McCain ended his day with a rally at Robert Morris University in Moon Township, just outside Pittsburgh. He tried to criticize Obama for saying in April that working class Pennsylvanians "cling" to guns and religion when their economic fears rise and Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., for saying last week that some of his Western Pennsylvania constituents are racist. But McCain drew mostly silence as he fumbled the remarks several times before getting his point right.

"Sen. Obama's supporters have been saying some pretty nasty things about Western Pennsylvania lately. And you know I couldn't agree with them more. I couldn't disagree with you. I couldn't agree with you more than the fact that Western Pennsylvania is the most patriotic, most god-loving, most patriotic part of America. This is a great part of the country. My friends, I could not disagree with those critics more," McCain said.

McCain reminds Biden he's been tested in crisis (http://www.breitbart.com/print.php?id=D93V9JBG0&show_article=1)

Rush Limbaugh: Time to cleanse Republican Party
Says conservatism not on ballot, calls McCain's whole campaign 'concession speech'

Radio host Rush Limbaugh, the loudest conservative voice in American politics, today blasted John McCain's presidential campaign as weak and said Barack Obama's election as president is an opportunity to purge the Republican Party of candidates who abandon conservative principles.

"McCain's whole campaign was a concession speech," said Limbaugh in his post-election analysis. "We've now demonstrated to everyone how to lose."

Limbaugh dismissed any notion that victories by Democrats in the White House and Congress meant a repudiation of right-leaning principles.

Limbaugh explained conservatism was not on the ballot.

"We haven't been on the ballot since 1994," he said, noting that if Republicans wanted to win elections, they should not put so-called "moderates" on the ballot.

"The conservative movement does not need to be rebuilt," he said. "We had some people abandon the conservative movement, and they need to be abandoned."

The broadcaster called last night's results "an opportunity for cleansing ... like we haven't seen in a long time."

Concerning Obama's victory speech in Chicago, Limbaugh noted, "He said nothing better than anyone has ever said nothing."

"We congratulate Obama. We recognize the historical nature. We also understand that more than him being black, he is a radical extremist who is not going to govern from the center. [Nancy] Pelosi and [Harry] Reid are not going to govern from the center. What the hell do people think they wanted to win this election for? When do liberals govern from the center? The only time they do that is when they have to when there are enough Republicans around to keep their extremism in check.

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Entertainment => Politics and Political Issues => Topic started by: Soldier4Christ on February 11, 2008, 11:32:33 PM