I don’t know how old he was…..but 4 years in Southeast Asia as a child does not foreign policy credentials make. Geezzz.

Democrat Barack Obama said Monday his childhood experience in Asia and his family in Kenya give him a greater foreign policy understanding than politicians who merely take junkets to other countries.

The first-term Illinois senator is frequently asked whether he has the foreign policy credentials to be president, and he faced the question again at a town hall meeting in Clarion.

“I spent four years living overseas when I was a child living in Southeast Asia,” said Obama, who was born in Hawaii and spent four years in Indonesia. “My father is from Kenya. That’s where I got my name. He’s passed away now, but I still have family.”

“A lot of my knowledge about foreign affairs is not what I just studied in school. It’s actually having the knowledge of how ordinary people in these other countries live.”

More at the International Herald Tribune

A woman who was ganged raped in Saudi Arabia gets 200 lashes and 6 months in jail. Our friends….our pals…..our good ole buddies. The Saudis. No human rights problems here, eh?

Count Basie
“The Deacon”

We could stay there forever and chase the violence from one area to another. Oh wait……that’s the plan.

Despite a decline in violence in Iraq, northern Iraq has become more violent than other regions as al-Qaida and other militants move there to avoid coalition operations elsewhere, the region’s top U.S. commander said Monday.

Army Maj. Gen. Mark P. Hertling said al-Qaida cells still operate in all the key cities in the north.

“What you’re seeing is the enemy shifting,” Hertling told Pentagon reporters in a video conference from outside Tikrit in northern Iraq.

More at the Miami Herald

FOX “News” “journalist“, Brit Hume, seems to think that Democrats are bringing about the loss of the war in Iraq. Shouldn’t a journalist know better than this? Shouldn’t a journalist be smarter than this? One would think so!

I think Brit does, in fact, know better. This is what makes Brit both a shill and a loser.

FOX News’ resident shill and loser, Brit Hume

shill -noun 1. a person who poses as a customer in order to decoy others into participating, as at a gambling house, auction, confidence game, etc. 2. a person who publicizes or praises something or someone for reasons of self-interest, personal profit, or friendship or loyalty. loser -noun 1. a person, team, nation, etc., that loses: The visiting team was the loser in the series. 2. Slang. a misfit, esp. someone who has never or seldom been successful at a job, personal relationship, etc.

From Media MATTERS:

Summary: Echoing previous comments by conservative media figures suggesting that Democrats want the United States to lose the war in Iraq, Fox News’ Brit Hume asserted: “The American people don’t like the Iraq war, they probably never will. But they’re not rooting for us to lose; they don’t seem invested in our losing the way the Democrats so often do.” Hume offered no evidence that any Democrats are “invested in our losing” or “rooting for us to lose” in Iraq.

It pisses me off to no end that whoever has the most money wins elections. People, that’s not democracy! We all know it too. But where the hell is the outrage?

THIS CREEP NEEDS TO BE KICKED TO THE CURB!

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (AP) — For someone accustomed to being a political aggressor, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has a bull’s eye on his back at the beginning of what may be his toughest re-election campaign in years.
[...]

But McConnell’s Democratic opponent likely will face an uphill climb to compete financially in what is expected to be an expensive race. As of September 30, McConnell had raised more than $9 million and had nearly $7 million on hand for the 2008 campaign.

“Obviously, it will be a difficult race because he is the champion of fundraising,” said Gov.-elect Steve Beshear, a Democrat who won a lopsided victory this month over first-term Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher.
[...]

Former U.S. Sen. Wendell Ford, a Democrat, said Beshear’s election makes it a tougher race for McConnell. One thing is for sure, he said: The Democratic nominee can expect McConnell to run a hard-hitting campaign.

“Before you get started, the people will already know who you are, what you are,” Ford said, “because he’s already framed you.”

I think we can relate. Seven years ago, they gave us an election. And all we got out of it was a worthless president!

It’s all starting to make sense though. Sounds like Chimperz wants to put our currency on par with how he feels about our Constitution.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that OPEC’s members have expressed interest in converting their cash reserves into a currency other than the depreciating U.S. dollar, which he called a “worthless piece of paper.”
[...]

“All participating leaders showed an interest in changing their hard currency reserves to a credible hard currency,” Ahmadinejad said. “Some said producing countries should designate a single hard currency aside from the U.S. dollar … to form the basis of our oil trade.”

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez echoed this sentiment Sunday on the sidelines of the summit, saying “the empire of the dollar has to end.”

“Don-t you see how the dollar has been in free-fall without a parachute?” Chavez said, calling the euro a better option.

That “in-your-face” attitude of yours might make you a maverick, John. Making people mad doesn’t. Going against the wishes of the people, and not just “some” - but the majority, who also happen to be your employers, well that’s called something else, John. Riding roughshod over the citizens of this country has been something the present idiot-in-charge has done for the past seven years. The people don’t want that, and they don’t want you. So just go away, you irrelevant old fart.

Republican presidential hopeful, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

RINDGE, N.H. - Making people mad is a good thing, presidential hopeful John McCain said Sunday in a speech aimed at playing up the Arizona senator’s outsider reputation.

“I didn’t seek public office to go along, to get along,” McCain said, trying to remind voters of the “maverick” label that helped him defeat then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush in New Hampshire in 2000. “I went to Washington to get something done for the people who sent me there. And since then, I know I’ve made some people angry.”

McCain said Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton has done everything she can to land on the popular side of most issues.
[...]

“I’m the conservative Republican with the best chance of defeating Senator Clinton, or whomever the Democrats nominate, and take on the challenges that confront us,” the Arizona Republican said. “I’m as committed today as when I first put on the uniform of our country to the cause that has been the work of my life: the interests and ideals of our country.”

From Contra Costa Times:

Wise counsel? I don’t think so……… Don’t let the door hit ya Fran. AMF to another incompetent. Now Chertoff needs to go.

You may want to invest in one. It might end up being a very cold winter ahead of us.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday that oil prices could more than double to $200 per barrel if the United States attacked Iran over a standoff about Tehran’s nuclear program.

“If the United States is crazy enough to attack Iran or commit aggression against Venezuela … oil would not be $100 but $200,” Chavez told an OPEC summit in the Saudi capital Riyadh. His remarks were translated into Arabic.