libera voce/libera mente

The Power to Cool the Globe

noreply@blogger.com (Michael J. Farrand) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 16:54:00 +0000

While purchasing tickets online for an upcoming show at the Charlottesville Pavilion, I was confronted with this option . .

OPTIONAL CHARGE

GreenNotes invites you to join the Charlottesville Pavilion, CLIF Bar, and Musictoday in taking steps to start global cooling. By offsetting the CO2 emissions from your trip to the show, you can help the environment.

When you drive your car to an event, it emits harmful amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) that pollutes the environment and promotes global warming. By helping fund the construction of new renewable energy sources through NativeEnergy, you can help offset this pollution. To do so, simply check the text box to the right and your credit card will be charged .40 cents in addition to the ticket price. For more information on the GreenNotes program and how to help start global cooling, visit www.clifgreennotes.com.

To learn more about how CO2 offsetting works, visit www.NativeEnergy.com.

Thank God She Changed Her Mind

noreply@blogger.com (Michael J. Farrand) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 11:32:00 +0000

The woman at the center of the Supreme Court's landmark abortion rights ruling was arrested today at the confirmation hearing for Sonia Sotomayor among a wave of anti-abortion protesters who lined the sidewalks outside the Senate office buildings and several of whom made it into the hearing room and disrupted in an attempt to disrupt the proceedings.

Norma McCorvey, 61, of Texas, better known as "Jane Roe" in the famous Roe v. Wade case from January 1973, was arrested after she and another protester started yelling during the opening statement of Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), according to Capitol Police. McCorvey, whose pursuit of the right to access to abortion in the early 1970s led to the ruling that has been a pivotal part of every Supreme Court nomination process since, eventually become a notable opponent of the procedure.

Sgt. Kimberly Schneider of the Capitol Police said McCorvey and Francis Mahoney, 68, of Florida were charged with unlawful conduct for disrupting Congress, the third and fourth such arrests the police made during the more than five-hour proceedings. McCorvey was part of the group of protesters outside the Hart Senate Office Building throughout the day, a gathering led by Randall Terry, the former head of Operation Rescue, an organization dedicated to ending abortion.

McCorvey, who used Roe as an alias in her court filings for fear of retribution, remained an abortion-rights supporter until the mid-1990s. Working at a women's clinic in Dallas, she befriended some Operation Rescue protesters. In 1995, she was baptized and has been an anti-abortion activist ever since.

The last two rows of the hearing room were reserved today for about 50 members of the public, who rotated into the hearings for short intervals and then were escorted out to allow others to view the proceedings. McCorvey and Mahoney were part of a group headed out as Franken was praising the service of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), a staunch supporter of the Roe decision. Kennedy left the Judiciary Committee earlier this year, making this the first Supreme Court confirmation fight without his presence since 1965.

From 'Jane Roe' Arrested at Supreme Court Hearing by Paul Kane, Washington Post Staff Writer, July 13, 2009.

Diversity Too Far

noreply@blogger.com (Michael J. Farrand) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:53:00 +0000

What does "diversity" mean on campus today?

Student reaction to the University of Virginia's announcement of J. Harvie Wilkinson III, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, as its commencement speaker this year has thrust this question into the spotlight. Some U-Va. students have launched an effort to challenge the selection of Wilkinson in the name of protecting "diversity," complete with columns, an online petition drive and hints that they will disrupt graduation.

This growing effort shows that too often, diversity is absent from the one facet of campus life where it is essential: intellectual life.

Supporters purport to use "diversity" synonymously with open-mindedness; they argue for the U-Va. administration to hire a "dean for diversity," for the faculty to offer a wider variety of classes and for students to sign a "diversity pledge." They sing the virtues of learning about people from different places with different points of view. Yet, when it comes to listening to someone with a reputation for being politically conservative, that supposed open-mindedness quickly dissipates.

Because some students disagree with a few of Wilkinson's opinions, they are quick to claim that his opinions are "discriminatory" and illustrate "blatant political bias." A student columnist described one "problem" with his selection: "It is that his political biases will alienate a large number of students when a commencement speaker should bring students together." Others justify their complaints with the need to "protect diversity," claiming that inviting Wilkinson is against U-Va.'s "long-standing commitment to diversity." But where is their support for diversity when it comes to a more politically conservative public figure?

These students argue that because some of Wilkinson's rulings are disagreeable to them, he is offensive. Their message is: If you disagree with someone on a few issues, that person is automatically offensive, discriminatory and alienating -- and therefore, should have no place on campus. This is the opposite of true intellectual diversity.

Some of the students supporting this effort are hiding behind process arguments, claiming that students should have a bigger role in the selection of the commencement speaker. Currently, a committee of students and faculty members gives the university president a list of 10 speakers, from which he invites one. This process has been in place for years. No one complained about the selection process when author John Grisham, a well-known high-dollar Democratic fundraiser, was selected, or even after his speech, in which he hit on hot-button political issues such as the Vietnam War and global warming.

That a conservative judge does not fit within the definition of diversity on campus reveals how far we have to go to achieve diversity in the academy. Unfortunately, we have settled for descriptive diversity, such as race and sex, rather than reaching for intellectual diversity.

I hope that Judge Wilkinson takes the opportunity to address diversity in his commencement speech. This would help complete our education.

From 'Diversity' in Name Only at U-Va. by Karin Agness, April 5, 2009.

The writer is a law student at the University of Virginia and founder and president of the Network of Enlightened Women, a national organization for conservative college women.

Sir Charles Speaks

noreply@blogger.com (Michael J. Farrand) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 23:11:00 +0000

"The Age of Obama begins with perhaps the greatest frenzy of old-politics influence peddling ever seen in Washington . . After Obama's miraculous 2008 presidential campaign, it was clear that at some point the magical mystery tour would have to end. The nation would rub its eyes and begin to emerge from its reverie. The hallucinatory Obama would give way to the mere mortal. The great ethical transformations promised would be seen as a fairy tale that all presidents tell--and that this president told better than anyone. I thought the awakening would take six months. It took two and a half weeks."

From "The Fierce Urgency of Pork" by Charles Krauthammer, February 6, 2009.

'Specific Star Signs' Need Only Apply

noreply@blogger.com (Michael J. Farrand) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 23:45:00 +0000

Thursday, Feb 05 2009

A row has broken out in Salzberg, Austria after a company tried to recruit workers born under certain star signs.

The Salzburg insurance company posted an advert in major newspapers seeking employees for sales and management that were born under certain constellations, claiming statistics indicated that they were the best workers. Their ad read:

"We are looking for people over 20 for part-time jobs in sales and management with the following star signs: Capricorn, Taurus, Aquarius, Aries and Leo."

It was followed by a wave of protests from equality groups and led to an investigation by the country’s anti-discrimination authorities.

"A statistical study indicated that almost all of our best employees across Austria have one of the five star signs. We only decided to continue with that system and hire the best workers," the spokesman said.

An investigation by Austrian authorities showed that there was nothing illegal in choosing the employees according to their star signs, as there was no discrimination according to existing laws about gender, age, racial and other equality.

'I Like Sarah Palin'

noreply@blogger.com (Michael J. Farrand) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:37:00 +0000

"I like Sarah Palin, and I've heartily enjoyed her arrival on the national stage. As a career classroom teacher, I can see how smart she is -- and quite frankly, I think the people who don't see it are the stupid ones, wrapped in the fuzzy mummy-gauze of their own worn-out partisan dogma. So she doesn't speak the King's English -- big whoop! There is a powerful clarity of consciousness in her eyes. She uses language with the jumps, breaks and rippling momentum of a be-bop saxophonist. I stand on what I said (as a staunch pro-choice advocate) in my last two columns -- that Palin as a pro-life wife, mother and ambitious professional represents the next big shift in feminism. Pro-life women will save feminism by expanding it, particularly into the more traditional Third World."

Camille Paglia

Student Auctions off Virginity

noreply@blogger.com (Michael J. Farrand) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:30:00 +0000

Natalie Dylan, 22, claims her offer of a one-night stand has persuaded 10,000 men to bid for sex with her.

Last September, when her auction came to light, she had received bids up to £162,000 ($243,000) but since then interest in her has rocketed.

The student who has a degree in Women's Studies insisted she was not demeaning herself.

Miss Dylan, from San Diego, California, USA, said she was persuaded to offer herself to the highest bidder after her sister Avia, 23, paid for her own degree after working as a prostitute for three weeks.

She said she had had a lot of attention from a wide range of men, including "weirdos", "those who get really graphically sexual about what they want to do to me" and "lots of polite requests from rich businessmen".

Miss Dylan said she did not think it was particularly significant to be willing to sell your virginity and insisted that she was happy to undergo medical tests for any doubters.

She said:

"I get some men who are obviously looking for a girlfriend but I try and make it clear that this is a one-night-only offer. I know that a lot of people will condemn me for this because it's so taboo but I really don't have a problem with that. My study is completely authentic in that I truly am auctioning my virginity but I am not being sold into this. I'm not being taken advantage of in any way. I think me and the person I do it with will both profit greatly from the deal."

Source: Telegraph

Welcome to the Barackracy

noreply@blogger.com (Michael J. Farrand) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:21:00 +0000

'Freezing Heat'

noreply@blogger.com (Michael J. Farrand) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 23:56:00 +0000

By Christopher Booker

A sudden cold snap brought snow to London in October

A surreal scientific blunder last week raised a huge question mark about the temperature records that underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming. On Monday, Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record.

This was startling. Across the world there were reports of unseasonal snow and plummeting temperatures last month, from the American Great Plains to China, and from the Alps to New Zealand. China's official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its "worst snowstorm ever". In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years.

So what explained the anomaly? GISS's computerised temperature maps seemed to show readings across a large part of Russia had been up to 10 degrees higher than normal. But when expert readers of the two leading warming-sceptic blogs, Watts Up With That and Climate Audit, began detailed analysis of the GISS data they made an astonishing discovery. The reason for the freak figures was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not based on October readings at all. Figures from the previous month had simply been carried over and repeated two months running.

The error was so glaring that when it was reported on the two blogs - run by the US meteorologist Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre, the Canadian computer analyst who won fame for his expert debunking of the notorious "hockey stick" graph - GISS began hastily revising its figures. This only made the confusion worse because, to compensate for the lowered temperatures in Russia, GISS claimed to have discovered a new "hotspot" in the Arctic - in a month when satellite images were showing Arctic sea-ice recovering so fast from its summer melt that three weeks ago it was 30 per cent more extensive than at the same time last year.

A GISS spokesman lamely explained that the reason for the error in the Russian figures was that they were obtained from another body, and that GISS did not have resources to exercise proper quality control over the data it was supplied with. This is an astonishing admission: the figures published by Dr Hansen's institute are not only one of the four data sets that the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) relies on to promote its case for global warming, but they are the most widely quoted, since they consistently show higher temperatures than the others.

Source: Telegraph

The Mystery of Bernardine Dohrn

noreply@blogger.com (Michael J. Farrand) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 23:22:00 +0000

How could such a personable, attractive, well-educated young woman end up saying such things at a 1969 political rally as this (omitted in the film) about the Manson murders:

"Dig it. First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them. They even shoved a fork into a victim's stomach. Wild!"

And how could Dohrn have so ruthlessly pursued a decade-long crusade of hatred and terrorism against innocent American citizens and both private and public property?

Camille Paglia

A Few More Firsts

noreply@blogger.com (Michael J. Farrand) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:57:00 +0000

On top of the many firsts in the 2008 presidential election, we have:

the first radical ever to be elected president of the United States, dedicated as he is to "remaking" this country "block by block, brick by brick, callused hand by callused hand.";
the first avowed Marxist to be elected president of the United States, dedicated as he is to "spreading the wealth";
the first man elected president of the United States who claimed as his "moral compass" his pastor and for twenty years sat in his pews as he would rant things like: "Not God bless America, God damn America!";
the first man to be elected president of the United States of America who could not pass the White House security clearance.

'Accumulated Wisdom'

noreply@blogger.com (Michael J. Farrand) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:32:00 +0000

"Conservatism has always been and will always be a force to reckon with because it most closely approximates the reality of the human condition, based, as it is, on the cumulative judgment and experience of a people. It is the heir, not the apostate, to the accumulated wisdom, morality and faith of the people."

From "Forging a conservative agenda: Time to reassess what went wrong and right" by Tony Blankley November 4, 2008.

In His Own Words

noreply@blogger.com (Michael J. Farrand) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:02:00 +0000

"But the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and more basic issues of political and economic justice in this society. And to that extent, as radical as I think people try to characterize the Warren court, it wasn't that radical. It didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution, at least as it's been interpreted, and the Warren court interpreted it in the same way that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties ... And one of the, I think, tragedies of the civil rights movement was because the civil rights movement became so court-focused, I think that there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributive change ... The Constitution reflected an enormous blind spot in this culture that carries on until this day ... The Framers had that same blind spot ... the fundamental flaw of this country."

From a 2001 National Public Radio interview.

'Spasms'

noreply@blogger.com (Michael J. Farrand) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:33:00 +0000

"If Obama loses it will spark the second American Civil War. Blood will run in the streets, believe me. My back is also suffering from spasms, so much so that I had to see an acupuncturist and get prescriptions for Valium. Yesterday, Jane Fonda sent me an email to tell me that she cried all night and can't cure her ailing back for all the stress that has reduced her to a bundle of nerves."

Erica Jong to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera last week.

The UnAmerican One

noreply@blogger.com (Michael J. Farrand) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:12:00 +0000

Significant question arises as to the degree to which Barack Hussein Obama is really American, unAmerican, or actually anti-American. Spurring this concern:

Lack of proof of U.S. citizenship--the State of Hawaii may have just announced that his birth certficate is in order there, but this raises two important questions: why wait until a few days before the election to say so? where is the photocopied proof? If he took Indonesian citizenship for his long years of residence there he forewent U.S. citizenship by U.S. law. Was he repatriated? When and where?

His name is certainly not mainstream American, and it includes the name of a man we've fought militarily twice, one who was demonized long before we captured him and put him on trial (leading to his execution).

Promoting the Marxist doctrine of "share the wealth". Nothing seems more anti-American to most Americans than Marxism, an ideology this country has fiercely fought for more than a century.

Associations and affiliations with vociferous anti-Americans who haved preached the violent overthrow of our country. The Most Reverend Jeremiah 'Not God Bless America, God Damn America, God Damn America!!' Wright, in whose pew Mr. Obama sat for 500 sermons without uttering a single complaint. Black Americans seem more concerned about how quickly he dropped the church, not the preacher, after twenty years of supporting him--all for political expediency. And Phil Ayers is even worse.

As the first black American to win his party's nomination for president, his black experience has little in common with that of the main body of black America: no member of his family was ever enslaved here; his father, from whom he receives his black blood, was Kenyan and returned there when done his siring and education here (his father's siblings appear to be in the U.S. illegally); he was not raised in any sort of black ghetto in the States, but was raised overseas by a white mother. (Ironically, the most American part about him is his white Kansas stock.)

He seems to be the rest of the world's candidate for U.S. president, and they seem to be sponsoring him financially. Given the enormity of his campaign chest, double what Bush took in for 2004 and roughly double what his opponent has taken in this year, perhaps half of his funding comes from outside the U.S. What does that mean if he's elected? Whose interests will he serve? Many of these countries whose people support him energetically are strongly opposed to the U.S. government. Will he be beholden to these anti-American forces who actually put him in the White House?

Many Americans seem justly concerned about his agenda. Is it anti-American in essence? Why would his wife say she's only now proud of her country, now that she sees we going to allow her husband to overthrow it?

'Very Dangerous Game'

noreply@blogger.com (Michael J. Farrand) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:33:00 +0000

The traditional media are playing a very, very dangerous game -- with their readers, with the Constitution and with their own fates.

The sheer bias in the print and television coverage of this election campaign is not just bewildering, but appalling. And over the last few months I've found myself slowly moving from shaking my head at the obvious one-sided reporting, to actually shouting at the screen of my television and my laptop computer.

But worst of all, for the last couple weeks, I've begun -- for the first time in my adult life -- to be embarrassed to admit what I do for a living. A few days ago, when asked by a new acquaintance what I did for a living, I replied that I was "a writer," because I couldn't bring myself to admit to a stranger that I'm a journalist.

Platonic Objectivity

There's always been bias in the media. Human beings are biased, so the work they do, including reporting, is inevitably colored. But we are supposed to be taught that even though there is no such thing as pure, Platonic objectivity in reporting, we are to spend our careers struggling to approach that ideal as closely as possible.

That means constantly challenging our own prejudices, systematically presenting opposing views and never, ever burying stories that contradict our own world views or challenge people or institutions we admire. If we can't achieve Olympian detachment, than at least we can recognize human frailty -- especially in ourselves.

This Campaign

Nothing, nothing I've seen has matched the media bias on display in the current presidential campaign.

Republicans are justifiably foaming at the mouth over the sheer one-sidedness of the press coverage of the two candidates and their running mates. But in the last few days, even Democrats, who have been gloating over the pass -- no, make that shameless support -- they've gotten from the press, are starting to get uncomfortable as they realize that no one wins in the long run when we don't have a free and fair press.

I'm not one of those people who think the media has been too hard on, say, Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin, by rushing reportorial SWAT teams to her home state of Alaska to rifle through her garbage. This is the big leagues, and if she wants to suit up and take the field, then Gov. Palin better be ready to play.

The few instances where I think the press has gone too far -- such as the Times reporter talking to prospective first lady Cindy McCain's daughter's MySpace friends -- can easily be solved with a few newsroom smackdowns and temporary repostings to the Omaha bureau.

Coverage of the Other Side

What I object to (and I think most other Americans do as well) is the lack of equivalent hardball coverage of the other side -- or worse, actively serving as attack dogs for the presidential ticket of Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Joe Biden, D-Del.

Why, for example to quote the lawyer for Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., haven't we seen an interview with Sen. Obama's grad school drug dealer -- when we know all about Mrs. McCain's addiction? Are Bill Ayers and Tony Rezko that hard to interview? All those phony voter registrations that hard to scrutinize? And why are Sen. Biden's endless gaffes almost always covered up, or rationalized, by the traditional media?

'Absolute Nadir'

The absolute nadir (though I hate to commit to that, as we still have two weeks before the election) came with Joe the Plumber.

Middle America, even when they didn't agree with Joe, looked on in horror as the press took apart the private life of an average person who had the temerity to ask a tough question of a presidential candidate. So much for the standing up for the little man. So much for speaking truth to power. So much for comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable, and all of those other catchphrases we journalists used to believe we lived by.

Why Are They Doing This?

Picture yourself in your 50s in a job where you've spent 30 years working your way to the top, to the cockpit of power & only to discover that you're presiding over a dying industry. The Internet and alternative media are stealing your readers, your advertisers and your top young talent. Many of your peers shrewdly took golden parachutes and disappeared. Your job doesn't have anywhere near the power and influence it did when your started your climb. The Newspaper Guild is too weak to protect you any more, and there is a very good chance you'll lose your job before you cross that finish line, 10 years hence, of retirement and a pension.

In other words, you are facing career catastrophe -- and desperate times call for desperate measures. Even if you have to risk everything on a single Hail Mary play. Even if you have to compromise the principles that got you here. After all, newspapers and network news are doomed anyway -- all that counts is keeping them on life support until you can retire.

And then the opportunity presents itself -- an attractive young candidate whose politics likely matches yours, but more important, he offers the prospect of a transformed Washington with the power to fix everything that has gone wrong in your career.

With luck, this monolithic, single-party government will crush the alternative media via a revived fairness doctrine, re-invigorate unions by getting rid of secret votes, and just maybe be beholden to people like you in the traditional media for getting it there.

And besides, you tell yourself, it's all for the good of the country.

Michael S. Malone is a fourth-generation newspaperman. His great-grandfather was a newspaper editor in Abilene, Kansas, during the last of the cowboy days, then moved to Oregon to help start the Oregon Journal (now the Oregonian). His hard-living -- and when he knew her, scary -- grandmother was one of the first women reporters for the Los Angeles Times. His father, though profoundly dyslexic, followed a long career in intelligence to finish his life (thanks to word processors and spellcheckers) as a very successful freelance writer. He's spent 30 years in every part of journalism, from beat reporter to magazine editor. And his oldest son, following in the family business, so to speak, earned his first national byline before he earned his drivers license.

From "Media's Presidential Bias and Decline" by Michael S. Malone, Oct. 24, 2008. Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures.

'Hoax'

noreply@blogger.com (Michael J. Farrand) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 23:45:00 +0000

"Never before in our history have we had a candidate with such a lack of accomplishments and a lack of transparency into his background and associates:
We can't see his records from prep school, Occidental College, Columbia University or Harvard. What was his thesis?

Was he born in Hawaii or Kenya? Did he become an Indonesian citizen? If so, he would have had to give up his U.S. citizenship.

Was he then naturalized as a U.S. citizen when he returned to Hawaii from Indonesia?
If John McCain had . .
a 15-year relationship with the former unrepentant Weather Underground domestic terrorist, Pentagon bomber, flag-stomping radical leftist communist fugitive William Ayers and his accomplice wife Bernadine Dohrn

worked as a community organizer for the 'Industrial Area Foundation,' an organization founded by the Marxist radical agitator Saul Alinsky using his training manual 'Rules for Radicals'

been associated with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and considered him to be his 'moral compass', not to mention nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan

. . his judgment would be trashed, he could not have made it through the primaries, and he would be condemned as a racist."

Adapted from "Obama, the hoax" by James Lyons, October 29, 2008.

Big Boy

noreply@blogger.com (Michael J. Farrand) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:55:00 +0000

From "4 National GDPs as US Regions" The Big Picture, May 15, 2008.

'Over the Head'

noreply@blogger.com (Michael J. Farrand) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:44:00 +0000

"The press knows who the press is for, and it isn't generally the one to the right. This has been true all my life. What has also been true is that the Republican had to get around it with the truth of his stands, the force of his arguments, the un-ignorability of his words, the power of his presence. You have to go over the head of the interpreters and gently seize the country by its lapels."

From "43% Isn't Nothing: Obama looks like a winner, but it's not over yet" by Peggy Noonan, October 24, 2008.

'Are You Joking?'

noreply@blogger.com (Michael J. Farrand) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:34:00 +0000

ORLANDO, FLORIDA--WFTV-Channel 9's Barbara West conducted a satellite interview with Sen. Joe Biden on Thursday. West wondered about Sen. Barack Obama's comment, to Joe the Plumber, about spreading the wealth. She quoted Karl Marx and asked how Obama isn't being a Marxist with the "spreading the wealth" comment.

"Are you joking?" said Biden, who is Obama's running mate. "No," West said.

West later asked Biden about his comments that Obama could be tested early on as president. She wondered if the Delaware senator was saying America's days as the world's leading power were over.

"I don't know who's writing your questions," Biden shot back.

Biden so disliked West's line of questioning that the Obama campaign canceled a WFTV interview with Jill Biden, the candidate's wife.

"This cancellation is non-negotiable, and further opportunities for your station to interview with this campaign are unlikely, at best for the duration of the remaining days until the election."

wrote Laura K. McGinnis, Central Florida communications director for the Obama campaign.

From "Obama campaign cuts off WFTV after interview with Joe Biden" posted October 24, 2008.

National Economies as U.S. States

noreply@blogger.com (Michael J. Farrand) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:09:00 +0000

From "Countries GDP as US States" The Big Picture, January 15, 2007. Source and year not noted. U.K., Japan, Germany, China, and Italy omitted due to size.

Thank God for Big Oil

noreply@blogger.com (Michael J. Farrand) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 11:14:00 +0000

"Oil Companies Paid More Than Bottom 75% of Taxpayers"

McCain Endorsement

noreply@blogger.com (Michael J. Farrand) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:50:00 +0000

"There's just no comparison. Obama's own running mate warned this week that Obama's youth and inexperience will invite a crisis -- indeed a crisis 'generated' precisely to test him. Can you be serious about national security and vote on Nov. 4 to invite that test?"

From "McCain for President" by Charles Krauthammer, October 24, 2008

'Most Heroic'

noreply@blogger.com (Michael J. Farrand) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 23:45:00 +0000

"Mr. McCain has an unambiguous duty to the nation to force the public to at least be informed as to the nature and character of Barack Obama. He needs to lay out all the accurate available information on Mr. Obama's prior alliances, affiliations and conduct both for the purpose of revealing Mr. Obama's character and his radical policy disposition . . As courageous as Mr. McCain's life has been to date, the next three weeks may be his most heroic."

From "McCain's next call: Win with questionable dignity" by Tony Blankley, October 15, 2008.

'Moral Obligation'

noreply@blogger.com (Michael J. Farrand) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:15:00 +0000

"Catholics have a moral obligation to withhold their vote from Barack Obama. It's people who are wishy-washy about their faith that would vote for Obama. How can you be a Catholic and vote for Obama? You can't honestly do it. I don't buy it for a second."

Pat Stanton, whose father founded Pro-Life Union of Southeastern Pennsylvania