By now, you probably heard Senator Barack H. Obama (using his middle initial is racist, BTW) say it was selfish to not pay higher taxes. We already knew it was unpatriotic to want to pay lower taxes, thanks to Senator Foot In Mouth. For those who missed it, here ya go

Special, eh?

Let’s take a simplistic overview of what McCain and Obama say they are going to do with the tax rates. Now, if you hit 10 different websites, you will find 10 different answers to how much people will pay or save on taxes. But, the salient point is that McCain says he will not change the tax rates, except to lower a few. Obama says the same thing! Unless you are making $250K or more (which is certainly up for debate based on his and Biden’s talk of late,) Obama says he will not change the tax rates either. How many times has he promised (and you know what a Democrats promise on taxation is worth) to repeal the “Bush tax cuts on people making $250 and above?”

In essence, both McCain and Obama are promising “more of the same,” with more perks and breaks, which is the norm during a political campaign, as you well know. You can check out the marginal tax schedule for 2009 here. Interestingly, while Barry sneers at “more of the same old Bush tax policy that has hurt the middle class,” let’s say you are true middle class, making $45,000 a year. You are $506 over pre-Bush taxation in 2008. Calculate it for yourself.

What Obama promises: Cut taxes for 95 percent of workers and their families with a tax cut of $500 for workers or $1,000 for working couples. In fact, he is talking about doing this for upwards of 150 working people. Depending on how the figures work out, that is about $40 to $50 billion in “tax cuts.” Since he plans on not reducing your rates, I’d call that welfare. Granted, if he sends you a check, and you are in the 25% tax bracket, the check would be larger then a rate cut of 1 to 2 percent. Many are probably saying “Hey, Teach, if I make $50K, and you drop me from 25% to 24%, I will save that same $500.” Unfortunately, taxation doesn’t work like that. I mention this not to insult anyone, but, because so many are not aware that you pay taxes not on the overall income you earn at one rate, but at multiple rates. If you are making $50K, you only pay taxes in 2008 on the income from $32,551 to $50,000.

Anyhow, Barry is going to hand you a check, and, I do not want you to be considered selfish. So, a few ideas to help you out if he wins and actually manages to convince Nancy and Harry to not only NOT repeal the “Bush tax cuts” in full (prediction: Nancy tries to repeal them by mid-February), but give out these welfare checks.

First, you can take the welfare check and redeploy it to a Republican interest, such as the RNC, the Republican Senatorial Committee, a Republican politician (hint: SarahCuda 1012), or a Conservative group.

Second, you could use the money to build a Rightroots Movement, as John Hawkins recommends. Think about tens of thousands of right-o-sphere bloggers and readers taking $500/$1,000 checks and putting them towards building a Conservative answer to (Never)MoveOn. Our own 527. Our own PAC.

Third, you could buy one of these before Barry makes the regulations so burdensome that it will be darned impossible to purchase

Nominee for the “Let’s Tone It Down To Nap Time” headline award, the LA Times is a sure winner: U.S., Iraq fatalities dip in October

The number of Iraqis killed in war-related violence in October was the lowest since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, Iraqi officials said Friday.

The death toll was 278, including 22 policemen and 18 Iraqi soldiers, according to the Ministry of Health. In addition, 46 suspected insurgents or militiamen were killed, and 846 were arrested, Iraqi government officials said.

The number of U.S. troops reported dead in October was 13, equal to the low recorded in July, according to independent website icasualties.org.

What, the LA Times couldn’t go to the Department of Defense? Sad commentary in itself, eh?

And, to call it a dip is to ignore not only the tremendous strives in Iraq, but the body of the story itself!

The monthly totals are evidence of the dramatic drop in violence across Iraq in recent months. In October 2007, 888 Iraqis were killed in war- related violence, and there were 38 U.S. military fatalities. The decrease in violence has been attributed to several factors, including the deployment last year of an extra 30,000 American troops to quell sectarian fighting, and the setting up of Sunni Arab paramilitary units to work alongside U.S. and Iraqi forces in providing security.

So, that Surge thang that McCain pushed for and most Democrats, including Senator Barack H. Obama, were against, has worked. Furthermore, setting up the paramilitary units, otherwise known as the police and military (nice dodge, LA Times), was part of the original plan. Anyhow, notice that this is a “dramatic drop,” not a “dip.” In fact, more Marines were killed in motorcycle accidents in the USA then killed in Iraq over the past 12 months.

And from ye olde AP

U.S. deaths in Iraq fell in October to their lowest monthly level of the war, matching the record low of 13 fatalities suffered in July. Iraqi deaths fell to their lowest monthly levels of the year. Eight of the 13 Americans died in combat, most of them in northern Iraq where al-Qaida and other Sunni insurgent groups remain active. The U.S. military suffered 25 deaths in September and 23 in August. (snip)

The sharp drop in American fatalities in Iraq reflects the overall security improvements across the country following the Sunni revolt against al-Qaida and the rout suffered by Shiite extremists in fighting last spring in Basra and Baghdad.

But the decline also points to a shift in tactics by extremist groups, which U.S. commanders say are now focusing their attacks on Iraqi soldiers and police that are doing much of the fighting.

Wait. How’d that get in to print? It almost seems like the AP is saying that the overall plan to turn Iraqi security over to the Iraqi’s has worked.

Meanwhile

Rebuilding schools is a top priority for Multi-National Division – Baghdad to eliminate terrorist and criminal activities and set the condition for a brighter future for Iraqi youth.

Al Tajadud school in the Adhamiyah District of Baghdad reopened, Oct. 26, after undergoing a two-month-long renovation. With $220,000 from the government of Iraq, the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division facilitated the rebuilding of this important infrastructure.

Progress.

Maybe she is just doing the jobs American’s won’t

Barack Obama’s aunt, a Kenyan woman who has been quietly living in public housing in Boston, is in the United States illegally after an immigration judge rejected her request for asylum four years ago, The Associated Press has learned.

Zeituni Onyango, 56, referred to as “Aunti Zeituni” in Obama’s memoir, was instructed to leave the United States by a U.S. immigration judge who denied her asylum request, a person familiar with the matter told the AP late Friday. This person spoke on condition of anonymity because no one was authorized to discuss Onyango’s case.

Information about the deportation case was disclosed and confirmed by two separate sources, one of them a federal law enforcment official. The information they made available is known to officials in the federal government, but the AP could not establish whether anyone at a political level in the Bush administration or in the McCain campaign had been involved in its release. (WT-they can’t confirm it, but, they will throw the possibility at the wall for the hell of it. Responsible journalism!)

Onyango’s refusal to leave the country would represent an administrative, non-criminal violation of U.S. immigration law, meaning such cases are handled outside the criminal court system. Estimates vary, but many experts believe there are more than 10 million such immigrants in the United States.

What did Barry know and when did he know it? Especially since he has taken campaign donations from her, which, last time I checked, it was still illegal to take campaign donations from foreign citizens. See the 2nd paragraph on page 2 of the Times Of London story. Will Barry return her contribution?

And here we have yet another illegal alien living on the public dole.

Others: Michelle Malkin, TigerHawk, Riehl World View, The Jed Report, Boston Globe, Confederate Yankee, Pirates Man Your Women, Bloodthirsty Liberal, Winds Of Jihad, and Right Wing News

As DrewM points out at Ace of Spades HQ, Team McCain needs to have an ad out on this in Ohio. Heck, they should put together a national ad, showing what life would be like under an Obama presidency, where, if you disagree, you will be investigated

Vanessa Niekamp said that when she was asked to run a child-support check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher on Oct. 16, she thought it routine. A supervisor told her the man had contacted the state agency about his case.

Niekamp didn’t know she just had checked on “Joe the Plumber,” who was elevated the night before to presidential politics prominence as Republican John McCain’s example in a debate of an average American.

The senior manager would not learn about “Joe” for another week, when she said her boss informed her and directed her to write an e-mail stating her computer check was a legitimate inquiry.

The reason Niekamp said she was given for checking if there was a child-support case on Wurzelbacher does not match the reason given by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

Director Helen Jones-Kelley said her agency checks people who are “thrust into the public spotlight,” amid suggestions they may have come into money, to see if they owe support or are receiving undeserved public assistance.

Niekamp told The Dispatch she is unfamiliar with the practice of checking on the newly famous. “I’ve never done that before, I don’t know of anybody in my office who does that and I don’t remember anyone ever doing that,” she said today.

First of all, as has been said many times, isn’t this grounds for a criminal investigation of Jones-Kelley? Unauthorized access to personal records? Second, isn’t this a violation of the code of conduct for Ohio employees? I work for a really, really big company, and it would be grounds for discipline up to and including termination. And I have seen this in action. Not against me, but, other employees. This goes for other companies, as well. Of the employees involved, the only ones not terminated were those who owned up to it and had clean records. Jones-Kelley lied.

Third, wasn’t it the Left who pitched hissy fits over a simple program that cross-referenced phone numbers called to determine if there were terrorism links, and no other personal data was provided without an actual warrant? Yes, they did.

Anyhow, Sue, Joe, Sue!

Others: Michelle Malkin, Don Surber, Ms Placed Democrat, The Underground Conservative

I wonder if the unhinged at Firedoglake and others who whined about Mo Dowd, an opinion writer, getting the boot from McCain’s plane will cover

Journalists from three major newspapers — each having endorsed John McCain — reportedly have been booted from Barack Obama’s campaign plane for the final leg of the presidential race.

The Washington Times reported Friday that they were notified of the Obama campaign’s decision Thursday evening — even though the paper has covered Obama from the start.

Supposedly, the Dallas Morning News and the New York Post were given the heave ho, as the other two. And Barry has every right to do it. It’s his plane, and campaigns do not have to do the jobs of reporters for them. Still, it is unprecedented for a presidential candidate to be so petty and do this. Just more evidence of what a Barry presidency will mean: chilling of the 1st Amendment, alternative voices will be silenced.

On the flip side, considering the condition of The One’s plane, maybe he did them a favor.

I’d ask “what is with the MSM,” but, we all know the answer: in da tank

Herewe have the McCain campaign’s execrable Michael Goldfarb slinging around accusations of anti-semitism–a favorite pastime, as we’ve seen this year, among Jewish neoconservatives. I’ve never met Rashid Khalidi, but he is (a) Palestinian and therefore (b) a semite, so the charge of anti-semitism is fatuous. Khalidi is also a respected academic, the sort of person who is involved in foundation work that John McCain, for one, was willing to support financially. I’d say that if we have a bigot here, it’s Mr. Goldfarb who, if he’s intent on calling people antisemitic–or any other epithet–should be required to provide chapter and verse, which he does not do on CNN. (I’d also like to know on what basis CNN’s Rick Sanchez can stipulate that Khalidi is antisemitic.)

Oooh, we have the fun “neoconservative” word crop up, something I doubt the majority of Lefties can even define, and don’t you love the “accusations of anti-semitism?” We have been treated to a constant call of racism charges ever since Obama broke his promise about running for president to run for president. First they were against Camp Hillary and her supporters, now they are against Camp McCain and his supporters. Remember

• If Obama Loses: Racism is the only reason McCain might beat him.
• Veiled racism seen in new attacks on Obama
• Even if you vote for Obama, you’re still probably a racist, according to Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree

And those are just a few of the hits. When Palin was hung in effigy, not a peep. If Barry is hung in effigy, Racism! If you bring up Bill Ayers? Racism. Bring up Jeremiah Wright? Racism. Pflagher? Racism. Call Barry a socialist? Racism. Everything is racistunless you prostrate yourself at the feet of Obama. I’m surprised Joe Klein didn’t deem that bringing up Khalidi was racist. But, it was “bigoted.”

Anyhow, Klein could have at least taken the 5 minutes it takes on the Internet to research Khalidi himself. According to Discover the Network

• Former PLO operative
• Has justified as legitimate Palestinian “resistance” that results in death of armed Israelis
• Rejects the possibility of a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Well, as a former member of the PLO, Khalidi certainly can’t be an anti-semite, right? Does that answer a bit of your question of how Rick Sanchez can stipulate that Khalidi is antisemitic, Joe? Why do Liberals members of the Credentialed Media have such a tough time doing research nowadays?

PS: Khalidi also fits right in to the mold of trotting out the “racism!” charge like other Leftists, as he did over the illegal immigration battle.

Gotta love the double standard. The Halloween display of Sarah Palin hung in effigy was A-OK, almost no one on the Left complained. But, now, horror!!!!! Obama Effigies Strung Up in Kentucky and Indiana

Barack Obama effigies turned up Wednesday on the University of Kentucky campus and in a front yard in Indiana, as federal authorities said they weren’t investigating a Sarah Palin hanging-from-a-noose Halloween display in California as a hate crime.

Kentucky school officials in Lexington were trying to determine who hung a mannequin lookalike of Obama from a tree on campus, school spokesman Carl Nathe told The Associated Press. Police took the effigy down immediately.

In Clarksville, Ind., Kirk Deddo strung an Obama doll up by a noose from a tree on his lawn and called it a Halloween decoration, saying it was the most frightening one he could find, WNDA-TV in Indiana reported.

Deddo said the effigy had nothing to do with race, and he put it up because he doesn’t like Obama’s stance toward the military.

“Electing Obama as president would be the scariest thing in the world,” he told the station.

And Liberals are freaking out

University of Kentucky President Lee Todd told the AP that he will apologize to the Obama family on the university’s behalf because he is “personally offended and deeply embarrassed by this disgusting episode.”

Students and leaders at the U. of Kentucky are outraged, as was the writer of the article, who seems hysterical, and not the funny type. It has been called a “despicable act.” Apologies are flying. And the LA Times plays moral relativism

Everybody take a deep breath. Some critics of the display seem unclear on a couple of concepts: the difference between political speech and hate speech, and the symbolic resonance that nooses hold for African Americans.

Ah. That would be a ……. double standard. It is OK to hang Palin in effigy, but…..ah, you know how this goes. Will the FBI investigate? Will Mr. Deddo be charged with a hate crime?

Photo below the fold

So, what is happening in the world of ACORN? ACORN knew of fraudulent voter registration forms, ex-employee of Project Vote says

A former employee of an affiliate of ACORN testified Wednesday that the community group now in the national spotlight knew that most new voter registration forms it had gathered were fraudulent.

“Forty percent was OK,” said Anita Moncrief, referring to the number of bona fide registrations that officials at the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now believed was acceptable.

Moncrief was the star witness Wednesday in a Commonwealth Court case brought by the state Republican Party and others who are asking a judge to step in and prevent voter fraud on Election Day.

For nearly two hours, Moncrief, 29, gave a scathing, though at times vague, assessment of ACORN and its efforts to go into battleground states and help mostly minorities and the poor register to vote for the first time.

The group, she said, barely trained its workers in how to register voters properly, and would fire employees if they did not meet a quota of 20 new voter applicants daily. And, if they were caught committing fraud, the group “threw them under the bus” as scapegoats to take all the legal blame, Moncrief said.

Prepare to have your life investigated and destroyed, Anita. That bus coming at ya is going to be like something out of a Mad Max movie. All while those on the Left will say “eh. No big deal.”

And, let’s connect the dots to Obama and his campaign on page 2

Moncrief also testified that, in November 2007, she was given a massive database of Barack Obama donors who had already reached the maximum that they are allowed to give to the Democratic presidential nominee. Her task was to cull it for potential donors who, though prohibited from giving any more to Obama, could give to ACORN.

Someone ought to tell Joe Biden about that. John Fund breaks down Obama’s connects to ACORN, for the Liberal Impaired.

Meanwhile, ACORN is being accused of interference with 2nd Amendment Rights in New Jersey. Sounds just like Obama. Cute, disingenuous commercials and speeches aside, Obama does want to curtail your gun rights. His votes and past talk on the subject speak volumes.

Woah! How did this end up not only in one of the main U.S. papers, but, on page A2? Obama Accepting Untraceable Donations. Rather innocuous headline, but, the story basically says Obama is playing games which, as has been said across the right-o-sphere many, many times, are allowing him to rake in millions and millions without any checks on the front to make sure the donations are real, are authorized, are from real people, and are from U.S. citizens

Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is allowing donors to use largely untraceable prepaid credit cards that could potentially be used to evade limits on how much an individual is legally allowed to give or to mask a contributor’s identity, campaign officials confirmed.

Faced with a huge influx of donations over the Internet, the campaign has also chosen not to use basic security measures to prevent potentially illegal or anonymous contributions from flowing into its accounts, aides acknowledged. Instead, the campaign is scrutinizing its books for improper donations after the money has been deposited.

All in all, the WP does soft pedel the issue, mentioning a few problems, then mentioning that McCain has had a few problems with on-line donations, too (because fair and balanced, ie, responsible journalism, must be practiced when something looks bad for The One). Of course, how much of an affect this will have is unknown, since I have yet to see anyone on the Left, even those who call themselves moderates, decry this practice by the Obama campaign.

I was about to write, before I took a break in writing this post to get ready for work, “I suppose we wil find out about all the illegal contributions sometime in 2009 or 2010, which will be way too late, and the money will already have been spent,” but, based on the recent history of the Obama campaign and his supporters attempting to stop, and, in some cases, stopping conversation through intimidation tactics, lawsuits, threats, investigations in to peoples lives, etc and so on, I doubt there will be any investigation released.

After all the complaints about Sarah Palin not meeting the press (which, in my opinion, she should have right from the get go), what about Barry?

On Oct. 24, 2007, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said that as president he would hold regular press conferences and “not just call on my four favorite reporters.”

But the Democratic presidential nominee hasn’t held a full press conference — submitting himself to more than a handful of questions from his whole press corps — in more than a month, since Sept. 24, 2008, in Clearwater, Fla.

The candidate often bemoans the media asking silly and superficial questions. The media isn’t focused on the important issues facing the nation, he complains.

On Saturday in Nevada, Obama sat for an exclusive interview with Mario Lopez, the actor who played “A.C. Slater” on “Saved by the Bell,” to air on the TV show “EXTRA!”

According to the promotional materials from “EXTRA!,” “Asked about the tragic news that (actress Jennifer) Hudson’s mother and brother were killed Friday in Chicago, Obama states, ‘Oh it was heartbreaking, in fact I’m still trying to get a phone number to call her at this tragic time. She is somebody who has campaigned for me, she also lives in my community. So, we’re really going to have to help her and pray for her and her family during this difficult time.’”

If Obama wins, it will be an interesting dynamic. The majority of the media will be thrilled to have a Democrat in office, but, if you want to really tick of the 4th Estate, don’t hold press conferences and do not allow tough questions. Somehow, I get the feeling that the relationship between the media and The One will not be cozy. Certainly won’t be like it is with Bush, who has seemed to say “why bother?”

Anyhow, what of the tough questions, Mr. Obama?