The Republican team views the spending story as irrelevant.
"It doesn't matter that Palin's costing us a fortune for her wardrobe," one insider said. "What matters is that she's costing us the election."
WASHINGTON: Financial records show the Republican National Committee has spent more than $US 150,000 . . . on clothes for vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, the political news website Politico has reported.
The Republicans' main campaign and fund-raising organ spent tens of thousands at high-end stores such as Bloomingdale's and Barney's in New York, Saks Fifth Avenue in St Louis and New York and Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, the website said. The committee also spent $US4716 on hair and make-up during September, Politico reported.
Those kinds of expenditures did not appear in the committee's financial disclosure records before the Alaska Governor was added to John McCain's ticket in August, it said.
Politico said it reviewed the committee's September monthly financial disclosure report and found a new category, "campaign accessories", included in the report of "itemised co-ordinated expenditures" . . .
Another $US4902 was "spent at Atelier, a high-class shopping destination for men", Politico noted. The spending on Mrs Palin's image emerged at the same time as reports that she has charged the state for her children to travel with her on official visits, including to events where they were not invited, and later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business.
Mrs Palin has charged the state $US21,012 for her three daughters' commercial flights. The charges included costs for her daughters to join Mrs Palin to watch their father in a snowmobile race.
"An 11-year-old girl has been set on fire by a relative in India's northern city of Jaipur for wearing lipstick and being inappropriately dressed.
Police say the girl suffered burns over 90 per cent of her body and her chances of survival are bleak.
They've arrested her great uncle who allegedly poured kerosene on the girl and set her alight yesterday.
Investigators say the 55-year-old man, a conservative Muslim, told the police he was enraged at the girl wearing lipstick and being scantily dressed.
But relatives have accused the man of trying to molest the girl and setting her on fire when she objected."
"We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation.
"This is where we find the kindness and the goodness and the courage of everyday Americans. Those who are running our factories and teaching our kids and growing our food and are fighting our wars for us. Those who are protecting us in uniform. Those who are protecting the virtues of freedom."
-- Sarah Palin in North Carolina
In what read more like an obituary than a commentary, Peggy Noonan wrote in the Wall Street Journal: "In the end the Palin candidacy is a symptom and expression of a new vulgarization in American politics. It's no good, not for conservatism and not for the country. And yes, it is a mark against John McCain, against his judgment and idealism."(Well, I wouldn't say a "new" vulgarization, actually.)
"A local Republican group has distributed a newsletter picturing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on a fake $US10 bill adorned with a watermelon, ribs and a bucket of fried chicken.
The drawing harked back to racist images from decades ago in America that featured caricatures of blacks eating watermelon and other Southern foods, often suggesting they were lazy or unclean.
Linking Senator Obama, who is the first black presidential nominee of a major US political party, to such stereotypes drew denunciations from various Republican officials."
Oh, right. He's just being proud and godly, not totally incorrect and repulsive and wicked arrogant. Yuh. Blessed are the meek, dude.
Another fake Christian in need of remedial Sunday School.
Sigh. One of so many.
Dharmic context:**13.
Even if someone cuts your head off
For having done nothing wrong,
To take on that person's negativities
Through the power of compassion
Is the practice of a bodhisattva.
Hat-tip to Jesus' General
and to TPM.
Cross-posted at Buddhist Jihad.
The magazine [Newsweek] reported 86 per cent of the 1212 voters polled said they are dissatisfied with how things were going in the United States. The economy was the biggest concern with 48 per cent. When asked which candidate would better handle a number of issues, Senator Obama topped every category except national security and terrorism.
"For context on just how toxic these numbers could be for the Republican Party, consider that in October 2006, weeks before the Democrats swept control of both houses of Congress, only 61 per cent of voters expressed dissatisfaction," Newsweek wrote.
Finding Number One:
For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) provides
“The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.”
Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin abused her position as Alaska Governor by pressuring officials to dismiss a state trooper, an investigator's report said.
In a 263-page report released on Friday by Alaska's Legislative Council following a six-hour closed doors hearing, investigator Steve Branchflower said Palin was guilty of violating ethics rules for public officials.
The investigator said Palin had allowed her husband Todd Palin to use the Alaska Governor's office and its resources to pressure officials to fire state trooper Mike Wooten, her former brother-in-law.
"Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired," the report said.
Projecting through the Screen [Rich Lowry]
A very wise TV executive once told me that the key to TV is projecting through the screen. It's one of the keys to the success of, say, a Bill O'Reilly, who comes through the screen and grabs you by the throat.
Palin too projects through the screen like crazy.
I'm sure I'm not the only male in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, "Hey, I think she just winked at me."
And her smile.
By the end, when she clearly knew she was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing.
It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America.
This is a quality that can't be learned; it's either something you have or you don't, and man, she's got it.
CNN) -- Fannie Mae said it will set aside the loan of a woman who shot herself as sheriff's deputies tried to evict her from her foreclosed home.
Fannie Mae foreclosed on the Akron, Ohio, home of Addie Polk, 90, after acquiring the mortgage in 2007.
Addie Polk, 90, of Akron, Ohio, became a symbol of the nation's home mortgage crisis when she was hospitalized after shooting herself at least twice in the upper body Wednesday afternoon.
On Friday, Fannie Mae spokesman Brian Faith said the mortgage association had decided to halt action against Polk and sign the property "outright" to her.
"We're going to forgive whatever outstanding balance she had on the loan and give her the house," Faith said. "Given the circumstances, we think it's appropriate."
Residents of Akron have rallied behind Polk, who is being treated at Akron General Medical Center. She was listed in critical condition Friday afternoon, according to Akron City Council President Marco Sommerville.
U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, mentioned Polk on the House floor Friday during debate over the latest economic rescue proposal.
"This bill does nothing for the Addie Polks of the world," Kucinich said after telling her story. "This bill fails to address the fact that millions of homeowners are facing foreclosure, are facing the loss of their home. This bill will take care of Wall Street, and the market may go up for a few days, but democracy is going downhill."
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (AP) -- The number of homeless families in Massachusetts has surged -- a spike that has overwhelmed the state's shelter capacity and forced it to again place homeless families in motels.
The number of homeless families living in Massachusetts motels skyrocketed in September 2008.
Driving the increase is the sour economy, rising energy costs, escalating unemployment and shortage of affordable housing. For the first time, the state is tracking how many families are winding up homeless due to foreclosures.
"You're seeing a perfect storm," said Robyn Frost, executive director of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless. . .
In just the past 12 months, the number of homeless families living in Massachusetts motels has skyrocketed from 17 in September 2007 to 550 in September 2008. That's on top of another 1,800 or so families in shelters . . .
Massachusetts isn't alone. Advocates for the homeless say that while statistics are still sketchy, many areas are reporting increases in the number of homeless families. . .As of midweek there were 588 families in 29 hotels across the state. . .
The state is also starting to track foreclosures as a cause for homelessness. That typically occurs when a multifamily home or apartment building is foreclosed on and the tenants are evicted, sometimes losing their security deposit in the process, making it harder to come up with the rent for a new apartment.
Frost said the state should focus on creating more housing vouchers to get homeless families into permanent homes quickly.
"If people are permanently housed, kids get education and parents can keep their jobs," she said. "Without vouchers you're going to continue to see this storm."
["sarah palin'" is to "deep" as "sylvia plath" is to "perky"]The way that I have understood the world is on a much more local level than been the good old boy network that has been the Washington elite.— Sarah Palin Fictional Quote Generator v1.0
Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there’s not much content there. Here’s but one example of many from her interview with Hannity: “Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we’re talking about today. And that’s something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this.”
When Couric pointed to polls showing that the financial crisis had boosted Obama’s numbers, Palin blustered wordily: “I’m not looking at poll numbers. What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who’s more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who’s actually done it?”
If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.
Democrat Barack Obama is building widening leads in the three key battleground states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, new polls released on Wednesday show.
The latest figures show the Illinois senator is gaining momentum on Republican John McCain as the rivals dash back to Washington to vote on a $US700 billion ($882 billion) Wall Street bail-out package.
The Quinnipiac University study suggests Obama won Friday's presidential debate and that McCain's vice presidential running mate Sarah Palin is suffering from sliding popularity after a stunning initial impact on the race.
They also indicate that voters trust Obama more to handle the financial crisis rocking the US economy, and he seems to be convincing Americans he is ready to be president.
"It is difficult to find a modern competitive presidential race that has swung so dramatically, so quickly and so sharply this late in the campaign," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac polling institute.
The surveys show that in Pennsylvania, Obama leads McCain by a gaping 54 per cent to 39 per cent after the debate, compared with 49 per cent to 43 per cent before the debate.
He is up 51 per cent to 43 per cent in swing state Florida, compared to a 49 to 43 per cent lead before Friday's first of three high-stakes presidential debates.
And in Ohio, Obama is up eight points, 50 per cent to 42 per cent, after having led by 49 per cent to 42 per cent before the clash in Mississippi.
The trio of swing states - which have a history of going either Republican or Democrat and swinging presidential elections - are vital stepping stones to the White House on November 4. . .
