David Drake

A state agency has revealed that its checks of computer systems for potential information on "Joe the Plumber" were more extensive than it first acknowledged.

Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, disclosed today that computer inquiries on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher were not restricted to a child-support system.

The agency also checked Wurzelbacher in its computer systems to determine whether he was receiving welfare assistance or owed unemployment compensation taxes, she wrote.

Jones-Kelley made the revelations in a letter to Ohio Senate President Bill M. Harris, R-Ashland, who demanded answers on why state officials checked out Wurzelbacher.

Harris called the multiple records checks "questionable" and said he awaits more answers. "It's kind of like Big Brother is looking in your pocket," he said.

If state employees run checks on every person listed in newspaper stories as buying a business, "it must take a lot of people a lot of time to run these checks," he said. "Where do you draw the line?"

[...]

The Dispatch has uncovered four uses of state computer systems to access personal information on Wurzelbacher, including the child-support check authorized by Jones-Kelley.

She said on Monday that her department frequently runs checks for any unpaid child support obligations "when someone is thrust quickly into the public spotlight."

Republican legislators have challenged Jones-Kelley's reason for checking on Wurzelbacher as "frightening" and flimsy.

Jones-Kelly also has denied any connections between the computer checks on Wurzelbacher and her support for Obama. She donated the maximum $2,500 this year to the Obama campaign.

Ohio Inspector General Thomas P. Charles is investigating whether the child-support check on Wurzelbacher was legal.

The Four Tops singer was given a grand farewell Monday in Detroit, his 72-year life commemorated by family and friends, including an array of high-profile figures.

About 2,500 people gathered at Greater Grace Temple to pay their respects to the celebrated Motown luminary, who died Oct. 17 after several years of health problems. On hand were key figures from Stubbs' life, including Motown Records founder Berry Gordy Jr., family friend the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Cliniece Stubbs, his wife of 48 years.

[...]

Four Tops singer Abdul (Duke) Fakir, the Tops' last surviving original member, was among the last to speak during the 3-hour event, choking up as he remembered his longtime friend. Fakir paid tribute to the unwavering solidarity that kept the original group together for nearly half a century.

"There will always be, through eternity, the four of us," he said, quoting the line that famously opens the group's concerts.

[...]

Many speakers talked of Stubbs' humility, noting that he declined to seek a lucrative solo career or hog attention at the expense of his group mates.

[...]

More than anything, they paid homage to his vocal gifts. Stubbs was a golden-throated baritone who "could be rough and tender at the same time," conveying "joy, pain, happiness, despair," said Gordy, who signed the Tops in 1963.

"It's not a matter of coming along once in a decade, or once in a century, or even once in a lifetime," Gordy said. "A Levi Stubbs comes along only once -- period."

[...]

"Today you'll turn on the radio and hear him. Tomorrow you'll turn on the radio and hear him. We'll never be able to forget him. All over the world they'll be hearing Levi Stubbs forever," [said Smokey Robinson].

Zeituni Onyango, the aunt so affectionately described in Mr Obama’s best-selling memoir Dreams from My Father, lives in a disabled-access flat on a rundown public housing estate in South Boston.

[...]

She is a frail woman who walks with the aid of a metal stick. Neighbours said that she lived alone in a ground-floor flat normally set aside for people facing physical hardship.

[...]

The Obama campaign was repeatedly approached for comment yesterday (regarding his destitute aunt) but had not responded at the time of going to press.

Obama's affinity for Marxists began when he attended Occidental College in Los Angeles.

"To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully," the Democratic presidential candidate wrote in his memoir, "Dreams From My Father." "The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists."

Obama's interest in leftist politics continued after he transferred to Columbia University in New York. He lived on Manhattan's Upper East Side, venturing to the East Village for what he called "the socialist conferences I sometimes attended at Cooper Union."

[...]

"In search of some inspiration, I went to hear Kwame Toure, formerly Stokely Carmichael of Black Panther fame, speak at Columbia," Obama wrote in "Dreams," which he published in 1995. "At the entrance to the auditorium, two women, one black, one Asian, were selling Marxist literature."

Obama supporters point out that plenty of Americans flirt with radical ideologies in college, only to join the political mainstream later in life. But Obama, who made a point of noting how "carefully" he chose his friends in college, also chose to launch his political career in the Chicago living room of Ayers, a domestic terrorist who in 2002 proclaimed: "I am a Marxist."

Also present at that meeting was Ayers' wife, fellow terrorist Bernardine Dohrn, who once gave a speech extolling socialism, communism and "Marxism-Leninism."

[...]

"The arguments of liberals are more often grounded in reason and fact," Obama wrote in "Audacity." "Much of what I absorbed from the sixties was filtered through my mother, who to the end of her life would proudly proclaim herself an unreconstructed liberal."

Palestinian Ibrahim Abu Jayab, 24, is seen next to his computer, in his family house in Nusayrat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008. A young Palestinian in a Gaza refugee camp is doing his part to get out the vote for Barack Obama. With a little help from the Internet, 24-year-old Ibrahim Abu Jayab is cold calling random American families from his parent's home imploring them to vote Obama.

Parents on Chicago's South Side are on edge after reports that a man dressed as a clown has tried to lure several children into his van.

The creepy clown, who has been spotted four times in the past week on the city's West and South sides, wears a wig and full face paint and carries balloons when he approaches children, MyFOXChicago.com reported.

In each case, he tries to coax kids into his vehicle, described in most cases as a white, four-door van with broken rear windows and in another instance as a brown pickup truck. [And I bet it has an Obama bumper sticker on it, too! - Drake]

Area schools are on alert and some have sent home letters to parents telling them to warn their children not to talk to strangers.

Indiana's Republican secretary of state claims he has evidence the community group ACORN has submitted fraudulent voter registrations.

Secretary of State Todd Rokita's office said an investigation uncovered "multiple criminal violations" in voter registration applications filed by ACORN, The Indianapolis Star reported Tuesday.

I have Obama election anxiety. I think about him winning - or losing - all day long. I watch TV news with heightened stress and pray there is no October surprise. I fret while listening to the multi-cultural NPR shows that thoughtfully debate and discuss the impact of race, age and gender on voting. I worry about Election Day celebrations and hope that we can all keep our heads, no matter the outcome. But there is a whole other section to my Obama anxiety; my ridiculously emotional reaction to everything Obama.

I cry when I hear the swelling of his voice at the climax of his speeches. I cry when I see pictures of him and his wife on Huffington Post. I cry when I hear Stevie Wonder. I want to throw my arms around people wearing Obama clothes.

...it's muddled crowd noise on a CNN feed, and if you're a race-obsessed partisan who is just dying to think the worst of conservatives, you'll hear the n-word or "kill him" in whatever you're listening to. You'll then post video of the muddled crowd noise with your interpretation superimposed upon it on You Tube to the delight of 200,000 other race-obsessed partisans.

Too bad it wasn't the n-word at all.

[...]

...the person in the crowd was yelling "redistributor," which makes a lot more sense because "redistributor" has been the word of the week on the McCain-Palin team. Unfortunately, the video of the "redistributor" audio has only gotten about 3,000 views to the n-word's 200K.

THE LADY WAS SHOUTING "REDISTRIBUTOR". Period, end of story, let's move on.

A federal judge in Ohio has ruled that counties must allow homeless voters to list park benches and other locations that aren't buildings as their addresses.

U.S. District Judge Edmund Sargus also ruled that provisional ballots can't be invalidated because of poll worker errors.

Government computers in Ohio may been used to illegally access personal information about Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, otherwise known as "Joe the Plumber," according to the Columbus Dispatch.

During their October 15 debate, presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain referred to "Joe the Plumber" constantly. In the days following the debate, information on Wurzelbacher's driver's license or his sport utility vehicle was retrieved from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles database three times, the Dispatch reported.

With access to such information limited to legitimate law enforcement and government business, state and local officials are now investigating whether the information was obtained illegally. The information was retrieved using accounts assigned to the Ohio attorney general's office, a county child support enforcement agency, and the Toledo Police Department, according to the report.

An Ohio spokesman for the McCain campaign told the Dispatch that the information breach may have been politically motivated.

"It's outrageous to see how quickly Barack Obama's allies would abuse government power in an attempt to smear a private citizen who dared to ask a legitimate question," Paul Lindsay told the Dispatch.

Ohio’s inspector general is investigating why a state agency director approved checking the state child-support computer system for information on “Joe the Plumber.”

Helen Jones-Kelly, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, confirmed today that she OK’d the check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher following the Oct. 15 presidential debate.

She said there were no political reasons for the check on the sudden presidential campaign fixture though the Support Enforcement Tracking System.

Amid questions from the media and others about “Joe the Plumber,” Jones-Kelley said she approved a check to determine if he was current on any ordered child-support payments.

Such information was not and cannot be publicly shared, she said. It is unclear if Wurzelbacher is involved in a child-support case. Reports state that he lives alone with a 13-year-old son.

“Our practice is when someone is thrust quickly into the public spotlight, we often take a look” at them, Jones-Kelley said [WTF IS THIS, THEY JUST SNOOP INTO ANY PRIVATE CITIZEN ON A WHIM? - DRAKE], citing a case where a lottery winner was found to owe past-due child support. “Our practice is to basically look at what is coming our way.”

Ah. So they just do that on anyone who gets famous. Is she serious? Joe should file a lawsuit against her and the department for violating his civil rights and privacy. Maybe the ACLU of Ohio, or even the national office, would care to help? Interesting how it also seems to be Democrats who use government offices to check people out for the hell of it, eh?

[...]

Did I forget to mention that Jones-Kelly is a maxed out Obama donor? Ace has the scoop on that. Nothing political in the investigation, though. Are Democrats taught to lie like that, or is it just natural?

Former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick faces a grim few months: 23 hours a day in a small cinderblock cell, with an hour out for recreation.

Kilpatrick was due in court Tuesday afternoon to receive a 120-day sentence for lying about an affair with his chief of staff.

With good behavior, he could get 20 days knocked off his sentence. He will be billed for his stay at $60 a day.

"The Wayne County jail, and the cell Mr. Kilpatrick will be staying in, is no country club," Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans said. "It's a Spartan cell, cinderblock, typical of jail cells."

The sentence is part of an agreement worked out with prosecutors when Kilpatrick, a Democrat, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice on Sept. 4. He will also serve a concurrent sentence for assaulting a sheriff's detective.

Describing Kilpatrick's assault, [JoAnn] Kinney wrote: "His hateful eyes raged and his enormous size coming at my partner and i...will remain forever etched in my mind."

"In my entire police career, I've never felt so vulnerable or unable to protect myself ... Kilpatrick is more dangerous and frightening than any criminal that i have ever encountered in my career."

"I have not bee the same as a person since ... I think about it constantly ... This has affected my life in a very negative way ... Even when I go to the mailbox to get my newspaper I am often paranoid ... looking for black Escalades ... I take my weapon everywhere."

Two white supremacist skinheads were arrested in Tennessee over plans to go on a killing spree and eventually shoot Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, court documents showed on Monday.

Daniel Cowart and Paul Schlesselman were charged in a criminal complaint with making threats against a presidential candidate, illegal possession of a sawed-off shotgun and conspiracy to rob a gun dealer.

The plot did not appear to be very advanced or sophisticated, the court documents showed.

"We're unsure of their ability or if they have the wherewithal to carry out any of their threats," said a source close to the investigation.

Back in 2001, Barack Obama gave an interview to a Chicago public radio station in which he talked about using the Supreme Court, the most undemocratic of the three branches of government (nonelected, lifetime terms), to "spread the wealth." Some rough excerpts:

[...]


"...the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and the 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 and the Constitution..."

[...]

"You can craft theoretical justification for it legally, and any three of us sitting here could come up with a rationale for bringing about economic change through the courts."

WND has learned that Hawaii's Gov. Linda Lingle has placed the candidate's birth certificate under seal and instructed the state's Department of Health to make sure no one in the press obtains access to the original document under any circumstances.

The governor's office officially declined a request made in writing by WND in Hawaii to obtain a copy of the hospital-generated original birth certificate of Barack Obama.

[...]

In searching through the birth notices of the Honolulu Advertiser for 1961, WND found many birth notices were published between one and two weeks after the date of birth listed.

The notice in the Honolulu Advertiser does not list the hospital where the Obama son was born or the doctor who delivered the baby.

In a startling development, Obama's Kenyan grandmother has reportedly alleged she witnessed Obama's birth at the Coast Provincial Hospital in Mombasa, Kenya.

[...]

In Kenya, WND was told by government authorities that all documents concerning Obama were under seal until after the U.S. presidential election on November 4.

A Philadelphia lawyer who has alleged Barack Obama is ineligible for the presidency will immediately appeal his case to the Supreme Court after a district court ruled that the potential harm posed by the presidential candidate's ineligibility is "too vague" to allow voters standing to bring charges.

Philip J. Berg, esq., former deputy attorney general of PA and avowed lifelong Democrat, alleges that Sen. Obama is ineligible to run for president based on the claim that he is not a natural-born citizen of the United States. According to the Constitution, only natural-born citizens are allowed to become President of the United States.

While the Obama campaign has dismissed the claims as false, Berg points out that Obama has failed to publicly release a birth certificate that could prove he was born in the United States.

[...]

"This is a question of who has standing to uphold our Constitution," said Berg in response to the decision. "If I don't have standing, if you don't have standing, if your neighbor doesn't have standing to question the eligibility of an individual to be President of the United States - the Commander-in-Chief, the most powerful person in the world - then who does?

"So, anyone can just claim to be eligible for congress or the presidency without having their legal status, age or citizenship questioned," he complained.

Democrat Barack Obama's lead over Republican rival John McCain has dropped to 5 points, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Sunday.

Obama leads McCain by 49 percent to 44 percent among likely U.S. voters in the daily tracking poll, which has a margin of error of 2.9 points. Obama's lead has dropped over the last three days after hitting a high of 12 points on Thursday.

"Things are trending back for McCain. His numbers are rising and Obama's are dropping on a daily basis. There seems to be a direct correlation between this and McCain talking about the economy," pollster John Zogby said.

An effigy of U.S. Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin hanging by a noose as part of a Halloween display drew complaints on Monday, but local officials said the homeowner was covered by free speech rights.

A mannequin dressed to resemble the Alaska governor, with her trademark beehive hairdo and glasses, was hung by the neck from the eaves of the home in famously liberal West Hollywood.

On the roof, a mannequin of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, protruded from the chimney surrounded in flames, holding his head as he was apparently burned alive.

"We have been getting some phone calls this morning complaining about it but if (the homeowner) isn't in violation of municipal code we have no reason to cite them," West Hollywood spokeswoman Helen Goss said.

"People have First Amendment rights (to free speech)," Goss said. "I would speculate that if it's part of a Halloween display then its political satire."

Homeowner Chad Michael Morisette told local KCAL-TV the display should be considered Halloween "art" and said his neighbors would probably be more offended by a similar scene invoking Democrat Barack Obama.

"I know if we had done Barack Obama, people would have probably thrown things through our windows," Morisette said. "The image of a hanged black man is a lot more intense than the image of a hanged white woman for our country, the history of our country."

Earlier a cardboard likeness of Obama was strung up from a tree at an Oregon university and an Ohio man who told local media he didn't want to see an African-American running the country hung a ghostly figure bearing an Obama sign from a tree in his yard.

Written by Dr. Phil Leveque

The Merck Manual indicates 20 percent of women and 12 percent of men will suffer clinical depression. This is a rather depressing world we’re living in.

Antidepressant drugs are among the most prescribed medications but their adverse side effects can often be paradoxically lethal with suicide being prominent.

Todays [sic] TV news presents a new electromagnetic machine for depression which stimulates the brain which probably causes cannabinoid secretions which makes patient subjects feel better. It had better, a treatment series costs 6 thousand dollars.

Well, I have a surprise for some people. The U.S. Govt says cannabis as an alleged drug causes euphoria which (surprise surprise) causes euphoria which is addicting. Imagine, a very safe replacement for amphetamine, once the most prescribed and addicting mood stimulants being replaced with cannabis.

The U.S. Govt estimates about 70 million cannabis users. I have medically interviewed at least 4000 of them. Almost all were long time users. None complained of adverse euphoria.

If such a high percentage of the population have clinical depression certainly many of my 4000 patients had depression which unfortunately is not an acceptable condition for an Oregon medical marijuana permit. The Oregon “egg heads” in charge of the program will not accept ANY psychological problem – it must be physical!

This is really strange. One of my largest patient groups are PTSD Veterans (about 400 of them). Most found out in Vietnam that cannabis gives best relief for battle stress. Whether battle stress produces/causes depression may be arguable. For a Combat Infantryman his only real relief is a “million dollar wound” which will get him away from certain death. If that doesn’t cause depression nothing will. Anxiety and blood curdling fear are certainly part of this PTSD syndrome. The worst factor is that once a person has PTSD, there is usually no escape…most people know that severe battle Veterans cannot talk about their experiences it hurts too much.

When these PTSD Veterans get/got home with nightmares etc., the VA doctors and non-doctors prescribed every kind of drug available. The Vets usually found out most of their drugs made them worse. They rediscovered cannabis but the VA non-doctors said you can’t use illegal drugs (even if they work best) and have VA treatment. How absurd. Believe it or not the VA system is supposed to HELP Vets.

In the meantime, with 70 million cannabis users many vets are using. Alternately many are alcoholics or tobacco addicts. Both of these cause hundreds of thousands of deaths. Cannabis has never killed anybody.

YES CANNABIS WILL ALLEVIATE DEPRESSION.

Hundreds of patients [in the UK] have been forced to pay for life-saving cancer treatment after NHS chiefs ruled that new pills which might improve or extend their lives were not "cost effective".

But many are now demanding refunds from the health service after spending tens of thousands of pounds of personal savings or loans, just to stay alive.

At least three London trusts have been targeted by patients making compensation claims, an investigation by the Evening Standard has found. In the first known case of its kind, one trust has been forced to refund a patient for a drug it initially refused to buy.

[...]

In America however they have another course of action open to them which we simply do not have in the United Kingdom as the case of Scott Paplowski clearly illustrates.

After eight months of treatment his weight dropped from 220 pounds to 86 pounds. Medical marijuana eased the nausea, diarrhea and stomach pain enough to restore his appetite and save his life.

Scott Paplowski is under absolutely no illusions - medical marijuana saved his life, and makes a daily contribution to his well-being as an appetite stimulant and a treatment against nausea. Although the American College of Physicians endorses the use of medical marijuana, Scott is a criminal in the eyes of the British government, simply for wishing to improve his quality of life.

He currently weighs 193 pounds and at 39 is believed to be the oldest living survivor of rhabdomyosarcoma, his form of cancer.

Most medical professionals also agree on the need for legal protection for medical cannabis patients and their doctors.

In February 2008, the American College of Physicians – the second largest U.S. medical association representing 124,000 physicians – issued a policy paper calling for legal protection for medical marijuana patients and for the federal government to respect the will of voters in states with medical marijuana laws.

WFTV-Channel 9's Barbara West conducted a satellite interview with Sen. Joe Biden on Thursday. A friend says it's some of the best entertainment he's seen recently. What do you think?

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.

McGinnis said the Biden cancellation was "a result of her husband's experience yesterday during the satellite interview with Barbara West."

[...]

"Mr. Biden didn't like the questions," [WFTV news director Bob] Jordan said. "We choose not to ask softball questions."

America is dominated by conservative thinking.

[...]

The results, my friends, speak for themselves.

Most Americans are conservative, at least to a degree. Very few are of the far-left liberal mindset (those Howard Dean Democrats I find so detestable; those who now run the Donkey Party). Both Barack Obama and Joe Biden are of that group of far left liberals: yes, Barack Obama is (as proven by his Senate voting record) an extreme liberal.

Grassroot Americans just don’t care for those extreme leftists. And, since we use an indirect voting system (the electoral college) we do not elect our president by popular vote. Sorry, Al Gore lost; as did John Kerry. From the map you see just how far John Kerry was from claiming even a majority victory. And how conservative America really is.

[...]

We see these far-left Democrats using their tools in the MSM to directly influence American voters. But it’s not working…we haven’t seen a boost in BHO’s poll numbers from either this convention or even from his VP selection of Biden. Americans just don’t want leftist culture…Americans are not liberal.