5716
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5717
3DHS / Re: McCain not sure how many houses he and wife own
« on: August 23, 2008, 02:19:50 PM »QuoteWhich kinda reminds me, if they were in her name, for her personal use and the use of her dependent family members, why weren't they just put in her own name, why were they put in a trust anyway?
Could it be that Cindy McCain is seeking to avoid paying taxes on her wealth, even though she can easily afford to pay them? If she pays less taxes on the homes than the average homeowner who DOESN'T put his or her own home into a trust, are the homes receiving less in the way of municipal services, like water, utilities, street cleaning, sewage removal, police and fire protection? I don't think so. How is it then that old Cindy is getting more protection and services for less money than the average citizen pays? A little chart, showing the dollars paid in taxes for each of Cindy's homes per dollar of services and protection received, and then a comparison chart for the average homeowner. Could be very instructive.
You obviously have no understanding of the purpose of trusts.
Cut the man some slack -- he's from Canada. If he were from Poland you would have a good point.
5718
3DHS / Biden Photographed Picking Nose & Eating bugger in Public
« on: August 23, 2008, 02:16:49 PM »
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5720
3DHS / Re: Court says Ohio Democrat chief broke election law in 2006
« on: August 23, 2008, 11:20:51 AM »
Court says Ohio Democrat chief broke election law in 2006
Friday, August 22, 2008 12:20 PM
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A state appeals court has ruled that the head of Ohio's Democratic party
broke state elections law with a 2006 campaign mailing.
The decision released Thursday says a flier approved by Ohio Democratic Party Chairman
Chris Redfern misled voters
into thinking Democratic non-incumbent candidates were the current office holders.
The decision from the 10th District Court of Appeals backs up earlier rulings from a Franklin County court
and the Ohio Elections Commission.
Redfern had argued that he didn't knowingly violate the law.
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/08/22/dembreak.html?sid=101
I'm shocked
5722
3DHS / Re: 2008 thus far the coolest in last 5 years.
« on: August 22, 2008, 11:13:09 PM »Yesterday I called Neil Bortz and told him to look at spaceweather.com , the sun has been underperforming for three years now.
As it turns out Neil already knew of Spaceweather.com and thought highly of it.
I am not sure that I made myself clear that the cooler sun is working contrary to greenhouse gasses such that there may be a severe uptick in global warming when the sun returns to normal output.
But it was fun to talk on the radio.
I think I heard you, were you the southern gentleman dude?
5727
3DHS / Re: Conservatives grow wary of mixing church, politics
« on: August 22, 2008, 11:14:20 AM »
Yahoo! News
Back to Story - Help
Conservatives grow wary of mixing church, politics
By ERIC GORSKI, AP Religion WriterThu Aug 21, 5:48 PM ET
Social conservatives are growing more wary of church involvement in politics, joining moderates and liberals in their unease about blurring the lines between pulpit and ballot box, a new study found.
Fifty percent of conservatives think churches and other places of worship should stay out of social and political matters, up from 30 percent four years ago, according to a survey released Thursday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.
That significant shift in conservative thought has brought the country to a tipping point on the question: a slim majority of Americans ? 52 percent ? now think churches should keep out of politics.
That's an eight percentage point increase over 2004 and the first time a majority of Americans has held that opinion since Pew officials started asking the question 12 years ago.
On this question, the gap between conservatives and liberals is narrowing: just four years ago, liberals were twice as likely as conservatives to say churches should stay out of politics. Now, 50 percent of conservatives and 57 percent of liberals think that. Four years ago, 62 percent of liberals opposed church involvement in politics. Democrats and Republicans are about even on the question, as well.
The survey also found largely unchanged attitudes along religious lines on the presidential choices compared with 2004, despite Democrat Barack Obama's strong play for religious voters and Republican John McCain's hesitancy to talk about his own faith and problems connecting with his party's evangelical base.
McCain leads Obama 68 percent to 24 percent among white evangelical Protestants, comparable to what President Bush was polling four years ago. But the support is tepid: just 28 percent of white evangelicals call themselves "strong" supporters of McCain, well short of Bush's 57 percent in 2004.
Changing attitudes about mixing church and politics could emerge as a factor in the fall campaign ? particularly for McCain. Both campaigns are plotting get-out-the-vote efforts in faith communities, but past Republican successes came when attitudes were more welcoming.
The attitude shift cut across conservative constituencies: 46 percent of Republican Protestants want churches out of politics, up from 28 percent in 2004. Thirty-six percent of white evangelical Republicans hold that view, up from 20 percent four years ago.
The question asked specifically about places of worship, which by law cannot take stands for or against candidates or political parties but may speak out on issues. So the public might hold different views about political stances taken by religious leaders speaking as individuals or religious advocacy groups.
The findings come after midterm elections in 2006 that saw Democrats seize control of Congress, a landmark court ruling this year legalizing gay marriage in California, and also amid an identity crisis among conservative evangelicals about which issues should take priority and who speaks for the movement.
Among the groups that shifted strongly away from wanting to see churches involved in politics: Americans who are less educated, those who believe gay marriage is a very important issue and those who think the two major parties are unfriendly to religion.
"To my mind, that spells frustration," said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center. "But by the same token, we know these very same people are not interested in less religiosity in the political discourse. They almost universally want a religious person as president.
"It's not that they want to take religion out of politics, it's that their frustrations with the way things seem to be going are leading them to say, 'Well, maybe churches should back off on this.'"
The survey confirmed that white non-Hispanic Catholics, who make up about 18 percent of the electorate, are shaping up to be a big swing vote this fall: 45 percent support McCain, while 44 percent back Obama. Democrat John Kerry, a Catholic, was doing better at this juncture in 2004, winning 50 percent of those Catholics.
Asked which candidate "shares my values," 47 percent of all respondents replied Obama and 39 percent said McCain. White evangelicals favor McCain on that question, the religiously nonaffiliated leaned Obama, while white non-Hispanic Catholics and mainline Protestants were split.
Democrats have made inroads in closing the so-called God gap, at least by one measure: 38 percent of respondents said the party is "friendly toward religion," up from 26 percent two years ago. Even so, considerably more people ? 52 percent ? viewed the Republican Party as religion-friendly.
___
On the Net: http://pewresearch.org/
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080821/ap_on_el_pr/rel_religion_politics_poll
Someone needs to tell that to Rev Jesse Jackson, Rev Al Sharpton, Rev Wright, Father Pfleger...
5730
3DHS / Re: McCain's Housing Problem Just Got Fixed
« on: August 21, 2008, 09:12:05 PM »
Not only is Obama toast on this subject for a host of reasons --- he's burnt toast! ha ha ha I think he just shot himself in the foot...
McCain family owns 8 properties
By: Kenneth P. Vogel
August 21, 2008 07:27 PM EST
John McCain's family owns at least eight properties — not the seven Democrats are alleging or the four McCain's staff identified — according to a Politico analysis of property and tax records, as well as interviews.
The presumptive Republican nominee, though, may have some wiggle room in explaining why he couldn't immediately provide an answer when asked by Politico how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own. Sen. McCain himself does not own any of the properties. They're all owned by Cindy McCain, her dependent children and the trusts and companies they control.
Brian Rogers, a McCain spokesman, did not question Politico's analysis, but said his boss's bungling of the how-many-homes question is a nonissue.
"Voters care a lot more about candidates' personal ethics than about how many houses or residences or doghouses that John and Cindy McCain own," he said. He questioned efforts by McCain's Democratic rival, Barack Obama, to exploit the issue, given that Obama benefited from a 2005 land deal with the wife of convicted Chicago businessman — and former Obama fundraiser — Tony Rezko that expanded the Obama family's newly purchased $1.65 million homestead.
"The reality is that Barack Obama purchased his million-dollar mansion in a shady deal involving a convicted felon, and it raises questions about his ethics and judgment," said Rogers.
Politico's analysis of the McCain records found that five of the eight properties were purchased between the summer of 2004 and this February, for a total of $11 million. And the analysis found that the McCains hired additional household help in 2007.
The five new properties are all condominiums, and they include three in Phoenix — one of which became the couple's primary Phoenix residence after a Cindy McCain family trust in 2006 sold for $3.2 million the house in which they raised their children — and a pair outside San Diego.
The new properties joined three previously owned by Cindy McCain, her dependent children and their trusts: a scenic ranch outside Sedona, Ariz., where John McCain has entertained staff, prospective running mates and political reporters; a three-bedroom Arlington, Va., condo that's been John McCain's Washington-area residence since 1993; a La Jolla, Calif. condo that is home to Cindy McCain's elderly aunt and on which the trust recently paid nearly $7,000 in back taxes.
The condo that serves as the McCain's primary Phoenix residence was purchased in 2006 for $4.7 million by Cindy McCain's trust. It is a 6,600-square foot unit.
Less than one year after the McCains acquired it, a corporation controlled by Cindy McCain bought another condo on a lower floor in the same building for $830,000.
And, in between, the corporation plunked down $700,000 for a 1,900-square-foot, three-bedroom loft condo for their then-22-year-old daughter, Meghan, who was moving back to Phoenix after graduating from New York's Columbia University. The unit is now listed for sale at $730,000.
Cindy McCain, through another family corporation, spent about $4.7 million in 2004 and 2008 on two condos in an exclusive building in Coronado, Calif., an affluent San Diego suburb noted for its high percentage of military retirees.
In an interview with Cindy McCain in the June issue of Vogue magazine, conducted from the newer Coronado condo, she explained that her husband, a Navy veteran, initially wasn't keen on the idea of a pied-à-terre in Coronado.
"When I bought the first one, my husband, who is not a beach person, said, 'Oh this is such a waste of money; the kids will never go,'" she said in Vogue. "Then it got to the point where they used it so much I couldn't get in the place. So I bought another one."
A McCain campaign aide who did not want to be identified discussing the McCain's personal finances, told Politico this summer that — other than the primary Phoenix residence — the new condos were "purchased for investment and are available for personal use by the McCain family."
The McCains increased their budget for household employees from $184,000 in 2006 to $273,000 in 2007, according to John McCain's tax returns.
The additional cash supports an "increase in the number of employees," the McCain aide told Politico. The aide did not answer a question about whether the growing staff stemmed from addition of new properties to the family's real estate portfolio.
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=E6FEBDAC-18FE-70B2-A8C7B82668CDF377
McCain family owns 8 properties
By: Kenneth P. Vogel
August 21, 2008 07:27 PM EST
John McCain's family owns at least eight properties — not the seven Democrats are alleging or the four McCain's staff identified — according to a Politico analysis of property and tax records, as well as interviews.
The presumptive Republican nominee, though, may have some wiggle room in explaining why he couldn't immediately provide an answer when asked by Politico how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own. Sen. McCain himself does not own any of the properties. They're all owned by Cindy McCain, her dependent children and the trusts and companies they control.
Brian Rogers, a McCain spokesman, did not question Politico's analysis, but said his boss's bungling of the how-many-homes question is a nonissue.
"Voters care a lot more about candidates' personal ethics than about how many houses or residences or doghouses that John and Cindy McCain own," he said. He questioned efforts by McCain's Democratic rival, Barack Obama, to exploit the issue, given that Obama benefited from a 2005 land deal with the wife of convicted Chicago businessman — and former Obama fundraiser — Tony Rezko that expanded the Obama family's newly purchased $1.65 million homestead.
"The reality is that Barack Obama purchased his million-dollar mansion in a shady deal involving a convicted felon, and it raises questions about his ethics and judgment," said Rogers.
Politico's analysis of the McCain records found that five of the eight properties were purchased between the summer of 2004 and this February, for a total of $11 million. And the analysis found that the McCains hired additional household help in 2007.
The five new properties are all condominiums, and they include three in Phoenix — one of which became the couple's primary Phoenix residence after a Cindy McCain family trust in 2006 sold for $3.2 million the house in which they raised their children — and a pair outside San Diego.
The new properties joined three previously owned by Cindy McCain, her dependent children and their trusts: a scenic ranch outside Sedona, Ariz., where John McCain has entertained staff, prospective running mates and political reporters; a three-bedroom Arlington, Va., condo that's been John McCain's Washington-area residence since 1993; a La Jolla, Calif. condo that is home to Cindy McCain's elderly aunt and on which the trust recently paid nearly $7,000 in back taxes.
The condo that serves as the McCain's primary Phoenix residence was purchased in 2006 for $4.7 million by Cindy McCain's trust. It is a 6,600-square foot unit.
Less than one year after the McCains acquired it, a corporation controlled by Cindy McCain bought another condo on a lower floor in the same building for $830,000.
And, in between, the corporation plunked down $700,000 for a 1,900-square-foot, three-bedroom loft condo for their then-22-year-old daughter, Meghan, who was moving back to Phoenix after graduating from New York's Columbia University. The unit is now listed for sale at $730,000.
Cindy McCain, through another family corporation, spent about $4.7 million in 2004 and 2008 on two condos in an exclusive building in Coronado, Calif., an affluent San Diego suburb noted for its high percentage of military retirees.
In an interview with Cindy McCain in the June issue of Vogue magazine, conducted from the newer Coronado condo, she explained that her husband, a Navy veteran, initially wasn't keen on the idea of a pied-à-terre in Coronado.
"When I bought the first one, my husband, who is not a beach person, said, 'Oh this is such a waste of money; the kids will never go,'" she said in Vogue. "Then it got to the point where they used it so much I couldn't get in the place. So I bought another one."
A McCain campaign aide who did not want to be identified discussing the McCain's personal finances, told Politico this summer that — other than the primary Phoenix residence — the new condos were "purchased for investment and are available for personal use by the McCain family."
The McCains increased their budget for household employees from $184,000 in 2006 to $273,000 in 2007, according to John McCain's tax returns.
The additional cash supports an "increase in the number of employees," the McCain aide told Politico. The aide did not answer a question about whether the growing staff stemmed from addition of new properties to the family's real estate portfolio.
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=E6FEBDAC-18FE-70B2-A8C7B82668CDF377