News politics 2008-07-12 Andanh.com

Obama dismisses conservative criticism Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:04 EDT
Democrat Barack Obama batted away conservative criticism Friday over a comment he made about Americans' lack of foreign language skills.

"The Republicans jumped on this. I said, absolutely immigrants need to learn English, but we also need to learn foreign languages," the likely Democratic nominee said as the 1,000-plus crowd in a school gymnasium cheered. It's a position he long has held.

"This is an example of some of the problems we get into when somebody attacks you for saying the truth, which is: We should want our children with more knowledge. We should want our children to have more skills. There's nothing wrong with that. That's a good thing. I know, because I don't speak a foreign language. It's embarrassing," Obama said chuckling as his audience did the same.

At issue was a remark the Illinois senator made Tuesday in Powder Springs, Ga., that drew laughter from the crowd - but disdain from conservatives and groups advocating English as the official U.S. language. His remark has caused buzz on the Internet and talk radio.

The Americans for Legal Immigration PAC said in a statement, "Barack Obama has stepped on a political land mine by stating Americans should be forced to learn to speak Spanish." But that's not what Obama said.

McCain plans to reveal more about his fundraising Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:19 EDT
Republican John McCain's presidential campaign plans to enhance its Web site with more data about its fundraising, including more details about the individuals who collect money from donors and about donors living overseas.

Eager to appear more forthcoming than Democrat Barack Obama, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis notified leaders of several campaign finance watchdog groups Friday that McCain will begin identifying top fundraisers not only by name and location but by employer and occupation.

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said the additional data and an updated list of McCain fundraisers will be available on the campaign Web site next week and will be updated monthly

The campaign did not agree to every request sought by watchdog organizations. In a June 25 letter to the campaigns, eight groups that track money in politics asked the candidates to identify the specific amount of money raised by individual fundraisers. The campaigns only report dollar thresholds that the fundraisers have met or exceeded.

"Listing a 'single dollar figure' of the amount raised by each fundraiser as you request cannot be done in the midst of the campaign because it is changing on an individual basis almost daily that is why we use broader categories," Davis wrote. "However, we will continue to use our best efforts to update the fundraising categories on a monthly basis."

Today on the presidential campaign trail Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:09 EDT
IN THE HEADLINES

McCain says he's better than Obama for women, especially those in small business ... Obama stands by remarks about country needing to be multilingual ... McCain ad in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico praises Hispanic GIs, notes many aren't yet citizens ... German govt. says Obama visit being worked out, quiet on possible Brandenburg Gate speech

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Like Obama, McCain devotes a day to women voters

HUDSON, Wis. (AP) - Republican John McCain told a mostly female audience Friday that his plans to cut income, business and estate taxes would help women while Democrat Barack Obama's proposals would only erect new economic obstacles for them.

Adwatch: New McCain ad praises Hispanic servicemen Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:09 EDT
TITLE: "God's Children"

LENGTH: 60 seconds

AIRING: Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico

SCRIPT: McCain, addressing immigration at a Republican primary debate on June 5, 2007, in New Hampshire: "My friends, I want you the next time you're down in Washington, D.C., to go to the Vietnam War Memorial and look at the names engraved in black granite. You'll find a whole lot of Hispanic names.

"When you go to Iraq or Afghanistan today, you're going to see a whole lot of people who are of Hispanic background. You're even going to meet some of the few thousand that are still green card holders who are not even citizens of this country, who love this country so much that they're willing to risk their lives in its service in order to accelerate their path to citizenship and enjoy the bountiful, blessed nation.

Analysis: Help candidates can do without Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:09 EDT
Former Republican Sen. Phil Gramm isn't the first friend to give a presidential candidate heartburn. And based on recent history, another one will be along before John McCain or Barack Obama know it.

"You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession," Gramm, a leading supporter of McCain, said recently, a less-than- sympathetic description of an election-year economy that features rising joblessness, a spike in mortgage foreclosures and a declining stock market.

"We have sort of become a nation of whiners," he added - not all that helpfully in the opinion of the man he is trying to help win the White House.

"I strongly disagree," McCain told reporters in Michigan, a state with an unemployment rate of 8.5 percent in May. "Phil Gramm does not speak for me. I speak for me."

McCain's the one discomforted this time.

Fellow ex-POW eager to back McCain against Obama Fri, 11 Jul 2008 18:09 EDT
In the decades since they shared a prison cell in North Vietnam, George "Bud" Day has remained a close friend of Republican John McCain and emerged as a staunch opponent of Democrats seeking the presidency.

As he did in 2004, when he took the lead in questioning Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's Vietnam War record, Day is eager this fall to do whatever he can to retain the White House for the Republicans - especially this Republican.

"I just want everyone to understand the difference between a board-certified physician and a student in medical school, because that is the difference," Day said, comparing McCain with Democratic rival Barack Obama. "Who would want a student in medical school operating on them?"

Day, 83, a former Air Force colonel who earned the Medal of Honor and dozens of other honors for his service during World War II, Korea and Vietnam, was held in a Hanoi prison for six years, off and on in the same cell as McCain.

"I know him extremely well, better than his wife," Day joked in a telephone interview.

Like Obama, McCain devotes a day to women voters Fri, 11 Jul 2008 18:39 EDT
Republican John McCain told a mostly female audience Friday that his plans to cut income, business and estate taxes would help women while Democrat Barack Obama's proposals would only erect new economic obstacles for them.

A day after Obama devoted a day of campaigning to women's issues, McCain did the same.

He told several hundred women in western Wisconsin that his tax cut plans would be particularly helpful to women because so many of them own or work for small businesses.

"Yesterday in New York, Senator Obama went on at great length about how much he cares about women's issues," McCain said at a town-hall forum in Hudson, where women vastly outnumbered men. "I believe him. But when you cut through all the smooth rhetoric, Senator Obama's policies would make it harder for women to start new businesses, harder for women to create or find new jobs, harder for women to manage the family budget, and harder for women and their families to meet their tax burden."

Obama's campaign disputed the claims and noted that McCain opposed a Senate measure to lengthen the time that workers have to file pay discrimination lawsuits, a priority for some women's groups.

Obama passes on potential NASCAR sponsorship Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:14 EDT
NASCAR's BAM Racing team has presented Barack Obama's presidential campaign with a potential sponsorship deal in the Sprint Cup series later this year, but it doesn't look like an Obama car will be burning rubber on the track anytime soon.

BAM team spokesman Rhett Vandiver told The Associated Press on Friday that the team made a sponsorship proposal to the Democratic presidential hopeful's campaign, and has made similar proposals to the campaign of Republican John McCain and at least one third-party candidate.

Late Friday, the Obama campaign said there would be no sponsorship.

"The Obama campaign will not be sponsoring a car in the Sprint Cup series, though we will continue to look for ways to reach out to voters and convey Senator Obama's message of change." said Bill Burton, an Obama campaign spokesman

Sports Illustrated first reported the proposal on its Web site, saying Obama's campaign is in talks with BAM, a part-time operation that hasn't raced in recent weeks, to sponsor its No. 49 car in the Aug. 3 race at Pocono.

Budget cuts reversed for rural medical program Fri, 11 Jul 2008 18:22 EDT

The Kentucky Homeplace program, which helps rural residents get prescription drugs and other medical supplies, won't be ending its services in some counties after all.

The Dept. of Public Health, which provides the program's $1.9 million budget, is no longer cutting 4 percent or $80,000 from the program, as had been announced.

However, the restoration doesn't mean the program will be able to offer the same services as last year, said Fran Feltner, director of the lay health worker division at the University of Kentucky, which runs the program.

In Fulton, Hickman and Jackson counties, the offices will be open 75 percent of the time. In Warren County, the program will operate one to two days a week. Feltner hopes to .piece together ways. of covering offices in the northeast region.

Chinese Dir