John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, today accused the Los Angeles Times of withholding a videotape of an event that he asserted was attended by both Barack Obama and 1960s-era radical Bill Ayers. The campaign has repeatedly argued that Obama has not been straight about their relationship.

The videotape, described in an April L.A. Times story, was of a 2003 banquet honoring Rashid Khalidi, a leading Palestinian activist and scholar. At the dinner, Obama spoke of their friendship and how much he had learned from him.

On Tuesday, a McCain spokesman first called on the newspaper to release the videotape, saying it would shed light on the relationship between Obama and Khalidi. Today, McCain repeated the call in an interview with a Cuban radio station, accusing the newspaper of bias and asserting that Ayers was at the event as well—a point that has not been reported anywhere. Palin made the same points from the stump.

The newspaper said it had promised the source who provided the video that it would not publish it.

McCain accused the Times of covering up the information.

see toon above...

A Last Push To Deregulate
White House to Ease Many Rules

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 31, 2008; A01

The White House is working to enact a wide array of federal regulations, many of which would weaken government rules aimed at protecting consumers and the environment, before President Bush leaves office in January.

The new rules would be among the most controversial deregulatory steps of the Bush era and could be difficult for his successor to undo. Some would ease or lift constraints on private industry, including power plants, mines and farms.

Those and other regulations would help clear obstacles to some commercial ocean-fishing activities, ease controls on emissions of pollutants that contribute to global warming, relax drinking-water standards and lift a key restriction on mountaintop coal mining.

Once such rules take effect, they typically can be undone only through a laborious new regulatory proceeding, including lengthy periods of public comment, drafting and mandated reanalysis.

"They want these rules to continue to have an impact long after they leave office," said Matthew Madia, a regulatory expert at OMB Watch, a nonprofit group critical of what it calls the Bush administration's penchant for deregulating in areas where industry wants more freedom. He called the coming deluge "a last-minute assault on the public . . . happening on multiple fronts."

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said: "This administration has taken extraordinary measures to avoid rushing regulations at the end of the term. And yes, we'd prefer our regulations stand for a very long time -- they're well reasoned and are being considered with the best interests of the nation in mind."

Bush: let's trash the place before the new guy takes over... see toon at top...

God bless my successor: Bush

Outgoing US President George W Bush cloistered himself with family and friends as America voted, privately invoking God's blessing on whomever succeeds him, his spokeswoman said.

President Bush hosted a dinner with relatives and close aides, celebrating US First Lady Laura Bush's birthday in a White House dining room with a dinner ending with coconut cake, press secretary Dana Perino said by email.

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Sure, thanks sir...

The new president elect, Obama, will need all the "divine" help he can get to cope with the mess created by the Bushit. Unlike the first lady's birthday at the White house, fixing the problems is not going to be a coconut cake walk...

So, farewell Dubya, an "all our Christmases come at once" gift to the cartoonist. Whether it was as Dumbo, the little Republican elephant crapping on the world from a great height, or as a bow-legged, knuckle-dragging ape, you were a joy to draw. Will I miss you?? Nah! Not a bit, I've drawn you to death and there are new fish to fry.

So much of cartooning comes down to zoomorphism. A reader of this paper once told me how much she enjoyed my cartoons, before dismissing a vast percentage of my oeuvre by adding, "apart from when you draw politicians as animals". She never elaborated, but I suspect she considered my images of poodles, monkeys, dodos and lame ducks to be offensive ? not to our political masters, but to our furred and feathered friends.

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Gus: the world would have been better if we did not have to do what we had to do...

Can We Laugh? Yes, We Can

MORE than an hour into a contentious discussion on Wednesday night at the 92nd Street Y, where panelists like the “Daily Show” co-creator Lizz Winstead, the sitcom star Roseanne Barr and the Fox News commentator Monica Crowley had been debating the outcome of Tuesday’s election and how an Obama administration might address the economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a few restless audience members began adding their voices to the fray.

“This was marketed as part of the New York Comedy Festival,” one dissatisfied attendee declared.

“Obama jokes!” a second person shouted.

In fairness to the first protester, the discussion, titled “We Have a Winner,” was indeed offered as one of the leadoff events of the fifth annual New York Comedy Festival, which runs through Sunday.

If the debate offered relatively few laughs, it also illustrated the tricky and uncertain place at which the festival — not to mention comedy itself — has arrived.

On the one hand, the festival’s organizers hoped that by scheduling the event immediately after the presidential election they could capitalize on an energized audience eager to see current events played for laughs.

“There’s a very uplifting mood about this,” said Caroline Hirsch, the founder of the comedy club Carolines on Broadway, which produces the festival. “This is such a special, special election, and you can’t wait to see what they’re going to say about it.”

In that spirit, this year’s festival features not only comedians known for topical humor (writers from “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” and “Late Night With Conan O’Brien”) but also performers who have recently discovered their political voices (like Sarah Silverman, the star of the pro-Obama viral video “The Great Schlep”) and comics (like Tracy Morgan) already known for their unabashed observations on race.

But the shifting political landscape is also a perilous one to make fun of, and many questions remain unsettled, even for those who are paid to do the mockery. What’s funny, and what’s fair game, about a President Barack Obama? Is it too soon to start ridiculing his achievement? Can blacks make fun of him? Can whites?

read more at the NYT and see unpaid satirical toons here...

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