Presidential Race ctd 1

1. Yasser Arafat endorses Kerry: "The president [Arafat] is frustrated with Bush's policies," he said. "The president [Arafat] thinks Kerry will be much better for the Palestinian cause and for the establishment of a Palestinian state." (worldnetdaily)
2. Arafat's last best hope (powerlineblog)
3. An army brat's case against John Kerry, part 1: What John Kerry and his political backstabbers did in the early ‘70s took no courage. It simply took a ringleader with access to Teddy Kennedy and the willingness to sacrifice truth and honor. More than any other person, that ringleader, Kerry, was responsible for the atmosphere of hatred and disdain you all came home to. (powerlineblog)
4. An army brat's case against John Kerry, part 2: (powerlineblog)
5. Ashley's story: Bush comforts daughter of 9/11 victim: (www.ashleysstory.com)
6. John Edwards' unusual interest in own hair: "For a guy who's been known derisively to the Bush crowd as the Breck girl," observes Shearer, vice presidential candidate John Edwards seems "way too interested in his hair." He tries to straighten it with his fingers. A makeup technician approaches with a comb, but the senator likes it just so and does the combing himself. He signals he's ready for hair spray by closing his eyes expectantly, like a child. Then Edwards and the technician straighten a little more with their fingers. Please don't tell me that thing in his hand is a compact. Oh, dear. It is. (slate)
7. Bush's stealth Democrat supporters (brendan miniter, wsj)
8. October surprise: African-Americans for Bush: Biblically, good black religious leaders are forced to balance the demands of personal morality (righteousness) and justice (social action). Republicans are historically weak on justice, while the Democrats tend to encourage freedom of the individual without strong moral mandates. (Harry R. Jackson Jr. washingtontimes)
9. Evangelicals redeem the vote: President Bush's re-election campaign is getting a boost from powerful Christian groups, which are enlisting entertainers such as actor Jim Caviezel of "The Passion of the Christ" to cajole millions of evangelicals into voting. (sammons, washingtontimes)
10. War of Words: Tommy Franks admonishes John Kerry (nyt)
11. Kerry Off the Leash: So nobody could imagine how incompetent, crude and over-the-top Kerry has been in this final phase of the campaign. At this point, smart candidates are launching attacks that play up the doubts voters already have about their opponents. Incredibly, Kerry is launching attacks that play up doubts voters have about him. Over the past few days, he has underscored the feeling that he will say or do anything to further his career. (David Brooks, NYT)
12. The Lincoln Of Our Age (freedomstruth.blogspot)
13. Democrats prefer exploiting voter fraud: The Democrats believe that illegal immigrants, non-citizens, citizens who lack enough interest in politics to register, and even convicted felons ineligible to vote are likely to be in their column. So on Election Day the cry goes out from the local Democrat HQ: ''Round up the usual suspects -- and drive them to the voting booth.''
    Hence, whenever any attempt to expose or halt voter fraud is attempted, someone like Maria Cardona of the Democratic National Committee will step forward to claim that ''ballot security and preventing voter fraud are just code words for voter intimidation and suppression.'' A civil rights leader will throw in a reference to Jim Crow. A spokesman for La Raza will add that asking for evidence of citizenship discriminates against Hispanic citizens. And a federal judge will rule that any disputed votes should be counted first and maybe examined later. (John O'Sullivan, Chicago SunTimes)
14. Russ Smith on Kerry candidacy (nypress.com)
15. Why I cannot vote for John Kerry: But there are many other reasons for what can fairly be described as a hatred bordering on the hysterical: President Bush claims to make his decisions based on the values informed by his Christian faith; he is a Texas -- read "cowboy" -- Republican; he has no regard for the gods of the Left -- in particular the news media and academia; and most important, he believes the United States is morally superior to the United Nations and therefore fully justified in acting alone at times. (Dennis Prager, Townhall)
16. Kerry's misguided approach to the Americas: In 1985 John Kerry, just a few months into his first Senate term, accompanied fellow Vietnam era radical Senator Tom Harkin on an unauthorized free-lance “fact-finding” mission to Nicaragua where they both met with communist strongman Daniel Ortega. The two “negotiated” with Ortega and returned to the US with a fanciful “peace” proposal co-authored with Ortega.
    Kerry’s effort to disarm the Contras was ridiculed by many of his fellow senators, but the House of Representatives shortly thereafter gave Kerry his wish and voted against aid to the Contras.
    A week after the vote Daniel Ortega figuratively slapped Kerry and the US House in the face when he flew to Moscow and received $200 million in Soviet military and other assistance. An embarrassed American Congress quickly reversed itself and approved Reagan’s request for Contra funding. Part of Kerry’s problem seemed to be a reflexive affinity for communist groups; the other was his obsession with Vietnam. (Paul Crespo, Townhall)

Other

• Seven freed Guantanamo prisoners resume terrorism (outsidethebeltway)
• Campaign literature mistakenly sent home with third graders (montana's news station)
• Who pays the taxes: Finally, the data show that the rich are not only paying tax rates as high as they were during the Clinton administration, eve after large tax cuts in 2001 and 2002, but they are doing so even as their incomes have fallen. The aggregate income of the top 1 percent was down 26 percent between 2000 and 2002. In 2000, the income threshold for getting into the top 1 percent was $313,469. By 2002, that figure had fallen to $285,424, reflecting the slow economy and weak stock market. (Bruce Bartlett, Townhall)