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McCain hopes for fresh look at Afghan policy By Steve Holland McCain won re-election to his Arizona Senate seat by a large margin, ensuring he will retain have a strong voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee as its ranking Republican member. In an interview, McCain told Reuters he was looking forward to a December review the Obama administration is preparing to give an update on the U.S. troop increase Obama ordered a year ago to try to repulse a strengthened Taliban. McCain, who is expected to visit Afghanistan soon, said he would like to see a change in Obama's decision to begin withdrawing some U.S. troops from Afghanistan next August. "I can only speak for myself, but this date for withdrawal that the president announced without any military advice or counsel has caused us enormous problems in our operations in Afghanistan, because our enemies are encouraged and our friends are confused over there," he said. McCain, who lost the presidential election to Obama in 2008, defeated a conservative challenger to his Senate re-election this year by embracing Tea Party principles. "I hope that the president would get the message that the American people do not approve of his administration and its policies over the last two years and that we need to work out these problems and get our country moving again," McCain said. He also said he hopes the new Congress will focus on cutting government spending and banning individual spending projects, known as "earmarks", that do not go through the regular appropriations process. "I think the message of the Tea Party in this election is they want us to stop the spending and prohibit earmarks and repeal and replace Obamacare," McCain said, referring to Obama's healthcare overhaul.  Congressman-Elect David Schweikert on What He Plans to Do in DCCongressman-Elect David Schweikert (R) CD-5 was a guest last night on the Fox 10 - 9:00pm Newscast:
  Thank you to everyone who poured their time, treasure, and heart into Jesse's campaign. At this time, there are tens of thousands of ballots still to be counted so the race is too close to call. We have been consistently closing the gap since election night. You can check the current vote count at this link. HELP! There are a few hundred provisional ballots from people who did not have proper ID at the polls. If you know any Kelly supporters who voted one of these Conditional Provisional ballots, please MAKE SURE they go to their county recorder's office as soon as possible and show proper ID. This is the only thing we can do at this time to change the vote count. Here is the contact information for the county recorders in CD 8. Cochise Recorder: (520) 432-8354 Pima Recorder: (520) 740-4330 Pinal Recorder: (520) 866-6830 Santa Cruz Recorder: (520) 375-7990 Signs: If you have any remaining small or medium yard signs, please drop them off at the campaign office at 698 E. Wetmore, Suite 440. If you can help with the large road signs, please contact Joe Boogaart at jd.boogaart@gmail.com or (520) 229-7719. Thank you for your support. Paid for By Jesse Kelly for Congress  GOP Voters Like Three Candidates Best for 2012 - Rasmussen Reports™ GOP Voters Like Three Candidates Best for 2012 Thursday, November 04, 2010 OK, the election’s over, and the message from most voters was that they didn’t care much for President Obama’s agenda. Now the focus is on the race for the presidency in 2012. On the Republican side, it’s a dead heat between the ex-governors – Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Sarah Palin of Alaska, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely GOP Primary voters.Asked who they would vote for if the Republican presidential primary were held today, 20% say Romney, 19% Huckabee and another 19% Palin. (To see survey question wording, click here.) Romney and Palin are tied among male GOP voters, while Huckabee has a slight edge among female voters. In October 2009 when Likely Republican primary voters were given a choice of five potential presidential nominees, Huckabee led with 29% support, followed by Romney with 24% of the vote and Palin at 18%. Rounding out the list of seven candidates chosen by Rasmussen Reports for the question, with their levels of support, are former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (13%), Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (6%), Texas Congressman Ron Paul (5%) and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels (3%). Seven percent (7%) prefer some other candidate, and eight percent (8%) are undecided. (Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook. The survey of 1,000 Likely Republican Primary Voters was conducted on October November 1, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.  Republicans pick Pearce to lead Senate by Alia Beard Rau - The Arizona Republic Nov. 4, 2010 Illegal immigration hard-liner Russell Pearce of Mesa will be the next Senate president after Arizona House and Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats elected new leaders Wednesday in closed-door meetings. House Democrats are expected to meet today to do the same. The GOP's Kirk Adams, also of Mesa, will serve another term as speaker of the House Scott Bundgaard of Peoria will be Senate majority leader and Steve Pierce of Prescott will be Senate majority whip, responsible for lining up votes on bills of importance to the GOP caucus. Andy Tobin of Paulden will be House majority leader, and Debbie Lesko of Peoria will be House majority whip. CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE  THIS TIME, TRIANGULATION'S NOT AN OPTION By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN Printer-Friendly Version Now that President Obama has experienced the same baptism of fire as President Bill Clinton did in the 1994 midterm elections, the obvious question is: Will he move to the center in a bid to save his presidency and win re-election? The move worked well for Clinton: He sought to combine the best aspects of each party's program in a third approach that became known as triangulation. But Obama won't follow suit because he can't, even if he wants to. Today's issues are different from those that separated the parties in 1994 and don't lend themselves to common ground. Obama's programs have been so far-reaching and fundamental that any compromise would leave the nation far to the left of where it's always been and wants to be. When he took office, government (federal, state and local combined) controlled 35 percent of the US economy -- 15th among the two-dozen advanced countries. Now, it controls 44.7 percent, ranking us 7th, ahead of Germany and Britain. So where's the compromise -- leave government in control of, say, 40 percent? Add the overriding need for sharp deficit reduction, to bring down the debt before it strangles our economy. Republicans are pushing to begin this by rolling back spending to pre-Obama levels. The alternative would be to raise taxes to pay the bills run up by the Democratic Congress that the voters just repudiated. Yet even partly covering that tab would lock in a government that big -- hoarding capital, pouncing on all available credit and taking away such a major portion of national income -- would be anathema to our free-enterprise system. Yet a zero tax-hike policy will require budget cuts that Obama and the left will find unacceptable. Even with some tax hikes, the slashes in social spending needed to start reducing the debt will also preclude a search for middle ground. What triangulation is possible on health care? The fundamental building block of Obama's program is the individual mandate to buy insurance. Absent that, all that's left is a consumer-protection bill that limits insurance-company practices. Yet the mandate can't be scaled back but still preserved: It's either in place or it isn't. There's no middle ground. On "cap and trade," the other major pillar of Obama's secular temple, either we tax carbon, or we don't. The left will deride any program without coercion or tax increases (even though the evidence suggests that voluntary measures are bringing down our carbon emissions nicely). Again, faced with a choice between a tax and no tax, there's no middle ground. We can easily see how far Obama has moved off the center of gravity of the American people by measuring his losses in the House. If Republicans stick to their principles and pass their programs in the House, they'll set forth an agenda that the nation can follow. If they compromise to suit Obama's big-government objectives, they'll muddy the waters, antagonize their energetic base and provide no clear alternative to his socialism. It's time for bold, clear contrasts. It's not 1994.  More About the Hate Mosque By HJS
More About the Hate Mosque HJS Comments: Another report of Islamist intolerance against non-believers. Many of us were taught from the beginning that God loves us all, not that God only loves the members of our religion and the rest is fair game. In fact, one of our prayers includes the words, “And pray for our enemies that sooner rather than later they may have a change of heart.” I have to say that with a continuing record of this type of intolerance practiced throughout the world, no phony assurances from any fast-talking spokesman for this ideology can convince us that the Hate mosque near Ground Zero is anything but an arrogant symbol of Pakistani Muslim Tortures, Accuses Christian Who Refused Slavery Sources said neither Fayaz Masih nor his family had taken any loans from Ghuman, and that they had no obligations to work off any debt for Ghuman as bonded laborers. 10/29/2010 Pakistan ( Fayaz Masih is in jail with burns on his body after No. 115 Chitraan Wala village head Zafar Iqbal Ghuman and other villagers punished Masih for refusing to work as a slave in his fields, said the Rev. Yaqub Masih, a Pentecostal evangelist. The village is located in Nankana Sahib district, Punjab Province. Sources said neither Fayaz Masih nor his family had taken any loans from Ghuman, and that they had no obligations to work off any debt for Ghuman as bonded laborers. Yaqub Masih said the young man’s refusal to work in Ghuman’s fields infuriated the Muslim, who was accustomed to forcing Christians into slavery. He said Ghuman considered Masih’s refusal an act of disobedience by a “choohra,” the pejorative word for Christians in Pakistan. On Oct. 3 Ghuman and 11 of his men abducted Masih from his home at gun-point and brought him to Ghuman’s farmhouse, according to Yaqub Masih and Yousaf Gill, both of nearby village No. 118 Chour Muslim. Gill is a former councilor of Union Council No. 30, and Yaqub Masih is an ordained pastor waiting for his denomination to assign him a church. Fayaz Masih’s family members told Yaqub Masih that Ghuman was carrying a pistol, and that the 11 other men were brandishing rifles or carrying clubs, axes and bamboo sticks. They began beating Masih as they carried him away, calling him a choohra, Yaqub Masih said. Gill said that Ghuman’s farmhands tied Fayaz Masih’s hands and legs and asked him once more if he would work in Ghuman’s fields. When he again refused, Gill said, Ghuman summoned four barbers; three ran away, but he forced one, Muhammad Pervaiz, to shave Masih’s head, eyebrows, half of his mustache and half of his beard. After they had rubbed charcoal on Masih’s face, Ghuman then announced that Masih had had relations with Masih’s 18-year-old niece, Sumeera, and called for everyone in the village to punish him. He and his men placed Masih on a frail, one-eyed donkey, Yaqub Masih and Gill said, and a mob of Muslim men and children surrounded him – beating tins, dancing and singing door-to-door while shouting anti-Christian slogans, yelling obscenities at him and other Christians, and encouraging villagers to beat him with their shoes and fill his mouth with human waste, Yaqub Masih said. Some threw kerosene on Masih and alternately set him on fire and extinguished the flames, Gill said. He added that Muslims made a garland of old shoes from a pile of garbage and put it around Masih’s neck. Yaqub Masih said the abuse became unbearable for the young man, and he collapsed and fell off the donkey. Police Ignore CourtMasih’s sister, Seema Bibi, told Compass that the accusation that Masih had had sex with her daughter Sumeera was utterly false. She said Ghuman made the allegation only to vent his fury at Masih for refusing to work for him. Seema Bibi said that Ghuman told her daughter at gun-point to testify against Masih in court on Oct. 4. Sumeera surprised the Muslim land owner, however, saying under oath that Masih was innocent and that Ghuman had tried to force her to testify against her uncle. A judge ruled that Sumeera had not had illicit relations with Masih, and that therefore she was free to go home. Her mother told Compass, however, that since then Ghuman has been issuing daily death threats to her family. After Masih collapsed from the abuse, Yaqub Masih and Gill called local police. Police did not arrive until three hours later, at 3:30 p.m., they said, led by Deputy Superintendent of Police Shoiab Ahmed Kamboh and Inspector Muhammad Yaqub. “They rebuked the Muslim villagers that they could have killed this Christian youth, and they told them to give him a bath at once and change his clothes, in order to reduce the evidence against them,” Gill said. Family members of Masih said Kamboh and Inspector Yaqub arrested some of the leading figures within the mob, but soon thereafter they received a call to release every Muslim. “Instead of taking the Muslim men into custody, they detained my brother, and he was taken to the police station,” Seema Bibi said. On Oct. 4 police sent Masih to District Headquarters Hospital Nankana Sahib for examination, where Dr. Naseer Ahmed directed Dr. Muhammad Shakeel to mention in the medical report how severely Ghuman and his farmhands had beaten him, Gill said. He said the medical report also stated that Masih had sustained burns and that his head, mustache, eyebrows and beard were shaved. In spite of the court ruling that Masih had not had sex with his niece, police were coerced into registering a false charge of adultery under Article 376 of the Islamic statutes of the Pakistan Penal Code, First Information Report No. 361/10, at the Sangla Hill police station. At press time Masih remained in Shiekhupura District Jail, said Gill. Gill also has received death threats from Ghuman, he said. The 11 men who along with Ghuman abducted Masih and brought him to Ghuman’s farmhouse, according to Masih’s family, were Mehdi Hussain Shah and Maqsood Shah, armed with rifles; Muhammad Amin, Rana Saeed, Muhammad Osama and four others unidentified, all of them brandishing clubs; Muhammad Waqas, with an axe; and Ali Raza, bearing a bamboo stick and a club.  Dem Hindenburg By Chuck Asay  NET RIGHT NATION Must Reads for November 4, 2010 To view in your web browser, click here. The left is in disarray after Tuesday's elections Boehner promises to repeal ObamaCare… George Will: A recoil against liberalism It's not just the economy, stupid Obama: The "Anti-Stimulant" Statehouse elections set the course of the nation for years to come It's not 1994 again… Fed to print $600 billion to pay the debt… Union leaders refocus after elections setback GOP's K Street wing ready for insurgent challenge Voters checked America into spending rehab In 2012, could Dean beat Obama? It's time for the GOP to deliver The more things change… Read more at NetRightDaily.com.  Former radio host's query: How do you ask for a kidney? By Laurie Roberts - The Arizona Republic November 03, 2010 It begins each morning with a series of checklists. There are clamps to be maneuvered - red, green, yellow, blue and white. There are tubes to be primed and pressures to be set - arterial and venous. And there are needles to be carefully, carefully placed. If all goes well, Bob Mohan gets to live another day. "All right, let's rock and roll," he says, as they finish the final checks and his wife, Lynda, prepares to open a line and let his blood flow out. If you've been around Arizona for long, you likely know Mo. For more than 16 years, he hosted a talk-radio show on KFYI-AM (550), blistering the airwaves with fiery broadsides and his signature, "Blow out the phones," before leaving in 2002. Now the man with the golden tongue finds himself almost at a loss for words at a time when he most needs them. Mohan has polycystic kidney disease, a genetic disorder that causes your kidneys to fail. Usually it happens in your 30s or 40s. For Mohan, 73, it is happening now. Earlier this year, he noticed signs his kidneys were failing, but he put off dialysis. By June, Mohan had a choice. It was the machine or die. Mohan seriously considered Option No. 2. He's an independent sort, used to going where he wants, when he wants. The idea of being chained to a machine was inconceivable. But his wife of 47 years convinced him that you never give up on life, not when you are otherwise healthy, not when you have grandchildren to see into college and beyond. And so he began dialysis, five days a week, three hours a day. He and Lynda underwent training to learn how to clean his blood at home. The routine is not for the squeamish and it has taken its toll, physically and emotionally. "Try to imagine sitting here with me right now and knowing that tomorrow I'll be doing the same thing and the next day I'm going to have to do the same thing and the day after that," he says. "I think a lot of the joy of life is anticipating things, and my anticipation quotient has been reduced because I have this over my head all the time." Mohan is on the list for a kidney transplant, but he's not holding his breath. Last year, 114 Arizonans donated one or more organs upon their deaths, according to Kris Patterson of the Donor Network of Arizona. Meanwhile, 1,462 Arizonans are waiting for a kidney. So Mohan has decided to go looking for one, not only for him but for others who like him aren't lucky enough to have a family member who can donate. The problem: Where do you look? And how do you ask? "How do you go and say, 'Can I have your kidney?'" he says. "I've looked at friends and I say, 'I need a kidney.' . . . It's amazing how your popularity kind of droops down a little bit." Mohan, whose blood is Type O, says it's one of the hardest things he's ever had to do but the alternative is to remain tethered to a machine that is both prolonging his life and diminishing it. So he is forcing himself to do what in the past came so easily: to talk, to ask, to spread the word about the impact one person can have on another's life, by giving up something that they don't need. Lynn Closway, a spokeswoman for the Mayo Clinic's Transplant Center where Mohan is a patient, says friends, co-workers and strangers have donated kidneys. Half of Mayo's 163 kidney transplants this year have been from living donors, and half of those were from non-relatives. Last year, a Phoenix taxi driver made international news when he offered his kidney to a woman he drove to dialysis three times a week. Unfortunately, medical issues disqualified him. Closway says Mayo does extensive testing to ensure that a person who is a blood and tissue match is physically and emotionally able to donate. For information, call Mayo's Transplant Center at 480-342-0904. Know that people like Mohan are waiting. "I don't want to die yet," he says. "I've got things I want to do. I want to live. I want to go places, do things. I want to see my grandkids go to college and graduate. I want to go trout fishing. I'm teaching my grandson how to tie flies so that we can go fishing. There are great places in Montana I'd like to take him. "I just hope there's somebody out there." Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8635.  More Recent Articles |
