Pew On Public perception Of The Candidates

A survey released this month by the independent Pew Research Center found that most voters described Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, as “a centrist whose views are fairly close to their own,” even though McCain describes himself as a thoroughgoing conservative. The same voters described Obama as the most liberal of the candidates still in the race, well to the left of what they saw as the midpoint of American politics.

And Obama ranked below both McCain and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, his rival for the Democratic nomination, on the question of whether the candidate was “tough enough” to protect the nation’s security.

Obama has “handicaps and potential problems, race being one of them, [but] it’s not the only one,” Pew Center President Andrew Kohut said. “He is perceived as a liberal. He is perceived by many voters as not well grounded on foreign policy and not tough enough . . . and he has a potential problem, distinct from race, of being seen as an elitist, an intellectual.?

DKK
LA Times
Via Patterico

Terrorist Chavez -- Evidence Mounts

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez allegedly tried to arm Colombian rebels with help from Belarus, the El Pais newspaper reported Saturday, citing documents from the computer of a slain rebel leader.

The Spanish daily quoted a February 8 e-mail from Ivan Marquez, leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), saying Chavez had considered with Belarussian authorities the possibility of providing weapons to FARC.

The e-mail was alleged to have been found in the seized computer of FARC second-in-command Raul Reyes, who was killed in March, El Pais said.

The partially coded message mentioned someone identified only as "friend of Belarus," who El Pais identified as Victor Sheiman, secretary of the Belarus Security Council and a close associate of Alexander Lukashenko, the hardline president of the former Soviet republic.

El Pais added that other possible arms sources for FARC, particularly ground-to-air missiles, were mentioned in computer messages, including contacts with "Australian traffickers".

The left-of-centre newspaper reported last December that Venezuela had become a safe haven for FARC, harbouring several rebel camps on its territory. Venezuela has denied this.

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Gateway Pundit -- Chavez Tried to Arm FARC with Help From Belarus

College PC -- But I Thought They Were Institutes of Learning

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis student Keith John Sampson was charged with "racial harassment" simply because he was "caught" reading an anti-Ku Klux Klan book. I'm not kidding.

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American Thinker -- Read a Book, Get Charged with Racial Harassment

Key Al Qaeda Member Killed In Afghanistan.

KABUL (Reuters) - A prominent member of al Qaeda was killed in fighting with U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, the group said in a statement posted on an Islamist website on Sunday.

Abu Suleiman al-Otaibi, formerly one of the group's leaders in Iraq, was killed in a "fierce battle with the worshipers of the cross" in Paktia, it said without giving the date of the battle.

DKK

Reuters

Candidate of Failed Change

This weekend on Bulls and Bears on Fox News Channel Dr. Mark Lamont Hill was a panelist and demonstrated the complete lack of understanding of economics many liberals have. His solutions were the same models that have been tried here and worldwide and have proven disastrous, particularly for the lower income individuals.

Here are a couple of his comments:

• Oil profits are extreme -- companies with higher profit margins such as Google and Yahoo have even more extreme profits.
• These extreme profits from the oil companies -- and by extension Google, Yahoo, and all others in that category (not sure where the cut off is here) -- should be taken and used to provide relief for the poor.
• Food should be rationed in order to keep the price low for the poor.
  

Unfortunately these are the same policies that Obama has stated he would implement and they policies show a fundamental misunderstanding of how markets and the economy work.

Policies like this make Obama the candidate of the 1970's rather then the 21st century, and McCain should point this out each and every day.
DKK

Israel Sending Aid to Burma

(IsraelNN.com) Israel is sending aid teams to devasted Myanmar (formerly Burma) on Wednesday, where the death toll from a cyclone that battered the Southeast Asian nation over the weekend is said to be between 23,000-50,000.

The Foreign Ministry sent teams from the IDF's highly trained search-and-rescue team as well as a 10-member team of top Israeli doctors and nurses. The Jewish State also dispatched badly needed supplies, including plastic sheeting, food, household appliances and water filters.

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Israel National News

Burma Death Toll Could Top 1 Million -- Aid Trickles In -- Junta Still Holding UP Aid

Aid trickles into Burma, but toll 'could reach 1 million if disease set in'

Times UK

A trickle of aid shipments arrived in Myanmar on Sunday, more than a week after a massive cyclone smashed the country, but officials continued to bar major shipments to the storm's hard-hit survivors.

The junta is refusing to grant entry to foreign aid workers, who relief officials say are crucial to preventing more deaths from disease among an estimated 1.5 million victims of the May 3 storm.

International Herald Tribune