http://www.wikio.com/search=Paul Harris Wikio - Paul Harris http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=63145677 This shit is bananas and I love it. Thanks to EQ reader JD for sharing this fantastic little gem with us called "Baditute" by Spoon, Harris & Obernik. The track has been getting some great Radio One airplay in the... Sat, 05 Jul 2008 22:46:13 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=63145677 2008-07-05T22:46:13Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=62978628 Two of the league's elite point guards, Gilbert Arenas of the Washington Wizards and Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets, will be staying... Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:56:00 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=62978628 2008-07-04T04:56:00Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=62938504 Earlier this week, Paul Harris asked me if I'd like to join him for the 10 o'clock hour Monday morning on KMBZ, our news-talk station. He said he'd be filling in for Darla Jaye, the madwoman of mid-mornings. Well, turns... Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:42:39 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=62938504 2008-07-03T20:42:39Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=62836988 Rotary Club of Trinity celebrated its 10th anniversary by welcoming Tim Sherrell as its new president and by naming its Rotarian of the Year and two Paul Harris fellowship winners. Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=62836988 2008-07-03T04:00:00Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=62762255 George Carlin's been dead more than a week, but I'm still thinking about the fact that we have this ridiculous indecency rule that some weeks it seems like is the FCC's only justification for its continued existence. Well, Paul Harris... Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:07:44 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=62762255 2008-07-02T16:07:44Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=62708209 SCOTS dance producer Calvin Harris applied for a writing job with the NME after getting fed up with their coverage of him. Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:00:00 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=62708209 2008-07-01T23:00:00Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=62674210 America's War Against Europe Is All About The PetroDollar. That's One Reason The U.S. Invaded Iraq, and Will Be One Of The Reasons The U.S. Will Attack Iran. America’s War Against Europe By PAUL HARRIS Courtesy Of The North Star Compass There are many reasons for George Bush’s single-minded drive towards Baghdad. In other articles I have written, I hinted that a not so obvious reason for the drive against Iraq is Bush’s war against Europe. In fact I feel that is the primary reason for the Iraqophobia. Whenever a nation decides to go to war, there are plans made for who is going to win and who s going to lose; no one goes to war expecting to lose, but it isn’t always the obvious target of the aggression that is the real thrust behind the war. Sometimes, it isn’t a case of what you expect to win from a war, but rather a case of what you hope someone else loses; and it doesn’t have to be your stated enemy who you hope will sustain the losses. In this case, Bush’s hoped-for victim is the European economy. It is now robust, and is likely to become much stronger in the easily foreseeable future. Britain’s entry into the European Union is inevitable; Scandinavia will join sooner rather than later. Already, even without these countries, there will be ten new member nations in May of 2004, which will swell the GDP of the EU to about $9.6 trillion with 450 million people as against the $10.5 trillion and 280 million people in the United States. This represents a formidable competing block for the USA, but the situation is significantly more complex than what is revealed just by those numbers, and much of this hinges on the future of Iraq. Many others have written before, as I have, that this upcoming war is about oil. To be sure, there are other reasons, but oil is the single most impelling force. Not in the way you might expect, however. It isn’t so much that there are believed to be huge untapped oil reserves in Iraq, untapped due to only outdated technology due too the trade embargo of the West, it isn’t so much American desire to get their grubby hands on that oil; it is much more a question of whose grubby hands the Americans want to keep it out of. What precipitated all this was not September 11, nor a sudden realization that Saddam was still a nasty guy, nor just the change in the leadership in the United States. What precipitated it was Iraq’s November 6, 2000 switch to the Euro currency as the currency for its oil transactions. At the time of that switch, it might have seemed daft that Iraq was giving up such a lot of oil revenue to make a political statement. But that political statement has been made and the steady depreciation of the Dollar against the Euro since then means that Iraq has derived good profits from switching its reserve and transaction currencies. The Euro has gained about 17 per cent against the dollar since that timer, which also applies to the $10 billion held in Iraq’s United Nations "oil for food" reserve fund. So, the question arises, as it did for George Bush, what happens if OPEC makes a sudden switch to the Euro? In a nutshell, all hell breaks loose. At the end of World War II, an agreement was reached at the Bretton Woods Conference which pegged the value of gold at $35 per ounce and that became the international standard against which currency was measured. But, in 1971 former President Richard Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard and ever since, the dollar has been the most important global monetary instrument, and only the United States can produce them. The dollar, now a flat currency, is at a 16-year trade-weighted high, despite record US current account deficits and the status of the US as the leading debtor nation. The US national debt as of April 4, 2002 was $6,021 trillion, against the GDP of $9 trillion. Trade between nations has become a cycle in which the USA produces dollars while the rest of the world produces things that dollars can buy. Nations no longer trade to capture comparative advantage, but rather to capture needed dollars to service the dollar-dominated foreign debts and to accumulate dollar reserves in order to sustain the exchange value of their domestic currencies. In an effort to prevent speculative and potentially harmful attacks on their currencies, those nations’ central banks must acquire and hold dollar reserves in amounts corresponding to their own currencies in circulation. This created a built-in support for a strong dollar that in turn forces the worlds’ central banks to acquire and hold even more dollar reserves, thus making the dollar stronger still. This phenomenon is known as "dollar hegemony", which is created by the geopolitically constructed peculiarity that critical commodities, most notable oil is denominated in dollars. Everyone accepts dollars because dollars can buy oil. The reality is that the strength of the dollar since 1956 rests on being the international reserve currency for global oil transactions (i.e. petro-dollar). The US prints hundreds of billions of these flat petro-dollars, which are then used by nation states to purchase oil and energy from OPEC producers (except presently Iraq and, to some extent Venezuela). These petro-dollars are then recycled from OPEC back into the US via Treasury Bills or other dollar-dominated assets such as US stocks, real estate etc. The recycling of the petro-dollars is the price the US has extracted since 1974 from oil-producing countries for US tolerance of the oil-exporting cartel. Dollar reserves must be invested in US assets that produced a capital-accounts surplus for the US economy. Despite the poor market performance during 2002, US stock evaluation is still at a 25-year high and trading at a 56 per cent premium compared with emerging markets. The US capital-account surplus finances the US trade deficit. Since it is the USA that prints the petro-dollars, they control the flow of oil. Period! When oil is dominated in dollars through the US state action and the dollar is the only flat currency for trading in oil, an argument can be made that the US essentially owns the world’s oil for free. So what happens if OPEC as a group decided to follow Iraq’ lead and suddenly begins trading oil on the Euro standard? Economic meltdown happens! Oil-consuming nations would have to flush dollars out of their central bank reserves and replace them with the Euros. The dollar would crash in value and consequences would be those one could expect from any currency collapse and massive inflation (think of Argentina for an easy example). Foreign funds would stream out of the US stock markets and dollar dominated assets; there would be a run on the banks much like the 1930’s; the current account deficit would go into default; and so on. And that’s just in the United States. Japan would be particularly hard hit because of its total dependence on foreign oil and incredible sensitivity to the US dollar. If Japan’s economy tumbles, so does that of many countries, especially the United States in a crescendo of dominos. There are some good reasons for the OPEC group to follow Iraq and begin to value its oil in Euros. There seems little doubt that they would relish the opportunity to make a political statement after years of having to kowtow to the USA, but there are solid economic reasons as well. The mighty US dollar has reigned supreme in the world since 1945, and in the last few years has gained even more ground with the economic dominance of United States. By the late 1990’s, more than four-fifths of all foreign exchange transactions, and half of all world exports were dominated by dollars. In addition, the US currency accounts for about two thirds of all official exchange reserves. The world’s dependency on US dollars to pay for trade has seen countries, which are bound to the dollar reserves, which are disproportionately higher than America’s share of global output. It is important to note that the Euro is not at any disadvantage versus the dollar, when one compares the relative sizes of the economies involved, especially given the ongoing EU enlargement plans. Moreover, the EU has a bigger share of global trade than the US, and while the US has a huge current account deficit, the EU has a more balanced external accounts position. One of the more compelling arguments for keeping oil pricing and payments in dollars has been that the US remains a large importer of oil, despite being a substantial producer itself. But the EU is an even larger importer of oil and petroleum products than the US itself, and represents for OPEC a more attractive market, closer and less domineering. The point of Bush’s war against Iraq, therefore, is to secure control of those oil fields and revert their valuation to dollars, then to increase production exponentially, forcing prices to drop. Finally, the point of Bush’s war is to threaten significant action against any of the oil producers who would switch to the Euro. In the long run, then, it is not really Saddam who is the target. It is the Euro and, therefore Europe (first of all Russia – Editor). There is no way that the United States will sit idly by and let those upstart Europeans take charge of their own fate and destiny, let alone of the world’s finances. Of course, all of this depends on Bush’s insane plan not becoming the trigger for a Third World War, as it so readily might! NOTE: The Following Video Was Not Part Of The Above Article, But Was Independently Included By Me. Related Information At: 1. TheDossier 2. BUSH'S DEEP REASONS FOR WAR ON IRAQ: OIL, PETRODOLLARS, AND THE OPEC EURO QUESTION 3. IT'S NOT ABOUT OIL OR IRAQ: IT'S ABOUT THE U.S. AND EUROPE GOING HEAD-TO-HEAD ON WORLD ECONOMIC DOMINANCE 4. The Real Reasons for the Upcoming War with Iraq: A Macroeconomic and Geostrategic Analysis of the Unspoken Truth Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:20:00 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=62674210 2008-07-01T18:20:00Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=62629166 Neil McKenzie and Paul Harris both struck fifties as South Africa's opening tour game with Somerset ended in a draw. Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:48:24 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=62629166 2008-06-30T18:48:24Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=62565691 The disappointing form of spinner Paul Harris was the only down factor for South Africa after they dominated the second day of the tour match with Somerset at Taunton. Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:05:00 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=62565691 2008-06-30T17:05:00Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=62133621 Harris County tax and law enforcement officials warned consumers Thursday to do their homework before doing business with mechanics or auto title service firms, saying they have seen an upswing in fraudulent title transactions in recent months. Fri, 27 Jun 2008 05:30:00 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=62133621 2008-06-27T05:30:00Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=61967507 Filed under: Late Night , TV Royalty , Programming , Celebrities , Talk Show , Reality-Free Here's who's on the late night shows tonight. Charlie Rose: Emmylou Harris The Daily Show: TBA The Colbert Report: Paul Goldberger and Neil DeGrasse Tyson The Late Show with David Letterman: Abigail Breslin, Barry Sonnenfeld, and Tift Merritt Jay Leno: Dana Carvey, Spencer Breslin, and Priscilla Ahn (repeat) Jimmy Kimmel Live: Mike Myers, Paul Pierce, and The All For Nots Tavis Smiley: Evan Handler and Representative Joe Baca Late Night with Conan O'Brien: John Krasinski, Bode Miller, and Cobra Starship (repeat) The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson: Sigourney Weaver, Stanley Bing, and Three 6 Mafia Last Call with Carson Daly: Lonny Ross and Flobots (repeat) Permalink | Email this | | Comments Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:02:00 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=61967507 2008-06-25T22:02:00Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=61963263 TORONTO, ONTARIO (MARKET WIRE) Harris Computer Systems ("Harris"), a subsidiary of Constellation Software Inc. (TSX: CSU) is proud to announce that Saint Paul Regional Water Services (SPRWS) has selected Advanced Utility Systems' CIS Infinity to replace its legacy customer information and billing (CIS) solution. Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:00:00 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=61963263 2008-06-25T21:00:00Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=61936572 The American director Paul Sills was a pioneer of improvisational theatre whose influence has spread far beyond his own country. Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:31:38 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=61936572 2008-06-25T17:31:38Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=61892040 As we continue the on going “camp battles” series we will find that the starting offensive tackles will have their work cut out for them this year as they will be given the task of protecting JaMarcus Russell. Both tackle positions are up in the air as the warhorse Barry Sims has moved over to [...] Wed, 25 Jun 2008 07:08:57 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=61892040 2008-06-25T07:08:57Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=61586522 The real McCain To his fans he's a lovable patriot with a maverick streak. But to his critics he's an anti-abortion Creationist who surrounds himself with religious extremists. Paul Harris uncovers the dark side of John McCain It is a vintage John McCain performance. Standing in a light-filled atrium at the University of Denver, McCain is espousing his vision for America's future relations with the world. He hits all the right notes, citing liberal icon John F Kennedy and conservative hero Ronald Reagan. He strikes a muscular tone against America's enemies, yet tempers it with restraint. He speaks of a 'common vision' among nations. 'I want us to rise to the challenges of our time, as generations before us rose to theirs,' he says. He addresses the audience as 'my friends' and promises a safer, more reasonable world. 'It still remains within our power to make in our time another, better world than we inherited,' he concludes. As the crowd applaud, McCain plunges into the throng to pump hands and sign autographs. Welcome to the John McCain show 2008. It's powerful stuff, portraying McCain as the decent patriot of the middle ground and a steady hand for difficult times. For a lot of Americans - including many Democrats - it is a beguiling vision. They see a war hero whose courage was forged in a North Vietnamese POW camp. They see a maverick who spoke against the tortures of Abu Ghraib. They see a reformer who acts against lobbyists and political favours. They see a politician who has spent a lifetime serving his country and won a place in the hearts of the nation. Now McCain is also trying to win the White House. He has taken his campaign to places far from the projected Republican road map to victory. He has spoken in the 'black belt' of rural Alabama. He has toured Appalachian coal country to talk about poverty. He has gone to the hippy enclave of Oregon to lecture on global warming. In short, he is a Republican that even liberals can love. And many do. McCain's appeal to America's vital middle ground could easily propel him to the Oval Office. But there is another, very different side to John McCain. Away from the headlines and the stirring speeches, a less familiar figure lurks. It is a McCain who plans to fight on in Iraq for years to come and who might launch military action against Iran. This is the McCain whose campaign and career has been riddled with lobbyists and special interests. It is a McCain who has sided with religious and political extremists who believe Islam is evil and gays are immoral. It is a McCain who wants to appoint extreme conservatives to the Supreme Court and see abortion banned. This McCain has a notoriously volatile temper that has scared some senior members of his own party. If McCain becomes the most powerful man in the world it would be wise to know what lies behind his public mask, to look at the dark side of John McCain. John McCain is an American hero in an age of war and terrorism. As young Americans return in bodybags from Iraq and Iranian mullahs cook up uranium, an old soldier like McCain seems a natural choice in a dangerous world. He is the son and grandson of warriors. Both his father and grandfather were four-star admirals. He was even born on a military base, on 29 August 1936, in Panama. And his life story reads like a movie script. The young, rascally McCain, nicknamed 'McNasty' by his classmates, attended the elite West Point military academy. He became a navy pilot, long before Tom Cruise made 'Top Guns' famous, and began his first combat duty in Vietnam in 1966, carrying out countless missions. Then came disaster. He was shot down and held prisoner for five years by brutal North Vietnamese captors. In his stiff gait and damaged arms, he still bears the scars of their tortures. His CV for the White House is written in his suffering as much as in his career as a senator. That military legacy has made John McCain a legend. But it has not turned him into a peacemaker, at a time when most Americans desperately want the war to end. Anyone hoping for a new president who will quickly bring America's troops home from Iraq had better look elsewhere. McCain has always supported the invasion of Iraq and he wants to support it until at least 2013, or perhaps for many years beyond. He believes withdrawal would be a surrender to terrorists. That warlike spirit was on full display in Denver when McCain's speech was interrupted repeatedly by anti-war protesters. They stood up, unfurling banners and shouting for a withdrawal from Iraq. When it happened a third time, McCain had had enough. In a voice suddenly filled with steely resolve, McCain broke from his carefully scripted speech and gripped the lectern. He looked out at the audience and spoke slowly. 'I will never surrender in Iraq,' he rasped. 'Our American troops will come home with victory and with honour.' The crowd cheered and chanted: 'John McCain! John McCain!' It was a perfect moment for unrepentant supporters of the Iraq invasion and a McCain who still smarts from defeat in Vietnam. No retreat. No surrender. This time America will win. McCain believes in projecting American military power abroad. So it is no wonder that the neoconservatives who pushed for war in Iraq have now regrouped around him. McCain's main foreign policy adviser is Randy Scheunemann, who was executive director of the shadowy Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. Other leading neocons on board include John Bolton, America's belligerent former UN ambassador, Bill Kristol, editor of the Neocon bible the Weekly Standard, and Max Boot, who has pushed for a US version of the old British Colonial Office. Another close McCain adviser is former CIA director James Woolsey, who has openly advocated bombing Syria. Such a group of warlike counsellors has raised fears that McCain may strike Iran to stop its suspected quest for a nuclear weapon, triggering a fresh war in the Middle East. The Republican candidate has openly joked about bombing Tehran. It was just over a year ago, in the tiny borough of Murrells Inlet in South Carolina, and McCain faced a small crowd in one of his characteristic town hall meetings. As McCain stood on the stage, one man asked him about the 'real problem' in the Middle East. 'When are we going to send an airmail message to Tehran?' the man pleaded. McCain laughed and - to the tune of the Beach Boys' classic 'Barbara Ann' - began to sing: 'Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran.' But some think McCain's joke may well become policy. 'I think a McCain presidency would be very likely to strike Iran,' says Cliff Schecter, author of a new book, The Real McCain McCain is still most at home with soldiers. Earlier this year I watched him on the stump in Charleston, South Carolina. He chose to speak at the Citadel, an elite military college, where old tanks and retired rockets dotted the lawns and squads of young recruits jogged around its quads. At the small rally McCain was relaxed and at home and the crowd loved him: here was their war hero made flesh. Here was a man unafraid to strike first. John McCain's second bid for the presidency has been a long time coming. After being beaten by Bush in 2000, the Senator from Arizona has returned to the fray more determined than ever. And central to his success has been his media strategy. Three years ago I followed McCain to a fund-raising dinner in Hartford, Connecticut, a wealthy city of insurers and bankers. McCain spoke at a private club downtown, giving an early version of his stump speech and already being introduced as the next president of the United States. He gave an impromptu press conference, bantering gamely with reporters. When that was done, aides tried to drag him away, but McCain raced across the room and sought out a local reporter to clarify an answer he had given. The journalist, unused to such personal attention from a potential president, looked like a spellbound deer in the headlights as McCain spoke to him for a further 10 minutes. The fact is, McCain loves journalists and they love him back. That is how the myth of the moderate maverick - the most powerful tool in his political armoury - has come to be. Nothing has changed since that moment in Hartford. McCain's campaign bus - dubbed the Straight Talk Express, just as it was in 2000 - is filled with journalists who travel at the back with McCain, relaxing on a U-shaped couch. McCain recently hosted a barbecue for journalists at his Arizona ranch. As TV anchors and newspaper reporters sipped beer and cocktails under a desert sun, McCain stood at the grill and literally served up their daily nourishment. He is someone you could have a beer with, in stark contrast to Barack Obama, who keeps his press entourage firmly at arm's length. Yet McCain's riskier strategy has worked like a dream. Reporters often overlook McCain's errors and flaps - especially in national security - clinging instead to the narrative of an unconventional patriot. 'The media love him, especially his war record. He is the GI Joe doll they played with as kids,' says Professor Shawn Bowler, a political scientist at the University of California at Riverside. There is also a little-reported back-up plan for reporters who do not toe the line: sheer aggression. A recent Washington Post piece on a land deal by one of McCain's allies prompted a brutal response from the McCain campaign. Without disproving facts, they labelled the story 'shameful' and a 'smear job'. When Newsweek ran a story on the Obama camp's perception of McCain's weak spots, McCain's team struck again. This time the story was 'offensive' and 'scurrilous'. The campaign is willing to strike out abroad, recently persuading one European newspaper editor to scrap a review of Schecter's book. For the fact is, McCain's benevolent public image is no accident. It has been carefully crafted and is forcefully policed. 'This has gone on for years. This is an image he has worked very hard to maintain,' says Professor Seth Masket of the University of Denver. John McCain has not always had his own way. His current reformist image was born from a career-threatening scandal that almost saw his political ambitions strangled at birth. It was 1987, and John McCain was a promising newcomer in the Republican party, still finding his feet in a world very different from his military life. Charlie Keating, a wealthy businessman, was a long-time friend and financial contributor to McCain's campaigns. When Keating was caught up in the disastrous collapse of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, he turned to his political friends, asking them to talk to federal regulators. McCain, along with four others, made the mistake of doing just that. When a massive government bailout of Lincoln followed, so too did public outrage. It almost destroyed McCain's career. Yet the Keating Five scandal also gave birth to a new John McCain: the reformer. In an astonishing transformation he now became the arch-champion of campaign finance reform. Yet much of the dark side of John McCain lies behind the closed doors of K Street, a Washington DC boulevard lined with glitzy buildings and home to the capital's booming lobbyist industry. A close examination of McCain's campaign workers, political allies and backers reveals a dense world of dubious loyalties, uber-lobbyists and powerful corporate interests. McCain is very much at home with K Street's sharp-suited denizens, their wealthy clients and their art of influence-peddling. Take one of McCain's closest aides and senior counsel, Charlie Black. For decades he worked as one of the most powerful lobbyists in Washington DC. His firm represented some of the most unpleasant dictators in modern history, among them the Philippines' Ferdinand Marcos and Zaire's kleptomaniac president Joseph Mobutu. Then there's Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, the man leading the effort to capture the White House. Davis, too, has been a top lobbyist. His firm's clients ranged from Ukrainian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov to telecoms giants such as Comsat and Verizon. But Black and Davis are far from alone. McCain's staff was so riddled with lobbyists that at least four have resigned because of their contacts and businesses. They included Doug Goodyear, McCain's convention chairman, whose company was paid to improve the image of Burma's brutal dictatorship. The make-up of McCain's team has set alarm bells ringing among Washington's campaign watchdogs. 'We need to know who is advising the candidates and why,' says Josh Israel, a lobbyist investigator at the Centre for Public Integrity (CPI). 'Rather than advising them based on what is good for the candidate or the country, are they instead looking for their other interests?' McCain's campaign has even had to bring in special rules to cut down on the number of lobbyists on his team. Nor is it just campaign workers who have extensive links to the lobbying industry. McCain's financial backers do, too. A recent survey of 106 elite fundraisers for McCain revealed that one in six were lobbyists. Watchdog groups such as the CPI believe McCain has a long history of helping people who also happen to be his wealthy backers, including several large landowners in Arizona, Nevada and California who have profited from McCain-linked property deals. 'McCain has a long way to go to line up his reformist image with the actual reality,' Israel says. Sceptics might conclude that McCain's post-Keating career represents a cosmetic makeover, not a true conversion. John McCain is level with Barack Obama in the polls in a year when Democrats should be a certainty. He is even winning in key swing states like Florida. His appeal to America's middle ground remains strong. These are people like self-confessed moderate Keith Gregory, 24, who filed out of the Denver auditorium as a convert. The young student, dressed in a freshly pressed suit and tie, had been deeply impressed by McCain's speech. 'I like him more than before,' Gregory said. 'He talked very sensibly and openly about the issues.' This is McCain's great strength and also one of his greatest myths. Few see McCain as an ideological warrior in America's culture wars. Unlike Bush, he is not a born-again Christian. In McCain's inner circle - unlike Bush's - there are no group prayer meetings. Yet the reality is that McCain is a social conservative who has actively sought out the far right of his party and forged alliances with Christian extremists. Just look at McCain's 'pastor problems'. He has enthusiastically sought the political blessing of some of the most conservative religious figures in the country. McCain gave the 2006 commencement address at Falwell's Liberty University, a college that has taught creationism alongside science. McCain also courted and won the endorsement of Texan preacher John Hagee, despite Hagee blaming Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans's liberal attitude towards gays. Hagee believes the disaster was God's judgement on the sinful city. Another McCain-backer, Ohio preacher Rod Parsley, has spouted hate about Muslims. Parsley, whom McCain called a 'spiritual guide', believes America was founded partly in order to destroy Islam. He has called Mohammed a 'mouthpiece of a conspiracy of spiritual evil' and has supported prosecuting people who commit adultery. Though McCain later repudiated the endorsements of Parsley and Hagee, he did so only after bad headlines threatened his moderate image. Most of Hagee's and Parsley's views were widely known from public speeches or books. It was not their bigotry that caught the campaign out, it was the reporting of it. 'McCain has had links with these religious figures who are just way, way out of the mainstream,' says Cliff Schecter. There are other nasties, too. McCain is friends with G Gordon Liddy, one of the Watergate burglars. Liddy, who once plotted to kill a left-wing journalist, has hosted a fundraiser with McCain in his own home. McCain also endorsed and campaigned for Alabama politician George Wallace Jr in 2005, despite Wallace's links to racist groups. Wallace has praised and spoken at meetings of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white-power group that opposes inter-racial marriage and promotes white racial purity. If a moderate voter were seeking to judge a politician by the company he keeps, then McCain keeps some very odd company indeed. But it is not really that strange. McCain himself holds deeply conservative views, including proposing teaching the creationist idea of Intelligent Design in schools alongside evolution. McCain has also always been anti-abortion. He believes the landmark Roe vs Wade ruling that legalised abortion was a bad decision. McCain has vowed to continue the Bush policy of appointing extreme conservatives to the Supreme Court and many fear a McCain presidency will see Roe vs Wade overturned. 'McCain is neither moderate nor a maverick when it comes to a woman's right to choose. He's just plain wrong,' said Nancy Keenan, president of abortion rights group Naral. On the environment, too, McCain is not the green warrior some might think. He has voted against tightening fuel efficiency standards for American cars. The League of Conservation Voters gives McCain an environmental rating of 24 per cent; Obama gets 86 per cent. 'His rhetoric does not match his voting record on this issue,' says David Sandretti, a director of the League. 'McCain is better than Bush, but that's not much of a yardstick, because the current president is abysmal.' But it is not just McCain's politics that are disturbing. It is his personality, too. For McCain has a secret reputation as a man with a ferocious, unpredictable temper. He is a man who has a knack for pursuing vendettas against those he thinks have slighted him, even if they are lowly aides. The list of worrying incidents is long. In 1995 he ended up almost physically scuffling with aged Senator Strom Thurmond on the Senate floor. And, according to some accounts, in 2006 he had a fight with Arizona congressman Rick Renzi, throwing blows in a scrap whose details have only recently been detailed in Schecter's book. Schecter unearthed another unpleasant incident from 1992 in which McCain, tired after a long day's campaign, reacted badly to his wife Cindy teasing him about his baldness. 'At least I don't plaster on the make-up like a trollop, you cunt,' McCain snapped in front of eyewitnesses. Schecter says he has three sources for the story. McCain's campaign have denied it. Such public outbursts, and many other private ones, have concerned people even in his own party. Former New Hampshire Republican Senator Robert Smith publicly voiced his concerns, once saying McCain's temper ' ... would place this country at risk in international affairs, and the world perhaps in danger'. That sentiment was echoed by Mississippi Republican Senator Thad Cochran, who told a Boston newspaper: 'The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.' Yet McCain is still campaigning successfully as the lovable, maverick patriot. It is a strategy his staff believe will win the White House. So the tricks and stunts keep on coming. A few weeks ago a letter was delivered to Barack Obama's Chicago campaign headquarters. It was from McCain and in gracious language it offered to hold weekly 'town hall' meetings across America where he and Obama would appear side by side. It would be a far cry from the rancorous circus of televised debates. The audience would be neutral independents. The questions would be random. It would summon back a golden age of gentlemanly politics. 'I also suggest we fly together to the first town hall meeting as a symbolically important act embracing the politics of civility,' McCain wrote. Like the Denver speech, it was a vintage McCain ploy: superbly geared to his everyman image of decency. But the true McCain is far different. His dark side is real and Democrats will need to expose it if America is to avoid a third successive term of extreme conservative government. Now Democrat activists are pushing out their argument that McCain is a conservative wolf in a moderate sheep's clothing. They are highlighting the temper, the pro-war ideology and the links to lobbyists. 'We think he just means four more years of Bush,' says Karen Finney, a director at the Democratic National Committee. Finney's job is to convince Americans they have got McCain wrong, that they have been fooled. She and her fellow activists have less than four months to succeed. But for now, as America gears up to one of the most important elections in its history, McCain's dark side remains largely hidden behind closed doors. Original article posted here . Mon, 23 Jun 2008 06:04:00 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=61586522 2008-06-23T06:04:00Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=61544905 To his fans he's a lovable patriot with a maverick streak. But to his critics he's an anti-abortion Creationist who surrounds himself with religious extremists. Paul Harris uncovers the dark side of John McCain. It is a vintage John McCain performance. Standing in a light-filled atrium at the University of Denver, McCain is espousing his vision for America's future relations with the world. He hits all the right notes, citing liberal icon John F Kennedy and conservative hero Ronald Reagan. read more Sun, 22 Jun 2008 16:02:40 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=61544905 2008-06-22T16:02:40Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=61538443 Great article by Paul Harris on US Presidental hopeful John McCain. I love the Observer, but it would be nice if more of the pictures used in the print edition were also in the online article. Sun, 22 Jun 2008 13:05:00 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=61538443 2008-06-22T13:05:00Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=61496890 To his fans he's a lovable patriot with a maverick streak. But to his critics he's an anti-abortion Creationist who surrounds himself with religious extremists. Paul Harris uncovers the dark side of John McCain The Guardian It is a vintage John McCain performance. Standing in a light-filled atrium at the University of Denver, McCain is espousing his vision for America's future relations with the world. He hits all the right notes, citing liberal icon John F Kennedy and conservative hero Ronald Reagan. He strikes a muscular tone against America's enemies, yet tempers it with restraint. He speaks of a 'common vision' among nations. 'I want us to rise to the challenges of our time, as generations before us rose to theirs,' he says. He addresses the audience as 'my friends' and promises a safer, more reasonable world. 'It still remains within our power to make in our time another, better world than we inherited,' he concludes. As the crowd applaud, McCain plunges into the throng to pump hands and sign autographs. Welcome to the John McCain show 2008. It's powerful stuff, portraying McCain as the decent patriot of the middle ground and a steady hand for difficult times. For a lot of Americans - including many Democrats - it is a beguiling vision. They see a war hero whose courage was forged in a North Vietnamese POW camp. They see a maverick who spoke against the tortures of Abu Ghraib. They see a reformer who acts against lobbyists and political favours. They see a politician who has spent a lifetime serving his country and won a place in the hearts of the nation. Now McCain is also trying to win the White House. He has taken his campaign to places far from the projected Republican road map to victory. He has spoken in the 'black belt' of rural Alabama. He has toured Appalachian coal country to talk about poverty. He has gone to the hippy enclave of Oregon to lecture on global warming. In short, he is a Republican that even liberals can love. And many do. McCain's appeal to America's vital middle ground could easily propel him to the Oval Office. But there is another, very different side to John McCain. Away from the headlines and the stirring speeches, a less familiar figure lurks. It is a McCain who plans to fight on in Iraq for years to come and who might launch military action against Iran. This is the McCain whose campaign and career has been riddled with lobbyists and special interests. It is a McCain who has sided with religious and political extremists who believe Islam is evil and gays are immoral. It is a McCain who wants to appoint extreme conservatives to the Supreme Court and see abortion banned. This McCain has a notoriously volatile temper that has scared some senior members of his own party. If McCain becomes the most powerful man in the world it would be wise to know what lies behind his public mask, to look at the dark side of John McCain. (Continued here. ) Sun, 22 Jun 2008 02:55:00 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=61496890 2008-06-22T02:55:00Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=61386306 I recently met with the Wolverhampton Pensioners’ group. We discussed issues from Iraq to local housing. In particular concerns were raised about the cost of living and the difficulties almost all of us now face in making ends meet. Perhaps they should take advice from Transport Minister Tom Harris who has claimed that the credit crunch is [...] Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:16:26 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=61386306 2008-06-20T09:16:26Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=61114522 Ongoing : Climate Crisis 2004 : Mark Townsend and Paul Harris: Now the Pentagon tells Bush--climate change will destroy us Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:00:00 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Paul+Harris?rinfoid=61114522 2008-06-18T19:00:00Z