OBAMA SAYS HE WASN'T PLAYING RACE CARD: HIS CHIEF STRATEGIST SAYS HE WAS

Amazing inconsistency from Planet Obama. On the same day even. At least one person among the Obamabots has the balls to tell the truth.

Background:

Senator John McCain’s campaign accused Senator Barack Obama on Thursday of playing “the race card,” citing his remarks that Republicans would try to scare voters by pointing out that he “doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.”

Here's Obama early in the day yesterday:

In an interview with the St. Pete Times and Bay News 9 for Political Connections, Barack Obama brushed off the charge from the John McCain campaign that he was injecting race into the campaign.

"I was in union, Missouri which is 98 percent white - a rural, conservative. and what I said was what I think everybody knows, which is that I don't look like I came out of central casting when it comes to presidential candidates. But that I think that what people are really concerned about, what they're looking for is fundamental change on the economy, things that are going to help their families live out the American dream.

'There was nobody there who thought at all that I was trying to inject race in this. What this has become I think is a typical pattern from the McCain campaign, whether it's Paris Hilton or Britney or this phoney allegation that I wouldn't visit troops. They seem to be focused on a negative campaign what I think our campaign wants to do is focus on the issues that matter to American families."

Here's Obama's Chief Strategist saying it was all about race.

Sen. Barack Obama's chief strategist conceded that the Democratic presidential candidate was referring to his race when he said Republicans were trying to scare voters by suggesting Obama "doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills."

A key strategist for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., says the candidate's reference to faces on the dollar bill was indeed an acknowledgement of race and its role in the presidential campaign.

The comment had triggered a charge Thursday from Sen. John McCain's campaign manager that Obama had "played the race card... from the bottom of the deck."

Obama's camp initially denied the remark was a reference to Obama's race.

His entire staff is pathological.

ISLAMIC RAT PEOPLE FORCED TO BEG ON THE STREETS OF PAKISTAN

The Big Feed provides the best coverage of Islamic rat people on the internet.

Background:

The legend goes like this: when infertile women came to a local shrine and asked that they be blessed with children, the wish might be granted. However, the first child will be a ‘chua’, or what is referred to by residents as a ‘rat person’ due to the skinny face, sloping forehead and protruding teeth. This firstborn must be given to the shrine or else the woman will only produce chuas.

And this is how the religion of peace treats the rat people:

Outside a Muslim shrine in this dusty Pakistani city, a "rat woman" with a tiny head sits on a filthy mattress and takes money from worshippers who cling to an ancient fertility rite.

Nadia, 25, is one of hundreds of young microcephalics -- people born with small skulls and protruding noses and ears because of a genetic mutation -- who can be found on the streets of Gujrat, in central Punjab province.

Officials say many of them have been sold off by their families to begging mafias, who exploit a tradition that the "rat children" are sacred offerings to Shah Daula, the shrine's 17th century Sufi saint.

"These are God's children. We are proud to look after her," said Ijaz Hussain, the shrine's government-employed custodian, as Nadia shrieked unintelligibly and put coins in a battered wooden box at her side.

Hussain said Nadia was just a young child when she was dumped at the shrine 20 years ago in the dead of the night. Her parents were never traced, he says.

"Since that day we have taken care of her, she is like family to us. People come here for prayers and seek fulfilment of their desires but they are respectful towards her," added Hussain, 56.

Pakistan's government says it has tried to crack down on exploitation of the "chuhas" (Urdu for rats) and says it plans to set up a shelter in Gujrat to rehabilitate them.

The shrine stopped officially accepting microcephalics in the 1960s when the government took over the site.

But not only does it still keep Nadia at its gate, the town's beggar masters also keep the superstition alive.

"Get lost! I don't want to talk to you," shouted a bearded beggar master in Gujrat's main bus station, grabbing a microcephalic woman by the hand and leading her through the crowds when asked to comment on his actions.

Bus passengers gave the woman money, as many believe it is bad luck not to.

Another microcephalic man stood with his handler in the wilting afternoon heat, staring into space.

The high incidence of microcephalics in Gujrat, an industrial city of around one million people, has long been a bone of contention.

The popular belief among many Pakistanis -- that cruel beggar gangs clamp the children's heads in infancy -- is strongly denied by government and advocacy groups, who say there is no evidence to support this.

"The myth of the chuhas has been exploited by beggar mafias and religious groups," said Nasiruddaula, a former science professor in his 70s.

"They roam the villages and if the real chuha is born they give them some money and they take them," he said.

"But what kind of saint would really curse issueless women with the 'blessing' of deformed children?"

"Some of these children, the handicapped ones especially, are accompanied by relatives," he told AFP. "But begging gangs also look for poor parents who will sell them because they are a burden to feed and shelter."

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS McCAIN AD

The One...

THE MONTAUK MONSTER

A monster? Or Teddy Kennedy on a Friday night?

CHINA HIT BY THIRD BUS BOMB IN A WEEK

Fight the Han:

Chinese media are playing down reports of a third bus blast in southwestern Kunming tonight – exactly a week after two explosions killed two people in the city.

A witness said he heard a loud blast shortly before 9pm local time and saw police and ambulance staff gathered around a damaged vehicle only 200 metres from the scene of one of the previous incidents.

In a video obtained by an terrorism watchdog this weekend, the little-known Turkestan Islamic Party -- thought by some analysts to be another name for the East Turkestan Islamic Movement -- claimed responsibility for last week's explosions and several other incidents.

They included a bus blast in Shanghai in May, in which three people died and 12 were injured. It was blamed on a passenger carrying "flammable materials".

ATTACK MAY HAVE KILLED AL-ZAWAHIRI

Breaking news:

An online report says U.S. government sources are trying to confirm that an airstrike in northwestern Pakistan has killed al-Qaida's deputy leader, Ayman Zawahiri.

According to the subscription report at Stratfor, the airstrike was on July 28, and sources were reporting that an announcement from the U.S. government is expected soon.

The report said the attack was carried out by a U.S. Predator attack plane.

According to the blog Jawa Report, officials had said earlier "the hunt was on" in Pakistan for a "big fish."

UPDATE: From Fox News:

Al Qaeda’s second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, may be injured or even dead, according to a CBS News report based on an intercepted letter that urgently requests a doctor to treat Zawahiri.

CBS News says it obtained a copy of the letter from sources in Pakistan, where Zawahiri, second only to Usama bin Laden, is thought to be hiding.

The letter, reportedly written by a local Taliban leader and dated Tuesday, says Zawahiri is in "severe pain" and his "injuries are infected," according to the report.

A missile strike Monday in Pakistan’s tribal areas reportedly killed Al Qaeda operative Abu Khabab al-Masri, considered a "Top Ten" target as the terrorist organization’s top expert on chemical and biological weapons.

That strike also killed five others, though it isn’t clear whether Zawahiri was at the scene or in the area.

OBAMA FLIP FLOPS ON OFF SHORE DRILLING

Pull his string and he'll do a little dance. Obama damn near breaks his neck reversing position on off shore drilling:

This was Obama on June 20, 2008:

At a stop in Jacksonville today, Sen. Barack Obama plans to tell reporters that he continues to support the federal ban on off-shore drilling. His Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, said this week he would like to lift the ban and let states decide whether to drill.

“And when I am President, I will keep the moratorium in place and prevent oil companies from drilling off Florida’s coasts,” Obama says. “That’s how we can protect our coasts and still make the investments that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and bring down gas prices for good.”

And this is Obama today:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Friday he would be willing to support limited additional offshore oil drilling if that's what it takes to enact a comprehensive policy to foster fuel-efficient autos and develop alternate energy sources.

"My interest is in making sure we've got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices," Obama said in an interview with The Palm Beach Post.

"If, in order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage — I don't want to be so rigid that we can't get something done."

That's all code for..."Damn!...The polls favor off shore drilling 75% to 25%!?!?".

Let's not give any politician credit for what will soon be the reality of off shore drilling. The American people deserve all the credit for this one.