By Cisco Cotto

November 4th is still along time down the road, but if John McCain is measuring for drapes in the Oval Office at that time we will all be able to look at his pick of Sarah Palin as the day he sealed the deal.

For months hard-core conservitives have talked with me on the radio or via email and they have been conflicted.  McCain is sometimes with us, but other times against us.  At points it seems as though he is intenionally spitting in our collective eye.  We certainly don't want Obama, but is McCain all that much better?  While Obama has been able to harnass energy among his core and even some from new voters, the McCain campaign was looking as sleepy as Bob Dole's.  People actively engaged in GOP politics just weren't feeling it.  Then Sarah Palin walked on stage with McCain in Dayton.

Immediately my email box was jammed and my cell phone started ringing.  Conservatives were cheering.  Some had tears in their eyes just hours after mocking the Obama loyalists for doing the same thing.  With the pick of Sarah Palin, John McCain has energized his base in a way that he could not have done with any other candidate.  Romney?  Pawlenty?  Huckabee?  Meg Whitman?  Only Palin with her history and life experience could have generated this much excitement from the conservative base. 

It's as though Karl Rove sat down with pen and paper and sketched out the perfect conservative nominee....

• A hunter with a lifetime membership in the NRA.
• Regularly attends church.
• Fought corruption even within her own party.
• Knew her son would have Down Syndrome and still chose life.
• Has a son who is headed to Iraq, but still supports the war.
• Has more executive experience than Obama and Biden combined.
• Sold the governor's state plane because it's a waste of tax dollars.
• Her husband is a union laborer.
• Wants to drill in ANWR.
• Oh yeah, she's a woman!

The more I think about her pick the more I realize she may have been the only person in the whole country who could give John McCain a solid chance to win. 

John and his new friend, Biff from the Letterman Show.

Can you believe they let Cisco speak to the crowd?

John is celebrating his Democratic side.

That's Lisa Madigan and Mayor Daley, though it's not clear if it's his or Mike Madigan's hand around the Dem fan's shoulder.

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TV at the DNC

(source: Foundingbloggers.com)

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By Cisco Cotto

Barack Obama’s brother George lives on less than a dollar a month? I realize the price of arugula is going up, but couldn’t our prospective “wealth re-distributor in-chief” throw his baby brother a couple of bucks? For the price of one of his Hyde Park lattes Obama could quadruple what his brother scrapes by on now.

Think of the contrast in lifestyle. Obama shops at Whole Foods. George burrows for food in alleys. Obama lives in a million dollar mansion. George lives in a 3x3 shanty made of wood scraps and corrugated metal. Obama has a gate to protect his family. George has scars from fights in his Kenyan neighborhood where people are routinely hacked to death with machetes.

But enough about disparity, the real story here is the hypocrisy. Obama’s insistence on the campaign trail that wealthy Americans have to do more to support the poor rings a little hollow now, doesn’t it?

During a campaign stop in Pittsburgh back in March, Obama plainly said he didn’t mind paying more to support the poor. He has said the same thing several times and at Rick Warren’s Saddleback forum he said any family making more than $250,000 is rich and the rich are going to pay more in an Obama administration. But if he feels so strongly that the “rich” (whatever your definition of that is) should offer aid to the poor why isn’t he supporting George?

This sheds light on Obama’s view that the government forcibly taking your money to give it to someone else is virtuous. But isn’t true virtue deciding on your own to give your money to someone else? Obama apparently doesn’t see things that way. Just look at his tax returns. At least he’s consistent.

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from Iraq

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This was front page news: a bride who was tasered at her wedding. Sounds romantic.

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The Chinese keep thinking that their lies will be ignored by the FREE international press. One of today's lies is that this gymnast is 16, even though the Chinese "press" said that she is only 13 (see how she compares to her older teamates in this picture).

And the Chinese have lied about other gymnasts too, because they've conveniently changed the birth dates on their passports. But the question is: why do they need passports if the Olympics is in their own country?

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Click here to see photos of Hungarian weightlifter Janos Baranyai bending out of shape at the Olympics.

The Spanish basketball team was playing around for their Olympics pic. Or did they offend their Chinese hosts?

Maybe the Chinese girl who could sing (left) was offended for being replaced by a fake (right) for China's "national interest" ie, their harsh definition of "cute" can be harmful to humans.

And here's something that really is offensive, at least to burger eaters: a guy who took a bath in a Burger King sink, and it's not the joke that the Focus on the Family video was that asked people to pray for rain during Barack Obama's speech.

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And does he look like the first African American Governor of Illinois (or as he says "Illinoise")?

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