Lots of people knew Senator James Rhoades--or at least knew of him. He helped a hell of a lot of people get jobs, he cared deeply for education, and he brought back money to his district which bettered persons.. He will be missed tremendously.

It got me thinking.. God is something, eh? Life is something, too. Here one day and gone the next. .And though Senator Rhoades didn't have national fame, the local Schuylkill county PA and surrounding counties knew and respected him. But he wasn't superhuman. He died in a very human way like a lot of other people: In a car accident.

The death of Senator Rhoades came as a shock for Harrisburg Capitol politicians, and for common citizens .. even more of a shock because it shows how fragile life is regardless of fame, wealthy, power or fortune. We are all in this together..

Labels: personal, RIP, Schuykill county

Chief of Staff Champ Holman said that Pennsylvania State Senator Rhoades is dead at 66..

His wife Mary remains hospitalized ...

The POCONO RECORD reporting that the Pennsylvania Republican Party would have to get a court's permission to remove Rhoades' name from the ballot and replace him with another candidate..

He was facing Democrat PJ Symons in this year's Senate election..

Labels: Breaking news, Campaign 2008, Election, Politics, Schuykill county

SCHMUCKRAKER has learned from a reliable source that Senator James Rhoades died of complications from last night's accident.. developing

Sent from my iPhone

A broken leg and internal bleeding..

Story updated an hour ago by the Associated Press

Labels: Breaking news, Schuykill county

AFP/Getty Images/File/Frank Micelotta
Allegations: Madonna looked like a grandmother on stage during performances.. he compared her to younger backup dancers.. Allegations that he said she was "past it" after she turned 50..

UK DAILY MAIL REPORTING: Her lawyers say that 40-year-old Ritchie's comments made Madonna feel worthless, unattractive, unfeminine, insecure and isolated during their eight-year marriage

Labels: Celebrity, Entertainment, Hollywood, News

Philadelphia conservative talk show host Michael Smerconish endorses Obama ...

""John McCain is an honorable man who has served his country well. But he will not get my vote. For the first time since registering as a Republican 28 years ago, I’m voting for a Democrat for president.

"I may have been an appointee in the George H.W. Bush administration, and master of ceremonies for George W. Bush in 2004, but last Saturday I stood amidst the crowd at an Obama event in North Philadelphia," says the Republican."

Radio bosses angry?

Flashback: Newsbusters writes that Smerconish falsely labeled "conservative"

Labels: Campaign 2008, Election, McCain, New Media, Obama, Politics

PHOTO: KEITH R. STEVENSON/Pocono Record
State Senator in Pennsylvania (and my representative Senator in Harrisburg PA) injured in a three car crash last night..the POCONO RECORD with the best summary of the incident.. Rhoades and his wife were airlifted from the scene.

Initial reports came around 10:40pm Friday night, but not much more information is being ascertained this morning..

Phone calls to Lehigh Valley Hospital's public affairs office have gone unanswered, have not been returned..

Developing..

Labels: Breaking news, personal

Will he or won't he? Colin Powell live appearance Sunday may bring Barack Obama endorsement

Labels: Campaign 2008, Election, McCain, Obama, Politics

Nancy Pelosi says Democrats will expand their House majority this year to 250 seats..

Labels: Campaign 2008, Election, Politics

Eye-popping figures: TV GUIDE sold for a mere dollar bill to OpenGate Capital..

A cheap sell price for a struggling magazine desperate for sales....

Labels: Economy, Entertainment, Hollywood, Money, New Media

Peggy Noonan on Sarah Palin: No news conferences? Interviews now only with friendly journalists? You can't be president or vice president and govern in that style, as a sequestered figure

Labels: Campaign 2008, Election, Palin, Politics

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin plans to appear on Saturday Night Live this weekend, multiple sources told CNN Thursday.

Labels: Breaking news, Campaign 2008, Election, Palin, Politics

I am standing by my election 2008 prediction made on October 12..

Labels: Campaign 2008, Election, McCain, Obama, personal, Politics

Newspaper goes on record..

"The choice is made easy in part by Mr. McCain's disappointing campaign, above all his irresponsible selection of a running mate who is not ready to be president. It is made easy in larger part, though, because of our admiration for Mr. Obama and the impressive qualities he has shown during this long race. Yes, we have reservations and concerns, almost inevitably, given Mr. Obama's relatively brief experience in national politics. But we also have enormous hopes.
...
IT GIVES US no pleasure to oppose Mr. McCain. Over the years, he has been a force for principle and bipartisanship. He fought to recognize Vietnam, though some of his fellow ex-POWs vilified him for it. He stood up for humane immigration reform, though he knew Republican primary voters would punish him for it. He opposed torture and promoted campaign finance reform, a cause that Mr. Obama injured when he broke his promise to accept public financing in the general election campaign. Mr. McCain staked his career on finding a strategy for success in Iraq when just about everyone else in Washington was ready to give up. We think that he, too, might make a pretty good president.

But the stress of a campaign can reveal some essential truths, and the picture of Mr. McCain that emerged this year is far from reassuring. To pass his party's tax-cut litmus test, he jettisoned his commitment to balanced budgets. He hasn't come up with a coherent agenda, and at times he has seemed rash and impulsive. And we find no way to square his professed passion for America's national security with his choice of a running mate who, no matter what her other strengths, is not prepared to be commander in chief.
...

The POST concludes:

"But Mr. Obama's temperament is unlike anything we've seen on the national stage in many years. He is deliberate but not indecisive; eloquent but a master of substance and detail; preternaturally confident but eager to hear opposing points of view. He has inspired millions of voters of diverse ages and races, no small thing in our often divided and cynical country. We think he is the right man for a perilous moment."

Labels: Breaking news, Campaign 2008, Election, McCain, New Media, Obama, Politics

I didn't. And won't, for various reasons.. And New Jersey parents are angry, too..

Labels: Breaking news

"On May 12, 1982, the pope was visiting the shrine city of Fatima in Portugal to give thanks for surviving a first assassination attempt a year earlier on May 13, 1981, when he was shot in St Peter's Square by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca.

A crazed ultra-conservative Spanish priest, Juan Fernandez Krohn, lunged at the pope with a dagger and was knocked to the ground by police and arrested. The fact that the knife actually reached the pope and cut him was not known until now.

"I can now reveal that the Holy Father was wounded. When we got back to the room (in the Fatima sanctuary complex) there was blood," Dziwisz says in the documentary

MORE

Labels: Breaking news, Pope, religion

How perfect..
Hat tip Andrew Sullivan

Labels: Campaign 2008, Election, McCain, Obama, Politics

He has no plumber's license even though the county he lives in requires plumbers to have them .. and the Ohio Department of Taxation placed a lien against Joe because $1,183 in personal property taxes had not been paid. Oh, and Joe's 2006 income was $40,000, which would qualify him for the Obama tax increase.

McCain forced Joe into our lives. I bet Joe wishes he could quickly escape.....

Labels: Campaign 2008, Election, McCain, Obama, Politics

AP Photo/Logan Cramer, Denny's Beer Barrel Pub
Brad Sciullo of Uniontown, Pa, ate a 15-pound cheeseburger..

Clear the room.. and get a bathroom stall ready.

Labels: Odd, Offbeat

REUTERS/Jim Bourg (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008
(USA)
The debate's over .. Joe the Plumber .. a new character as popular as Bob the Builder? Maybe not. But Joe the Plumber is enjoying his 15 minutes of political fame..

Major League Baseball has agreed to push back the start time of a potential World Series Game 6 by eight minutes to allow Democrat Barack Obama to purchase a half-hour of air time on the Fox network..

The fabulous Phillies will be in the World Series...

Oil got a little too low during the economic crisis.. Apparently speculators don't think we're going to be able to afford it in the future. And now with the lower prices, OPEC is worried that maybe the prices are too low!

Madonna and Ritchie divorce.. the tabloids, again, were right.

Obama organizer attempts to register voters--in jail!

Glenn Beck leaving CNN.. joins FOX news..

Andrew Sullivan explains why he blogs..

And I'm tired. It's been a hell of a long week so far..

But if you have a chance, read this book:

"My Lobotomy" by Howard Dully.. an amazing book that will make you think about things you may be afraid to think about..

And finally, for now, what in the name of God was John McCain doing last night!?
Photo after photo after photo after photo of McCain sticking his tongue out.. in weird moments. He's beginning to remind me of a weird family member that shows up at Christmas dinner wearing only a bath robe--and an open one at that.

Labels: Breaking news, Campaign 2008, Election, McCain, Obama, Politics, Random rakings

Sometimes full time work and full time school don't mix well...
Updates later tonight

YES, HE WILL: NEW POLL PUTS OBAMA 14-POINTS AHEAD OF MCCAIN!

Labels: Breaking news, Campaign 2008, Election, Politics

Labels: Campaign 2008, Election, Obama, Politics

Labels: Opinion, personal, Weather

While Columbus landed in Trinidad hundreds of years ago, banks, some schools, and government offices are mostly closed to mark the celebration of people saying he really discovered America. .but did you ever think, if he really "discovered" something that was already inhabited by Native tribes, did he really discover anything at all? That's what I think, too..

Some random news events from around the world that Columbus, also, didn't discover:

For years, college students have volunteered in soup kitchens. These days they're customers..

Big GrandDaddy European Union tells citizens: Stop listening to loud music!

Stock Exchange roars back to life Monday as government pledges to step up efforts to put controls on economy..

Levi Johnston speaks out about Bristol Palin pregnancy: Says he is not being forced into marriage.... has also dropped out of high school to take a job on the North Slope oil fields as an apprentice electrician

Sudden fame for 106-year-old nun that supports Obama: Sister Cecilia Gaudette wants to be left alone..

Obama told his supporters to get in the faces of Republicans, Independents, and even fight if necessary: I don't think Sister Celcia will have the energy..

Iceland panic: Shoppers flood supermarkets one last time before possible collapse of nation..

Who's next!? Water, trains, and power are all in line for the next massive government bailout..

Nothing to fear.. but panic and news stories telling us there is everything to fear! CNN shares with us some good old Great Depression stories about people being subjected to eat squirrel .. Mike Huckabee would be fine with that..

Ed Rollins: Barack Obama marching toward likely victory..

One last time: McCain debuts his 'comeback' speech..

Completely random video that means nothing: Obama .. apparently .. wants pie?

A decisive victory awaits Democrats: Paper..


Schmuckraker prediction: Obama landslide..

Labels: Random rakings

In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue--and though he never found America banks are closed and government too

The election is nasty.. Hateful for some..

But I am going to make my election prediction. Things are changing by the day. But I am predicting an Obama win--actually an Obama landslide, one like we have not seen in several election cycles.

With 270 electoral votes needed for victory, I am predicting Obama easily wins the overall popular vote. I also feel he will handily gain the electoral college, which as we all know is the only way to win.

My map shows McCain with 201 electoral votes and Obama with 337..

The map:

As you can see, I am predicting McCain loses and Obama wins in the following swing states: Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri.. I also predict an Obama win in North Carolina .. McCain will keep the deep South--but with smaller margins of victory than Bush in 2000 and 2008. McCain will end of losing New Mexico.. Minnesota .. and Indiana.

The next debate is coming up this week .. I don't feel that 2008 will be as divided as previous election, I also do not feel there is any way the electoral college will be tied. Further, there will be no reason for networks to wait late into the night without knowing for sure who won this November's election.

Congress will be controlled by Democrats.. as will the Senate.

It's been a long eight years.. Democrats will gain this year in huge numbers due to the newer younger voters (that will actually vote this year) .. and from two wars, and the sudden impact of the economic crisis. McCain's last minute campaign tactics have been foolish looking. He's all over the proverbial map, issuing policy plans at his own whims during debates and suspending his campaign as a stunt.

It all failed for one simple reason: Campaign officials didn't let John McCain be himself. Instead, they reinvented him as George W. Bush .. That's not why people liked him in 2000. Barack Obama ran one of the greatest campaigns in history, trouncing the likely nominee Hillary Clinton, and dominating TVs, internet, radio, and other forms of media. And he got a lot of free help from major media officials, who often let their own biases outweigh their good sense for reporting. Legs were quivering with excitement all over American newsrooms the night Obama accepted his party's nomination. And they haven't stopped yet.
The tingling, quivering, and excitement will be at record highs on election night. McCain, once a media darling, was crumbled up and thrown into a trash heap like any other piece of paper.
And then what? Politics as usual. Party fighting party. But the victory Obama gets this year will give him a mandate for change.. But McCain's ultimate failure is that all year, he never did anything to tell Americans why he felt Obama's change was wrong for America.. Instead, his aimless twists and turns have led his campaign events into angry give and take sessions with people frightened of Barack Obama..

How sad it got.

We'll check back in a 24 days to see how well I did.
But I strongly believe that this election will not be close..

Labels: Biden, Campaign 2008, Election, McCain, Obama, Palin, personal, Politics, Predictions

While I didn't put up my official election prediction yet (that's coming later today), it's clear that if McCain loses this year, it may be due to the overall self-destructive nature of him, Palin, and his own base of supporters.. This week, man at a Palin rally displayed a monkey donning an Obama sticker..CBS offers an interesting account,

"After Palin finished her remarks this morning, the man holding the stuffed monkey seemed to notice that a video camera was pointed at him, at which point he removed the Obama sticker from the doll's head and crumpling it up in his hand. He then handed the doll to a young boy who was watching the rally from his father's shoulders. The boy's parents later told CBS News that they weren't acquainted with the man who gave their son the stuffed monkey"

But the question is this: Is it right for CBS news to display the video it does on its site of this man slowly hiding the monkey.. John McCain has *finally* spoken out against the more vile of anger against Obama.. Or is CBS further inflaming race relations..?

Labels: Biden, Campaign 2008, Election, McCain, Obama, Palin, Politics, Race Relations

ABC news reported exclusively this week that the NSA eavesdropped on hundreds of American citizens as they called home..

Sometimes, they even listened in during phone sex, according to one:

"Faulk says he and others in his section of the NSA facility at Fort Gordon routinely shared salacious or tantalizing phone calls that had been intercepted, alerting office mates to certain time codes of "cuts" that were available on each operator's computer.

"Hey, check this out," Faulk says he would be told, "there's good phone sex or there's some pillow talk, pull up this call, it's really funny, go check it out. It would be some colonel making pillow talk and we would say, 'Wow, this was crazy'," Faulk told ABC News.

Faulk said he joined in to listen, and talk about it during breaks in Back Hall's "smoke pit," but ended up feeling badly about his actions.

"I feel that it was something that the people should not have done. Including me," he said. "

President Bush said that this was not happening nor would it. If the ABC report is to believed, it did.

Labels: Breaking news, Bush, sex, Terrorism

Idaho? Who the snow!?

Boise, Idaho, got its earliest first snow in history of records--they started being kept officially in 1898. While this one event is only a snapshot in time, AccuWeather issued a winter forecast calling for some harshly cold times ahead.

Enjoy the fall warmth and foliage if ya got it.

Labels: Storms, Weather

Sarah Palin greeted with resounding boos in Philadelphia when she dropped the first puck of the season at a Flyers game.

Labels: Campaign 2008, Election, Palin, Politics, Sports

Later today.. I make my election predictions. Who will win? And how big..

The sun is shining this morning over Schmuckraker home base. There may be an economic and incredibly nasty fall election campaign on the sidewalk outside, but life continues to go on. Bars are still full.. restaurants still serving food.. buses are still on schedule. And my garbage still gets picked up every morning at 5:30am. Even during economic crises people have children, have funerals, have weddings, and have parties. Halloween parties are coming up soon. .haunted houses and corn mazes are still open. And even as people suggest that their spending habits are going to change immensely, Halloween masks are still puchased. Including even by my.. The more things change, the more life goes on. And now the random news links and rakings from around the dangerous and shaky world--a world shaky but steady, always looking at the bright side of life:

The Schmuck of the Week: No name, and no hair..

Did you lose a lot of money in the stock market? If so, where did it go?


A "mama for Obama"

Ten years after Matthew Shepard, town reflects..

Pennsylvania Governor Rendell signs 31 bills--including one banning mandatory overtime for nurses, and another licensing massage therapy..

Lisa Marie Presley has twins..

More candy being taken off shelves in China as milk scandal continues.. And confidence in Chinese food and beverage at all-time low..


Angelina Jolie appears on W magazine breast feeding.. A very public private moment..

The season's not over yet: Forecasters closely watching a pair of tropical waves..


Billboard with racial overtone causes controversy .. See full-size billboard..

Be scared!! Bush says he has a "lot of work to do" before he leaves office..

Labels: Random rakings, Sunday Morning Sidewalk