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John McCain and Barack Obama outlined steps to counter the faltering economy and plummeting stock market on Friday, fresh evidence of the dominant role of pocketbook issues in their race for the White House.

McCain, lagging in the polls, called for legislation suspending a requirement that investors age 70 1/2 begin to liquidate their retirement accounts. “To spare investors from being forced to sell their stocks at just the time when the market is hurting the most, these rules should be suspended,” the Republican presidential candidate said in a speech in LaCrosse, Wis.

It was the Republican’s second proposal in three days to deal with economic woes, following his call for the government to buy bad home-loan mortgages and renegotiate them at a reduced price.

Obama, who was campaigning in Chillicothe, Ohio, said he favors a temporary extension in an expiring tax break to let small businesses write off the cost of many new investments immediately, rather than over several years. He said he was making the proposal “because it’s time to protect the jobs we have and to create the jobs of tomorrow by unlocking the drive, and ingenuity, and innovation of the American people.”

The proposal would cover investments up to $250,000. Campaign officials put the cost to the Treasury at $900 million.

Aides said Obama also wants to extend the Small Business Administration’s disaster loan program to help small businesses that cannot access other sources of capital, as well as eliminate fees on SBA loan guarantees and increase the size of loans that could be covered. They put the cost at $5 billion.

The presidential rivals outlined their proposals as retirement accounts continued to lose value and businesses struggled to obtain loans necessary to operate or expand.

Recent polling indicates Obama has surged to a lead in the campaign in the three weeks since the simmering credit crisis boiled over, and McCain has struggled to regain his footing. Surveys also show voters make the economy their top issue.

Obama’s tax write-off proposal was part of a Democratic-backed economic stimulus package that failed to clear Congress before lawmakers adjourned for the elections.

In his speech, Obama said the $700 billion bailout that Congress passed last week for the financial industry was “only the beginning” of what is needed.

“Now we need to pass a rescue plan for the middle-class that will provide every family immediate relief to cope with rising food and gas prices, save one million jobs by rebuilding our schools and roads, and help states and cities avoid budget cuts and tax increases,” he said.

“And we should extend expiring unemployment benefits to those Americans who’ve lost their jobs and can’t find new ones.”

The blocked stimulus legislation included the items Obama mentioned, and the Democratic presidential candidate said McCain “has said nothing” about enacting them.

McCain’s campaign did not immediately provide an estimate of the number of investors who would be helped by his proposal to block the mandatory sale of retirement account assets.

Current law requires individuals to begin liquidating a portion of their retirement account savings on April 1 of the year following their 70th birthday or their retirement, whichever comes later.

In Tuesday night’s debate, the Republican called for the government to buy up bad home-loan mortgages and renegotiate at the new reduced value of the properties, a step designed to help homeowners facing foreclosure.

“The United States government will support the refinancing of distressed mortgages for homeowners and replace them with manageable mortgages,” he said in his speech in Wisconsin. “These funds aren’t new, but the priorities will be when we put the financial strength of our government back on the side of working families.”

McCain has put the cost of the plan at $300 billion, and initially said it would come from the $700 billion bailout.

On Thursday, he said additional funds might be needed, but his speech in LaCrosse appeared to rule that out.

Initially, Obama’s aides said he had favored the same approach before even McCain outlined it.

But since then the McCain campaign altered the description of his plan to make clear he wants to pay financial institutions the full face value of troubled mortgages on homes that are no longer worth that much. After that clarification, Obama has criticized McCain’s plan as a bail out of the banks and mortgage companies that made the risky loans that helped create the current crisis. Obama says the lenders must assume some of the losses from their bad loans.

McCain’s mortgage proposal has also drawn a lukewarm reception from Republicans, some of whom have declined to endorse it, and vehement criticism from some conservative commentators, including the National Review, which called it “a gift to lenders who abandoned any sense of prudence during the boom years.”

Winning the Little League Softball World Series was great. But meeting the president isn’t exactly Bush league.

That’s what members of the Simpsonville Stars said this evening after meeting President Bush and the first lady at the Charleston Air Force Base in South Carolina.

The team recently won the Little League Softball World Series. The girls used words like “awesome” and “amazing” to describe shaking the president’s hand. Most said it was hard to decide whether it was greater to win the series or meet the president.

The president was greeted by about 300 air base personnel and their families before taking a helicopter to Kiawah Island and a reception sponsored by the National Republican Committee.

Barack Obama leads John McCain in the state-by-state race to 270 electoral votes and the White House, but eight states with a decisive 109 votes are still up for grabs as they plunge into the final weeks of a stubbornly tight presidential campaign.

The candidates’ face-to-face debates, scheduled to begin Friday night, will provide the next big chance to change the electoral lineup, especially in the eight states that are still considered tossups: perennial powerhouses Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, Western targets Colorado and Nevada, Wisconsin in the Midwest, traditional swing state New Hampshire and newly competitive Virginia.

In a political environment that dramatically favors Democrats and appears to be further trending toward them, Obama has 18 states and the District of Columbia, offering 229 votes, in his column or leaning his way, while Republican McCain has 24 states with 200 votes, according to an Associated Press analysis of public and private polls, television spending and interviews with strategists in both parties.

Like the tossups, the status of other competitive states could change in coming weeks. Of those, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa and New Mexico are currently leaning toward Obama, while Indiana, Missouri and North Carolina are leaning toward McCain.

Among the unknowns that could reorder the electoral landscape before Nov. 4: fallout from the ailing economy and the government’s sweeping Wall Street intervention, as well as the outcome of the candidates’ debates. The first faceoff between Obama and McCain is in Oxford, Miss. It’s unclear whether the debate will proceed; McCain has called for a postponement in light of the financial crisis.

Also unclear: the effect of race as the country decides whether to elect its first black leader.

Eighteen percent of voters say they are still undecided or willing to change their minds.

David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, told reporters traveling with the Illinois senator recently that Obama had “a lot of opportunity” in states President Bush won four years ago. “We expect to battle right to the end,” Axelrod said. “We never anticipated anything but a close race.”

In turn, McCain’s top strategist Steve Schmidt told the Arizona senator’s traveling press corps: “We have seen the map expansion in our favor,” and he noted tight contests in several states Democrat John Kerry won in 2004. Schmidt, too, said: “We’re in a very close race.”

Most national polls show the competition close, though some give Obama a slight advantage and a Washington Post-ABC News poll out Wednesday showed Obama ahead 52 percent to 43 percent.

Those figures aside, the contests in key states are what matter most.

Behind the scenes, both campaigns are reviewing polling data daily — and adjusting their advertising strategies and candidate schedules accordingly — as they determine which states they need to win to cobble together the winning number of 270.

Obama is outspending McCain on television advertising $1.5 million to $1.1 million per day as each floods the airwaves to drive messages home. Mail pieces and radio ads are in full force, too. And, both sides have dispatched thousands of staffers and volunteers to the most hotly contested states for get-out-the-vote pushes.

For the most part, the most competitive states a month ago remain too close to call.

They include:

_Five states that Bush won in 2004, and that Obama is going after this year.

Ohio’s economy is hurting and its GOP is smarting after widespread losses two years ago, yet Obama hasn’t been able to break into a serious lead. He’s gaining ground in Florida, though still not ahead, after pumping at least $8 million in TV ads into the state before McCain went on the air. That state and Virginia, competitive this year given an influx of liberal-leaning transplants, may be Obama’s toughest to win in this group. Colorado and Nevada have been trending Democratic in recent years because of growth among Hispanics. They’ve also seen enormous numbers of new Democratic voter registrations, though it’s possible that true electoral change may still be an election or two away.

_Three states that Democrat Kerry won in 2004, and that Obama is trying to defend.

New Hampshire is probably the state most likely to flip from Democratic to Republican, given McCain’s special bond with the state’s independent voters who twice helped him win GOP primaries. Indicating Obama’s concern, he’s running TV ads in the pricey Boston media market; McCain is not. Of McCain’s top two targets, Pennsylvania has tightened somewhat in the past month to slide from leaning-Obama into the tossup category. Wisconsin remains tantalizing close as it does about this time every four years before voting Democratic.

With the exception of Virginia, the tossups look remarkably similar to those of the most recent elections, despite Obama’s efforts to try to pick off traditional Republican bastions.

“It’s increasingly resembling the real map of 2004,” said Mark Mellman, a Democrat who was Kerry’s pollster four years ago.

Using conventional slang for Republican and Democratic states, Matthew Dowd, a top strategist on Bush’s re-election campaign, added: “The map has ended up back to where it was: States that were reliably red are reliably red, and states that were reliably blue are reliably blue.”

Among other states:

Obama has a strong shot at winning two that narrowly went to Bush in 2004.

Iowa has been trending Democratic for several election cycles, and McCain has virtually no relationship with the state he essentially bypassed in both of his presidential primary campaigns. Republicans, however, say the race is tighter than it seems. Obama also recently opened up a lead in New Mexico in part because Hispanics haven’t warmed to McCain the way they did with Bush.

For now at least, Obama is holding off a strong challenge by McCain in two Kerry-won states.

The Democrat is slightly ahead in Michigan, where voters in this economically ailing state closely associate McCain with the unpopular Bush. And while Minnesota polls are tightening, Obama isn’t worried enough at this point to devote TV advertising money to the state.

McCain, meanwhile, has an edge in Bush-held bellwether Missouri, though it continues to be hard-fought by both candidates.

And, the Republican has found himself having to defend GOP turf in North Carolina after Obama spent a couple of months running ads and dispatching workers to the state in hopes that blacks and young voters would help him prevail. McCain initially ignored the Obama action but recently countered with his own ads and staffers. He still has an edge there, and an Obama victory will be difficult.

Indiana may end up being a similar story. Obama continues to put money and manpower into the state at levels unmatched by McCain. Polls show Obama in an increasingly competitive position, and McCain may have to ramp up action there to try to stave off an upset. Republican allies were expected to respond with ads of their own later this week. Obama’s links to the region — he’s from Chicago — could help him boost black turnout in the northwest part of this economically suffering state.

Elsewhere, Obama recently abandoned efforts in the home state of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain’s running mate, as well as in Georgia. North Dakota workers for Obama also are being dispatched elsewhere, and ads for that state are slated to stop airing next week. Montana, too, has largely fallen off the playing field. Surveys show McCain with comfortable leads in all four.

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson urged Congress Sunday to swiftly pass an unprecedented 700-billion-dollar financial rescue plan, deflecting calls from Democrats for measures to help at-risk homeowners.

President George W. Bush’s administration has demanded lawmakers move quickly on the plan unveiled late Friday to address the gravest financial crisis since the Great Depression, warning that the economy could collapse without swift action.

“We need this to be clean and quick and we need to get it in place,” Paulson said in an ABC television interview.

The Treasury secretary also said the United States was pressing other countries to forge bailouts for their financial institutions similar to the rescue plan.

“I’m also going to be pressing our colleagues around the world to design similar programs for their banks and institutions when they are appropriate,” Paulson said in a television interview on Fox News Sunday.

He did not provide further details, but US financial authorities have been working closely with their counterparts in Europe and Japan over the past 10 days to prevent a collapse of the global financial system.

Paulson clarified that the US bailout plan would also cover non-US institutions with operations in the United States.

Leaders of the Democratic-controlled Congress voiced support for the plan to buy the toxic mortgage-related assets of financial institutions but also said there should be some help for ordinary Americans hammered by the worst housing slump in decades.

Senator Charles Schumer of New York said the rescue was needed but had to be carried out in an open, transparent way and provide some relief for homeowners as well.

“We have to do something about the mortgage crisis, not just foreclosures but the price of housing, which is affecting everyone on Main Street,” the influential Democrat told Fox.

In talks with lawmakers, Paulson appeared open to some changes to the proposed rescue plan, according to Schumer, who expressed optimism Congress would move quickly as urged by the Bush administration.

“We have a patient whose arteries are clogged, and the first thing you want to do is avoid a heart attack. So we have to do something.

“And I think the odds are even higher than 50 percent we’ll get something done,” Schumer said.

In interviews on several networks on Sunday, Paulson did not specify what changes he might accept but stressed the need to act without delay.

“There are many people in this country that need help. But the biggest help we can give the American people is to stabilize our financial system right now,” Paulson said.

Paulson told ABC it was essential to prevent the financial system from clogging up, “because if it does clog up, this is going to have an adverse effect on people’s abilities to get jobs, on their budgets, on their retirement savings, on lending for small businesses and so that’s where the first priority has got to be.”

Paulson acknowledged that some American homeowners need help in the wake of the US subprime mortgage crisis that triggered a global credit crunch 14 months ago. Tight credit has sent foreclosures spiking and home values have fallen as a glut of unsold homes sit on the market.

“Once we get the system stabilized, there’s a lot of other things to be done,” he said.

Negotiations on the proposed bailout were complicated by a tight presidential election race six weeks ahead of November 4 polls and as Democrats seek to bolster their narrow majority in Congress.

The Republican Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, issued a statement calling for the bailout plan to remain free of “partisan plans or pet projects.”

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd agreed that “clean and simple” bill was necessary, but the Democrat also called for changes to the proposal to ensure accountability and assistance for homeowners.

“We need to do it quickly, but also deliberately,” Dodd told ABC television.

The bailout proposal comes on the heels of the unprecedented government rescue of giant insurer American International Group and the seizure of mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The White House plan would lift the public debt limit to 11.3 trillion dollars from 10.6 trillion. The limit is the maximum amount of money the government can borrow without authorization from Congress.

Not all Republicans were on board with the Bush administration’s departure from the party’s conservative free-market principles.

Representative Mike Pence of Indiana said that “nationalizing every bad mortgage in America is not the answer.”

Republican John McCain on Tuesday questioned rival Barack Obama’s belief in American leadership in world affairs with two days to go before the Democratic senator accepts his party’s nomination for U.S. president.

McCain, 71, suggested Obama, 47, had failed to express confidence in America as “the greatest force for good on this earth” when he gave a speech in Berlin last month before more than 100,000 people.

“He was the picture of confidence. But in some ways confidence itself and confidence in one’s country are not the same,” McCain he told a group of American war veterans.

McCain and Obama are vying to succeed Republican President George W. Bush, who must step aside in January after eight years in office. McCain’s campaign insists it does not question Obama’s patriotism but merely his judgment.

Previous assertions by McCain that Obama cares more about political positions than issues of substance such as winning the Iraq war have angered the Democratic candidate, who has told his opponent not to question his patriotism.

McCain, himself a war veteran imprisoned for more than five years in Vietnam, accused Obama of appearing to link the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 to Russian military action in Georgia in recent weeks.

Obama last week condemned Moscow’s actions in Georgia and said Russia could not “charge into other countries” but he also said: “Of course it helps if we are leading by example on that point.”

His remarks were widely seen as a criticism of the war in Iraq, which Obama opposed. McCain used the comments to raise broader questions about Obama, suggesting he lacked the clarity and vision to lead America and the world.

“If he really thinks that by liberating Iraq from a dangerous tyrant, America somehow set a bad example that invited Russia to invade a small, peaceful and democratic nation, then he should state it outright because that is a debate I welcome,” McCain declared.

“Confusion about such questions only invites more trouble, violence and aggression,” said McCain, who as a senator has specialized in defense and foreign affairs issues and has put national security at the center of his campaign.

He and Obama are running neck-and-neck in opinion polls.

A Mexican man facing execution for murder in Texas waited in a death row prison cell on for the US Supreme Court to decide on his last-ditch appeal in a case that has gained international attention.

Jose Ernesto Medellin, 33, was scheduled to die by lethal injection on Tuesday at 6 pm local time (2300 GMT), but Texas officials were still waiting for word from the top US court nearly one hour and a half hour later.

“At this point we have not heard back from the Supreme Court,” Gerry Strickland, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, told AFP.

Earlier, UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged the United States abide by an International Court of Justice ruling calling for the executions of all Mexican nationals to be suspended.

Mexico has complained that its nationals on death row were not informed of their right to consular access and assistance during trial, a right under the Vienna Convention.

“All decisions and orders of the International Court of Justice must be respected by states,” Ban warned on local television in Mexico City where he was attending a world AIDS conference.

“The United States should take every step to make sure the execution does not take place,” he added, saying he had taken all the necessary steps to delay Medellin’s execution, detailed in a letter to the United States and that he was “confident” his demands would be accepted.

But the US State Department said it could not intervene, citing a Supreme Court ruling that the president does not have the constitutional power to force Texas to review the case.

Medellin was sentenced to die for the rape and murder of two girls aged 14 and 16 in 1993 in Houston. The girls happened upon Medellin, who was 19 at the time, as he was engaged in a street gang initiation rite.

The burdens and costs of regular tax matters have been reduced considerably through the free filing system currently in place in the United States, especially after the signing of the Free File Tax Agreement between the Internal Revenue Service and Free tax File Alliance, LLC. The Free File Program, has since then been made available to the general public, as a more convenient means of handling federal income tax concerns.

This online service is free to eligible taxpayers – those with a 2007 Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) of $54,000 or less. Should this amount be exceeded, there is usually a fee charged by the companies providing tax services in line with the Free File Program. There are, however, those who still offer such services for free. There are affiliate member-companies of the Free File Alliance LLC who offer a free federal tax filing based on your state of residence.

These online services are also supported by assistance from qualified professionals ready to answer questions, and there are a number of assistance centers to help those who are having difficulties in dealing with their tax returns. There is also a large number of available pamphlets, publications and materials all geared towards reducing the usual dilemmas associated with tax preparation procedures and filing. With this tool, moreover, the taxpayer is made aware of incentives such as tax credits or refunds which he might be entitled to.

You may have heard of some Greek organizations in the news for hazing new members. And, while hazing once was very popular it is no longer the case. That is because sororities and fraternities like Alpha Kappa Alpha are adhering to strict guidelines set forth by their universities in regards to hazing.
Hazing is considered as any act or action that may potentially harm a person emotionally, physically, psychologically, or anything of this nature. This does not matter whether the individual is becoming part of the Greek organization or not. Hazing is a serious infraction of many university regulations and any Greek organization not abiding by these rules will be reprimanded.
This is good news for all the new recruits who are interested in joining Zeta Tau Alpha. Or, those who want to pledge Alpha Xi Delta. Nobody wants to be hazed but many students accept it simply because they want to be part of the Greek organization.
The reason hazing has practically been outlawed is because many student deaths and illnesses occurred that were highlighted in the news. Action has been taken against those organizations and now hazing is severely limited if it occurs at all.

1. Absolutely!!

2. No. The President needs to be intelligent and powerful enough not to be a puppet.

3. Nope.

4. Oh my god no. She is the freakiest person I ever heard of. She makes absolutely no sense when she talks. She speaks in that government speak and does not make any sense. Have I mentioned she makes no sense?

5. Possibly, a black woman being president would be GREAT, but I don’t think there’s a chance she would ever run. She does seem to agree with EVERYTHING Bush does, other than that I think she could handle the job.

6. From what I have seen of her, I would seriously consider her as a viable candidate.

7. I would sooner vote for Condie than for Hillary

8. Helllllllllllllllllllllll Nooooooooooooooooooo!

9. It depends on who she ran against but she is definitely very highly regarded by me.

10. nope…no way …not a frig’n shot, she’s as bad as bush and darth cheney

11. Possibly, yes. IMHO, she’s the most qualified woman in America. However, she has never held an elected position in government. I say that she’d be a good VP running mate for the republican party … that would get Hillary’s and the democrat party’s panties in a bunch!

12. I would vote for her before I would Hillary Clinton. And with the way she handling foreign relations and the mid-eastern peace talks I think she would make a good president.

13. Maybe, depend on the other choice

14. She was so weak as the national security adviser and the Secretary of state that Donald Rumsfeld and the defense department bullied their way in to dictating what state department policy should be.

She would be a weak president.

15. depends on her stances and ideals, but i wouldn’t out right rule it out.

16. You bet. It’s nice to have a leader with class. And she’s tough and is a good speaker.

Joey, what a great idea!

17. No, since I never voted for her in anything in the first place. I want to know who the People get to nominate? All we get is a premade selection of choices that I would never make in the first place.