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Show 14 Monday, Sept. 15, 2008 World&Hation Page 14 Republicans fault both campaigns for negative ads WASHINGTON (AP) - Leading Republicans on Sunday faulted both presidential campaigns for the increasingly negative tone of their advertising, suggesting the bitter attacks undermine John McCain and Barack Obama's credibility with voters and could backfire. "Both campaigns are making a mistake, and that is they are taking whatever their attacks are and going one step too far," said former White House political adviser Karl Rove. "They don't need to attack each other in this way." "There ought to be an adult who says, 'Do we really need to go that far in this ad? Don't we make our point and won't we get broader acceptance and deny the opposition an opportunity to attack us if we don't include that one little last tweak in the ad?1" In the last week, the McCain campaign has put out an Internet ad accusing Obama of calling Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin a pig when he used the phrase putting "lipstick on a pig" to criticize the GOP ticket as trying to make a bad situation look better. McCain supporters said Obama was slyly alluding to Palin's description of herself as a pit bull in lipstick, but there was nothing in his remarks to support the claim. The McCain campaign also produced an ad saying Obama favored "comprehensive sex education" for kindergartners; as an Illinois state senator, Obama voted for legislation that would teach age-appropriate sex education to kindergartners, including information on rejecting advances by sexual predators. In turn, a recent Obama TV ad makes a none-too-subtle dig at McCain's age in saying McCain hasn't changed in the last 26 years. It shows McCain at a hearing in the early 1980s, wearing giant glasses and an out-of-style suit. "He admits he still doesn't know how to use a computer, can't send an e-mail, still doesn't understand the economy, and favors $200 billion in new tax cuts for corporations, but almost nothing for the middle class," the commercial says. Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who unsuccessfully sought the GOP presidential nomination, said McCain and Obama need to engage more openly in town hall meetings rather than back-and-forth negative advertising. "I agree that the campaign has gotten too negative on both sides," Giuliani said. "If the two of them are out there answering questions, a lot of these ads are going to get done that way, they're going to be able to confront each other with these things. Senator Obama can explain his views on sex education and just what he was doing with that. Senator McCain can either back off it or agree with it." Rove said he believed that Obama's "lipstick on a pig" comment was a "deliberate slap at Governor Palin," saying it came too soon after the Alaska governor's pitbull comment not to be. Rove also said while it might be fair to criticize McCain for being a longtime Washington insider, faulting McCain for not using a computer when he can't type due to war injuries is not. "McCain has gone in some of his ads - similarly gone one step too far, and sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the 100-percent-truth test," Rove said, without elaborating. In a statement, the Obama campaign said it partly agreed with Rove. "In case anyone was still wondering whether John McCain is running the sleaziest, most dishonest campaign in history, today Karl Rove - the man who held the previous record - said McCain's ads have gone too far," said Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor. Rove spoke on "Fox News Sunday," while Giuliani appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press." Roadside bombs strike Iraq police convoy, kill 5 BAGHDAD (AP)-Three roadside bombs planted in succession struck a police convoy in one of Iraq's most dangerous provinces on Sunday, killingfivepolicemen. In Baghdad, the leader of a Sunni group allied with the U.S. died when his boobytrapped car exploded. The bombs planted along a main thoroughfare targeted a police convoy in Jalawla, 60 miles north of Baghdad, said Ibrahim Bajilan, head of the provincial council of Diyala. The province, northeast of Baghdad and bordering Iran, remains a major security challenge for the U.S.-backed Iraqi government, even as violence drops in other parts of the country. Diyala has had a volatile mix of Sunni and Shiite militants, and some Iraqi Arabs are concerned that forces from the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq are encroaching on territory there. On Saturday night, a bomb killed the leader of a U.S.-backed, Sunni armed group in the al-Furat neighborhood of western Baghdad. The bomb exploded in the car of Fuad Ali Hussein, killing him as well as his deputy and two bodyguards. Hussein was head of a neighborhood awakening council — a term describing Sunni Arab insurgents and tribesmen who turned against al-Qaida in Iraq and formed alliances with the United States. Hussein's death was confirmed by a police officer and the head of another awakening council. Both requested anonymity for security reasons. The U.S. military said it knew of one person killed and another wounded in that attack. In political developments, Iraq's parliament voted to lift the immunity of a Sunni Arab lawmaker who visited Israel to attend a counterterrorism conference this month. Mithal ai-Alusi was also barred from traveling outside Iraq or attending parliamentary sessions. Osama al-Nujeifi, a Sunni Arab lawmaker, and Shiite lawmaker Haider al-Ibadi said al-Alusi's trip was illegal and a humiliation for Iraqis who see Israel as a historic enemy. Also Sunday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki formed a committee to investigate the killing of four employees of the Iraqi television network Al-Sharqiya as they filmed an episode on the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which began two weeks ago. The Iraqi government has repeatedly accused AlSharqiya of bias, sensationalism and spreading anti-government propaganda. Owned by a former chief of radio and television for Saddam Hussein, the station is seen by many Shiites as pro-Sunni. The employees of the station were abducted and killed Saturday in the northern city of Mosul. They included the head of the station's office in Mosul, two cameramen and a driver. BRIDAL FAIRE* Saturday, September 27 10AM to 5PM USU Student Center 2nd Floor Fashion Shows 12:00 and 2:30 Free Admission - Free Parking Many Prizes A Bridal Faire Production For more information call: 753-6736 or www.bridalfaire.org WELCOME BACK USU STUDENTS! A8cW IS THE HOME TO THE GREATEST ROOTBEER, ENJOY A CREAMY SHAKE, TASTY ICE CREAM ROOTBEER FLOATS 8t ROOTBEER FREEZES. CONE, OR A HOT ® FUDGE SUNDAE! ALL AMERICAN FOOD LOGAN 7O1 N. MAIN 752-2155 SMITHFIELD 1O7 S. MAIN 563-O222 VISIT US FOR DELICIOUS 1OO% u.s. BEEF BURGERS, GRILLED OR CRISPY CHICKEN SANDWICHES, AND OF COURSE THE BIG BLUE SPECIAL. OUR FRENCH FRIES, ONION RINGS, OR CHEESE CURDS WILL TREAT YOU GREAT. BOATS A N D DEBRIS A R E SEEN S U R R O U N D I N G waterfront houses on Galveston Island after the passing of Hurricane Ike, Saturday.The storm roared ashore hours before daybreak with 110 mph winds and towering waves, smashing houses, flooding thousands of homes, blowing out windows in Houston's skyscrapers, and cutting off power to more than 3 million people, perhaps for weeks. AP photo. Rescuers save nearly 2000 in Texas after hurricane GALVESTON, Texas (AP)Rescuers said Sunday they had saved nearly 2,000 people from the waterlogged streets and splintered houses left behind by Hurricane Ike. Glass-strewn Houston was placed under a weeklong curfew, and millions of people in the storm's path remained in the dark. As the floodwaters began to recede from the first hurricane to make a direct hit on a major U.S. city since Katrina, authorities planned to go door-to-door into the night to reach an untold number of people across the Texas coast who rode out the storm and were still in their homes, many without power or supplies. Many of those who did make it to safety boarded buses without knowing where they would end up, and without knowing when they could return to what was left of their homes, if anything. "I don't know what I'll be coming back to. I have nothing," said Arma Eaglin, 52, who was waiting for a bus to a shelter in San Antonio after leaving her home and wading through chest-deep water with nothing but her clothes. "I'm confused. I don't know what to do." The hurricane also battered the heart of the U.S. oil industry: Federal officials said Ike destroyed a number of production platforms, though it was too soon to know how seriously it would affect oil and gas prices. Ike was downgraded to a tropical depression as it moved into the nation's midsection and left more harm in its wake. Roads were closed in Kentucky because of high winds. As far north as Chicago, dozens of people in a suburb had to be evacuated by boat. Two million people were without power in Texas. Arkansas and Louisiana. The death toll from the storm rose to 21 people in nine states. Five were in the hard-hit barrier island city of Galveston, including one body found in a vehicle submerged in floodwater at the airport. Many deaths, however, were outside of Texas as the storm slogged north. Ike's 110 mph winds and battering waves left Galveston without electricity, gas and basic communications - and officials estimated it may not be restored for a month. "We want our citizens to stay where they are," a weary Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said. "Do not come back to Galveston. You cannot live here at this time." Houston, the nation's fourth-largest city, was reduced to near-paralysis in some places. Power was on in downtown office towers- Sunday afternoon, and Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical complex, was unscathed and remained open. Both places have underground power lines. Its two airports - including George Bush Intercontinental, one of the busiest in the United States - were set to reopen Monday with limited service, but schools were closed until further notice, and the business district was shuttered. Five people were arrested at a pawn shop north of Houston and charged with burglary in what Harris County Sheriffs spokesman Capt. John Martin described as looting, but there was no widespread spike in crime. Authorities said Sunday afternoon that 1,984 people had been rescued, including 394 by air. In addition to people who were literally plucked to safety, the figure includes people who were met by crews as they waded through floodwaters trying to get to dry ground. Still others chose to remain in their homes along the Texas coast even after the danger of the storm had passed. There was no immediate count Sunday of how many people remained in their homes, or how many were in danger. The Red Cross reported 42,000 people were at state and Red Cross shelters Saturday night. The search-and-rescue effort was the largest in Texas history, including more than 50 helicopters, 1,500 searchers and teams from federal, state and local agencies. Once evacuees were safe and dry, there was another problem - where they would go. Some buses went to shelters in San Antonio and Austin. Shelters across Texas scurried to find enough cots, and some arrived with little cash and no idea of what the coming days held. From the city of Orange alone, near the Louisiana line, more than 700 people sought dry ground - "a Herculean effort to organize a reverse evacuation that nobody had ever planned for," Mayor Brown Claybar said. Hundreds of people wrapped around a high school in Galveston, some with pets, overstuffed duffel bags and medicine as they waited to • board a bus to a shelter. Some didn't know where they were going1, and even more didn't know when they could return. "I have nowhere to go," said Ldyyan Jonjocque, 61, waiting for a bus while holding the leashes of her four Australian shepherd dogs. She said she had to leave two dogs behind in her home. She wept as she told of officers rescuing her in a dump truck. Rescue crews vowed to continue the search until they had knocked on every door, and planned to work through the night for the second day in a row. They were helped by receding floodwaters, but there were constant surprises as people rowed and sloshed through towns. Two people who took a flat-bottom boat to check on a funeral home in the city of Orange passed by the local cemetery and found dozens of caskets had popped above ground in the floodwaters. Only a chain-link fence kept them from drifting into the surrounding neighborhood. "I haven't seen any bodies, just caskets," said one of the men, Warren Claybar. The storm also took a toll in Louisiana, where hundreds of homes were flooded and power outages worsened as the state struggles to recover from Hurricane Gustav. In Hackberry, La., about 15 miles from the coast, workers moved a large shrimp boat out of the highway with a bulldozer, but the team had to stop because of strong currents in the floodwaters and difficulty in seeing the roadway. Seven people died in Texas, including the five in Galveston. A 4-year-old Houston boy died of carbon monoxide poisoning from the generator his family was using for power, and two people died in Louisiana. President Bush made plans to visit the area Tuesday. He said he intends to express "the federal government's support sympathy on the one hand and support on the other - for this recovery effort and rebuilding effort." The oil industry was trying to find out how severe damage was to at least 10 production platforms destroyed. 7 |