World News : Earmarks is hot topics for McCain, Palin criticize Obama ??
LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. - John McCain and Sarah Palin criticized Democrat Barack Obama over the amount of money he has requested for his home state of Illinois, even though Alaska under Palin's leadership has asked Washington for 10 times more money per citizen for pet projects.

At a rally in swing state Missouri, the Republican presidential nominee and his running mate accused Obama of requesting nearly $1 billion in earmarks for his state during his time as a senator. The new line of attack came after Obama made his first direct criticism of Palin over the weekend, using the topic of earmarks, which are special projects that lawmakers try to get for their districts and constituents.

"Just the other day our opponent brought up earmarks — and frankly I was surprised that he would even raise the subject at all," Palin said. "I thought he wouldn't want to go there."

Obama hasn't asked for any earmarks this year. Last year, he asked for $311 million worth, about $25 for every Illinois resident. Alaska asked this year for earmarks totaling $198 million, about $295 for every Alaska citizen.

Palin has cut back on pork project requests, but under her administration, Alaska is still and by far the largest per-capita consumer of federal pet-project spending.

The governor did reject plans to build the notorious "Bridge to Nowhere" after Congress had cut off its financing.

McCain and Palin were presented as a maverick team in a campaign ad released Monday that played up their reputation for taking on entrenched interests. The ad credits Palin with stopping the bridge without mentioning she once appeared to support it.

President Bush, who came to Washington as a former Texas governor without national legislative experience, called the Alaska governor "an inspired pick" by McCain.

"She's had executive experience, and that's what it takes to be a capable person in here in Washington, D.C., in the executive branch," he said in a Fox News interview to be shown Tuesday. In Rome, Vice President Dick Cheney also sought to deflect Democratic criticism that Palin, a former small-town mayor with less than two years in the governor's office, lacks the gravity to be vice president.

"Each administration is different," he said. "And there's no reason why Sarah Palin can't be a successful vice president in a McCain administration." He said her convention speech was superb.

In attacking Obama on Monday, McCain said the Illinois senator's earmark total over the years amounts to "almost a million dollars for every single day he was in the United States Senate."

For his part, McCain doesn't seek pork projects and vows to do away with them as president.

While speaking to voters in Indiana over the weekend, Obama ridiculed the idea of McCain and Palin presenting themselves as reformers, and suggested Palin was distorting her own record on earmarks.

"I know the governor of Alaska has been saying she's change, and that's great," Obama said Saturday. "She's a skillful politician. But, you know, when you've been taking all these earmarks when it's convenient, and then suddenly you're the champion anti-earmark person, that's not change. Come on! I mean, words mean something, you can't just make stuff up."

In a conference call with reporters, Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania questioned McCain's assertions that Palin has the necessary experience and record.

"I think she has tremendous potential, but she in no way shape or form is ready to be president of the United States," said Rendell, who knows Palin through the National Governors Association. "And that's something we've got to get across to the American people."

World News : Earmarks is hot topics for McCain, Palin criticize Obama ??

World news: Cindy McCain or Michelle Obama for the White House?

Cindy Lou Hensley McCain (born May 20, 1954) is an American businessperson and philanthropist, who is the wife of United States Senator and 2000 and 2008 presidential candidate John McCain of Arizona. She is chair of Hensley & Co.,one of the largest Anheuser-Busch beer distributors in the United States.

She founded and ran a non-profit organization, the American Voluntary Medical Team, from 1988 to 1995 that organized trips by medical personnel to disaster-struck or war-torn third-world areas. She continues to be an active philanthropist and serves on the boards of several charitable organizations.

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is an American lawyer and the wife of Illinois senator Barack Obama, the 2008 Democratic nominee for President. She was born and grew up on the South Side of Chicago and graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School. After completing her formal education, she returned to Chicago and went to work for the law firm Sidley Austin, on the staff of the Mayor of Chicago Richard M. Daley, and for the University of Chicago and the University of Chicago Hospitals. She is the sister of Craig Robinson, men's basketball coach at Oregon State University.

She met Barack when he went to work for Sidley Austin. The Obamas live on Chicago's South Side, choosing to remain there rather than moving to Washington, D.C.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cindy McCain or Michelle Obama for the White House?
Among fashionistas, the wives of the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama are drawing the kind of enthusiasm that Nancy Reagan and Jacqueline Kennedy once attracted.

As might be expected, style mavens' critiques focus less on what the potential first ladies say or do than on what they wear.

While Obama won fans for wearing a relatively affordable $150 dress on talk show "The View," McCain drew attention for her expensive tastes. Vanity Fair magazine estimated one outfit she wore at the Republican National Convention this week was worth $300,000.

The choice a week ago of John McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who took part in beauty pageants in her youth, also has caused a buzz. But Mickey Blum, director of survey research at Baruch College, said her style could not be compared to McCain and Obama.

"That's a different look because you have to look a little bit more serious and professional," Blum said.

The consensus at New York Fashion Week is that both potential first ladies have style but most designers in the traditionally Democratic-leaning industry would much rather have the chance to dress Obama over McCain.

"I am in the fashion industry, I live in New York -- I'm probably not going to go for McCain to dress," designer Rebecca Taylor told Reuters.

"Michelle is really fresh and she could sort of go where Jackie O went given the right sort of tools and grooming," she said. "I think it could be nice for America to have somebody who's a little bit more stylish as their first lady."

Obama, 44, is a Princeton and Harvard educated lawyer who has appeared in Vogue and was named on Vanity Fair's 2008 International Best Dressed List for the second time.

PURPLE DRESS DREW PRAISE

Obama has won particular praise for a purple sheath dress and black belt she wore at a rally in June when her husband clinched the Democratic nomination as candidate for the Nov. 4 election.

"She has a kind of style which is accessible and also spans generations, it appeals to young girls and their grandmothers, it translates across class lines (and) racial lines," said Amy Fine Collins, special correspondent with Vanity Fair.

"Cindy McCain's look is one we are familiar with, she's absolutely right and absolutely appropriate for the role she's in, but it doesn't feel new," she said. "She has expensive tastes and less of a grab-it-and-go approach to clothes."

McCain, 54, chairs her family's business, beer distributor Hensley and Co., and has worked for international charities. Imogen Fox wrote in Britain's The Guardian newspaper that McCain is "always immaculate, with never a hair out of place."

"But this striving for perfection is also her un-doing: she doesn't know how to have fun with fashion," she said.

Designers and commentators note McCain favors tailored jackets and skirts, while Obama tends to wear dresses.

Designer Michael Angel said he would prefer to dress Obama and would create "the ultimate little shift dress" for her in a print silk twill. For McCain he could contribute a printed silk blouse for her to wear under one of her suits.

Raul Melgoza, creative director at Luca Luca, said he would be happy dressing either woman.

"Although they are different personalities -- McCain being more western and Obama being compared to Kennedy -- I feel like the common thread between them both is that they have a classic sensibility to their clothing," Melgoza told Reuters.

If the style of Obama and McCain has fashionistas buzzing, does it have any influence in the campaign?

"I don't think anyone's going to win or lose based on what the wives are wearing," Blum said. "What it does is give a general impression of what the wife is like and maybe family."

"Cindy McCain may have a look that's almost a little too polished and put together and her clothes might look a bit too expensive and out of reach for the average person," Blum said. "Michelle Obama dresses in clothes that seem much more accessible to ordinary women and working moms."

For Tim Gunn, style guru and mentor to the fledgling fashion designers on the television reality show "Project Runway," there is no contest.

"Michelle really epitomizes American style and she's not afraid to show her shape," he told New York Magazine.

"She's just an alluring woman. And Cindy with her suits, and she's all buttoned up, she's just soooo -- she just looks like she's duct-taped!"

(Additional reporting by Jan Paschal)

Copyright © 2008 Reuters

World news: Cindy McCain or Michelle Obama for the White House?

Rachida Dati is the first woman from a non-European immigrant background, to occupy a key ministerial position in the French Cabinet.

She was elected mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris on 29 March 2008.

Rachida Dati : Sarkozy's former 'girlfriend' Justice Minister Rachida Dati reveals she is pregnant??

A senior French minister linked romantically with President Nicolas Sarkozy during his bachelor days today confirmed she was pregnant through an unnamed lover.

Rachida Dati, 42, admitted she led a "complicated private life" and that "I want to be careful because I'm still at a risky stage."

It was only at the end of last year, following Mr Sarkozy's divorce from his second wife, that the Justice Minister was said to have been a girlfriend.

At a New Year's Eve party Carla Bruni - also competing for the president's affections at the time - is said to have pointed at a double bed in the Elysée Palace and - turning to Miss Dati - said: "You’d have loved to occupy it, wouldn't you?"

The scene is recounted in the highly authoritative book "Carla and Nicolas - The True Story", which charts the couple's 80-day romance which culminated in marriage in February.

Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy, whose past lovers include Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton, resented Miss Dati's friendship with the president, the book claims.

The book says the women "who were just getting to know each other, were also learning how to detest each other". Miss Bruni finally married the President in February.
Miss Dati, who has never been married and is famous for her sexy choice of designer clothes, has been championed by Mr Sarkozy for many years, with constant rumours that they were having an affair before he met the then Miss Bruni.

Opponents have attacked her for being too frivolous for a senior office of state - giving her the cruel nickname “Rachida Barbie”, as in Barbie Doll.

Miss Dati is a close friend of Mr Sarkozy's ex-wife, Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz, who called her "my little sister" - making the new Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy dislike her even more.

Miss Dati confirmed rumours to reporters in Paris, adding: "I will say nothing more for the moment about the father."

Today media reports named former Spanish premier Jose Aznar as the father - a charge he vehemently denied, threatening legal action.

The minister's swelling figure, photographed outside a cabinet meeting last month as the government returned from its summer break, fuelled a storm of media rumours about her pregnancy.

Miss Dati said it was "fundamental" for her to have a child, adding: "I will be happy and feel as if I have completed the circle. If not I will be deeply sad, but I will put a coat of lipstick on it, and carry the burden on my own."

As the only woman from an ethnic minority - and the only French Arab - to reach the cabinet, Miss Dati often says she feels she is perfectly entitled to enjoy herself.

Questioned by Paris Match about her love for Prada, Chanel and Dior earlier this year she said:

“Ever since I was little I had a taste for being well dressed. It’s a question of showing respect towards others.”

The latest controversy is likely to be like water off a duck’s back for the tough Miss Dati, one of twelve children of a Moroccan bricklayer and an illiterate Algerian housewife.

She suffered far worse abuse last month when her younger brothers Omar Dati and Jamal Dati were given prison sentences for drug dealing.

Both had previous convictions for trafficking illegal substances including heroin and cannabis.

The fact that a Justice Minister’s family were doing time in the prisons she was responsible for running did not create positive headlines.

Miss Dait, who left school at 16 but studied at night to gain degrees in economic and law before become a magistrate, rejected the notion that she should be a role model. She said: “My life is not a beautiful story."

In 1997, she was admitted to the École nationale de la magistrature, a public educational institution which offers courses necessary to become a magistrate. Upon leaving in 1999, she became a legal auditor at the Bobigny tribunal de grande instance (high court).

She went on to become judge for collective procedures^[3] at the tribunal de grande instance in Péronne and eventually an assistant to the attorney general of the Évry tribunal.

In 2002, she became Nicolas Sarkozy's advisor, working for him on an anti-delinquancy project). In 2006, she joined the UMP party. On January 14 2007, she was named spokeswoman for Sarkozy on the day he was chosen as UMP candidate for the presidential elections of April 2007 .

After Nicolas Sarkozy's victory on May 6 2007, she was appointed Minister of Justice. Her first changes were received coldly by professionals,with public demonstrations.

Dati has been criticized by the satirical weekly Le Canard enchaîné for her methods (perceived as rushed and uninsightful) and her demeanour (seen as excessively authoritarian), and for her alleged tendency to show off in costly clothes, mostly Christian Dior.

Rachida Dati : Sarkozy's former 'girlfriend' Justice Minister Rachida Dati reveals she is pregnant??

Born to a Moroccan father, a bricklayer, and an Algerian mother, Rachida Dati is the second child of a family of 12. She spent her childhood in Chalon-sur-Saône in Burgundy.
After attending Catholic school, she began work at 16 as a paramedical assistant. She then worked for three years as an accountant at Elf Aquitaine while continuing her studies in economics and business management.

After meeting Jean-Luc Lagardère in 1990, she entered the audit management team of Matra Nortel communication. She later spent a year in London at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, in the records management and archiving department. In 1994, she was an auditing supervisor and secretary-general of the bureau of urban development studies at Suez (then Lyonnaise des Eaux). From 1995 to 1997, she worked as a technical advisor at the legal management division of the Ministry of Education.

Rachida Dati: Courts trouble in a little Dior dress??
By posing in a Dior dress and high-heeled boots, President Sarkozy’s glamorous Justice Minister has fuelled a revolt by judges and lawyers who are accusing her of destroying the fabric of the French justice system.

As Rachida Dati, 42, defended herself yesterday over supposedly frivolous pictures for Paris Match magazine, 37 lawyers chained themselves to a courthouse in the southern town of Bourgoin in protest against her decision to close 300 tribunals across France.

Ms Dati, who is Mr Sarkozy’s closest protégée and Cabinet icon of racial diversity, has drawn the wrath of the legal profession since she began to prune the sprawling court system this autumn. Judges’ unions, court staff and lawyers are staging marches, hunger strikes and working to rule in order to reverse her reforms.

For many judges and lawyers, Ms Dati’s decision to flaunt her looks in Paris Match was a provocation by a woman who has shown contempt towards the hardship that she is imposing. Bruno Thouzellier, president of the Syndical Union of Judges (USM), lamented “the contrast between her show of riches, dresses by grand couturiers and grand hotels and the difficult reality that justice personnel are living through”.

he trade unions are also unhappy that Ms Dati spends time accompanying Mr Sarkozy on most of his foreign trips.

The minister came under fire yesterday from Élisabeth Guigou, a former Socialist Justice Minister, for cultivating a sexy image that conflicted with her solemn function.

“This ministry occupies a special role in the State, dealing with serious subjects such as prisons,” Ms Guigou told Ms Dati in an interview for VSD magazine in the minister’s office. “You have to be careful about glamour images . . . Since your nomination, people are a little too interested in the anecdotal side of your personality.”

Ironically, Ms Guigou, a former protégée of the late President Mitterrand, suffered in the 1990s from the same nickname that is now Ms Dati’s — the Barbie Doll minister.

Ms Dati, a one-time magistrate with no political experience, is unrepentant over her glossy image despite a drop of a dozen points in her approval rating over the past month as she has faced the judicial rebellion.

Questioned about her love for Prada, Chanel and Dior, she said: “Ever since I was little I had a taste for being well dressed. It’s a question of showing respect towards others,” she told Paris Match.

As the child of poor immigrants from Algeria and Morocco, Ms Dati argues that she has earned the right to enjoy fine clothes. Her view springs straight from Mr Sarkozy’s doctrine that there is nothing wrong with flaunting the fruits of hard-earned success.

In her interview, Ms Dati also said that she loved parties and was not neglecting her romantic life. The minister is said by French media to be in a close relationship with one of Mr Sarkozy’s industrialist friends.

The President has been defending her fiercely, admiring the way that she stands out from the traditional justice world, “those grey-haired men all ranked together like peas in a pod”, as he put it on television last month.

Rachida Dati: Courts trouble in a little Dior dress??

Rachida Dati (born 27 November 1965 in Saint-Rémy, Burgundy) is a French politician. She holds two nationalities, French and Moroccan (French by jus soli and Moroccan by jus sanguinis) – although she calls herself "a French woman of French origins". A spokesperson for French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy in the election of 2007, he appointed her Minister of Justice on 18 May 2007.
Dati is the first woman from a non-European immigrant background, to occupy a key ministerial position in the French Cabinet.
She was elected mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris on 29 March 2008.

In September 2008, Dati announced her pregnancy and the fact she would be a single mother. She revealed her pregnancy to a small group of reporters who questioned her about the mounting rumours. "I want to remain careful, because . . . I am still in the risky stage. I am 42," she was quoted as saying

Rachida Dati : Rachida Dati seduce of Nicolas Sarkozy??

The 40-year-old model and singer pointed at a double bed in the Elysée Palace and - turning to justice minister Rachida Dati, who is 42 and single - said: "You’d have loved to occupy it, wouldn't you?"

The scene is reounted in Carla and Nicolas - The True Story, which charts the couple's 80-day romance which culminated in marriage in February.

What makes the book, by respected journalists Yves Azéroual and Valérie Benaïm, so remarkable is that Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy is quoted throughout.

It is the first time that a French first lady has discussed her life with the president in intimate detail - something likely to shock many in France, a conservative country which has some of the strictest privacy laws in the world.

Twice-divorced Mr Sarkozy, 53, met his latest wife at a Paris dinner party last November.

It was frequently rumoured that he enjoyed a close relationship with Miss Dati.

Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy, whose past lovers include Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton, resented Miss Dati's friendship with the president, the book claims.

Following a New Year's Eve dinner at the Elysée, Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy and Miss Dati were walking in the palace's private apartments when the then Miss Bruni is said to have pointed at Mr Sarkozy's bed and said: "You'd have loved to occupy it, wouldn't you?"

The book says the women "who were just getting to know each other, were also learning how to detest each other".

Miss Dati was a close friend of Mr Sarkozy's ex-wife, Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz, who called her "my little sister" - making the new Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy dislike her even more.

Miss Ciganer-Albéniz, who has since married Richard Attias, an events planner, has made some claims of her own about the women in her former husband's life.

In Cécilia, a book by the French journalist Anna Biton, Miss Ciganer-Albéniz called the president's female friends a "bunch of slappers" and young female government ministers "boring wallflowers".

She also branded Mr Sarkozy a "stingy philanderer" with a "behavioural problem" who is an "unworthy president" of France.

Recalling her first meeting with Mr Sarkozy - who is some almost five inches smaller than his statuesque first lady - Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy says: "I didn't expect him to be that funny, and so lively."

The dinner party was the home of public relations Jacques Séguéla, with Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy saying: "When I arrived, I realised that it was a blind date.

"There were three couples and the two of us, two single people. It was love at first sight."

She adds: "His physique, his charm, and his intelligence have all seduced me. He has five or six brains and is remarkably clever.

"I've never dated a half-wit before, it's not my style. But him; he's very, very quick. And he's got an incredible memory."

In words which will also infuriate many in France, Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy underplays her official role - saying she would much rather concentrate on her musical career.

She says: "I have no intention of changing my job. I have a function, but it's not a job. A function like mine is not a job, I inherited it with my marriage."

Commenting on the president's workload, Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy says: "I'm often scared for him. It's unimaginable how much work he does so I try to help him to look after himself."

Referring to the ancient Greek myth of Sisyphus, a king punished by being cursed to roll a huge boulder up a hill for eternity only to watch it roll down again, Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy said Mr Sarkozy is: "Like all of us, a bit like Sisyphus, he likes to push the rock. But he's made of stern stuff. Three rays of sunshine and he finds life magnificent."

On Wednesday both the Elysée Palace and Ministry of Justice in Paris said they had no comment to make about the love lives of senior ministers, let alone the president.

But government sources pointed to extracts in the book in which the frosty relationship between Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy and Miss Dati is played down.

It points out that Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy, a multi-millionaire in her own right, helped Miss Dati during her campaign to become mayor of Paris's VIIth arrondissement.

Referring to Miss Dati, Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy says: "I see her frequently, she makes me smile a lot. The rumours must come from claims that she's a friend of the ex-wife of my husband.

"But there's no hostility between us.

"I sent her the two addresses of friends so she could have meetings in their apartments during the municipal campaign."

Making it clear that her official role has made concerts impossible, Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy said: "All that has changed is that I can't tour. At least not while my husband is president of the Republic. It's something I'll have to get used to."

Rachida Dati : Rachida Dati seduce of Nicolas Sarkozy??