'Joe the Plumber' turns Mideast war reporter

ArticleData Array ( [Article] => Array ( [article_id] => 1004798 [headline] => 'Joe the Plumber' turns Mideast war reporter [abstract] => The Ohio man who shot to fame during the US presidential campaign has travelled to Israel as a war correspondent for pjtv.com. [keywords] => israel, gaza, hamas, joe the plumber, obama, mccain, wurzelbacher [content] =>

An Ohio man, who shot to fame during the US presidential campaign for asking Barack Obama about his tax plan has travelled to Israel as a war correspondent for pjtv.com.

'Joe the Plumber', whose real name is Samuel Wurzelbacher travelled to the south Israeli town of Sderot hoping to give ‘ordinary Israelis’ a voice in the media, he said.

The people of Sderot "can't do normal things day to day,", for fear a rocket might come in,” said Wurzelbacher.

Wurzelbacher landed in Israel on Friday and said he has already experienced several rocket alerts.

On Sunday, he was shown remains of rockets while an Israeli police spokesman briefed him about the situation in Sderot.

Standing in front of a pile of spent rockets Wurzelbacher said "I have thousands of questions but I can't think of the right one."

What he could summon up quickly was anger against Israel's critics, who are outraged by the more than 800 Palestinians killed in Israel's bruising air and ground onslaught against Gaza.

Thirteen Israelis have also died since the operation began, including four killed by the rocket fire that has been cited by Israel to be the reason for the war in the first place.

However, war correspondent or not, Wurzelbacher will not be able to enter Gaza due to Israel’s blockade of foreign journalists there.
 

[start_date] => 12 January 2009 | 11:26:44 AM [comments_allowed] => 1 [source] => APTV [commentCount] => 2 [video] => [image] => Array ( [caption] => Samuel Wurzelbacher, dubbed 'Joe the Plumber' by the Republican campaign during the US elections, is in Israel to cover the Gaza conflict for a conservative online news organisation. [useRegularImage] => 1 [media_library_id] => 58266 [site_id] => 1 [media_library_group_id] => 0 [media_usage_id] => 0 [filename] => site_1_rand_39043707_joe_plumber_sderot_1201_b_getty.jpg [title] => joe_plumber_sderot_1201_B_getty_39043707 [description] => file:site_1_rand_39043707_joe_plumber_sderot_1201_b_getty.jpg [type] => [height] => 338 [width] => 450 [source] => [video_hi] => [video_lo] => [section] => [display_order] => 0 [create_date] => 2009-01-12 12:03:00 [active] => 1 [media_usage] => Article Large [usageWidth] => 300 [usageHeight] => 225 ) [imagePath] => http://media.sbs.com.au/news/upload_media/ [audio] => [reporter] => [relatedLinks] => Array ( [4] => Array ( [id] => 1004771 [label] => Israel 'nearing goal' in Gaza [display_order] => 0 [type] => Article ) [3] => Array ( [id] => 1004768 [label] => World protests mount over Gaza strife [display_order] => 0 [type] => Article ) [2] => Array ( [id] => 1004764 [label] => Bombing of UN school 'a mistake' [display_order] => 0 [type] => Article ) [1] => Array ( [id] => 560755 [label] => 'Joe the Plumber' tour [display_order] => 0 [type] => Article ) [0] => Array ( [id] => 560644 [label] => McCain 'for Joe the CEO' [display_order] => 0 [type] => Article ) ) [relatedArticles] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [article_id] => 560644 [headline] => McCain 'for Joe the CEO' [abstract] => Move over 'Joe the Plumber' -- the latest stars of the White House race are 'Joe the CEO' and 'Joe the Hedge Fund Manager'.
BLOG: Roadside America
VIDEO: Palin costumes a Halloween hit
[content] =>

Move over Joe the Plumber ... here come the latest stars of the White House race: Joe the CEO and Joe the Hedge Fund Manager.

Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama Wednesday mocked Republican John McCain's idolizing of Joe the Plumber, an Ohio tradesmen with whom he clashed on taxes earlier this month.

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"Let's be clear who John McCain is fighting for -- he's not fighting for Joe the Plumber, he's fighting for Joe the Hedge Fund Manager," Obama told a delirious crowd of 12,000 people packed into a Virginia hockey arena.

"John McCain likes to talk about Joe the Plumber, but he's in cahoots with Joe the CEO," Obama said, 13 days before election day.

"Don't be fooled, don't let them hoodwink you, if you make less than a quarter million of a year, which includes 98 percent of small business owners, you won't see your taxes increase one single dime."

McCain, who Obama accuses of prioritizing the rich in his tax cut plans, paid his latest tribute to Joe the Plumber aka Joe Wurzelbacher during a campaign event in New Hampshire on Wednesday.

"Every so often, my opponent gives us all a little glimpse of what an Obama presidency would be like in the real world," McCain said.

"Last week his campaign actually found itself on a detour into the real world -- in the driveway of Joe the Plumber.

Obama's comment that he wanted to "spread the wealth" in his conversation with Wurzelbacher, 34, in Toledo, Ohio, prompted Republicans to claim he wanted to implement socialist tax redistribution policies.

"It was a candid moment for Senator Obama, in the presence of a sceptical voter," McCain said Wednesday.

"In a campaign as disciplined and careful as my opponent's, the worst missteps come when the candidate says what he really thinks."

Polls in Ohio suggested however that Joe the Plumber's star turn had done little to change the minds of voters.

[content_type_id] => 3 [site_name] => World News Australia [articledate] => 23 October 2008 [articletime] => 23 October 2008 [display_order] => 0 ) [1] => Array ( [article_id] => 560755 [headline] => 'Joe the Plumber' tour [abstract] => John McCain meets a lumber merchant, a dentist, a Puerto Rican restauranteur and a fruit stand owner during his bus tour.
IN-DEPTH: US elections
BLOG: Roadside America – Virginia's Voters [content] => John McCain cast himself as the defender of small business and American values as he struggled to overtake rival Barack Obama's lead in the polls with 12 days left in the epic US presidential election.

For the second week since Obama's chance encounter with an Ohio plumber worried about the Democrat's tax plans, the Republican senator hammered at his rival's assertion that everyone is better off if you "spread the wealth around".

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McCain was meeting a lumber merchant, a dentist, a Puerto Rican restauranteur and a fruit stand owner during his "Joe the Plumber" bus tour through the battleground state of Florida amid a national economic downturn.

The now-famous Joe Wurzelbacher of Holland, Ohio has not yet appeared with McCain, but the campaign is holding him up as a symbol of the hopes and dreams of all Americans who own a business or, like Joe, dream of doing so one day.

McCain warned voters that if Obama raised taxes on small businesses making more than 250,000 dollars, it would "kill jobs" and "comes at the worst possible time for America."

"Senator Obama wants to raise taxes and restrict trade," said McCain at a rally in an Ormond Beach lumber yard. "The last time America did that in a bad economy it led to the Great Depression."

McCain noted that small businesses had managed to create around 300,000 jobs, even as the broader economy lost more than 700,000 jobs so far this year.

"We're talking to small business people all over the state of Florida and all over American and we've got to restore their hopes and dreams for American because that's the basis of our economy," he said after lunch with Hispanic entrepreneurs in Orlando.

"My commitment to the small business owners here is I will not quote feel the need to quote spread their wealth around. I want them to keep their wealth and create jobs."

McCain said he was "confident" he could turn the economy around with his plan to cut taxes, decrease spending, invest in alternative energy and prop up the housing market by buying up bad mortgages.

"We need to win on November 4 and we're going to win Florida and bring realchange to Washington, DC," he told the Ormond Beach rally.

A new sheaf of opinion polls in battleground states by Quinnipiac University cast sharp doubt on McCain's prospects.

Obama led his Republican rival in Florida by 49 to 44 percent, compared to a 51-43 percent lead in the last survey October 1, and in Pennsylvania by 53-40 percent, compared to 54-39 percent previously.

McCain lost ground in Ohio -- often the decisive state in presidential elections -- where Obama leads 52-38 percent, expanding his lead of 50-42 percent at the beginning of this month.

No candidate has been elected president since 1960 without taking two of these three states in the US electoral college.

"To overcome Senator Obama's lead in Ohio, Senator McCain would have to get virtually every voter who remains undecided plus almost all of the Obama supporters who said they still might change their minds," said Quinnipiac's assistant director of polling Peter Brown. [content_type_id] => 3 [site_name] => World News Australia [articledate] => 24 October 2008 [articletime] => 24 October 2008 [display_order] => 0 ) [2] => Array ( [article_id] => 1004764 [headline] => Bombing of UN school 'a mistake' [abstract] => The popularity of Hamas and other Islamic groups in the Arab world is on the rise due to the Gaza war, as Israeli defence officials say the bombing of a UN school was caused by a 'stray mortar'.
[content] =>

The popularity of Hamas and other Islamic groups in the Arab world is on the rise due to the Gaza war, as Israeli defence officials say the bombing of a UN school was caused by a 'stray mortar'.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports an 'errant' mortar missed its target by about 30 metres, hitting the school and killing around 40 people.

Israel initially said militants were hiding in the Fakhura school in Jabaliya.

Palestinian sources denied this, and said all of those killed were civilians.

Israel now says troops fired three rounds at a target close to the school. Two of the mortars deployed hit the intended target, but the third missed, and hit the UN building.

Media battle 'lost'

Meanwhile, analysts say the Israeli offensive in Gaza is actually strengthening support for Hamas and other Islamist movements.

"Hamas appears to be scoring points," said Dhia Rashwan, an Egyptian specialist in Islamist movements.

"So far, Israel has not achieved all its military and political objectives and has lost the media battle."

Israel's military offensive on the Hamas-controlled territory has killed at least 875 Palestinians, including 275 children, and left 3,620 wounded, since it began on December 27.

'Imbalance'

Media coverage shows an imbalance between a modern force, armed to the teeth with the most sophisticated weapons, and a militia equipped only for guerrilla warfare, analysts say.

This appears to have contributed to inciting angry protests worldwide, mainly in Arab countries, they believe.

"This is a repetition of the major crises seen in the region during the past few years," which strengthened Islamism in the Arab world, Rashwan said.

He highlighted Israel's war on Lebanon in July 2006, which failed to destroy the military might of the Iran-backed Shi'ite Hezbollah, and the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq, which brought Islamism to the forefront of the resistance.

"Opposition in the Arab world has become led by Islamist movements ... Public opinion is led by these movements," at the expense of Arab nationalists and liberal oppositions who are losing ground."

Meanwhile, "the gap between Arab regimes and their people is being widened all the time", Rashwan said.

Abdul Aziz al-Sager, head of the Dubai-based Gulf Research Centre (GRC), agreed that Islamists are reaping a windfall of popularity from the Gaza war.

Support for jihad 'rising'

"Injustice serves the Islamist movements, putting them in the vanguard through their support for jihad", or holy war, in the Arab world, he said.

"What Israel is doing in Gaza is strengthening Hamas" in terms of gaining the backing of the public opinion for the movement, although "part of this opinion still notices a lack of political maturity of this movement", Sager said.

"In wanting to wipe out the resistance, you have created a resistance inside every household," Hamas's exiled political chief, Khaled Meshaal, told Israeli leaders in a speech on Saturday.

"As Israel strikes Hamas to weaken it, this movement is becoming stronger among the Palestinians and Arabs, mainly as it has proven to be the only one to stand up to Israel, following the example of Hezbollah in Lebanon," Bahraini activist Ali Fakhrou said.

"Through this war, Israel does not seek (just) to hit Hamas, but the Islamist resistance which is feared by the United States and its allies among the Arab regimes, who believe that success for this resistance would lead to fundamental changes" in the region, he said.

'Protection' from Islamist movements

"Islamist movements, born out of the void created by the collapse of the Arab nationalist and leftist ideologies, are the only ones capable of protecting the region from the madness of US politics and Israel," said the former Arab nationalist.

"Islamist movements are going to dominate the political scene for many years to come," Fakhrou predicted, citing the "interaction between these movements and the Arab street where recent pro-Gaza demonstrations were dominated by Islamist slogans and calls for jihad".

Jordan's Princess Haya, a UN messenger of peace, also warned that growing Arab anger and frustration over Israel's war in the Gaza Strip, could spiral out of control.

"I think the frustration on the Arab street, the humiliation, the hurt, the anger and the sadness are something that can't be kept under control very easily in the near coming future if this (war) continues," said Haya, daughter of late King Hussein and wife to Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.

[content_type_id] => 3 [site_name] => World News Australia [articledate] => 12 January 2009 [articletime] => 12 January 2009 [display_order] => 0 ) ) [comments] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [articles_ugc_id] => 16405 [author] => Dave [source] => Queensland [content] => What's next, Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck reporting?
If they are going to send a puppet in to report, maybe they should send Kermit the Frog or Miss Piggy.
It just show's how desperate Israel is getting trying to buy support for its war crimes.
As for the people of Sderot, I'd rather be one of them living in fear of a rocket attack then someone in Gaza having to deal with actual rocket attacks tank shells, blockades. Oh the people of Sderot have it soooo bad. [user_headline] => What's Next? [comment_date] => 12 Jan 2009 19:27 AEST [agree] => 4 [disagree] => 0 ) [1] => Array ( [articles_ugc_id] => 16398 [author] => James [source] => Melbourne [content] => Did that reporter think about the 300 Children died in Gaza?
We need the truth of this massive number of death toll in Gaza.
Does he expect the Palestinians to die without defending themselves? [user_headline] => Report about the Civilian Killed in Gaza [comment_date] => 12 Jan 2009 14:18 AEST [agree] => 5 [disagree] => 0 ) ) ) [winston] => test )