There's Still Time ...

...to Put Up or Shut Up.

(Grabbed that image from Ta-Nehisi Coates. Read the post, too, Hegemaniacs.)

Oh no, not creepy at all

(Brian Snyder/Reuters)

John McCain

Decides who will really inspire him. And it isn't the guy on the left.

Yes, I can

Walk two-thirds of a mile in pleasant weather.

To see Obama.

See Champollion's post yesterday. I just drove by the location. It's going to be, well, very densely populated.

I do have one wish for the Obama Campaign before the elections out or on election night.

There's a song I really missed at the Democratic National Convention, at least from what I could hear.

How about just one rousing playing of "HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN"?

We all know Obama has real affection for FDR, so how about it?

Good "erratic" plan as always

The smartest thing the Bush Campaign did in 2004 is the thing McCain will not do in 2008 because he wants his last chance to go all in as "America's Biggest Asshole".

Sen. John McCain and the Republican National Committee will unleash a barrage of spending on television advertising that will allow him to keep pace with Sen. Barack Obama's ad blitz during the campaign's final days, but the expenditures will impact McCain's get-out-the-vote efforts, according to Republican strategists.

He's already got a huge enthusiasm gap, now he's not going to even try to compete with the Obama Campaign's effort to get people to the polls.

Oh, good plan!

Good to see he wants to keep building up his legacy as a national joke though.

Hey John McCain, Joe "the Original Right Wing Blogger" McCarthy called

...and he wants his act back!

A slander so vile even Fred Hiatt calls McCain an "idiot":

To suggest, as Mr. McCain has, that there is something reprehensible about associating with Mr. Khalidi is itself condemnable -- especially during a campaign in which Arab ancestry has been the subject of insults. To further argue that the Times, which obtained the tape from a source in exchange for a promise not to publicly release it, is trying to hide something is simply ludicrous, as Mr. McCain surely knows.

Which reminds us: We did ask Mr. Khalidi whether he wanted to respond to the campaign charges against him. He answered, via e-mail, that "I will stick to my policy of letting this idiot wind blow over." That's good advice for anyone still listening to the McCain campaign's increasingly reckless ad hominem attacks. Sadly, that wind is likely to keep blowing for four more days.

John McCain is not a man very comfortable in his own skin. His self-proclaimed "honorableness" has been exposed as an epic fail on the grandest of scales. He has become a joke, letting the worst of right-wing bloggers steer a course from stupidity to vile.

And he can suck.on.that. for the rest of his days.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Bellwether

Obama's video watched by tens of millions, many of whom turn to Olbermann causing him to thrash O'Reilly in the Demo and nearly catch him in overall viewers.

And folks stayed on MSNBC.

Look at Maddow's ratings versus Larry King's, even with the latter's heavily promoted appearance by John McCain.

Obama, tens of millions, McCain, third in Cable News ratings.

Snark

Dies at the hands of reality.

Still Got It

P.S. Follow the money: The Economist endorses BHO.

Obama's Appearance in Des Moines

Attaturk and I are among the hearty Iowans who will be in attendance at Senator Obama's appearance in Des Moines Friday--no matter the conditions. We are used to it, I mean not like Minnesota Vikings fans pre-Metrodome, but still--we live in Iowa. The venue for the event Friday is all torn up and muddy so all of you from out of town, the weather is supposed to be nice but bring your mud shoes because yer gonna need 'em. Don't know who did the advance on this one but...

I am going to see the next Preznit of the United States and I am pumped.

Et tu, Joe the Plumber, et tu?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!



Rats getting plunged, flushed, or snaked off a sinking ship.

IT'S A HIT

Obamathon, the Reckoning was a big hit in prime time:

The Obama-mercial was fairly highly rated across the three broadcast networks (CBS, Fox and NBC) in the early metered market numbers. Between the three networks it scored an impressive combined 17.8/29 (household rating/share).

If ABC truly hoped that by being only scripted programming on broadcast for 8:00pm-8:30p, it would help out Pushing Daisies, that plan went awry. My guess is ABC was more likely just looking to burn off an episode. Daisies scored a 4.2/7, pretty much the identical rating it had a week ago up (4.2/6). The good news is things didn’t get worse. But, unless there was a major up tick of 18-49 viewers, not getting worse won’t help any.

Looks like Pushing Daisies may soon literally be pushing daisies.

But seriously, are we sure that wasn't a McCain commercial?

I hear Matt Lauer opined that...

Obama's 30-minute program was "a little sappy".

Well, he should know, being a Sap and all.

A display of Matt Lauer's profound intellect:

Golly Matt, I know I'm just a poor midwestern law talkin' guy but I think I'd manage not to ask Bobby Kennedy's son how his father is doing.

Oh noes!

McCain sort of lost George Will already, but now the GOP is losing him:

From the invasion of Iraq to the selection of Sarah Palin, carelessness has characterized recent episodes of faux conservatism. Tuesday's probable repudiation of the Republican Party will punish characteristics displayed in the campaign's closing days.

Some polls show that Palin has become an even heavier weight in John McCain's saddle than his association with George W. Bush. Did McCain, who seems to think that Palin's never having attended a "Georgetown cocktail party" is sufficient qualification for the vice presidency, lift an eyebrow when she said that vice presidents "are in charge of the United States Senate"?

We've learned repeatedly during this campaign that the ever tone-deaf McCain drops certain phrases like anvils. From "my friends" to "I'm a Maverick" to "Joe the Plumber" his ability to turn quaint into quackery has been a sight to behold.

But the oft turned phrase "Georgetown Cocktail Parties" that McCain claims to rebel against and set up as a qualification for Palin is amongst the dumbest.

Who has been a bigger fixture on "the hot-barbecued sauced weenie on a toothpick and crab dip circuit" than John Sidney McCain the Third?

Besides, one thing we've learned about Palin, if she showed up at a party thrown by Sally Quinn, you know she'd bring whatever random daughter who isn't pregnant to go with her and put the whole tab on the State of Alaska.

Undecideds

I haven't seen it directly, but apparently in an effort to up the drama, the McCain campaign with an added boost from Chuck the Todd on MSNBC are proclaiming that "undecideds" will break overwhelmingly for McCain.

Undecideds, like other elections, at this time make up about 8 percent of the polled electorate.

The McCain campaign seems to be trying say all undecideds will vote McCain. While Todd appears to imply that 7 in 10 undecideds will.

Now, Chuck Todd is supposed to be NBC's vote counter, this theory of his is absolute bullshit and I cannot believe he doesn't know this.

Let's go to the historical record:

In the past eight presidential contests, voters who made up their minds during the last week of the campaign never went for either ticket by large margins of 3-2 or 2-1, which potentially could tip the scales.

“There is likely no hidden life raft in the undecided vote for John McCain,” said Andy Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center.

Undecideds generally split 50-50, with a slight variance going one way or the other. The only way McCain is going to be able to win is to peel Obama's soft supporters away.

But what's the problem there?

Negative ads are more likely to turn off those voters, or simply convince them not to vote than to change to McCain. McCain has never given any of these folks a reason to vote for him now, how is he going to convince them to get out and vote for him by Tuesday. Negative ads are supposed to drive someone's supporters away from voting, not in your favor.

Well, Obama has 74% plus strong and enthusiastic supporters, McCain has 56%. That's an extraordinary difference and explains why going negative in this election, the Rove playbook, has been a mistake by McCain. Because though he'd probably lose either way, he'll lose ugly the way he's chosen. He'll need that self-deluded sense of honor more than ever.

That's a LOT of enthusiasm to damper. Add in the fact that a third of voters have already voted and you see the problem.

Desperate

Sending out your paid pollster to proclaim "you still have a chance" is pretty much the campaign equivalent of a man telling a woman he's just getting "acquainted" with, "my other penis is not only not tiny but it works".

Somehow I have the feeling Tucker Bounds and Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the McCain campaign have used this line.

Remember fellas, it's not the size of the boat, it's whether it can fucking float in the ocean.

Obama's 30 minutes

Let me just say I loved it. But I'm in the tank.

The Anti-Eagleton

For the first time in history, a VP Candidate throws the Party's Standard Bearer under the bus:

Gov. Sarah Palin suggested that if the Republican ticket is defeated on Tuesday she expects to be a player in the next election four years from now, saying "I'm not doing this for naught."

She's virtually giving her fans a reason NOT to vote for McCain next Tuesday.

NICE VETTING!

You know Kerry and Edwards grew somewhat apart in 2004, it happens, but at least they managed to keep it in-house and even after the election didn't rip each other to shreds.

So has it been with pretty much every Ticket.

But not with the Mavericky Duo of Blinky & Winky, those two are already firing rocks at each other.

Just the sort of thing McCain needs to dominate his news over the weekend.

AWESOME!

Speaking of Obscurity

Ever wonder what fate befalls talentless old Republicans?

The Man claims to know a Commie when he tastes one

Query

When will John McCain start calling Sarah Palin a "cu#t" and a "trollop"?

Or are those pet names reserved for Cindy?

Lady Spendsalot

Back to my preferred position of mocking her:

And plenty of people on the McCain campaign are mystified as to how the $150,000 charges were racked up.

Moreover, McCain campaign sources say, Palin has developed quite a reputation on the campaign trail for shopping.

During this controversy, McCain insiders were appalled to read a blog account from Nevada noting that the day before Palin held an event in Reno, “Palin's assistant stopped in at the Ann Taylor at the Summit Sierra Mall and bought the skirt suit that she wore during to her speech Tuesday at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center. ‘She bought a short, three-quarter sleeve jacket, a skirt and a couple other items,’ store manager Suzette Ludden said.”

This, of course, is on top of the $150,000 she'd already spent.

But wait, that's not all -- it's a pattern. In addition to her "per diem" abuse and her post-dated attempts to get free flights and hotel rooms for the ever multiplying Palin clan, "Charge-it-cuda" has spent like a drunken sailor on other occasions.

GOP vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin spent more than $51,000 in taxpayer funds to remodel the governor’s Anchorage office suite and spruce up her mansion and office in Juneau, a Herald review of expense records shows.

Palin spent most of the funds, $45,137, in April to build and furnish three offices inside her suite at the Robert B. Atwood Building in Anchorage, records show.

An office she has hardly been in.

Time to Put Up or Shut Up

BHO (331332):
CA (55), CO (9), CT (7), DC (3), DE (3), GA (15) HI (34), IA (7), IL (21), MA (12), MD (10) ME (4), MI (17), MN (10), MT (3) ND (3) NH (4), NJ (15), NM (5), NV (5), NY (31), OH (20), OR (7), PA (21), RI (4), VA (13), VT (3), WA (11), WI (10)

McBUSH:
Obscurity

Three GOP House Asshats I most want to see crushed:
1. Musgrave (CO)
2. Bachmann (MN)
3. Garrett (NJ)

Two GOP Senate Asshats I most want to see crushed:
1. Coleman (MN)
2. McConnell (KY)

Put your fearless election predictions/desires in comments.

(No science here, people. Just looking at all the same sites you look at, plus making a few wild guesses and flipping a few coins.)

Thanks for the correction re HI, ProfRobert.

I think I know John McCain's secret plan for getting bin Laden

He's going to make it rain in western Pakistan. That'll sure make Osama flee his cave and/or villa.

...oh wait...

God knows, it scares the shit out of McCain (but then again, he is four years older than William Henry Harrison).

This is really awesome

Watch it:



via Digby

Good plan

How's all that time in Pennsylvania workin' out?

Despite numerous appearances in the Keystone State over the past month, Republican John McCain trails Democrat Barack Obama in Pennsylvania by 13 points, according to the latest Franklin & Marshall/Daily News poll.

The survey found Obama leading McCain 53 to 40 percent among likely voters. The margin was similar among all registered voters, with Obama holding a 51 to 39 percent lead.

And things are going swell in some of those "red" states too:

In Ohio, a state that has been battered for years by unemployment and plant closings, the Democrat is leading McCain, 49% to 40%, among people likely to vote.

In Florida, a state that was considered a likely win for Republicans not long ago, McCain is trailing, 50% to 43%.

No, really this time it will be awesome!

I do believe I've heard this before:

Microsoft: Next Windows won't be as annoying

The GOP is making the same promise.

Why do I have a feeling both promises carry equal weight?

Frontline

Tonight on Frontline a chilling look at the clusterfuck that is our policy regarding Pakistan.

Al I can say is when you make a deal with the devil, what do you expect? What a fucking mess.

My Friends...

A special request for John McCain because we here at Rising Hegemon never get enough of your yellow teeth and a green screen. Please bring it back.



Picture from here.

The post in which I express sympathy for Sarah Palin

I'm not a fan, and I've mocked her and she shouldn't be near the White House other than on a tour, but I feel sorry for her ultimately in comparison to the asshole who picked her. As reported by Robert Draper:

She's just woefully out of her depth:

Palin’s debate prep was going miserably, to the point where Schmidt had to peel off from McCain (who was having his own challenges responding to the financial crisis) and join Nicolle’s husband Mark Wallace in simplifying Palin’s prep so as to avert catastrophe...I’m sympathetic to Eskew and Wallace, and not just because they’re decent people. They’ve held their tongue from leaking what a couple of McCain higher-ups have told me—namely, that Palin simply knew nothing about national and international issues.

She is simply unqualified. To a certain extent, of course, her ignorance is her responsibility, but it's damning to McCain that he so cynically and irrationally picked her.

And then he turns into a bigger asshole:

I’ve heard from one well-placed source that McCain has snubbed her on one long bus ride aboard the Straight Talk Express, to the embarrassment of those sitting nearby. It has surely been implied to the governor that she should be eternally grateful to have been plucked from obscurity. And yet the high water mark of John McCain’s campaign for the presidency unquestionably began on September 3, when Palin gave her nomination speech—and ended precisely twelve days later, when McCain went off-script—I have that on the authority of the person who participated in the writing of said script—and told an audience that he still believed the fundamentals of the economy were strong.

This fits right into the accurate narrative of McCain. He is ALWAYS the honorable one, all errors cannot be made by him, because he views himself as the embodiment of all that is true, honorable, and correct. All things at variance with this are viewed with disdain. When Sarah Palin turned out to be unqualified and an embarrassment to him she gets shunned and the knives come out.

Even though it is all due to him, it's never his fault, but hers.

When you hear how "arrogant" Obama is, keep that in mind and tell me who the arrogant one really is.

Feel the love

Like a drunken Vegas Marriage:

Those loyal to McCain believe they have been unfairly blamed for over-handling Palin. They say they did the best they could with what they got.”

***In convo with Playbook, a top McCain adviser one-ups the priceless “diva” description, calling her “a whack job.”

Decisions you can believe in, my friends!

I call SHENANIGANS!!!

Every network is airing Obama's half-hour special on Wednesday, taking his million dollars. But ABC, obviously in the tank for Obama is going to be giving McCain free airtime.

ABC will air "Pushing Daisies" ... on Wednesday night -- not the Barack Obama ad.

SHAME!

Dear Huffington Post

Be fair, most objects above his head are in that situation.

Whoops

Could be worse, could be The Mark Foley Boys Club.

KKKlassy

Political filth being distributed in Wisconsin.

America's Concern Troll, strkes back

He stoops to conquer, how the frustrated sexless wonders of the right fell for Nanookie on an NRO Lust Cruise:

What followed, once everyone returned to the lower 48, was a gusher of mush -- praise, love notes, sweet nothings and, altogether, the sort of mooning one does not usually hear from the likes of William Kristol, Fred Barnes, Rich Lowry, Dick Morris and my Post colleague Michael Gerson. In short order, important writers set themselves the task, in print and on television, of promoting Palin and, in the process, making perfect asses of themselves. They succeeded at both.

There were fireworks and starbursts in their pants, only this time from the bow instead of the stern.

Letterman

I especially love #6

Top Ten Sarah Palin Excuses For Spending $150,000 On Clothes


10. "Need to look good for the Russians who can see me in Alaska"

9. "The old man spends more on Polident"

8. "Auditioning to be Paris Hilton's BFF"

7. "Wanted to impress the American voters in the evening gown competition"

6. "Maverick, Joe the plumber, maverick, maverick, William Ayers, you betcha!"

5. "I fell for the liberal retailers' 'gotcha sales tactics'"

4. "Because the dollar is so weak, it's really like I only spent $50,000"

3. "Hmm...excuses? I'll find some and I'll get right back to ya!"

2. "In addition to every newspaper and magazine, I also read every catalog"

1. "The difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull: lipstick, Prada shoes, a Gucci handbag, and a few $3,000 suits"

Loves labors lost

McCain loses reliable conservative toady Anne Applebaum:

I'm not voting for McCain -- and, after a long struggle, I've realized that I can't -- maybe it's worth explaining why, for I suspect there are other independent voters who feel the same. Particularly because it's not his campaign, disjointed though that has been, that finally repulses me: It's his rapidly deteriorating, increasingly anti-intellectual, no longer even recognizably conservative Republican Party. His problems are not technical; they do not have to do with ads, fundraising or tactics, as some have suggested. They are institutional; they have to do with his colleagues, advisers and supporters.

Corruption you can believe in, "Pallin' around with Felons" edition...

From Rolling Stone, the Ted & Sarah show, circa Fall 2006:

Minute 3:39

Stevens: Hell, I don’t know if you know it but when Frank Murkowski was first elected this lady and I … traveled around the state for two weeks. We’ve known each other a long time. Worked together a long time.

Minute 4:12

Palin: I have great respect for the senator…. His voice, his experience, his passion needs to be heard across America. So that Alaska can contribute more. So that we can be producers. So that we can help lead the rest of the U.S. I, again, have great respect for him. There’s a big difference between reality and perception regarding our relationship.

D'oh, I have a feeling we're going to hear that last line the next seven "opposite" days.

Oh, how mavericky!

Do you have any hard questions?

From the Daily Telegraph Guardian in Great Britain:

How was it allowed to happen? How did politics in the US come to be dominated by people who make a virtue out of ignorance? Was it charity that has permitted mankind's closest living relative to spend two terms as president? How did Sarah Palin, Dan Quayle and other such gibbering numbskulls get to where they are? How could Republican rallies in 2008 be drowned out by screaming ignoramuses insisting that Barack Obama was a Muslim and a terrorist?

Rupert Murdoch, Rush Limbaugh, Matt Drudge, Sean Hannity.

Anything else I can answer for you?

When you wish upon a star...

Well, I guess it's nice to see a Drudge fantasy that doesn't involve a butt-plug.

Turn your head and cough, I brought ice cubes

Oh no, John McCain isn't like Bush at all. When taking the obvious statement of Joe Biden that a future President will face a test (and the unreported reply that Obama will show he "has steel in his spine") John McCain jumped erratically into the fray with his response. America's "enemies", whoever in the hell that is, will not test John McCain...

“I’m gonna test them,” Republican John McCain said at a campaign rally in New Mexico this morning. “They’re not gonna test me.”

Which is awesome of course, as we have all seen how well McThuselah has handled variances from his expected routine this fall. Sounds like more of that tremendously successful Bush policy McCain has loved so passionately until a week was left to election day?.

Maybe he'll send another carrier task force to intimidate 'Old Europe'?

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

"[A] proud, boastful ignoramus"

Who said it?

This is what the Republican Party has done to us this year: It has placed within reach of the Oval Office a woman who is a religious fanatic and a proud, boastful ignoramus. Those who despise science and learning are not anti-elitist. They are morally and intellectually slothful people who are secretly envious of the educated and the cultured. And those who prate of spiritual warfare and demons are not just "people of faith" but theocratic bullies. On Nov. 4, anyone who cares for the Constitution has a clear duty to repudiate this wickedness and stupidity.

Yep.

P.S. "Proud, boastful ignoramus" describes George W. Bush, too. Just saying.

Fortunately, they are not too bright

Good job by the ATF, and THIS, by the way, John McCain is what a TERRORIST is:

A plot by two Neo-Nazi skinheads to assassinate Barack Obama and kill dozens of other African Americans has been foiled, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said Monday.

Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tenn., and Paul Schlesselman, 18, of West Helena, Ark., were charged Friday with making threats against a presidential candidate, illegal possession of a sawed-off shotgun and conspiracy to rob a gun store.

In court records unsealed Monday, agents said they disrupted plans that included robbing a gun store and targeting an unnamed but predominantly African-American high school.

So these assholes were going to try to take down Obama and an entire high school. Wow.

Future friends of Ted Stevens

To learn new series of tubes.

Hulk Smashed on all 7 counts.

Update:

Sarah Palin just announced she was pleased to see Stevens cleared of any ethical or legal wrongdoing.

Sugar Rush...I hope

How much sugar has John McCain today...or has he just downed a gallon of Red Bull?

I overheard him on TV, he's either having a small seizure or is pounding ritalin. Unable to pronounce words and talking about 100 miles an hour.

I think he just said "we need pogroms" instead of programs.

Somebody needs to alert Joe Lieberman.

That's steady leadership you can believe in my friends.

Well, there's a surprise

NASCAR legend endorses Obama.

A left-hand turn we can believe in.

The important issues of the day

When did Confederate Yankee start writing porn dialogue.

Oh, excuse, me, when did his work actually start appearing in porn movies, literally, and not spiritually?

Closing Eulogy

The self-written parody benediction of the McCain campaign who's closing argument is apparently going to be this:

At a time when America is facing historic crisis we can't put our fate in the hands of an untested, inexperienced candidate. John McCain has served his country all his life, and he is the most prepared to restore our economy, bring back fiscal discipline, manage the two wars, and keep Americans safe.

Oh, how, um, well -- un-Mavericky and sad. Cannot put fate in the hands of the untested and inexperienced candidate, eh?

“Leaving aside her actual experience, do you know how informed Governor Palin is about the issues of the day?” The senior adviser thought for a moment. Then he looked up from his beer. “No,” he said quietly. “I don’t know.”

And how'd that work out for you?

"Her lack of fundamental understanding of some key issues was dramatic," said another McCain source with direct knowledge of the process to prepare Palin after she was picked. The source said it was probably the "hardest" to get her "up to speed than any candidate in history."

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

The GOP's Braintrust Trio

Todd, Nanook and Elizabeth Hasselbeck.

AP/Joe Burbank

Watertiger had it first.

Consistency?

Aw, who needs it right?  All you have to do is believe you are right regardless of evidence.  Poor Sarah Palin has no consistency at all.

Check this out.

Good Plan

Sarah Palin spent most of yesterday scaring Iowans.

John McCain is coming here again.

Tremendous!

Democrat Barack Obama has extended his lead slightly to 15 percentage points over Republican John McCain in Iowa, according to a new Courier-Lee Enterprises poll.

Obama leads McCain 54 to 39 percent with 3 percent saying they support another candidate and 4 percent undecided.

Obama’s lead grew 1 point over a poll sponsored by Lee Enterprises last month. Obama continued to lead among independent voters 57 to 36 percent, as well as with both men and women and every age group.

"I think Obama’s going to carry Iowa comfortably," said Del Ali, a pollster with Research 2000, which conducted the survey.

Unless those morons are campaigning now to help Nanook out in 2012 (eiyeeeeee!) this makes absolutely no sense.

So naturally, I hope they keep coming back.

He's Hitler! No, he's Marx!

Jeebus, slandering is bad enough, but when you cannot get your slanders straight, that's simply unprofessional.

On Thursday the Pennsylvania GOP sent out an email to 75,000 Jewish voters in the state warning that electing Obama could lead to a second Holocaust...The state GOP is now running away from that email as fast as it can.

But it isn't so simple:

Political consultant Bryan Rudnick was identified as the person responsible for it. Rudnick, reached Saturday night, confirmed that he no longer works for the party, which employed him a few weeks ago as a consultant to do outreach to Jewish voters.

"I had authorization from party officials" to send the e-mail, Rudnick said, but he declined to say who had signed off on it. "I'm not looking to drag anyone else through the mud, so I'm not naming names right now," he said.

Meanwhile, as Josh Marshall reports the McCain campaign's attempt to run away from the mailer accusing Obama of equaling Hitler, is the same McCain flack that pushed the Ashley Todd false attack story to the press.

KKKlassy!

Meanwhile, what's Nanookie of the North up to?

the Alaska Governor somehow drew a connection between Barack Obama's tax policy and an encroaching, nightmarish, communist government. The Illinois Democrat, she hysterically suggested, would, through his proposals, create a country "where the people are not free."

That was her in Des Moines yesterday, ugh. My town. And one of my fellow Iowans yells out a very, very special gift about 38 seconds in, loud enough for Palin to hear (and do nothing about) in reference to Obama. Sure sounds like...

"He's a Ni**er!"

Double KKKlassy. Palin hears it, you can tell as she pauses a second and stumbles through her script. But she does nothing, nor for that matter does the crowd, which thinks such talk is perfectly okie-dokie.

Compare and Contrast

Who do you think is winning New Mexico?

McCain yesterday in Albuquerque:

Mr. McCain, [appeared] before a small crowd of fewer than 1,000 people on Saturday morning at the New Mexico State Fairgrounds here.

Obama yesterday in Albuquerque:

When Mr. Obama arrived for an evening rally about 12 hours later, tens of thousands filled Johnson Field at the University of New Mexico.

Going out as they came in...

P.O.W.!!!!!

"He's been in tougher spots than being behind in a few polls," senior adviser Steve Schmidt said

Bwahahahahaha!!!

MSNBC's front page on celebrity endorsements with Oprah & the Boss = Obama and Stephen "the Special Ed." Baldwin and Wilfred Brimley = McCain tells you all you need to know.

Is this the October Surprise?

From our Friends at Buzzflash, comes this story about Bush trying to undermine voter registration in Ohio.  One has to wonder why a President who staked -- and then failed miserably -- his presidency on some dubious claims about supporting democracy and voting around the world, would then attack efforts to encourage more voters.

Ah, the Republican party - we hate democratic voting.

BWAHAHAHA

John McCain Accidentally Left On Campaign Bus Overnight

She's the logical descendent of Bush alright

She's got the merde touch.

Sarah Palin dropped another puck in St. Louis last night. She did this a week ago (or was it two?) of the Flyers haven't won since. So let's pass on the karma:

St Louis Blues goalie Manny Legace slipped on the carpet placed on the ice for Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin who was there to drop the ceremonial first puck before the Blues hosted the Los Angeles Kings.

A narrow carpet walkway was placed from the gate at the Blues bench to center ice for Palin, her husband and two of her human shields daughters. Just before the ceremony, Legace was the first player onto the ice for St. Louis. Though a team official pointed to the carpet, Legace said the official moved his own foot from the carpet just as Legace stepped down, causing the carpet to slide and Legace to fall. The goalie left after one period Friday night with a hip injury.

Morning hilarity

Champollion told me about this, for those of you who remember the original Budweiser "wassup" commercials, they've updated it in a particularly timely manner:

Ah, the brilliance

For some reason I had "Hardball" on and Duncan Hunter was asked why Obama was beating his chosen candidate, John McCain. His response, "Because he has good teeth."

Yeah, that's the ticket.

Also seemed sort of bigoted, but then Hunter is pretty much the Lou Dobbs of Congress -- should Tom Tancredo be unable to fulfill his responsibilities.

DRUDGE FUCKS UP AGAIN!!!

Woman who claimed she was assaulted and branded with a "B" (wtf?) after her McCain campaign activities were discovered has admitted...

IT WAS ALL A LIE!!!

By the standards of FoxNews (they have standards?) this means the election is over.

A Note of Thanks

Dear William Kristol,

I just want to thank you -- from the bottom of my blue state liberal elitist heart -- for convincing John McCain to choose Sarah Palin as his running mate. Without your wise counsel, John McCain might have picked, well, anyone other than Palin and then God knows where these polls would be. I never thought I'd find myself writing to you, let alone writing to thank you, but it's been a strange election season.

Please continue to counsel Republican candidates going forward. In fact, I suspect that Michele Bachmann, Republican of Minnesota's sixth district would appreciate a word from you at this time.

Very truly yours,

res

P.S. When you see Little Richie Startbursts Lowry, thank him for me, too. After all, he played his part, too.

"Does It Matter That McCain's Family Owned Slaves?"

Read on.

What do you think?

Uh-oh

Not only a bad day overseas, but a very bad morning shaping up on Wall Street. The Dow futures are presently down -548.

I'm going to be out in the real world most of this day from here...as opposed to hanging out here in the world of elites. But it may be quite the day on the roller coaster.

This DKos diarist says many futures markets have been frozen.

Once again, this may be the day we find out if brokers can fly.

Ouch

Meet Joe the Ghost Writer

John McCain isn't going to be President, so how about literary agent?

Via Keith Olbermann, who wouldn't get a seat on the McCain plane even if he wasn't a Daily Kos diarist:

This is from an unimpeachable source in the publishing industry, past whom very little in the field, gets. Good old all-American Joe, who has no motive whatsoever but keeping the electorate informed, who is the salt of the earth and the definition of America (now that Governor Palin isn't, any more) is hoping to cash in...

I suppose this shouldn't surprise anybody, especially given the cheesiness of the guy lying to Obama about the business that he wasn't trying to buy, even though he said it was, and isn't worth anywhere near $250,000 in business, even though he said it is. But one can assume, since they have been surprised by everything else, that the McCain Campaign is utterly stunned by this, and that Joe's usefulness is, uh, circling the drain.

No need for 2 falls out of three

A summary of the second Palin interview with McCain playing chaperon.

1. The elites in this country live where the terrorists attacked on 9/11. Fortunately, they are not real Americans, but people who think they are better than them.

2. Abortion Clinic bombers are not terrorists.

These two cannot be trounced at the polls soon enough.

Thursday Art Blogging

Sharon Core: Early American (Raphaelle Peale), Magnolia and Wild Leeks, 2008

Larger image here.

More images from the Early American series here, here, and here.

Your Daily Bachmann (R - Of Course)

Dump Michele Bachmann (R - MN 6): McCarthyite dingbat, national embarassment, Republican.

Elect Democrat El Tinklenberg!

Osama bin Laden would approve

Who thinks like a terrorist now?

WILLIAMS: Who is a member of the elite?

PALIN: Oh, I guess just people who think that they're better than anyone else. And-- John McCain and I are so committed to serving every American. Hard-working, middle-class Americans who are so desiring of this economy getting put back on the right track. And winning these wars. And America's starting to reach her potential. And that is opportunity and hope provided everyone equally. So anyone who thinks that they are-- I guess-- better than anyone else, that's-- that's my definition of elitism.

WILLIAMS: So it's not education? It's not income-based? It's--

PALIN: Anyone who thinks that they're better than someone else.

WILLIAMS: --a state of mind? It's not geography?

PALIN: 'Course not.

WILLIAMS: Senator?

MCCAIN: I-- I know where a lot of 'em live. (LAUGH)

WILLIAMS: Where's that?

MCCAIN: Well, in our nation's capital and New York City. I've seen it. I've lived there. I know the town.

Yes, the 3,000 people, many of them plainly elitist, who died on 9/11 in New York and Washington. Thank goodness they didn't strike the "real America".

Not only are these assholes repellent, they are dumber than hell.

The Continuing Adventures of Rudy & Judy™

Somewhere in the Hamptons, south of Montauk Highway, but not-quite-oceanfront …

JUDY: Will you look at this? Will you fucking look.at.this. ?”

RUDY: (keeps eyes on Washington Times) “Yes, dear.”

JUDY: (throws wireless mouse at this head)

RUDY: “What!?”

JUDY: “Valentino, Rudy! That Alaskan bitch got Valen-fucking-tino.”

RUDY: “So?”

JUDY: “’So? So?’ Who are you, Rudy? Dick Fucking Cheney? ‘So?’ Where’s my Valentino? “

RUDY: (looks around) “Valentino? You have everything you possibly could want and you want
Valentino? Let me tell you something, Judy, my ancestors got out of that godforsaken country so we’d never have to wear Valentino again. Fuck Valentino!”

JUDY: “Idiot. I married an idiot. Look at this, Rudy. A seven-year-old carrying Louis Fucking Vuitton. Where is my Vuitton?”

RUDY: “Where is your Vuitton? I’ll tell you where your fucking Vuitton is, Judi. Your fucking Vuitton sunk my campaign! That’s where your Vuitton is! Your Vuitton is at the bottom of the goddamned Gowanus Canal along with my campaign.”

JUDY: (clicks furiously on Palin fashion slide show) “Goddamned Cole-Haan boots!”

RUDY: “Christ.”

JUDY: “You’re running again.”

RUDY: “What?! Bullshit. They want me to run for Governor of New York."

JUDY: “Albany? You think I’m moving to Albany? People move to Albany to drink and die, Rudy. Did you ever see ‘Ironweed’ with Meryl Fucking Streep? It’s not pretty. So bullshit on you, Rudy. Bullshit.On.You. I’m not going to stand by while some Alaskan arriviste gets $150 grand of free Valentino courtesy of some Republican small donors in Bumfuck County, Wyoming. We’re gonna run again, and …

RUDY: (laughing) “’Arriviste?’ Look who’s talking about arrivistes, Ms. Ross Stich Nathan of Pig’s Snout Holler, Pennsylvania, or wherever the fuck you’re from.”

JUDY: “Ross Stich Nathan Guiliani Rudy. Ross Stich Nathan Guiliani. Mrs. Ross Stich Nathan Guiliani. Like you know, as in the wife of ‘Mayor Hero,’ Mister Fucking 9/11, Mister I-Blew-My-Campaign-But-if-I-Don’t-Run-Again-and-Miss-Out-on-the-RNC-Neiman-Marcus-Giveaway-My-Wife-Will-Harrangue-Me-Until-I-Blow-My-Fucking-Brains-Out.”

RUDY: (looks heavenward) “Oh, God.”

JUDY: “’Oh, God,’ is right. I want my Valentino, Rudy. I want more Vuitton. And I want it all courtesy of the RNC. If that bitch gets that deal, that’s the deal I gotta get. I set us up a website and everything.”

RUDY: (sighs)

h/t watertiger and Christy @ FDL

Now, that's using Hollywood

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

"Mmmmm, honeypot"

Sweet Sweet Honey...


Okay, when does the giant monolith turn Dave Bowman here, who looks like he's in the ol' deathbed scene, into the Starchild?


["Open the podbay doors Nanook"]

(pics from here)

Bear in mind I live in "Big 10" country

A conference that cannot count. So take this poll porn with a grain of salt but, HOLY HANNAH look at that Indiana number!

The new Big Ten poll shows Obama ahead in every Big Ten state, including Indiana, where McCain held a slight edge in September, and Ohio and Pennsylvania, where last month’s poll results showed the two candidates in a dead heat.

Head-to-head results for individual states

Illinois Obama 61% McCain 32%
Indiana Obama 51% McCain 41%
Iowa Obama 52% McCain 39%
Michigan Obama 58% McCain 36%
Minnesota Obama 57% McCain 38%
Ohio Obama 53% McCain 41%
Pennsylvania Obama 52% McCain 41%
Wisconsin Obama 53% McCain 40%

Maybe what's happening is that people are starting to realize, if you look for example at the NBC interview yesterday, that McCain is again faster than Dave Bowman in the penultimate scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Ouch

Poll porn from Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio shows Obama holding his leads and that McCain's latest stunt (go for broke in Pennsylvania) is likely to go as well as the rest of his stunts:

Quinnipiac:

FLORIDA: Obama 49 - McCain 44; OHIO: Obama 52 - McCain 38; PENNSYLVANIA: Obama 53 - McCain 40

Pennsylvania

Obama leads 59 - 35 percent with women, while men split with 47 percent for Obama and 45 percent for McCain. White voters back Obama 49 - 44 percent, while black voters back him 92 - 3 percent. Independent voters back the Democrat 55 - 35 percent. Obama gets a 60 - 30 percent favorability, compared to McCain's 51 - 41 percent. Palin's favorability is a negative 38 - 43 percent, with Biden at 54 - 22 percent.

The economy is the most important issue, 55 percent of Pennsylvania voters say, and voters trust Obama more than McCain 54 - 36 percent to handle this issue, compared to 55 - 36 percent October 1.

By a 47 - 45 percent margin, voters trust McCain more to handle foreign policy, compared to 48 - 45 percent.

"Sen. Obama leads comfortably in Pennsylvania, mostly because he has pulled ahead in the four key suburban counties surrounding Philadelphia where Keystone State races are decided," said Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

"Obama is leading among whites and blue collar workers, but white men and 15 percent of Sen. Hillary Clinton's primary supporters are clinging to Sen. McCain, probably not enough to change the tide in the closing days of the campaign," Richards added.

Somewhere, Eva Perón is Smiling

Cole Haan black "Sierra Air" tall boots: $495

Louis Vuitton "Montorgueil GM" bag: $865

Valentino silk shantung jacket: $2,500

Exposing an "average hockey mom" and would-be vice president who's "just like you and me" as a grasping, greedy Eva Perón-esque phony?

Priceless.

Undermined

I know the other guy has raised a lot more money than you did.

But you spent 150k on designer dresses and handbags, plus about 20k on makep.

You really want to complain about unfairness now?

Nice Vetting Part 566

Teutonic Turnbuckle edition:

CAMPBELL BROWN: Do you think she's qualified to be president?

SCHWARZENEGGER: I think that she will get to be qualified.

BROWN: She will get there? What do you mean? She's not ready yet?

SCHWARZENEGGER: By the time that she is sworn in I think she will be ready.

And now, as it actually sounded:

BROWN: Do you think she's qualified to be president?

SCHWARZENEGGER: Ze is not a tumah.

BROWN: She will get there? What do you mean? She's not ready yet?

SCHWARZENEGGER: Ze is dah veal derminator, und I have voe-godden may uh-zer movie quips, please vill in ze blank vor me.

More flip-flopping

John McCain, 1993:

"The use of campaign funds for items which most Americans would consider to be strictly personal reasons, in my view, erodes public confidence and erodes it significantly,"

D'oh!!!

Change you cannot remember

John McCain in an increasingly rare interview when he and his running mate (fka "my soul mate") were not staring daggers at each other:

You’ll have to tell me what’s changed. I love it when they say, “Oh McCain has changed.” And I say, “What have I changed on?” They can’t name a single issue or they’ll name an issue and its false.

Well, you didn't actually become a Democrat because you change back in about a day and a half.

Oh yeah, and for wanting to roll back the same tax cuts for the wealthy that McCain opposed in 2001, McCain calls Obama a socialist. Heavens to Eugene Debs!

And, of course, that's not all he's "Changed" position on with his ticket of Mavericks.

And now, his former "soul mate" has stated one more position John McCain will change on to keep the nations dachshund abusers on board. If a woman is raped, well she'll be forced to bring any result of that act to term because God loves her.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Batshit Crazy

Everyone must read this weird whack-a-noodle batshit crazy arguments about spiritual warfare.  McCain supporters believe that their opponent has used witch doctors to curse McCain!  Of course, the only candidate with a connection to a witch doctor would be Palin.

From the site:

Two days ago, I listened to a 9-6-08 message by Bree Keyton, a young woman evangelist who had just traveled to Kenya and visited Obama's home village and what she found out about his relations with his tribal people was chilling. And his "cousin" Odinga was dreadful. She said the witches, warlocks and those involved in satanism and the occult get up daily at 3 a.m. to release curses against McCain and Palin so B. Hussein Obama is elected.

Funny stuff if it wasn't so damn sad.

Dump Michele Bachman (R - Of Course)

Michele Bachmann (R - Of Course), October 21, 2008, St. Cloud, MN Rotary Club:

"I did not say that Barack Obama was anti-American, nor do I believe Barack Obama is anti-American. He loves his country, just as everyone in this room does," she told the crowd. "Nor did I call for an investigation of members of Congress for their pro-American or anti-American views. That is not what I said."

Michele Bachman (R - Of Course), October 17, 2008 on "Hardball" (video below):

Matthews: "So this is a character issue. You believe that Barack Obama may, you're suspicious, because of this relationship, may have anti-American views? Otherwise it's probably irrelevant to this discussion."

Bachmann: "Absolutely. I'm very concerned that he may have anti-American views. That's what the American people are concerned about."

...

Bachmann: "What I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look. I wish they would. I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out if they are pro-America or anti-America."

Stupid, McCarthyite, and dishonest.

Dump Republican Michele Bachman. Elect Democrat El Tinklenberg.

Unfortunate Mispronunciation

A word McCain has stated in front of Cindy before though.

Musical acts

I have seen scenes of Sarah Palin at campaign rallies while talking heads bloviate about her fashion budget. At the two particular clips they have shown, she is being sung to by two guys.

Hank Williams Jr. and Lee Greenwood.

If that doesn't say, you dug your own grave, now suffer, I don't know what does.

BTW, the McCain campaign has scrambled on the whole clothing thing now and says they'll donate her clothes to charity.

Which is really awesome if they are edible or can pimp out a large cardboard box.

Yeah, right

Color me completely unpersuaded:

CULLOWHEE, N.C. (AP) — Authorities said Tuesday that a student prank, not a political statement, was the motivation for dumping a dead bear cub draped in Barack Obama signs on a North Carolina campus earlier this week...

The students told authorities they took political signs at random to cover the bear's wound and prevent blood from spilling into the bed of the truck they were driving...

It was during that gathering, officials said, that a student suggested placing the bear at the base of a statue at the main entrance to the campus.

Maintenance workers found the bear cub's body early Monday morning near the school's entrance.

"I am pleased to hear that this situation appears to be a stupid prank," Western Carolina chancellor John W. Bardo said.

You know, I'm not licensed to practice in North Carolina and furthermore, criminal matters are not my area.

But I for one, imagine that one of the relics in North Carolina left over from the Jim Crow era appears to be the 'COMPLETE BULLSHIT DEFENSE'.

Relating the the "real America"

WWJTPD?

The Republican National Committee appears to have spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August.

According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74.

The records also document a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September.

The RNC also spent $4,716.49 on hair and makeup through September after reporting no such costs in August.

Remember all the GOP bleating about $400 haircuts? Oh, how the right-wing blogs liked to go on and on about it.

Of course, as outrageous as $4,700 plus in make up is for Nanook of the North, she's economizing compared to the Maverick.

For while, the wealth of "real" Americans and the rest of us poseurs was shrinking exponentially, McCain was pimping himself out big time.

McCain spent $8,672.55 on make-up in September

This Picture Will Make You Happy

So click it already, willya?

Manhattan Mini Storage Strikes Again!

Bigger image here.

Other images from the campaign here.

Nice Vetting, part 249

FAIL!

Gov. Sarah Palin charged the state for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business.

The charges included costs for hotel and commercial flights for three daughters to join Palin to watch their father in a snowmobile race, and a trip to New York, where the governor attended a five-hour conference and stayed with 17-year-old Bristol for five days and four nights in a luxury hotel.

No McCarthyites in the U.S. Congress

Help dump Michele Bachmann now: donate to El Tinklenberg.

"What I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look. I wish they would. I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out if they are pro-America or anti-America."
--Michele Bachmann (R - Of Course), Friday, October 17, 2008 on MSNBC's "Hardball"

People who have donated to the GOP

You can check here:


1. Richard Nixon

2. One "Maverick"

3. Bill Ayers

4. At least two guys named Hussein.

5. Oscar Wilde

6. Several John Kennedys

7. A Ted Kennedy

8. And most surprisingly a Bobby Kennedy (no Sirhan Sirhans though)

9. Ronald Reagan (wants brains)

10. Many, many "No Names"

11. A "John Loser" and a "Ralph Loser"

But,

NO JONAH GOLDBERGS!

And now, a chance to scourge your eyeballs out

From America's Slumpbuster:

bedtime stories [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Sad but true: this election has me dreaming about Mitch McConnell and John Sununu — and their victory speeches.

10/21 06:11 AM

Yeah...try not to down mallomars and blue cheese-stuffed olives just before you go to sleep.

America's last growth industry

Before all of them go in the tank in two weeks,

THE DAILY TRACKING POLL INDUSTRY!

ABC lauches yet another new one, so that makes like what 784 of them?

I need a new tracking poll like I need another Krispy Kreme.

Thanks "Moran"

Drug-addicted, third-world sex shopper, Rush Limbaugh has given Barack Obama a special bonus gift.

The Colin Powell endorsement was probably going to dominate the Sunday and Monday news cycles anyway.

But thanks to Limbaugh and his laughable "race-based" endorsements meme it's going to last well into the middle of the week. Taking more "stunt" time away from Evel McFeeble.

So Powell's endorsement both reaffirms soft Obama supporters and turns off independents and soft McCain supporters as Powell's lament of the ugliness of the modern GOP suffers a self-inflicted dose of kerosene.

And just as it settles down, watch McCain and his surrogates roll out Reverend Wright attacks -- because they are so completely clueless.

Yes, attaching yourself to Rush Limbaugh and racists, there's a good way to win over independents in the home stretch.

The Eggman Chronicles

Matt Drudge, becomes a parody of a parody.

More FAIL

How are those negative attacks working out?

Barack Obama's favorability "is the highest for a presidential candidate running for a first term in the last 28 years" of New York Times/CBS polls.

Meanwhile, the Times reports, Sarah Palin's "negative rating is the highest for a vice-presidential candidate as measured by The Times and CBS News.

FAIL

The spokesflack for Michelle Bachman (aka "Mary Tyler Bore") had this to say after her 'Obama and Democrats are un-American' comment caused a deluge of donations to her opponent, Elwyn Tinklenberg:

"We have tried to run a very positive campaign."

Positively awful, that is.

Mr. Popularity

McCain packs 'em in on the campaign trail:

Sen. John McCain stopped in Columbia on Monday afternoon.

The Republican presidential nominee from Arizona landed at the Columbia Regional Airport around 12:30 p.m. As McCain disembarked from the plane, a man yelled, "Go get 'em, John."...

A crowd of about 15 people assembled outside the airport's fence to see him descend from the plane.

First of all, you don't report a crowd of "about 15", when there are 15 people there, you've got time to count.

A Beautiful Alaskan Windsong

For my dear friend, the very pro-Fey Eschaton commenter doncjesuis. Oh yeah, you betcha.

Banned Words of 2009™ (Mid-October Edition)

Because it's never too early to put the world on notice...

1. Superdelegate
2. Bitter
3. Presumptuous
4. Denounce/Renounce/Reject/Repudiate
5. Surge
6. PUMA
7. Lunchpail voter
8. Subprime
9. Miley Cyrus
10. Clinton, Davis (Lanny), Ickes, Wolfson
11. Lieberman
    
12. Vet/Vetted/Vetting
13. POW (h/t pansypoo)
14. Staycation (h/t Anonymous)
15. Hockey Mom (h/t Athenawise)
16. Main Street, not Wall Street (h/t HoneyBearKelly)
17. Bipartisan (h/t Disgusted in St. Louis )
18. Maverick (h/t doubledraft in comments)
19. Bailout
20. Fannie/Freddie
21. Game-changer/changing (h/t The Kenosha Kid)
22. Optics (h/t watertiger)
23. "My friends.." (h/t Brooklyn Girl)
24. Bipartisan
25. Joe The Plumber
26. Race Card (h/t HoneyBearKelly)
27. Robocall
28. Cougar (Anonymous from comments)
29. Poll ("Tracking" or otherwise) (Attaturk from comments)
    

Enthusiasm

St. Louis, Missouri,

Saturday, October 18th

Obama draws 100,000 plus


Monday, October 20th

McCain draws 3 or 4,000.

They're so awesome!

Oh those Republicans, projecting again:

Freddie Mac secretly paid a Republican consulting firm $2 million to kill legislation that would have regulated and trimmed the mortgage finance giant and its sister company, Fannie Mae, three years before the government took control to prevent their collapse.

In the cross hairs of the campaign carried out by DCI of Washington were Republican senators and a regulatory overhaul bill sponsored by Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. DCI's chief executive is Doug Goodyear, whom John McCain's campaign later hired to manage the GOP convention in September.

Freddie Mac's payments to DCI began shortly after the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee sent Hagel's bill to the then GOP-run Senate on July 28, 2005. All GOP members of the committee supported it; all Democrats opposed it.

In the midst of DCI's yearlong effort, Hagel and 25 other Republican senators pleaded unsuccessfully with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., to allow a vote.

Awesome, I'm sure though that the Ol' Maverick was as bold and brave as he always assures he was in this regulatory manner, right?

McCain, R-Ariz., was not a target of the DCI campaign. He signed Hagel's letter and three weeks later signed on as a co-sponsor of the bill.

By the time McCain did so, however, DCI's effort had gone on for nine months and was on its way toward killing the bill.

In recent days, McCain has said Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were "one of the real catalysts, really the match that lit this fire" of the global credit crisis. McCain has accused Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama of taking advice from former executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and failing to see that the companies were heading for a meltdown.

McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, or his lobbying firm has taken more than $2 million from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac dating to 2000. In December, Freddie Mac contributed $250,000 to last month's GOP convention.

He saves that loin girding for Palin rallies I guess.

It's October 20th

Four things are guaranteed the next two weeks:

1. Osama makes a video that FoxNews & the McCain campaign proclaim as an endorsement of Obama. 10 to 1 it is somehow translated as having a passage in which he thanks ACORN for their assistance in Al Qaeda's recruitment drive.

2. Somebody does something stupid in the Middle East that is "good news for John McCain"

3. John McCain praises his ethical and honorable campaign while robocalls funded by him spread the rumor that Obama has a black child out of wedlock named Bridgette McCain.

4. Zogby releases 15 days worth of ridiculous polls.

Damn you clicker

My remote's batteries are dying (as they have been for about 2 months -- I just want to get every last ohm out of those "AA" batteries) so I was stuck on FoxNews for a couple minutes. During that time I saw Rich "Starbursts" Lowry proclaim Powell's basis for endorsing Obama incoherent.

I guess if Rich isn't driven to masturbate, it just isn't logical.

I think Rich needs to talk to Wade Boggs, David Duchovny and Michael Douglas about this sex addiction...although maybe they cannot relate since they weren't solo acts?

The Voter Fraud Story you won't hear about on Lou Dobbs

I'm sure Lou will join the wankfecta of Will, Buchanan and Limbaugh by claiming Powell just went with the black guy (because you know Lou would never just go with the White Guy, right?) and this will be the sole subject on his show Monday not related to secret Mexican cabals.

But here's a story he won't mention, it's Republicans and Vote Fraud:

The owner of a firm that the California Republican Party hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year was arrested in Ontario over the weekend on suspicion of voter registration fraud.

State and local investigators allege that Mark Jacoby fraudulently registered himself to vote at a childhood California address where he no longer lives so he would appear to meet the legal requirement that all signature gatherers be eligible to vote in California. His firm, Young Political Majors, or YPM, collects petition signatures and registers voters in California and other states.

Jacoby's arrest by state investigators and the Ontario Police Department late Saturday came after dozens of voters said they were duped into registering as Republicans by people employed by YPM. The voters said YPM workers tricked them by saying they were signing a petition to toughen penalties against child molesters.

Which is rather ironic given the GOP's policy on child molestation the last few years has been to try to keep them in their congressional caucus.

Poor Sarvis

Wow.

Powell's all in

Feel free to complain about Powells' credibility, and while it was somewhat decent he's somewhat repented and felt guilty about his role in Iraq, that has even been compromised by the fact he did so almost exclusively through his surrogates.

But today he personally appeared, rather than through Lawrence Wilkerson as usual, and explicitly endorsed Barack Obama.

Meet the Press is not on yet here in central Iowa but the based on what others are saying it appears these were the reasons:

-- Impressed by Obama's steadiness and turned off by the McCain campaigns negativity.

I switched over to FoxNews and the mental gymnastics are impressive, they are now talking about Powell the way we talked about him in the wake of the selling of the war.

They are realizing it is pretty much over.

Here's video, look especially about 3:15 in or so when Powell really starts condemning McCain's negative campaign including the Ayres BS and the robocalls and the slanders against Obama and the muslim religion by senior members of the GOP. It is a very strong statement [incredibly powerful about 5:08 and his statement on the sacrifice of a particular soldier and mother, and the nature of being an American and the ugliness of our times]



The soldier Powell was discussing:

Inconceivable!!!

I think that just maybe, Barack Obama made the right decision to let people fund his campaign.

WOW!!

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama reports raising more than $150 million in September in an unprecedented eruption of political giving.

The speculation had been that Obama "might" have had a $100 million September, to surpass that by another third 50% is just incredible. It was $83 million more than he raised in August when he broke a record for monthly fund raising by obtaining $67 million It also explains how he is able to push into what are normally red states.

Keep calling us "Un-American" McCain.

Naturally, it also shows just how enthusiastic and deep his support is. Much of this money has gone into advertisements, but far more than ever before has gone into building a ground operation. His GOTV effort is going to be unprecedented.