Lying sack o' shit

The McCain Campaign, being run by Karl Rove's acolytes is playing the usual method of the GOP, lying baldly and hoping to outrun the truth with their next lie. But they are particularly ham-handed. After lying about the connection of Obama and former Fannie Mae head Franklin Rains because of the "magical unified bond that exists between all black people", this stinging letter hits them between the eyes -- perhaps near the drooping left one of McCain [what's up with that btw?]:

It is an interesting card for Senator McCain to play, given that his campaign manager, Rick Davis, was paid by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac several hundred thousand dollars early in this decade to head up an organization to lobby in their behalf called The Homeownership Alliance. ...

I worked in government relations for Fannie Mae for more than 20 years, leading the group for most of those years. When I see photographs of Sen. McCain's staff, it looks to me like the team of lobbyists who used to report to me. Senator McCain's attack on Senator Obama is a cheap shot, and hypocritical.

Sincerely,

William Maloni
Fannie Mae Senior Vice President for Government and Industry Relations (1983-2004)

Thanks for playing...

"Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."

- The immortal words of John McCain, Presidential Contender, statement made just this month.

It looks like they'll really have to unleash some grade A bullshit now.

About Face

Reading today's op-ed this morning from Krugman, made me wonder at what moment did the GOP decide that government was the solution to economic problems?

Is it just because the problems cannot be ignored that the Republicans have turned their attention away from the severely deluded Reagan line that 'government' is the problem?  Because it seems to me that they now are using government as an instrument -- a tool to attempt to repair the consequences of deregulation. 

And when one considers the social policies of the GOP, they have thought for quite some time that government is a means to advance their agenda on so-called 'family values.'

So, which is it Republicans?  Because it is hypocritical to say one thing and do another.

Fitting for 'Talk Like a Pirate Day'

Especially given recent financial events:

Attention Media

And attention Obama Campaign, let's make this plain statement, plainly known:

"The fundamentals of our economy are strong," John McCain said as Wall Street went into white-knuckle panic over diving investor confidence. Does he believe that? It doesn't really matter, because the Republican has outsourced his economic policy to the ideologues whose opposition to regulations brought the financial markets to their knees.

McCain's former economic adviser is ex-Texas Sen. Phil Gramm. On Dec. 15, 2000, hours before Congress was to leave for Christmas recess, Gramm had a 262-page amendment slipped into the appropriations bill. It forbade federal agencies to regulate the financial derivatives that greased the skids for passing along risky mortgage-backed securities to investors.

And that, my friends, is why everything's falling apart. That is why the taxpayers are now on the hook for the follies of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns and now the insurance giant AIG to the tune of $85 billion.

On Monday, McCain issued a tough-talk statement that he was "glad" that the feds "have said no to using taxpayer money to bail out Lehman Brothers, a position I have spoken about throughout this campaign." On Tuesday, the government did the daddy of all bailouts. It took over AIG, fearing its bankruptcy could set off a cataclysmic chain of events.

And do you know where the problems lay at AIG? They weren't in its main insurance business. They were in its derivatives-trading unit.

Last February, Fortune Magazine called Gramm "McCain's Econ Brain." Gramm lost the official title of economic adviser for making an impolitic remark about this being "a nation of whiners." But Gramm's belief in letting speculators do as they please was never an issue. And even after he left the campaign, Gramm had been mentioned as a possible treasury secretary in a McCain administration.

(pic from here)

My Fair Warcrime

Inspired by a pathetically true story!

(To "The Rain in Spain" from My Fair Lady)

Professor Huggy: Now, once again from where do our bombs rain?

Sarah: From the planes!

Colonel Rove: From the planes! And where do we send those planes?

Sarah: To Spain! To Spain!

All three: Bombs do rain on Spain, strikes mainly from our planes!
The bombs do rain on Spain mainly from our planes!

Sarah: How kind of you to let me bomb!

Professor Huggy: Now once again, from where do bombs rain?

Sarah:From a plane! Sent by McCain!

Professor Huggy: And what's that blasted by that plane?

Sarah: It's Spain! It's Spain!

All Three: Bombs do rain on Spain mainly from our planes!
Bombs do rain on Spain with strikes ordered by McCain!

Colonel Rove: By Rove, I think she's got it!

Breaking News

Overnight it appears that the S.E.C. has us by the "shorts".

But what of the "curlies"?

Sums it up

This rant from BigBearJohn was at D.U. and Aravosis has now posted it up, here's a portion of it:

Your Bush/McCain world view,

How many times do we have to hear:

We don't have ENOUGH MONEY to fix Social Security.
We don't have ENOUGH MONEY to fix Medicare.
We don't have ENOUGH MONEY to provide health care to ALL Americans.
We don't have ENOUGH MONEY to help out Americans losing their homes.
We don't have ENOUGH MONEY to help all our veterans returning from war.
We don't have ENOUGH MONEY to rescue "no child left behind".

BUT...

We DO HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
We DO HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to bail out Bears Stearns.
We DO HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to bail out AIG.
We DO HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to pay for an unnecessary TRILLION DOLLAR war.

When the LITTLE GUY needs help, they scornfully say, "GET A JOB!"
But when one of their BIG GUY CRONIES need a bailout, what do they say? SURE, NO PROBLEM. Where's the checkbook?

It's just a fleshwound

Yesterday, after LITERALLY taking action to prevent her house from being foreclosed upon (you cannot make this shit up) White House Spokesmodel Dana Perino kept insisting what was going on was a mere "market correction".

If it is just a "market correction" why are we about to spend $600 billion all-totaled correcting it?

Hey right-wing assholes

Most particularly McCain's chosen intellectual splooge monkey, Michael Goldfarb.

Remember when you slandered Private Scott Beauchamp's stories about abuse in Iraq by quoting this:

My soldiers conduct is consistently honorable. This soldier has other underlining issues which I’m sure will come out in the course of the investigation. No one at any of the post we live at or frequent, remotely fit the descriptions of any of the persons depicted in this young man’s fairy tale.
- 1st Sgt. Hatley

Well, guess what ol' Sgt. Hatley and his "consistently honorable" soldiers under his command have been up to and WHO has the "underlying issues" :

A U.S. soldier who admitted involvement in the shooting of detainees in Iraq early last year has been sentenced to seven months in jail and will be dishonorably discharged, the army said on Thursday.

Specialist Belmor Ramos, 23, pleaded guilty at a court martial in Germany to charges of conspiracy to commit premeditated murder. He agreed to testify in the trials of other soldiers involved, the army said in a statement.

Ramos was present when four unarmed, handcuffed and blindfolded Iraqi detainees were allegedly shot dead near a canal in Baghdad in March or April 2007.

Three other U.S. soldiers have been identified by witnesses as the shooters: Sergeant First Class Joseph P. Mayo, the platoon sergeant, Sergeant Michael P. Leahy Jr., a senior medic and an acting squad leader, and First Sergeant John E. Hatley.

Criminal charges have been filed against Hatley, Mayo and Leahy, as well as against Staff Sergeant Jess Cunningham, Sergeant Charles Quigley .

As John Cole notes, Beauchamp is still in the army, apparently still in Iraq, and still serving his nation honorably.

His slanderers, not so much.

Michael Goldfarb is getting the filthy lucre wanking for John McCain's campaign.

Says something about the ol' Maverick doesn't it?

Palin-McCain?

Palin thinks she is at the top of the ticket.

Maybe that is the plan?

McCain's New Campaign Slogan

Thers had a simular and nearly simultaneous notion.

Great minds think alike, and so do I.

McCain and Palin's White Privilege

From Alternet, Anti-racist activist Tim Wise comments on the unfair scale of privilege.

For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at 17 like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-size colleges, and then governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. senator, two-term state senator and constitutional law scholar means you're "untested."

White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office -- since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s -- while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school, requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.

White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being disrespectful.

White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do -- like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the eight-hour workday, or an end to child labor -- and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small-town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college -- you're somehow being mean, or even sexist.

Hope from Alaska

Read This.

Does this mean the media has created a construct in the form of Sarah Palin?  Why say it isn't so... I am shocked that the media would go out of its way to make a race competitive that is not.

Long Sigh...

Charles H. Whitebread (1943 - 2008)

From law school pal S., I learn that Professor Charles Whitebread, a criminal procedure and T&E professor at USC Law School and BarBri criminal law/pro lecturer par extraordinaire, died on September 16th.

Preparing for and taking the bar exam was the most difficult thing I've done that didn't involve illness or death and I can tell you that Professor Whitebread really made that wretched process a little easier and a lot more entertaining. He was charming and funny and able to bottom line crim law/pro in a way that was truly helpful. He was what my dad would have called, "a real character" (this is high praise, by the way). He also gave us some test-taking advice that really calmed me down. I'll paraphrase it here:

There are three kinds of students. The first kind attain bare competence in the material. The second layer achieve an in-depth understanding of the subject matter. The third type is the kind all professors hope for -- the student who becomes a true master of the material. Ladies and gentlemen, you can pass the bar exam with bare competence!

RIP.

There Are Some Things You Can't Cover Up With Lipstick and Powder

Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton discuss issues of special importance to women.

It lives...

And it is still palpably stupid!

(AFP/File/Jim Watson)

Better

And well-timed

You know what

If all the "Lords" & "Ladys" of the world want to go on TV and call Barack Obama an elitist, more power to them.

You couldn't write comedy about someone like Lady de Rothschild because no one would believe it, it would be too bizarre. A living breathing, pearl-clutching parody troll.

"She's calling who an elitist?"

With a noble's title and the last name of Rothschild? I mean, talk about your OLD money. You don't marry a guy named Evelyn without the protection of money and a moat.

I hope she's on television from now through election day. She's the best advertising the Obama campaign could ever get. If she didn't exist you could never get away with inventing her.

While the Obama campaign had no official response, another well-placed Democrat from outside the Clinton camp openly mocked Rothschild's move. "The Duke of York already had plans, so Lady de Rothschild was the next most important endorsement to reassure working Americans during the economic crisis"

McCain demonstrates his vetting process

(AFP/Robyn Beck)

"He wants another hug?"

(AFP/Paul J. Richards)

Bring out the comfy chair

NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH DISQUISITION!

John McCain says: "My friends, my chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... My friends, my two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless inefficiency.... My friends, my three weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless inefficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to MATLOCK!.... My four...no... Amongst my weapons my friends.... Amongst my weaponry my friends weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise.... I'll come in again, my friends.

If only he had picked Cardinal Fang to run with.

Feeling hopeful?

What is it about horrible news that has me feeling hopeful? I don't know, maybe the notion that too many people that will vote have finally seen the Republican party and its candidates for the sham they really are--liars and thieves who use religion as a tool to govern. Maybe the notion that our time has come, that hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, Brownie, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Cheney, Bush, Addington, Gonzalez, Rove, Libby, wars, illegal wiretapping, torture, fiscal mismanagement, and all of the other shit clogging our system have had their day. Maybe the notion that despite all of the lies and the horrible work by mainstream media for most of the last 16 years we have a candidate who is still doing it right and is still fighting. Why he would want the job I'll never know but about now I think we need a little hope. So as for me, I'm glad he is still fighting the good fight.

How much more for war?

How much have we spent in Iraq? Something more than half-a-trillion dollars is the answer, I think, almost all of it outside the normal budget process. It is now beyond argument that we will be paying this bill for many many more years. The damage done to the republic by Bush and Co. is far more than most Republicans want to admit. But how any principled person can read the news of the last two days and still think the answer lies in hiring the Republicans to run the federal government should have their head examined.

Oh, and out of Iraq now.

Who is "She"?

This is ordinarily Molly Ivors' territory, but who is "She"?.

“She’s a child, inexperienced and simplistic...It’s taking us back to junior high school. She’s one of the popular girls, but one of the mean girls. She is seductive, but she is invented.”

The subject -- or the author -- of this opinion ?

As the Economy burned

John McCain diddled...track the talking points -- must be seen to be believed




via Think Progress

McCain Update: Much Love to Workers

Since when has John McCain sided with American workers?  The guy has consistently voted in the senate to allow American corporations to take their toys and play overseas rather than employ workers in the good ol' U.S. of A.  So with his recent  "clarification" comments, McCain has again revealed how far out of touch he is with the economy, workers, and the problems that average Americans face after the Bush era in the United States.  What's next?  McCain discovers the magical device you hold in your hand which will spray butter on your mashed potatoes?

On Tuesday, he clarified his remarks. The clarification was far more worrisome than his initial comments.

He said that by calling the economy fundamentally sound, what he really meant was that American workers are the best in the world. In the best Karl Rovian fashion, he implied that if you dispute his statement about the economy’s firm foundation, you are, in effect, insulting American workers. “I believe in American workers, and someone who disagrees with that — it’s fine,” he told NBC’s Matt Lauer.

Let’s get a few things straight. First, no one who is currently running for president does not “believe in American workers.”

More to the point, the economy is stressed to the breaking point by fundamental problems — in housing, finance, credit, employment, health care and the federal budget — that have been at best neglected, at worst exacerbated during the Bush years. And as a result, American workers have taken a beating.

In clarifying his comments, Mr. McCain lavished praise on workers, but ignored their problems. That is the real insult.

And since when did the New York Times editorial staff grow a backbone (or a pair) and why has it been missing until now?  Is this the mainstream news sharks smelling blood in the water?  Or is it just Palin's hunting lodge perfume? 

Hold Rove in Contempt

Editorial from the NYT we all can agree with...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is deciding what matters should get priority in the short time left before Congress adjourns this month. Her list must include a vote to hold Karl Rove in contempt for his lawless decision to defy a Congressional subpoena to testify about the United States attorneys scandal. There is a vital national interest in getting to the bottom of this matter — and in not allowing Congress’s authority to be undermined.

It has been nearly two years since Congress first began asking questions about the firing of nine United States attorneys, who appear to have been removed for partisan political reasons. Mr. Rove may have been directly involved in these possibly illegal firings, but he has not told Congress what he knows. In defiance of a legally binding subpoena, he refused this summer to appear before the House Judiciary Committee.

Congress’s investigation of the United States attorneys matter is of the utmost importance. It now seems clear that the Justice Department under Attorney General Alberto Gonzales operated as a partisan political actor, using its prosecutorial authority to help the party in power win elections. That was a grave abuse, which undermined American democracy.

There are real victims in this scandal. Don Siegelman, the former governor of Alabama, was sentenced to seven years in prison as a result of a prosecution that appears to have been politically motivated. Mr. Siegelman is free pending an appeal, but he has already served part of the sentence and could end up returning to prison.

Congress is also pushing to obtain testimony and documents from Joshua Bolten, the White House chief of staff, and Harriet Miers, the former White House counsel. Mr. Bolten and Ms. Miers have also defied Congressional subpoenas. The House voted to hold them in contempt in February, and it is fighting in court right now to force them to testify.

A Federal District Court judge appointed by President Bush ordered them to comply with the subpoenas, but the administration appealed the ruling. Attorney General Michael Mukasey is also doing his best to block Congress from getting the testimony it is entitled to. Clearly, the administration’s goal is to run out the clock, to get out of town before the subpoenas are enforced.

The House needs to start pushing just as hard on Mr. Rove. The important step is for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to schedule a vote on holding him in contempt in the next two weeks. The House is eager to adjourn — the members want to get back to their districts so they can campaign for re-election. But it would be a mistake to leave without taking this vote.

There are many vital principles at stake, but none is more important than the power of Congress itself. In this era of expanding presidential authority, Congress is a critical check on executive branch abuses. It cannot perform this function if it allows members of the executive branch to flout its subpoenas and its oversight.

Also check Judge Rules Bush Advisers Can’t Ignore Subpoenas

Palin and the Witchdoctor

I guess Michael Gerson would think it's fine:

The pastor whose prayer Sarah Palin says helped her to become governor of Alaska founded his ministry with a witchhunt against a Kenyan woman who he accused of causing car accidents through demonic spells.

oooooooo-kaaaaaaaaay

Who the hell does he think he is Eddie Cochrane?

McCain may take Palin to the United Nations. Why does she need to do that, back in the late 80s she went to a Benettons!

To Summertime Blues:

I'm a'gonna raise a fuss,
I'm a'gonna raise some dollars
I've been wankin' all summer
Just to try lie and slander
Well I went to Steve Schmidt
Said, 'I got a big date.
'Steve Schmidt said 'No dice, Gramps,
you gotta bloviate

Sometimes I wonder what I'm a'gonna do
But there ain't no cure 'cept sayin' I'm a P.O.W.

Well my mom and father told me
'Son you gotta join the Navy,
If you want to fly a jet
and crash it every other Sunday.'
Well I got back from the War
I told my first wife I wanted out
She said
'You and your heiress 'can go to Hell you fuckin' lout

Sometimes I wonder what I'm a'gonna do
But none of that matters, 'cuz I'm a P.O.W.!

In about two weeks This will be the situation
Gonna take this moron









To the United Nations
Well I went to the reporters
They said: 'We'd like to help you Mac,
And we sure could use a hug.'

Sometimes I wonder what I'm a'gonna do
But none of that matters, 'cuz I'm a P.O.W.!

That's what he thinks

McCain fears going the way of the IPAQ (if he knew what that meant), after his wankerette Carly Fiorina said he was fit to run the U.S. but not a company:

“Carly will now disappear,” this source said. “Senator McCain was furious.” Asked to define “disappear,” this source said, adding that she would be off TV for a while

He was furious?

I hope he didn't call her what he called his present wife.

Now, Carly will sleep with the fishes, which if you follow McCain's previous logic means the Maverick will soon be rutting around horizontally with her.

But little does McCain know, Carly will NOT just disappear, she expects a sizeable buyout first.

Desperate Bleating from Unrequited Lovers of the Dry Rub

This is simply a sad reflection of the times. Rather than be angry and blunt in reporting McCain's repeated snubs as he tosses out multiple slanders each day, his press pool does this:

Reporters traveling with John McCain are slightly miffed that the senator hasn't had any face time with them in, well, a month and three days (but who's counting?). So, when Straight Talk Air departed Tampa today, a dozen reporters chanted, "Bring Mac back! Bring Mac back!" (Some reporters expressed concern that chanting at takeoff could be against FAA regulations. Others joked that they could be taken away by the Secret Service agents on board.) The chanting lasted under a minute as staffers in the business cabin smiled and then promptly closed the curtain between business and coach.

When are we going to see Michael Scherer or Howard Fineman standing on the tarmac before the plane leaves playing Peter Gabriel loud enough for even "the Maverick" and his calcified tympanum to hear?

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

I can play that game too

What Digby said:

Yes, that's right, you've got a troubled insurance giant with billions of dollars tied up in worthless pieces of paper masquerading as securities. Yours for the low low price of $85 billion dollars!

You know, if this was Bolivia, the State Department would put out a strong statement declaiming the nationalization of industry and the stifling of private enterprise. But of course, in this case, industry made horrible decisions, so that justifies the Communism. It's unclear to me that it's even legal for the government to structure this absent legislation, but we're in a brave new world...

By the way, this could have been handled for $45 billion less three days ago. The shorts battered AIG's stock so mercilessly that they put taxpayers on the hook for twice as much.

When the GOP are What they Attack

The Federal Reserve will provide a roughly $85 billion bridge loan to AIG and take a nearly 80 percent stake in the company, according to a source briefed on the matter.

CNBC earlier reported the bridge loan would be secured and that shareholders would be severely diluted by the bailout.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and others were involved in the talks, CNBC said, adding that the bailout plan being negotiated "isn't a conservatorship."

Atta J. Turk and I were wondering how the logic works on this? The GOP demands the banking industry be DEREGULATED, now because of deregulating the system end up nationalizing it?  Isn't this what the GOP accuses Democrats of wanting, only they actually do it...at the cost of taxpayers?

Perfect Analysis

From Michael Tomasky's Blog at the Guardian.co.uk comes this comparison of McCain and Obama apparently being discussed in a heavily circulated email.

This took some figuring out

If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."

Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers -- a quintessential American story.

If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track -- you're a maverick.

Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.

Attend five different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

If you spend three years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a constitutional law professor, spend eight years as a state senator representing a district with more than 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.

If your total resume is: local weather girl, four years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with fewer than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising two beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.

If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner-city community,
then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.

If your husband is nicknamed "First Dude," with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now.

We are a very difficult lot to please.

So I don't publish much around these parts as I used to owing mostly to my own sanity. Can a person care so much that they can't find any humor in a McCain administration? Count me among them--though I am trying very hard not to take it so seriously. I just can't find the logic in a McCain-Palin administration and too many people I love in my own family that will vote that way. It is like beating my head against a brick wall.

But isn't it enough to have knuckleheads on the other side? Apparently not because as I roam around the twisty tubes of the internets, probably the same spots all of you routinely visit, the one thing that occurs to me is that Obama can't do anything right. You can't look anywhere without some expert telling him how he is doing it wrong. So lookey here, I want to win as much as the next person but good lord cut the guy some slack, would ya?

Brother can you spare a line?

Interesting:

"The fundamental business of the country, that is production and distribution of commodities, is on a sound and prosperous basis."

- President Herbert Hoover, in a press conference on October 30, 1929, the day following the Stock Market Crash, on the eve of the Great Depression

AND

"Our economy I think, still, the fundamentals of our economy are strong."

- Candidate for president, John McCain, on September 15, 2008

Oh, this excuse is so much better

Sarah, "pay for your own damn rape exam" Palin has, through the McCain campaign put a new "selective spin" on her termination of the man who refused to fire her ex-brother in law because of a vendetta:

The last straw, the McCain campaign said, was in July, when Monegan planned to travel to Washington to seek federal money for a plan to assign troopers, judges and prosecutors who could exclusively handle sexual assault cases — one of the state's most intractable crime problems.

In a July 7 e-mail, John Katz, the governor's special counsel, noted two problems with the trip: The governor hadn't agreed the money should be sought, and the request was "out of sequence with our other appropriations requests and could put a strain on the evolving relationship between the Governor and Sen. (Ted) Stevens."

Four days later, Monegan was fired. He said he had kept others in the administration fully apprised of his plans to go to Washington.

You cannot make this shit up.

They're preferred explanation is they were anti-sexual assault funds?

On the heels of making sexual assault victims pay for their own examinations while she was Mayor ... from a person who opposes reproductive choice fore RAPE VICTIMS!

Yeah, she's certainly a pro-woman candidate isn't she?

Um, something tells me it's time to make some strongly worded proclamations on this Obama Campaign.

The Fed's new policy

Apparently to appease the "WIZARDS" of Wall Street, who have driven the economy over the cliff -- but is sadly the stock market is the ONLY economic news that the media pays attention to -- I predict the Fed will cut rates again.

In the hope of causing yet another temporary spike in the stock market, because a Potemkin Band-Aid is economic policy we can believe in my friends.

Despite the fact these rate cuts have accomplished bupkiss.

I believe the rate cut will now be so low that banks will be paying rich people to borrow money. Borrow a million, get 100 free Ben Franklin prints.

The rest of you can go fuck yourselves, you're not even good for a free calendar anymore

War Criminal

How shocking, Dick Cheney comes with several dozen "Gleiwitz Incidents".

A GOP congressional leader who was wavering on giving President Bush the authority to wage war in late 2002 said Vice President Cheney misled him by saying that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had direct personal ties to al-Qaeda terrorists and was making rapid progress toward a suitcase nuclear weapon, according to a new book by Washington Post investigative reporter Barton Gellman...

Cheney said, according to Armey, that Iraq's "ability to miniaturize weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear," had been "substantially refined since the first Gulf War," and would soon result in "packages that could be moved even by ground personnel." Cheney linked that threat to Hussein's alleged ties to al-Qaeda, Armey said, explaining that "we now know they have the ability to develop these weapons in a very portable fashion, and they have a delivery system in their relationship with organizations such as al-Qaeda."

"Did Dick Cheney . . . purposely tell me things he knew to be untrue?" Armey said. "I seriously feel that may be the case. . . . Had I known or believed then what I believe now, I would have publicly opposed [the war] resolution right to the bitter end, and I believe I might have stopped it from happening."

You know what that is Dick Armey?

It is a WARCRIME!

(pic from here)

She's moving on to new lies

The McCain campaign, determined to rule by the made up nonsense of right-wing bloggers.

So they're, uh, devolving backward from the "reporting" wing of the Wall Street Journal:

Gov. Palin raised questions among the traveling press — confined under police guard for most of her three-hour visit inside a club boardroom — by telling her patrons the Tricky Tale of the Teleprompter Triumph.

As recorded by a reporter allowed to observe the 35-minute fundraiser appearance, this was the first time Gov. Palin herself relayed the story of how a fouled-up teleprompter forced her to ad-lib big swaths of her acclaimed acceptance speech at the Republican Convention Sept. 3.

But that story has been largely debunked. Reporters who saw the equipment that night say –and the party has not denied — that any teleprompter issue was minor at most. In the days after the event it was touted — on a hush-hush, off the record basis — by top Republicans as a way to show how swift-thinking is their newest star, despite her avoidance of any and all unscripted moments on the trail.

Gov. Palin’s telling was a Canton crowd-pleaser: “There Ohio was right out in front, right in front of me. The teleprompter got messed up, I couldn’t follow it, and I just decided I’d just talk to the people in front of me,” she said. “It was Ohio.”

Like the Alaska jet put on eBay and her pit-bull opposition to pork like the Bridge to Nowhere, the T.T. of the T.T. is great theater, but not quite, not entirely, true.

Did Sarah Palin take "ethics" at one of her 5 colleges? Did she take it pass/fail?

By the way, in George W. Bush like fashion she brags about how she got a "D" in macroeconomics.

By all means, America, elect this truly qualified individual!

Oh no, there not a sequel to Bush & Cheney at all..

Having formerly promised full cooperation as Governor:

A campaign spokesman says Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin won't speak with an investigator hired by lawmakers to look into the firing of her public safety commissioner.

McCain campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan told a news conference Monday that the governor, the Republican nominee for vice president, will not cooperate as long as the investigation "remains tainted." He said he doesn't know whether Palin's husband would challenge a subpoena issued to compel his cooperation.

This announcement did not come from Palin, it came from the McCain campaign.

It also contradicts her earlier proclamation:

Governor Palin initially agreed to "cooperate fully" with the Alaska state legislative investigation but since being chosen as John McCain's running mate both she and her husband have refused to testify voluntarily. Friday the legislature issued a subpoena for Todd Palin.

So a campaign has decided NOT to cooperate with an ethics investigation of a sitting Governor.

It is all so "2001 to the present" isn't it?

That's the non-change we're going to get.

And you'll like it!

Obama, right again!

Well, who's the "foreign policy expert now"? And all this without even looking at Russia.

Five former U.S. secretaries of state said Monday the next American administration should talk to Iran, a foe President Bush has generally shunned as part of an "axis of evil." ...

The five -- Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright, Warren Christopher, James Baker and Henry Kissinger -- all said they favored talking to Iran as part of a strategy to stop Tehran's development of a nuclear weapons program.

Et tu Kissinger?

And then it gets even more honest:

Dealing with Iran has become an issue in the November presidential election campaign, with Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain sparring over Obama's stated readiness to talk to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other U.S. adversaries if elected president.

McCain has criticized Obama's stand, saying it shows naivete and inexperience.

D'oh!

AMERICA'S CONCERN TROLL

Is very very concerned.

McCain has turned ugly. His dishonesty would be unacceptable in any politician, but McCain has always set his own bar higher than most. He has contempt for most of his colleagues for that very reason: They lie. He tells the truth. He internalizes the code of the McCains -- his grandfather, his father: both admirals of the shining sea. He serves his country differently, that's all -- but just as honorably. No more, though...

McCain has soiled all that. His opportunistic and irresponsible choice of Sarah Palin as his political heir -- the person in whose hands he would leave the country -- is a form of personal treason, a betrayal of all he once stood for. Palin, no matter what her other attributes, is shockingly unprepared to become president. McCain knows that. He means to win, which is all right; he means to win at all costs, which is not.

We'll see how much effect the eventual John McCain apology has.

Economy is still AWESOME from my perspective as someone who married into great wealth!

How many houses you got again?

What does "Ask her about Dinosaurs" mean?

It means this:

As the ceremony concluded [in 1997], I bumped into her in a hall away from other people. I congratulated her on her victory, and took her aside to ask about her faith. Among other things, she declared that she was a young earth creationist, accepting both that the world was about 6,000-plus years old, and that humans and dinosaurs walked the earth at the same time. I asked how she felt about the second coming and the end times. She responded that she fully believed that the signs of Jesus returning soon "during MY lifetime," were obvious. "I can see that, maybe you can't - but it guides me every day."

Munger reports that she later softened her stance to say that she "wasn't necessarily" a young earth creationist anymore, but that her faith in the impending apocalypse remained undiminished.

Remember

John McCain wants to trust Social Security to the wizards of Wall Street, just like Bush.

How's that lookin' right now?

I think it is time to unleash the hounds on that issue Obama Campaign.

IOKIYAR

We'll see whether this gets the attention that Edwards' $400 haircut (which was false) got.

Sarah Palin "actually" had the taxpayers of Alaska upgrade the Governor's "crib" in Juneau so she could install a tanning bed.

Whether the taxpayers had to actually pay for the bed is one question (though those per diem payments for staying home might have helped).

But better yet, surely skin-cancer survivor John McCain must be damned impressed at the wisdom of this purchase and activity.

Drill baby, Drill!!!

Fantasy:

In his advocacy for more offshore oil drilling, John McCain has falsely claimed Hurricanes Katrina and Rita did not “cause significant spillage” and that the platforms “very successfully” survived the impact of the storms.

Reality:

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Caused 124 Offshore Spills For A Total Of 743,700 Gallons. 554,400 gallons were crude oil and condensate from platforms, rigs and pipelines, and 189,000 gallons were refined products from platforms and rigs. [MMS, 1/22/07]

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Caused Six Offshore Spills Of 42,000 Gallons Or Greater. The largest of these was 152,250 gallons, well over the 100,000 gallon threshhold considered a “major spill.” [MMS, 5/1/06]

Considering how they made this a gigantic cheer at the GOP Convention...

Hurricane Ike appears to have destroyed a number of oil production platforms and damaged some of the pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico, federal officials said Sunday.

Fly-overs revealed that at least 10 production platforms were destroyed by the storm, said Lars Herbst, regional director for the U.S. Minerals Management Service.

"It's too early to say if it's close to Katrina- and Rita-type damage," Mr. Herbst said.

Whoops!

I'm no economist, but to paraphrase the immortal (not even in the Schuylar Colfax sense) Sarah Palin, I've had money so that makes me a freakin' economics expert. Therefore, as a newly ordained economist let me say this sure seems like it's going to be bad:

According to people briefed on the matter, Lehman Brothers will file for bankruptcy protection on Sunday night, in the largest failure of an investment bank since the collapse of Drexel Burnham Lambert 18 years ago...

But wait, that's not all:

Because of the harsher treatment that federal bankruptcy law applies to financial-services firm, Lehman cannot hope to reorganize and survive as a going concern. It will instead liquidate its holdings...Moreover, changes to the bankruptcy code mean that counterparties to Lehman’s credit-default swaps can seize their collateral at any time, posing an enormous potential risk to the entire financial markets. Investment banks, hedge funds and other financial players labored throughout Sunday to offset their exposure to Lehman, moving their contracts to other firms.

But now how much will you pay?

Ten of the world's big banks have kicked in 70 billion into a liquidity fund, not to buy Lehman but to shore up the market tomorrow.

Hey, that's like six-months in Iraq!

ACT! now, before it's too late!

American International Group Inc CEO Robert Willumstad turned down a private equity infusion and turned to the Federal Reserve for help, the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the situation, reported Sunday.

Why should a capitalist rely on capitalism, when capitalism is so mean to them?

The American International Group is seeking a $40 billion bridge loan from the Federal Reserve

Wait a minute, that's about three and a half-months in Iraq.

Financing for all these months in Iraq doesn't just grow on trees you know.

[stops, checks Google to make sure this is right]

Let me rephrase, we need to save those trees for Iraq occupation money only!

Remember, if you call today, they'll throw in a genuine set of ginsu seppuku knives!

This uncomfortably high-chance of financial collapse is brought to you by the folks who are John McCain's economic advisers, truly.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Doing the Press' Job for Them

Excerpt:
When Sen. John McCain on Friday announced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his choice for vice president on the Republican ticket, McCain said Palin was a union member and is married to a union member.

Palin was associated with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, according to the McCain campaign, while her husband is a member of the United Steelworkers.

After researching Palin , I simply could not find anything about her being "associated with" the IBEW, beyond appointing someone who was a member of the IBEW.

The McCain campaign is touting union membership for Palin, but this appears to be a real stretch.   Anyone have additional information on this?  Is this another example of McCain lies?

Meet the New Extremist, Same as the Old Extremist?

Sarah Palin's religious beliefs and political affiliations are fast becoming subjects for commentary albeit a few weeks too late.  In incremental steps reporters are slowly reviewing her political career, ideas, beliefs, and policies.  This report is interesting because it conveys what might be the depth of Palin's intolerance of those who disagree with her.  If there is a shred of truth in this report, then Palin would be very dangerous for this country.

I have wondered if Palin is really way off to the right wing of her party?  Or is she part of a new even more extremist right wing alignment in the Republican party?  And I wondered who would make a good example of this process...

Readers of this site will recall that Idaho voters sent the now late Helen Chenoweth to Congress for three terms. If she were alive today I'm sure she and Palin would quickly become the best of friends. Chenoweth was a complete wing nut who supported the movement to return federal lands in the west to private hands, believed in black helicopters, spoke approvingly of the militia movement, and became famous for enraging environmental groups by saying that she didn't see how there could be a problem with saving salmon since she could buy as much as she wanted in the grocery store. 

In many ways Sarah Palin is another Helen Chenoweth, the only real difference is that Palin will be much closer to the Presidency and will have a hand in actually making policy that will affect every citizen in this country.

"Ask her about Dinosaurs"

ABC News' David Wright and Alyssa Litoff Report:

As comedienne Tina Fey debuted her impression of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live, the governor and her staff were watching from 30,000 feet.

Palin was on board her campaign jet flying from Reno to Denver as 11:30 PM Eastern rolled around. But the show was available on the Jetblue charter's satellite TV system.

Standing alongside SNL cast member Amy Poehler who was impersonating Hillary Clinton, Fey's Palin extolled her foreign policy expertise in a flat midwestern accent: "I can see Russia from my house!"

There were howls of laughter from the sizeable press corps covering Palin's first foray on the campaign trail without her running man as a chaperone.

But, from the front of the plane, silence. The flight attendants assured us Palin and her entourage were watching. What she thought, though, is anybody's guess.

Palin has yet to say so much as hello to the press corps.

The campaign is doing its best to keep Palin well away from inquisitive reporters, going so far as to book the press corps into a separate hotel from the candidate.

[fez tip Balloon Juice]

Nice

Not only does the NY Times reveal Palin as a third-rate Dick Cheney (and since Cheney's third rate to begin with, doesn't that make Palin ninth rate?) but it actually gets down the the nub of just how much she is into the whole book-banning thing:

Witnesses and contemporary news accounts say Ms. Palin asked the librarian about removing books from the shelves. The McCain-Palin presidential campaign says Ms. Palin never advocated censorship.

But in 1995, Ms. Palin, then a city councilwoman, told colleagues that she had noticed the book "Daddy's Roommate" on the shelves and that it did not belong there, according to Ms. Chase and Mr. Stein. Ms. Chase read the book, which helps children understand homosexuality, and said it was inoffensive; she suggested that Ms. Palin read it.

"Sarah said she didn't need to read that stuff," Ms. Chase said. "It was disturbing that someone would be willing to remove a book from the library and she didn't even read it."

I'm sure Sean Hannity will cover this in an appropriate fashion.*



*when lipsticked pigs fly.

Reading List

Given the emergence of creationism and its various cousins taking the GOP, we need to educate ourselves.  From Peristaltor on Live Journal, an interesting discussion of creationism vs. evolution in The Deist Miasma parts 1 and parts 2.

And from "The Third Culture" blog: What makes people vote Republican?

MOMCrats: Keep religion private and out of the White House!

Michigan Messenger: Lose your house, lose your vote!

I will not say 'happy reading' because some of these essays will make you want to put your fist through your computer monitor.  But hopefully they will give us useful information in fighting the approach to create a theocracy in this country.

Addendum to earlier post today on lying from Krugman:  Read this essay on McCain's lying.  Quite true.  McCain will not be more of the same, it will be far far worse.

KKKlassy

Putting the "values" in Values Voters:

At the Values Voter Summit this weekend, vendors sold an item called “Obama Waffles” featuring a racist cartoon of Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) on the box front — with “popping eyes and big, thick lips” — and another image of him wearing an Arab-like headdress on its top flap. Its creators, Mark Whitlock and Bob DeMoss, said it was meant as “political satire,” and sold the box for $10 from a booth at the Family Research Council event. CNN’s Lou Dobbs stopped by the booth and exclaimed, “My wife will love this!” A photo shows Dobbs with a box of the mix in his hand.

And just to add that "EXTRA" touch of class, Lou 'fuckin' Dobbs poses with them.

Congrats CNN.

Just Curious

We here at the Rising Hegemon have been writing for weeks, if not months, about the pathological lying done by McCain and his campaign.  And, of course we have not been alone on this.  And many of us in the progressive blog-o-sphere have been detailing the lies told and those lies that surround Governor Palin.

Yet, many people are simply not listening nor caring about truth.  So, I wanted to ask you... how do you make people care enough about the country, themselves, truth, honesty, morality, and oh so much more?

Oh and by the way, Check out the Sarah Palin Name Site for fun!  Mine by the way: Rifle Panzer Palin so from now on you all can just call me Rifle.

Once a liar, always a liar

Mr. McCain came into the race promoting himself as a truth teller and has long publicly deplored the kinds of negative tactics that helped sink his candidacy in the Republican primaries in 2000. But his strategy now reflects a calculation advisers made this summer — over the strenuous objections of some longtime hands who helped him build his “Straight Talk” image — to shift the campaign more toward disqualifying Mr. Obama in the eyes of voters.

Even one of the GOP news organs, the NYT is concerned about the lies that McCain is telling.  He lied and cheated in the past (say it with me... Keating Five!  Keating Five!) and he will lie and cheat in the present.

But will it make a difference with the public?  Will people even know the truth if almost everything they hear are the lies? 

This demonstrates yet again, why we need serious campaign finance reform, including an independent review system for campaign commercials, and the return of the equal time clause for the media. 

Laughable lying idiots...

McCain on Sarah Palin:

Q: Well, you say you’re sure that she has the experience, but again, I’m just asking for an example. What experience does she have in the field of national security?

McCAIN: Energy. She knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America.

That's already laughable, no energy "expert" says "Nu-ku-ler"...but wait, now it gets really funny:

Palin: Let me speak specifically about a credential that I do bring to this table, Charlie, and that's with the energy independence that I've been working on for these years as the governor of this state that produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy

Oh "so close", only off by 600 percent.

Alaska produces 3.5 percent of the country's domestic energy production.

Notice, as McCain's been lying his ass off the last two weeks

And other media sources have called him out...

Ron Fournier & Liz Sidoti have been virtually invisible in doing so.

What a coincidence, huh.

Lies...about....everything

No matter how big, no matter how small:

Sarah Palin's visit to Iraq in 2007 consisted of a brief stop at a border crossing between Iraq and Kuwait, the vice presidential candidate's campaign said yesterday, in the second official revision of her only trip outside North America.

Following her selection last month as John McCain's running mate, aides said Palin had traveled to Ireland, Germany, Kuwait, and Iraq to meet with members of the Alaska National Guard. During that trip she was said to have visited a "military outpost" inside Iraq. The campaign has since repeated that Palin's foreign travel included an excursion into the Iraq battle zone.

But in response to queries about the details of her trip, campaign aides and National Guard officials in Alaska said by telephone yesterday that she did not venture beyond the Kuwait-Iraq border when she visited Khabari Alawazem Crossing, also known as "K-Crossing," on July 25, 2007.

But it is possible she could see it, so it is like being there.

See "I can see the Moon so I'm a freakin' astronaut" crack from yesterday.

Ethel Rosenberg -- innocent

Just to let you know Bush is only the WORST purveyor of tragic stupidity and malicious ass-covering, not the first:

Newly released grand jury transcripts add strong evidence to the argument that the conviction and execution of Ethel Rosenberg in the Cold War's biggest espionage case were based on perjured testimony.

In recent years, one of the two key witnesses against Rosenberg recanted his testimony. It now appears that the other witness made up her testimony. too. The witnesses were Ethel's brother and sister-in-law, David and Ruth Greenglass...

On Thursday, after spending several hours poring over the transcripts, the lawyers and historians spotted a major omission in Ruth Greenglass' testimony to the grand jury. Nowhere does Ruth Greenglass tell the story about seeing Ethel Rosenberg type up the secrets.

In fact, in her grand jury testimony, Ruth Greenglass says she herself wrote out the secrets in longhand. That testimony is consistent with subsequently decrypted Soviet cables from the time in which the Soviets describe material received from the Rosenbergs as being in longhand.

And why did Ethel Rosenberg have to die?

To cover the intelligence agency's ass.

For Obama to win he must be Obama?

While I -- and many of you -- do not agree with George Lakoff for many good reasons.  Yet, I have to say this argument about Democrats focusing on the issues while the Republicans avoid the issues and only focus on their constructed personality has the ring of truth.  Senator Obama needs to regain the charisma and inspiration of the campaign leading up to the Democratic convention.

Read the argument.  Then tell me what you think.

Service

Last night's "Forum on National Service" was nice enough, but can you honestly say that a "national service" would be on your top ten list of "Things To Do" if you became president tomorrow? It sure as shit wouldn't be in mine. Top 100? Sure. But stuff that needs doing right away? No way. Here are a few things that would be ahead in the queue (in no particular order). Put yours in comments.

1. Get the hell out of Iraq.
2. Deal with loose nukes all over the goddamned place.
3. Get all those countries holding our debt (I'm looking at you, China) to start building some factories here (h/t R).
4. Restructure all the aforementioned debt.
5. Rebuild the U.S. military.
6. Address all types of transportation issues (e.g., ports, Amtrak, SUPERTRAINS).
7. Restructure and simplify the tax code (e.g., reverse those Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest people, make corporations start paying some actual taxes, penalize corporations that offshore jobs, etc.)
   
8. Ask for the resignation of every single Bush appointee in every single executive agency. Immediately fire those who refuse to resign. Identify de facto political appointees seeded as poison pills throughout the civil service and morph them into little Milt Waddams. (This would actually be my Numero Uno priority.)
   
9. Take a trip around the world, stopping along the way to alert key world leaders to the fact that (a) the grownups are back in charge and (b) the U.S. is back in the reality business and ready to deal.
10. Start treating terrorism as the police problem it is.

Bonus: forbid every single administration official, major, minor, and everyone in between from giving Cokie Roberts any level of access, i.e., put her out to pasture.

Reason 2,113 on Why Palin is Bad For US

Two state leaders lashed out at the public record of Gov. Sarah Palin on Wednesday as witnesses in a new "Alaska Mythbusters" forum coordinated by supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Speaking to a teleconference audience of reporters around the nation, former Gov. Tony Knowles and current Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein -- both Democrats -- accused Palin of misleading the public in her new role as the vice presidential running mate of Arizona Sen. John McCain.

While some of their complaints have already been aired, Knowles broke new ground while answering a reporter's question on whether Wasilla forced rape victims to pay for their own forensic tests when Palin was mayor.

True, Knowles said.

Eight years ago, complaints about charging rape victims for medical exams in Wasilla prompted the Alaska Legislature to pass a bill -- signed into law by Knowles -- that banned the practice statewide.

"There was one town in Alaska that was charging victims for this, and that was Wasilla," Knowles said

A May 23, 2000, article in Wasilla's newspaper, The Frontiersman, noted that Alaska State Troopers and most municipal police agencies regularly pay for such exams, which cost between $300 and $1,200 apiece.

"(But) the Wasilla police department does charge the victims of sexual assault for the tests," the newspaper reported.

Surely, no thoughtful Senator Clinton supporter could even think of supporting a person who would create and support such a distasteful, sexist policy.  I am assuming even women in the GOP will have to think twice about supporting such a person.

Raw footage of Palin Interview

From here.

Could someone tell McCain

To stop playing with his ring finger everytime he's around someone he's attracted to?

First it happened constantly with Palin.


Now, he's got some sort of creepy "Chocolate Thunder" thing going on. Here is another angle.

I'm waiting for the pictures where he checked out Obama's ass.

I could be wrong, of course, he might want to "get it on" with the memorial, after all nothing turns Republicans on like "terrorism".

REUTERS/Timothy Claty/Pool (UNITED STATES)

McCain is crestfallen as...

Unlike most of his aides, Obama refuses to pull his finger.


(AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

Gaze upon our awesomeness!

The United States leads the world in economic loss from deaths caused by armed crime, according to a global survey released Friday.

The U.S. registered an estimated loss of up to $45.1 billion in terms of economic productivity because of violent crimes, said the report by the U.N. Development Program and the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey.

Awesome

This is from Balloon Juice, but it's a great reply:

Pressed about what insights into recent Russian actions she gained by living in Alaska, Palin answered: “They’re our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.”

And the response:

And when I look out my window I can see the moon. Doesn’t make me a fucking astronaut now, does it?

By the way, I can see a gynecologist's office from my window...

When McCain called I never "blinked"

Ask me a basic policy question however, and...



[via Oliver Willis]

The the circle be unbroken (the rest of you can FUCK OFF!)

Remember all those slanderous push-polls in South Carolina McCain decried. And how he sold his soul to hire the same assholes to work in his campaign.

Well, the circle is complete:

Two individuals in Ohio have described an identical push poll being conducted in their home state that presents Barack Obama as a quasi-radical leftist, uses inflammatory quotes from Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and offers risible interpretations of the Senator's policies on everything from sex education to abortion.

The poll -- conducted by the Long Island-based Opinion Access Corporation, a telephone survey firm -- represents, perhaps, the most negative messaging yet to be witnessed this campaign cycle.

The McCain campaign is also, SHOCKINGLY!, sending out bogus absentee ballots to areas that are demographically pro-Obama in Ohio in a thinly disguised effort to disenfranchise as many of his voters as possible.

How awesomely "honorable" of him.

Satan's inbreds

I'd say stunning, but we all know better don't we?

National Review's The Corner knew, at least initially, that the "lipstick on a pig" nonsense was a stupid, pointless story. And then, the Cornerites managed to convince themselves otherwise, writing 31 separate posts on the subject in less than 24 hours. Amazing.

Ouch

AP headlines that did not pass through Ron Fournier's McCain Enabling Center Washington Bureau:

Palin tries to defend qualifications in interview

There are, of course, many disturbing things about Palin, and here is yet another:

Gov. Sarah Palin linked the war in Iraq with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, telling an Iraq-bound brigade of soldiers that included her son that they would "defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans."

The idea that the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein helped al-Qaeda plan the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a view once promoted by Bush administration officials, has since been rejected even by the president himself.

Celebrity Wannabee

It's one thing to proclaim Obama is a "celebrity" considering the length of your own listing at the "IMDB", but here's a little nugget of the hypocrisy inherent in the jet-set Mavericky life of John McCain. A rather lecherous old dude who will sell his soul to see what he would describe as "the woman who went topless in that gay cowboy movie" [and then unleash his creepy smirk while looking at Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman].

The photograph substantiates reports that in late August, 2006, McCain celebrated his 70th birthday aboard a yacht, the Celine Ashley, rented by A-list con man Raffaello Follieri and his then-movie star girlfriend Anne Hathaway. In the current edition of Vanity Fair, Michael Schnayerson reported that Follieri rented the Celine Ashley for the month of August 2006. Montenegro's leading daily newspaper, Vijesti, earlier reported that during McCain's visit in 2006 he celebrated with birthday cocktails and sweets aboard the Celine Ashley yacht. In the photograph, taken in Montenegro at the end of August, McCain is shown boarding the yacht ramp towards the smiling Follieri and Hathaway. Just ahead of McCain and shaking hands with Follieri appears to be Rick Davis--McCain's top aide and now co-manager of his campaign, who accompanied him on the trip and advised the government of Montenegro. A few months after McCain's yacht party, Follieri strengthened his ties to McCain's orbit by retaining Rick Davis's well-connected Washington lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, and offering Davis both an investment deal and help in securing the Catholic vote for McCain's presidential bid.

Follieri, who posed as Vatican chief financial officer in order to win friends and investments, pleaded guilty Wednesday in a Manhattan district court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, eight counts of wire fraud and five counts of money laundering. As part of the plea, Follieri admitted to misappropriating at least $2.4 million of investor money and redirecting it to foreign personal bank accounts that were disguised as business accounts.

I just hope Meghan McCain can emerge from the $700,000 condo her mother bought her and explain to us all how this is more evidence that only her family understands war...and partying abroad with future felons.

"That's Stalking you can believe in my friends"

Somewhere Gary Hart is crying on the Monkey Business at the injustice of it all.

[photo via The Nation]

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Less Is More

Update: big-time cool pic of the Tribute here.

Saw the Tribute in Light from the intersection of Sixth Avenue and West Fourth Street last night. It really is elegant and moving and viewing it is the one thing I make sure to do (along with avoiding "Ground Zero" or any media outlet where I might hear that odious term) every September 11th. The artists and architects who conceived the Tribute got it exactly right, as did the city, which decided (mostly for budget reasons, as I recall) to display it only for twenty-four hours each year. Anyway, if you're in town or nearby tonight, try to check it out. I was at the lookout at Eagle Rock Reservation in New Jersey last weekend. I bet there's a great view from up there.

Here's the deal

And Joe Klein touched on this a bit.

McCain always seems really sincere when he apologizes. And he regularly apologizes for actions that he took part in long ago. It's how he sold the whole "Keating 5" experience as an actual victory for...John McCain.

And the media falls for it, hook-line-sinker. Even though it is performance art so cheesy and vile Piero Manzoni would put it in a can.

Tweety Matthews was actually on television decrying McCain's campaign tactics as beyond sleazy while declaring McCain somehow is unaware of it.

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT.

The fact is McCain is counting on his "apologizing" capabilities to kick in to high gear if he can somehow slander and lie his way to winning the election in a squeaker. He's sold his soul so he can win.

Afterwards he believes, win or lose, he can apologize and get back into the good graces of his spurned man-crushes.

And don't count out his ability to give a shallow, convincing, hair-shirted performance to the media-whores inclined to want to forgive him.

To which I respond.

Fuck him, fuck him now, fuck him in the future, fuck him always.

40 plus years ago you were held captive and treated abominably. But not as badly as the civilian victims of the bombs he dropped. They're not running for anything except fertilizer.

The present is how you serve your country now.

Fuck you, fuck you in the future, fuck you always.