If you are concerned about the incitement to riot that is beginning to be all too common at McCain and Palin rallies, please sign this petition:

http://www.mccainpetition.com/

Hi there, come on in. Just got here myself, heading into the kitchen to find something to munch on. And a much needed glass of wine - you? Sure! Grab a seat after you put some music on, your choice. Something fairly soft and mellow if you don't mind. What? Very observant of you! You can always tell my mood when the lights are dimmed and the candles are lit. Long evening, this one. Nothing wrong, really, just kept too busy trying to take care of people on vacation. The poor folks who have valiantly tried and failed to keep their spirits up while the rain poured down upon them. For the last three days. So, yes - I'm going to enjoy this glass of wine. My mood is low and slow tonight. How's yours?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAUtZnwQUvI

Look at that vid and I DARE YOU to tell me McCain isn't adding perfectly fine with this sort of hate. Go to 3:07 and see when the woman says "traitor!" McCain STICKS HIS THUMB UP AND SMILES. I didn't notice this until I read one of the comments noone has commented on this during the news media. It's unbelievable.

Thanks to a post from Brian Oregon I caught the last 20 mins. of the Minnesota senate debate.

I love Al Franken and I have sent  in the twenties of dollars to his campaign even though I'm from Illinois. Al got me through some of the darkest days of the Bush-Rove-Cheney nightmare with his Air America radio show. I listened almost everyday to some of the most articulate, clearest thinking political thinkers in the country and gradually became reassured that I was not crazy to be opposed to and horrified by what was going on in Bush's America. I think he will be a great senator and I hope he has had the "where with all" to convince enough Minnesotans of that.

But the Minnesoata race is very close and Al just did not come off very well. Coleman has BEEN to Iraq where he TALKED with the soldiers. Coleman was clear and folksy and wrong. Franken has also been to Iraq many times and has also talked with the troops --he didn't bring it up. Al was hesitant, slurry and correct. If a listener didn't already know that Al really knew his stuff, I don't think the debate would have won the listener over.

But on top of that Coleman had the redneck woofers out in force. I didn't hear the introduction to the debate but I assume the usual request to "refrain from..." was given to the crowd. Coleman's supporters blatantly ignored any such nicety. If Coleman paused to clear his throat the yahoos burst into applause. At the end of the debate, being without torches and pitchforks, the Republicans went into their typical synchronized barking:

coal MUN
(clap clap)
coal MUN
(clap clap)
coal MUN
(clap clap)

It was as if Norm was preparing to kick a field goal.

And so I call upon the ghost of Gene McCarthy to rise up. I suppose he is presently up in heaven browsing the poetry section. I need to disturb him, tap him on the shoulder and show him the McCarthy presidential campaign pin that I wear on every election day. I will whisper in his ear. "Gene, get in the game. Al's a good guy. He needs your help."

Coleman's kick, of course, is low, wobbly and too far to the right.

Franken and McCarthy jump high, bump bellies.  Jump again slap five. Democrat majority. Game over. Put it on the board.

Posted by Kevin Cassidy
October 11, 2008 10:26 PM | Reply | Permalink

October 11, 2008 by pjburns 

It seems like only yesterday we were talking about candidate’s third grade essays and their political implications. Ah, gone forever are those halcyon days of silly season – only a few months, but so so long ago. This week there has certainly been a change in the seasonal winds. Temperatures on the campaign trail have plummeted as the tone has turned bitterly cold. This week has been reminiscent of Orwell’s Hate Week, a systematic campaign designed to solidify rage and abhorrence against “enemies of the Party”. It is a short and slippery slope from hate rallies to Krystallnacht – out and out violence and destruction in the streets

John McCain is old enough to understand from history what can happen when rage seethes unchecked. He remembers the lunatic-days of Fascist Europe and Red China. He remembers the blind fervor of America’s own Red Scare that ruined the lives of so many. He knows the damaging power of frenzy. However, the cat is out of the bag and he seems powerless to contain the ire of his supporters. To his defense, he has tried to rein in the ignorance and acidity of his crowds. Yet, they boo him, ignore him. They want to hate no matter what their candidate may say. Sarah Palin on the other hand seems eager to nourish their rage. A day after McCain tried to regain his crowd back under his control, Palin further riled hers with cruel suggestions that Obama is a baby-killer. The crowed bayed their utter contempt.

History can teach us that these hate-mongers are in fact a minority of the larger community, yet their opinions win the day. They are loud, aggressive and tend toward violence. They intimidate the majority into keeping silent or even following along. Present day Germans still carry the shame of the silent masses of their grandparents’ generation. Literature demonstrates that dissent may exist in individual hearts within a state-controlled mob; yet social pressures overpower personal disquiet. Winston and Julia, in Orwell’s 1984, both secretly revile the socially imposed “Two-Minute Hate” sessions. Yet, they participate and even quietly critique each other’s degree of demonstrable vehemence. Our society is becoming reflective of these examples. For the past decade, we have gravitated to radio and television programs where hosts and audience members scream over each other, fed by a common hate for a common enemy. To publicly shout out your rage somehow makes you more loyal, or more honorable, or more knowledgeable than your neighbor. It continuously ratchets up the impassioned disdain for the other side, until any common ground is completely eradicated from the equation. These periods creep up throughout history – moments when public furor is stoked by rage for a common political goal. The French and American wars of revolution. The Bolshevik Revolution. Hitler’s holocaust. Stalin’s purges. Pol Pot’s genocide in Cambodia. The Balkans. Rawanda. Darfur. It continues, regardless of ethnicity, geography or culture. For all of our beauty and brilliance, this is one of our more sordid human characteristics. An angry man can be rational. An angry crowd? Don’t hesitate. Turn and run.

History and Literature offer glimpses into our future. So does mythology. During this dizzying descent into chaos and ire demonstrated at McCain/Palin rallies, we are reminded of Greek Mythology. Sarah Palin resembles a young Pandora. The powerful gods sought to punish humans for Prometheus’ crime of stealing fire. So, they decided to create a woman from the Earth. Unquestionably, the ancients had misogyny issues. The referred to her as a “beautiful evil” but they named her Pandora. Each god bestowed upon her a unique “gift” and placed it in a gilded box. Of course we all know what happened then. Driven by curiosity, Pandora peeked inside the box and let loose all the evils of the world. Greed, vanity, slander, envy and pining spread throughout the world and changed our lives utterly and eternally. Talk about a bad first impression.

As soon as she took the national stage at the Republican National Convention, Palin cranked up the ire. Her introductory speech went beyond the cynical sarcasm typical of any political forum. Her words were rude, belittling, cruel and bitter. And her audience lapped them up like mad dogs. Moreover, Palin clearly set the tone that night for their campaign, culminating with the rallies we see now in the closing weeks of this race. Our new politician on the scene has let loose all this ugliness and now its fire spreads. At these events people arrive armed with ignorance and vile. They call Obama a terrorist, yet can’t explain why they think that. They inaccurately call him an Arab thinking this is synonymous with evil. They have let their minds and their fears run amok. Like all fires, they feed off one another until nothing remains but destructive heat and smoldering ash. McCain cannot control them. He cannot apparently control Palin either. His base has overwhelmed him and he must feel the shame of allowing the creation of this Hydra. Palin controls the crowds now. She stokes the flames of hate and seems hell-bent on burning down the house with everyone in it.

But, remember the mythology. All was not lost when Pandora’s box was opened. Elpis remained to comfort and illuminate mankind in this sinister, dark new world. Elpis was the spirit of Hope. And for all this spreading ugliness, slander, envy, greed and all, we have a clear source of hope in this election. Will we make the right choice?

I had to share this snippet from a report in the News Journal of Wilmington, Delaware, about Sarah Palin's badly received appearance at the Flyers hockey game in Philadelphia: "The weirdest part of it was that Palin, who had to know she was going to be booed, walked out with her cutie pie 7-year-old daughter, Piper. Why do I have a feeling that poor Piper will be discussing being booed by thousands with a therapist in about 10 years?"

Funniest thing I've read in .. a long time.

I attended a McCain/Palin meetup tonight

Enjoy!

I believe in an inherent goodness.  I believe that everything, if left alone, will work towards doing good, being good, doing its work happily.

Take the spider.  You knock down its web, and it doesn't hold a grudge.  It just rebuilds.

Always reminds me of the joke about the snail.  But I'll leave that for another day.

I don't adhere to any one religion, but I love what their good points are.  Be good to oneself.  Be good to others.  Don't hurt anything if you can help it.  Help one another.  Love one another.

All the rest, well....it's just bullshit.

 

This post is a clearing house for links to posts that flew by too fast, or didn't get the attention they deserved, or were too good to go away even if they made it to reader rec.

If you add a link, please give a brief description along w/ your reasons for why it deserves a 2nd look. ANYONE can add a link here.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE stop by everyday to rec this post, even if you don't add anything, or
read anything on it...It only works if it gets up to reader rec, thus making the posts available for longer.

If it BARELY makes Reader rec, it gets kicked off early. This is a GREAT tool, but if we don't use it, we lose it.

We are adding a new feature...Each day's post will have a link to the post for the day before, so it will be easier to keep up!

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/10/frisat-2nd-chance-clearinghous.php

Towards the end of the debate this week, McCain finally will know for sure that he has lost. His last hope (besides an attack on the U.S.--and even that might not work to his advantage now that America trusts Obama to be able to handle a crisis) is that Obama will make some terrible gaffe or mistake in the debate. When that doesn't happen, McCain will know that his time has run out.

He'll have two choices.

Remember Hilary Clinton's wistful moment in one of the late primary debates? "No matter what happens in this contest — and I am honored. I am honored to be here with Barack Obama. I am absolutely honored..." Some thought that was a concession at the time; if it was, the thought didn't last long since Clinton soon resumed her struggle with a vengeance and did anything but concede. But Clinton still had hopes of victories and hopes that Michigan and Florida could rescue her. But this is the moment that McCain will have reached, and there won't be time left for denial or struggle or hope.

So there will be two choices.

McCain can reach across the asile, as he likes to say, and state: "No matter what happens in this contest, I am honored to be here with Barack Obama. I am absolutely honored. And whoever wins this contest and becomes President, is going to need all the help and cooperation that he can get from every American. We face unprecedented challenges at home and abroad. So while I ask for your vote, I pledge tonight to do everything I can to help Senator Obama if he is elected, and I know that I can count on his support if I am elected. We need to remember that we are all Americans and that the President is the president of the country, not a party."

In other words, he can decide that since he has lost the election he needs to at least try to salvage some last vestiges of his reputation for honor and non-partisanship, pretend that he has fought the good fight and that he is after all an honorable guy.

OR: he can decide to take the country down with him, sow the seeds of race and class warfare, do his best to de-legitimize the inevitable Obama administration, put salt in the wounds, pour gasoline on the fire, poison the well, make certain that nothing good will grow in Republican soil for generations.  

McCain doesn't care about the Republican party's prospects in this election or after him. The Republican candidates are already avoiding him. He is too old to run again and he doesn’t really want to position Palin as his heir apparent. (Besides, Palin will lose her bid for re-election as Governor in Alaska and she will end up as a right-wing talk show host. This is inevitable.) All along McCain has been driven by ego and narcissism. So does he care enough about his reputation to go out gracefully, or is he so uncontrollably angry that wants to do his best to tarnish and undermine an Obama presidency from the start?

 

Yesterday the MSM fawned over McCain for timidly suggesting that Obama was actually a decent guy and a family man (assuming that the woman’s assertion that Obama was a Muslim was an accusation that he was not a decent family man). They are eager to assume that he has been forced into a dishonorable campaign by the Rovians. They will welcome him back with open arms and let him become an elder statesman. But he may feel that since they have turned against him, he may not care. He may want to spite them as well.

Which will he choose? A statesman's elegy or a last suicide mission, flying his plane into the target? 

I've been following electoral politics for many years, and I've never seen anything like the recent turn this campaign has taken.  On the one hand, I've been kind of surprised that race hasn't played a bigger role in the campaign and that it's taken this long for ugly racism to appear.  After all, the polls show with undeniable consistency that, barring some kind of sudden change, we are just weeks away from electing our first black president.  That's historic and as with every signficant step forward we make as a country, one would have to be naive not to expect some sort of backlash.

On the other hand, now that that backlash is here, its tenor is extremely disturbing.  The spectacle of McCain assuring his hysterical supporters that Obama is indeed not an Arab (terrorist), is a US citizen, is a decent man, etc. are the most jarring thing I've ever seen in American politics.  (McCain is of course only trying to douse the flames his own campaign started, and which as other readers have pointed out, his ads continue to stoke.)  This is much worse than the Willie Horton ads; the McCain camp has vilified Obama in a far more direct and vicious manner.  In his desperate attempt to overcome Obama's growing lead and to salvage his amateurish, schizophrenic campaign, McCain has helped bring American politics to a frightening new low.

The latest blog from the chief Whining Yellow WASP loser, is an in depth examination of how the black candidate that he has opposed  from day one to the present, if elected President, will allow The Whining Yellow WASP loser to taunt the rest of the world with our moral superiority, because we elected the black man, that he did not want elected.

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/10/annals-of-the-hive-3.php

It is a fascinating exercise performed by The Whiner Yellow WASP loser, as many of his cluster of Yellow WASP losers buzzed around to watch their leader circle around in every smaller circles, until he finally disappeared entirely, up his own vocal hole.

It is great stuff, but if you do not feel up to following The Whiner Yellow WASP loser up his own vocal hole, then here is the gist of it:

I Billy Glad, The Yellow WASP loser:

fully opposed the nomination of Barack Obama, and every thing that John McCain has said and done is brilliant and wonderful, while Obama has done everything wrong. But let me, Billy The Yellow WASP loser, tell you something folks; when that Obama guy, that I have been completely opposed to, every step of the way, gets sworn in as president, then I will point to the rest of the world and say; look world, we have just elected a black man as our president, and therefore we are the planet's superior moral authority.

I, Billy, The Yellow WASP loser, sure hope that it does not happen, but if it does, then I will use it to taunt the rest of the world.

The Whine Of The Yellow WASP Loser, as sung by Billy Yellow WASP Loser Glad.

Does anyone know the answer to that?  I'd like to know if he's sincere about snuffing out the fire his campaign started by invoking the "Barack HUSSEIN Obama" intros, which, by the way, they are entirely responsible for.  I mean, they're not denying that, are they?    

From Reuters: IMF warns of financial meltdown

Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard University professor and former IMF chief economist, said the G7 would have been better served adopting some version of the British plan so that banks would feel confident enough to loosen their grip on lending.

"Saying that they'll take all steps necessary leaves hanging the question of whether they know what is best and necessary," he told Reuters. "It was a signature moment for the G7. I think markets are going to be very disappointed."

Followed by today's IMF announcement: IMF endorses G7 plan to fight global credit crisis

The G7 countries have not described any specific plan, but have promised to work together and focus on the following key promises:

• Prevent the failure of major banks
• Get credit markets flowing
• Reinforce deposit insurance programs
• Fix the mortgage financing system
• Help countries with growing economies also affected by the crisis

So that means the big boys are endorsing a plan of no specific action.  The markets are not going to like this.

I came to America from a developing country and used to see dirty politics all the way around, used to see politicians raising hatred and incite violence to get them elected to power. The current McCain campaign for the last two weeks at least getting very close to developing world politics.

If they can convince 2 to 3% of low information populace with their 'Scary Obama' messages , that would be enough for them to defend their home turf and make this election very close.

What they are trying to do is muddle the people's thinking who are on the fence to convince them to vote for them.
So far Obama campaign did not go after the Mccain campaign aggresively to stop this lying and guilt by association techniques.

But I think they should start it right now. They should force the Media to play the McCain's association with right wing extremist groups and Palin's ( Her husband's) association with Alaska  Independent Party.

It is fine that most of the media and few GOP leaders have expressed concern about the McCain campaign strategy. But they are not the one, who is going to vote. 

We can not afford losing another election, by failing to push aggresively against Repulician party's lies and scary techniques.  It is the time for some pay back.

I think, the time is ripe to put both Mccain and Palin to the same guiliy by association standards.
This is still a fragile election and Obama has not locked up this yet.

Any 2 - 5% point loss can make it awfully close and it is the time to make sure that will not happen.

After 2000, and 2004, not many have stomach to absorb another loss and see this great nation being dragged down by another four year of incomptent Republician Adminsitration.

I first noticed its Friday a week ago--the McCain ads that had been polluting the airwaves on Washington, DC during the dinner-news segment were gone.  I was out of town most of last week but my wife just commented that all last week, the nightly local and national news broadcasts were McCain ad free zones.

Obama continues to advertise heavily in this market, which includes the battleground state of Virginia. I'm sure that McCain continues to spend in the Old Dominion, but he seems to have given up on Northern Virginia--unless others can correct my impression.  Fairfax County went for Kerry in 2004, and the inside the beltway communities of Falls Church, Alexandria, and Arlington are Dem strongholds, but this TV market also reaches red-leaning Loudon, Prince William, and Stafford Counties.

Anybody else know whether McCain has really pulled his ads from No. Va. /DC/MD?

If you have iTunes, you can listen to tonight's Minnesota Senatorial debate (8pm Eastern; 5 Pacific) on Minnesota Public Radio.  In iTunes, click on RADIO, then PUBLIC, then scroll down to Minnesota Public Radio News and fire it up!

Forget it.

From MSNBC First Read, it appears McCain likes this holier-than-thou game a bit too much.

,,,in his life

In the midst of the latest kerfufle and distraction by folks who not actually campaign spokemen, it is worth pointing out that at Rev. Warren Saddlebackevent, McCain cited, Gen Petraeus and John Lewis and Meg Whitman as the three wisest people in his life.

So maybe when John Lewis speaks, being one of the three wises people in John McCain's life, according to John McCain, maybe John McCain should listen.

 

I haven't seen this mentioned elsewhere yet. Interesting: Barack Obama would like to offer John McCain a job if he becomes president, in what his allies says is an attempt to end the bitter partisan rancour that engulfed the White House race last week. Both presidential rivals are working behind the scenes to calm the increasingly incendiary atmosphere on the campaign trail, which erupted with lurid claims about Mr Obama's links with the former terrorist Bill Ayres and a lynch mob atmosphere at McCain rallies. Two Democratic sources with knowledge of the thinking in the Obama camp say that forming a partnership with Mr McCain would prove that Mr Obama will reach across the aisle and also help rehabilitate Mr McCain, who many Democrats believe has been pushed by hardline advisers into making increasingly desperate attacks on his rival. One well-connected Democrat, who spoke to Mr Obama last week, told The Sunday Telegraph: "John McCain is a good man. There's no question about it. I think we'll see Barack Obama reach out to him and say: let's work together." read the entire article here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/barackobama/3179575/Barack-Obama-would-offer-John-McCain-a-job-is-he-wins-the-US-election.html

In a telling sign that the McCain campaign's recent attacks on the character of Barack Obama and the overall 'terrorization' of the democratic nominee is working to plan, McCain himself was attacked for admitting that he had consorted with the presidential hopeful.

During an evening rally last night McCain began touting his bi-partisanship and recalled a time when he "reached across the aisle" to collaborate with his rival Barack Obama. But before McCain could finish his tale of Washington done right, his stage was rushed by a large group of overweight blond women and white men shouting such epitaphs as terrorist-sympathizer, traitor, Muslim, Arab, and ni**** lover. Even Cindy McCain was seen kicking her husband in the gut with a $5,000 stiletto.

Once McCain's secret service finally wrestled away the bulk of the assailants and after a few harrowing minutes between McCain and his personal defibrillator, the republican nominee was able to compose himself enough to thank the crowd for putting country first, while at the same time rebuke them for woefully misplacing their hate. "My friends, I am just like you," McCain insisted while bending down, rolling up his sleeve and holding his forearm in parallel to the unconscious blond mulletted man cluttering the stage. "I am of the same skin -um...I am fundamentally the same as you. The enemy is the other one," he continued, "I am just a Joe-the-six-pack like you," he insisted while pointing behind him at the life-sized card-board cutout of a smiling, winking McCain holding a six-pack in one hand and making the thumbs up sign with the other. The crowd grumbled somewhat reassuredly, most likely not completely convinced because in the cut-out McCain was holding a six-back of Tsingtao.

After the rally, during a brief news conference, McCain derided his rival: "If Barack Obama would have simply agreed to the 536 town-hall meetings I suggested, all of this uglyness could have been avoided."

Concerning abortion. Distinguish same-sex relationships from marriage; perhaps partners, but definitely no marriage! Benefits are equal everywhere, already, by legal wills, etc.! Wrong is wrong, even if everyone is doing it! Right is right, even if no one is doing it! The silenced majority is more indecipherable as Christ’s light is lost with so many being sucked-in by openly practiced shamelessness,crude, rude,etc. made more tolerable by well aired and published progressive liberalism, a self-interest religion forcing its doctrine of depravity upon the children, defying the only truth that does make one free: trust in God, industriousness, and integrity by principled self-mastery! Scares me to death where the progressives are taking us: entitlements, lack of initiative, wantonness, materialism!

My Saturday afternoon rant having watch a clip of Palin rousing the rabble before watching a football game:

What kind of America do you want Republicans?

 

Do you want these economic times to tear us apart?  It’s easy you know. Find your favorite scapegoat and direct all the free-floating anxiety towards your choice. Rev up the angry and frightened and give them something or someone to blame. This method is a time-proven success for dismantling stable governments.

 

What kind of economic system do you want?

 

Thirty years of your Free Market theory has brought us to the brink of a full blown depression just as the lengthy pre-1929 period of non-regulation brought us to the Great Depression.

Oh I know you will say we never achieved your beloved free and unfettered markets but that shows your system has always been unworkable. You were unable to move your designs from theory to practice and make them work. You had lots of excuses but here we are at the edge. We have had booms and bust during these last decades while you stripped away regulation. The result?  The economy has come crashing down. We are close to being bankrupt as a country because your ideas are bankrupt.  In the end you have had to turn back to Washington, your nemesis, hat in hand, to save you. After years of privatizing profits for a select few you are now more than happy to socialize the debt you have created. (In the Free Market world of your fantasies I would imagine football games would be played without refs and the NFL would never consider adding controls like salary caps or having a draft to distribute the players more equitably among the teams.  Your free market football players would always call the plays fairly and keep to the rules. Chaos?  Not possible I am sure you would say.)

 

What kind of political system do you want?

 

It is clear you would be happy with a plutocracy but does the rule of law mean anything to you other than those who rule make the law?  Do you fear the massive growth of government surveillance?  Do you mind the politicization of our Justice Department? Do you mind the dismantling of FEMA or the FDA?  Are you happy with the giant Department of Homeland Security and its Big Brother connotation? Do you care about our crumbling infrastructure?  Do you care if we are protecting our ports? Or are all these things trivial in the face of that offense against All We Hold Sacred: gay marriage?  Do you want to reach an accord between the right of women to have control over the when another living entity can inhabit her body and the right of that living being to be brought to viability or is this too valuable a fundraising, crowd-rousing issue to ever resolve it?

 

What kind of social system do you want?

 

Are you planning a full retreat into walled communities when whites become the new minority within the next three or four decades or do you plan somehow to create an American version of Apartheid here before then?  Are you going to build that wall along our border or are you going to make this country work for all of us, white, black, brown, Latino, Asian? 

Do you want to continue letting the middle class disappear while concentrating wealth in the hands of the few?  Poor people who have known nothing else are easy to keep underfoot. A large population of once-economically secure families slipping into poverty is the stuff of revolutions. During the 1950’s, the time you like to reminisce about, America was at its economic best because wealth was equitably distributed. That is one part of the 50’s I would like to see return.

 

What kind of leaders to you want?

 

If you would even tolerate a ticket with the defamatory Sarah Palin and her sound-bite depth of knowledge along with a man who graduated at the bottom of his class then I think that answers the question.  If you mock an East Coast education as elitist and long for a Joe Six-pack in the White House I think we know your answer.

 

What kind of America do you want, Republicans?

 

 

 

 

 

I think what we began to see yesterday, with McCain calling for his supporters to be respectful, is a run up to a big McCain mea culpa after the election. While his behavior during this campaign has shown that he's not principled, throughout his career he's demonstrated an overwhelming desire for the public to think that he is. He's given pained apologies for his role in the Keating Five, his vote against an MLK Day in Arizona, his refusal to stand up against South Carolina's racially insensitive state flag, etc. These apologies weren't just aimed at the public, they were also aimed at the media aka his erstwhile 'base' aka the folks who enabled to him to build a career in the first place. I say that within three weeks of his eventual loss to Obama, McCain will do a sit down with one of the "liberal media elites" to attempt a typically outrageous McCainian feat: he'll apologize for his sleazy campaign, while also absolving himself of much of the responsibility for how the campaign was run. It'll be interesting to see if he pulls this off and gets his media buddies back on the ol' tire swing.

One of my most vivid recollections from the Nixon impeachment proceedings was the look on the face of then-Congressman Paul Sarbanes when the roll call reached him on the first Article.  As he voted in the affirmative, Sarbanes' entire demeanor -- his countenance, if you will -- betrayed not partisan delight, self-righteousness, or self-importance; it betrayed the crushing weight of the congressman's appreciation for what his vote -- and the vote of the majority of the House Judiciary Committee -- signified.  
In stark contrast to the smug, gleeful crew that cast their votes for the impeachment of Bill Clinton 25+ years later, Sarbanes seemed almost dazed, not able to believe what was going on, or the role he was playing in the moment.  As he uttered his assent, it was as though he could barely get the word out.  The sheer effort required to say "yes" (or "aye" -- I do not recall which) was almost too much for him.  Yet, he knew all-too-well what was unfolding, and what it meant for the nation.
That was not unlike my impression of John McCain's multiple exchanges with different supporters yesterday.  Even after several rewinds, I doubt -- as some might suggest -- his expression betrays petulance or anger at having to knuckle-under to a handler's instructions to, in effect, "get out there and eat some humble pie."  I think it's more complicated than that.
The knowledge that his quest for the White House is slipping away is hard enough for him to swallow.  The realization that he bears almost sole responsibility for failing is harder, still.  But, what may be even worse is the knowledge that the loss of a political contest pales in comparison to the contributing role played by his abandonment of core principles that defined him for so long.
McCain once told a friend that his experience with the "Keating Five" scandal was worse than the five years he spent in a North Vietnamese prison camp because, in the case of the latter at least, he was able to retain his honor.
Reportedly, George McGovern was at his best in the last three weeks of his campaign for the presidency.  He knew that it was over -- that Nixon and his crew were going to hand him a crushing defeat.  Instead of pouting, stewing or lashing out, McGovern felt liberated by that knowledge.  His acceptance of his fate freed him to say whatever he felt like saying, and simply being himself.

I can't imagine too many people who would willingly trade places with John McCain between now and November 4.  The tangle of emotions he is likely to endure will undoubtedly make him a singularly unpleasant human being for that stretch and, probably, beyond.  Or, not.  It all depends on what he's really made of.

Just came across this investigative report from Greg Palast and RFK jr. I think it's worth a few minutes of your time to understand what the GOP is up to in terms of voter supression for 2008. Please be prepared and take nothing for granted. I encourage you to watch the two part BBC film, "The Theft of 2008".

http://www.gregpalast.com/

It ain't over till the fat lady sings!

In a blog post entitled "Sorry, Dad, I'm Voting For Obama" on The Daily Beast Christopher Buckley states that he will vote for Sen. Barack Obama in the upcoming election.  Christopher Buckley is the son of William F. Buckley, conservative author and founder of The National Review.  It will be the first time he has ever voted for a Democrat.  Mr. Buckley made is declaration on The Daily Beast rather than in his regular column on the back page of The National Review after watching extreme hate mails come in by the thousands to Kathleen Parker.  Parker published a scathing editorial critical of the McCain/Palin ticket unleashing an avalanche of angry emails, one which suggested that Kathleen’s mother should have aborted her and tossed the fetus into a dumpster. 

Here are some quotes from Mr. Buckley's post:

John McCain has changed. He said, famously, apropos the Republican debacle post-1994, “We came to Washington to change it, and Washington changed us.” This campaign has changed John McCain. It has made him inauthentic. A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises, such as balancing the federal budget “by the end of my first term.” Who, really, believes that? Then there was the self-dramatizing and feckless suspension of his campaign over the financial crisis. His ninth-inning attack ads are mean-spirited and pointless. And finally, not to belabor it, there was the Palin nomination. What on earth can he have been thinking?

And

I’ve read Obama’s books, and they are first-rate. He is that rara avis, the politician who writes his own books. Imagine. He is also a lefty. I am not. I am a small-government conservative who clings tenaciously and old-fashionedly to the idea that one ought to have balanced budgets. On abortion, gay marriage, et al, I’m libertarian. I believe with my sage and epigrammatic friend P.J. O’Rourke that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take it all away.

But having a first-class temperament and a first-class intellect, President Obama will (I pray, secularly) surely understand that traditional left-politics aren’t going to get us out of this pit we’ve dug for ourselves. If he raises taxes and throws up tariff walls and opens the coffers of the DNC to bribe-money from the special interest groups against whom he has (somewhat disingenuously) railed during the campaign trail, then he will almost certainly reap a whirlwind that will make Katrina look like a balmy summer zephyr.

Buckley is quick to point out that he remains true to his conservative viewpoint but notice how he does his best to align them with his decision to support Obama.  Hath Hell frozen over?

Some provocative reading from the always interesting Sidney Schanberg, courtesy of the folks at The Nation:

John McCain, who has risen to political prominence on his image as a Vietnam POW war hero, has, inexplicably, worked very hard to hide from the public stunning information about American prisoners in Vietnam who, unlike him, didn't return home. Throughout his Senate career, McCain has quietly sponsored and pushed into federal law a set of prohibitions that keep the most revealing information about these men buried as classified documents. Thus the war hero who people would logically imagine as a determined crusader for the interests of POWs and their families became instead the strange champion of hiding the evidence and closing the books.

Almost as striking is the manner in which the mainstream press has shied from reporting the POW story and McCain's role in it, even as the Republican Party has made McCain's military service the focus of his presidential campaign. Reporters who had covered the Vietnam War turned their heads and walked in other directions. McCain doesn't talk about the missing men, and the press never asks him about them.

The sum of the secrets McCain has sought to hide is not small. There exists a telling mass of official documents, radio intercepts, witness depositions, satellite photos of rescue symbols that pilots were trained to use, electronic messages from the ground containing the individual code numbers given to airmen, a rescue mission by a special forces unit that was aborted twice by Washington—and even sworn testimony by two Defense secretaries that "men were left behind." This imposing body of evidence suggests that a large number—the documents indicate probably hundreds—of the US prisoners held by Vietnam were not returned when the peace treaty was signed in January 1973 and Hanoi released 591 men, among them Navy combat pilot John S. McCain.

Here's a link to the full (and lengthy) essay:

http://www.nationinstitute.org/p/schanberg09182008pt1

Sadly, in John McCain's divisive pursuit of the presidency and need to proclaim his own courage and self-sacrifice, both honesty and humility have been lost. Matt Langdon, creator of the Hero Workshop program, recently asked the pivotal question, Is John McCain a Hero? Yet, he admits that "an American presidential election is not the place to look for the truth about people."

McCain's public persona is very much steeped in the idea that he is an American hero. He leads with his character out front and his service to his country right along side. So, what makes him a hero? McCain's focus on character first is another possibility for claiming the hero status. His own words describe a desire to act as an example of honour and service for everyone, especially his children. Those same words describe some quiet, everyday heroic behaviour from one of his captors. And yet many would tell you McCain lacks those very qualities. In general, the POW/MIA activist community hates him as pointed out in depth in the Phoenix New Times. Patty O'Grady of University of Tampa lays the cards on the table with some open questions. Her father was in both prison camps that McCain was in. Eric Wattree says, "A hero is one who acts with nobility of purpose, and selflessly sacrifices his life, or places his life in imminent danger to promote the interests of the nation or his comrades. That doesn't define McCain..."

In Dr. Mark Strom's must-read chapter, Humility, from the 2003 book, The Seven Heavenly Virtues of Leadership, he discusses humanity with nobility:

When it comes to leadership there is perhaps one characteristic manner of being that stands out as the natural twin of humility. Humility and nobility. Humility with nobility. According to the Concise Macquarie Dictionary, to be noble is to be: "Admirable in dignity of conception, or in manner of expression, execution, or composition; imposing in appearance; stately; magnificent; of an admirably high quality."

We are not talking about nobility in the sense of ranks made elite by birth or decree, but of nobility of purpose, and of a personal bearing that befits that purpose.

How interesting that in discussion of humility and nobility that Dr. Strom quoted McCain .... from a much earlier time.

Honor is not the same as public acclaim. Virtue is not determined in moments of public attention to our behavior. Courage, devotion, compassion, humility -- all the noble human qualities -- are not practiced in pursuit of public approval. They are means to much nobler ends. And they are ends in themselves.

Dr. Strom's also relates humility to other virtues and qualities, giving one a way to understand why McCain's repeated calling of the POW card has worn thin.

Humility without compassion, courage or integrity is hollow. Without humility the other virtues may become parodies: Compassion without humility is likely to be patronising. Courage without humility is likely to be foolhardy. Humour without humility is likely to be cruel. Integrity without humility is likely to be self-righteous. Passion without humility is likely to be overbearing. Wisdom without humility is likely to be pompous.

Tim Dickinson, in his breathtaking Rolling Stone article, Make-Believe Maverick: A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty, speaks to this question of character:

This is the story of the real John McCain, the one who has been hiding in plain sight. It is the story of a man who has consistently put his own advancement above all else, a man willing to say and do anything to achieve his ultimate ambition: to become commander in chief, ascending to the one position that would finally enable him to outrank his four-star father and grandfather.

It was in the waiting for the end of a different story, about another self-proclaimed hero, that I began to focus on this bigger picture of heroes and humility.

I have been following a story since shortly after the attacks on September 11, 2001, an article I wrote 2 years ago (TRADING IN ON TRAGEDY FOR FAME: Succumbing to the Lure of Truthiness), seeming spookily prescient when we look at McCain's incessant POW story push.

My article is one that detailed a sad case of 9/11 fraud from a self-proclaimed Search & Rescue hero named Scott Shields. Although sentencing is scheduled for Oct 14, 2008 at the US District Court for NY's Southern District, I believe Shields will probably not be slapped too harshly. It is unfortunate that there has been virtually no mainstream coverage of this story, as Scott Shields has caused irreparable damage to the typically unheralded Search & Rescue heroes who are always there for us at devastating urban disasters .... such as that at Ground Zero following the infamous 9/11 attacks. And, he has continued to take money from unsuspecting folks as he touts his purported heroic deeds at trade shows, elementary & middle schools, Boy Scout Group meetings, and more.

Besides his theft of government funds, mail fraud & conspiracy to defraud the US after receiving almost $50,000 from FEMA and the American Red Cross, Scott Shields continues to collect disability for his Ground Zero injuries. Interestingly, despite claims of breaking both knees and an ankle, he was doing just fine about a month later while walking behind Hilary Clinton in the October 8, 2001 Columbus Day parade.

Lt Dan Donadio, head of the NYPD's canine teams in 2001, had 25 teams on the site round the clock for nine long months, scraping through the pulverized concrete. Scott Shields was down at Ground Zero for a little over a day, but managed to spin his experience into an epic. And, always on the look-out for the next big disaster, he further tried to benefit from the Katrina disaster.

Mr. Shields claimed 847 live rescues, evacuating under 6000 people, and that 11,000 people are alive today because of his group. Yet, rescuers who were there indicated the following: "His numbers exceed the entire 82nd Airborne's numbers including the Superdome evacuation. So even if he took credit for all of their hard work, his numbers are still an aberration. ... Scott was escorted out of LA and was on the water only ONE DAY. I spoke to the Chief and Superintendent of NOPD. They told me they never heard of Scott and there was NO WAY he rescued 5,000 or 11,000. ... In those pictures, if you look, he is in shorts and just shoes, looks like he is on vacation while everyone else has knee pads on and is working, and that was just at camp."

I have learned that the true heroes out there are not easily found. They do not do this job for the fanfare. They do not have media agents working on getting them mentioned in endless news articles. They are not obsessed with gaining notoriety. In fact, they'd rather not be in the spotlight. Rather, they struggle and train and work hard because they can, because they know they can help a fellow human being. These folks are a gifted bunch, and we do depend on their spirit of giving . . . for that time when it may be our lives hanging in the balance.

When the McCain Campaign launched Murtagh's attack
on Obama via Michelle's employment at Sidley & Austin,
they were apparently unaware that in doing so they
were attacking the reputation of one of the most
powerful law firms in the nation. A law firm's reputation
vital to its financial life and I should think that the partners
of Sidley & Austin would not take lightly Murtagh's (and
McCain's) charge that they are - and have been - harboring
a terrorist in their firm.

Only 100 Days, 21 Hours, 16 Minutes and 34 Seconds left until George W. Bush leaves office.

https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/standardmagnet?source=mainnav_bt_nsu_dg

:)  Let's keep it up!  Shock and Awe my friends!!  Let's give Barack a 15% point landslide / mandate!!!

He knew his  pals were bad news. thats finally known. nows the time to step down Senator with gracE!

Thanks to Steve Benen over at the Washington Monthly for digging out this historical kernel of irony:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_10/015130.php


Apparently McCain and Palin represent a first in American political history! And not in a good way!

Suzi LeVeaux at Republicans for Obama posted an interesting article about the African-American man who was in the front row of a McCain town hall meeting. Come to find out, he is a motivational speaker for hire.

From his website:

James T. Harris is a subject expert in cultural change and societal trends. His proven track record with organizations of all sizes and types shows he is a uniquely engaging individual who delivers motivational awareness and educational awareness messages as a:

- Keynote speaker at major events 
- Panelist at conferences and symposiums 
- Feature presenter at the podium or to lead a break-out session 

Suzi LeVeaux at Republicans for Obama posted an interesting article about the African-American man who was in the front row of a McCain town hall meeting. Come to find out, he is a motivational speaker for hire.

From his website:

James T. Harris is a subject expert in cultural change and societal trends. His proven track record with organizations of all sizes and types shows he is a uniquely engaging individual who delivers motivational awareness and educational awareness messages as a:

- Keynote speaker at major events 
- Panelist at conferences and symposiums 
- Feature presenter at the podium or to lead a break-out session 

A young man in the 60s enraged at what he considers an unjust war, joins a radical group and bombs buildings.
An 8 year old boy of mixed race being raised by a single mother unaware that....
Fast forward 2008...
Having sat on a board with aforementioned young man in the 60s - now educator - could possibly cause him to lose the race to become the President of the United States.
While I don't think this will happen (that he will lose); it is mind-boggling to me that its a possibility.

   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DIc8jdra0o

  Enjoy!

Each week since the middle of the primary season I've been running Monte Carlo simulations of the general election using polling data from Votemaster Andrew Tanenbaum's www.electoral-vote.com.
This week's polling data shows has been the most favorable for Barack Obama all year. Without some significant change in the electoral landscape, John McCain simply can't win.

I'm still doing two simulations, of 10,000 trials each, but with a different margin of error. First is a 4% margin of error common to most state polls, a run which reflects what would happen if the election were held now. The other uses a margin of error I computed using a linear regression of 2004 polling data errors compared to the final result, with time to the election as the independent variable. That now uses a 10.5% margin of error.

4% Margin of Error:
Obama wins 100.0%, averages 353.5 EV (low 296, median 354, high 384)
McCain wins 0.0%, averages 184.5 EV (low 154, median 184, high 242)
No electoral ties.

10.5% Margin of Error:
Obama wins 99.94%, averages 340.6 EV (low 247, median 343, high 403)
McCain wins 0.06%, averages 197.4 EV (low 135, median 195, high 291)
No electoral ties.

The 10.5% margin of error does overstate Obama's chances of winning (since each state trial is independent; it's more likely that if McCain gets momentum, he'd gain in many states at the same time, as Obama has over the past two weeks), but not necessarily by that much. Nate Silver now estimates Obama has a better than 90% chance of winning. Obama is clearly in a dominant position.

Almost all of the recently toss-up states have moved strongly towards Obama.
The two latest Colorado polls both gave Obama a 6 point lead. Obama led in all four new Florida polls, with margins between 2 and 7 points.
Likewise Minnesota's five new polls showed Obama with leads, ranging from 1 to 18(!) points.  Obama led by 2 and 7 in the two new Nevada polls, and he led in the three new New Hampshire polls by 9, 13, and 8.
Ohio had 7 new polls, with McCain leading in just one (by one point), and Obama ahead in the other 6, by 3-6 points. Obama's leads in the 5 new Pennsylvania polls were all 10 points or more. Even traditionally red Virginia had two new polls giving Obama double-digit leads (the third still had him ahead by 2).

North Caolina is the lone exception, perhaps still slightly leaning to McCain, with three new polls splitting Obama +1, tie, and McCain +3.

Other previously safe Republican states are now perhaps in play. The two new polls in Missouri both showed a 3 point lead, but differed on who was ahead. The first new poll of West Virginia in over two weeks showed Obama ahead by 8. Three new polls in Georgia showed McCain ahead by 7, 9, and just 3. A new poll of Montana saw McCain's lead shrink to 5.

As the financial crisis has dominated the news, Obama has pulled further ahead. The McCain campaign seems disorganized and unfocused, unable to settle on a consistent message. Its handling of the Ayers association is a good case in point - at times they are trying to paint Obama as unacceptable and perhaps a terrorist sympathizer, but McCain backed away from such direct accusations in the town hall debate. One night a campaign spokesman says it's not an issue, the next day another raises it. McCain did the right thing by calling out some supporters who got out of line with outrageous statements, like calling Obama a terrorist, but much of his campaign is essentially pushing that very idea.

It is a campaign that knows it is losing, but has run out of ideas for yet another tactical diversion, and so it may now be resigning itself to defeat.

Sometimes I forget the real reason that Sarah Palin was thrust to the forefront by the far end of the right wing (would that be the wingtips?). They have, after all, been grooming her for this assault since the very beginning of her political career (by the way, do we know whose living room her political career was launched in?). I already posted on Palin's knack for getting her taxpayers to foot the bill for her no-so-private religious pursuits in today's Associated Press report, but find that there is quite a bit more in that review that should be cause for deep concern. Seeing her chances grow slimmer everyday, especially with the release of the Troopergate report last night and the abuse of power findings that are on the front page of every news outlet today, Palin has finally launched her anti-abortion assault on the Obama campaign. Today at a rally in Johnstown, PA, Palin said that "a vote for Obama is, in her words, "a vote for activist courts that will continue to smother the open and democratic debate that we deserve and that we need on this issue of life."" The subtext, of course, is that an Obama win means that the Rapture Right will fail in its attempt to stack the Supreme Court with its own activist judges in its desire to overturn Roe v. Wade. The AP review includes a long list of troubling activity on Palin's part to blur the lines between church and state: "Records of her mayoral correspondence show that Palin worked arduously to organize a day of prayer at city hall. She said that with local ministers' help, Wasilla - a city of 7,000 an hour's drive north of Anchorage - could become "a light, or a refuge for others in Alaska and America."" ""What a blessing that the Lord has already put into place the Christian leaders, even though I know it's all through the grace of God," she wrote in March 2000 to her former pastor. She thanked him for the loan of a video featuring a Kenyan preacher who later would pray for her protection from witchcraft as she sought higher office." "In that same period, she also joined a grass-roots, faith-based movement to stop the local hospital from performing abortions, a fight that ultimately lost before the Alaska Supreme Court." "Palin's former church and other evangelical denominations were instrumental in ousting members of Valley Hospital's board who supported abortion rights - including the governor's mother-in-law, Faye Palin." "Alaska Right to Life Director Karen Lewis, who led the campaign, said Palin wasn't a leader in the movement initially. But by 1997, after she had been elected mayor, Palin joined a hospital board to make sure the abortion ban held while the courts considered whether the ban was legal, Lewis said." ""We kept pro-life people like Sarah on the association board to ensure children of the womb would be protected," Lewis said. "She's made up of this great fiber of high morals and godly character, and yet she's fearless. She's someone you can depend on to carry the water."" "In November 2007, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that because the hospital received more than $10 million in public funds it was "quasi-public" and couldn't forbid legal abortions." The AP review includes even more troubling examples of Palin's attempt to impose her religious views on the people of Alaska, and her trampling of the concept of separtation of church and state. I'm guessing that that is exactly what brought her to the attention of the Bush administration: "Palin also is one of just two governors who channeled federal money to support religious groups through a state agency, Alaska's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Palin has made it a priority to unite faith communities, local nonprofits and government to serve the needy, bringing her high marks - and $500,000 - from the Bush administration." "In fiscal year 2008, Alaska was one of only four states to receive $500,000 in federal grant money from the national initiative. "The governor has a healthy appreciation for faith-based groups that serve Alaskans in need," said Jay Hein, who until recently directed national faith-based initiatives at the White House. "The grant speaks to their organizational strength, and the dynamism of Alaska's operation."" No doubt, her record as a religious crusader is what brought her to the McCain ticket as well. (Link to the article is in the comments below.)

Will I turn blue if I hold my breath that long?

It's good, as far as it goes, that John McCain is attempting to contain some of the paranoid ugliness that he's been responsible for. I'm happy to live in a country where politicians' self-interest restrains them from fomenting civil unrest.

But what matters is not the kind of man John McCain is or isn't. What matters is the kind of country we live in.

McCain will be a rapidly-receding footnote to history by Thanksgiving, taking his place among the Bob Doles and James Blaines and Charles Pickerings. He still has the power to make this campaign very dangerous for a lot of innocent Americans, but on November 5th he won't be able to get the matches near the gunpowder any more.

What worries me are the people who are stocking up their own gunpowder for Guy Fawkes Day. It's bad enough that hateful, paranoid lies are being spread in an attempt to defeat Obama. What's much, much worse is that defeating Obama is no longer the hatemongers' goal

The shape of the narrative is already forming, in preparation for a McCain loss. The right-wing media is laying the groundwork to claim voter fraud, perpetrated by ACORN, as the primary cause of McCain's defeat, even if November 4 is a landslide. In fact, a landslide will make the hard-liners' cognitive dissonance greater, because they won't be able to process how badly they have lost mainstream America, and lead them toward paranoid explanations.

The plan is to deny the legitimacy of Obama's election, and to continue portraying him as a dangerous outsider. No claim is too outlandish. We will hear how Obama personally engineered the financial crisis and how he is in league with various foreign bogeymen.

This is extremely dangerous. It gives the most dangerous people on the right an excuse for violence, because Obama is not "really" President and because he's "dangerous." So violence can be rationalized as necessary, for the greater good. And it builds in an excuse for ignoring the rule of law, since government itself is "illegitimate."

That isn't about one election. That's about the kind of country we live it, about whether we keep civil peace and respect the rule of law.

Starting November 5, we need to push back, hard, on media outlets that peddle dangerous fantasies.

I always enjoy Gail Collins columns.
This one is especially worth reading.

Click on recommend, so that other readers will get to see it, before this blog gets swallowed by the TPM black hole. Thanks

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/11/opinion/11collins.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

Excerpt:

I miss August. August was neat. The Dow was over 10,000 and nobody had ever heard of Sarah Palin.

Remember how we used to joke about John McCain looking like an old guy yelling at kids to get off his lawn? It’s only in retrospect that we can see that the keep-off-the-grass period was the McCain campaign’s golden era. Now, he’s beginning to act like one of those movie characters who steals the wrong ring and turns into a troll.

During that last debate, while he was wandering around the stage, you almost expected to hear him start muttering: “We wants it. We needs it. Must have the precious.”

Remember when McCain’s campaign ads were all about his being a prisoner of war? I really miss them.

Now they’re all about the Evil That Is Obama. The newest one, “Ambition,” has a woman, speaking in one of those sinister semiwhispers, saying: “When convenient, he worked with terrorist Bill Ayers. When discovered, he lied.” Then suddenly, with no warning whatsoever, she starts ranting about Congressional liberals and risky subprime loans. Then John McCain pops up to say he approved it. All in 30 seconds! And, of course, McCain would think it’s great. For the first time, the Republicans appear to have captured his thought process on tape.

'Scuse me but isn't the very definition of a terrorist 'someone who creates fear'? And isn't that exactly what John McCain is doing to the american people?

It just keeps getting better. An Associated Press review out today reports that Sarah Palin had no problem billing taxpayers for her trips back to Wasilla to attend church, as well as other religious events around the state: "What she didn't tell worshippers gathered at the Wasilla Assembly of God church in her hometown was that her appearance that day came courtesy of Alaskan taxpayers, who picked up the $639.50 tab for her airplane tickets and per diem fees." "An Associated Press review of the Republican vice presidential candidate's record as mayor and governor reveals her use of elected office to promote religious causes, sometimes at taxpayer expense and in ways that blur the line between church and state." "Since she took state office in late 2006, the governor and her family have spent more than $13,000 in taxpayer funds to attend at least 10 religious events and meetings with Christian pastors, including Franklin Graham, the son of evangelical preacher Billy Graham, records show." As a firm believer in the separation of church and start, this is particularly galling. But will the voting public care that the Gov was pursuing her personal religious crusades on the taxpayers' dime? Of course, one has to remember that Palin doesn't answer to the people of her state, but to her belief in a higher power: ""As I'm doing my job, let's strike this deal. Your job is going be to be out there, reaching the people — (the) hurting people — throughout Alaska," she told students graduating from the church's Masters Commission program. "We can work together to make sure God's will be done here."" For a detailed list of all of the various events Palin billed her taxpayers for, click on the workable link in the comments section below.

This is the same John McCain who "suspended" his campaign two weeks ago. This is the same John McCain who said Ayers was "off limits to him" (but apparently not his staff) earlier this week.

So, let's be a bit more cautious and skeptical. Per Obama's subtle calling out of McCain on alleged cowardice earlier this week, let's wait, say, until next Wednesday and the final presidential debate.

Beyond that, even if McCain is reining in himself, does this apply to himself only? Or is he reining in his campaign staff?

Is he reining in Palin?

CAN HE rein in Palin?

Well, of course, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska has denied any wrongdoing in the TrooperGate scandal! But to actually try to make the American People believe that the independent investigator's report "fully exonorates" her is, at least, wishful thinking and, at most, delusional. When asked about her betrayal of the people's trust she stated that "you have to read the report!". So I did. This is what I read...

"Gov. Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda,"

The Republican's have become exceptionally good at "spinning" almost anything, but this is outrageous. Equal to Bill Clinton's lying about Ms. Lewinski in my opinion. As a public official, the official decisions you make and the official actions you take are supposed to ALWAYS, without fail, be in the best interest of those you serve with no weight given to personal opinions or relationships. Ms. Palin has failed the people of Alaska, in her position as their Governer by over-stepping her authority and taking out a personal vendetta against a member of her cabinet. Based on the report's findings and her opinions regarding the authority given to the Vice President by the Constitution of the United States (which is VERY clear, mind you!), I believe she would fail the American People as well should John McCain become the President.

Bush and Cheney disregard  the oversight of the legislative branch.   And they certainly have abused their power.  
Now Palin disregards the Alaska legislature's conclusion that she abused her power. 
There's no way we can let anyone with this attitude toward government anywhere near the White House.  
Eight years is enough.

Time magazine has an article up today on the Troopergate report, "What the Troopergate Report Really Says." http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1849399,00.html?xid=site-cnn-partner Things we learned: "Did Governor Sarah Palin abuse the power of her office in trying to get her former brother-in-law, State Trooper Mike Wooten, fired? Yes." That's the big one, of course, and sharply indercuts any stand on trustworthiness the McCain/Palin camp claimed to have over the "unknown" Obama. But what the report really sheds light on, is just how vindictive and unprofessional Alaska's Palin administration has been: "The result is not a mortal wound to Palin, nor does it put her at much risk of being forced to leave the ticket her presence succeeded in energizing." "But the Branchflower report still makes for good reading, if only because it convincingly answers a question nobody had even thought to ask: Is the Palin administration shockingly amateurish? Yes, it is. Disturbingly so." Shockingly amateurish? Haven't we already suffered through eight years of inept, vindictive government? "A harsh verdict? Consider the report's findings. Not only did people at almost every level of the Palin administration engage in repeated inappropriate contact with Walt Monegan and other high-ranking officials at the Department of Public Safety, but Monegan and his peers constantly warned these Palin disciples that the contact was inappropriate and probably unlawful. Still, the emails and calls continued — in at least one instance on recorded state trooper phone lines." In the end, it looks like not much will actually happen in Alaska in regards to any kind of punishment being levied against Palin or her staff, but the damage to her credibility will certainly register in the next few days worth of polling, and the damage that Palin has done to the McCain ticket will only sink in deeper. Just this morning, Palin has already begun to pled that she has done nothing wrong, and the McCain campaign has issued its statement whereby it is trying to dust this matter underneath the rug, but a clearer picture of who Palin is, is certainly beginning to form in the public's mind. As stated in the Time article: "Monegan consistently emerges as the adult in these conversations, while the Palin camp displays a childish impetuousness and sense of entitlement." The McCain camp has been trying to get us to answer the question, "Who is Barack Obama?" as if we haven't been examining, in detail, every aspect of the man for the past 18 months. The real question, of course, is: "Who is this Sarah Palin?", and what vendettas will she and her husband Todd be pursuing, if God forbid, they should be placed in a position that is one 72-year old heartbeat from the presidency? Now that is something to be scared of.

It seems to me that we have to base our opinion of the candidates on what they say and what they do, and their record.  Trying to guess what they think or intend by reading their body language, or whether they make eye contact or not, or the color of their skin, is an exercise in futility, and a petty waste of time.

 

I think there is enough to criticize about the Republican position on important matters without fabricating issues about personal snubs or angry personalities or speech mannerisms.

 

John McCain exhorted a crowd to “be respectful,” and I think that’s a good thing.  Perhaps it should have been done earlier, perhaps he should teach the same line to his running mate, but the fact that he said it, and said it in the face of some negative reaction from the crowd, earns him brownie points in my book.

It is all very simple.

The economy is going belly up.

Many people are going to suffer... suffer a lot.

Every day that passes they will become more aware of how much they are going to suffer.

They are afraid today and they will be more afraid with each passing day.

Fear is the mother of anger.

Anger will grow stronger with each passing day as the gravity of the crisis sinks in.

Its normal target would be the Republicans, they have been in power for eight years. Although this catastrophe is not just something the Republicans have done by themselves, but is the product of a consensus of the entire American establishment, the meltdown has happened on the Republican watch and logically they should carry the can.

Their loss should be one of historic proportions, the ruin of dozens of careers. The ruin of hard men and hard women, people who have struggled hard to be where they are. It would be disingenuous to imagine that there is any limit to what they would do to avoid that ruin.

So, it is all very simple.

The only possible chance that the Republicans have of winning, the only possible chance, is to somehow redirect all this hysterical anger toward Barack Obama. To do this they must let all of America's demons off their leash.

That is what they are trying to do... and they can't stop.

To think that they might desist in this tactic is like asking a drowning man to stop treading water.

McCain himself might want to stop, and may try to stop this process as he realizes that through this loosing of the demons he may very well both lose the election and something else of great importance to him, his establishment credentials, his membership in polite society. As much as you might dislike him John McCain is not Richard Milhouse Nixon

But the ghost of Richard Nixon and the shadow of Willy Horton are walking the land and we can only witness what may turn out to be the most nauseating three weeks in American history.

It's all very simple.

http://seaton-newslinks.blogspot.com/

<em>This is a cross-post from Daily Kos, where it is getting some attention, which is good.  My ego aside, this needs to become part of our national discussion about what has gone on this week.  Those who grew up with November 22 so part of our lives do not want to see that happen again and live in fear that it will.</em>

There is much discussion this morning about what caused Senator McCain to step in and correct the many screwballs who seem to be attracted to his rallies whose support for his candidacy is based on hatred:  of those who do not share their political views, of those whose personal history is different from theirs, of those who religious or ethnic background is different, or simply of Senator Obama.

As said before, it matters not why he has apparently decided to address these crazies.  I am sure there are many reasons.  It is a welcome change and about time.

When your teenage daughter tells you she "hates" you, and you know better, the word does not seem to have much impact.  When people say it in a political context, it is quite a different thing:  that means, you, too, by the way, who has said "I hate Bush," "I hate McCain," "I hate the Republicans" or, even in supposedly progressive pages, "I hate Hillary."  (Being something of a dreamer <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/7/9528/28800/311/531582">I had hoped</a> for better in this campaign, but alas, that was not to be in this troubled land of ours.)

Still, I expect that most people who say those things don't mean it.  Many, however, do, and when they hear that term being used, even by people who don't mean it, they feel that "hate" is allowed.

All week, listening to these "kill him" or "terrorist" comments, directed at candidates for President or Vice president who don't answer them, and tell us later that they didn't hear them, my mind has wandered back to my childhood and that horrible day in November, 1963.

I have <a href="http://edsbarth.blogspot.com/2008/10/this-has-got-to-stop.html">linked elsewhere </a> to the segments in the Warren Commission Report about the handbill distributed in Dallas that week which had a wanted poster appearance and "charged" President Kennedy with treason, but somewhere in the back of my mind were comments I heard when, in 1993, A & E rebroadcast the NBC News coverage of November 22, 1963.  

Now I found them.  They are from Chet Huntley, about midway through the Huntley-Brinkley Report of that night.  Here he is, talking from way back then, but to exactly the issue of today (and, by the way, the magazine he is referring to is the National Review):

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<em>This is a cross-post from Daily Kos, where it is getting some attention, which is good.  My ego aside, this needs to become part of our national discussion about what has gone on this week.  Those who grew up with November 22 so part of our lives do not want to see that happen again and live in fear that it will.</em>

There is much discussion this morning about what caused Senator McCain to step in and correct the many screwballs who seem to be attracted to his rallies whose support for his candidacy is based on hatred:  of those who do not share their political views, of those whose personal history is different from theirs, of those who religious or ethnic background is different, or simply of Senator Obama.

As said before, it matters not why he has apparently decided to address these crazies.  I am sure there are many reasons.  It is a welcome change and about time.

When your teenage daughter tells you she "hates" you, and you know better, the word does not seem to have much impact.  When people say it in a political context, it is quite a different thing:  that means, you, too, by the way, who has said "I hate Bush," "I hate McCain," "I hate the Republicans" or, even in supposedly progressive pages, "I hate Hillary."  (Being something of a dreamer <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/7/9528/28800/311/531582">I had hoped</a> for better in this campaign, but alas, that was not to be in this troubled land of ours.)

Still, I expect that most people who say those things don't mean it.  Many, however, do, and when they hear that term being used, even by people who don't mean it, they feel that "hate" is allowed.

All week, listening to these "kill him" or "terrorist" comments, directed at candidates for President or Vice president who don't answer them, and tell us later that they didn't hear them, my mind has wandered back to my childhood and that horrible day in November, 1963.

I have <a href="http://edsbarth.blogspot.com/2008/10/this-has-got-to-stop.html">linked elsewhere </a> to the segments in the Warren Commission Report about the handbill distributed in Dallas that week which had a wanted poster appearance and "charged" President Kennedy with treason, but somewhere in the back of my mind were comments I heard when, in 1993, A & E rebroadcast the NBC News coverage of November 22, 1963.  

Now I found them.  They are from Chet Huntley, about midway through the Huntley-Brinkley Report of that night.  Here he is, talking from way back then, but to exactly the issue of today (and, by the way, the magazine he is referring to is the National Review):

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Also yesterday an Alaskan court ordered that Palen's emails be preserved.

The judge ordered the attorney general to contact Yahoo and other private carriers to preserve any e-mails sent and received on those accounts. If the e-mails were destroyed when the accounts were deactivated, he directed state officials to have the companies attempt to resurrect the e-mails.

See Palin E-Mails: Judge Orders State To Preserve

Does anyone feel the irony when Cindy McCain attacks Obama for not protecting her son in Iraq when unlike her husband he just wants to bring her son home?
John C

Who better?

We must first understand and accept that this economic crisis is a very dangerous world-wide problem, requiring global engagement and comprehensive, perhaps even innovative global solutions from the best and most experienced minds we have. Everyday personal and political considerations must stand aside, in deference to the nature and scope of the problem, if any of us intend to survive economically.

President Clinton understands the world economy nearly as well as Paulson, and the WORLD itself a lot better. He has as much international credibility, and carries as many international IOU's, as anyone else on the planet. Let me remind you that he's done economic rescue before, though not to the Promethean scale that will be required here (no one else since FDR has done that, either).

Perhaps more importantly, he knows how to COMMUNICATE: No one has yet lived  who is better at taking complex, difficult, dangerous issues and distilling them into realistic alternatives that the average person can understand, and then convincing them to go this way or that. That is the essence of the highest form of "politics", and exactly what we need right now in that position.

Would he do it? YES, if asked.  He always had the feeling he never got the chance to do the really BIG thing as President that his genius demanded. This is it.  The genuine public-service importance of the mission would overwhelm his tendency to compete with Obama, at least during the period of real crisis (after that, of course, all of us being realists, we might have to consider other arrangements).

Would a promise to do that if elected help Sen. Obama's prospects? You're kidding, right? Not only is Sen. Obama then demonstrating his true SIZE in putting the good of the world above his own personal ambitions, he is also showing his practical bent in getting the right person in the right place at the right time, for the right reasons. It even works politically in the short term: Brings the straggling Clinton people all the way  back on board.

It's a no-brainer the more I think about it. Time is wasting. Let's get this plan announced, and take the first critical step back toward recovery.
 

I posted this on Salon last night, so here goes:
I honestly felt bad for McCain tonight, I felt like he suddenly knew this was out of his control. It felt like McCain was truly sorry for the horrible campaign he'd been running. He's been playing to the baser side of the fringe right winger, the nut. I really felt sad, there was a glimmer of the old John McCain, the guy we used to see, even if it was a farce, but the guy that appeared to stick up for everyone. His campaign has been nothing short of a complete disappointment. He hired Bush's boys and played the game their way and here they are destroying him one more time. It is South Carolina all over again. In his face everything was apparent, they had misread the public terribly, he knew it too. This election the nation isn't prepared to play games, our economy is spiraling downward, quickly, the wars continue and all McCain's campaign offers is another scare tactic, another gimmick. Sen. McCain sold his soul. The look on his face, he was suddenly Gollum, lost without his master, knowing there was something wrong, but his longing for the ring was just to powerful to overcome so he was willing to do what ever it takes. Suddenly tonight he realized it too, he felt it, I saw it on his face. He realized he sold his soul and it is destroying him. The proof was the look on his face. He knew what they'd done was wrong. He'd allowed his campaign to step over the line. If he ever had control of his own campaign, and I am not sure he did.  Just like Gollum the power of the Ring was too much. The look on his face tonight said it all. And as he slunk off the stage all you could hear, was Precious, my precious.

The McCain/Palin machine is akin to a bulldozer that attempts to push over and crush everything in its way. Their campaign has been filled with negative attacks including the recent racial slurs and death threats against Obama. Which went unanswered until the shock of the nation, as brought to the McCain campaign's attention through the media forced  John McCain to speak against it. Ms. Palin has yet to retract her rage and fear mongering rhetoric. Together they have no real substance on the issues at hand. They must run a "dirty" campaign because the only issues they have to run on are four more years of the same toxic economic policies and foriegn affairs decisions that have put us in the position of disdain in the world community that we're in. Yes, I'm proud of my country, however, I'm not proud of several of the choices the leaders have made, beginning with the Iraq war. McC ain keeps talking about judgment and I keep wondering where was his judgment when President Bush initially overrode the constitution to go to war with Iraq? Where was his judgment when he voted for deregulation down the line for corporate America? And what was he thinking when he hand picked Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential candidate? She's one scary bitch. Betweeb the witch doctor pastor and her chrages of abuse of power to ralling the republican crowds into such a frenzy they call for the murder of Barak Obama while she stands by smiling.  Let's not forget Cindy McCain who blasts Obama for not having a son "in harms way" then turns around and won't even shake hands with anyone in the audience at the second debate. Well Cindy, I am in your shoes and I'm willing to bet your son has a nice safe job in the green zone. So don't even try to compare yourself with regular people. We know you're not like us and you don't want to be. I can only hope the American people are smart enough this time to see the republican machine for what it is. A machine of relentless hate and deceit. Operating only to distract the American people from the issues at hand and spew filth into the Presidential campaign. Now, that's something thy're very good at.

Palin has been offficially found to have violated the public trust by abusing her power as governor. Here is the attempt to obfuscate the matter of Palin's abuse of power.

According to CNN, the lawyers representing Palin and her husband, Todd Palin, issued a three-page attack on the investigative report, including the contention that Ethics Act violations can only involve financial motives and financial "potential gain, or the avoidance of a potential loss."

"Here, there is no accusation, no finding and no facts that money or financial gain to the governor was involved in the decision to replace Monegan," the lawyers said.

The Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) reads "The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust."

So according to the statute, it is an effort to benefit a "personal or financial interest " that is subject to this statute. She violated the personal interset portion of the the statute.

McCain knew she was under investigation but chose her in spite of that. This is business as usual politics. McCain is no maverick and neither is Palin. Palin move into the governor's mansion and fought the existing political establishment only to replace one corrupt administration with her own corrupt administration.

While it is true that the John McCain camp has lied frequently during this campaign, the Obama side has outpaced the John Kerry and Al Gore's campaigns in this respect. I cannot remember these many lies in '04 or '00.

The newest falselhood comes from a new Obama ad that slams John McCain for attacks that include accusing Obama of "letting infants die".

But it was actually the group bornalivetruth.org that's making the charges. This group is not associated with the McCain campaign.

Moreover, at the end the ad gives us the usual "McCain-is running-on-a-platform-that..." argument that ignores that McCain DOES ALLOW exceptions for rape and incest when it comes to banning abortion.

Candidates do not necessarily support all points laid out by their parties' platforms.

Read more here.

Campaigns should all stop lying.

Srah Palin's husband Todd seems to have his fingerprints all over Troopergate and her administration in general. Calls to officials, sitting in on cabinet meetings, holding the Bible for Sarah when she was sworn, and just generally acting as co-governor.

Considering the uproar over Hillary Clinton's far less intrusive involvement in Bill's administration, why haven't we heard more concern over this? One Palin in high federal office is scary enough. Two is a nightmare.

Chuck:
Wanted to share with you ... our family sat around the table this morning and grandad found your poem "Last Recording" in your collection Against the Wind. He's a WWII vet of the Army Air Corps and Operation Torch who is afraid of riding in airplanes. He was laughing loud as he read "Last Recording," and the rest of us did too. Great observations in that poem considering leadership in general these days, and what a wry way of zinging the target.
Thanks Chuck.

Can somebody answer a question about McCain’s proposed healthcare plan?

We have heard that he proposes to tax employer contributions to group plans and to offer a $5,000 per family tax credit for insurance coverage.  Do you get the $5,000 credit if you opt to stay on your employer’s group plan or do you get the credit only if you decide to go off your employer’s plan and onto your own individual plan?

I have been told that the new tax on employer contributions would be offset (more or less) by the new credit, but I don’t see the point in that.  My understanding is that you get the tax credit ONLY if you opt out of employer’s group coverage:  you would pay the tax on employer’s contributions if you stay on your employer’s plan OR you receive a $5,000 per family tax credit if you find an individual plan.  In other words if you stay on your employer’s plan you do not get the credit to offset the proposed new tax but if you choose to use an individual plan, of which you would be responsible for paying the entire premium, you would get a tax credit.  

Can anyone clarify?

Really don't mean to leave out Limbaugh, Hewitt, Levin and the rest of that noisy right wing crowd, but I've had more exposure to Hannity via his talk radio and tv shows. I tune into his radio show for an hour or so so 3-4 times a week on my commute home from work. Not because I agree with hardly any of his views, but rather just to check out the daily buzz and the corresponding Republican talking points which Hannity faithfully recites. His callers routinely greet him as a "great American". And while I do not question his patriotism (as he does in response to anyone who disagrees with him or dares to engage in democratic debate) and I am sure that he is a good father, spouse, son and friend, from my vantage point, he's a pretty lousy American. You have to ask yourself if Hannity truly loves this country then why has he devoted his life to dividing it's citizens along political and cultural lines. And I guess one answer is that it's made him filthy rich. He and Limbaugh and their ilk have built multi-million dollar empires based on the politics of division. Little wonder that Senator Obama and his campaign for change and a return to civil and bipartisan politics have engendered such a ferocious and vile response from Hannity and the hate-mongers. If Obama and his supporters were to achieve their vision of a united America where politicians and citizens worked across party and cultural lines to address the serious challenges this country faces they'd be out of a job. And wouldn't that be a loss [sic].....[Update 9/20/08....kudos to Hannity on the recent Palin infomercial he put together....thinking there might be a career opportunity in that genre if his day job ever tanks]

My son, who missed the debate due to a scheduling conflict, asked me what Senator Obama's response was to being referred to as "that one". I can't imagine that in his gut Senator Obama did not have the urge to take McCain out back and open up a can of South Chicago whup a__ on him. But once again he prevailed with his calm, confident, knowledgeable and Presidential demeanor. Senator Obama outshone his opponent by effectively addressing the real issues that concern the middle class. It's become even more apparent that McCain will do and say anything to win, honor be damned. If he and his surrogates continue their current fierce campaign of fear and smear politics, I feel it will be entirely appropriate and relevant for Senator Obama in his final debate closing remarks to address Senator McCain as follows, "John we've worked together in the past and I have hope that with the healing that comes with the passing of time, we will be able to work together during my administration, but, right here, right now, I have to tell you that I am genuinely embarrassed for you. I've meant it when I've honored your service and expressed my admiration for the courage you displayed in captivity, but you have besmirched your name and your honor by running the most vile and mean-spirited campaign this country has witnessed in modern times. And so tonight all I can really bring myself to share with you is shame on you, John McCain, shame on you.
And I can't close without expressing my pleasure with the whupping Obama's communications director put on Sean Inanity....hey Sean is that infomercial career I suggested in a recent post re your Palin "interview"looking a bit more attractive?

October 11, 9:30 a.m. Central:  MSNBC live coverage of Palin's rally in Pennsylvania goes from full camera focus on Palin and the crowd behind her to blurring the crowd behind her.  Has someone there flipped the bird at the elite media, that they cannot risk showing the crowd in sharp focus?

"Is the Palin administration shockingly amateurish? Yes, it is. Disturbingly so." What the TrooperGate Report Really Says

Dear John & Sarah -

Within the space of a week, you have attracted and shaped thousands of Americans into radical extremists willing to kill Bill Ayers, Barack Obama, any black person and any Muslim or Arab you may target.

Congratulations!  Now you know how Al Qaeda works.

You've done us proud (not).

For some time, I have been referring to Alan "Bubbles" Greenspan because his enire career at the Fed has been to inflate a bubble after the previous bubble deflates. I have never understaood why anyone took Bubbles seriously given that he derived his economic philosophy from a fifth rate novelist.

The Chart below is from Paul Krugman's blog, Conscience of a Liberal, at the NY Times web site.     October 11, 2008,  9:08 am Greenspan’s bubbles



Irrationalexuberance times two. 
Chart from a project I’m working on. PE ratio for S&P 500, from Shiller (10-year moving average of earnings, on right scale.) Real house prices from Case-Shiller, left scale.

This sudden FLIP of McCain's just might end up helping him in the polls again.  His sudden MAVERICK act of defending Obama -- may cause pause for some undecided.

McCain can always have others (not him and Palin) do the attacking on TV -- but THEY can appear to like upstanding folks by defending an opponent.

So...don't get too excited about McCain having the BACK AWAY -- he does things for a REASON....Karl Rove Style.

In an article in today's NYT Karl Rove once again got hugely undeserved credit for political acumen.
Let's examine the record. Karl guided the conservative son of a former Republican president to the office of governor of Texas (how hard could that've been?). Then he led him to a popular vote loss in his first run for the presidency. Saved by the Supreme Court, his sage counsel led to plummeting approval ratings.
Saved once again by forces outside his control (see 9/11), he led
George Bush to a narrow 3% reelection victory over a Democratic opponent with the personality of an ash tray in 2004. Some experts believe that sans 9/11 George Bush would have been the one term president we so richly deserved.
Undeterred by the narrow victory, Karl claimed a mandate to privatize Social Security, setting in motion a chain of political disasters leading to massive Republican losses in the 2006 elections. While being vastly overrated as a political guru, Karl was no dummy, promptly deserting ship like the rat he is for lucrative private sector punditry.
Which brings us to the Rove legacy. In just 90 days, Rove acolytes running the John McCain campaign, using time tested Rove tactics, have managed to thoroughly trash one of the iconic political brands of the last 30 years. Anyone who believes that the Happy Warrior of 2000 would be this far behind in the polls today, even in an admittedly disastrous political environment for Republicans, is simply wrong.
 It may be too late to turn this election around but John McCain needs to publicly and harshly fire Steve Schmidt, Nicole Wallace, and the rest of Rove's evil minions, invite the press back to the front of the bus, send Sarah Palin  to the sidelines (maybe she could help out in a phone bank) and start having some fun again. He'll get a lot closer to victory and even possibly salvage some of his savaged reputation.
John C

John McCain has found another opportunity to offer a unneeded tax break for the wealthy in, of all places, a new "solution" to the recent plunges in stock prices.

Yesterday, in a speech in La Crosse, Wisconson, McCain proposed a new change to the tax laws:

We must also protect investors -- especially those relying on their investments for retirement.  Current rules mandate that investors must begin to sell off their IRAs and 401Ks when they reach age 70 and one half.  To spare investors from being forced to sell their stocks at just the time when the market is hurting the most, those rules should be suspended.

The reference here is to the minimum distributions required under the Internal Revenue Code for all retirement plans.  The purpose of the required distribution rules is to make sure that retirement funds are actually used for retirement and not invested tax-free indefinitely.  So, beginning with the year a person reaches age 70-1/2, the person must begin taking distributions that are calculated to spread the retirement income over the person's life expectancy.

There are several things wrong with McCain's proposal, the most important of which is that it "solves" a problem that doesn't exist, because there is nothing in the Internal Revenue Code or any regulation or ruling that says that retirement plan distributions must be made in cash.  If the owner of IRA or 401(k) wants to keep the investments instead of selling them, the investments themselves can be distributed in what is known as an "in kind" distribution.

So, contrary to what McCain claims, the present rules do not require retirees to "sell off their IRAs and 401ks".

For most retirees, the minimum required distribution rules aren't really really needed, because they need the retirement distributions as part of their retirement income.  It is the wealthy who don't need the mandatory distributions because they have other income, and it is the wealthy who don't want the mandatory distributions because they would rather defer any income tax on the distributions and continue investing the retirement funds tax-free.

Last, but not least, minimum required distributions are usually made in December, and it is difficult to believe that sales of securities to make cash distributions from retirement plans have had any impact on stock prices in the past, or will have any impact on stock prices in the future.

What we are seeing is another naked grab by the McCain campaign for another tax break for the rich, making false claims about the law and using the current state of the stock market as an excuse.

It is so plainly pandering to the wealthy as to be disgusting.

The babies people don't see are the ones that are aborted and still live. You can thank Obama for that.

The enemies could not dare test the high tech weaponry of our heroes in war zones.  In their mind there is no doubt they will never win the war when it comes to power superiority.  But don't close your eyes,  they can wage a better strategy to win the war, and is coming..., the silent invasion through politics.  Americans, republicans and specially democrats,  wake up to the reality of this fast changing world.  Make this election a victory for the american people for the many years to come. 

In early July, in what appeared to be a flip-flop from his previous positions, John told George Stephanopoulos that a tax increase (payroll tax increase) wasn’t off the table if it became necessary to shore up Social Security.  When questioned about this comment on Fox News, Tucker Bounds said, essentially, that John McCain doesn’t speak for the McCain campaign.  We all laughed at it at the absurdity of this statement.  John Harwood of the New York Times said on Countdown with Keith Olbermann that it was more likely that the campaign didn’t speak for John McCain.  Harwood asserted that McCain was a maverick (remember most mainstream media-types were still on the tire swing then) and he was going to do and say whatever he wanted.  Clearly, one of those statements was true – they weren’t on the same page.  I believe, though, that we are now seeing the difficulty (for McCain and his supporters) that this has created.  You’ve got a lot of people, none of whom are on the same page, throwing things against the wall to see what sticks.  This week someone tacitly threw racism into the mix and lo and behold it stuck, but not to Obama, to the McCain campaign and its supporters.   

Now, don’t get me wrong, I think John McCain is an ass.  He’s a very angry man.  A doctor friend of mine who works for the VA believes he probably suffers (and I don’t use that term lightly) from untreated post-traumatic stress disorder.  I think he’s a misogynist, too.  But, I find it hard to believe that John McCain is okay with the tenor of his campaign rallies during the past week.   I saw something on his face yesterday – and you know John McCain’s face NEVER lies even when his lips do – when he addressed the crazy lady who looked like she lived with 300 cats and called Obama an “Arab.”  To me, it looked like embarrassment.  Shame about where this campaign has gone – what it has snowballed into as he has lost control.  Sarah Palin HAS energized the base – the foundation of the Republican party – by doing what she’s always done, speaking in generalities about things that sound good to everyone, but don’t have a lot of substance to them.  But what the handlers have done with her is dangerous, they’ve given her script after script and sound byte after sound byte and she has run with them full-throttle giving no thought to what they mean.  That base that she’s energized has come into focus for John McCain and I think he recognized just who that is.  It’s the angriest, most frightened, most hateful, and most ignorant element in this country.  THOSE are the people cheering him on.  Can you imagine what it must feel like to be John McCain and realize that the people you appeal to aren’t the cream of the crop, but the bottom of the barrel?  That’s harsh, I know, and judgmental, but wallowing in ignorance ISN’T something we want to encourage.  It’s bad enough that his supporters think Barack Obama is Muslim and that he’s a terrorist. They holler these things out at the rallies with pride and venom in their voices.  Isn’t the anger and hatred that is being, at best, condoned and, at worst, incited at McCain/Palin rallies the same behavior we saw from Germans in the 1930s?  I’m not comfortable calling Sarah Palin a racist or anyone else in the McCain campaign for that matter.  But they know that there are people who will never vote for Barack Obama because he’s black, because he’s Muslim, because he isn’t named Joe Smith and they’re exploiting that.  They’re manipulating people’s fears and anxieties about someone they don’t feel like they know, they’re casting him as the reason for their suffering, and they’re driving a wedge deep into an already present divide. 

I saw reflected in John McCain’s face yesterday, a cognitive dissonance between what he believes and what he allows the people around him to characterize as his belief. What it looks like to an objective observer is that John McCain doesn’t know who he is or what he believes.  He turned over his entire campaign to lobbyists.  He let them tell him who he could and couldn’t pick to be his running mate.  You’ll never convince me that a misogynist like John McCain would have EVER picked Sarah Palin – but his managers saw a forceful, yet malleable tool in her so there she is.  They tell him what to say, what to think, and when to do either of those things and if he screws up, they go on TV and tell the whole world that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.  I don’t mean to make a victim out of this guy.  He is the one who relinquished control of this campaign, but I don’t think anyone is looking out for John McCain the man.   

I was mesmerized by the fantastic article that came out this week in Rolling Stone Magazine.  It drew a very troubling picture of John McCain the military man and the public servant.  There is definitely evidence of erratic behavior that dates back decades. But there was a sadness to his story, as well.  This is a man who was born under two very long shadows and has spent his entire life trying to crawl out from beneath them.  Whether he lacked the intelligence to do so or was simply too lazy… well, there are certainly arguments for both.  He has, though, demonstrated tenacity and guile, and the combination of those two qualities has gotten him quite far by most standards. But at what expense?  Everything he’s achieved, he’s done so dubiously.  He used his family name to get into Annapolis, to get plumb assignments on choice aircraft carriers, to get into War College.  He used questionable connections with lobbyists and his marriage into another wealthy family to get him into Congress, and possibly to get him the Republican nomination for President.  He’s never accomplished anything on his own merit or through legitimate hard work – or if he has, like, say, campaign reform legislation, he’s ultimately undermined it.  This isn’t a guy who should be president; this is a guy who should be in therapy – intensive, in-patient therapy.   He’s the textbook result of a child who’s been given everything they want, but nothing they need.  He’s never been allowed to try something and fail – to absorb that into his persona and ultimately grow from it.  But while I’m sad for the young man and what he was denied, when he entered adulthood, he became complicit in staffing out his own destiny.

So there he stands on a stage in front of an angry mob shouting racial epithets at members of the media and advocating violence against Barack Obama.  He’s got to know that we’re just days, hours, moments away from one of those yahoos letting the n-word fly and when we get to that point – well, I shudder to think what we’ve become.  And I can’t believe that John McCain wants to be president of what we will have become.  He wants to put a stop to it, now – but I think he’s a day late and a dollar short – not short of will, but of influence.  This campaign – hell, his whole life – has become a runaway train with McCain at the caboose and about 1000 cars worth of crazy, angry people between him and the conductor(s), who wouldn’t have it any other way. 

So who is the real John McCain?  Until he figures it out for himself, the world may never know. 

What would happen if the McCain campaign had to ditch Sarah Palin?

The followig Slate article by Jacob Leibenluft answers the question "What happens if someone nominated for president or vice president resigns from the ticket or dies before Election Day?"

http://www.slate.com/id/2199167/

This is a link to the Intrade Prediction market site referenced in the article - look under politcs to find the current prediction on Sarah being replaced. Look at Politics on the left hand side under The Prediction Markets. 

http://www.intrade.com

Notice the recent 1.8 + change in the value that she will be repalced.

Anyone want to make a bid?

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/10/10/1529529.aspx

I cannot believe that the McCain is deliberately misinterpreting Obama's statements against the angry mobs at McCain rallies. They trying to make this another "bitter" comment from Obama when in reality McCain should have been much more reproachful when the hateful comments began. Even if he claims that he could not hear it, his campaign certainly read about the comments through the Media. They contributed to that hate by not making any statements against it.

I was truly encouraged by McCain's statements last night in defense of Obama. (I would have preferred stronger language, but at least it was something). But by following that up with a claim that Obama is anti-"joe six-pack" is absurd and perpetuates the hate and class warfare.

McCain is trying to have it both ways. He wants people to continue a hateful campaign against the candidate that is considered dangerously anti-American. But he wants to swoop in from time to time with a weak comment against the Obama bashing as if he were morally superior the whole time. That is a spineless, offensive excuse for leadership. If McCain has let his campaign get this out of control, how can the American people have any confidence whatsoever that he will be a unifying Commander in Chief? Even if he plays that role for a few years, he would revert back to this faux patriotic, anti-elitist rhetoric when it is time for the old codger to get reelected.

In playing the role of the perfect American against the "dangerous" Obama who "regular" people cannot trust, McCain has launched an all out offensive against true American patriotism and the goal of bringing people together to make this country great again.

Ok, I made this up.  It's late and I can't sleep and my 401k just went down to 301k and I'm recovering from strep but hey.....Wouldn't THAT be a cool movie!  It would practically write itself.  A real bona fide tragedy.  A tragedy of operatic proportions.  Maybe it should be an opera, or a musical:The Rise and Fall of John McCain
Ok, now who wants to cast the rest of the parts?  Or recommend better lead actors than I have?

.. Don't be carried by the sweet talks and rhetorics of either candidates.  neither is telling the truth anyway.  most words coming from their mouth are their consultants' and advisers' with vested political interest and greed.  Do we have a better choice but to vote for the less evil?.  Consider this:  Our most concern is national security and economic recovery.  National security must come first because without peace and security we can never attain economic progress.  America is a super  power nation that deserves the best president we can afford.  McCain, a well seasoned political leader and a war veteran who put his country first before his personal interest is a good choice but of his age.  Barak Hussein Obama, a young ambitious senator, orator and debater, with good vision for the american people, but with no experience(?)
and proven quality to lead the american people in this dangerous world (not to mention his questionable associations with the radical left).  Think who could be rejoicing  if got elected, his associates? of course! the enemies? I hope not.  
Who is the lesser evil??  The decision is all yours!!!

I miss Hillary.  I'm sorry; I'm just not excited about Barak.  I started out supporting Joe Biden and if he were on the top of the ticket I'd be good with that.  I reluctantly moved to Hillary next but then fell in love with her.  This woman could lead the country out of this mess. 

I have made a reasonably thorough search of a vast variety of all of the mediums regarding the shananigans in the McCain campaign crowds and the "accusations' of Obama being an Arab and/or Muslim.

One issue, obviously, and the one the media is addressing, is that it's just not true.

But I have not seen, heard or read anyone saying, "So what if he is?"

The MSM seems to have overlooked  the fact that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with being either a Muslim or an Arab!  I think it is at least worthy of a mention.

In case the reference in my headline is missed, it is from an episode on sensitivity training in "The Office," in which Michael poses that question to Oscar, an employee of Mexican descent.  Oscar's expalnation that it's not a derogatory term is totally lost on Michael.

Fox news called Sarah Palin  a politician of eye-popping integrity.. "Her rise is a great (and rare) story of how adherence to principle--especially to transparency and accountability in government-"  But applied apparently only to other people's ethics as she is found guilty of violating ethics in pressuring to get her brother-in-law fired. 

The similarities are REALLY, REALLY SCARY because we are hearing things like "KILL HIM" and "TERRORIST" at campaign rallies over the last couple weeks.

Should I post it?

Honestly, it is as if we are living in two seperate realities.  It is mind-boggling.  My Rep. friends - I live in a very RED state (sigh) - all say the same thing about Barak: "He scares me."  When I inquire as to why they feel that way, they don't  have a real answer.  The hate and anger the Red party is mongering is so distressing, it reminds me of Hitler.  Barak is our hope for peace, prosperity, and purpose.  Has half the population been brainwashed or what?

The "just plain folks" speakers at the McCain rallies in the past couple of days feel rehearsed or at least prompted in their remarks. Is it possible that they are planted by the McCain campaign to raise the issues that McCain wants exploited and will also make good TV? 
If this is true, then it is an inexcusable manipulation, as the media presents these speakers as citizens expressing themselves honestly.

Watching John McCain try to try to control the firestorm his own campaign has done more than their part to create in the last week has filled me with a sense of pity for him and restored a little bit of respect I once had for him. 
The McCain that once said at a debate that we should discuss torture techniques and that water boarding is definitely torture, among other things, made me feel that if the democrats had to lose to any of the republicans, I would have liked it to be him. 
Of course as this campaign has developed and he has taken a completely different tact, especially his pick of SP and including the ads he is currently running, my feeling changed significantly. But there he was today at his own event telling his own supporters that Obama is not the outrageous things they were alleging. 
The republican party is fracturing before our eyes. The infighting will only increase and the only thing they will have going for it is a good looking mother of 5 who will no doubt be worse for the wear after the election finishes up. (It will be fun to watch the backlash come and get Sarah Palin and knock her out of the Govenor's office by 2010. Bold, but if what goes around comes around then it should be coming around hard for Mrs. Palin and soon.)
I suppose it's good to prepare for McCain to throw everything at Obama one last time in the debate next week but after all that has happened, who is really listening anymore? The only thing left to save now is a shred of decency and it wouldn't surprise me if McCain (not Palin) simply played it out quietly from here to the finish.
We shall see.

Here's something fun from the Branchflower report. It's been reported in the press as a footnote elsewhere but I'm a big fan of irony.

For details I won't bore you with here, the Palins finally decided in June 2008 that Walt Monegan had to go. Charles Kopp, currenlty working for the city of Kenai, Alaska, gets a call on a Wednesday, in which he's asked if he wants to be the new Commissioner of Public Safety. He applied for it back in November 2006, so they had his application on file, presumably.

He says he's still interested, so yes. That call is Wednesday; they have him up in Anchorage for a meeting Thursday; Monegan's fired and Kopp's hired on Friday.

He resigns 15 days later. When he was police chief of Kenai, he was reprimanded for sexual misconduct. they never bothered to actually check up on him. Or "vet" him, if you will.

Whirlwind staffing decision shown to be drastically wrong due to lack of proper vetting. The parallel highly amuses me.

This is the funniest thing I've <I>ever</I> seen in my entire life:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/10/the-mccain-wander_n_133775.html

Tears will roll...
gObama '08!

Here's the text of Governor Sarah Palin's February 7, 2007 email to Walt Monegan (transcribed from the Oct 10, 2008 Branchflower Report)

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/10/23225/247/394/627105

Why are we not talking about Reich Wing talk radio and Fox Noise?  We are all appalled at the latest outbursts at the Republican rallies.  But their outbursts are mimicry of the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and Shawn Hannity, to name a few. 

Let's face it, John McCain and Sarah Palin are not capable of creating this frenzy out of nothing.  They merely provide a forum for people addicted to the anger management provided by the various Reich Wing Noise machines.  There are no other arenas where these people actually get to express the rage sold to them by the Reich Wing Media.  A candidate comes along and now they have a place to explode, and they do.  No surprise, but giving Mccain and Palin credit for this is a stretch.

Now, I'm not saying that their silence in the face of it is at all excusable.  Far from it.  I believe that because both of the Republican candidates are mental midgets, they did not know what to do when these fascist voices rose out of the crowds.  John McCain appeared bewildered at first, but has now find a voice.  He realizes they are playing with matches.  Sarah Palin, on the other hand, enjoys playing with matches.  She is so self-absorbed that since there is no danger to her, she feels no reason to stifle the sentiments.

John McCain is very likely going to lose this election, and there is little he can do now to prevent that, but his determination to suppress the rage in others will prevent his losing ALL of his dignity with it.

As of 10pm pst, Drudge still has no mention of the Troopergate report and Palin's violation of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act up on his site. Seems breaking news is not as important as hyping erroneous youtube videos that blame the financial crisis on the Community Reinvestment Act.

The basic argument [is] that the Community Reinvestment Act forced banks to loan to all people and, therefore, precipitated the sub-prime crisis and irresponsible people getting loans they couldn’t afford.

The Drudge Report happily hyped this video and injected it into the conservative blogosphere. From there, the CRA meme caught like wildfire. Soon, we were seeing it in top conservative blogs and even on the op-ed pages of major newspapers. 

It is now an article of faith among many conservatives that the housing crisis is rooted in the CRA - and, in turn, the millions of people of color who were able to obtain mortgages through it.

This argument is not only morally repugnant, but simply factually off-base.

Regarding the New York Times article, "States' Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal"  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/us/politics/09voting.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&ref=politics&pagewanted=print

I am an e-voting activist in North Carolina, and I can tell you that the NY Times article is misleading and inaccurate.   Your first tip should have been all of the parsing of verbs and failure to state any proof. I wrote to Ian Urbina, and here is his reply:

From: Ian Urbina  

To: joyce@ncvoter.net

Subject: RE: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/us/politics/09voting.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin

Date: Oct 9, 2008 9:03 AM

From what we can see in the data, NC does not seem to have any major red flags. Best we can tell, it looks like the number of people coming off the rolls would roughly correspond with the number of people leaving the state or dying during that period (both of which are legitimate reasons to remove people within 90 days before an election).

Ian

-----Original Message-----

From: joyce@ncvoter.net [mailto:joyce@ncvoter.net]

Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2008 8:54 AM

To: URBINA@nytimes.com

Subject: FW:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/us/politics/09voting.html?_r=1&ref=politic

s&oref=slogin

The NC Coalition for Verified Voting successfully worked to eliminate the matching requirement in North Carolina in August 2007.

If a voter doesn't match, they just show some ID when they come to the polls.  ID includes  a utility bill or something like that. Not too hard. 

Hi there, come on in. Still raining, much harder and stronger than last night. Just got in myself. Hand me that, you know where to find it when you leave later on. Find a seat, relax and listen to the rain, it's much more pleasant when it's singing than when it's angry. I had a tough ride home, did you notice the street flooding? Had a scary moment or two, but am here now with you and all is well. I've had old folks and old love on my mind. I've been lucky to meet many couples over the years who share a love that has lasted almost a lifetime. Three were on my mind tonight. The first is a sweet gentleman I've known for years through my other world, I cried for and with him when he lost his dear wife over ten years ago. He's in his late eighties now, they met when he was nine and she was seven. Another boy was picking on her and the rest was history. She was about the best West Virginia mountains cook I've ever known. When she died, he and his two sons published a small cookbook of her recipies. I consider the gift of mine a treasure. He recently had a stroke and is wheelchair bound - but the shrimp gumbo he made with pride and delivered to me tonight was straight from her kitchen. The second is a couple also in their eighties and still happily together. They have been married for sixty-nine years. He remembers every moment, she no longer does. Yet his smile lights up the room when he speaks of his "bride", and the long rides they take every Wednesday afternoon without fail. It doesn't matter, the destination. It's her hand in his that means the world. Hugging him goodbye is always one of the hardest joys I have. The third is a younger couple just now nearing eighty. She has been his world, and he hers, for just over sixty years. He spent some time with me tonight, just chatting, as we have been friends long enough. He was making plans to return in May and again next October. He apologized for possible cancellations, but thought it only fair. His dear lady has been struck with cancer of almost every form over the years and is failing. Smiling, he assured me that the doctors are wrong - all those pills she's taking are working wonders, even if they make her quite ill. Of course, he's still working as much as he can since those miracle pills are rather expensive. Even with insurance. Sometimes we forget the blessings in this world. Don't we?

It is a testament to my acute interest in this presidential campaign that I have been reading the Branchflower (aka Troopergate) Report – the bipartisan Alaska legislative report into Sarah Palin’s effort to turn the Alaska State Government into her personal vendetta apparatus – during a playoff game involving my beloved Boston Red Sox.  But it has paid off richly, and the Sox have managed so far despite my divided attention.

The basic storyline, as you know, is that Sarah and Todd Palin ("The First Gentleman," as the Report puts it)  want State Trooper Michael Wooten – who had been involved in bitter divorce and child custody dispute with Sarah Palin’s sister – fired.   They really, really want him fired.  They and their underlings present to  Commissioner of Public Safety  (and Palin appointee) Walter Monegan , and others  in the state police, a variety of reasons why Wooten needs to go.  The reasons are the normal litany of allegations you always hear when a powerful public official seeks to use her power to crush an opponent in a bitter family rivaly:  moose-shooting without a license; snowmobiling while on worker’s comp; dropping off by a single dad police officer of his kid in his marked police car; child-tasing.

The Palins’ quest for SWEET VENGEANCE   is zealous.   But it is also just a bit indiscriminate.    Thus, when approached separatedly by Todd and Sarah about Wooten’s unfitness for his job, on the ground that Wooten unlawfully shot a moose without a license (i.e., Wooten lacked the license), Monegan pointed out that the Palins’ concern that Wooten had not been prosecuted for the moose-take was itself problematic.   In particular, he pointed out that (1) Sarah’s sister – and Wooten’s husband – did have a permit at the relevant time, and had been hunting with him when he shot the animal; and (2) Palin’s father had butchered the moose, making him a potential in any potential prosecution of Wooten for the allegedly unlawful moose-kill.

As Monegan put it in his testimony:

Well, the wife, it was her permit. She willingly allowed someone else to use it. 

It also – once the moose has been shot, it had been drug – according to Todd – by Wooten in the back of the truck to location where it was butchered by the Governor’s father.   And so I pointed out that there are people also involved in this incident that theoretically could also be charged. And he [Todd Palin] said, I don’t want that, I only want Wooten charged.  Well, we’re not that way.   If there’s somebody who’s guilty, we have to hold everybody accountable for their actions and their decisions.

Of less rustic charm, but greater civic significance, is the revelation on page 50 by Officer Wheeler, a state trooper assigned to Sarah Palin’s gubernatorial security detail, that First Gentleman Todd Palin spends half his time in Governor Palin’s office.    As is evident throughout the report, the guy is an essential – nay, central -- part of Palin’s operation.  Sort of the Cheney to her Bush.

Since Todd Palin plays such a central role is Sarah’s administration, shouldn’t it matter that the guy was a longtime member of a secessionist political party founded by an America-hating extremist who died in an explosives deal gone bad shortly before he was to give an anti-US screed at the United Nations at the behest of the Islamic Republic of Iran? 

The crap going on at the McCain campaign rallies is going to be all over Al Jezera and every terrorist web-site in the next couple of days.  While the Republicans are busy calling the mainstream media biased, they forget that there is a very large and very influential network of decidely non-mainstream media that is hanging on their every word.

The radical clerics are going to whip up there own brand of hate rally:  Want definitive proof that Americans hate all Muslims and Arabs?  Want proof that they think we are scum who must be annihilated?  Watch this clip from the leading candidate for President (yes, they'll lie too), my brothers in terror.  The American public is waging jihad against us.

Hate begets hate in ways that you never imagine; or in the case of the irresponsible foreign policy idiots in the McCain campaign, in ways they really ought to have considered ahead of time.  And unfortunately, the internet gives some of our worst enemies access to some of the darkest corners of the American closet.

 

The news media seem to have picked up on Secretary Paulson's public statement about today's G7 communique on the international financial situation, but I haven't yet seen any commentary (except on BBC) about the significance of the third point of the five points contained in the communique.

The communique from the G7 states that the members of the G7 agree to:

"3. Ensure that our banks and other major financial intermediaries, as needed, can raise capital from public as well as private sources, in sufficient amounts to re-establish confidence and permit them to continue lending to households and businesses."

Given that the bailout bill enacted by Congress gives the Treasury the power to advance capital as needed to stabilize investment banks and other financial institutions, hasn't the United States made an international commitment to do just that?

Tapped has a great piece on the late days of the Dole campaign, and how nasty it got. Tim Fernholz quotes a Michael Lewis line from a New Republic article that precisely nails one thing that bugs me so much about the McCain campaign (and Republican politics more generally):

"...from the beginning the Dole people have preferred to insult your intelligence than to craft more plausible lies."

Instantly my mind jumped to Tucker Bounds, our own domestic Baghdad Bob, and I realized this line perfectly described McCain's entire operation.

It is a strategy that worked for a very long time, too, we must admit. The campaigns (Dole, Bush x2, McCain) knew they were lying, the press knew they were lying, but the reporting somehow overlooked the obvious fact that the reporters' intelligence, and thus the intelligence of the American people, was being insulted.

Somehow, though -- perhaps through the magic of Sarah Palin's truly monumental anti-intellectualism -- the press has finally gotten fed up, on the whole. And without the Potemkin pundits toeing the line, McCain and Palin suddenly look like the liars they have been all along.

Naturally, there are plenty of Democratic politicians who have drawn from the same toolkit, but at least the better ones, even if they were simplifying, usually don't do it in a way that insulted everyone's intelligence. And one of Obama's great virtues has been his ability to sound human and serious when presenting material that is simplified -- because he obviously recognizes real complexity.

Republicans (and radical reactionaries more generally) don't like complexity, but when you mix that with hatred of thinking, perhaps it simply becomes too obviously self-destructive for most of the media -- (intelligent, well-educated, articulate, engaged) -- to go along.

High time too!

In line with Connie Manes Normal and Good post, this reassuring OpEd piece (sub) by Casey B. Mulligan, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago, is climbing up the NY Times emailed list:

An Economy You Can Bank On

And if it takes a while for banks and lenders to get up and running again, what’s the big deal? Saving and investment are themselves not essential to the economy in the short term. Businesses could postpone their investments for a few quarters with a fairly small effect on Americans’ living standards. How harmful would it be to wait nine more months for a new car or an addition to your house?

We can largely make up for this delay by extra investment when the banking sector reorganizes itself. Americans waited years during World War II to begin private-sector investment projects (when wartime production displaced private investment), and quickly brought the capital stock (housing and big-ticket consumer items) back to normal levels when the war ended.

So, if you are not employed by the financial industry (94 percent of you are not), don’t worry. The current unemployment rate of 6.1 percent is not alarming, and we should reconsider whether it is worth it to spend $700 billion to bring it down to 5.9 percent.

Should we believe Connie, Lux and Mulligan that everything is really OK?

Maybe to a point, but Mulligan also claims that McCain was correct to say that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. That and his assertion that the government's lowball unemployment rate should be reassuring to us leave me in some doubt as to whether his reassurances include me. After all, a lot of people have been feeling a pinch for years before this financial crisis revealed itself.

Well, Senator McCain, I'll tell you why you waited so long.  At least why I think you waited until now: you planned to drag this out for a week and then appear all apologetic, as you did today, and as if you did absolutely nothing wrong.

You always mention Obama's naivete in debates, Senator, but it is naive of you to think that your recent campaign tactics wouldn't lead to this.  Don't you know about our nation's history, sir?  Hell, Obama was in diapers during the 60s; you were already in your 30s then.

On Monday, when the vitriol started to drip, you jumped up a bit and had a slight grimace on your face for a second.  But you kept going.  Surrogates that introduced you repeatedly used Obama's middle name to stir the pot.  Now if one does it, fine; but multiple times in a few days, sir?  You or one of your managers clearly ordered this.

But wait, let's not forget about that good old liberal media!  You know, the liberal media that decided to take so much time to talk about Bill Ayers again only to find out nothing new (again), when our country is in a crisis?  The liberal media that somehow thinks Obama is just as guilty with bringing up the Keating Five, which is an issue because of the state of our nation?  How about the liberal media that tries making this a close race with keeping so many states as "toss-ups" when Obama has clearly been ahead in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania in every poll for at least a month?  Seriously, Senator, you should thank the media for saving your campaign!  And, well, they have an interest in this too...something about ratings I think...

But no, it's not hate.  They don't hate Obama, they hate the state of our economy, and Obama shouldn't criticize them!  How could I not see that?  See, this has been your plan the entire time: to make Obama sink to your level.  This is why you spent all summer on the attack, thinking Barack would bite.  And as you fall behind, you grow ever-so disdainful, while Obama has been as cool as a cucumber.  I guess if you got him angry then that would give your supporters some "conclusive" proof that he's a terrorist.

And even if your attempt to put out the fire was genuine today...seriously?  I'm sure you watch the news, and there's no reason to not think your supporters' actions would get worse and that it would all blow up in your face.  As Josh said the other day, how long until someone says the n-word?

But here's the point: you're trying to walk the tightrope of resorting to shameful tactics, yet appear to be a man of honor.  If you were truly a man of honor, Senator, you would have stopped this sooner.  If you were truly a man of honor, you'd walk the campaign trail with your head up high and send a positive message to the American people.  If you were truly a man of honor, you probably would've done a better job of vetting your running mate.  Instead, you chose to distract America, to wobble around with no central message, and to select a running mate who has acted unethically as governor.

Yet even though you appear to be self-aware now, even as I just might give you an ounce of my respect, you'll still continue the same tactics.  You know it's all you have left, because you want the big, bad liberal media to continue talking about Ayers and soon Wright (don't lie; he's on the table too).  But the American people aren't buying it, and Obama will easily lock the door come debate #3.

Senator, if you have any honor in you left and if you want to keep your legacy positive, I suggest you quit.  Or suspend your campaign until the day after the election.  Your strategy to tear down Obama has, in an odd twist of fate, beginning to tear you down.  It's only gonna get worse, pal.

McCain has wanted to be POTUS all his life. He wanted to prove to his distant, emotionally aloof Dad that he was lovable. Nobody ever told him: That'll do Pig. That'll do.

So he sat there, and watched this exotic figure winning over the electorate on his own merits, and he came up with a scheme. He would create a MONSTER. And the MONSTER would destroy his opponent and sweep himself into office. So he went down down down into the dungeon of his castle with his sidekick the Wolf Woman of Wasilla and cobbled together some dead stories, and mummified rumors, and stitched them together with lies and the glue of deception, and he thrust his piece meal corpse up in to the sky to bring down the lightning and the thunder, and low and behold, the fire of the GODS landed on his creature, and it got up off the table and began to STOMP around all over the place, scaring the shit out of everybody.

And when he talked to it, trying to calm it down, trying to control the MONSTER, it turned on him, and with arms outstretched, it began to stalk him, booing him as it stomped and whomped--and McCain saw what he had done, what he had unleased, and he threw his hands up in fear and loathing and cried. No! No! My opponent is a decent family man citizen. But the MONSTER could not hear, and went stomping on out into the darkness...the screams of the frightened villagers echoed through the valley...it was time for torchlights and pitchforks...

Thus always is the way with MONSTERS...

This post is a clearing house for links to posts that flew by too fast, or didn't get the attention they deserved, or were too good to go away even if they made it to reader rec.

If you add a link, please give a brief description along w/ your reasons for why it deserves a 2nd look. ANYONE can add a link here.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE stop by everyday to rec this post, even if you don't add anything, or
read anything on it...It only works if it gets up to reader rec, thus making the posts available for longer.

If it BARELY makes Reader rec, it gets kicked off early. Today we lost about 10 good links, and w/ no access to the archives, they are VERY difficult to find.
This is a GREAT tool, but if we don't use it, we lose it.

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

John McCain: Portrait of a Demagogue

Demagogue: "A leader who obtains power by means of impassioned appeals to the emotions and prejudices of the populace."

The American Heritage Dictionary

And there’s a very good reason for that.  A demagogue’s agenda is virtually always fundamentally at odds with what’s in the best interest of the people.  So the only way that they can get the people’s support is to appeal to their hatred, fear, or anger–that’s when individuals are most prone to act without taking the time to think about their actions.  Demagogues specialize, therefore, in appealing  to the emotions.  That allows them to circumvent the mind, and thus, not have to deal with one’s common sense.

An example of that strategy at work is clearly demonstrated at a recent  John McCain rally.  While addressing his angry supporters--who were already frustrated over the economy, the financial bailout, pending foreclosures, and the loss of jobs–instead of reassuring them by sharing  policy initiatives that he’d developed to address their concerns, he further inflamed the crowd by giving the floor to, and agreeing with, a supporter who stood up to called Barack and Nancy Pelosi hooligan socialists.

The event  was more of a hatefest than it was a rally, and during a video recording of the event,  in spite of the fact that the nation is going through the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression, neither McCain nor Palin wasted one word on how they intended to address the issue.  Their entire message seemed to be that Obama is not one of us.  While McCain didn’t give the crowd any answers to their concerns, he did give them someone to hate, and the crowd loved it.  He had successfully used their emotions to circumvent their ability to think, and without thought, nothing is as cathartic as unadulterated hatred.

Therefore, it was an absolute must for McCain and Palin to pull this off, because if the crowd had managed to remain in possession of their faculties, they might have started asking a series of embarrassing questions.  They might have asked McCain, for example, why did you come all this way and not have a thing to say about how we’re going to address this national emergency?  And why is it that Barack Obama didn’t become a threat  until you started sliding in the polls?  They might have also wanted to discuss McCain’s change in strategy.  He started out the campaign talking about his experience, and how he was  going to bring about change.  So a clear thinking supporter would probably ask, “Ok, so how is that vast experience you’ve been talking about going to get us out of this mess--and about that change, when is it suppose to begin?

So the fact is, by allowing themselves to be hoodwinked, McCain’s supporters relieved him of the need to address the very issues they were most concerned about, just as they relieved Bush of the need to be  responsible eight years earlier.  The moment McCain supporters showed him that he  could get their support by simply keeping them scared and angry, they lost all leverage in getting their most passionate concerns addressed.

But fear and anger are not the only weapons that McCain has in his arsenal.  McCain has been playing on America’s patriotism for his entire career.  In fact, that’s one of his most formidable talents.  Due to his status as a “war hero”, most Americans feel honor bound to never, ever, question his patriotism.  But fortunately, there are a few true mavericks among us, and we’re rather reckless in our homage.

Thus, if you take a close look at Sen. McCain’s record when it comes to supporting of the troops, you’ll discover some very surprising facts.  While he’s always delivering sermons on the necessity of supporting our troops, VetVoice.com gives him a failing grade when it comes to actually living his sermons:

“ In its most recent legislative ratings, the non-partisan Disabled American Veterans gave Sen. McCain a 20 percent rating for his voting record on veterans' issues. Similarly, the non-partisan Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America gave McCain a "D" grade for his poor voting record on veterans' issues, including McCain's votes against additional body armor for troops in combat and additional funding for PTSD and TBI screening and treatment.”

           

You see, while McCain has a sterling record when it comes to voting our troops into battle, that’s not  supporting our troops, that’s supporting Halliburton, Blackwater, and the military/industrial complex.  When it comes to actually supporting our troops–by spending to provided them with the best equipment to help protect their lives while in battle, or paying to take care of the disabled, and  many other vets, after they’ve completed their service, his record is atrocious–in fact, given his rhetoric, scandalously so.

The most cursory review of McCain’s voting record reflects that in September of 2007, McCain voted against the Webb amendment calling for adequate rest for the troops between deployments. In May of 2006 he voted against an amendment (H.R. 4939, S. Amdt. 3704) that would provide 20 million dollars for veteran healthcare facilities. In April of 2006 McCain was one of only 13 Senators to vote against a $430,000,000 amendment (H.R. 4939, S.Amdt. 3642) for the Department of Veteran Affairs to improve Medical Services for outpatient care and treatment for vets. And in March of 2006 he voted against an amendment (S.Con.Res.83, S.Amdt.3007) to increase veteran's medical funding by 1.5 billion dollars. And of course, he didn't even show up to vote for the latest veteran's bill that increased veteran's education benefits.

According to USA Today, "The Arizona senator opposes the scholarship measure, as does the Pentagon, because it applies to people who serve just three years. He fears that would encourage people to leave the military after only one enlistment even as the U.S. fights two wars and is trying to increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps."

It is astonishing that McCain would even make such an admission, since the stated rationale suggests that his philosophy is that we can't afford to improve the standard of living of the poor and middle class, because we need them to fight our wars.

I’m sure that many Americans are quite disheartened to learn these facts–and you should be.  But actually, we’re fortunate, because after allowing demagogues to control this country for the past eight years, we’re lucky that we’re not in worse shape than we in.  After all, we could be in the military, waiting for McCain to vote us a fair shake.

Eric L. Wattree
wattree.blogspot.com
  

If you were planning for retirement in 2000, you probably didn't think about investing in the stock market.  That was a forgone conclusion.  The real question was how much and into which companies you would invest in order to provide the best payoff in your golden years.

You would have been an idiot to stay out of the market, right?  That's what we all heard from the country's top economic experts, from Greenspan on down.  Of course, you're not an idiot.  Fast forward a few years, to 2002, and buying into the market was an even better idea.  The post-9/11 slump just made everything cheaper!

Alas, it seems the conventional wisdom was anything but.  It's a small irony that the private-sector's retirement system has collapsed while the public sector's system remains intact.  This is the exact opposite we've been hearing from rightist economists for the last 25 years.

You remember the Medicare crisises?  You remember the furrowed brows on national TV, the serious debate about -not whether to put Social Security money into the market- but how much of the public's nest egg to invest?  Of course you remember this.

And now, with the Dow down 40% in the last week, all of that seems so insignificant.  Insignificant, compared to the losses you're looking at in your portfolio.  What are you going to do now?  Can you borrow from friends or family?  Are you able to keep working for a few extra years?  Can you get an extra job?  How's your savings?

We need to figure out how we got here, and what lies ahead.

To figure this out, we don't need to look at which models worked, or which companies failed, or what policies brought this new financial drought about.  We need to go waaaay back, to basic fundamentals.

Take a look at your computer.  You know how it got here?  Not by onscure financial manipulations.  People got this monitor to you.  Someone had to build it.  Someone had to ship it, another had to house it.  Yet another person had to sell it to you, and you purchased it, because this is the standard of living we've all become accustomed to.  All the material wealth that we hoped for during our retirement had to come about by working people.

Simply put, the number and quality of workers in the world could not keep up with the demand for material goods.  Sure, the population keeps growing, but was it growing fast enough to maintain the economic growth the US has experienced since WWII?  The answer is clear.

By further abstracting the market, by complicating it beyond the comprehension of most people, by creating SIV's and other financial mechanisms, some had hoped to keep the growth coming.  Did it work?  Again, the answer is clear.

Are we are all dirt farmers now?

Now, let's talk about what's ahead.

It's entirely possible that the economic expansion of 1945 to the present was an anomoly, brought about by an invigorated population, a land rich in mineral and agricultural wealth, and the world's rich markets.  The modern world will not end tomorrow, but it's going to get a lot tougher.

We once relied of FDR's three legged stool to get us through retirement: one leg represented self-reliance, the second represented reliance on private pensions, and the thrid represented reliance on the government.

With one leg ripped out from under us, we must rely on the remaining two: self-reliance and the government.  This translates into longer working lifetimes and a more modest appraisal of what we can expect in retirement.

But perhaps I am too much doom and gloom, and I underestimate the ability of the world worker.  Perhaps.  There is one thing that I know for sure; that preparing for the worst and hoping for the best has never let me down.  Perhaps you too should prepare and hope as such.

Is an ethics violation like some kind of initiation test you have to pass before you can be a real Republican?  Is that why McCain choose Palin ... he knew she was a shoe-in to become one of the tribe?

The Republican honor roll of politicians with who have been identified as ethically-challenged is really an impressive thing.  The streak that Nixon started reached its zenith in the Bush White House; Rove and Cheney will long be remembered as the gold standard in this arena.  But early indications are that the McCain/Palin ticket would hit the ground running -- if we were so blessedly stupid as to give them the opportunity.   

Just out from the McCain Camp: "Today's report shows that the Governor acted within her proper and lawful authority in the reassignment of Walt Monegan," said Palin spokeswoman Meg Stapelton. "The report also illustrates what we've known all along: this was a partisan led inquiry run by Obama supporters and the Palins were completely justified in their concern regarding Trooper Wooten given his violent and rogue behavior. Lacking evidence to support the original Monegan allegation, the Legislative Council seriously overreached, making a tortured argument to find fault without basis in law or fact. The Governor is looking forward to cooperating with the Personnel Board and continuing her conversation with the American people regarding the important issues facing the country."