Obama "softens" position on hiring lobbyists.  Or, the con translation: Obama Lied.  Again.
Who was so important to Obama to get onto his transition team, that he needed to violate (or soften if you prefer) his oft-stated stance on hiring lobbyists?  We don't need this.  You know, you don't get a second chance to make a first impression and all that. 

On balance I'm more than happy with Obama's efforts so far, but this feeds the con talking heads in a way that is hard to reverse.  If Obama never hires another lobbyist in his career, it won't matter.  The damage is done.  Or am I over reacting?  And really, who is it for whom Obama felt he needed to change his position?

Or did McCain lose?

It only took
  $600+ million in donations,
  an unprecedented volunteer network (in both size and organization),
  a monumentally stupid VP choice by his competitor,
  several high-level defectors from the opposition party endorsing him,
  a disastrous meltdown of our economy,
  backlash against his opponent's overwhelmingly negative ad campaign,
  near-universal dissatisfaction with the party in power,
 and
  an unpopular (if not illegal) war,
for a black man (and not even a very liberal one) to win by a mere 4%.

Not sure what this says for our country.

The fact that Prop 8 passed in California doesn't inspire one to believe much has changed.

Maybe the euphoria is wearing off?  I am reverting to my normal cynicism already?  I don't know.  I am still immensely proud.   But I am amazed that so many people could have honestly thought that McCain-Palin was the better choice.  Just look at the county-by-county results for midwestern states that Obama carried.  If individual states had their own electoral college-like system to boost the influence of rural counties, how many, if any, would Obama have carried?

But, when people see that Obama's cabinet is NOT made up of Black Panthers and he does NOT nominate Al Sharpton to the Supreme Court, and he is NOT sworn in on a copy of the Qur'an, they might START to learn something about race and tolerance.

Now I can admit, all I did for Obama was donate some money.  And put a sign up, some stickers on my car, and talk him up with my (former) friends and some coworkers.  Thankfully Obama has won, because today and every day forward I would be feeling awfully guilty that I did not do more.  Unfortunately I was not able to volunteer, to make calls, go door-to-door, or whatever else Obama may have needed.  So THANKS to all those who did... you saved my butt.

And, oh yeah, made history, too.

I don't think the timing of this is coincidental:

"Barack Obama's aunt, a Kenyan woman who has been quietly living in public housing in Boston, is in the United States illegally after an immigration judge rejected her request for asylum four years ago, The Associated Press has learned."

Plattsburgh Press-Republican/AP News story.

I keep hearing Repubs talking about how the polls were wrong in 2000 and they were wrong in 2004.  But they weren't.  IIRC, the polls showed both races about even, if not a slight lead for Bush.  Certainly the 2004 Florida exit polls were "wrong".  Yeah, right.

It seems the only recent election in which you could argue that the polls were polls were significantly off is Reagan-Carter, 1980.  Can someone fill me in on that one?  From what I understand Carter went from a slight lead to a huge loss in the last 48 hours before the election.  I would guess (if it's true) that was almost 100% because of the Iran hostage situation.

Since there's nothing even remotely like that going on, I can't think of any reason to enjoy the ride until Tuesday, confident that Obama's win will be decisive.

"Media sweats over exit poll accuracy," yesterday on politico.com.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14778.html

When, on November 4th, the exit polling shows a clear win for Obama, but McCain wins the election, don't be surprised, because we already know the exit polling will be flawed.

Exit polling, after all, is a "notoriously inexact science"  ... except that it had been pretty accurate until the 2004 election, and it was probably accurate then, too.  It was the election results that were wrong.  They could tamper with the voting, but not the polling.  So discredit the polling. 

Last time it caught them by surprise, but this time they're prepared.  This time they're discrediting the exit polling in advance.

I went to my dashboard for the very first time, and there it was:

"goaty doesn't follow anybody"

Damn straight.

Even the media is getting after McCain/Palin for lying in speeches and ads.  Is this such a great thing?  On the one hand, it reinforces the opinion of some that the media has a liberal bias.  But for those of us who realize the media's liberal bias is anything but, it appears to be a breath of fresh air.  I suppose, though, to most people who are unaware of any alleged bias, the media calling McCain out on his lies simply proves that the media is being fair. 

This will be useful when the swiftboat onslaught begins, as the MSM can better play its role of support, having recently burnished its undeserved image of fairness and balance.

More specifically, is it a trap when somelike like Karl Rove says McCain is lying?  Could it be that this, too, is a set-up? Rove calls out McCain today on some relatively minor lies.  Later, when the real smears come out will he be able to say, "well, I was critical of McCain in the past, but..."

Is the media thinking, "we call the small lies "lies" so that later, when the big lies come out, they will have more credibility"?

(In the interest of being truthful myself, I have to say I got this concept from a Huffpo article that I can no longer find, or else I would cite it here.)

...he just means something else.  When he said "fundamentals," he didn't mean "fundamentals" the way everyone else understands "fundamentals" in an economic context.  He meant "workforce."

So it will be OK if he becomes president.  When he, for instance, blows up at Kim Jong Il and says, "I'm going to point everything we've got at you and push the red button, you f***ing gook!"  We can just explain that he really meant, "we'll give diplomacy another try."  Not a problem.

Wouldn't you rather be a pig?  Pit Bulls are the preferred "pet" of despicable slime like Michael Vick.  Pit Bulls are usually only in the news when they turn on their owners and maul them.  Or when they kill neighborhood children. Pit Bulls and Rottweilers account for over 60% of dog-related deaths in the US. 
I have never heard anyone call for the banning of any pig breed, while there is always a call for banning pit bulls every time one mauls a child to death.  I would think stupid would rather be a pig than a pit bull, which is what she called herself.
Why has everything gotten so stupid?  There are a thousand really, really serious problems we face that should be issues in this election.  Who's a pig doesn't make the list.

I just wanted to post this to prove that you CAN post something only ONCE.  No need to post two, three or even FOUR times.  If you pay attention, have the tiniest amount of patience, and check the All Reader Posts page, you will see that your post is there.

Personally I am very curious about the AK governor's jet being sold on ebay.  Is this true?  I'd love to see the listing... what kind of "luxury jet" are we talking about?  I know they're trying to create the impression that Palin saved Alaska millions of dollars, but a small, old Lear or something similar might have been worth only a couple hundred thousand. 

Perhaps that "luxury" jet was aging and due to be retired anyway.  According to Cindy McCain, you need a private plane just to get around in AZ, so how does the governor get around in Alaska without one?  I suppose the answer is, if you're Palin, you don't travel anyway, so it doesn't matter.

I also wonder, does Alaska have an Ebay account?  I could take things from my employer and sell them on ebay, but I would have to use my personal account, and I'm pretty sure I'd get fired.  I don't think ebay is an approved method of procuring or disposing of assets in my company.  I guess Alaska is different.

It also occurs to me that if you had a "luxury jet" and you wanted to give it to a friend at a very favorable price, you might want to use ebay to bypass the normal state processes for selling assets.  I'm no ebay power user, but it seems to me, for something as valuable as a government jet, you could make it work out so that your friend got a pretty sweet deal.

So, was "I sold it on ebay" a joke (or what some might call a "lie") or is it true?  Was it a stunt?  Did it really benefit Alaska?  What kind of jet was it, what was it worth, what did it sell for, and who bought it?

To paraphrase Rudy:  "Who are you insulting when you say 'Islamic terrorism'?  You're insulting terrorists!'

Ergo, it is an insult to call someone "Islamic".

Brought to you by the Party of Hate.

From Rudy's speech (paraphrasing):  when you say "Islamic terrorism" who are you insulting?  You're insulting terrorists. 

Ergo, it must be an insult to call someone "Islamic".  No religious crusading going on here, eh?

I think McCain's plans to withdraw Palin --pretty much at the last minute-- and replace her.  Palin is completely distracting everyone  from both McCain and Obama.  Palin may be a fundamentalist, secessionist whackadoodle, but that makes her perfect for this role.  Nearly all of the response to her nomination has been what the GOP could call "unfounded personal attacks" on her and her family.  To them and their followers, it is the same anti-female bias we showed against Hillary Clinton. 

I can see it now.... "poor Palin, and poor McCain, the vicious personal attacks from the partisan left were just too much.  If only the lefties had focused on her qualifications, they would have seen what a great woman she is, but alas, now we have to settle for Mitt Romney." The media will treat the replacement with kid gloves, and there will be no time left to mount the effective attacks we could have on McCain/Romney had he been the nominee originally.

We need to keep the focus entirely on McCain.  His choice has reflected his political need to pander to the fundies and women and he's put the needs of his campaign above the needs of America.  That's it.  Nothing else about Palin -- pretend she doesn't exist.  She's an unqualified nobody.  Doesn't deserve any attention at all.