Look! Up in the Sky!

"McCain Lost & It'll Be Fatal."

When the Going Gets Tough

So, Obama calls McCain this morning about putting out a bipartisan statement re: basic principles necessary to the bail-out pact.

McCain hangs up phone and wonders, "Dang, that was a pretty good idea. How can I do him one better?"

"I know! Suspend the campaign?! That will look ballsy!"

He calls on Obama to do the same, but, he does it in the media vs. in a man-to-man talk.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going? Freakin' cynical ploy.

I liked what BHO said about, "Now more than ever, the American people need to hear from the candidates."

How about changing the debate theme from Foreign Policy (McCain's supposed strength) to the Economy (now a Dem stronghold, ironically)?

NFW, right, McCain?

Most folks agree, though, that the campaigns should roll on, AND that a refocus to the financial crisis is a worthy idea.

"Free Sarah Palin"

Spookily brilliant of Ms. Brown to call out the McCain camp for sexism.

Where's Mad Dog?

I've been traveling on business a lot, but, more to the point, I've been relatively happy to see the mainstream media call BULLSHIT on the McCain machine's machinations.

If I am not mad, I don't post.

CNN (Finally) Debunks the Bunk

Who's Getting Drilled?

I Wish I Knew How-To Make & Edit Videos

I'd make lots of 'em, and all of this variety:

Do You Miss "The Old John McCain"?

This reader comment (to an excellent E.J. Dionne article) bears repeating:

(You miss the) old John McCain? Which one:

1959 John: The wild man who partied like a lunatic and graduated near the bottom of his class.

1969 John: War hero. Got shot down; I'm not saying that he should have taken his training more seriously, but crashing 5 planes? Anybody can have bad luck in war, but you have to work hard first to make me feel sorry for you.

1979 John: Ditched his first wife to marrying into a powerful, wealthy, connected organized crime family so he could make a career change and go into politics

1989 John: After cavorting in the Caymans with Keating - of Savings and Loan Scandal infamy - gets caught pocketing $112,000 (and doesn't report it to the IRS). Gets off scot-free

1999 John: Uses campaign finance reform to whitewash his influence peddling sins and runs for President as a maverick

2008 John: Embraces Bush's tax cuts, the far right religious agents of intolerance, a right wing looney as VP who believes in using science to find the oil but not to clean up the mess from oil, who believes in using science to protect her personal health but not our shared planet.

McCain is a fraud who lies, cheats and steals.

Please don't tell me that the liberal writers from the WaPo can't see into the true nature of his character. I know stuff gets edited, but, please tell us that you people have the capacity to, if not write about, then at least perceive the truth.

When we've lost the ability to see and speak or write the truth, then we have lost our way.

Lipstick on a Pig

"Honorgate"

I hope that after Obama wins the election, all the current hand-wringing over his faint damning of the GOP slurs and B.S. will seem quaint. "Why did we get so worked up? He mastered it!" I hope, I hope. For my children's sake, I hope.

Until then, though, it's my belief that we must fight fire with fire. We can do so without losing our own integrity, as we need only speak truth (loudly and unrelentingly).

Josh Marshall of TalkingPointsMemo calls it "Honorgate" and it gibes with my own thinking of the last few days. "Swiftboat" attacks are about attacking a candidate's supposedly inviolate "brand attributes." Think back 4 years: John Kerry's a war hero? He led the charge of the swiftboats up the river delta? Let's ATTACK that heroic deed. Seems crazy. Crazy enough to work.

McCain's top brand attribute - "we honor him for his service" - can be his own Achilles' Heel, based on the slimy campaign he's running.

Imagine Obama saying, flatly: "John McCain has disgraced himself. John McCain is no longer a man of honor." The false and flabby "lipstick on a pig" imbroglio would die out quick, eh?

Proof of McCain's lost honor? Oh, sweet jeebus, have you been reading this blog? Did you see his most recent ad, in which he mislabels Obama's vote AGAINST child sex predators as a vote FOR kindergarten sex-ed? (I won't even get into how the ad depicts a "leering" black man juxtaposed with innocent white children!)

McCain has no honor left. He is unfit for office.

Seriously, How Could You Even CONSIDER Voting for the GOP?

If you do not consider this a transparent and cynical ploy; if it doesn't make you want to puke with rage, then please, go away.

Snake-Tongues

From Talking Points Memo:

"We've now had a week of blaring headlines and one-liners about Sarah Palin as the mavericky, pork-busting reformer from Alaska. But we seem to be witnessing the first stirrings of a backlash and a dawning realization that the 'Sarah Palin' we've heard so much about over the last few days is a fraud of truly comical dimensions.

The McCain camp has made her signature issue shutting down the Bridge to Nowhere. But as The New Republic put it today that's just "a naked lie." And pretty much the same thing has been written today in Newsweek, the Washington Post, the AP, the Wall Street Journal. Yesterday even Fox's Chris Wallace called out Rick Davis on it. (Do send more examples when you find them.)

On earmarks she's an even bigger crock. On the trail with McCain they're telling everyone that she's some kind of earmark slayer when actually, when she was mayor and governor, in both offices, she requested and got more earmarks than virtually any city or state in the country.

Think about that. On the stump, not a single word that comes out of her mouth -- or not a single word that the McCain folks put in her mouth -- is anything but a lie. I know that sounds like hyperbole. But just go down the list. None of them bear out."

McCain's Big Lie Strategy

FactCheck.org calls out McCain campaign's "pattern of deceit."

"The ad says Obama and “out of touch Congressional leaders” plan to implement “painful tax increases on working American families,” and it shows an image of a family presumably upset about an impending tax increase. But, as we've reported numerous times, Obama proposes a tax cut for the vast majority of households...

"...The ad also claims that Obama and congressional Democrats would bring about "years of deficits." But (and we've reported this before, too), the fact is both candidates' economic plans would fail to bring an end to deficit spending, and by that measure, McCain's is worse than Obama's. According to the TPC analysis, Obama's tax plan would increase the debt by $3.5 trillion by 2018, while McCain's plan would bring about a projected $5 trillion increase in the same time frame."

John McCain: Reformed Maverick

No - SERIOUSLY - why is Jon Stewart America's best journalist? Where's the outrage from the mainstream media at these McCain flip-flops on crucial issues?

Lies That Republican Mavericks Tell

From Frank Rich:

(Palin) didn’t say “no thanks” to the “Bridge to Nowhere” until after Congress had already abandoned it but given Alaska a blank check for $223 million in taxpayers’ money anyway.

Far from rejecting federal pork, she hired lobbyists to secure her town a disproportionate share of earmarks ($1,000 per resident in 2002, 20 times the per capita average in other states).

Though McCain claimed “she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities,” she has never issued a single command as head of the Alaska National Guard.

As for her “executive experience” as mayor, she told her hometown paper in Wasilla, Alaska, in 1996, the year of her election: “It’s not rocket science. It’s $6 million and 53 employees.”

Her much-advertised crusade against officials abusing their office is now compromised by a bipartisan ethics investigation into charges that she did the same.

Dear Battleground States

Who are you gonna vote for?

The young black guy who will cut your taxes?

Or the old white guy who will cut your boss's taxes?

Who are you gonna vote for?

The young, "inexperienced" black guy who's been right about almost every major foreign policy issue?

Or the old, "experienced" white guy who actively helped Bush overstretch our military and frayed our international reputation?

Who are you gonna vote for?

The young black guy who will return Science to the school curriculum?

Or the old white guy who's determined to let Creationism trump proven Science? "Going to Heaven" and "going to the Moon" need not be mutually exclusive goals.

Who are you gonna vote for?

McCain/Bush - Two Men, Same Choice

Secrets of the Media Elite

Who'd Wanna be 1 of Those Icky "1,000 Points of Light," Anyway?

This gives me a stomach ache. But kudos to Klein for calling out the GOP on their cynical B.S.

So here is what Giuliani and Palin didn't know: Obama was working for a group of churches that were concerned about their parishioners, many of whom had been laid off when the steel mills closed on the south side of Chicago. They hired Obama to help those stunned people recover and get the services they needed--job training, help with housing and so forth--from the local government. It was, dare I say it, the Lord's work--the sort of mission Jesus preached (as opposed to the war in Iraq, which Palin described as a "task from God.")

This is what Palin and Giuliani were mocking. They were making fun of a young man's decision "to serve a cause greater than himself," in the words of John McCain. They were, therefore, mocking one of their candidate's favorite messages. Obama served the poor for three years, then went to law school. To describe this service--the first thing he did out of college, the sort of service every college-educated American should perform, in some form or other--as anything other than noble is cheap and tawdry and cynical in the extreme.

Wake Up, White People - You're Already In Charge

Via the Washington Post:

As the country rapidly diversifies, Republicans are presenting a convention that is almost entirely white.

Only 36 of the 2,380 delegates seated on the convention floor are black, the lowest number since the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies began tracking diversity at political conventions 40 years ago. Each night, the overwhelmingly white audience watches a series of white politicians step to the lectern -- a visual reminder that no black Republican has served as a governor, U.S. senator or U.S. House member in the past six years.

WHY is Jon Stewart America's Best Journalist?

As much as I love this clip, why is Jon Stewart the only one interested in exposing hypocrisy?

Hypocrisy shouldn't be funny.

Brilliant

From "The Shortest Blog in the World."

Advice for a better Republican National Convention in 2012 from a complete novice.

INVITE BLACK PEOPLE. It looks good on tv. And if none accept your invitation, hire some black people to fill the seats. You'll find that there are a few black people in this country looking for work.

DO NOT LAUGH AT YOUR OPPONENT DURING YOUR SPEECHES. Do consider that half of this nation believes in your opponent. Be careful not to insinuate that this half of the country is comprised of idiots. You will need at least some of them to win.

GO BEYOND SHOWING A HEARTBREAKING SHORT FILM ABOUT A COURAGEOUS AMERICAN SOLDIER WHO DIED IN IRAQ. This was powerful, but it could have been better. Show a heartbreaking short film about every courageous American soldier who has died in Iraq. The night might go a little long, but you will have an extremely compelling message.

IGNORE FACTS. They really slow down the chanting.

PROMISE US THAT YOU CAN FIGHT THE CORRUPT GOVERNMENT YOU HAVE BEEN A PART OF FOR THE PAST 8 YEARS. We will be so confused, we just might believe you.

AVOID SAYING YOUR CANDIDATE CAN FIELD DRESS A MOOSE. We are all hoping you would not steer the country to a place where this is a relevant skill.

Now THAT's "Attacking Someone's Family"

In 1998 Sen. John McCain told the following joke at a Republican fund raiser:

"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?" McCain joked about the then-President's then-teenage daughter. "Because her father is Janet Reno."

Oh, Wait - She is a PERFECT Republican Choice

Excerpt from an open letter from a Wasilla, AK resident, re: Sarah Palin:

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a "fiscal conservative". During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.

The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren't enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million.

What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex ... She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.

While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once.

These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.

As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.

In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today's surplus, borrow for needs.

She's not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren't generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren't evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.

Had Enough, Yet? Part 3

Had Enough, Yet? Part 2

Had Enough, Yet?

Go Obamacans!

Turn away from the Dark Side. Vote Obama. Like these good folks.

Liberal Bias My Ass

Via the L.A. Times.

The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, where researchers have tracked network news content for two decades, found that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on Obama than on Republican John McCain during the first six weeks of the general-election campaign.


You read it right: tougher on the Democrat.


During the evening news, the majority of statements from reporters and anchors on all three networks are neutral, the center found. And when network news people ventured opinions in recent weeks, 28% of the statements were positive for Obama and 72% negative.


Network reporting also tilted against McCain, but far less dramatically, with 43% of the statements positive and 57% negative, according to the Washington-based media center.

Republicans Are Bad With Money

From the NY Times:

Simply put, the United States economy has grown faster, on average, under Democratic presidents than under Republicans.

The stark contrast between the whiz-bang Clinton years and the dreary Bush years is familiar because it is so recent. But while it is extreme, it is not atypical. Data for the whole period from 1948 to 2007, during which Republicans occupied the White House for 34 years and Democrats for 26, show average annual growth of real gross national product of 1.64 percent per capita under Republican presidents versus 2.78 percent under Democrats.

That 1.14-point difference, if maintained for eight years, would yield 9.33 percent more income per person, which is a lot more than almost anyone can expect from a tax cut.

Written by a former Vice Chaiman of the Federal Reserve, by the way, not by a member of the "liberal media."

Grand Oil Party: McCain Forfeits "Green" Credentials

The sell-out of the GOP to Big Oil is complete. Via Thomas Friedman.

With his choice of Sarah Palin — the Alaska governor who has advocated drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and does not believe mankind is playing any role in climate change — for vice president, John McCain has completed his makeover from the greenest Republican to run for president to just another representative of big oil.

Given the fact that Senator McCain deliberately avoided voting on all eight attempts to pass a bill extending the vital tax credits and production subsidies to expand our wind and solar industries, and given his support for lowering the gasoline tax in a reckless giveaway that would only promote more gasoline consumption and intensify our addiction to oil, and given his desire to make more oil-drilling, not innovation around renewable energy, the centerpiece of his energy policy — in an effort to mislead voters that support for drilling today would translate into lower prices at the pump today — McCain has forfeited any claim to be a green candidate.

Love the Internet

Oh, the Humanity!

From Joe Klein, in TIME Magazine's Swampland blog - who's getting increasingly pissed off, thank goodness:

"It is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is "a task from God."

The cynical lies and willful suspension of reality amongst Republican politicians is really starting to bum me out. I am beginning to feel as if we are struggling to escape the grip of evil.

It's not just about TAXES, my hapless GOP friends. How clueless do you need to be, to not see how many problems this country now faces due to the evil machinations of GOP politicians? The corruption boggles. The vapid, timeworn cultural touchstones (media bias, abortion, gay rights, etc.) with which they stir up the murk to shrug off ownership of their failures? Infuriating.

It literally makes me shudder with sadness and anger.

"Fish Tales" of the GOP

From the Associated Press (which, to-date, has seemed to slant rightward, imho), a decent scrub of the GOP speeches from last night. Relevant excerpts:

PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform - not even in the state senate."

THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.

And,

FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: "We need change, all right - change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington - throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin."

THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.

What a cynical whopper from Romney. C'mooooon!!

Ardent Hillary Supporter James Carville: Now a Sexist!!!

No - not really. But it was hysterical to see GOP operative Michelle Bachman call Carville a sexist for DARING to question Palin's qualifications.

Carville fires back: “Congresswoman, I don’t know how to tell you this, but I supported a woman for President of the United States.”

Here's the video of the exchange (link). The good stuff happens around the 5min 30sec mark.

If McCain had picked any number of BETTER QUALIFIED Republican women, the Dems would have less to gripe about.

In other news: Bachman's plastered-on smile freaked me out.

Tucker Bounds Down the Rabbit Hole

Nice to see the mainstream media take on the B.S. for a change.

Sarah Palin - The Jefferson Davis of Alaska?

How do you claim to put COUNTRY FIRST if your VP pick was part of the ALASKA FIRST secessionist political party?

How do you claim to put COUNTRY FIRST if your VP pick's last gig (less than 3 years ago) was at the Wasilla, Alaska city hall (pictured)?

How do you claim to be a REFORMER if your VP pick headed up corrupt Ted Stevens's own 527 group? I guess she was FOR Ted Stevens before she was AGAINST him?

Yea, that sounds familiar.

David Frum, GOP Strategist, Gets Something Right

From David Frum:

Can we conservatives please stop kidding ourselves about Barack Obama's "qualifications"? Yes, if I had been a Democratic donor back in 2006, I'd sure worry about whether Barack Obama had what it took to be president. That was before he took on the toughest political operation in America, before he beat Bill and Hillary Clinton, before he won 18 million primary votes.

Obama's nomination was not handed to him. He fought hard for it and won against the odds. "Qualifications" predict achievement. Once you have achieved, it doesn't matter what your qualifications are. Who cares whether the guy who built a big company from nothing didn't have much of a resume when he started? But if you are applying to run a big company built by somebody else, the resume matters ...

The worst mistake in any fight is to under-estimate your opponent's abilities. Look what happened to the people who under-estimated Reagan. If conservatives are to have any hope in the coming weeks, we should wake up to the fact that we face in Barack Obama a formidable man, who appeals to something important and deep in the American electorate. He's not a superman, he has vulnerabilities, he can be beaten. But he won't be beaten until we who are trying to beat him understand why and how he has come so far ...

Palin as Commander-in-Chief

From the Associated Press - the guy in head of the Alaska Natl Guard LIKES Palin, but doesn't exactly tout her CiC credentials.

Maj. Gen. Craig Campbell, adjutant general of the Alaska National Guard, considers Palin "extremely responsive and smart" and says she is in charge when it comes to in-state services, such as emergencies and natural disasters where the National Guard is the first responder.

But, in an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday, he said...Palin (plays) no role in national defense activities, even when they involve the Alaska National Guard. The entire operation is under federal control, and the governor is not briefed on situations.

Barack Obama is Not a Liberal; He is Anti-Dumb

This has been, by far, my favorite NYT Op-Ed of the campaign thus far. It's by Gail Collins.

Here is an excerpt:

Most of the things Obama’s taken heat for saying this summer fall into these two familiar patterns — attempts to find a rational common ground on controversial issues and dumb-avoidance.

On the common-ground front, he’s called for giving more federal money to religious groups that run social programs, but only if the services they offer are secular. People can have guns for hunting and protection, but we should crack down on unscrupulous gun sellers. Putting some restrictions on the government’s ability to wiretap is better than nothing, even though he would rather have gone further.

Dumb-avoidance would include his opposing the gas-tax holiday, backtracking on the anti-Nafta pandering he did during the primary and acknowledging that if one is planning to go all the way to Iraq to talk to the generals, one should actually pay attention to what the generals say.

Touching both bases are Obama’s positions that 1) if people are going to ask him every day why he’s not wearing a flag pin, it’s easier to just wear the pin, for heaven’s sake, and 2) there’s nothing to be gained by getting into a fight over whether the death penalty can be imposed on child rapists.

"Sarah Palin is a Bad Mother"

The reality is that it's incredibly hard to be a parent; to guide our teens toward the right decisions when they spend every waking moment with thoughts of rebellion.

But this HuffPo comment summed up the hypocrisy of the GOP response to the news of Bristol Palin's pregnancy.

So if Bristol Palin (Gov. Palin's daughter) is 17 now and five months pregnant, she must have gotten pregnant at age 16. When this happened to Britney Spears' sister at the same age, the Repubs and their evangelical winged monkeys ripped the girl and her family to shreds 24/7 on every cable news show, pointing out that the whole sordid affair represented bad parenting at its worst and the lowest in "liberal" attitudes about family values.

But when Palin parades her own brood in front of the cameras to show that they are the literal poster family for wholesome Republican values (like abstinence), then Dems are lambasted for simply pointing the same finger back at them when the harsh glare of the spotlight reveals an ugly truth instead of something flawless.

If the situation were reversed and this had come out in the family of Biden or Obama, is there any doubt whatsoever that Limbaugh, Hannity, and the rest of the hatemongers would call for the girl and her family to be stoned to death in front of the American flag?