11/4/08: Obama Wins Pennsylvania AND Ohio!!

Let's welcome President Barack Obama!!!!!

8:00 pm, Nov 4, 2008: A HISTORIC MOMENT!!
CNN just projected Sen. Barack Obama the winner of the 2008 election! And I'm glad it was CA and the West that put him over the top!!! In my own little way, I contributed! And I'm sure most of you reading this feel that way too!!!
I'M POPPING THE CORK NOW!!!!
And he just won Virginia - and didn't even need it - but it feels great anyway!!! Take a look at the maps above - truly, this is an unifying leader - it hasn't looked this diverse since Carter!
-------------
WoooohooooOOOO !!!! OK I don't need the big V no more!! NO Republican (well since Lincoln) has EVER won the election without OH!!! I think this election is done!
-------------
CNN projects that Obama wins Pennsylvania AND OHIO !!! Wow, that was an early CNN projection - with only 17% counted in OH - but the exit polls must be very very strong to project this early.
-----------
CNN projects that Obama wins Pennsylvania!!! Yaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OK, I'm adding some more ice to the champagne bucket - waiting for the second and final nail to fall - you know what I'm talking about - the big V!!

11/4/08: ELECTION DAY - and Obama wins very first town called!

Yes, you read that right!! Obama wins 15 of 21 votes cast in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire!!

Dixville Notch has spoken: It's Obama in a landslide

This was the first time in decades that this little town has gone Democratic - and it did so overwhelmingly!! Be warned however that this town has not been a reliable predictor of the ultimate winner!!!
Well anyways, with that soothing news, try and grab some sleep so you can be prepared to party hard and long tomorrow night! Hopefully, I can soon sleep peacefully every night once more - and so can the rest of us. In the meantime, if you're having one last sleepless night and are up reading my blog (!), here's a soothing article for you to read:
Don't Panic--Reassurances From a Poll Neurotic

11/4/08: ELECTION NIGHT WATCH!!

Election night watch:
The action begins at 6 PM EST when polls close in portions of Indiana and Kentucky. But for me the real action begins at 7 PM EST (4pm PST). Polls close in Virginia and Georgia, as well as most of Florida and most of New Hampshire. Then at 7:30 PM EST Polls close in Ohio and North Carolina. And finally, at 8 PM EST (5pm PST). Polls close in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Missouri. Use the poll closing times map to the right to find the remaining times.

What this means is that this election could be over before I get home tomorrow. If Obama wins EITHER Virginia or Pennsylvania, I think it's all over for McCain. If either or both are too close to call, we could be in for a nailbiter. And if BOTH are called for McCain early, I'd call out the troops.

11/3/08: Virginia : The "Other" Key State

Even if McCain wins Pennsylvania ( a remote possibility, see my earlier post), it would seem that he can't win without Virginia. And all indications are that Obama's more likely to win Virginia than any other swing state, including OH, FL and even CO. This would be great news, except for 2 factors:
1. Like PA, VA also uses primarily the "hackable" electronic voting machines (76% - PA is 82%)
2. Like PA, VA also has little or no early voting.
Actually, all the 4 reasons I stated for PA earlier also apply to VA. This is why I'm more confident in FL than I am in VA!
Since VA polls close at 7pm Eastern, if it goes to Obama early, I'm pulling out the champagne cork.

11/2/08: Pennsylvania: The Keystone State IS the key to this election!

In the last week, the McCain campaign has spent enormous time, money and effort in Pennsylvania, the Keystone State, even more than in other battleground states where he was much more competitive such as Florida, Ohio or North Carolina. Why?

1. Pennsylvania's 21 electoral votes are the ONLY realistic path left to McCain, given that early voting indicators are that McCain will lose many states that Bush won in 2004, including Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada & Iowa.

2. The McCain campaign believes that there is a deep thread of bigotry running through the rural areas - they're counting on the typical "Bradley Effect" (in which most or all undecided voters "break" to the white candidate, even though they may have polled otherwise). They think that Hillary Clinton's win over Obama in the primaries here gives this credibility. Hence also the Rev Wright ads that are airing here in spite of McCain's "promise" not to do so.

3. Pennsylvania uses primarily electronic machines for voting, which are prone to rigging as has been demonstrated in previous elections. Here's more info on the machines used in each state. And an analysis sent to me explaining how this could be exploited, published earlier.

4. Pennsylvania has no early voting. So unlike in many other states, votes couldn't be locked in. Plus it makes voting much more susceptible to devious rigging techniques, including broken or malfunctioning machines, last-minute voter "checks", mysteriously "slow" voting, especially in crowded urban areas (which are overwhelmingly Democratic), resulting in polls closing before thousands of voters have exercised their fundamental right.

On Oct 31st, this startling analysis published on HuffPost showed how the election could still be stolen in PA in spite of the near-double-digits leads for Obama:
So, has all this helped McCain close the gap in the Keystone State?
Not according to the polls. And here's an analysis at fivethirtyeight.com that says the same thing.
But as we know well by now, in the final tally, only the one on Nov 4 counts - all others mean zilch.

So here's some useful advice for Tuesday from the author Erica Jong:
To summarize:
Get a paper ballot if at all possible. If not, make double sure that the electronic machine shows your choice BEFORE you hit submit. Take your cellphone/camera with you and take pictures: of your ballot (or screen), of the voting clerk and supervisor and of the scene in and out of the polling station.
IF YOU PRESS OBAMA AND MCCAIN LIGHTS UP, TAKE A PICTURE. IF YOU COMPLAIN TO A SUPERVISOR AND SHE OR HE SAYS YOU JUST DIDN'T PRESS HARD ENOUGH, DON'T DO IT AGAIN AND GIVE MCPALIN A SECOND VOTE. JUST GET ALL THE INFO, THE PHOTO, THE NAME AND ADDRESS AND EMAIL AND TELEPHONE # OF THE VOTING CLERK.
Keep all records!!! BE PREPARED!!!

11/1/08: Perfect Storm Pennsylvania: the new Ohio and Florida?

Here's a thoughtful analysis (sent to me by a friend) of the electronic voting machines in PA and how this could help "steal" the election there:

Perfect Storm Pennsylvania: the new Ohio and Florida?
In early October, McCain abandoned Michigan due to Obama's
double digit leads in that state. Soon afterwards, McCain
declared that Pennsylvania -- where Obama leads with double
digits -- will be won by him in November. Evidence of
McCain's simple bravado, denial, or perhaps something far
more sinister?
Pennsylvania with its 82% unverifiable electronic voting
machines and accompanying abysmal machine error rate offers
terrifying possibilities. Pennsylvania with its 21 electoral
votes remains the largest East Coast state ready to be
plundered by electronic voting. NY, with 31 electoral votes
casts its votes with paper ballots and are not vulnerable to
electronic hacking. The two other East Coast electoral rich
states -- FL(27) and OH(20) -- well, we know their part in
recent election history.
ELECTRONIC VOTING 101
In 2006, 40% of all US voters voted on Direct-Recording
Electronic (DRE) Machines. The move towards paperless ballots
began in 2002 with the deceptively named Help America Vote
Act, designed to rid the country of punch ballots. HAVA
passed with a Republican House, Senate and President, and
close to 4 billion in federal funds were alotted for this
reform. Currently NV, VT, LA, NJ, DE, MD, SC, GA are all
100% DRE machines; the states of MS, TN, IN, VA, KY range
from 74-95% DRE machines (http://dvice.com/voting/index.php).
Pennsylvania? It has 82% DRE'S, which makes its results
vulnerable to manipulations and therefore suspect.
LIVE FREE OR DIEBOLD
Consider the havoc banks would wreak if they decided to forego
giving their clients records of ATM money transactions.
"Trust us," the banks would say with a sincere smile, "We'll
get the money you deposit to your account. Don't worry."
As it turns out, our votes have been handed to electronic
voting companies who give similar reassurances. Call it
"faith based voting" since the electorate has to have a great
deal of trust that the machines are accurately tallying the
votes.
Diebold (now renamed Premiere Election Systems) remains one
of several major electronic voting machine manufacturers.
Although Diebold creates ATM Machines and their receipts,
they claim they can't provide any paper record for voters,
declare their software to be "proprietary" and refuse outside
inspection. On election day, only Diebold people can touch
machines, so they have in essence privatized that segment of
the vote. If there's a close election? There will be no
recount whatsoever since the electronic machine results will
spit out the same results it offered before.
2.
Diebold's partisan streak runs deep; in 2003 Diebold's
President Wally O'Dell expressed his desire to "Personally
guarantee the electoral votes of Ohio" to George Bush in
2003, a full year before the fateful 2004 election. Kenneth
Blackwell, who in 2004 was the honorary co-chair of the Bush
re-election committee and then Ohio's Secretary of State
admitted to holding 178 shares of Diebold stock, albeit
"accidentally"; Diebold donated $50,000 towards Blackwell's
"political interests".
775 PROBLEMS AND COUNTING
Can we as a country rely on electronic voting? In July, Ars
Technica reported a French study which compared voting systems
and found electronic DRE machines to have a 30 percent error
rate compared to the 5% found with paper. One website which
has recorded every voting error reported in the media since
2004 has now documented a whopping total of 1,070! 75% of
these errors are machine related and include an abundance of
"flipped" votes -- where votes for a Democrat or Libertarian
are cast by a voter and a Republican name flashes on the
screen instead. It has been revealed that more nefarious
methods were used in Ohio, where a "man in the middle" company
had the chance to look at Ohio votes and likely manipulate
the votes before sending them back to Ohio.
Stephen Spoonamore, a lifelong Republican and former CEO of
Cybrinth was not permitted to investigate Diebold System's
secretive software architecture recently said, "They're lying,
they're lying. Diebold is lying. There is no System
electronic in the world that cannot be hacked. I have spent
my entire life building or hacking electronic systems...
[and] secure electronic systems don't exist."
Meanwhile in an ironic twist, Florida -- the state where
voter confidence first began to get shaken -- Republican
Governor Charlie Christ ironically returned to 100% paper
ballots in the form of optical scan votes.
WHAT CAN BE DONE?
With so many flaws with electronic voting systems and so few
days before the election, what can be done to insure there
are ways to check how people actually vote so that public
faith in voting doesn't continue to fade? The best answer
in a murky state such as Pennsylvania is to have a system of
scientific checks which can act the final arbiters in
contentious elections.
Exit polls are scientific and have been used for 40 years
with incredible accuracy. An exiting voter answers an
anonymous paper ballot which gets placed in a cardboard box
and later gets tallied. The accuracy between exit polls and
the actual counted ballots is high; usually there is at most
a 1% difference between the two.
3.
Exit polls are also so sensitive that a two percent difference
has been enough to detect election fraud; on that basis Colin
Powell rejected Ukranian election results in 2004. It is
ironic (or tactical?) that Karl Rove has denigrated the method
of exit polls here in the US.
So how can Pennsylvania be stopped from becoming part of a
perfect electoral storm? By keeping a sharp eye on the exit
polls, allowing exit polls to be the final arbiter, and by
relying on that science based method to challenge the
innacurate faith-based voting DRE machines with which we
have been saddled. Only when we have voter confidence will
our damaged Democracy be truly restored.

11/1/08: Palin Pranked big time! You HAVE to hear this!!

Seriously, I'm telling you - you've GOTTA hear this! If you ever needed more proof what a moron Sarah Palin is - listen to her talking for nearly 6 minutes with a Canadian radio prankster pretending to be French President Nicholas Sarkozy! And here is the transcript - in case you missed some great lines!
Seriously, how can a potential VP be so dumb??? You don't think "I'd love to go hunting with you. We could go try hunting by helicopter, like you did, I never did that.I just love killing those animals. Mm, mm. Take away a life, that is so fun!" would make you a little suspicious?
Or how about "You know we have a lot in common also except that from my house I can see Belgium."
Or "You know my wife is a popular singer and a former top model and she’s so hot in bed. She even wrote a song for you.[sings] It’s his life, Joe the Plumber..."
Or dear God - EVEN THIS: "I must say, Governor Palin, I love the documentary they made on your life, you know, Hustler’s "Nailin Palin."
SP: Oh, good, thank you. Yes.
FNS: That was really edgy."

My forehead hurts - from slapping it so often! I mean, I'm a loss for words! They only ended it because they ran out of material!! I'm sure they never in a million years imagined they would get this far with her!!! How dumb is this woman? And she says she'll run for President "maybe in eight years?"
I don't think so! Let's see, between being found guilty of power abuse, being blessed by a witch doctor in her own church, being associated with a secessionist party, not to mention the hilarious interviews with Gibson and Couric, and now this, she's buried on the national scene.
All I can say is: O Canada! Thank you for the final "nail" in her coffin!

10/31/08: Americans agree: Goodbye Palin!

For the regular reader(s) of this column, it is no secret that I think Sarah Palin is supremely unqualifed to be the VP. In fact, I think she is unfit to be Governor, or hold any public office at all. She is clearly drunk on her own power and thinks that ignorance is a virtue. She has abused her power at every level, and has left a trail of corruption, rancour, divisiveness, abuse and cronyism in her wake. OK, I think you get my drift! This is not news.
But this is big news: 59 % of Americans now agree with me that Palin is unfit for VP! Up by 9% in less than a month. This merely confirms what I've been saying for a while - that picking Palin was a huge and stupid gamble for McCain that has not paid off - in fact, all evidence says she has dragged down the ticket. Bob Cesca on HuffPost agrees:
But what's almost as thrilling [as the end of Bush] is the prospect of Sarah Palin finally going away. Next Wednesday at this time, it's entirely possible that we'll see the last of Sarah Palin on the national stage. At least for now.

Sure, she's provided us with a bottomless cup of blogging material and, more importantly, she's a huge drag on the McCain campaign. And this week, with the Conga line of McCain campaign insiders dishing out leak after delicious leak about Palin, the slow-motion McTrain-wreck has been especially entertaining. But ultimately, the schadenfreude and the hilariously inexplicable interviews are merely distractions from the truly awful things that Sarah Palin represents.

I've seriously had enough of the winking, the giant-chinned-smirking, the too-sibilant forks-on-a-chalkboard "s" sounds, the "nookyooler," the "you betchas," and especially her Romper Room-like penchant for naming and labeling everyone in her audiences: "Romper bomper stomper boo, tell me, tell me, tell me, do! I see Joe the Plumber, Roscoe the Racist, Zed the Gimp..." Yeah, she's not unserious enough as it is. Give her something really stupid to do on the stump. Good call, McCain people.

Today, Palin continued to provide evidence of her vast ignorance of the US Constitution and of her unshakeable faith that all laws were written only to serve her whim: she claimed that her "First Amendment rights may be threatened by "attacks" from reporters who suggest she is engaging in a negative campaign against Barack Obama." Constitutional law expert Glenn Greenwald has this to say:
Somehow, in Sarah Palin's brain, it's a threat to the First Amendment when newspapers criticize her negative attacks on Barack Obama. This is actually so dumb that it hurts.
The First Amendment is actually not that complicated. It can be read from start to finish in about 10 seconds. It bars the Government from abridging free speech rights. It doesn't have anything to do with whether you're free to say things without being criticized, or whether you can comment on blogs without being edited, or whether people can bar you from their private planes because they don't like what you've said.

If anything, Palin has this exactly backwards, since one thing that the First Amendment does actually guarantee is a free press. Thus, when the press criticizes a political candidate and a Governor such as Palin, that is a classic example of First Amendment rights being exercised, not abridged.

This isn't only about profound ignorance regarding our basic liberties, though it is obviously that. Palin here is also giving voice to the standard right-wing grievance instinct: that it's inherently unfair when they're criticized. And now, apparently, it's even unconstitutional.

According to Palin, what the Founders intended with the First Amendment was that political candidates for the most powerful offices in the country and Governors of states would be free to say whatever they want without being criticized in the newspapers. In the Palin worldview, the First Amendment was meant to ensure that powerful political officials such as herself would not be "attacked" in the papers. Is it even possible to imagine more breathaking ignorance from someone holding high office and running for even higher office?

UPDATE: The Constitution also guarantees freedom of association. Thus, by Palin's "reasoning," when newspapers -- or Palin herself -- criticize Obama for his associations, they're threatening his constitutional rights.

All I can say is, while Palin has provided a lot of fun for me blogging here, I can't wait to toast her exit from the national stage in less than 4 days! And I hope that the good people of Alaska have the sense to impeach her and make sure she never holds public office again.

10/30/08: Obama big hit live and on TV, while McCain buses in schoolkids for rally!

Obama's half-hour TV spots last night were watched by 26.3 million people last night (30 million including the Spanish Univision)- handily beating out the regular programming which would been seen by ~23 million! In case you missed it last night, here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtREqAmLsoA
UPDATE: 33 million watched the Obamaercial, according to Nielsen. Rasmussen says 55% of voters watched at least some of it!
Obama was also interviewed by Chares Gibson on ABC, AND later appeared on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart - see it here if you missed it - Obama gave the Daily Show its biggest audience ever, with 3.6 million viewers, 600,000 more than the last record set on Oct 8, when the guest was - Michelle Obama!! Obama totally dominates the airwaves! AND if you have MSNBC on your cable, don't miss Obama tonight at 8pm on the brand-new hit show hosted by Rachel Maddow! It should be fun!
Finally last night, Bill Clinton appeared on stage with Obama in Kissimee, FL, for the first time since the convention - he gave a terrific warmup speech and Obama took it from there - there was good energy between the two. Obama pointed to enthusiasm he's encountering in Florida by noting the crowd of 40,000 people who showed up for the midnight rally!

Meanwhile McCain buses in school kids to fill his rally! They actually had to bus in school kids from the surrounding area in order to fill the rally in Defiance, Ohio. A local school district official confirmed after the event that of the 6,000 people estimated by the fire marshal to be in attendance this morning, more than 4,000 were bused in from schools in the area.
What's more, when Sen. John McCain called out for his new buddy Joe the Plumber to stand up, there was only confused silence. Even Joe the Plumber wasn't there.

10/29/08: Obama endorsed by Alaska's biggest paper and conservatives' leading thinker

The latest big-name Republican to break ranks and endorse Sen Barack Obama for President is Francis Fukuyama , writing in The American Conservative, advisor to Ronald Reagan and one of the stalwarts of the neoconservative movement. This is the guy who bragged that “the End of History” was at hand when the Soviet empire collapsed, and who has now endorsed the man McCain and Palin are calling “a dangerous communist”?? Well, get in line, Francis; you’re only the latest in an increasingly long line of prominent Repubs who are so disgusted with McCain’s repulsive campaign and his atrocious choice of Palin for his VP, that they would actually turn around and endorse Obama. As Fukuyama says:

It is hard to imagine a more disastrous presidency than that of George W. Bush. While John McCain is trying desperately to pretend that he never had anything to do with the Republican Party, I think it would a travesty to reward the Republicans for failure on such a grand scale.

McCain’s appeal was always that he could think for himself, but as the campaign has progressed, he has seemed simply erratic and hotheaded. His choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate was highly irresponsible.
McCain’s lurching from Reaganite free- marketer to populist tribune makes one wonder whether he has any underlying principles at all.

By the way, Obama had a great comeback to McCain’s most recent allegations:

“He's been spending these last few days calling me every name in the book. Lately he's called me a socialist for wanting to roll-back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans so we can finally give tax relief to the middle class. I don't know what's next. By the end of the week he'll be accusing me of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in kindergarten.”

Major newspapers endorsements for Obama/Biden have also increased dramatically since I last reported on this. Currently, the Democratic team now leads by 231 to 102,a better than 2-1 margin and an even wider spread in the circulation of those papers - the Obama-backing papers have 21 million, compared with McCain's 7 million. At least 46 papers have now switched to Obama from Bush in 2004, with just four flipping to McCain Three of the top five dailies in deep red state Texas have switched from Bush to Obama this time, as has Alaska's major newspaper, the Anchorage Daily News. Concluding (reluctantly) that their homegirl Palin is not ready to be President, ADN says:

Like picking Sen. McCain for president, putting her [Palin] one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world is just too risky at this time.
It is Sen. Obama who truly promises fundamental change in Washington. You need look no further than the guilt-by-association lies and sound-bite distortions of the degenerating McCain campaign to see how readily he embraces the divisive, fear-mongering tactics of Karl RoveSen.

Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, brings far more promise to the office. In a time of grave economic crisis, he displays thoughtful analysis, enlists wise counsel and operates with a cool, steady hand.

Well put. I couldn't say it better myself.

10/27/08: Obama's death threat, Jennifer Hudson's tragedy, and 8-year old boy kills himself with Uzi

This was a grim news day. Oscar winner and American Idol star Jennifer Hudson's 7-year old nephew was found shot dead in a SUV today , 2 days after her mother and brother were shot dead in her sister's home. The suspect in all 3 shootings is her ex-brother-in-law, a convicted felon who served 7 years for attempted murder. My question is, should this guy have been able to get a gun - to do what he did? 3 more sad and tragic deaths to add to the 428 homicides already this year in Chicago, ahead of NY's 417 and LA's 302.

Also today, this story broke my heart. An 8-year-old boy died after accidentally shooting himself in the head while firing an Uzi submachine gun under adult supervision at a gun fair.
There are so many things wrong with that sentence it's hard to know where to begin. An 8-year old boy? At a GUN SHOW? Firing an UZI? Is this really what the forefathers intended 200 years ago? The boy "was shooting the weapon down range when the force of the weapon made it travel up and back toward his head, where he suffered the injury," a police statement said. Police called it a "self-inflicted accidental shooting."
Really? The "adult supervisor" should be thrown in jail. He's lucky to be alive. But wait, there's more.
The club said on its Web site that the event, is "all legal and fun." People will be allowed to fire weapons at vehicles, pumpkins and other targets, it said. Yep. That's right. These are the wahoos who're screaming about "The right to bear arms in defence of our country". Oh yeah, and shoot whatever else or whoever else just happen to be around. All in self-defence, of course.
Finally, this is so scary - federal agents today arrested 2 neo-Nazi skinheads who had planned to shoot or decapitate 102 black people in Tennessee school - and assasinate Sen. Barack Obama during a campaign rally while dressed in white tuxes & tophats. The KKK is still alive and thriving it seems, with tophats replacing those ridiculous cone hats.
But these guys were serious. They had a rifle, a sawed-off shotgun and three pistols when they were arrested, and were preparing to break into a gun shop to steal more. As seems to be the custom in these cases, one of the guys had a photo of himself on MySpace carrying a honking big gun. Can't the FBI or someone just go thru all the MySpace and Facebook pages with selfphotos of guys carrying submachine guns and check them out BEFORE these nuts go crazy and and whack people? Their killing spree was to end with the two men driving toward Obama, "shooting at him from the windows". Spine-chilling. Neither candidate commented on this story, with good reason.

Just some signs of the scary violence and power wielded by a few nutcases, brought to you by the NRA and the politicians beholden to them. I sincerely hope this can and will change in our lifetimes, starting this Nov 4th.

10/27/08: One week to go, Obama still leads, Repubs still talking "wardrobe"

How pathetic is the Republican campaign this year? We're a week away from a huge national election during a very critical time in our nation's history, and the Repubs are tying themselves into knots and blasting each other about - Palin's wardrobe? I already reported about her ridiculous shopping spree and the tens of thousands paid to hair stylists and makeup artists, which Palin has since blamed on the RNC (Repub National Committee). Now the RNC Chairman Mike Duncan says the looks were demanded by the McCain campaign as part of a "planned" strategy.

I'm sure McCain wishes this would go away, but no - Palin keeps bringing it up again,like she did today _check out the video! - and now she has Elizabeth Hasselbeck yipping away about it too.

This article at Pollster.com says it best: Obama "won" the week again (that makes six in a row). Even in a week in which Obama took two days off to visit his ailing grandmother, McCain was a virtual afterthought, garnering very little media attention when he needs it most. And when the media spotlight shifted to the GOP it was about the cost of Sarah Palin's wardrobe.

And these Repub jokers want to run our country? Get real!

10/26/08: FIXnews still pushing "mutilation" story

Incredibly, FOX(FIX, FAUX)News is still pushing the story of the "mutilated" girl who had claimed that she had a "B" (backwards!) carved into her cheek by a "6-foot4-inch black man" when it has already been revealed that the whole thing was a hoax.

The girl, a student from College Station, TX, initially said that while she was attempting to use a ATM on Wednesday night a 6-foot-4 black man approached her from behind, put a knife blade to her throat and demanded money. She told police she handed the assailant $60 and walked away. She then said the man saw a McCain sticker on her car, then punched her in the back of the head, knocked her to the ground and scratched a "B" into her face with a dull knife to "teach her a lesson".

Well, the girl has since confessed she made it all up, and is in custody, under medical treatment. I mean, take a look at the pic of that carefully carved, BACKWARD "B". It's pretty obvious who carved it.

But seriously, how desperate these FIXers must be to keep harping on an outrageous lie invented by a seriously disturbed girl - leave her alone, it's OVER!

10/25/08: News of the week: Obama still ahead!

Well, loyal reader(s?)- sorry for abandoning you for the last week, I have been travelling, and yes, actually working, so I haven't been able to keep you on all updated on the latest goings-on in this crazy election. But the good news - for me, and, I suspect, many of you - is that there has been little news of major import this week. Which means, in particular, little change in the polls - Obama is still ahead by anywhere from 6-12 points in the national poll, and still leads in most of the battleground states. The electoral vote prediction at what I consider the most statistically savvy site - fivethirtyeight.com - still reads Obama 350, McCain 188. It would appear that most independents and other undecideds have made up their minds following Obama's impressive performance in the third debate, with the final nail in the McCain/Palin coffin being driven in by Gen. Colin Powell's ringing endorsement of Sen. Obama and scathing critism of McCain's choice of Palin for his VP.

One interesting change has been that Virginia has swung to double digits for Obama, higher than any of the other 7 key Bush states (CO,NM,NV,FL,OH,IA,NC) that Obama has targeted (and in all of which he leads). On the flip side, Florida has tightened up, with Obama's lead now within margin of error in some polls. But the good news there is that former Pres. Bill Clinton, who remains hugely popular in FL, will be campaigning on the same stage with Obama in Orlando on Wednesday. That should help bring FL safely in for the Dems.

So, McCain failing to take advantage of Obama's absence from the campaign trail to visit his seriously ailing grandmother in Hawaii to make any major inroads into Obama's lead, the major news of the week has focused on the infighting between McCain's aides and Palin, with a senior McCain aide calling her "rogue" and a "diva", and Palin fighting back saying she is NOT a "diva" and that she is being set up to take the blame on Nov 4th for McCain's failures. Interesting, dontcha think, y'all?? You betcha. Let's hope for the good of the nation that she is buried on the political scene once and for all.

Of course, Palin was also in the news for spending more of Republican donors' money on fancy new duds for herself, her daughters, and even baby Trig - to the tune of some 150,000 dollars (or more than Joe the Plumber's house is worth - more on this gentleman in a bit). In addition,

her celebrity stylist Amy Strozzi was the highest paid member of McCain's staff in the first 2 weeks of October, earning a nice $22,800 and handily beating out foreign policy advisor Randy Schuenemann (who only made a niggardly $12,500), or for that matter anyone else on the campaign! And this is in addition to her "regular" traveling stylist Angela Lew who made $10,000 over the same 2 weeks. Pretty classy lady, that Sarah Palin - just shows that McCain was just protecting what he really believes are her real assets.
Speaking of another classy Republican lady,Michelle Bachmann (R) of Wisconsin has been dumped by the Republican National Committee and is likely to lose her Senate seat after calling Obama "anti-American" on Chris Matthews' show on MSNBC. She, btw, has also said on TV that "not all cultures are created equal" (referring to Muslims), that Democrats are " not normal American people" and calling for a "patriotism check" of all members of Congress. Goodbye, Ms. Bachmann, and thanks for the Senate seat.

10/19/08: Obama endorsed by Gen. Colin Powell & Texas papers

Gen. Colin Powell endorses Obama
In what is likely to be a very signicant endorsement, former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell said that he will break with his party and vote for Sen. Barack Obama. "He has both style and substance. I think he is a transformational figure," Powell said on NBC's Meet the Press.
Watch the video here - it's a great speech.

"I come to the conclusion that because of his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America, because of who he is and his rhetorical abilities -- and you have to take that into account -- as well as his substance -- he has both style and substance," Powell said. "He has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president."

Powell noted that McCain has been a good friend for 25 years, but expressed disappointment in the "over the top" negative tone of the GOP campaign, as well as in McCain's choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as the vice presidential nominee.


OUR FULL ENDORSEMENT TALLY: Obama Widens Lead to 94-28
October 19, 2008 11:50 AM ET updated Sunday

NEW YORK (Updated Sunday) The Obama-Biden ticket maintains its strong lead in the race for daily newspaper endorsements, by 94 to 28, a better than 3-1 margin, picking up 50 or more papers in the past day, including (see separate stories), the Detroit Free Press, Buffalo News, Cleveland's Plain Dealer, Palm Beach (Fla.) Post, New York's Daily News, Miami Herald, Philadelphia Inquirer, Portland's The Oregonian, Denver Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Salt Lake Tribune, Kansas City Star, and Chicago Sun-Times.

In a real shocker, two solid Bush papers in 2004, the Houston Chronicle and Austin American-Statesman, also came out for Obama today. So did the more traditionally Democratic the News & Obsever in Raleigh and the Orlando Sentinel, both in key battleground states.

10/18/09: The Palin Plunge! & Queen of the Know-Nothings

Sarah Palin has become a major drag on McCain's desperate bid for Presidency. This article looks at her favorable to unfavorable ratings, which have switched from a positive 40-30, according to a September 12-16 New York Times survey, to a negative 32-41 in an October 10-13 survey. You can also follow the daily trend at The Daily Kos - interestingly, this shows that the national race tightened today but WITHOUT any changes in the candidates' favorability ratings.

Palin is, additionally, costing McCain newspaper endorsements. As I mentioned earlier, Obama is leading McCain by 3:1 (66:18) so far. Many of the endorsements cited Palin as a factor in their rejection of McCain. The Salt Lake Tribune, which supported George W. Bush in 2004, commented that "out of nowhere, and without proper vetting, the impetuous McCain picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. She quickly proved grievously under-equipped to step into the presidency should McCain, at 72 and with a history of health problems, die in office. More than any single factor, McCain's bad judgment in choosing the inarticulate, insular and ethically challenged Palin disqualifies him for the presidency." The Kansas City Star, in turn, described Palin as "unqualified."

Brookings Senior Fellow Thomas Mann said "[After the initial euphoria] Within weeks, she became a liability, primarily as a highly visible indicator of McCain's impulsiveness and recklessness in picking someone who is patently unqualified to serve as president and commander-in-chief."

The reason why she's costing McCain is of course, that Palin is a moron, from everything that we've been allowed to see. This article takes a closer look.
"Sarah Palin and the Know-Nothings" by Meg White

Here's a thought: John McCain didn't pick Sarah Palin to be his VP because she's a woman. He didn't pick her because of her adeptness at winking onstage, or her folksiness, or her so-called "family values."

He picked her because she appeals to the Know Nothing wing of the GOP.

Meg White goes on to quote Paul Krugman, who just won the Nobel Prize:

"Know-nothingism -- the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant -- gratification answers to every problem, and that there's something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise -- has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party's de facto slogan has become: 'Real men don't think things through.'"

In today's political parlance, the phrase "know nothing" has taken on two meanings: nativism and ignorance. Which is why Palin is a perfect spokesperson.

Palin has expressed ignorance on a range of issues so wide, that it's hardly worth giving the scope of, but here goes:

• Who attacked us on 9/11
• The origin of the Pledge of Allegiance
• The goings on in Iraq
• The Bush Doctrine
• What a VP does
• How much energy her state produces
• What Hamas is
• What being a member of NATO entails
• What causes global warming
• How to fill out a tax return correctly
• Any Supreme Court rulings she disagrees with, besides that one about abortion
• The name of any major newspaper or magazine she reads

I'm sure there's more (feel free to remind me of what I've forgotten below), but I'm getting a little worn out just thinking about it. Maybe I should take a page out of Palin's book and just stop thinking so darn much.

Sarah Palin has taken lack of knowledge to a whole new level and embraced ignorance. She's said herself that she doesn't think, er blink, when she has to make a life-changing decision.

I'm sure if you asked Palin in a friendly room if she were anti-intellectual, she'd say yes. She asked a Wasilla librarian what it would take to remove books she found offensive from the local library. She's against comprehensive sex-education. She wants schools to teach children creationism. She's anti-science.

Long story short: Palin is not satisfied with simply stemming the tide of her own informational intake. She wants to remove educational opportunities for America's children as well. And the way she drags her school-aged children around the campaign trail doesn't inspire much confidence in her educational values either.

10/18/09: Obama endorsed in swing states!

Obama leads in major newspaper endorsements over McCain by 68-18! In terms of readers, he leads 9 million to 1.7 million. Most importantly, he is picking up the major newspaper endorsements in the critical swing states - Miami Herald, Philadelphia Inquirer, Denver Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Salt Lake Tribune (!).

In Missouri, where he had the largest rally of this election today, with over 100,000 people in St. Louis, BOTH the major papers Kansas City Star AND St. Louis Post-Dispatch endorsed Obama!
Another vital point is that he has already picked up 12 papers that endorsed Bush in 2004, and looks set for a lot more, if the 3:1 edge holds up (in 2004, Kerry and Bush nearly tied).
See the full list of endorsements at the link.

Obama leads in major newspaper endorsements

10/17/08: McCain's pet "terrorist" Exposed by Letterman

Letterman yesterday took McCain to task not only for skipping out on him earlier, but also for his choice of Palin as VP, for McCain/Palin’s negative attacks on Obama, and on McCain’s close association with the extremist Nazi talk show host and convicted Watergate felon G. Gordon Liddy. In doing so, he put a lot of other so-called “political journalists” to shame for pussyfooting around these issues. Watch the video – it’s worth it.

McCain Defends His Own Association With Unrepentant Criminal: It's Ok, He Went To Jail

It would be an understatement to say McCain’s pal G. Gordon Liddy is unrepentant. Read this scary 2004 interview with The Independent of London (wonder why US papers don't report this? hmm..). He is not only unrepentant about burgling Watergate, he is also adamant about wanting to kill “soft” journalists and bomb the Brookings Institution. Remember, this was in 2004 – McCain has since been on his show at least twice (in Nov 2007 and May 2008!). He is an undying admirer of Hitler. He believes the US should have bombed the Red River dykes in Vietnam, drowning millions of innocent people. He instructed people how best to shoot federal agents on his radio show. And McCain said he’s “proud” of this man??

As I reported earlier Liddy hosted a fundraiser for McCain's 1998 Senate re-election campaign and contributed to many of McCain’s Senate and Presidential campaigns. McCain has praised and repeatedly associated with Liddy in public and in campaign settings, even appearing on Liddy’s conservative radio talk show, most recently in May of this year!

An online video labeled "John McCain On The G. Gordon Liddy Show 11/8/07" includes a discussion between Liddy and McCain, whom Liddy described as an "old friend." During the segment, McCain praised Liddy's "adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great," said he was "proud" of Liddy, and said that "it's always a pleasure for me to come on your program."

And McCain says it’s OK to “pal around” with this convicted unrepentant firebomber?

10/17/08: Palin thinks we're anti-American & wants to forget "Joe the Headache"

McCain's plumber no ordinary Joe
After making "Joe the plumber" famous, McCain learned 3 key facts -- Joe owes back taxes, isn't licensed and Obama's plan would cut Joe's taxes. Not to mention of course that his name's really Sam. Plus it turns out he's a wingnut who's a big fan of right wing talk radio (G. Gordon Liddy, perhaps?). Maybe McCain's regretting bringing up Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher so much, or maybe he wishes he'd picked "Joe" as his VP. After all, give the man credit, he's done way more interviews than Sarah Palin, and is willing to stand up and talk about his "beliefs". Unlike Palin. Who in fact begged campaign writers not to "make her talk about "Joe the (non-)plumber" anymore"!

Way to go Sen. McCain, a product of yet another of your great gambles. Still haven't heard of vetting, I see.

"A day after making famous, referencing him in the debate almost two dozen times as someone who would pay higher taxes under Barack Obama, McCain learned the fine print Thursday on the plumber's not-so-tidy personal story: He owes back taxes. He is not a licensed plumber. And it turns out that Wurzelbacher makes less than $250,000 a year, which means he would receive a tax cut if Obama were elected president. "

In other news, Palin said that she's visiting pro-American parts of the country . Great, soon the rest of us will be branded "traitors" if we don't vote for them. Palin is a moron. There, I said it. I've tried not to in this blog so far (OK, I dropped plenty of hints). But, really, there is no getting around it. She makes Bush (famously described by Begala as "a high-functioning moron") look like Einstein. Just as McCain will make Cheney look like Gandhi (see the chilling video to the right on McCain and war).

Once more. Palin is a moron. It feels good to get that out.

10/16/08: It’s Really, Really, Really Over

OK, it’s the morning after. The euphoria has faded (somewhat), and the vision of a new world looks that much more real. So every news source I normally read, watch or listen to on the radio all say that Obama won, and McCain did nothing to halt the roller coaster. So I peeked over the fence to see what the other side is thinking and saying about all this. But first, I wanted to see where they got their news from, if not the NY Times or CNN like the rest of us. So I looked around.

What’s your favorite news magazine? No this is not a “gotcha” question!

I just wanted to know where people on the left and right are getting their election news from these days. And the survey says:

The Huffington Post is the most read magazine on the left and The New Republic on the right.

So I went over to the New Republic to see what they thought of the debate. Here’s what I saw:
He’s a rambling man

And my favorite:
It’s Really, Really, Really Over

Here's hoping that's right! Even Karl Rove sounds pretty pessimistic – the best he can say is “Obama hasn’t closed the sale”. Of course not, the election is still 19 days away, and it ain’t over till the fat lady sings. But as he points out, McCain needs to win every one of 7 states that Bush carried in 2004: Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Missouri, Colorado and Nevada. If he carries [ALL] those states, while losing only Iowa and New Mexico from the GOP's 2004 total, Mr. McCain will carry 274 Electoral College votes and the White House. It's threading the needle, but it's come to that.

And right now, except Missouri, where it’s tied, Obama is leading in all of these states.

So vote now, vote early, and let’s close the sale!

ps: Scary moment of the night - Noam Scheiber's words:
McCain on a health exception to abortion restrictions (again, in its entirety): "He's [for] health for the mother. You know, that's been stretched by the pro-abortion movement in America to mean almost anything. That's the extreme pro-abortion position, quote, 'health.'" Yikes.

10/15/08 Obama wins – again and again and again!

The third and final debate is done and dusted. McCain was dusted, that is.

Oh, he did all right, in fact, it was his best performance to date. But it wasn’t enough. He still lost, overmatched and outmaneuvered by a more skilled, polished and unflappable opponent. Obama was again judged the winner by 80-85% of the online polls on CNN, CBS and NBC. And again, he was also judged the winner in the telephone polls of people who actually watched the debate:

CNN: Obama 58%, McCain 31%

CBS: Obama 53%, McCain 22%

The CBS poll, significantly, was conducted with uncommitted voters, who, as always, are a key deciding factor in these elections.

Another significant factor in these polls was that the favorables for Obama rose slightly during the debate, while McCain’s dropped slightly. Obama also did better than McCain across the board – on the economy, taxes, healthcare, women and men. McCain only “won” in 2 categories – more negative attacks and more like a typical politician.
Obama McCain
Favorable Before Debate 66% 51%
Favorable After debate 69% 49%
Trust on economy 59% 24%
Trust on healthcare 62% 31%

Watchers found Obama more likable by 48% and a better leader by 23% over McCain!

My personal take? I thought McCain came in more aggressive and started attacking from the get go. There was hardly more than a couple sentences without a snide comment or a sneering jab at Obama. Of course I didn’t like his attitude, his constant sighs, raised eyebrows and rapidfire blinking – but you know what? The viewers as well as CNN’s uncommitted voter panel didn’t like those either – hence the negative ratings.

Obama did seem a bit defensive early on, but once he warmed up, he appeared calm, confident and unruffled by McCain’s constant interjections. McCain threw everything but the kitchen sink at him, including Ayers, ACORN, Lewis – everything he could think of – but Obama took it all in stride, and responded to each in clear concise terms, without resorting to ANY mudslinging of his own. Initially, I thought he should have responded a bit more aggressively to these, and also on Palin’s qualifications (which he simply left up to the American people to judge), but in the end, I think it was good that he took the high road and left them alone. It made him seem more mature and Presidential, and in contrast, made McCain look smaller, desperate and out of touch. Both in the polls and in live watchers reactions, McCain’s negativity did not go down well, yet he continues – maybe he really has no other strategy. Well, that’s just fine with Obama, and with me too! As I sip my wine (saving my last and best bottle of champagne for Nov 4^th!), and watch the pundits generally agree that Obama did what he came in to do, and McCain did nothing to stem the tide flowing the other way, I can finally declench and relax! I will get a good night’s sleep tonite, soon as I’m done with this of course!! Sweet dreams..

10/15/08: Millions of Americans Receive Bad News for McCain

I received my quarterly retirement savings account statement yesterday, and the news is dismal. I’ve lost 44% of my savings in the past year, at least on paper. That wiped out not just the gains it had made in the last decade or so, but it’s a lot less than the hard cash I put into it. Yes, it’s no surprise, but it hits you you pretty hard when you’re holding it in your hands and thinking, boy, that just added another 5 years of work before I’m able to hit that tropical beach home retirement I’ve been fantasizing about. And that’s assuming I HAVE a job – with my company looking pretty rocky and my wife out of a job, it’s not a pleasant prospect.

I’m sure I’m not alone. Millions of Americans are probably looking at their statements this week and thinking the same thoughts. And it doesn’t bode well for the party in power that has brought us to this state –the Republicans who have been in the White House for the last 8 years and controlled Congress for 10 of the last 12. So McCain is fighting an uphill battle at the start. So what does he offer us? After weeks of dilly-dallying about the economy, seesawing from one extreme to the other ("The economy is sound. The economy is in crisis. I'm for a bailout. I am against a bailout. I am against regulation. I am for regulation"), McCain finally issued his long-awaited plan to help us through this economic crisis yesterday, let’s take a look at it:

- McCain proposed that people 59 and up who can withdraw money up to $50,000 from IRAs or 401(k) retirement plans in 2009 and 2010 pay a tax rate of 10 percent
- Reduced the capital gain tax to 7.5 percent from 15 percent in 2009 and 2010
- increased tax write-off for stock losses from $3000 to $15,000 in losses a year for 2 years
- a suspension on the tax on unemployment insurance benefits in 2008 and 2009
- a government guarantee on 100 percent of all savings accounts for six months.

OK, if you’re a wealthy near-retiree with huge investments who made a killing on the stock market and therefore have tons of capital gains (hmm.. a lot of McCain’s friends, perhaps?), boy, this is the perfect plan for you!! However, to the rest of us poor saps (oh, about 95% or so), this means nothing. Cutting the capital gains tax? What capital gains? How many middle income people would have any capital gains if they are forced to sell their stock holdings in the near future?The last 2 points might mean something – except for most Americans, their 39 weeks of unemployment have already run out or close to doing so, so no tax on it for the next 2 years means zilch. And the bailout plan already guarantees your bank accounts upto $250,000, which is enough to cover me – and probably most except McCain’s friends.

On the other hand, here’s Obama’s proposal, announced the day before McCain’s big rollout. Compare - Obama will:

-Suspend the tax on unemployment benefits
-Extend unemployment benefits
-Propose 90-day moratorium on home foreclosures at some banks
-Give $3,000 tax credit for each additional full-time job a business creates; the tax break would end after 2010
-Allow people to withdraw up to 15 percent of their retirement funds, to a maximum of $10,000, without any penalty this year and next

That makes a lot more sense to me. He also will suspend the unemployment tax, and will actually extend it for those unable to find a job in a year when a million jobs have already been lost. The moratorium on home foreclosures (plus a previously announced closing of a loophole in bankruptcy laws – opposed by McCain) to allow people to stay in their first (and for most, their only) home) will give many some room to breathe. The tax credit for business will increase jobs, as well as increased money for cities to spend on construction and infrastructure (also previously announced). And finally, if I had no option but to withdraw money from my 401k (not a good idea – I also like the sensible $10K limit), I’d rather not pay McCain’s 10% tax when I don't have a job.

So my verdict is: McCain simply doesn’t undertand the precarious position the majority of Americans are in. As always from him, note there is no mention of him helping the middle class – I really don’t know why he seems to abhor this. OK, call us something else you prefer – middle income group, the nearly-wealthy, the bourgeosie, the Great Unwashed – heck, I don’t care.

Just listen to US and help US.

10/15/08: More conservative backlash against McCain

Yesterday, I talked about the outpouring of vitriol heaped on conservative commentators Christopher Buckley's and Kathleen Parker's heads after they criticized McCain for picking Palin, the most unqualified VP candidate ever, as his running mate. Well, today Maureen Dowd succintly summarizes many other leading conservatives who have come out of the woodwork to say the same thing.

"Republicans have been slugging it out over whether Palin is dragging John McCain down or whether his campaign is mishandling her. The governor’s favorability rating is now 32 percent, according to the new Times/CBS News poll, plummeting 8 points from earlier this month, and her unfavorable rating soared 9 percentage points to 41 percent.

On Tuesday, Matthew Dowd, the former Bush strategist who offered a famous apologia for helping get W. re-elected, offered a scorching assessment of Palin’s not being ready, saying that McCain “knows that in his gut. And when this race is over, that is something he will have to live with. ... He put somebody unqualified on that ballot, and he put the country at risk.”

Christopher Hitchens endorsed Barack Obama on Slate on Monday, calling Palin’s conduct “a national disgrace” and writing: “Given the nasty and lowly task of stirring up the whack-job fringe of the party’s right wing and of recycling patent falsehoods about Obama’s position on Afghanistan, she has drawn upon the only talent that she apparently possesses.”

Christopher Buckley endorsed Obama on The Daily Beast, writing of McCain’s embrace of Palin: “What on earth can he have been thinking?” (The endorsement led to Buckley’s resigning from The National Review, founded by his father.)

On “The Colbert Report” on Monday, the conservative columnist Kathleen Parker stuck by her assertion, which she said caused the base to treat her like a traitor, that Palin should have bowed out. She said she’d gotten some secret e-mails from Republicans in the White House agreeing with her.

William Kristol, a Palin fan who thinks she has been horribly managed, wrote in The Times on Monday that McCain should fire his campaign for malpractice.

David Brooks, speaking at an Atlantic Magazine event, called Palin “a fatal cancer to the Republican Party,” bemoaning the fact that she did not fit in with the late William Buckley’s desire to have a party that celebrated ideas and learning."

Et tu, Brooks?

10/14/08: The Right Wing Turns its Guns on - Itself!

Poor Christopher Buckley. The son of the famed hero of conservatives and founder of the National Review, Willam F. Buckley, was fired from the magazine his father founded.
What was his egregious crime?
Why, last week in his column at the Daily Beast, he said, reluctantly, that he could not see voting for the McCain/Palin ticket, and would be voting for Obama/Biden. That did it - the righteous fires were unleashed on his head.

Hell hath no fury like a wingnut scorned.

I wrote previously that Kathleen Parker of the National Review was one of many who felt Sarah Palin was an embarrassment. Buckley says "This brought 12,000 livid emails, among them a real charmer suggesting that Kathleen’s mother ought to have aborted her and tossed the fetus into a dumpster."
As for him, National Review Online mail has "been running about, oh, 700-to-1 against. In fact, the only thing the Right can’t quite decide is whether I should be boiled in oil or just put up against the wall and shot. Lethal injection would be too painless."

Well, C. Buckley is not sorry. Not about his voting preference, that is. But he IS sorry that it's come to this for the modern conservative movement. He says in his column today sorry-dad-i-was-fired:

So, I have been effectively fatwahed (is that how you spell it?) by the conservative movement, and the magazine that my father founded must now distance itself from me. But then, conservatives have always had a bit of trouble with the concept of diversity. The GOP likes to say it’s a big-tent. Looks more like a yurt to me.

While I regret this development, I am not in mourning, for I no longer have any clear idea what, exactly, the modern conservative movement stands for. Eight years of “conservative” government has brought us a doubled national debt, ruinous expansion of entitlement programs, bridges to nowhere, poster boy Jack Abramoff and an ill-premised, ill-waged war conducted by politicians of breathtaking arrogance. As a sideshow, it brought us a truly obscene attempt at federal intervention in the Terry Schiavo case.

So, to paraphrase a real conservative, Ronald Reagan: I haven’t left the Republican Party. It left me.

But other people ARE leaving the Republican Party. At the polls, in big numbers. Pollster.com this morning released several surveys that showed Obama increased his lead in 4 battleground states: Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. But here's the kicker: today on the Pollster map, Florida turned SOLID BLUE!!

10/14/08: McCain's Transition Chief lobbied for Saddam??!!

OK, I was going to analyze McCain's long awaited and much delayed response to the economy - and I still will do that later. But this story just broke on the Huffington Post - admittedly very pro-Obama - and if there's even an inkling of truth in this, it blows McCain's Ayers strategy out of the water.
McCain Transition Chief Aided Saddam In Lobbying Effort

Basically, it says that "William Timmons, the Washington lobbyist who John McCain has named to head his presidential transition team, aided an influence effort on behalf of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to ease international sanctions against his regime." It goes on to say that for about 5 years starting in 1992, Timmons worked closely with 2 other lobbyists, Samir Vincent and Tongsun Park, who were guilty of federal criminal charges that they had acted as unregistered agents of Saddam Hussein's government. Vincent pleaded guilty and turned informer against Park, who went to jail.

As I said, I'll reserve judgment on this till it's confirmed by others, but by golly - what is McCain thinking? Is he even thinking at all?? Does he pick his associates out of a hat with no prior thought or vetting, kinda like the way he picked his running mate?

We all know about Sarah Palin's abuse of power and also about Palin's association with the secessionist Alaska Independence Party, as well as Todd Palin's bona fide membership in this wacko organization till 2002. BTW, CNN is carrying this story TODAY, so don't miss it; I heard they showed this video of Sarah Palin addressing this year's AIP conference.

But as bad as this is for a would-be VP of the United States, this just pales in comparison to some of the other unsavory characters McCain associates with. As oft-reported, his campaign manager Rick Davis was paid $2.5 million by Freddie Mac until last month; it's reported that he was a paid lobbyist for the warlord Mobutu Sese Seko, who stole $6 billion (that's right, billion) from Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo), and was responsible for the ongoing bloody civil war which is estimated to have cost MILLIONS of lives.

Then we have McCain's ill-timed appearance on the radio show of and close friendship with G. Gordon Liddy, the convicted Watergate felon, who wanted to blow up the Brookings Institution, assassinate politicians and journalists, offered advice to the Waco nuts on how to shoot FBI agents, and named his shooting targets Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Then there is John Singlaub, whose U.S. Council for World Freedom was part of an international organization linked to former Nazi collaborators and ultra-right-wing death squads in Central America. McCain sat on the board of this extremist organization in the early 80s and was a strong proponent of the Contras.

And now we have McCain's transition chief Timmons lobbying for Saddam Hussein.

I'm not even including Charles Keating or his various other shady mobster and financier friends - I'm just looking at these and thinking, this guy wants to question Obama's guilt-by-association with an anti-Vietnam 60s radical? I mean, come on. I think he'd best stay off that subject in the debate. Or if he doesn't, it should be interesting watching him being taken apart on his netherworld associations that he so "carefully" selected and cultivated.

10/14/08: Obama plays a team game

Yesterday, I talked about McCain’s erratic and dysfunctional campaign that appears to have no focus or local organization of the sort seen even in the Bush campaigns of the last 2 elections. Today I wanted to contrast that with Obama’s grass-roots, heavily wired, get-out-the-vote, well-staffed and unified campaign that has resulted in a daunting October lead, in both electoral and popular votes. And to find the article that sums it up best I had to go across the pond – it’s from the Guardian of London, UK! I love the sports analogy in this article:
Presidential candidates can jump
While McCain treats his campaign as a high-stakes poker game, Obama maintains his cool in a prolonged game of basketball
This article in the Washington Post provides an in-depth analysis of Obama's campaign, based on local volunteers who pitch to their own neighbors, micro-targeting techniques to identify persuadable independents and Republicans using consumer data, and a focus on exurban and rural areas.
The campaign has used its record-breaking fundraising to open more than 700 offices in more than a dozen battleground states, pay several thousand organizers and manage tens of thousands more volunteers.
In fact, the WP says that Obama’s campaign is built from the ground up compared to that of rival Sen. John McCain, whose emphasis on ground operations has been less intensive and clinical than that of his Republican predecessor(s). Further, Obama has effectively used the web in his campaign says this article from his primary days - that seem so far away now! From controlling the canvassing operations to corralling e-mail lists, organizing meetings and overseeing national phone drives, Obama's web network is the most ambitious, and apparently successful, internet campaign effort in any presidential race in the web's short history.
Part of the success is due to incredible talent that Obama has surrounded himself with, starting with the Clintons, who are setting new records in hosting events for a primary opponent, but also the many advisers and managers, several of which had worked for Bill Clinton. But the key to it all is Obama himself, who has been tireless in his efforts - and this article says it better than I ever could.
Obama Knocking On Doors Again by sweetliberty Sun Oct 12, 2008
Obama is a leader who leads by example. He is not afraid of grass-roots participation as demonstrated today.

The Obama campaign plane, with "Change We Can Believe In" on the fuselage and the Obama logo emblazoned on the tail, landed at 2:50 p.m. at Toledo Express Airport. On hand were Lucas County sheriff’s deputies and Ohio state troopers, as well as campaign and airport staff, and media.

After leaving Toledo Express, the Obama motorcade went to a neighborhood in Holland, off McCord Road. Mr. Obama then began knocking on doors and talking to residents

• http://toledoblade.com/...

Sue Sekel, a 43-year old healthcare worker dressed for a day of Sunday housecleaning, opened her front door to discover Obama standing before her.

He asked her what she did for a living and how she was managing in the economic downturn. Sekel said she was doing fine and that she voted early.

Later, she declined to tell reporters who she voted for, but she said, "I told him what I did." She also said Sunday was "the one day I come home to clean ceiling fans and look like crap, and then this happens."

Obama never stops being a dad.

As word spread that Obama was in the neighborhood, a few dozen people gathered across the street to watch, as three teenage girls raced across the street in bare feet and socks, armed with cameras.

"Where are your shoes?" Obama asked them, before taking photos with them and crossing the street. There he shook hands with about a dozen neighbors, asking them what they did for a living and offering words of concern.

http://www.swamppolitics.com/...

The organization Obama has built is just short of miraculous. Never in the history of Presidential politics has anyone built the type of ground organization as the Obama campaign. Thousands of participants across the country have taken part in the campaign's push to victory.

In many states, a final statewide training session was held last week for Obama field organizers, to be followed by get-out-the-vote training for team leaders. In Missouri, about 400 neighborhood teams are set up around the state, each with a goal of getting about 4,000 votes in their area. The hope, said Missouri director Buffy Wicks, is as get-out-the-vote efforts intensify in the campaign's final weeks, the teams will have established themselves enough to deliver the backing that Obama will need.

And, Obama has been as close to the ground game as any Presidential contender can get.

At a training session in Ohio that Obama attended Friday night, the candidate wondered just how much of a strength all the campaign's efforts would prove to be.

"We've been designing and we've been engineering and we've been at the drawing board and we've been tinkering," he said. "Now it's time to just take it for a drive. Let's see how this baby runs."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

I am just astonished by Obama. He has been working so hard to bring us to victory that one can feel nothing but pride being a part of it all.

10/13/08: Conservatives to McCain: Change or Lose

Over the weekend, a number of conservative writers openly agreed that McCain’s erratic and dysfunctional campaign is going nowhere. Even the arch-conservative William Kristol, who to date is the only major newspaper writer safe enough to be blessed with a Palin interview, says it’s time for McCain to fire his campaign

and start afresh. I agree – it’s not merely enough for McCain to have a penitent moment admitting “Obama is a decent family man” – he needs to disavow his negative strategy with a major gesture – say firing Sleazemeister Steve Schmidt or Lobbyist Supremo Rick Davis. Perhaps something like that, in combination with a fresh agenda focusing on specific ways he’d fix the economy or help the middle class (starting with acknowledging that there IS one) might go a long way to recovering some of the ground they’ve lost lately. It’s no guarantee, but it would return this election to a higher moral ground and offer people a real choice based on the issues that matter to them most.

In any case, it’s apparent the current muckracking strategy is going nowhere – last week’s barrage of negative ads and inflammatory rallies with Palin accusing Obama as being a dangerous terrorist had no effect on voters, even according to a FOX News poll released Friday. In fact, the timing of McCain’s penitent moment was interesting, coming as it did right after the poll was released – probably not a coincidence. And other, more mainstream polls showed the same thing – an ABC News poll released yesterday also said that there seems to be an “Attack Blowback”, ie, voters think that McCain is running a negative campaign rather than focusing on issues (59% to 35%), up from 48-45% just 21/2 weeks earlier. Obama, on the other hand, gained a little on his already high favorable rating in this poll (68% to 26%). Check the link for more numbers from this poll.

So will McCain really retool his campaign and put the “Straight Talk Express” back on its tracks? Probably not, but for the sake of his own legacy and to allow this nation to heal the deep divisive wounds wrought by the Rovian politics of the last 8 years, I wish he would. It’s becoming clear that he’s a loser in this election anyway, the only question is how he wants to go, with dignity and honor having fought a good fight, or be tossed out on his ass after a hailstorm of sleaze. From his own words “I’m going to whip the you-know-what in this debate“ (talking about the leading candidate for President of the United States!), sadly it doesn’t look like he’s going to take the first option.

10/12/08: Palin still lying about Troopergate

On Friday, the results of the investigation into the Troopergate scandal was released by a 12-0 vote of the Legislative Council, with EIGHT Republicans and FOUR Democrats voting. The main finding: Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110 (a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act in pressuring her subordinates and other officials to fire Trooper Wooten, her ex-brother-in-law.

OK, so you thought that settled the issue. But no. Two days later, she’s still denying it. Not face to face with national press reporters, of course. She snapped at reporters today at a Starbucks and while running into her bus yesterday that she did not break the law.

Sorry Sarah. You DID break the law - the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act IS Alaska Law. It may not be a jailable offence, like robbery or arson. But you can be impeached. And when you return to Alaska after being humiliated (again!) Nov 4, I think chances are you WILL be impeached. Perhaps you should actually READ the report yourself, if your command of the English language will permit it, instead of being "extensively briefed" by your aides??

But in the meantime, if you’re so convinced of your innocence and this is an Obama campaign ploy, why don’t you stand up and talk to reporters instead of lying about it?

Media everywhere says she’s a liar. Here’s ABC News reporting that

“Palin Makes Troopergate Assertions that Are Flatly False”.

Down under in Australia, the Herald Sun says Palin was found guilty and has abused voters’ trust.

So why doesn’t Palin stand up and give a real press conference to clear her name? So far, she has only talked over the phone for 5 minutes with 3 Alaskan reporters – with lots of rules, of course! Only 3 reporters! One Question at a Time! No follow-up questions! Complete denial when presented with facts!! When a reporter did try to follow-up on her previous denial, here’s what he got:

"Governor, if I can follow up," a reporter said, "the report says that you did abuse your authority in trying to get Officer Wooten fired. How do you respond to that charge?"

"There was no abuse of authority at all in trying to get Officer Wooten fired," Palin said.

There you go. Denial with no explanation. Sounds real Presidential material to me.

10/11/08: Palins using their children as shields

It’s cowardly how both Todd and Sarah Palin are trotting out one or more of their daughters at public events all across the country, apparently hoping to lessen the chorus of boos that greets them outside of any hard core Repub rally. They hit the heights tonight (Sat) at the Flyers hockey game in Philly, where, thanks to the Flyers’ Repub owner, Sarah Palin came out to drop the puck. She was accompanied on to the ice by two of her daughters, including the 7-year Piper in a Flyers uniform. Didn’t help. She got roundly booed anyway, so they had to keep turning the music up to try drown out the boos. I just feel sorry for their children that have to be subjected to all this – it can’t be good for them. Just five days earlier, Todd Palin showed up at a rally in Anchorage, accompanied by the same 7-year-old Piper. And we’ve seen them at various rallies being trotted out by their mother. Don’t they have school? Don’t their parents care about their education? Wait, don’t answer that – we already know how much their parents value education.

10/10/08: Palin found Guilty of Abuse of Power

UPDATE: Article in TIME: What the Troopergate Report Really Says
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power in pushing for the firing of a state trooper once married to her sister and by allowing her husband to use the governor's office in a crusade against the officer, a legislative investigation found.

Specifically, it states Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110 (a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.

UPDATE: Sarah Palin claimed today she did not break the law.
Dear Palin: The Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act IS Alaska Law. You DID break the law.

Of course, she doesn’t read newspapers, what are the chances she’s actually read the law? Heck, I’d be willing to bet she hasn’t even read the report.

Palin also claims that she and her family “feared” Trooper Wooten.
Branchflower, however, wrote that he doesn't believe the Palins were truly afraid of Wooten. She reduced her personal security detail, and she told Trooper Wheeler, who was part of her security detail, that she had no security concerns.

Doesn’t much sound like “fear” to me. Besides, she has been trying to get Wooten fired for years - these “transgressions” occurred long ago. Branchflower says it best: “I conclude that such claims of fear were not bona fide and were offered to provide cover for the Palins' real motivation: to get Trooper Wooten fired for personal family related reasons.”

Finally, she’s claiming that this was politically motivated by “Obama supporters”.
Hello? This abuse of power probe was initiated by the Alaska Legislative Council in July, BEFORE Obama or the rest of us in the lower 48+ Hawaii had even heard of Sarah Palin. The Legislative Council consists of 10 Republicans and 4 Democrats! Branchflower’s report was released Friday by a 12-0 vote of the Legislative Council, with EIGHT Republicans and FOUR Democrats voting; one Republican, Sen. John Cowdery, did not vote because – wait for it – he’s indicted for bribery and conspiracy!

So Palin, we know you’re not too smart (see earlier post for her grades), but surely you can do this math – this investigation was initiated and concluded by a majority of REPUBLICANS!

Besides the abuse of power finding, Branchflower made three other findings in his investigation of the so-called Troopergate matter:

• Palin's firing of her public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, in July was a lawful exercise of her powers but Monegan's refusal to fire Wooten played a role in his firing.

• A Wooten workers' compensation claim was properly handled by an Anchorage firm, Harbor Adjustment Service, working under contract to the state.

• The state attorney general's office "failed to substantially comply" with Branchflower's Aug. 6 request to Palin for e-mails about the case.

Here’s an international take on this report, from the BBC: Palin abused power, probe finds

The report said a family grudge was a likely factor in the dismissal

The running mate of US Republican presidential candidate John McCain has been found guilty of an abuse of power, according to a state legislature probe.

Alaska's Governor Sarah Palin was accused of sacking a senior state official over a family feud.

The report could have an impact on Republican hopes of winning next month's US presidential election.

"I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110 (a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act," investigator Steve Branchflower concluded in the panel's 263-page report.
***********************
Excerpts from the Branchflower report:

Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired. She had the authority and power to require Mr. Palin to cease contacting subordinates, but she failed to act.

Such impermissible and repeated contacts create conflicts of interests for subordinate employees who must choose to either please a superior or run the risk of facing that superior's displeasure and the possible consequences of such displeasure. This was one of the very reasons the Ethics Act was promulgated by the Legislature.

***
Governor Palin has stated publicly that she and her family feared Trooper Wooten.
Branchflower, however, wrote that he doesn't believe the Palins were truly afraid of Wooten.

Yet the evidence presented has been inconsistent with such claims of fear. The testimony from Trooper Wheeler, who was part of her security detail from the start, was that shortly after elected to office, she ordered a substantial reduction in manpower in her personal protection detail ... an act that is inconsistent with a desire to avoid harm from Trooper Wooten or others.

...It is noteworthy that in almost every contact with the subordinate employees, Mr. Palin's comments were couched in terms of his desire to see Trooper Wooten fired for reasons that had nothing to do with fear. His comments were always couched in terms that he was a bad Trooper, that he was not a good recruiting image for the AST, that his discipline amounted to nothing more than a slap on the wrist, that nothing had happened to him following the administrative investigation, and so forth...

I conclude that such claims of fear were not bona fide and were offered to provide cover for the Palins' real motivation: to get Trooper Wooten fired for personal family related reasons.

10/10/08: McCain's response to hatred is "meek"

John McCain began dialing back (or began trying to appear to be dialing back) the rising tide of hatred and verbal violence he and Palin have been whipping up on the campaign trail. (BTW, if you haven't seen the videos of these rallies, please do so - here's one - also click on the link above.

In recent days, McCain and Palin had taken it to dangerous (and IMHO, disgusting) heights, with most commentators calling on McCain to take control and cool down the rhetoric. CNN's David Gergen said the negative tone of these rallies is "incendiary" and could lead to violence.

Frank Schaeffer of the Baltimore Sun was one of many who said "McCain's attacks fuel dangerous hatred".

Khaled Hosseini, the Afghani-born author of best-selling novels "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns", sums it up best in the Washington Post article McCain and Palin Are Playing With Fire. He says that the response from the McCain/Palin campaign to the verbal abuse towards Obama they have incited at their recent rallies has been "meek". He writes:

“What I find most unconscionable is the refusal of the McCain-Palin tandem to publicly condemn the cries of "traitor," "liar," "terrorist" and (worst of all) "kill him!" that could be heard at recent rallies.

The real affront is the lack of firm response from either McCain or Palin. Neither has had the moral courage to denounce the use of Obama's middle name as an insult.

The McCain-Palin ticket has given toxic speeches accusing Obama of being a friend of terrorists, then released short, meek repudiations of some of the rough stuff, including McCain's call Friday to "be respectful."”