OMG!!! One party might control both houses of Congress and the Presidency!!!!
ALBUQUERQUE (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee John McCain, trailing in the polls, raised the prospect on Saturday of a complete Democratic takeover of Washington as a reason to elect him over Democrat Barack Obama in 10 days.
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What the fuck have the last 8 years been? Bi-fucking-partisanship?
Oh, and to John McCain.
You say: I've been fighting for this country since I was 17.
I say: Me too.
You say: I've got the scars to prove it.
I say: Me too.
And then I say: I got 100 IQ points on your old ass and I in no way think I'm qualified to run the country. You're out of your league, old man, (always have been) and it's unfortunate you didn't realize it before you began this adventure. You are to be pitied.
First of all, let me state in no uncertain terms that I wouldn't watch 'American Idol' unless you paid me, and, despite rumors to the contrary, I ain't cheap.
I found this one while cruisin' fer some Bonnie. The kid's good, reminds me of Jewel a little, but the subtitles are terrific!
Anna Bergendahl, 16, is singing Have a heart by Bonnie Raitt.
As luck would have it, Jersey Guy's post this morning, just below this one, contains the phrase 'Dark Age inanity'. Looks like we're on a roll.
Here in California we got a buncha ugly goin' on in the form of Proposition 8. Basically, if it passes, it will amend our State Constitution to say that marriage is only legal between a man and a woman.
The TV commercials are on 24/7, funded largely by out-of-state Mormons. Some of the other proponents are the Knights of Columbus and, surprise, surprise, Focus On The Family.
They are using the tried and true tactics of Fear and The Big Lie, telling folks that if this prop is defeated, teachers will 'teach homosexual marriage' to elementary school kids and there's nothing parents can do about it. Apparently, approximately that did in fact happen in Massachusetts.
This ain't Massachusetts. In California, parents can opt their kids out of sex education classes and the No on 8 ads do their best to rebut the idea that 'homosexual marriage' would be 'taught' in any case. The ads are very weak. The pro-hate whackjobs' M.O. of Big Money, Fear, & Lies trump Facts every time.
There's about a bazillion videos you can go see, pro and con, but I chose this one that's too long for TV, sadly, at 8:47, but gives an excellent argument for eliminating discrimination from the law instead of installing it.
We are particularly troubled that your church is funding television and radio ads that are lying to Californians about the effects of a "No" vote against Proposition 8. We are disappointed that you have chosen to break the Ninth Commandment - "thou shalt not bear false witness." The ads that you have funded bear false witness by not telling Californians that parents actually have absolute rights to remove their children from sex education classes, unlike in Massachusetts.
We ask you to recognize that every education authority in the state has rejected the lies and distortions of the Prop 8 campaign, including the California Teachers Association and the California School Boards Association. We also ask you to listen to a member of your church, Brigham Young University adjunct law professor Morris Thurston, who has called on the Mormon Church to "instruct its members that reliance on misleading and false 'consequences' is not worthy of our basic values of honesty and fair dealing."
Me 'n Mrs. G signed it, but fat lotta good it'll do, like asking Genghis Khan to spare your town because pillaging, rape, and murder aren't 'nice'. We're all just infidels to them. I've had enough unpleasant dealings with Mormons that I don't like them. Yes, I know it's unfair of me to base my feelings toward all of them on the actions of a few, but I think they're a buncha insular, arrogant pricks anyway. So sue me.
Your response has been overwhelming -- 8,485 Californians have joined you in signing the letter in less than 48 hours!
Now, the Associated Press is reporting that ProtectMarriage.com (No, I will not link to it - G) -- the organization leading the "Yes on 8" campaign -- is embroiled in a shocking new scandal driven by a Mormon Church member. This week, the Prop 8 campaign sent a certified letter to several California businesses, demanding that they withdraw their support for Equality California, a nonprofit organization leading the "No on 8" campaign -- and instead donate to support the Prop 8 campaign.
The price of not complying with this letter's demands? Placement on a public blacklist of anti-Prop 8 businesses published by the official "Yes on 8" campaign.
Mark Jansson, a "Yes on 8" Executive Committee member and self-described member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was one of four signers to this blackmail letter. This latest episode is yet another example of intimidation by the Mormon Church to pass Prop 8 and dictate public policy to Californians.
There's a lot of rocks in Utah. Get back under 'em, Mormons. Better do it. We won't pile enough rocks on you here to keep the coyotes from gettin' you.
The McCampaign and other more local ones of its same despicable ilk have me so pissed off I decided to start my weekend early. I figured a nice sad motorcycle song was just what I needed to cheer me up. I feel a helluva lot better thinking about having "destiny in my right hand" than in the Repugs' wrong hands.
My colleague at The Hill, A.B. Stoddard, said on MSNBC that McCain was unlucky. No, A.B., it was not bad luck that did McCain in, it was miserable judgment, bad decisions, bad policies, an angry demeanor. It was not bad luck that led McCain to say the economy was strong and sound while it collapsed; it was that McCain was on another planet than most Americans. It was not bad luck that led McCain to pick Palin, it was bad, miserable, small-minded judgment to pick a right-wing know-nothing, which I and others immediately wrote would be a total disaster. It was not bad luck that led McCain to be confused about economic policy, to have a ridiculous airlift into urgent negotiations over the bailout that made him look like the Keystone Cops.
Picking Sarah Palin was a farce destined to fail, a farce by a McCain who did not know or vet the person he chose, a farce that put a shallow, vindictive and often ignorant person who has no business being a heartbeat away from the presidency in precisely that position. It wasn't bad luck, it was a small-minded decision done in the most incompetent manner with the most predictable result.
This was a decision that McCain had months to plan for. This was the only presidential decision that a nominee will ever make. Barack Obama may have chosen someone who talks too much, but he chose a president. John McCain chose someone who is a joke.
The nation wants Franklin Roosevelt, and McCain gives them Joe McCarthy. It is not a matter of luck; it is a failure of temperament and presidential character and judgment.
A plumbing license is not the only license "Joe the Plumber" is having troubles with. The former Mesa resident has a suspended driver's license and outstanding court fines in Arizona, according to Mesa Municipal Court records.
The man portrayed by McCain to be the typical, hardworking American revealed this week that he actually does not have a plumbing license, and now court records show he should not have a driver's license either, making it potentially even harder for him to get to work.
America's new political icon, who owes nearly $1,200 in back taxes, according to public records, still owes more than $700 to the Mesa court system.
With a suspended license in one state, it should not be possible to get a new license in another, said Cydney DeModica, spokeswoman for the Arizona MVD.
The only way "Joe the Plumber" could have slipped through the cracks is a clerical error in which his driving records were not entered into the Problem Driver Pointer System, the national database of information about people with a checkered driving past, said Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles spokeswoman Lindsay Komlanc.
Komlanc added if the Ohio BMV were to receive the information, appropriate action could be taken, including suspension of his Ohio license.
My next-door neighbor Clancy is a plumbing contractor. He wears out trucks from all the crap he has to lug around to do his job. Pipe, fittings, devices, all the heavy metal-working tools he needs to do his job.
When ol' Joe shows up three days late to do a re-pipe, we'll know why when we see all that stuff on his back! Maybe he's lucky and his local codes only require he carries some plastic pipe, a hacksaw, and a can of glue. Heh.
In fairness to the new mythical 'real'-American icon of the working stiff, we believe in second chances and redemption. Maybe Joe could scale back his fantasy of buying a business that isn't for sale and get a fresh start as a plumber's assistant. Not only could he study up* to get a plumbing license, but the real plumber could do the driving.
*How hard could it be? Clancy tells me that all a plumber really needs to know is that shit flows downhill and payday's Thursday. He oughta know. He once accidentally hooked a hot water line to a bidet. Likes his beer, too...
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― Police sources tell KDKA that a campaign worker has now confessed to making up a story that a mugger attacked her and cut the letter "B" in her face after seeing her McCain bumper sticker.
Ashley Todd, 20, of Texas, initially told police that she was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield and that the suspect became enraged and started beating her after seeing her GOP sticker on her car.
Here's what I suspect really happened:
Her boyfriend/whoever beat the crap out of her because she only had $60 available from the ATM, which was only enough for three quarter-grams of crank instead of the $120 or so (may have changed since my day. Heh.) he needed for a 'teener.
This just might have been a little embarrassing for the folks in her church back in Texas to hear about, so
Of course she blamed it on an Obama supporter. She's a Repug.
Of course she blamed it on a black man. She's a Repug.
Pure conjecture on my part, of course.
Update:
From our bud gallery in 'comments':
This evil little cow has been exposed as a race baiting fraud.
Let's hope it starts a trend of exposing the rest of the Repug race-baiting frauds.
You really only get a handful, a smattering, maybe three or four per lifetime if you're lucky or blessed or just so happen to be paying the right kind of deeper karmic attention.
Historic events, I mean. Major shifts, upheavals, great leaps forward, the Thing That Changed Everything.
I'll cut to the chase: he's talking about Obama. A little over the top maybe, but maybe not. We desperately need the change anyway.
Here's the fun part:
Hell, you might argue that, infuriating ditzball or not, even Sarah Palin is historic. Not because she's rumored to be an actual woman on a GOP national ticket, but because she is such an incredible icon of inanity, every bit the insufferable, pseudo-folksy con-artist she is satirized to be.
And yet here she is, closer than any woman in history to sneaking into the White House without the slightest clue as to how she got there or what to do when the door opens. In short: Sarah Palin is historic because she makes Dan Quayle look like a f--king genius.
And what about John McCain? Really, who else in American electoral history had his first presidential run destroyed by some of the nastiest, most repulsive smear tactics imaginable, and then turned around and hires the same vile, cold-blooded tacticians to try and disgrace his opponent?
The historic part? When this is all over, these Rove-trained dung-flingers will have destroyed this once-dignified war hero not once, but twice. Once from the outside by attacking his honor, and once by eating him alive from within, with his own endorsement. Historically pitiable, is what it is.
No pity from this quarter. None at all. I am a little impressed that he spread his cheeks and fucked himself.
Addendum: I got ta thinkin' (dangerous, I know) about the phrase "... she is such an incredible icon of inanity, every bit the insufferable, pseudo-folksy con-artist she is satirized to be."
I meant to link to this the other day but my real world is crazy and I forgot. Remembering now (as I head out the door) to send you to Left of College Station. Liberal Texan makes the case against McCain with quotes from vet bloggers. Our great thanks to be included in the 'evidence'.
As we pick our way through the landscape of rubble, failure and debt that 30 years of Conservatism has left in it wake -- pushing our brooms and shaking our heads -- it is important to keep our sense of humor. And I gotta tell you, other than, say, Bill Kristol cranked to the gills on X trying desperately to lick peanut butter off of Bill O’Reilly’s bald spot, there is nothing funnier than watching a recently apostatized Conservative "independent" who Suddenly!Discovers! his Party is being run by degenerate lunatics going completely "Mercy land-sakes alive, where did alla these bah-barians evah come from!" apostal ™ .
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Of course, as long as the Pig People were helping Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich win, "independents" like Larry were perfectly content to warm their little hands on the bonfires onto which their culture and country were being tossed. But now that its all going to shit, and the "independents" want to get off the merry-go-round, the devil wants his due.
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Gotta go there for the best parts. As my pardner Gord would say: "This is today's must-read".
So I'm cutting everything (except for the most expensive shit and the stuff that's important to the people I'm speaking to at the time):
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) frequently faults “wasteful spending” and “earmarks” as contributing to the current economic crisis, and has campaigned on a promise to take a “hatchet” to the federal budget and to impose a spending freeze on all non-essential government spending. However, the Wall Street Journal reports that, in an effort to court Florida voters, McCain has now pledged to increase funding for NASA, a major employer in the state ...
Let's see, cutting everything but healthcare, military, and vets' programs. Well, the military and Social Security make up nearly half the budget (Medicare and other health programs take up another 20%) and vets' programs cost so little, they don't even show up. Another 10% is spent on interest on our national debt. So what are ya gonna cut in the last 20% that's gonna balance the budget? Don't seem like there's enough there to make a dent, even if you cut it all out.
More horseshit plans from the McLame campaign that'll amount to nothing.
Between her clothes budget and her creative billing of travel expenses to the State of Alaska, Palin is qualified to go to work in the billing department of a major defense contractor, such as Halliburton, KBR or Blackwater ...
I was just saying this to Mrs. F this afternoon after having to listen to Greenspan testifying before Congress on CNN as I was sanding plaster:
Apparently, it never occurred to the great guru that wealthy people would be greedy enough to destroy the system. It didn't show up in his "models."
Greenspan, who called the current financial crisis a "once-in-a-century credit tsunami," said that he remained "in a state of shocked disbelief" that banks and investment firms did not do a better job of analyzing the risks involved with investing in home mortgages extended to less creditworthy borrowers.
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Shocked disbelief? Maybe that you'd live long enough to get splattered with the shit from this, but you knew the banks and mortgage houses would milk it for all it was worth.
Fucking Greenspan the Thinker. He spoke gibberish all those years and everybody thought he was a fucking genius. Nobody knew what the fuck he was saying; even he didn't know what the fuck he was talking about. This is all on him but if he points the finger any faster he'll break his arm. Fucking asshole.
According to Sarah Palin, she and John McCain "believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hardworking, very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation."
Um, very, um. ... Yeah.
The GOP code isn't hard to crack: There's the America that might vote for Obama (a suspect America populated by people with liberal notions, big-city ways and, no doubt, dark skin), and then there's the "real" America, where people live in small towns, believe in God and country, and are ... well ... white.
About 80% of Americans live in metropolitan areas, not small towns. A third of us are ethnic and racial minorities, but that's changing: Already,nearly 45% of children under 5 are minorities. Although 88% of us believe in God, 70% think that religions other than our own are equally valid routes to truth. And while 59% of us think that wearing an American flag pin is a decent way to show patriotism, even more of us (66%) think that protesting U.S. policies we oppose is a good way to show patriotism. These days, more than half of us say we prefer the Democratic Party to the Republican Party.
Given this, why do McCain, Palin and their team keep pushing the message that the America where most of the electorate lives isn't "real"?
The GOP hasn't been the party of reality-based thinking for some time now. "When we act, we create our own reality," a "senior Bush advisor" (assumed to be Karl Rove) told journalist Ron Suskind in 2002, and this became the administration's version of a game plan. Thus Donald Rumsfeld's conviction -- shared by McCain -- that we would be "greeted as liberators" in Iraq. For GOP leaders, the Iraq that erupted into a violent insurgency just wasn't the "real" Iraq.
We're now seeing the same pathology at work in the McCain-Palin campaign. McCain and Palin look at America and see what they wish was there, rather than what's actually there: an America in which they'll be greeted as liberators and rightful heirs to the mantle of leadership. America, after all, has been led by white Anglo-Saxons for the last two-plus centuries and, for the last 40 years, mostly by Republicans. For that to change is almost unthinkable. And so Team McCain just edits out the inconvenient America that doesn't seem likely to vote GOP. That America's not real. It just can't be.
Ah, but it is.
I for one am thankful that McCain and his cohorts are the last to see that their 'reality' of America is no more if it ever was. Even the normal American is starting to wise up after eight years of an insane president and his failed ideology and policies.
I'm thankful that McCain is using Rovian tactics and personnel. It's all he's got. You can fool Americans pretty easy if they're not really watching what's going on. You can fool them twice just as easily. You could probably fool them this time as well if it weren't for the fact that some of them have noticed they've been burned bad over the last eight years. Lies, lies, and more lies with horrid results across the board.
I said right after the '04 election, and no I'm not going to go look it up but you may if you wish, that getting Bush foisted on us for a second term may have actually been a good thing in the long run because it meant he would dig a hole deep enough that the Repugs would be out of power for a generation. It looks like such may come to pass. It may take a generation to dig the country out of what they have done to it, but it can't be helped. Looking at the sky instead of into the abyss will be a huge improvement.
All it's going to take is just enough of us to realize what's going on to kick the dark clowns out. 'Just enough' meaning that our next President (with a capital 'P' again, I hope) and Congress need to win by a large enough margin that the Repugs can't steal it again.
I am totally glad that McFuckup and Moosebreath are doing the things they're doing the way they're doing them. I'm actually starting to think things are going to go our way.
Then we can take a deep breath and a sigh of relief and hit the deck runnin' to deal with the Democrats. We've been tested by the worst imaginable long enough. It'll be a pleasure.
Yesterday I wrote a piece intimating that the real City of West Hollywood and its real mayor, Jeffery Prang, had called for a ban on real Sarah Palin drag queens/female impersonators.
But that was a lie. Balderdash. And in my mind…a satire.
Though it’s hard to find anything that West Hollywood wouldn’t allow, there are some in the media, as well as civilians, who took my piece seriously and inundated the web as well as West Hollywood City Hall with questions pertaining to the “ban.”
That is why I am taking the exceptional step of apologizing for any confusion.
While Sarah Palin might consider a ban on gay marriages in West Hollywood, West Hollywood is not considering a likewise ban on Sarah Palin drag queens.
If I might mangle a joke from the esteemed Ms Elayne Boosler, West Hollywood will allow as many Sarah Palins with penises as can fit on Santa Monica Boulevard.
Sorry for the misunderstanding…who I believe just might be the queen of this year’s parade.
I just threw this in because I grew up in a town that borders West Hollywood. It's where I went to go bowling, do my laundry, listen to live music, lotsa stuff. I worked in a gas station there. It's kind of a humdrum, workaday place in the daytime, but when the sun goes down you might say it flames into life. Legions of dragsters dressed like Sarah Palin is an aspect of Moosebreath's candidacy that I hadn't considered before. Fits W. Hollywood like a glove. A long sequined cocktail glove. I thought it was funny.
It got funnier.
While I had the linked post on the screen, Mrs. G came in. And started laughing. She's a small town girl who moved to L.A. when she turned 18 to go to college and seek her fame and fortune. She found me instead, but that's another story.
She lived in W. Hollywood for a while. Just as an aside, we used the same laundromat on Sta. Monica Blvd, so we were whirling around each other but our trajectories didn't collide 'til years later.
She and her friends went to Arthur J's coffee shop* at about 4AM after a night of partying. She mentioned to one of her pals that, considering the lateness of the hour, there sure seemed to be a lot of fairly tall gals there in very nice cocktail dresses. I'd like to have seen the look on her face when her friend wised her up! Welcome to the Big City, Clementine! I'm not sure if it made her laugh back then, but it sure did today! Heh.
... At a [McCain] rally in the blue-collar Philadelphia suburb of Bensalem on Tuesday morning, fewer than 500 people showed up ...
And then there are supporters:
... The event provided a sharp contrast to a pair of Obama's weekend rallies in Missouri, attended by 75,000 and 100,000 people.
Anecdotally, working in the reddest county (Nassau) in New York as I do, I see a lot more Obama lawn signs than I do McCain (by about 3 to 1) as I drive around. Seems to be true that most folks have had enough; astonishing to me because I figured the American people had the appetite to swallow a hell of a lot more shit before they reached their limit. I guess, if you want to motivate people, hit them in their wallets. I wonder how long it'll be before the Rethugs start saying the economic collapse was arranged by the Dems to get Obama elected?
... If a woman is raped, well she'll be forced to bring any result of that act to term because God loves her.
Whatever you think of Obama; if you can't bring yourself to vote for a black man, think about this. The white guy will probably get to appoint 2 or 3 Supreme Court justices during the next 4 years. If that happens, Roe v. Wade, and your right of self-determinism over your own body, will go out the window so fast your head will spin.
If there is any reason for a woman to vote for Obama, it is this.
Behold, the Undecideds. Have you heard of this bizarre, nefarious group? The millions of faceless, slow-blinking, mentally unattached Americans who are, right this minute, with mere days to go before the most historic election in our lifetime and when faced with what seems to be the most glaringly obvious divisions of attitude and perspective you could possibly imagine, still "on the fence" about Obama or McCain, love or hate, country or disco, Paris or Fresno, oil or water, Porsche or Pinto?
[...] It's a bit like choosing between a glass of wine and a beer bong full of turpentine and carpet tacks. Sure you can ingest them both, but come on.
“Al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming election,” said a commentary posted Monday on the extremist Web site al-Hesbah, which is closely linked to the terrorist group. It said McCain would continue the “failing march of his predecessor,” President Bush.
He needs all the support he can get. Are they sending any of our oil money back to his campaign, I wonder?`You know, the moolah Bush borrows from China to send to Saudi Arabia so we can drive gas-guzzlers to the poorhouse.
In the 'waiting for the other shoe to drop' or 'last minute surprise' departments, watch for a video from bin Laden supporting Obama like the one four years ago that supported Kerry.
Politico reports today that the Republican National Committee spent $4,716.49 on hair and makeup for Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) in September — in addition to the more than $150,000 the RNC has spent on clothing and accessories for Palin. AMERICAblog points out the amount is just half of what the RNC spends on makeup for Sen. John McCain: The RNC shelled out $8,672.55 for McCain’s makeup in September, employing celebrity makeup artist Tifanie White.
They maybe coulda saved money by using a mortician. Those gents are experts at making guys like McCain look lifelike. Not so good at making sure their clients have their pants on, but McCain has staff for that.
We Americans suffer from a self-imposed immaturity. It goes back to the Reagan years and the dream of unregulated commerce--of great riches to which all eventually will surely rise; of a gambling society in which every citizen always wins his bet against an unbreakable bank. Joe had swallowed that dream. Obama, by contrast, with his suggestion of a small adjustment toward a graduated tax, was explaining the realism of the progressive tax that began with Theodore Roosevelt.
And yet, when Obama evokes a society in which you begin by working for someone else, pass on to work as your own boss, and end by employing others, he is going back further than Theodore Roosevelt. This was a favorite topic with Abraham Lincoln, a politician whose ideas of labor and progress were memorably captured in his Address to the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society (September 30, 1859). "The prudent, penniless beginner in the world," said Lincoln, "labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself; then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him." That the prosperous employer should assist the beginner was a natural corollary, for Lincoln, of his understanding of non-slave labor. Selfishness or, as he called it, "self-interest" was a symptom of a slavish mind, and incompatible with the high morale of democracy.
Is the American dream a selfish dream? Obama's questioner in Ohio seemed to believe that it was, and that it was always meant to be. It is clear the McCain-Palin campaign is doing everything it can to encourage that belief. In the latest ads, they are cultivating the fear of "socialism" much as Barry Goldwater in 1964 cultivated the fear that Medicare was a harbinger of "socialized medicine." This is a subject on which Americans some day soon will have to choose between Goldwater and Reagan, on the one hand, and Lincoln and Roosevelt on the other; and it is a consequential choice: between a selective dependency on government which cuts out the uses of government for persons less well off than oneself, and acceptance of the value of limited government that does "for a community of people" (as Lincoln said elsewhere) "whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or cannot so well do, for themselves--in their separate, and individual capacities."
The American dream has sometimes meant the selfish gamble that everyone takes and that all expect to win. But of the American dream when it comes in this questionable shape, we ought to begin to be wary. Not because all dreams, like all hopes that assist people in living their lives, are not to be sympathized with, but because it is possible for a platitude to acquire such an air of sacredness that the mere mention of it aborts all understanding and all thought.
It appears that the Repugs, fine americans and christians to a (white) man, have turned the common decency of giving folks a helping hand into 'socialism', thus to be reviled. They need to be sent to wander in the desert for forty years or so and think about it.
Some worry that if Barack Obama loses and there is suspicion of foul play in the election, violence could ensue in cities with large black populations. Others based the need for enhanced patrols on past riots in urban areas (following professional sports events) and also on Internet rumors.
Democratic strategists and advocates for black voters say they understand officers wanting to keep the peace, but caution that excessive police presence could intimidate voters.
More than three decades apart, two political riots influenced the outcome of U.S. presidential elections. In 1968, protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago hurt Democrat Hubert Humphrey and helped Republican Richard Nixon eke out a victory. On Nov. 22, 2000, the so-called “Brooks Brothers Riot” of Republican activists helped stop a vote recount in Miami -- and showed how far George W. Bush’s supporters were ready to go to put their man in the White House.
My favorite thing about this is that they assume it's going to be Aftrican Americans rioting in the streets if they don't get their way.
Here's who they should be worried about:
Photographer Joe Eddins and I headed over to the closest one and found a steady line of voters hoping to cast ballots early. Most seemed to be Obama supporters and several had come from the rally. Nearly all the voters were black.
Also at the polling site was a group of loud and angry protesters who shouted and mocked the voters as they walked in. Nearly all were white.
...
All I heard yesterday afternoon (as I was working on the house, I had CNN on as background noise) was accounts of bad behavior from the Rethugs, maily harassing early voters. I heard about voting machines flipping votes from Dem to Rethug. I believe the police are looking at the wrong group of people.
Off to work ...
And an addendum: I think this is why we're having so much trouble in Iraq and Afghanistan. The military is a backward-thinking organization as well. They're always fighting 'the last war' instead of preparing for the new challenges of the 21st Century. Yeah, they got new gizmos but the tactics are the same.
The Republican National Committee has spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August.
According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74.
The records also document a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September.
The RNC also spent $4,716.49 on hair and makeup through September after reporting no such costs in August.
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And I betcha if Michelle Obama dumped that kind of coin (at those 'East Coast Elitist' stores) on a new wardrobe, we'd never hear the end of it from the wingnuts.
The Rude Pundit is unusually restrained today. You can let the kids read it. Heh.
Poor Joe the Plumber Is Too Dumb to Just Shut the Fuck Up
Did you get that? Joe the Plumber and his parents were on welfare during hard times. But he doesn't want someone else's money and doesn't think it's fair to take money from one person to give it to another person. Can you wrap your mind around that without blowing two or three gaskets?
And there, in a nugget of anti-wisdom, is all the delusional glory of white working class people who support Republicans. Apparently, for them, money for things like welfare or food stamps or whatever, which is fine when they need it, but is socialism when others do, is just pinched out by a money-shitting, giant bald eagle or something. Maybe Jesus jacks off, and where his seed falls, trees with golden apples grow. Maybe Uncle Sam just pukes greenbacks.
It also means, for anyone paying attention, who gives a shit what Wurzelbacher thinks? He's an obvious idiot, not, as Hannity said, offering a manly hand job, "You're the heart and soul swinging that wrench, you're the heart and soul of what makes this country great." No, actually Wurzelbacher is what makes this country a fucking laughingstock and a pathetic inbred cousin of what it could be. There's plenty of working class people who actually do understand how taxation and social safety nets work. They also know that "spreading the wealth," unlike what John McCain says, is what once made America great.
The Rude Pundit thought the initial media frenzy over Wurzelbacher was just another worthless distraction, although, frankly, it's fuckin' John McCain's fault that it happened. But once Wurzelbacher started granting interviews and started appearing on Fox "news" to install his faucets of wisdom, well, then it's welcome to the party, motherfucker, and all bets are off.
Like always, I'm too awestruck by The Rude One to add anything. Well, one thing - McCain shit in Joe's bed and the dummy is trippin' all over himself to lay down in it. He ain't gonna get up covered in glory.
Here's some excerpts from Sunday's Noo Yawk Timesinterview with Rachel Maddow:
Biggest misconception about pundits: That we all hang out together. I don’t know any of these people. Maybe all the pundits are hanging out and not inviting me.
I think most of 'em are scared to death of her. She tells the truth.
Morning routine: I arrive in Massachusetts around 2 a.m. Saturday. I wake up so that I can put the trash and recycling together and get it to the dump, which closes at 11 a.m. Me and the dog go to the dump. Then we drive to a sheep farm and I let the dog look at the sheep.
I do the same thing with the sheep. Sometimes I take the dog.
Favorite item in house: The house mostly reflects Susan’s style, but I have to put my stamp on things. Once, I found a sculpture of a big, fat squirrel holding a reflector. You’re supposed to put it at the end of your driveway. We have it near the kitchen table; it’s the house mascot.
A reflective squirrel. Boy howdy, I can relate to that!!!
Fictional character she identifies with: Wally Cleaver. Cause he is a dork.
See "I can relate to that!".
She drives: I have a seven-year-old Ford pickup. Remember, I have to go to the dump.
I think maybe I better not make any comments about the long walk home...
Two supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama found handwritten death threats in their mailboxes Thursday and reported them to Villa Park police.
A 74-year-old woman and a 46-year-old man with Obama signs in their front yards near the 600 block of South Villa Avenue received similar letters that had a Villa Park Village Hall return address. "Get the Obama signs off your property—now," the letter reads. "Failure to obey this order will result in the immediate death of all family members." Both residents said they will not remove their signs, though the man, who had voted Republican for 25 years before switching parties this year, said his wife is worried about letting their 7-year-old son play alone outside.
So let me get this right. John McCain's campaign makes a concerted effort at assailing Barack Obama's character with implications Obama has terrorist buddies. Since the attacks began, every day seems to bring a new incident of hate against Barack Obama's supporters.
In just the last three days, Obama supporters have been spit on, assaulted, had their tires slashed, and now this.
I don't have a lawn sign, but I have bumperstickers on two pickups. Try this one on me, you fucking cowards, and watch what happens. Really.
Better yet, spit on me. You have to be close enough that I can touch you to do that. In my dreams.
The Asheville (N.C.) Citizen Times reports, "A dead bear was found dumped this morning on the Western Carolina University campus, draped with a pair of Obama campaign signs, university police said."
Maintenance workers at 7:45 a.m. found a 75-pound bear cub dumped at the roundabout at the entrance to campus, said Tom Johnson, chief of university police. “It looked like it had been shot in the head as best we can tell. A couple of Obama campaign signs had been stapled together and stuck over its head,” Johnson said.
Maybe a College Repug, more likely some bozo who thinks college students are communists because they want an education, killing a baby bear to make some insane point. Real big brave patriot, ain'tcha, asshole? That's beyond despicable. I hope the F & G cops find the prick that did it and expose him to the public light of day.
There ya go Palin, Pfotenhauer, and Bachmann, you too, Hayes, there's your "real America". I hope you cunts choke on it.
Fixer referred to "wears on people's nerves" in his post below. Mine are about ready to snap like a bungee cord with one strand left in it.
Note to the Crips and Bloods: Sorry, guys, but we need to borrow your colors for a while. I'm just about past ready to have it out with these Repug assholes. Let's get it over with.
They are not organized, boisterous or overbearing. Many American Republicans simply want to show they support John McCain voting against $430 million for the Department of Veteran Affairs for Medical Services for outpatient care and treatment for veterans. American Republicans must wear Red to show they support John McCain not even bothering to vote on the 21st Century G.I. Bill and that they agree with McCain that U.S. Veterans don't deserve dignity and respect.
...
Much more and links aplenty (it'll take you all morning to get through 'em, but it's worth it) over there. McCain is no friend of the GI.
Barack Obama's favorability "is the highest for a presidential candidate running for a first term in the last 28 years" of New York Times/CBS polls.
Meanwhile, the Times reports, Sarah Palin's "negative rating is the highest for a vice-presidential candidate as measured by The Times and CBS News. Even Dan Quayle, with whom Mrs. Palin is often compared because of her age and inexperience on the national scene, was not viewed as negatively in the 1988 campaign."
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When all you can do is try to put your opponent down, to call him names, like little kids on a school field, it wears on people's nerves. The American people are desperate for true leadership (whether they know it or not), not a couple hall monitors.
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As voters have gotten to know Senator Barack Obama, they have warmed up to him, with more than half, 53 percent, now saying they have a favorable impression of him and 33 percent saying they have an unfavorable view. But as voters have gotten to know Senator John McCain, they have not warmed, with only 36 percent of voters saying they view him favorably while 45 percent view him unfavorably.
But bus drivers, teachers and auto workers? They're deadbeat lucky duckies too? Retail salespeople? Truck drivers? Office workers? Nurses? Cops? All of them? [my em]
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I pay more in taxes than a lot of people earn in a year. Be nice if the rich folks paid their fair share for once.
Ladies and gentlemen, remeber this as we go to the polls. We've had 30 years of 'trickle-down' economics and we can be absolutely certain that it doesn't work.
Written and originally performed by Hardy Drew And The Nancy Boys and sung by Shay Black at The Starry Plough Pub in Berserkeley CA. I suspect the involvement of alcohol at various points along the line...
You owe it to yourself to watch it all the way through. Trust me.
Yesterday, Sunday being a day of rest and all, I posted about 'Arry 'n Wills going on a charity ride in South Africa. I did a little research (very little, it was easy) and found a lovely 17-minute film at Enduro Africa's website. A little on the ride but a lot on what they are doing. If you have the time please go check it out.
For those of you with attention spans and a sense of humor like mine, go see a different aspect of Enduro Africa:
Hmmm.... This is very interesting. I am not surprised that John McCain will not release his records, he has a very nasty form of cancer. Melanoma is currently ravaging a very close relative, it is a brutal disease. But the really interesting thing is that Sarah Palin will not release HER records.
This time I'm actually on Moosebreath's side. No woman who's had that many kids wants the world to know her beboop's the size of a coal chute and equipped with barn doors.
Today, the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz reveals that Fox News has hired former New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who will be an on-air analyst and write stories for Fox’s website
Pardon me, my sides hurt!
The Repugs are going down and Faux News knows it's going down with 'em and are circling their wagons. The added twist, and they're plenty twisted to begin with, is that they're filling them with arrows and setting them on fire themselves. Good idea, saves time, and they can still blame the Injuns (that's everybody but Repugs). Burn, baby, burn! We'll sweep out the ashes in the morning.
Say what you will about Colin Powell, it is richly deserved, he sure stuck an outboard motor in the punchbowl with his endorsement of Obama. Of course, when you do that in a Repug punchbowl it just stirs up the turds. And, boy (heh), are they stirred up!
A new cartoon by syndicated cartoonist Gordon Campbell hits Gen. Colin Powell for endorsing Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL). The cartoon shows a picture of Revolutionary War general Benedict Arnold — who infamously committed one of U.S. history’s greatest acts of treason — in blackface, followed by the line: “Benedict Powell…Race Patriot“:
Politicker reports Campbell also stated that Powell “wishes to see someone who looks like himself in the White House.” Similarly, Rush Limbaugh is now saying that Powell endorsed Obama only because they are both African-American, and a prominent Maine GOP activist claimed, “If Obama was a white man, Powell would not have made the endorsement.”
Update Similar comments by George Will, Pat Buchanan, and RedState.
Joan Walsh tells Pat that his assessment was "beneath him" and Matthews calls him out on it also. Wow, can you image that Colin Powell might consider the Supreme Court and economic policies before he makes a decision on who to vote for? Why would black people care about those issues right, Pat? He, like John McCain makes no sense at all. I remember hearing so many conservative and liberal women being upset when they felt others thought they should have thrown their support to Hillary just because she was a woman. This talk will only pick up as the week unfolds.
Ohhhhh, pleasepleaseplease...
This morning at 3AM, I was woken up by a loud noise. I now realize it was hordes of racists coming out from under their rocks. I hope they find out very quickly what the sunlight can and should do to them.
Secret Memos Revealed: White House Endorsed Torture Confirms suspicions of critics, academics, casual observers, men, women, children.
FBI: Not Enough Agents to Investigate Wall St. Fraud Most were reassigned to look into ACORN.
Bush Using Power of His Office To Help GOP Candidates By locking himself in his office.
He needs to be locked up somewhere. That's a start. Cut the phone wires.
Palin Campaigns in “Pro-America Areas of This Great Nation” Next week she'll be campaigning in “anti-America areas of this great nation.”
Anti- your America, that's for sure, Moosebreath.
??? - News Quiz - ???
What political organization is responsible for the above anti-Obama campaign banners? A ) The Ku Klux Klan B ) The John Birch Society C ) The American Nazi Party D ) The Sacramento County GOP Hint: Eliminate the three ridiculously obvious choices and you'll get it.
LATimes. There's a video that shows this clown. Looks like they let him wipe the Cheetos off before they hauled him outta his mom's basement.
The owner of a firm that the California Republican Party hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year was arrested in Ontario over the weekend on suspicion of voter registration fraud.
State and local investigators allege that Mark Jacoby fraudulently registered himself to vote at a childhood California address where he no longer lives so he would appear to meet the legal requirement that all signature gatherers be eligible to vote in California. His firm, Young Political Majors, or YPM, collects petition signatures and registers voters in California and other states.
Jacoby's arrest by state investigators and the Ontario Police Department late Saturday came after dozens of voters said they were duped into registering as Republicans by people employed by YPM. The voters said YPM workers tricked them by saying they were signing a petition to toughen penalties against child molesters.
...the arrest outside an Ontario hotel, which involved seven squad cars and nine police officers...
Wow. That's serious. That's almost as many units as they roll for a drunk driving arrest! The guy's in deep shit.
After complaints by voters and Democratic Party officials, several agencies launched investigations into Jacoby's activities. They included the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, which issued the warrant for his arrest earlier this month on felony charges of voter registration fraud and perjury.
Several dozen voters recently told The Times that YPM workers said they had to become Republicans to sign the petition, contrary to California initiative law. Other voters said they had no idea their registration was being changed.
YPM has been accused of using bait-and-switch tactics across the country. Election officials and lawmakers have launched investigations into the activities of YPM workers in Florida and Massachusetts. In Arizona, the firm was recently a defendant in a civil rights lawsuit.
Natcherly the Repugs are crying foul. That shit is supposed to be OKIYAR, after all.
In a written statement Sunday, the state Republican Party called the charges against Jacoby "politically motivated." The party said the charges do not support accusations from voters and Democratic officials that YPM has been duping voters into joining the GOP.
The statement accused Secretary of State Debra Bowen, who announced the arrest, of "using her office to play politics."
Bowen is a Democrat.
Oh, well, there you have it. Arresting a Repug operative just for committing voter registration felonies must be partisan!
Not only do I hope for more arrests in this deal, I hope the MSM sees fit to pick it up in a big way, and that it knocks the ACORN Repug scam right outta the news cycle. This is an actual nationwide crime perpetrated by Repugs. Don't hold yer breath.
They call him Colon Colin? I wasn't in the mood to get all schvitzed this morning over Colin Powell's endorsement of Obama and, thankfully and predictably, our pal Comrade PhysioProf was on it:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s teh awesome that Powell has endorsed Obama, and might help him with military voters and, specifically, in Virginia. But for fuck’s sake, do we really need to suck the head of his motherfucking cock while lovingly stroking the shaft!?!? This lying motherfucker is an opportunist through and through. He has the blood of hundreds of thousands on his hands ...
I lost any respect I had for Colin Powell when he sat there at the U.N., pointing to his stupid little charts and pictures explaining about Saddam's 'mobile biowarfare labs'. Every grunt who had to cross the line in WMD gear when the balloon went up on Iraq, if they get a chance, should punch him square in the face.
Powell, like McCain, has squandered his honor for personal gain. His endorsement means nothing to me and, in truth, he should be sent to the Hague with the Chimp, Cheney, and the rest of the criminals who've been running this country for the last 8 years.
Athenae looks at how ugly the Rethugs are getting as they stare defeat in the face:
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Anyone who didn't think it was gonna go this way has not been functionally awake for the last two presidential election cycles. I think in large part the hatred the last two times was mitigated somewhat by Republicans winning those elections, and thus able to say that though the forces of vegans and aborted gay babies aligned against them were mighty indeed, God and the Baby Jesus in a Flag Diaper prevailed and thus there's no need to go on a shooting spree. Put it more succinctly, as I did to a Republican aquaintance who was actually spitting mad at me about "those liberals," "You all won. Why can't you just enjoy your victory? What do you have to be so pissed off about?" I came to the conclusion that he was just cheesed off that in the face of one stolen and one narrowly won election, all liberals everywhere did not just shrivel up and magically die.
The Desert Rose Band playing "Once More" at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, CA, on August 27th, 2008.
West Coast Marines tried to stay as far from Solana Beach as they could. Halfway between Dago and Camp Pendleton, the Shell station there was the transfer point for prisoners from the San Diego Shore Patrol to the Pendleton M.P.s. I know for a fact, although I ain't tellin' ya how I know, that a Marine taken into custody in Tijuana could beat his buddies back to base. Heh.
Mrs. G came in during some yellow flag laps at Darlington Martinsville (the brain is the first to go...G). She really likes this song and started singing along. Into my right ear. I tried to adjust her 'balance' knob and made her giggle.
PORT EDWARD, South Africa — British princes William and Harry set off Saturday on a grueling 1,000-mile motorcycle rally in South Africa to raise money for charity.
The pair joked that they had a wager on which royal tumbles from their bike the most during the eight-day off-road adventure.
Let the world decide, lads. At the end of yer ride, pose for photos in yer skivvies and we'll count the raspberries.
But seriously folks, this is a fun way to raise money for good causes and I applaud these young gents for doing it. Perhaps more important than raising money, their high-profile participation is raising awareness. Good on yer, mates.
If you would like to follow their adventures during the 8-day ride, check out Motorcycle News (UK) each day as they have an embedded reporter. Dirty job, but someone's gotta do it. Heh.
Here's a coupla tips for H & W from my misspent and continuing youth:
Make sure you get to water crossings and cow (hopefully elephant!) pies slightly in front of your brother and make sure your rear wheel is spinning for maximum fling. The higher and farther your 'roost', the better your chance of gettin' him right in the face. Makes for the best comedy effect, especially if the papparazzi are present!
Always try to pass on the left in tight turns. That way you can gently reach over unnoticed with your right foot and change gear on your brother's bike. Up or down, your choice, but down is easier. If you are in good control, you can can also reach over with your right hand and fan his clutch. Not really recommended as you have to let go of your throttle to do this, thus depriving your rear wheel of drive and consequent loss of steering control, unless you have lightly set your throttle brake if your machine is so equipped.
Alternatively, if you are forced to pass on his right, you can reach over with your left hand and give his throttle cable a good yank. This is guaranteed to provide a moment of excitement for him, possibly followed by riding the rest of the day with a pantload. Best only done if you are prepared to fistfight him later on world TV.
It is perhaps best not mentioned that his front brake lever is also available for some quick attention. See 'fistfight later'.
Disclaimer: The above are for information only. I would never advise actions that could unseat a rider and that scratch the surface of dirty riding and don't ask how I learned about them.
Boys just wanta have fun, after all.
Ride safe and have fun, Young Royals. The world likes you and is watching.
