That's because most American vote with their wallets, not their genitals

And women don't vote for other women because they're "hot". And most American men really DON'T fantasize that they are somehow going to have sex with the Vice President.

Keith Olbermann declared Kathleen Parker the daily "Worst Person in the World" last week for this opinion piece in which she obliquely throws out the idea that perhaps John McCain wasn't thinking with the Big Head when he decided on Sarah Palin as a running mate. It's not beyond the realm of possibility, given McCain's history with the ladies. I happen to think it was more a question of McCain's neocon wingnut campaign people wanting to shore up the base combined with a misguided notion that disgruntled Hillary supporters will vote for anything with breasts and a vagina.

Aside from the appalling condescension towards women that the Palin pick demonstrated, it was also a clear demonstration of just how out of touch with most Americans the Republican Party has become in its eight years in power against a hapless Democratic Party, as it has listened to the highly vocal concerns of its theocrat-authoritarian base, to the point of believing that for most Americans, the sexual behavior of others and preparing for the return of Jesus are the most important issues facing this country.

But whatever the motivation, naming a backstabbing, ruthlessly ambitious, corrupt, willfully ignorant, uninformed, angry, hypocritical religious nut may have backfired on Camp Grandpa:

A growing number of voters have concluded that Senator John McCain’s running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, is not qualified to be vice president, weighing down the Republican ticket in the last days of the campaign, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

All told, 59 percent of voters surveyed said Ms. Palin was not prepared for the job, up nine percentage points since the beginning of the month. Nearly a third of voters polled said the vice-presidential selection would be a major factor influencing their vote for president, and those voters broadly favor Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee.

And in a possible indication that the choice of Ms. Palin has hurt Mr. McCain’s image, voters said they had much more confidence in Mr. Obama to pick qualified people for his administration than they did in Mr. McCain.

Could it be that a majority of American voters, faced with a widening war in the Middle East, national bankruptcy at home, and an uncertain future, have finally realized that they aren't going to have a beer with the President and they aren't going to get to nail the Vice President and that just maybe it might be a good idea to have someone sitting in the White House who has the capability of thought and reason?

Stay tuned.

Just part of what's at stake on Tuesday

Every generation has its photos that seem to capture an entire era in a moment. When we think of WWII, we think of this photo:



For most baby boomers, these photos capture the times in which we grew up:




Today I think we could do far worse than to have this photo epitomize the Obama era:




I saw this photograph last week and it's stayed in my mind ever since. Look at the smile on that child's face as he's held by a man who just might be our next president -- a man who looks like him. Look at the man, presumably the child's father, getting ready to take a photograph that both he and his son will treasure forever. Look at Barack Obama's face as he holds this child, fully aware of what he has come to mean to not just this child, not just this father, not just to black Americans, but to all of us who think that America has a responsibility to be better than the hate and fearmongering and narrow-mindedness and racism of the Republican party in this millennium.

I love this photo. I love this photo because in capturing three American black males at a critical point in our history, it also depicts a universality that Republicans want us to forget. I look at this photograph and I think of another photo of a boy with a president; a photo capturing a moment that inspired that boy to a career in public service. And then I look at this child's beautiful, happy face and I wonder if someday we will see him too stand on the steps of a historic hall and announce his own candidacy for the presidency.

Jon Stewart and Barack Obama on the Bradley Effect ....Scary Socialism!....and also, Why Would Anyone even Want to be President?

Last night Jon Stewart interviewed a relaxed and happy looking Barack Obama. What has struck me this past week besides my PTSD from the Bush Administration, and fretting over the reports coming out of our good friend Brad's blog about the voting situation, is that there is a certain sour grapes feeling emerging from the right that no one would want this horrible state of affairs now anyway. (...just some ongoing wingnuttia on Hardball; to which I think that even Tweety said to whichever wingnut it was, "well you'd take it if you could, right?")

Woe is to the President that has a House and Senate fully in line with him, because then the blame cant fall anywhere but on that one party. I suppose that some sort of investigation and...er...impeachment might have laid the blame for alot of this on the correct shoulders, but that was not what the party wanted to focus on. So, the American short memory will ensure that the democrats get all the blame for things not moving forward fast enough or things overlooked in the coming years. There will be blame for sure, even if its the American people, so trained in their responses and set in their imperialistic ways, regardless of if their dominion is a mobile home or a mansion, unable to effect and allow change for fear of losing a few dollars here or there. Hey, you save in the long run with preventative care, but most people seem to want the payoff now!

My favorite part of Jon Stewart's interview with Barack Obama last night was that Obama makes it clear that now is the perfect time to effect change, if you're really in it for the right reasons. Presidential politics seems to have morphed into a game where the aim is to cause only enough waves to profit your friends, and emerge with a fine legacy or at least a compulsion fulfilled, regardless of if anything got better in the process. Its all about who gets the blame and who gets the cash. There are two types involved in this mess as far as I can see: the type that sees that there is more looting to be done before its time for the rapture, and the type that is actually a public servant and embraces the hard work of trying to put this thing back together. I could count the uninformed, the dreamers, the anger management problem folks, the risk takers and the gamblers who think that one more lotto ticket will put them up in that high bracket that Obama is attacking. Everyone can get whipped up into a frenzy by Donald Trump when the possibilities being real, but when you look around the Hyatt ballroom and realize that its full of suckers just like you with a pile of bills on the table at home, reality and logic have to take over in the world of grownups.

I believe that Obama is in this for the right reasons. And even though I haven't been his staunchest supporter along the way, I think he shows a great understanding of the hysteria that has gripped the country, and may be able to bring some calm and rational behavior to this situation. I sure hope so because I'm tired, I cant sleep, and I don't know if I can live here if McCain Palin get into office.




Americans of a certain stripe seem to forget the society part of our country; how our technological and intellectual advances were made possible by sacrifices of others who emigrated here or slaved away in factories to make a penny. This stuff isn't taught in school in any real way anymore, but the idea that so many American view the waxing and waning semi-socialist way that this country has run from the get-go as some sort of dictatorship, is just laughable.

So worried is the right about redistribution of the wealth that they forget that the only reason that they were able to earn that money was on the shoulders of everyone who came before, settled this place, fought in wars, invented and designed and worked their asses off in order to give Joe the Plumber the opportunity and the right to spew his nonsense. Call it greed or ego, but Americans are not all that special that we just deserve a chance...and God didn't just give us this fertile land; we took it from the Native Americans in grotesque and horrible ways that we are supposedly still repaying (though, last I looked, we still hold the principal of that, and its counted against the national debt...) Hoarding all of our money in the mattress with that smaller government or whatever it is they are calling it, and no standing army, would leave guys like Joe the Plumber out in the cold if his house catches on fire or he should need the police...or even if he drives down a road or highway to go to his non-job where he spins his web of lies.

I want to know what part of the infrastructure of America, physically and socially, the McCain campaign thinks is not some part of redistribution of wealth. I also want to know what part of the fire and police departments they want to privatize and outsource, because the failing infrastructure of the entire country should indicate how well that works! ...bridges and tunnels and highways and parks? How about the national forests?...come on!

I want to know how Halliburton would run social services? This is not how America was designed, and if what was once a village based economy, where each neighbor could rely on another, has grown to include an organized bureaucracy with which we imperfectly get help when we need it, I would have to say that it may be worthwhile for one of these guys to stand up and say that America is semi-socialist and that unregulated capitalism doesn't work!

A friend taking a friend in if their house is destroyed...is that socialism? Bringing a casserole when a community member loses a loved one...is that Socialism? Helping a friend with a sick relative....the list goes on, and its not considered wrong or strange in smaller view. Churches and social groups collect dues or contributions that go towards running an infrastructure; is that socialism? Its when the population grows and progress moves in such a way that we lose our tribal and family ties; when we begin to rely on the market of a bigger structure than just the farm fields, that we need more of a main structure into which everyone contributes. With proper representation there shouldn't be a problem. Its only a problem if it becomes a talking point and is misused to the point where the word has no meaning anymore. Rather than talking about it so much, I wonder how much time any of these disgruntled wing nuts in my town actually get involved in cutting down on overspending or bureaucracy! Ill tell you, its usually only involving something that effects their bank account or their backyard.

Up the road from me is the old town of Bedford Village, NY. I often take my dog Lola to the green, which, as part of the historic preservation of the area, has a plaque that notes that local farmers shared this village green for grazing their cattle. I'm sure then that they also worked on the green and reseeded it, as good neighbors banding together through hard winters and hot summers. Through history there have been cooperative efforts on the part of Americans, which can be seen in the endless piled stone walls around, here made of the stones that tough Americans plowed up from this rocky place, in order to grow crops. The stone walls built all over the Bedford town square and all roads coming and going from it, were not brought in from Home Depot; they were part of a cooperative where everyone gave time and whatever they had to better the whole. Its only now, in the twisted minds of these wing nuts, that we are seeing some deep rooted form of hate that throws the poor, and anyone else outside of some perceived lucky group, under the bus.

The horrible thing is that Americans likely need to have some tragedy, like the great depression with no social net, or children dying because roads are not maintained, to see that regulation is necessary. The greater good can only be served by Americans remembering that we are all the same, and if our weakest part is really our strongest as a society, then we have been neglecting that part too long. There is a greater good, and if life is fleeting for us , we still have the responsibility of every American since the beginning of this great experiment to leave something to our children; some foundation to stand on for their own dreams.

Ive been avoiding alot of this, and spending time with my birds because I find that I am just really...upset...worried. but I will be making some calls and doing something this weekend...and Im trying to not get my hopes up or take anything for granted in this. Anything can happen, and as much as Obama should have the numbers down...look at BradBlog for some scary facts that will give you pause.

Here is my friend Susan hobnobbing with the actual Barack!...um...or a reasonable depiction of him!...close enough! You go girl!

c/p RIPCoco

The heck with "Joe the Plumber." Meet "Joe the Entrepreneur"

Proving once again that George Carlin was right: If you nail together two things that were never nailed together before, some schmuck will buy it from you:

Thinking of ways to profit from disaster is keeping America great! The latest ingenious product hitting the market this week is the Wall Street Coffin.

For $35, you can order a wood coffin filled with actual shredded money and a plaque of your choice, including "R.I.P. Lehman Bros., 1885-2008", and "R.I.P. Bear Stearns, 1923-2008." For an extra $5, you can customize the plaque. Maybe "R.I.P. Jane's 401k", or "R.I.P. Jane's GE Stock Options with a $28 Strike Price."

The coffins are made by Jist Enterprises in Westfield, New Jersey. The owner, who describes himself as "a regular working stiff" says on the web site: "As a citizen of the United States, I’m disgusted! I’m disgusted that our financial institutions have failed us so dramatically and that our government has allowed this crisis to evolve...What can I do? I can sell this little Wall Street Coffin and donate 15% of the proceeds to some good charities that help people through difficult times."

And that, folks, is the difference between Republican kool-aid drinkers and human beings. I'm quite certain that the makers of Hillary nutcrackers and Obama monkey dolls aren't donating a damn nickel to charity.

(h/t)

Can we get this straight please? Barack Obama did not "break his promise"

John McCain is out there having apoplexy about Barack Obama's donors, implying that shadowy figures (translation: terrorists, Communists, feminists, and other Dangers to The Republic) are the ones really bankrolling Obama's campaign.

Jealous much, John?

So of course MSNBC, which still marches in lockstep with the Republicans once Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, who are allowed on the air only to make you think they aren't in the tank for Republicans, is dutifully reporting this morning on "First Look" about how Obama "broke his promise" to accept public funding.

What actually happened, here in the real world, was that Obama pledged to "pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election." Note especially the words "pursue an agreement." Obama's attorney met with John McCain's attorney, and came out of the meeting convinced that Camp Grandpa didn't want to reach an agreement, hence the opt-out.

You see, there's that little matter of how John McCain has been gaming the campaign finance system dating from back during the primary race. There's the fact that he used money from the Federal financing system as collateral for a campaign loan before dropping out of public financing during the primaries. Josh Marshall explained this gaming of the system back in June.

Then there's the issue of how John McCain's campaign is rotten to the core with K Street lobbyists. Do you think these people are supporting him because they don't want anything for their corporate clients? So spare me the outrage, Senator McCain. If your lawyers had just been mensches back in June and agreed to a mutual framework, we wouldn't even be having this discussion.

Umaimon, Sydney

EDIT: Umaimon has now closed.UPDATE MAY 2010: Word is they have moved to 159 Oxford Street Darlinghurst under the name Yokozuna Japanese restaurant.I love getting reader recommendations for restaurant.Admittedly I can't always get to them. Factors like transport (I have no car), price (I pay for all my own meals) and friend appeal (I need to find someone who'll want to accompany me) are all

I'd switch teams for Samantha Bee

Well, maybe not. But here at Liberal Fangirl Central, we've elevated Ms. Bee to a seat right alongside Rachel Maddow:

So, Politicians Are Boring, Eh?

Far and away the funniest, most ingenious politically-oriented video I've ever seen. And I practically live on Youtube, ya'll. Yo Yo.

How much are the Republicans paying "Joe the Plumber"?

It would be difficult for anyone other than the most committed kool-aid drinker to believe that Samuel Wurzelbacher is anything other than a paid Republican shill. I'm sorry, but plumbers from Sarah Palin's "Real" America do not have the welfare of Israel at the top of their hit parade of issues. But "Joe the Plumber" does:

The all-out effort from John McCain's presidential campaign to scare voters into backing the Republican candidate continued apace on Tuesday as McCain surrogate Joe the Plumber agreed that a Barack Obama presidency would mean the "death of Israel" and end democracy in America.

The Ohio plumber, who has no license and is actually named Samuel Wurzelbacher, spoke at a McCain campaign event in Columbus Monday. A McCain supporter asked if "a vote for Obama is a vote for the death of Israel." JTP hardly batted an eye.

"I'll go ahead and agree with you on that," Wurzelbacher said.

The push-back against Wurzelbacher's comments began, somewhat unexpectedly, at Fox News.

The network noted that the McCain campaign seemed hesitant to distance itself from Wurzelbacher. Correspondent Carl Cameron said that the McCain campaign was going to put out an ad today criticizing Obama policies on Israel.

"Just a coincidence?" he asked. "We report you decide."

Later Tuesday afternoon, Shepard Smith pressed Wurzelbacher on his comments, reminding the woefully misinformed McCain backer that Obama has consistently voiced support for Israel. Pressed several times to explain how he could agree with the conclusion that Obama would lead to the death of the Jewish state, Wurzelbacher was unable to come up with any good reasons aside from Obama's position in favor of negotiating with rogue regimes such as Iran.

"You don't want my opinion on foreign policy," Wurzelbacher said. "I know just enough to kind of be dangerous."

You know, sort of like your average Republican....like Sarah Palin.

The more the McCain campaign trots this nimrod out to be a symbol of "the real America" (and you'd think they could come up with someone who didn't look like a neo-Nazi skinhead), the more he looks like the soul brother of Ashley Todd and the other Zombies of Endless War for Jesus who populate McCain and Palin rallies these days. Not only isn't this guy a plumber, I'll bet he's never lifted a hammer -- or at least he hasn't had to since Camp Grandpa recruited him -- a guy named "Wurzelbacher" of all things -- to try to scare elderly Jews.

The U.S. has no moral high ground to say a word about this

This front-page New York Times article about pre-election violence in India, could just as easily be written about the US:

With national elections only months away, India is reeling from a rash of spiteful religious and ethnic clashes, prompting many in this country to ask why their vibrant, pluralistic democracy tends to encourage, rather than avert, the cruelty of neighbor against neighbor.

Tensions are growing in several corners of the country. The latest dispute was set off in Mumbai last week, when an upstart nativist party claiming to represent Marathas, the dominant ethnic group in the state, pounced on Indians who had come from elsewhere to apply for jobs at Indian Railways.

The party, which calls itself Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (roughly, the Army for the Reconstruction of Maharashtra) and has in recent months attacked northern migrants to Mumbai, wants those jobs to be set aside for local residents. On Oct. 21, the police arrested the party leader, Raj Thackeray, on a charge of inciting riots, after which his supporters went on a rampage across the city and its suburbs. Much of Mumbai was shut down.

A day later, a local court released Mr. Thackeray on bail, setting off a rampage in the northern state of Bihar, the source of the migrants attacked by Mr. Thackeray’s disciples. Protesters blocked trains, wrecked railroad stations and stranded passengers there and in several other parts of northern India.

Meanwhile, violence between Hindus and Muslims erupted elsewhere in Mr. Thackeray’s Maharashtra State, and spread south to the state of Andhra Pradesh, where a Muslim family of six was burned to death in their home in mid-October.

Clashes between Hindus and Christians continued to sweep through eastern Orissa State. In northeastern Assam State, indigenous Bodos fought with Bengali-speaking Muslims, leaving more than 50 people dead.

All the while, Indian cities remained skittish after a spate of terrorist attacks blamed largely on Islamic militants. Other factors include the longstanding Kashmir insurgency in the north and Maoist guerrillas across central India.

The Hindustan Times recently carried a map of India, splattered with red stains to mark current trouble spots. Many more would have to be added in the two weeks since the map was published. In mid-October, speaking to the wishfully named National Integration Council, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called the rash of violence “an assault on our composite culture.”

He added, “An atmosphere of hatred and violence is being artificially generated.”

How can the world’s largest democracy fail to prevent such a fury of intolerance?

Of course we don't have people from opposing parties rampaging across the country, though it's not because the Palinistas wouldn't do just that given half a chance. Here it takes a quieter, but perhaps even more insidious form -- false claims of attacks by supporters of the opposing candidate, Barack Obama hung in effigy as a Halloween "decoration", skinheads plotting, however ineffectually, to assassinate Obama and take a few bystanders down as well for no reason other than their skin color; car keying -- shouts of "traitor!" and "Communist" and "terrorist!" at Palin rallies when Obama's name is mentioned. Of course the level of violence here is less, but the sentiment is the same -- that differences of opinion aren't a source of pride for a thriving democracy, but instead something to be suppressed by whatever means necessary.

I don't know about you but I could use a nice story right about now

So here is one:

Tracy Orr sat in the back of the room and prepared to watch her foreclosed home go up for auction this past Saturday. That's when a pesky stranger sat down beside her and struck up a conversation.

"Are you here to buy a house?" Marilyn Mock said.

Orr couldn't hold it in. The tears flowed. She pointed to the auction brochure at a home that didn't have a picture. "That's my house," she said.

Within moments, the four-bedroom, two-bath home in Pottsboro, Texas, went up for sale. People up front began casting their bids. The home that Orr purchased in September 2004 was slipping away.

She stood and moved toward the crowd. Behind her, Mock got into the action.

"She didn't know I was doing it," Mock says. "I just kept asking her if [her home] was worth it, and she just kept crying. She probably thought I was crazy, 'Why does this woman keep asking me that?' "

Mock says she bought the home for about $30,000. That's when Mock did what most bidders at a foreclosure auction never do.

"She said, 'I did this for you. I'm doing this for you,' " Orr says. "When it was all done, I was just in shock."

"I thought maybe her and her husband do these types of things to buy them and turn them. She said, 'No, you just look like you needed a friend.' "

"All this happened within like 5 minutes. She never even asked me my name. She didn't ask me my financial situation. She had no idea what [the house] looked like. She just did it out of the graciousness of her heart, just a 'Good Samaritan,' " Orr says. "It's amazing."

[snip]

With the foreclosure auction approaching, she planned to make the nearly 80-mile drive to Dallas this past Saturday with an investor friend. But she says he ditched her at the last-minute. She went to the auction with her family, and suddenly found herself in the back with Mock.

"I always talk to everyone around me," Mock says. "I mean you can always find out all kinds of interesting things when you talk to people around you. So I just asked her, 'Are you here to buy a house?' "

With the foreclosure auction approaching, she planned to make the nearly 80-mile drive to Dallas this past Saturday with an investor friend. But she says he ditched her at the last-minute. She went to the auction with her family, and suddenly found herself in the back with Mock.

"I always talk to everyone around me," Mock says. "I mean you can always find out all kinds of interesting things when you talk to people around you. So I just asked her, 'Are you here to buy a house?' "

Of course Republicans would say that this is the answer to the foreclosure crisis, the same way as they think private charity can replace the government safety net. Still...it's a small glimmer of hope in an increasingly mean world.

Puttin' On the Ritz

I have to agree with the Rude Pundit. The arrest of these sub Bozo-class dorkwad Harris and Klebold wannabes, Daniel Cowart and Paul Schlesselman, for plotting to kill 88 people, decapitate 14 African Americans, culminating in the murder of Barack Obama stinks worse than a buzzard's morning breath. In fact, it reeks worse than a minstrel show minus the black grease paint and the occasional cheap laugh.

And the Rude One is right: This is the last pathetic, wheezing gasp of a right wing hate movement that had once bombed churches in Birmingham, murdering black children and kept a booming slave trade alive for better than four centuries. But I'm going to focus not on these skin-headed poster boys for condoms or their ludicrous plot to kill 88 people and chop off the heads of 14 black people (Were they planning on killing 87 people and/or decapitating 13, saving President Obama who would be swaddled with massive Secret Service security details for their glorious coup de grace? Or were they planning on killing Obama first and deluding themselves into thinking they could remain free long enough to kill the final 87? The mind boggles.).

When yours truly first heard this story last night after a hard day at work, the first thing I thought of on reading this interrupted Irving Berlin nightmare (white top hats and tails???) was, "Now, we wouldn't be talking about the "Liberty Tower" again, would we?

You remember that, right? Over two and a half years ago, Bush and Co. uncovered a terror plot involving Richard Reid shoe bombs, exploding cockpit doors and other trappings of bad airplane movies from "Snakes on a Plane" to "Executive Decision" to "Passenger 57." As it turned out, any spade work done to interrupt this very serious al Qaeda plot was actually done by Thai authorities.

Then there was the Woody Allen plot to blow up Kennedy airport by detonating a fuel tank, a masterstroke of terrorism genius that involved fake pizza deliveries.

Then there was the Chicago Seven, the seven al Qaeda groupies who were "plotting" to blow up the Sears Tower in the Windy City. As with the Kennedy airport "plot", it was buried in the fine print that neither "terror cell" was operational.

The list goes on and on like a diseased Energizer Bunny.

Now, JP isn't saying that there aren't any dangerous racist lunatics out there and obviously the feds would be criminally negligent if they didn't follow up on any and every lead that threatens the life of Sen. Obama or any prominent official.

But it seems to me that, in the wake of 9/11, we have more to fear from celebrities who kill their wives, disgruntled high school students and whoever murdered Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and nephew than we do al Qaeda and post-GOP neonazi skinheads.

Of course, that's a gross oversimplification and isn't meant to be taken even with a grain of salt, even for third grade entertainment value. But what other conclusion is more tempting considering how many very real, very dangerous and very heavily-armed and well-financed skinheads and Middle Eastern terrorists are out there just waiting for the Keystone Kops of the US government to arrest, detain and torture them?

The very fact that these peckerheads Cowart and Schlesselman got caught before they had a chance to even inflict a serious paper cut on a black person's neck proves how neolithically stupid they are. Yet the news, which in a saner world wouldn't have even made the local police blotter considering what a complete tool fest it is, seems crafted as in a desperate reassurance that, yes, old Uncle Sam's still got it and is on the job.

Seriously. White tuxedos and top hats??? Was this the tipping point, this bizarre aside, that made it international news? The reason why Barack Obama got Secret Service protection earlier than any other presidential candidate ever is because of all the death threats he began getting practically the minute he announced his candidacy in Chicago early last year.

It appears that fear and sensationalism sell just as briskly for the MSM as it does for the current administration. Otherwise, who would care that the McCain volunteer who was attacked by a black man over a bumper sticker and had a backwards "B" carved into her face wasn't actually attacked nor mutilated by a black man at all but by her crazy-ass inner Lynndie England?

The Sugar Hit super challenge: How many could you do in one night?

How many Sugar Hits could you possibly consume in one night?It's a question that's plagued me everytime Good Food Month rolled around. As I'd finish scraping the plate of another delectable Sugar Hit, the final mouthful of sugar slowly dissolving on my tongue, I'd ponder deep and meaningful musings like "should one start at the north end of town or south?" and "would it be faster to get a taxi or

Cue the Republicans screaming that they aren't Americans and don't have the right to vote

Many years ago, when Mr. Brilliant and I were first dating, we went to see Steel Pulse when they still did "concerts on the pier" in New York.

Now, Steel Pulse, a reggae band out of England, has recorded a song in support of Barack Obama:

Cue the outrage from the right about how DARE a bunch of black artists who aren't even American weigh in on our election.

A pre-election survey

Would you like to help out a graduate student studying how psychological distance affects the structure of candidate evaluations? Then click on over to the survey here and follow the instructions. Because of the requirements of the project, please don't post comments on this post. I'll have to delete them because of the way the project is structured.

OK, when does Sarah Palin go on trial for taking free stuff in return for government contracts?

First, look how soft Sarah Palin is on felons:

Of course, Palin and Stevens are two peas in a pod; the only difference is the size of the sandbox in which they play.

Palin's BFF, Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens was convicted yesterday on seven counts of failing to report gifts and services received from friends and cronies.

Perhaps this is just how government is done in Alaska, but with the precedent now having been set, perhaps Gov. Palin should have to answer for what looks an awful lot like accepting free construction of her Wasilla manse in return for a contract to build a sports complex in Wasilla, as Wayne Barrett reported earlier this month:

THE $12.5 MILLION sports complex and hockey rink that is the lasting monument to Palin's two terms as Wasilla mayor is also a monument to the kind of insider politics that dismays Americans of both parties. Six months before Palin stepped down as mayor in October 2002, the city awarded nearly a half-million-dollar contract to design the biggest project in Wasilla history to Kumin Associates. Blase Burkhart was the Kumin architect on the job—the son of Roy Burkhart, who is frequently described as a "mentor" of Palin and was head of the local Republican Party (his wife, June, who also advised Palin, is the national committeewoman). Asked if the contract was a favor, Roy Burkhart, who contributed to her campaign in the same time frame that his son got the contract, said: "I really don't know." Palin then named Blase Burkhart to a seven-member builder-selection committee that picked Howdie Inc., a mostly residential contractor owned at the time by Howard Nugent. Formally awarded the contract a couple of weeks after Palin left office, Nugent has donated $4,000 to Palin campaigns. Two competitors protested the process that led to Nugent's contract. Burkhart and Nugent had done at least one project together before the complex—and have done several since.

A list of subcontractors on the job, obtained by the Voice, includes many with Palin ties. One was Spenard Builders Supply, the state's leading supplier of wood, floor, roof, and other "pre-engineered components." In addition to being a sponsor of Todd Palin's snow-machine team that has earned tens of thousands for the Palin family, Spenard hired Sarah Palin to do a statewide television commercial in 2004. When the Palins began building a new family home off Lake Lucille in 2002—at the same time that Palin was running for lieutenant governor and in her final months as mayor—Spenard supplied the materials, according to Antoine Bricks, who works in its Wasilla office. Spenard actually filed a notice "of its right to assert a lien" on the deed for the Palin property after contracting for labor and materials for the site. Spenard's name has popped up in the trial of Senator Stevens—it worked on the house that is at the center of the VECO scandal as well.

Todd Palin told Fox News that he built the two-story, 3,450-square-foot, four-bedroom, four-bath, wood house himself, with the help of contractors he described as "buddies." As mayor, Sarah Palin blocked an effort to require the filing of building permits in the wide-open city, and there is no public record of who the "buddies" were. The house was built very near the complex, on a site whose city purchase led to years of unsuccessful litigation and, now, $1.3 million in additional costs, with a law firm that's also donated to Palin collecting costly fees from the city.

Dorwin and Joanne Smith, the principals of complex subcontractor DJ Excavation & Development, have donated $7,100 to Palin and her allied candidate Charlie Fannon (Joanne is a Palin appointee on the state Board of Nursing). Sheldon Ewing, who owns another complex subcontractor, Weld Air, has donated $1,300, and PN&D, an engineering firm on the complex, has contributed $699.

Ewing was one of the few sports-complex contractors, aside from Spenard, willing to address the question of whether he worked on the house as well, but he had little to say: "I doubt that it occurred, but if it did indirectly, how would I know anyhow?" The odd timing of Palin's house construction—it was completed two months before she left City Hall and while she and Todd Palin were campaigning statewide for the first time—raises questions, especially considering its synergy with the complex.

Palin has been able to get away with this under the IOKIYAR rule, but the Stevens conviction ought to send her a message that maybe it isn't OK after all.

They're Going to Steal It Again: Tuesday One Week To Go Edition

I wish I could say that I can't believe this could possibly work again, but American know so little about civics, and when you throw in things like early voting, it becomes less surprising. Still, the Republicans' lack of imagination is disappointing:

The Virginia Pilot reports today that a phony Virginia Board of Elections flier is being distributed in Hamption Roads, VA telling Democrats that they are now scheduled to vote on November 5. The flier falsely claims that “an emergency session of the General Assembly” adopted a new voting schedule to “ease the load” at polling places on election day:

As the Pilot explains, “no emergency action has been take by the General Assembly, which isn’t in session, and furthermore, doesn’t have the authority to change the date of a federal election.” Along with the rest of the nation, Virginians in all parties vote on November 4

The message is loud and clear: Republicans Do Not Want People To Vote. Now someone please tell me how they can claim any mantle of patriotism when the franchise, which is the foundation of democracy, is so reviled by them.

Meanwhile, here's a video from Bradblog showing how the vote-flipping in West Virginia is happening:

I actually have a few hours of experience with trying to calibrate a touch-screen monitor as part of a project in my last job. It can be a royal pain in the ass, and that was a fairly knowledgeable IT person dealing with one monitor. You know who your poll workers are; I certainly know who mine are. They are NOT equipped to deal with poorly-calibrated monitors.

Why is it the job of the voter to try to make sure the machine casts his/her vote properly? Why is it so difficult? And why are these vote-flips disproportionately FROM the Democrat TO the Republican?

Sarah Palin's America

Welcome to Sarah Palin's America:

Two white supremacists allegedly plotted to go on a national killing spree, shooting and decapitating black people and ultimately targeting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, federal authorities said Monday.

In all, the two men whom officials describe as neo-Nazi skinheads planned to kill 88 people — 14 by beheading, according to documents unsealed in U.S. District Court in Jackson, Tenn. The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community.

The spree, which initially targeted an unidentified predominantly African-American school, was to end with the two men driving toward Obama, "shooting at him from the windows," the court documents show.

"Both individuals stated they would dress in all white tuxedos and wear top hats during the assassination attempt," the court complaint states. "Both individuals further stated they knew they would and were willing to die during this attempt."

An Obama spokeswoman traveling with the senator in Pennsylvania had no immediate comment.

Sheriffs' deputies in Crockett County, Tenn., arrested the two suspects — Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tenn., and Paul Schlesselman 18, of Helena-West Helena, Ark. — Oct. 22 on unspecified charges. "Once we arrested the defendants and suspected they had violated federal law, we immediately contacted federal authorities," said Crockett County Sheriff Troy Klyce.

The two were charged by federal authorities Monday with possessing an unregistered firearm, conspiring to steal firearms from a federally licensed gun dealer, and threatening a candidate for president.

Cowart and Schlesselman are being held without bond. Agents seized a rifle, a sawed-off shotgun and three pistols from the men when they were arrested. Authorities alleged the two men were preparing to break into a gun shop to steal more.

Attorney Joe Byrd, who has been hired to represent Cowart, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday. Messages left on two phone numbers listed under Cowart's name were not immediately returned.

No telephone number for Schlesselman in Helena-West Helena could be found immediately.

The court documents say the two men met about a month ago on the Internet and found common ground in their shared "white power" and "skinhead" philosophy.

The numbers 14 and 88 are symbols in skinhead culture, referring to a 14-word phrase attributed to an imprisoned white supremacist: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children" and to the eighth letter of the alphabet, H. Two "8"s or "H"s stand for "Heil Hitler."

Court records say Cowart and Schlesselman also bought nylon rope and ski masks to use in a robbery or home invasion to fund their spree, during which they allegedly planned to go from state to state and kill people. Agents said the skinheads did not identify the African-American school they were targeting by name.

Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of the Nashville field office for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, said authorities took the threats very seriously.

"They said that would be their last, final act — that they would attempt to kill Sen. Obama," Cavanaugh said. "They didn't believe they would be able to do it, but that they would get killed trying."

Gun nuts? Check.

White supremacy? Check.

This is what happens, Governor Palin, when you appeal to racism and paranoia and combine it with gun nuts.

The Shellback Initiation of John McCain

For unknown and unknowable reasons, the Village People neglected to mention this in their famous paean to our nation's Navy. Also ignoring the Shellback Initiation are those really cool Navy recruiting commercials that had once featured the music of Godsmack and the posters that likewise didn't show this fine, nautical tradition or the deck-mopping, barnacle-scraping, mess-cranking and other exalted functions of the n-----s of the Navy.

For those of you who have never been stupid enough to join the Navy (an acronym for Never Again Volunteer Yourself), the Shellback Initiation is for sailors (or pollywogs) when they cross the equator for the first time. It is far and away the singularly most disgusting ordeal to which most humans will ever be subjected. It makes very, very little distinction between ranks. Noncoms and officers alike have it coming to them. If you're a SEAL making your way across the equatorial zone (especially if you still have sand from Coronado Island between your toes), chances are you'll get it harder since you're supposed to be a badass.

The Shellback Initiation varies from ship to ship but here's what it generally entails:

When a sailor crosses the equator for the first time, he is forced to undergo the hazing ritual. It involves crawling through a tunnel on the way to the Kingdom of Neptune. The tunnel, typically installed on the fore of the ship, will be filled with the vilest, nastiest shit on God's earth. Rotten, putrid food and drink, maybe even piss and shit, are thrown in the tunnel.

If the guys in front of you vomit on their way to the Magic Kingdom (as they inevitably will)... the more the merrier. It adds to the aromatic experience.

As you're negotiating your way through this olfactory Purgatory, you will be beaten through the canvas walls of the tunnel by socks filled with other vile shit. If, on the problematic possibility that you actually make it through without passing out, awaiting you on the other end is King Neptune and his bitch.

King Neptune tends to be the fattest, most hirsute guy on the ship (typically a chief or higher). You either have to kiss his belly until he's satisfied that you've earned your way to the Kingdom or, if your shipmates really want to put you through the ringer, they'll make it even more challenging. Some ships, like the one I was on, would insert into this fat slob's navel a maraschino cherry, olive or cocktail onion and you'd have to pick it out with your teeth.

Oh, did I mention that, in order to raise the degree of difficulty, they slather King Neptune's ample belly with axle grease, oil, mustard or whatever else they can get their grubby hands on? Yeah, there’s that, too.

At the end of this complete waste of time and taxpayer dollars, you're then given a card and you'd better keep it. It's like those tickets you get at booths on toll roads. Lose it and you pay the full price. In this case, you'll have to go through the shit (literally) all over again the next time you cross the equator.

What we're seeing during this election is the Shellback Initiation of John McCain. It all started out harmlessly enough.

First, Commodore George W. Bush (Honorable) and First Mate Richard Cheney threw in the tunnel some stale Koolaid that was first mixed during the Reagan years. And, since nothing tortures like torture itself and, after a brief maverick period in which he tried to back out, McCain then gamely proceeded through the electrodes attached to battery chargers, being snapped at by attack dogs and, for good measure, some of Kurt Weldon’s Freedom Fries from 2002.

The Christian faction of the ship of state tossed in some goodies of their own, including venom from the snakes they handle during their Hosanna sessions, holy water and fresh bile from the bile ducts of James Dobson, Rod Parsley and John Hagee.

Corporatists also anted up with petrodollars sodden with real petroleum drilled from offshore and putrid Halliburton water laden with bacteria from the Euphrates.

His own campaign provided the coup de grace by inserting near the exit of the tunnel stale semen from some mullet-headed redneck who knocked up his running mate's daughter. He has to say at least once, "I'm John McCain and I approve this unwanted pregnancy, sir!"

Then, at the end of the tunnel, awaits King Karl, the Lord of the Watery Underworld and his wife, Sarah Palin. It was long and arduous, the trip through the right wing tunnel, but tradition is tradition and McCain is now officially a political shellback. Or, he would be if King Karl the Kingmaker was satisfied with McCain picking that olive from his greased-up navel. The problem is, Queen Sarah and he make a pretty bad couple and King Karl’s never quite forgiven him.

No doubt, John McCain ought to be proud of his own political migration across the equatorial line that separates moderate Republicans and Democrats from the stupid, cruel factions that have held his own Shellback Initiation. But there are others who aren’t impressed, no matter how many times John climbs through that narrow, fetid tunnel on his belly and that coveted, ever-elusive Shellback card will never be his.

Did Tom Brokaw admit to knowing that Ohio was fixed in 2004?

If so, then we know why John McCain is spending so much time and money in Pennsylvania when it would seem to be futile.

In June of this year, I linked to this Mark Halperin blurb in which he cites John McCain telling voters in Pipersville, PA that "the state will pick the winner in November -- and he will be behind until right before the polls close."

I wondered at the time if McCain was allowing slip that the fix is in, and after watching this remark from Tom Brokaw on Press the Meat yesterday, I think it is.

MR. BROKAW: Four years ago I interviewed President Bush at a time when it looked like he may be in trouble against John Kerry, final weekend of the campaign. I showed him a map. He said, "Oh, I just don't do that. Karl Rove does that." As soon as the interview was over, he said, "I'll win here," and pointed to southeastern Ohio. Where will you win if you win?

And Karl Rove, on Fox News Sunday:

"In order for McCain to win, he's got a very steep hill to climb. He's got to win all of the toss-up states. ... Then he needs to strip away Ohio and Indiana. ... And then he needs to either win Colorado and Virginia ... or win one of them plus Pennsylvania. ... It's a steep uphill climb."

But not if the fix is in. Not if the apparatus is in place in one of those states plus Pennsylvania to cage enough voters and flip enough votes and shortchange enough machines in inner city Philadelphia to flip it for McCain.

And that, MY FRIENDS, is why John McCain is spending so much time in Pennsylvania, and why the conservative pundits are so willing and eager to chalk this election up to being over while the more mainstream pundits are falling all over themselves to try and come up with a plausible McCain victory scenario.

And this is how we wake up on November 5 to find that John McCain's herculean efforts in Pennsylvania came to fruition and brought him victory.

Because the fix is in.

And it always was.

Many more really ominous signs here.

October Surprise

Well, you knew it was going to be something. Last time it was a message from Osama Bin Laden conveniently timed to help the then-embattled George W. Bush win re-election. This time it's an expansion of Bush's War into Syria:

U.S. military helicopters launched an extremely rare attack Sunday on Syrian territory close to the border with Iraq, killing eight people in a strike the government in Damascus condemned as "serious aggression."

A U.S. military official said the raid by special forces targeted the network of al-Qaida-linked foreign fighters moving through Syria into Iraq. The Americans have been unable to shut the network down in the area struck because Syria was out of the military's reach.

"We are taking matters into our own hands," the official told The Associated Press in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivity of cross-border raids.

The attack came just days after the commander of U.S. forces in western Iraq said American troops were redoubling efforts to secure the Syrian border, which he called an "uncontrolled" gateway for fighters entering Iraq.

A Syrian government statement said the helicopters attacked the Sukkariyeh Farm near the town of Abu Kamal, five miles inside the Syrian border. Four helicopters attacked a civilian building under construction shortly before sundown and fired on workers inside, the statement said.

The government said civilians were among the dead, including four children.

I'm not sure if this is supposed to help John McCain by playing to the delusion that far too many Americans have that Senator Bomb Bomb Iran is somehow stronger on foreign policy and national security and refocusing attention on the Middle East instead of pocketbook issues, or if it's designed to do the presidential equivalent of burning Tara and sowing every acre with salt before allowing Jonas Wilkerson and Emmie Slattery to live there. Regardless of the motivation, the end result is that if, as it appears barring continued voting machine vote-flipping in swing states, a successful effort by the Justice Department to overturn the Supreme Court's decision on Ohio voter registration, and successful suppression of new voters, Barack Obama wins this election, the Bush Administration is bound and determined to exit with far more mischief than pulling keys off of computer keyboards.

The amazing impromptu dinner party

The dangerous thing about having friends as greedy as you is that food is never far from the topic of conversation.So even before we had finished swallowing the last mouthfuls of our oyster picnic at Mooney Mooney, hands rubbing our distended and protesting bellies packed solid with oysters, sushi, cous cous, salad, meatballs, quiche, cheese and spinach triangles, grilled octopus, banana cupcakes

Your Sunday Cute Overload

Budding reporter Damon Weaver, a Florida fifth-grader:

Note how Joe Biden actually KNOWS what the Vice President does "ivry dee."

Letter From a Wingnut, 2012

Can't you smell the Republican flop sweat in the air? You can just stick out your tongue and drink the desperation from James Dobson's snake handlers that drenches the air like summer humidity. And Republicans of all agendas understand that when all else fails, when your boob who's currently on the stump can suck a baseball through 100 feet of garden hose, you can always fall back on bigotry and homophobia. Huzzah for fear!

From some geniuses over at Focus on the Family Action comes "Letter From a Christian 2012 in Obama's America." It can be found in a .pdf format here if you can stand to be in James "Last of the Dog Beaters" Dobson's official website. It's been burning up the right side of the blogosphere through emails and has been generously linked on worthy sites such as World Nut Daily and WomenforPalin.

This science fiction scenario that's worthy of gold medal-winning psychopath Tim LaHaye proposes these changes under an Obama presidency:

* Six liberal justices sit on the Supreme Court after the immediate resignation of John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the later resignations of Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy.
* Homosexual marriage has been ruled a constitutional right that must be respected by all 50 states.
* The Boy Scouts have disbanded rather than obey a decision forcing them to allow homosexual scoutmasters. (The Scouts already had been kicked out of public facilities because of an expansion of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to cover people who engage in homosexual behavior.)
* Elementary schools have compulsory training in varieties of gender identity. Courts rule parents cannot opt out their children, because the training is deemed essential to psychological health.
* Evangelical and Catholic adoption agencies cease to exist after the Supreme Court rules they must agree to place children with homosexuals or lose their licenses.
* Church buildings are now considered a "public accommodation" by the United States Supreme Court, and churches have no freedom to refuse to allow their buildings to be used for wedding ceremonies for homosexual couples.
* High schools are no longer free to allow "see you at the pole" meetings where students pray together or any student Bible studies even before or after school.
* The Supreme Court barred public schools in all 50 states from allowing churches to rent their facilities, even on Sundays, when school was not in session.
* Obama signed the Freedom of Choice Act, as he promised the Planned Parenthood Action Fund last year, nullifying hundreds of state laws that had created even the slightest barrier to abortion.
* The Supreme Court in 2011 nullified all Federal Communications Commission restrictions on obscene speech or visual content in radio and TV broadcasts, and television programs at all hours of the day now contain explicit portrayals of sexual acts.
* As a result of a reversal of its 5-4 decision in the D.C. gun-ownership case, it is now illegal for private citizens to own guns for self-defense in eight states, and the number is growing with increasing Democratic control of state legislatures and governorships
* Parents' freedom to teach their children at home has been severely restricted nationwide after the Supreme Court followed the legal reasoning of a Feb. 28, 2008, ruling by the Second District Court of Appeal in California.

Throw in the destruction of right wing hate radio through the "Fairness Doctrine" and Obama's campaign promise to get us out of Iraq once and for all within the first 16 months of his administration resulting in terrorists pouring into Iraq from Iran and Syria and you have everything you need to know about how panicked the Christopaths are that there won't be a Palin/McCain administration.

Apparently, when Sarah Palin was cuckolded on McCain's dysfunctional campaign, everything that Dobson said about McCain last February suddenly was no longer relevant. Not the temper tantrums, the foul language, the stance on issues that McCain still hasn't gotten around to reversing.

Sarah Palin has once again made John McCain look respectable enough to be our next Commander in Chief, civilized him, made him godly enough to pass muster on the seedy starboard side of the tracks.

And then, once McCain was successfully reinstalled closer to heaven, it was time to attack Obama in the 11th hour of this election. It was time for a hypothetical scenario in which the Boy Scouts voluntarily disbanded rather than sleeping with homosexual scoutmasters.

Gay marriage will be foisted off on all 50 states, in spite of the fact that both Obama and Biden have categorically stated that they're both against gay marriage.

The only welcome prophecies in this unbelievable screed is the end of right wing hate radio and the resignation of Antonin Scalia.

This 16 page screed left my brain number than an Inuit's nuts during a cold snap. If you dare, click on the link above and read the thing in full if you feel like giving yourself a literary lobotomy. This is sheer wingnuttery at its finest and well worth keeping in mind four years from now when Obama runs for reelection.

Obama votes are disappearing in the south and swing states. Where the hell are the lawyers?

Does the Democratic Party care about the votes that are being switched in early voting? Does the Obama campaign? Or are they too busy celebrating a landslide that hasn't even happened yet?

Brad Friedman has been on top of the voting issue for the last four years. You'd think that the Democrats would have woken the hell up already.

But you'd be wrong:

The following report, of another Obama vote lost, comes from Nashville (Davidson County, TN), as did the similar one last week. ES&S iVotronic touch-screen voting machines failing again, harming Democrats each time. The same machines are failing in one county and state after another, are still in use, haven't been impounded, and voters still do not get to vote on paper ballots.

The "thousands of attorneys" from Obama and the DNC are still completely AWOL.

From the Tennessean...

Tracey Hudson's voting attempt at the Edmondson Pike Library ended with her in tears. The machine malfunctioned and didn't let her see the ballot, but a poll worker told [her] she had voted.

"I was robbed," Hudson said Friday.

...

"I hit the button to go to the ballot and there was a flash," she said, adding that the screen went blank, then returned to the main menu. "I didn't see the ballot to actually choose anything."

She asked a poll worker for help, but the person insisted she had voted and told her to "move on." Hudson said she had been looking forward to voting for Barack Obama.

Have we mentioned that the "thousands of attorneys" from Obama and the DNC are still completely AWOL?

Quick links to our previous coverage, of similar incidents, in at least three other states, follows --- along with a quick list from experts about what you need to do (since Obama and the DNC apparently won't) when/if you have a similar problem with a touch-screen voting machine...

Links, and much more, here.

Since the Democratic Party and the Obama campaign obviously don't give a shit whether your vote counts, you're on your own to make sure it is.

=sigh=

I'm getting so tired of having to share this beautiful country, founded on the idea of freedom and opportunity, with ignorant, hateful people like these.

(h/t Drifty -- I think.)

Alaska is the biggest welfare state in the country

I wonder if all those Joe Sixpacks who are planning to vote for John McCain because their pappy didn't fight in World War II so they could vote for a nigra (sic) and because they get a hard-on from Sarah Palin's aging-prom-queen-as-dominatrix persona ever think, while they're screaming at Republican rallies about tax cuts for "lazy people on welfare" (a concept that's getting about as tired as Dr. Suresh's metamorphosis into Jeff Goldblum in The Fly on HEROES), about what the state run by their fantasy object.

Because the more we read about Alaska, the more we see that for all the railing against Washington pork, the more we see Alaska as the sparerib capital of the world. Because the amount of pork given to Sarah Palin's Queendom gets more astounding every day (or "ivry dee", as the Queen of Mean herself might say):

Just 0.7 miles long, Crow Creek Road isn't a road to nowhere. It runs straight to the Double Musky Inn, a Cajun bistro owned by a Bob Persons, a close friend of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens.

It cost taxpayers $2.7 million to widen and pave that road, and Alaska had higher priorities. But an Associated Press examination of government e-mails and interviews with state transportation officials found that Stevens moved the project to the front of the line.

Persons, owner of the popular watering hole where the Republican senator frequently dines, testified as a defense witness this month in Washington, D.C., where Stevens is on trial for corruption.

"This is a classic pork barrel project," said David Williams, a vice president for policy at Citizens Against Government Waste. "It's like 'Hey, if you're my buddy, I'll just get you a few million dollars and make you a road to your restaurant.' "

Details of the Crow Creek deal emerged as Stevens awaits a verdict in his trial. He is charged with lying on Senate financial disclosure forms about gifts, including more than $250,000 in home improvements to his cabin, not far from the Double Musky.

Trial testimony indicated that Stevens granted Persons power of attorney to guide the home renovation. Among the many presents Stevens is charged with concealing is a nearly $2,700 massage chair from Persons. Stevens says the chair was a loan. But his explanation of why he kept it in his house for seven years led to one of the more awkward exchanges of his testimony.

Telephone messages left at Persons' home and the restaurant were not returned.

John McCain likes to trumpet how Palin "took on the establishment" in her own state to present her as a reformer. But given what we know about her willingness to trade a house for herself and her family for a sports complex contract while mayor of Wasilla, her hiring of cronies for government jobs, and of course her new designer wardrobe provided courtesy of Republican camapign donors, that her "reform" credentials are as bogus as her claims to be a frugal hockey mom. And while the road in the above article is associated with Ted Stevens, Palin was perfectly OK with sucking up to Stevens when it was in her interest to do so, serving as a director of Stevens' 527 group.

And as it turns out, Palin isn't above using a bit of Stevens' rather loose ethical code when it means goodies for herself either. It seems that "donating the clothes to charity" doesn't get Palin off the hook with the IRS. Jake Tapper:

I just got off the phone with a well-respected and well-known tax attorney who doesn't want to be identified.

I asked him earlier in the day whether Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin can avoid paying taxes on the $150,000 worth of clothes the RNC bought her, as she and the RNC maintain. (They said the RNC now owns the clothes; she's just borrowing them.)

He said that, after consulting with a number of experts at his prominent firm, he thinks the RNC and Gov. Palin are wrong.

"It's probably not a 'gift,'" he said. "The issue is whether it counts as 'income.'"

Palin's claim that the pricey duds belong to the RNC and she's just "borrowing" them and will return them later, reminds him, he says, of some of the issues going on in the prosecution of Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. (Some of the issues, he specified, not the allegations of criminality.)

"This is exactly the issue with the Stevens case," he said. "When you loan something to someone can you call it a 'loan' if, upon its return, it has no practical value?

"The consensus view is she would have to count the wardrobe as income at least in the amount of the fair value of the rental of the wardrobe," he said.

He added that the law is clear that uniforms -- "big brown suits with your name on them" -- don't qualify as income, but it would be hard to make the argument that fancy dress suits from Saks Fifth Avenue and Nieman Marcus are a uniform.

Sunday Big Blue Smurf Blogging: What They Said

Today's honoree: the always must-read Lower Manhattanite, who puts his own cut-the-bullshit take on Sarah Palin's new wardrobe and how it is a microcosm of the Republican thought process.

Money quotes:

We live in a fashion-conscious culture where the public watches “Project Runway”, and has an inkling about what things cost. A culture where “What Not To Wear” is known down to the level of the amount contestants are given to spend to re-vamp their wardrobe—approximately $5,000—three percent of what Sarah Palin dropped on her sprees at Neiman-Marcus and Macy's. It also resonates with people because of that annoying, mosquito-like flitting bugaboo called hypocrisy. Palin has spent her more etmyologically lucid moments prattling on about her “Hockey Mom”-ishness, her so-called folksiness and ability to connect with the “common folk”—a dumpster-load of talk of Johnny Lunchpails, Joe Six-packs and Plumbers, and the Susie Housecoats, and Sally Run-in-her-stockings who gosh-you-betcha make Amurrrka, “Amurrrrka”. Fred-the-this, Jane-the that. Everyone but Kiddie TV's “Bob The Builder” and Good Times' “Ned The Wino”. Palin's attempt to play at populism is given a big, Fat Bastard-sized lie when this supermarket spree she went on is looked at just a little bit.

Where in the Wide World Of Sports is Lady Lynn Forrester De Rothschild with her Swarovski-encrusted hammer of fury at elitism over this bullshit? Michelle Obama goes on “The View” in a $200 dollar dress available at an online store, and she's an elitist? But Sarah Palin goes buck-wild like a dollar sign-eyed Wilma Flintstone, running down a Bedrock street with her arms piled high with Mastodon furs while yelling “Cha-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-rrrrrrrge it!”, and she claims she's the one you more easily can see handing cups of Sunny Delight to your kids off the back porch?

Nanook, please.

and

$150,000 is a lot of money any damn time. But when Americans are seeing their retirement money burn and ember away, as their present job becomes a waiting game for that dreaded unscheduled Tuesday “organizational meeting” to come, that kind of expenditure ain't never gonna wash. And the “we're going to give the stuff to charity” after--the-exposure dodge is just that. If you think Sarah Palin had any intention of giving so much as one thread of those vines back, I have a lovely fucking bridge in Alaska to sell you, with one end moored to the land, and the other trailing off into the fog of Limbo City, Population: Zero. See, this ain't the first time missy's hooked a vacuum cleaner up to a money-swollen teat and sucked it all away for herself. She's been illegally duking the state of Alaska out of gobs of Benjamins for flying her loved ones all over the place for non-governmental events. She finagled a way to get the builders of Wasilla Sports Complex arena to build her a new house too, on the down-low and pretty much gratis. So spare us the pity about her P.R.-hyped financial predicaments and hardscrabbble background and how in the end, she's just a poor, scuffling “Hockey Mom”. She's a Grade-A chiseler and knows exactly what she's doing when she signs on for every little perk she can grab. I mean...a Louis Vuitton bag for her seven year old? While folks are Coinstar™-ing stray change from their seat cushions to expand their household budgets?

“Hockey Mom”, my ass.

That's how good LM is. He even knew that when I was laid off, the "mandatory departmental meeting was on a Tuesday. Maybe HE should run.

Saturday Morning Toonz

"Ha! Ha! Ha!", 1934:

74 years later, the Fleischer Brothers can still make my jaw drop at just how twisted they were.

This almost makes having had to endure those ads eight years ago worth it

Great stuff via Sam Seder:

Oh, fer cryin' out loud

These wingnuts really are unbelievable.

First Ashley Todd was the innocent flower of snowy white virginal Republican Christian womanhood defiled by the Negro Savage™, and now that her story didn't fly, and she's outlived her usefulness to the wingnuts, now she's an Obama plant.

It's so tempting to laugh at these people, except that they are deadly serious. For eight years they insisted that liberals were gutless wusses, until someone showed up in a T-shirt showing an image of George W. Bush and a mushroom cloud. Then suddenly we were threats to the life of Our Holy President. But here we have a bunch of peope who worship before the altar of the Almighty Gun, some of whom have actively called for the murder of Barack Obama, and these are the hoops they're jumping through in order to keep their frightened, hateful, lunatic worldview alive.

If Barack Obama manages to prevail through all this insanity, we have about five minutes to quaff a chardonnay in his honor. Then we've got to spend every waking hour for the next (hopefully eight) year protecting him from these people.

Is "lunatic racism" going to make it into the DSM-V?

Wow. You know, I try to avoid wingnut sites, but I just couldn't resist the urge to click over to this one.

Note the "Edgar Cayce prediction" in the right-hand sidebar.

If people got visits from Secret Service for wearing anti-Bush T-shirts, why isn't this guy getting one for "predicting" the assassination of Barack Obama?

Let's just remember people like David Leazenby when Sarah Palin announces her candidacy for the Republican 2012 nomination on November 5. Because he and others like him are her minions.

Oyster Saturday at Mooney Mooney

Freshly shucked oystersThe G-man likes oysters. A year after our first trip to Mooney Mooney, the G-man was clamouring for a return visit.We could think of no reason to refuse.Les Wadham OystersOur bivalve-loving motorcade made its way towards the Hawkesbury, shack number ten, by Les Wadham, firmly in our sights. Imagine our horror when we discovered the shack was closed!Disaster was averted when

Bush Administration signals it will intervene in election if necessary

I guess the Bush Administration has interpreted the Constitution to provide for the King...uh..."president"...to appoint his successor regardless of pesky things like voters:

President Bush is asking the Justice Department to look into whether 200,000 Buckeye State poll-goers must use provisional ballots on Election Day because their names do not match state databases.

White House spokesman Carlton Carroll confirmed Friday that the president will forward a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey from House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), requesting that the Justice Department look into whether the state’s voter rolls comply with the Help America Vote Act.

In a letter dated on Friday, the House GOP leader wrote that with Election Day “less than two weeks away, immediate action by the Department is not only warranted, but also crucial.”

“I respectfully request that you use your authority to direct Attorney General Michael Mukasey and the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate these actions and direct the appropriate authorities in each state to comply with the Section 303 requirements of HAVA,” Boehner wrote.

“Unless action is taken by the Department immediately, thousands, if not tens or hundreds of thousands, of names whose information has not been verified through the HAVA procedures mandated by Congress will remain on voter rolls during the November 4, 2008 election; and there is a significant risk — if not a certainty, that unlawful votes will be cast and counted.”

Meanwhile, U.S. attorneys have been fired for not investigating so-called "voter fraud" that never existed, and not once has any of these Republicans who think that "Help America Vote" only applies to what they regard as "Real America" (read: REPUBLICAN America) ever cited even ONE actual case since they started braying about "voter fraud" in 2000, of anyone who wasn't registered or who wasn't eligible to vote actually succeeding in voting. This is a manufactured "issue" designed to play into the fears of Red America about hordes of brown-skinned people flocking to the polls to vote their own interests instead of the interests of White America™ -- as if people's interests somehow diverge with skin color.

Quick Hits and Countdown to Election Wierdness...Marc Maron at Comix in NYC...

If American life lacks the punch of a reality show to the point that we demand larger than life puppets as candidates for our highest office these days; if Jerry Springer-esque family drama played out in oil wrestling is the thing we need to fill our check-out-line reading needs; maybe we shouldn't be so fucking surprised that we pay to fully costume the actresses and actors and that the production companies...er...campaigns stand on the sidelines with the storyboard and airbrush machine at the ready. No such luck for the McCain campaign which history may look at as really a night course in performance art 101 taught by some agitprop group found in Washington Square Park. It seems impossible that any professional politicos could have run thigns exactly this badly without it being part of some sorta joke. But then, the delusional current administration did at some point drink their own koolaid and after all that inmates/asylum stuff blows over, it will be anyone's guess if we can ever untangle what part of the nightmare thats gonna lave quite a hangover in this country for a long time to come. Whats left to hope for? Well, I hope that my son might be captured by Obama's hope thing in the way that I was captured by Jimmy Carter and before that the Kennedys, when I was a kid. Maybe he can feel some feeling of being able to shape the destiny of his world before the reality comes crashing in.

Sarah Palin may well be looking towards 2012, and for the appetites of the wingnut fringe, the ongoing Palin saga should be a great diversion while Obama races to deconstruct all that the Bushies have put in place. This, my friends, is not a joke. It would behoove us to keep the lunatic fringe that Palin will lead back underground with her in mind because if we don't there wont be any excuse. I tell myself that its gonna be a good time for me to pull back from politics and to try to work with birds and just be happy...but really, its probably not going ot be possible in the long run. I can always hope though, cant I?

With an unbelievable eleven days to go, Rachel Maddow is taking over the TV-box cable ratings game with her MSNBC show, proving that even a network run my the M$M has to listen when ratings talk. The American people surely have made it clear that they want liberal voices out there, and Rachel has risen to the top on sheer intelligence and star power. Its been fantastic to watch her rise. Tonight Keith Olbermann had Sam Seder on to punditize about snarky republicans spinning Obama's break to see his grandma into some sort of air mile thievery. Sammy immediately turned that silliness into how sick McInsane is in his cold assessment of "the life of the mother" being important in the abortion issue, spotlighting how fucking cold the radical right can be when dealing with real people as opposed to test tubes of cells....and how cold McCain is in general as he would say anything to get a few more votes. This delighted me because no one is better than Sam at pointing out wingnuttia in terms that draw us all together, along with Obama, shaking our heads in disbelief at the silliness of the children in their pretend world.

It occurred to me tonight that with Rachel rising, Sam is going to be moving into the spotlight more and more. At the same time, Seder and Marc Maron are breaking ground with their web based daily live show, Maron v. Seder 3PM EST, M-F, here. Maron is currently traveling cross country with the UK Guardian and talking to a remarkable array of people from all walks of life showing us the front lines in America up close and personal. Of course, Marc also has his way of pulling even the most far-out survivalists close, and helping us to see their humanity if not really understand it. Looking at our ever morphing culture along with Marc makes it all a little more bearable...and seeing things like the plight of homeless veterans standing on line for services with our own eyes is jarring and sad. This is merely a small glimpse of what the future will be like as we pull out of Iraq and the Guardian and Air America are doign a great thing by showing us some unvarnised truths. Maron v. Seder should be on cable or even network TV...I think that they would have to tone it down for network, so it probably belongs on HBO, Showtime, or FX, daily. In any case, look for Maron to also start turning up on Olbermann etc, as he is a tremendously smart commentator with a gift for explaining issues from angles that touch on everyday people while not being so wonky as to over intellectualize them.

Lucky New Yorkers will have the opportunity to see Maron on Friday the 24th and Sat the 25th at Comix in NYC...I'll be there at some point, tho I'm not sure which show yet...I'm in transit again from CT to NYC, and everything is in flux, as usual. Come on down and see our traveling correspondent in his element...its always fun, and Comix is a nice place. Its gonna be a rainy Saturday in NYC, and you know, I love me some weather...

See ya there!

c/p RIPCoco

Warning: Political contributions to Democrats may put a security hold on your credit card

No, I am not joking. Tonight I got a message from Bigass Bank asking me to call to verify charges that had put a security hold on my credit card account. I called Bigass Bank back, and got an overly-friendly young man who was clearly in Bangalore congratulating me on my vigilance in ensuring the integrity of my account. When I told him to cut the crap and just tell me what the flagged charges were, he cited four charges: One was to Skype for a three-month subscription to the service's unlimited calls to 36 countries that I need for those 2:30 AM teleconferences with my team China, Australia and Korea. One was for Maggie's echocardiogram at the vet (her ticker is fine, thanks for asking -- what appeared to be a heart murmur is a high-pitched sound that is not uncommon when cats are stressed, LIKE WHEN YOU HAVE TO RUSH THEM TO THE EMERGENCY VET BECAUSE THEY'VE BEEN GNAWING ON FRIGGIN' MOUSE BAIT, as we had to last summer). And then there were two charges for donations to "Obama for America" and "Franken for Senate."

Look, I'm all for vigilance on the part of the credit card companies to keep both their losses and my hassles to a minimum if my card number is stolen. Capital One does an especially job of striking a balance OK, I can buy that the Skype purchase might flag something. But a charge to "The Vet at the Barn"? I frankly think that Bigass Bank is flagging cards containing political contributions to Democrats for "security holds".

So there's only one thing I can do. Make donations this weekend to Darcy Burner, a progressive Democrat running for Congress in Washington state who really needs the money in these last days before the election and Scott Kleeb, who's running a close Senate race in Nebraska. And Dennis Shulman right here in my own Congressional district. And maybe I'll kick in another few bucks for Franken.

Let's see if they flag my card again.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE: OK, now I want to know how many of you have experienced holds after making political donations to Democrats. Commenter Kiterea and Minstrel Boy have both had holds put on their accounts after making political donations. If this has happened to you, please describe your experience in the comments.

Susan Smith's kids weren't kidnapped by a black man either.

Remember Susan Smith? She's the South Carolina woman who in 1994 rolled her car into a lake with her two young children inside because the man with whom she was having an affair didn't want a "ready-made" family. Then she claimed that her children had been kidnapped by a black man. Wingnut icon Newt Gingrich blamed liberals:

In Gingrich's view the real cause of Susan Smith's act was not Susan Smith; she was just the "efficient cause" in the Aristotelian sense. The formal cause was the 60's -- liberalism, the Great Society, the counterculture -- and the amoral social ethic they supposedly produced. It wasn't Susan Smith who pushed the Mazda into the lake; it was George McGovern.

Later on, it turned out that Smith had been sexually abused by her stepfather from the time she was fifteen. Beverly Russell was a Christian Coalition county chairman.

Charles Stuart and his wife weren't carjacked by a black man either. On October 23, 1989, Stuart and his pregnant wife Carol went to childbirth class and on the way home. Stuart claimed that a raspy-voiced black man had robbed them, shooting Carol in the head and Stuart himself in the stomach. Stuart later identified a black man, Willie Bennett, as the attacker, and Bennett might have gone to jail for life for a crime he didn't commit, given the media frenzy about the case, had not Stuart's own brother Matthew not had a conscience and confessed to helping Charles Stuart commit insurance fraud by killing Carol. Charles Stuart committed suicide before he could be arrested and tried.

And Ashley Todd was not attacked a black male Barack Obama supporter at an ATM who then carved a "B" into her face because he was enraged at her McCain bumper sticker.

How sick and demented a wingnut do you have to be in order to this to yourself as a political stunt?



You would think that after all these years, and all the cases like that of Susan Smith and Charles Stuart, we wouldn't see the rush to judgment every time someone white claims to have been attacked by a black man. But of course the usual suspects (with the surprising and notable of Michelle Malkin, to whom I will give props for once for smelling a rat when only an idiot wouldn't smell one) were of course frothing at the mouth about the hatemongers in the Democratic Party, especially those Scary Negroes™ who would assault (including sexually, of course -- Mayella Ewell lives!) a poor defenseless flower of white womanhood.

I would be willing to feel that this woman is more to be pitied than censured, because after all, as I said, how sick do you have to be to cut your own face to try to influence people to not vote for a black man? Except that the McCain campaign jumped on this and tried to make hay out of it, as Greg Sargent noted:

John McCain's Pennsylvania communications director told reporters in the state an incendiary version of the hoax story about the attack on a McCain volunteer well before the facts of the case were known or established -- and even told reporters outright that the "B" carved into the victim's cheek stood for "Barack," according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions.

John Verrilli, the news director for KDKA in Pittsburgh, told TPM Election Central that McCain's Pennsylvania campaign communications director gave one of his reporters a detailed version of the attack that included a claim that the alleged attacker said, "You're with the McCain campaign? I'm going to teach you a lesson."

Verrilli also told TPM that the McCain spokesperson had claimed that the "B" stood for Barack. According to Verrilli, the spokesperson also told KDKA that Sarah Palin had called the victim of the alleged attack, who has since admitted the story was a hoax.

The KDKA reporter had called McCain's campaign office for details after seeing the story -- sans details -- teased on Drudge.

The McCain spokesperson's claims -- which came in the midst of extraordinary and heated conversations late yesterday between the McCain campaign, local TV stations, and the Obama camp, as the early version of the story rocketed around the political world -- is significant because it reveals a McCain official pushing a version of the story that was far more explosive than the available or confirmed facts permitted at the time.

The claims to KDKA from the McCain campaign were included in an early story that ran late yesterday on KDKA's Web site. The paragraphs containing these assertions were quickly removed from the story after the Obama campaign privately complained that KDKA was letting the McCain campaign spin a racially-charged version of the story before the facts had been established, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.

The sickness that infects the Republican Party, and the McCain/Palin supporters who believed this crap, is so deep that I don't think the patient can be saved. It is the kind of sickness that we've already seen from the devolution of John McCain into a raging, angry, vindictive, hateful gargoyle and the lunatic, delusional idiocy of Sarah Palin, and that we now see in their supporters: