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, miltary, 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.

Great thanks to Scout Prime for the link.

Comrade Misfit:

...

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.

...

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.

There, I'm better now ...

Rosa Brooks

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.

TPM TV

"We Got 'Em Just Where We Want 'Em" - George Armstrong Custer John McCain

Steve Young

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.

More on West Hollywood here.

*Do not google up 'notorious gay hangouts of the '60s in W. Hollywood' unless you have plenty of time! It is apparently defunct.

Via Maru. There are supporters:

... 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?

He'll be here for 12 more days. Try the veal ...

Who were thinking of voting for McCain, this is the crux of the biscuit:

... 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.

Mark Morford

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.

Much more. Enjoy.

25 (mostly) cool pumpkin carvings and one really fuckin' scary one. Oh, the horror...

Think Progress

“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.

Think Progress follows up on Fixer's post:

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.

A good cut out of a post at HuffPo:

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.

Listen.

A little 'Zydeco for Obama'. It'll make ya feel good. Let's hope we can all 'fais do do!' on 5 November!


Music and Lyrics copyright 2008 Dirk Powell, Crying Bayou Music, BMI

Filmed at the Whirlybird in Opelousas, Louisiana

Musicians: Dirk Powell, Christine Balfa, Jeffrey Broussard, Zydeco Joe Citizen, Corey "L'il Pop" Ledet, and Linzay Young

Photos Courtesy of Creative Commons

As we say here, if the Rethugs are complaining about it, they must be doing it themselves. Via Cookie Jill, before you go vote, go here.

To 1968:

...

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.

...

'Cause you know how all them black folks get when they're pissed off. Quite unlike the Young Republicans of 2000:

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.

...

As Digby says:

...

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.

Well, Mrs. F doesn't shop in Saks:

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.

...

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.

Great thanks to Mr. Aravosis for the link.

ONN. Liquid alert!


John McCain Accidentally Left On Campaign Bus Overnight

Maru:

...

That's beautiful. McNutjob is even less popular than Chimpy von Cokespoon.

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 Times interview 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...

Much more. Enjoy.

This one goes out to the Preznit-in-Hiding.

Kos

From the Chicago Tribune's report last Friday:

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.

E & P Pub

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.

Because you're a vet, you might wanna see Bill Wolfrum first:

...

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.

Negative = Bad. To wit:

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."

...

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.

...

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.

...

Great thanks to Dr. Fez-head for the link.

I don't pay taxes?

...

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]

...

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:

The moment that Nico made Enduro Africa history.

Now that's more like it. Again, alcohol involvement is suspected. Heh.

Kos

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.

First the moron Beck, now a complicit war criminal.

Think Progress, links and comments.

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!

Think Progress, with links and comments.

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.

From Firedoglake on Will:

This morning on "This Week" George Will was asked what he thought about Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama.

His response?

Black, black, blackety-black black black blackety-black.

Crooks and Liars on Buchanan et al. Go see.

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.

Ironic Times

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.

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.

PhysioProf has it dead on. Fuck Colin Powell.

Athenae looks at how ugly the Rethugs are getting as they stare defeat in the face:

...

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.

...

I should not be allowed to sit in front of this thing too long. I feel like Hal after Dave undid about forty screws - I think my mind is going...

Warning: Do not even think about drinking anything while this is playing!

Starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel as we transition the new construction into the original. And a how-to on cornice mouldings made from drywall.

The next chapter of Birthright is up at The Practical Press.

And a little rock n' roll for ya:

Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band - Feel Like A Number

This is from the Desert Rose Band Reunion Tour earlier this year. It's as close to heavy metal as I get.

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.




Thanks to rocketsdad7.

Update:

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.

Given the choice of toting a rifle in a combat zone or bangin' handlebars with yer buds, most sane young men will take the handlebars every time!

HuffPo

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 Day One.

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.

Update:



CBS News video here.

Here's an ol' gal I've been a fan of for almost (sob...) fifty years. She's been consistent in her outlook all this time too.

This is the second one today in Italian. Don't ask me why.

Milano 2008

Joan esegue la nota canzone di Steve Earle. Teatro Smeraldo, 11 ottobre 2008

Some of the Lyrics

I woke up this mornin' and none of the news was good
And death machines were rumblin' 'cross the ground where Jesus stood
And the man on my TV told me that it had always been that way
And there was nothin' anyone could do or say

But I believe there'll come a day when the lion and the lamb
Will lie down in peace together in Jerusalem

Not to be a smartass, but they could do that now. What matters is will they both get up. Not yet.

And there'll be no barricades then
There'll be no wire or walls
And we can wash all this blood from our hands
And all this hatred from our souls

It's a nice thought.

Nancy Pfotenhauer. Ick ...

Digby:

One of the most sickening things we have had to endure during this election season has been the sight of Wolf Blitzer sitting across a desk from Glenn Beck and "interviewing" him as if he weren't a cretinous, mouth-breathing, talk radio hack. So, it's good news that Beck is leaving for the far more lucrative wingnut welfare ghetto at Fox, where he belongs.

...

Amen and hallelujah! God what an asshole.

Even a blind pig finds an acorn sometimes. I was watching Emmylou videos and found The Tipsy Chicks in 'Related Videos' covering one of her songs. That led me to Lynn Drury, whom I hadn't heard of. I watched several of her vids and chose this one because I thought y'all might like it and, well, because I like sweaty girls. As in 'Don't sweat the petty stuff. Pet the sweaty stuff.'

Here's all ya need to know about her:

San Vito di Cadore Blues Festival

Cantautrice residente a New Orleans, Lynn Drury possiede uno stile e una tonalità vocale sensuale e potente che è stata accostata ad artisti quali Lucinda Williams, Bonnie Raitt, Rickie Lee Jones, Janis Joplin, e anche Norah Jones. Questa ragazza originaria del Mississippi si è affermata sulla scena musicale di New Orleans ed oltre, unendo le sonorità funky tipiche della città con le proprie radici rurali creando uno stile personale che esce da ogni facile classificazione. Lynn ha suonato al New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, al French Quarter Festival e attraverso tutto il sud degli Stati Uniti.

Her guitar picker is Roberto Luti. Enjoy.



Thanks to BonanzaJellybn.

Sulekha.com

Here is an interesting piece on the voting preferences of western Pennsylvanians who local Congressman John Murtha described matter-of-factly as racist. An excerpt:

So a canvasser goes to a woman's door in Washington, Pennsylvania. Knocks. Woman answers. Knocker asks who she's planning to vote for. She isn't sure, has to ask her husband who she's voting for. Husband is off in another room watching some game. Canvasser hears him yell back, "We're votin' for the n***er!"

Woman turns back to canvasser, and says brightly and matter of factly: "We're voting for the n***er."

In this economy, racism is officially a luxury. How is John McCain going to win if he can't win those voters? John Murtha's "racist" western Pennsylvania district, where this story takes place, is some of the roughest turf in the nation. But Barack Obama is on the ground and making inroads due to unusually strong organizing leadership.

Voters who still call black people niggers are unlikely to be abashed about stating their true voting preferences, so perhaps this Bradley effect people talk about is not as widespread as I fear it is.

Makes ya wanta laugh and cry at the same time, but I guess they can say what they want as long as they vote for him.

I have my own theory about the 'Bradley effect' that I haven't heard anywhere else. Here it is:

California is split into two culturally distinct regions, Northern California and Southern California. I was born and raised in the latter and now live in the former, about half my life spent in each. To a greater or lesser degree, the folks in NorCal are somewhat snobbish towards SoCal and look down their noses at it as being nekulturny. The fact that there is very little basis in fact for this is immaterial.

I think maybe there's a parallel between New York City and Upstate New York that's similar. I also think NY and CA have more in common than either would like to admit re the cultural divide between the fast talkin' city slickers and the dumbass country fucks. I've been both, so I ain't takin' sides! But I digress.

The folks in SoCal couldn't care less, are maybe not even aware of the Northerners' attitude. They think Frisco is, like, way cool. I think that pisses the NorCalians off even more.

Tom Bradley was a SoCal man, and I think he got beat out of the governorship by a negative reaction from NorCal voters as much as, maybe more than, by his skin color, as in, "Us superior beings up here ain't votin' fer no cultural barbarian from down there, nosiree! Won't do at all, ain't happenin'."

Yes, there are racists in California, just like everywhere. And just like everywhere, most of 'em are white. We are also a Pacific Rim melting pot, many skin shades, many languages (many delicious foods too!). I think you can take your driver's license exam in Tagalog if you need to, as well as many other languages. Watch a Chinaman, say, interact with a Sikh, say, after a fenderbender sometime, ostensibly in English. Heh. I'll take a large popcorn, please!

Just my take. Please comment.

Click to increase toxicity

Kos

We would love to give proper attribution for this sneak preview of the Bush Library, but it arrived, like so many others circulating by e-mail, absent of any clue as to authorship. Our thanks to the unknown originator, and special thanks to Betty Layport Feher for the glorious idea we’ve rendered above -- of housing the Bush Library in a FEMA trailer.

The Library will include:

Go see.

Videos too! Go see!

With all the Repug BS about ACORN, here's a little real voter registration fraud. LATimes.

Dozens of newly minted Republican voters say they were duped into joining the party by a GOP contractor with a trail of fraud complaints stretching across the country.

Voters contacted by The Times said they were tricked into switching parties while signing what they believed were petitions for tougher penalties against child molesters. Some said they were told that they had to become Republicans to sign the petition, contrary to California initiative law. Others had no idea their registration was being changed.

It is a bait-and-switch scheme familiar to election experts. The firm hired by the California Republican Party -- a small company called Young Political Majors, or YPM, which operates in several states -- has been accused of using the tactic across the country.

In Massachusetts, former YPM worker Angela McElroy testified at a legislative hearing in 2004that she had tricked voters into signing a ballot measure to ban gay marriage. She said she told voters they were signing in favor of a measure to allow alcoholic drinks to be sold in supermarkets.

I threw that paragraph in just because I was in a liquor store in Massachusetts once. I thought it was a supermarket. The place was effin' huge! We have nothing in California that compares. But we can get booze in our markets.

Local prosecutors are investigating the complaints, but where's the FBI in all this? Oh, that's right, they work for the Repugs. Too busy 'investigating' pretty much spurious allegations against the Democrats.

IOKIYAR.

Insane twit Michelle Bachmann thinks members of Congress should have the degree of their Americanism investigated. Haven't we been down this road? What's next; a call for Prohibition?

Great thanks to Watertiger for the vid.

Update:

Montag:

Sometimes Republicans are our best friends

And don't take my word for it, following the appearance of noted Republican scum puppy Michelle Bachmann on Hardball, her opponent Elwyn Tinklenberg received $438,346.57 in donations (probably higher now).

...

Keep talking, honey.

Rosa Brooks with today's recommended read.

Maybe most fun of all, we're getting to watch a steady procession of rats leaving the sinking GOP ship.

She rattles off a list of the usual suspects.

For liberals initially alarmed by McCain's brief post-convention poll bounce, this was fun. And as conservative disdain spread to the whole GOP ticket, the fun got even funner.

But enjoyable as it's been to watch conservatives flee from the GOP, something about all this leaves me feeling a little down. Because as the more respectable, literate conservatives distance themselves from the GOP, increasingly, the only ones left on the right are paranoid, rage-driven, xenophobic nuts. Bitter? You betcha! Twisted too! (my em)

Even for a liberal, it's painful to watch. Once, the GOP proudly claimed to be the "party of ideas." They weren't generally good ideas, it's true -- but they were ideas eloquently defended by men and women who believed it was their duty to study history, philosophy, science, economics and international relations and to do the intellectual heavy lifting needed to try to persuade smart people with different views to come around to their way of thinking. That was the GOP nurtured by conservative intellectuals such as William Buckley. Buckley was many things liberals didn't admire, but he wasn't ignorant, savage or stupid by choice.

But today, as the last few sober grown-ups leave the party, the visible face of the GOP increasingly looks like that of the people who shout "kill him!" when Obama's name comes up, who speak of black men they don't like as "uppity" or as "boys," who think you can't trust a Muslim or an Arab, who think talking about "Barack Hussein Osama" is witty and (I'm talking to you, Sarah Palin and John McCain) who claim Obama "pals around with terrorists."

This isn't really that funny anymore.

Watching it happen isn't really funny, well, OK, sometimes it is, but it's fun and we've got it coming after however many years of Repug mis-rule.

What's painful and disturbing is the low caliber of those the Repugs have left. With any luck they'll crawl back under their rocks 'til I'm past caring.