VP Debate ~~ Who Thinks they will be cancelled

I can't imagine these debates going on after the disaster of the Katie Couric interview. What excuse do you think they could use to cancel? I thought about maybe a sick kid, but, if you are a melanoma cell away from your hand on the button, your family would be second priority to your country. What excuse could they use to cancel?

I Almost Feel Sorry for Her

NOT:

This is actually pretty scary since some of the lines used are verbatim from the real interview:

Palin Is Ready? Please.

Well I don't mess with Fareed Zakaria:

Will someone please put Sarah Palin out of her agony? Is it too much to ask that she come to realize that she wants, in that wonderful phrase in American politics, "to spend more time with her family"? Having stayed in purdah for weeks, she finally agreed to a third interview. CBS's Katie Couric questioned her in her trademark sympathetic style. It didn't help. When asked how living in the state closest to Russia gave her foreign-policy experience, Palin responded thus:

"It's very important when you consider even national-security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America. Where—where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to—to our state."

There is, of course, the sheer absurdity of the premise. Two weeks ago I flew to Tokyo, crossing over the North Pole. Does that make me an expert on Santa Claus? (Thanks, Jon Stewart.)
The rest is here

Obama Tries to SCARE You!!

ALERT ~~ Missing Old Man

23/6:

Makes Me Feel Real Safe

From The Page:

McCain now boarding plane at DCA with Cindy, Salter, Rudy Giuliani, wife Judith, and other aides plus pool.

Heading to Memphis, 1:50 minute flight, then motorcade to site

General atmosphere is utter confusion.

It Must be Bad When......

Someone at the NRO's Corner writes this:

Kathleen Parker

“It was fun while it lasted.

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted. Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there’s not much content there.”

He "Blinked"

Ex-Adviser: McCain "Blinked," Campaign "Governed By Tactics, Not Ideology"

"It just proves his campaign is governed by tactics and not ideology," said Republican consultant Craig Shirley, who advised McCain earlier in this cycle. "In the end, he blinked and Obama did not. The 'steady hand in a storm' argument looks now to more favor Obama, not McCain."

Shirley added, "My guess is that plasma units are rushing to the McCain campaign as we speak to replace the blood flowing there from the fights among the staff."

Good God!

From the Fix:

McCain Wins Debate

Although the fate of tonight's presidential debate in Mississippi remains very much up in the air, John McCain has apparently already won it -- if you believe an Internet ad an astute reader spotted next to this piece in the online edition of the Wall Street Journal this morning.

"McCain Wins Debate!" declares the ad which features a headshot of a smiling McCain with an American flag background. Another ad spotted by our eagle-eyed observer featured a quote from McCain campaign manager Rick Davis declaring: "McCain won the debate-- hands down."

Judgment

Quote of the Day

"So McCain blinked. He said he would suspend his campaign until there was a deal. He did not suspend his campaign. He asked for the debate to be postponed till after the deal. There has been no deal and he has caved on the debate.

This is an unstable, vicious, partisan man unfit to be a senator at this point, let alone a president."

----Andrew Sullivan

The Great Schlep part Deaux

Sarah Silverman helps out

Witchcraft in the 21st Century

This is pretty disturbing to think Sarah Palin believes in the power of this guy who believes that witches still exist. Think of all the women who were killed or mutilated in former centuries after being branded a witch:

Time Out

Make That Two of Us

Paul Krugman:

The two striking things about the Paulson push since last Friday have been (1) demands for complete discretion, with zero accountability and (2) a complete refusal to explain the theory of the case — to explain why this thing is supposed to work, so that we can have an open discussion of whether he’s right.

Really think about it, we are a breath away from having a Democratic President with a Democratic Congress, all those things we have been wanting all those years for, like universal health care, more money for education, and everything else we dems stand for. There will be no money for all of that. I look at this like a Republican plan to stymie all of that. Call me a conspiracy theorist but there is something fishy about this.

Gettin' her Forin Pawlcy

Elitism Watch

From US Magazine:

John McCain, whose ads skewer Barack Obama for his "celebrity" status, has his own close ties to show business, the new issue of Us Weekly reports exclusively.

The 72-year-old was recently made TV-ready by makeup artist Tifanie White who's worked on So You Think You Can Dance and American Idol.

McCain paid the 2002 beauty-school grad $5,583.43 for her services, according to the Federal Election Commission.

New Letter redone and Sourced

Earlier this month I sent a letter to the editor written in satirical form in which I had reversed some facts in the life of Cindy and John McCain, replacing them with Michelle and Barack Obama. I was told the letter was to be printed and then a few days later The News Press called and reversed themselves on the printing of it. I was told that News Press readers didn’t understand satire, The News Press would be criticized and that my facts had to be sourced.

So here is what I wrote about along with sourcing and facts behind the original satirical piece:

1. John McCain is an adulterer who had left his former model first wife after returning home from Viet Nam and finding her crippled and disfigured from a car accident. Cindy McCain stole another woman's husband.

From News Leader.com Springfield, MO:

…..A romantic beginning to John McCain's relationship with Cindy Hensley, a 24-year-old former cheerleader and multimillionaire beer heiress. Only problem, John McCain was married to Carol, mother of his children. A beautiful tall, slender blonde model when he married her, Carol was severely injured in a car accident while he was in the war, which left her four inches shorter, gaining some weight, and needing crutches to walk. Cindy was not the first acknowledged extramarital affair of the conservative presidential candidate who admits to years of multiple sexual affairs, but she was the one he abandoned his wife of 14 years for.

John McCain lied when he wrote that he had separated from Carol before he began his sexual affair with Henley in the spring of 1979; court documents verify that he did not sue his wife for divorce until February 1980 and cohabited with her until January 7, 1980, during the first nine months of his adultery with Cindy…..

2. Cindy McCain became addicted to prescriptions drugs and stole drugs from a charity she had started for poor children:

From Salon.com News by Amy Sullivan:

How Cindy McCain was outed for drug addiction

….McCain admitted, she had stolen the drugs from the American Voluntary Medical Team, her own charity, and had been investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration….

3. Cindy McCain lied about Mother Theresa asking her to take two orphans from Bangladesh:

From Seattlepi.com by Frank Rich

…Nothing is too small or sacred for the McCain campaign to lie about. It was even caught (by The Christian Science Monitor) peddling an imaginary encounter between Cindy McCain and Mother Teresa when Cindy McCain was adopting her daughter in Bangladesh….

So the point of my original letter was that if any of this had been about Michelle and Barack Obama there would not be this silence from the press or cable. It would have been put on a video loop and run constantly from now until Election Day. But it seems that because John McCain is a former POW any other aspects of his life cannot be written or talked about.

And so News Press there are your facts, sourced like you asked. Now do you have the guts to print it?

gingersnapp

Silence

From Jake Tapper at ABC:

The woman seeking to be to a heartbeat away from the presidency without ever holding a press conference remains on the same relatively unaccountable path.

McCain-Palin campaign officials apparently feel the American people should trust her with the button and the world's financial markets without ever taking questions from reporters.

Elitism Comparison

Click to enlarge:

24 Days

But whose counting?

Washington Post:

JOHN McCAIN selected Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate 23 days ago......

Mr. McCain's selection of an inexperienced and relatively unknown figure was unsettling, and the campaign's decision to keep her sequestered from serious interchanges with reporters and voters serves only to deepen the unease. Mr. McCain is entitled to choose the person he thinks would be best for the job. He is not entitled to keep the public from being able to make an informed assessment of that judgment. Ms. Palin's speech-making skills are impressive, but the more she repeats the same stump speech lines, the queasier we get. Nor have her answers to the gentle questioning she has encountered provided any confidence that Ms. Palin has a grasp of the issues.

How Embarrassing is This?

Bush approval rating:

19%

Pants on Fire

Andy asks a Question

From the NYT:

At the insistence of the McCain campaign, the Oct. 2 debate between the Republican nominee for vice president, Gov. Sarah Palin, and her Democratic rival, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., will have shorter question-and-answer segments than those for the presidential nominees, the advisers said. There will also be much less opportunity for free-wheeling, direct exchanges between the running mates.

McCain advisers said they had been concerned that a loose format could leave Ms. Palin, a relatively inexperienced debater, at a disadvantage and largely on the defensive.

and Andrew Sullivan asks:

Are you fucking kidding me? We are now rigging the debate formats to compensate for a know-nothing, mendacious Manchurian candidate drilled in meaningless talking points? And the Obama team agreed to this? And so did the press?

McCain 13 --- Obama 1

Cars that is:

When you have seven homes, that's a lot of garages to fill. After the fuss over the number of residences owned by the two presidential nominees, NEWSWEEK looked into the candidates' cars. And based on public vehicle-registration records, here's the score. John and Cindy McCain: 13. Barack and Michelle Obama: one.

Questions for Palin

These are from Matt Damon:

1. Do you believe dinosaurs walked the earth 4,000 years ago?

2. Did you try to ban books from your local library as mayor?

Mine:

3. What books did you want banned?

4. Would you want my daughter prosecuted for an abortion if she had been raped?

5. Do you believe that money that is used by countries to help stop global warming is being
wasted?

6. Do you believe in separation of church and state?

7. Would you like to see Griswold overturned?

8. What is your opinion of Blue Laws?

9. Do you believe embryonic stem-cell research should be federally funded?

10. Do you believe embryonic stem-cell research should be privately funded?

11. Do you think homosexuality is a choice?

How Cool is This?

From Tapped:

SCHLEPPERS FOR OBAMA.

In one of the most far-reaching events in Jewish history since the Destruction of the Second Temple, an organization called the Jewish Council for Education and Research which is a pro-Obama PAC, has announced that on Columbus Day weekend it will encourage young Jews to visit their grandparents in Florida and urge them to vote for Obama -- an activity that the organization has named, “The Great Schlep.” Participants, the organizers say, will “sign pledges to call their grandparents frequently during an Obama Administration.”

Is this Mishpoche Values, or what?

From Daily Kos:

$5,000 a Second

that is how much the War in Iraq is costing us.

I just heard Harry Reid on Ed Shultz's radio show say this. He said it was hard for the average American to fathom the cost when saying 10 billion a month, but in terms of $5,000 a second, every hour of every day of every year we are there. That is easy to understand.

That you George Bush!

Even More Embarrassing

From the Washington Monthly:

The Hill asked both Biden and Palin aides this fairly straightforward question. The Democrat didn't hesitate to offer a direct response. The Republican? Not so much.

"Unlike Dick Cheney, Joe Biden won't have to create a full employment plan for lawyers and scholars to clear up something that was unquestioned for about 200 years. The vice president is part of the executive branch, period. End of story," said Biden spokesman David Wade.

In turn, a spokesman for the Republican presidential campaign did not answer the question. Instead, he e-mailed remarks Palin gave at a campaign rally in Golden, Colo., on Monday.

Palin did not say what branch of government she believes the vice president's office is part of in those remarks.

This is Embarrassing

From Think Progress

CNN: Palin’s suggested oil export ban ‘not exactly easy to understand.’»

This afternoon on CNN, host Wolf Blitzer showed video from last night’s townhall with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK), in which Palin — whom McCain said “knows more about energy than…anyone else in the United States” — was asked how she would keep oil from new domestic drilling in the U.S. market. In a serious understatement, Blitzer called her answer “not exactly easy to understand.” Watch it:

As the law stands now, expanded domestic drilling would have no impact on U.S. gas prices precisely because “oil is a global commodity whose price is set by global supply and demand.” Is Palin calling for a total export ban?

Transcript:

“Oil and coal? Of course, it’s a fungible commodity and they don’t flag, you know, the molecules, where it’s going and where it’s not. But in the sense of the Congress today, they know that there are very, very hungry domestic markets that need that oil first,” Palin said. “So, I believe that what Congress is going to do, also, is not to allow the export bans to such a degree that it’s Americans that get stuck to holding the bag without the energy source that is produced here, pumped here. It’s got to flow into our domestic markets first.”

McCain, Keating and Greed

From Firedoglake:

Remember this great post bmaz did last week? Remember this really damning picture of McCain celebrating his birthday with Charles Keating, the villain of the last big taxpayer bailout of unrestrained Republican greed? Here's the article where bmaz got that photo (download the whole pdf from The Phoenix Sun Gazette, September 12, 1993).

Apparently, that's a picture and an article that have been all-but buried, until bmaz got a hold of it.

I guess McCain didn't want any proof out that there he's been helping big money rip off taxpayers for his entire career.

And that he looks like an idiot doing it.

Tell us again, Senator McCain, about your integrity and independence from the fat cats and lobbyists who cooked the laws that created this financial fiasco, or about your fitness to lead us out of it. I'm all ears.

Archie Bunker's Guy

Really, watching McCain try to talk about the economy made me think of this:

"And you knew who you were then,
Girls were girls and men were men,
Mister we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again."

He Invented the Blackberry

Welfare

Corporate that is. The way I see this thing is that it looks to me like no Republican can ever look a Democrat in the eye again and say they are against Socialism.

More of This Please

I heard this speech today and this part was GREAT:

"Yesterday, John McCain actually said that if he's president that he'll take on, and I quote, 'the old boys network in Washington.' Now I'm not making this up. This is somebody who's been in Congress for twenty-six years, who put seven of the most powerful Washington lobbyists in charge of his campaign. And now he tells us that he's the one who's gonna' to take on the old boys network. The old boys network? In the McCain campaign that's called a staff meeting. Come, on!"
- Barack Obama

Not the Foggiest Idea

You really have to wonder if this woman has the foggiest idea about anything:

"Fascist writer Westbrook Pegler, an avowed racist who Sarah Palin approvingly quoted in her acceptance speech for the moral superiority of small town values, expressed his fervent hope about my father, Robert F. Kennedy, as he contemplated his own run for the presidency in 1965, that "some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in pubic premises before the snow flies." It might be worth asking Governor Palin for a tally of the other favorites from her reading list," - Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

I Have One Question for Sarah Palin

I am bringing this back to the top because one other thought occurred to me today. I had forgotten this point about an Amniocentesis, there is a risk of actually hurting or even killing your baby during this procedure. Now I'm sure It is a lot more safe now than 20 years ago, but there is still a risk. Why would a pro life advocate choose this?


Being an older Mom when I had my last child and having partaken of an Amniocentesis and being of the liberal persuasion, I did have the procedure done during my last pregnancy at almost 40 years old. I really didn't think I would ever have had an abortion no matter what the results that came back. But since I was told I was having a perfectly healthy baby boy I will never know the choice I would have taken otherwise.

If Ms. Palin really believes that she would not choose abortion in any case scenario that the doctors doing the Ambio would present to her, my question is this:

Why did Sarah Palin have an Amniocentesis in the first place? Please someone in the news media ask her this question!

(note, you are not required to take the test, only suggested to you and you can make the decision)

Op-ed by Ron Reagan son of Ronald Reagan

This is probably one of the best op-eds I've read on the Sarah Palin fiasco, it embodies everything I think about the pick. If you have time read the whole piece. Here is a teaser:

Whatever John McCain may have been at various times during his long political career, he is now a man clearly consumed by his drive to reach the Oval Office. His choice of Palin as running mate may be the most reckless, irresponsible decision ever made by a presidential candidate. Having spent the preceding weeks accusing Barack Obama of valuing personal political success over the country’s welfare, McCain’s first presidential decision turned out to be a purely tactical gambit that could conceivably place our nation in the hands of an ill-prepared, radical-right, scientific illiterate whose primary qualification to be the ticket’s vice president is that she doesn’t have a penis. One can only wonder whether McCain guessed, as he made his choice, that Palin would steal his thunder on her way to becoming the Princess Diana of the Guns ‘n Ammo crowd, or whether he cared either way.

The full piece here

Quote of the Day

Sarah knows how to field-dress a moose. I know how to castrate a calf. Neither of those things has anything at all to do with this election. But since we know so much about Sarah’s special skills, I wanted to make sure you knew about mine too.
---Iowa Lt. Gov. Patty Judge (D)---

I think it is really odd that conservatives have this idea in their minds about liberals. Like they don't hunt or fish and are all snobs and elite. Actually that is one of the main reasons I became active in politics, watching Ann Coulter one day on TV telling me that I'm fat and on welfare and have had 10 abortions. It just angered me that the wingnuts throw out that kind of propaganda all the time.

I got my first rifle for Christmas when I was twelve. It was an Ithaca single shot boys rifle. It was the safest rifle on the market for a young person, as you had to load one shell at a time and it had to be cocked to shoot. I've probably shot more rabbits and squirrels than most wingnuts. I never shot a moose but what I shot was because my family was hungry and not for sport.

My Dad would drive our old beat up paneled pickup very slowly down a deserted country road at dusk with me on the hood with my rifle. Rabbits would jump out and the headlights would stop them in their tracks and I would pop them off, jump off the hood pick them up and throw them in the pickup. I found out in later years that hunting like that was really illegal. I'm sure my Dad knew that, but when your family is hungry you will do about anything.

At home my dad hung them by their back feet, then cut off their heads and let them bleed out. He would start the skin coming off and I would finish pulling it the rest of the way. Then came the gutting out. We would either cut them up for frying then or freeze them whole for later use. That was years ago but I think I could still dress a rabbit or squirrel if I had to.

And fishing is probably my favorite thing in the whole world to do. I caught my first fish when I was probably 4 or 5 and found out later my dad had put it on the hook when I wasn't looking. Now I don't get to go as much as I would like because no one else in my family loves it the way I do and I don't like going by myself, that just is no fun for me.

So there you have it a lefty liberal progressive, that knows how to hunt and fish.

Lies, Lies and More Lies

Deception

Lou Dobbs Racist

Apparently Old Lou thought 'dem 'dere waffles were might funny:



From Pam's House Blend:

CNN's Lou Dobbs stopped by the booth and exclaimed, "My wife will love this!"

Hmmm...why would the page on the Obama Waffles site linked above suddenly get pulled? After all, Lou Dobbs, a speaker at the Values Voter Summit, stopped by the vendor table to give a slamming endorsement of the product; it depicts Barack Obama as a Muslim bug-eyed Aunt Jemima. The photo, as you can see, shows an approving Dobbs with a box of the mix in his hand.

For those of you who may have missed yesterday's post, Mark Whitlock and Bob DeMoss, two aspiring Klansmen writers from Tennessee set up a booth sponsored by Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council to sell the Obama Waffles, asserting it was "political satire."

Liar

From Jake Tapper -- ABC News:

Dear Senator McCain

September 12, 2008 3:25 PM

Here is Gov. Palin's list of earmark requests from February 2008.

Will you please stop telling the American people that she never asked for or received any pork barrel projects?

Respectfully,

Jake

Pass it On

this:

Things that Make You Go HMMMM

"I have had a strong and a long relationship on national security, I've been involved in every national crisis that this nation has faced since Beirut, I understand the issues, I understand and appreciate the enormity of the challenge we face from radical Islamic extremism. I am prepared. I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training. I wasn't a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn't a governor for a short period of time," - Senator John McCain, October, 2007

Quote of the Day

She's a "cocky wacko,"

---former GOP Senator Lincoln Chafee on Sarah Palin---

Slimeballs, Sleaze and Vitriol

I watched Barack last night on David Letterman. While talking about 9/11 he praised Guiliani on how he handled the events of that horrific day. He always does this, I don't believe he has a hateful bone in his body.

I was sitting there thinking how can this guy always be so nice. This after the slime and sleeze that came out of Guilani's mouth at the RNC about him. The derivsion, the smirks, the vitriol thrown out that night. And Obama can calmly sit there and praise him?

Tonight he will be on stage with a man who has belittled, derided, lied about, and who has absolutely no qualms in saying anything hateful he can think of about him. He has no regard for Obama and has never said anything good or kind about him. Yet Obama will stand there and smile and praise and have nothing but kindness in his heart for this sleazy, slimy, mean spirted, vitriolic, hideous little man.

He can stand with the dirt and the grime, the sleaze and the slim and walk away as clean as new snow.

St. Joseph News Press are Cowards

In a reversal today I was told the following Letter to the Editor would not be printed. After mulling it over in their editorial room they feared a backlash from readers. They also told me that those same readers were too stupid to understand satire. I told them it was pretty cowardly call since I am the one who gets most of the backlash from the Wingnut readers of the paper:

Stop the presses, where is the “liberal” MSM on this: Michelle Obama steals Barack from first wife and children.

The MSM today seems to be hiding the fact that for seven months Michelle and Barack Obama had an affair, while Barack was still living with his first wife, daughter and two adopted sons.

While Barack was away from his first wife and children attending law school, she was involved in a horrible auto accident which left the former model inches shorter, pounds heavier and crippled.

Upon meeting the beauty Michelle, he fell in love and the two had an adulterous affair until his divorce with his deformed first wife, and were married a month later.
Why isn’t this being reported? Oh yes because the “liberal media” doesn’t want the public to know that Obama’s integrity, morality and values, may be questioned by the public.

Second wife Michelle became addicted to prescription painkillers and stole drugs from the charity she started, another MSM silence of reporting.

It has also been discovered that Michelle has apparently fabricated the story about Mother Theresa asking her to take two orphans from Bangladesh to the United States with her, which concluded with Mr. and Mrs. Obama adopting one of the girls. At the time of the adoption the drug controversy was in full swing and this seemed to take the sting out of the drug narrative.

What! I have my history wrong? Oh my gosh, this is really about John and Cindy McCain! Shhhh, you never heard any of this and no wonder our wonderful fourth estate stands in silence. I get it now. John McCain was in the military and a POW; you should never question his morals, integrity or values, not ever, ever, ever and never, never, never! As a matter of fact any questions on McCain should be treated as treason. The silence is almost deafening, as it should be.

Gingersnapp

Let's Talk about True Sexism Please

Unfit for Command

There are two guys out there that I trust beyond all others as to their perspectives on politics. They are David Gergen who was an adviser to both Democrats and Republican Presidents. The other is Andrew Sullivan, a Republican fed up with the status quo. I surely don't agree with them all the time but I do believe they are truth tellers who don't spin with stale talking points.

Sullivan has always been an admirer of McCain but here is Sullivan today:

For me, this surreal moment - like the entire surrealism of the past ten days - is not really about Sarah Palin or Barack Obama or pigs or fish or lipstick. It's about John McCain. The one thing I always thought I knew about him is that he is a decent and honest person. When he knows, as every sane person must, that Obama did not in any conceivable sense mean that Sarah Palin is a pig, what did he do? Did he come out and say so and end this charade? Or did he acquiesce in and thereby enable the mindless Rovianism that is now the core feature of his campaign?

So far, he has let us all down. My guess is he will continue to do so. And that decision, for my part, ends whatever respect I once had for him. On core moral issues, where this man knew what the right thing was, and had to pick between good and evil, he chose evil....

Read the rest here

Quote of the Day

Barack Obama addressing the "Lipstick on a pig" non-controversy:

"You know who ends up losing at the end of the day? It's not the Democratic candidate or the Republican candidate, it's you, the American people...I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies, and phony outrage, and Swift Boat politics. These are serious times and they call for a serious debate."

Countdown

Chris Matthews keeping track of the number of times Pitbull Palin Lies about the Bridge to Nowhere:

Wingnut Quiz

And This

From Josh Marshall at TPM

Unfit for High Office

...One of the interesting aspects of this campaign is watching the scales fall from the eyes of many of John McCain's closest admirers among the veteran DC press corps....

...But, let's face it, John McCain is running a campaign almost entirely based on straight up lies. Not just exaggerations or half truths but the sort of straight up, up-is-down mind-blowers we've become so accustomed to from the current occupants of the White House. And today McCain comes out with this rancid, race-baiting ad based on another lie. Willie Horton looks mild by comparison.....

....This is ugly stuff. And this is an ugly person. There's clearly no level of sleaze this guy won't stoop to to win this election.....

...But what is already apparent is that John McCain is running the sleaziest, most dishonest and race-baiting campaign of our lifetimes....

This is the ad both Joe Klein and Josh are talking about:

The Love Affair is Over

It may appear the love affair between John McCain and the press is over or at least on its "last throes"

Joe Klein of Time:

Apology Not Accepted

Back in 2000, after John McCain lost his mostly honorable campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, he went about apologizing to journalists--including me--for his most obvious mis-step: his support for keeping the confederate flag on the state house.

Now he is responsible for one of the sleaziest ads I've ever seen in presidential politics, so sleazy that I won't abet its spread by linking to it, but here's the McClatchy fact check.

I just can't wait for the moment when John McCain--contrite and suddenly honorable again in victory or defeat--talks about how things got a little out of control in the passion of the moment. Talk about putting lipstick on a pig.

Quote of the Day

After an ad that depicted Obama as wanting to teach kindergartners about sex:

"It is shameful and downright perverse for the McCain campaign to use a bill that was written to protect young children from sexual predators as a recycled and discredited political attack against a father of two young girls – a position that his friend Mitt Romney also holds. Last week, John McCain told Time magazine he couldn’t define what honor was. Now we know why."
...Obama Campaign

No Maverick

Let's all Hope So!

"The American people aren't stupid"
....Barack Obama

Now This is a Palin We Can Believe In!

The Same

Take off on "The One" ad:

Laugh of the Day

Quote of the Day

Speaking of Sarah Palin, she said she's a life-long member of the National Rifle Association. Which may explain why she's in favor of shotgun weddings."
--Conan O'Brien

Sexism and the Press

If you are a woman competing in a man's world you should have to pass all the tests both physical, mental and emotional that a man is required to do in any job that has tests of ability, strength and emotion that any man would in the job he or she is appying for.

The whole point of feminism is that a woman can full fill those attributes of any job that any man can do.

So I find it really embarrassing that Sarah Palin is held to a different standard than if she were a male candidate for VP.

Tough press scrutiny on issues like foreign policy, economics and the role any one let alone a woman or man would play if taking over as the POTUS. If Ms. Palin cannot meet the press head on with answers to these questions at this moment in time we are left to wonder if she actually has any answers to the comfort of the Amerian people.

The Many Color Screens of John McCain

Welcome to all the St. Joe News Press Readers

I want to welcome all the readers of The St. Joe News Press. Glad to have you here!

Manchurian Candidate?

Sullivan channeling my thoughts again, bolding mine for emphasis:

From Andrew Sullivan:

This is incredible, totally incredible. A vice presidential candidate isn't going to be available to the press for two weeks? Two weeks? In September. We have this total unknown who could be president of the United States next January. And she's in hiding for two weeks. Chris Matthews on this clip says that this is fine. Has he lost his mind? She needs to be in front of the press now. The United States and the world cannot have this total unknown foisted on the presidency without any serious vetting and without any press interaction. This is absolutely third world. Since when is the governor of a state given two weeks in hiding?

The sexism that implies that someone cannot stand up to reporters because she is a woman is appalling. This entire pick, of course, is incredibly sexist, and the handling of her in the last week the most sexist double standard I have ever seen in American politics. Can you imagine Hillary Clinton saying she wasn't going to answer questions for two weeks? Or Margaret Thatcher? Or Kay Bailey Hutchison? Or Elizabeth Dole? And none of these women were ever as close to global power as Sarah Palin now is. This is getting to Manchurian Candidate levels of creepiness. It's deeply sinister and slightly terrifying.

I Love My Little Burg in Missouri

It seems I am constantly fighting with such stupid people who comment on our local wingnut rag newspaper. It is almost unbelievable sometimes what they write. Here is an example from the other night. (I had laid off reading for awhile but went back last night and couldn't resist):

Posted by suzyQ on September 4, 2008 at 11:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Dalearch- Did you see the video on Cindy McCain tonight? I had no idea what she was about, I was impressed. I think she will fit the mold of First Lady perfectly with her charitable works and contributions.

Posted by gingersnapp on September 5, 2008 at 1:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)

yea Cindy is Miss Wonderful America. Steal another woman's husband and steal drugs from her own charity at the same time. Miss Model America. What a Joke!!

Posted by MODem on September 5, 2008 at 2:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)

As a Liberal and a Yellow dog Democrat with as much family values as society has dictated me to be (married to the same woman for almost 40 years, 3 adult children contributing to the betterment of our society, each with a college degree). Cindy McCain is an embarrassment to me and all of America. An adulteress, a husband thief and a person who would steal drugs that should have gone to poor children (a charity she started) is about as low as you can go.

Had any of us peons done what she did, we would be spending a good deal of time in prison. But being the child of privilege and the wife of a senator she gets to go to the RNC wearing a $300,000 outfit as a free woman. Seems we live in a society where a repulsive rich brat gets most of the breaks.

Posted by suzyQ on September 5, 2008 at 8:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)

But hey, electing a president with unexplained ties to Illinois corruption and terriosts, shady business dealings, and associating himself with anti-American, marxism friends/beliefs is just what the doctor ordered for a President. I have to agree, that will be a change, however I believe offers little hope.

And maybe Michelle would be proud for the "second time" of her country should she get to be first lady. Talk about an embarrassment.

Posted by momof4 on September 5, 2008 at 9 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Do you want to talk about embarrassment? Check out this document from her days running as governor. What a joke.

http://www.politico.com/static/PPM106_pa...

Posted by azmaggie on September 5, 2008 at 12:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)

You mean Bill Clinton did not embarrasse you?? Then Hillary just swep everything under the rug so he cound help her with her power search. And what about Bidden if obama is shot do you want him as POUS?? He faliled in his bid not he is running for VP?? What a joke. At least Palin will bring NEW BLOOD.

Posted by KAS on September 5, 2008 at 5:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Heck, no, Clinton didn't embarrass me. He didn't sleep around on me or with me. Did McCain embarrass you because he slept around on his wife who had been disfigured in a car wreck and "no longer found attractive". What about his affair that resulted in his divorce and subsequent marriage to Cindy less than a month later? You can't have it both ways. The way I look at it is that neither of them slept with me or slept around on me so it probably really isn't any of my business. I haven't heard either of them put down others who have and, until I do, I don't really think it is an issue to me.

Posted by gingersnapp on September 6, 2008 at 1:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)

to azmaggie, and just what is a POUS? No I don't want him to become a persnickety, ornery, uppity snob (sounds like Cindy McCain to me) or a pompous, Oblique, unworldly snit, (Mr. 25% approval rating?)or a perpetual odious unlawful slob (Dick Cheney?) or a pious ominous unbeliever (of) science(Sarah Palin). But as POTUS yes he is more than qualified! But Palin, God help us all!

Not Quite Ready on Day One

No Interviews Till She's Ready

A senior McCain campaign official advises that, despite the gaggle of requests and pressure from the media, Gov. Sarah Palin won't submit to a formal interview anytime soon. She may take some questions from local news entities in Alaska, but until she's ready -- and until she's comfortable -- which might not be for a long while -- the media will have to wait. The campaign believes it can effectively deal with the media's complaints, and their on-the-record response to all this will be: "Sarah Palin needs to spend time with the voters."

Not out of the question are appearances on lighter, fluffier television shows. But -- not for a while.

Does This Woman Even Know What the Word Truth Means?

Sarah Palin Did Not Sell That Jet On EBay:

....Palin never mentioned that though she did list the jet on eBay, she didn't sell it on eBay....

HMMMM

From Andrew Sullivan:

Is the party of traditional marriage aware that the vice-presidential nominee actually eloped with her now-husband? And just in case you missed it: Scott Richter, Todd Palin's former business partner, has just filed an emergency motion to seal his divorce papers.

And why does this matter you ask, well just ask the National Enquirer

Could They really be this Incompetant

Could they really have confused Walter Reed with a Middle School?

Shameless

The death of a taboo

One of the most enduring taboos in American politics, the airing of graphic images from the September 11 attacks in a partisan context, died today. It was nearly seven years old.

The informal prohibition, which had been occasionally threatened by political ads in recent years, was pronounced dead at approximately 7:40 CST, when a video aired before delegates at the Republican National Convention included slow-motion footage of a plane striking the World Trade Center, the towers' subsequent collapse, and smoke emerging from the Pentagon.

The September 11 precedent was one of the few surviving campaign-season taboos. It is survived by direct comparisons of one's opponents to Hitler.

Lions and Tigers and Fake Soldiers, Oh My

Fake Soldiers Used In RNC Video

It was a video that was supposed to elicit soaring patriotism and real emotions about the Pledge of Allegiance. But to do that, it used fake soldiers and a staged military funeral instead of the real thing.

....CBS News found that the footage of the ‘funeral’ and soldiers is what is called ‘stock’ footage. The soldiers were actors and the funeral scene was from a one-day film shoot, produced in June. No real soldiers were used during production......

Well One Good Thing Came Out of This

Sarah Palin boosts Barack Obama funding


Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been good for Sen. Barack Obama's campaign fund, with sources in the Illinois Democrat's presidential campaign saying he has raised $8 million online from more than 130,000 donors since her vice presidential nomination acceptance speech last night at the Republican National Convention.

Quote of the Day

"Pat Robertson in a skirt"
....Ed Shultz describing Sarah Palin

Hypocrites and Liars

Why does this crap keep amazing me when I know these people are replusive hate mongering, lying, assholes:

From Think Progress:

Last night, at the Republican National Convention, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (R) called for “the immediate drilling for more oil off of our shores” and followed with a personal attack on Vice President Al Gore that received thunderous applause:

And I have one more recommendation for energy conservation — let’s keep Al Gore’s private jet on the ground!

ThinkProgress contacted Gore spokesperson Kalee Kreider, who replied, “Gore doesn’t own a jet.”

And of course we all know who does, Miss Steal drugs from your own charity and steal another woman's husband, Cindy McCain.

What a Horrible Person

So he knows how to do it but hasn't told anyone all these years so we could have gotten him. Now that's what I call unpatriotic:

Republican candidate John McCain said on Wednesday that if elected president, he will capture al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

"President Clinton had opportunities to get Osama bin Laden. President Bush had opportunities to get Osama bin Laden. I know how to do it and I'll do it," he told ABC's "World News" in an interview.

The Angry Left

I keep thinking about that line from Bush the other night (not that I actually watched it but I did see clips and saw that) about the "angry left."

I believe the 80% of Americans who think this country is on the wrong track and the 70% who look at GWB as a complete failure should be insulted about that.

Folks he isn't just talking about me, he means you too!

Blue Laws

An email exchange with my daughter this morning brought back in my mind why I hate this Sarah Palin type ideology so much.

In the early 1970s I was working my way through college at our local K-mart. At that time our grand state of Missouri had "blue laws." I had no idea what a blue law was, I only knew that it meant no store could open on Sundays because of them.

K-mart decided they were going to challenge those laws, and one Sunday had some of their employees come to work and they opened their doors. According to the law, nothing could be sold on Sunday unless it was considered a souvenir or a gift. So when a customer came through the check-out we had to give this little spiel:

"The blue laws of the state of Missouri prohibit us from selling you these items unless you consider them to be gifts or souvenirs. Do you consider what you are purchasing as gifts or souvenirs?"

We stayed opened for a few Sundays after that, closed a few Sundays and the next thing I remember is that all the stores in town starting opening their doors on Sunday. At that time in my life I was way more worried about school and seeing my boyfriend so I have no idea how it all went down, but I am assuming that the laws were overturned because not too long after that we didn't have to use the "gifts and souvenir" spiel any longer and everyone was open on Sunday.

Of course as I became older and more aware of things I realized that laws like this were being held over our heads by the Sarah Palin types. I call them "fundies" now. The ones that believe that their beliefs are the right and only beliefs and we all have to live by them.

That is why I want to fight with every bone in my body to make sure we never have to go back to that. And I can guarantee you Sarah Palin and her base would love to get us back there.

Elitistism Your Name is Cindy

Cindy McCain's $300,000 Outfit

Cindy McCain
Oscar de la Renta dress: $3,000
Chanel J12 White Ceramic Watch: $4,500
Three-carat diamond earrings: $280,000
Four-strand pearl necklace: $11,000–$25,000
Shoes, designer unknown: $600
Total: Between $299,100 and $313,100

update, I just discovered this on the web:

According to an analysis by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, the McCains have received $313,413 thanks to George Bush’s tax cut. So thanks to W, Cindy's tax break bought her outfit.

In Charge of the National Guard

She never issued a single order:

.....Palin has never personally ordered the state guard to do anything.....

Lies and Lying Liars

For it before she was against it:

Oh My

Political Bullshit

Even conservative Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphey don't get it:

Practicing What You Preach

Dr. Laura is not by a long shot my favorite person, but I will say this, she practices what she preaches and doesn't change her story line just because these people come from her side of the tracks:

From Dr. Laura Schlessinger's blog:

I am extremely disappointed in the choice of Sarah Palin as the Vice Presidential candidate of the Republican Party....

I’m frankly and sadly caught in the dilemma of having to balance policy versus example in touting a candidate for the office of the First Family...

Role models are very important. Children and young adults look to those who are visible and successful as a road map of what is acceptable behavior and emulate those actions over the morals and values their parents and churches have taught and tried to reinforce. It’s a tough go these days, when the “bad that men or women do” is used for entertainment purposes without judgment, or is excused because of political or financial considerations.

I’m stunned - couldn’t the Republican Party find one competent female with adult children to run for Vice President with McCain? I realize his advisors probably didn’t want a “mature” woman, as the Democrats keep harping on his age. But really, what kind of role model is a woman whose fifth child was recently born with a serious issue, Down Syndrome, and then goes back to the job of Governor within days of the birth?

I am haunted by the family pictures of the Palins during political photo-ops, showing the eldest daughter, now pregnant with her own child, cuddling the family’s newborn. When Mom and Dad both work full-time (no matter how many folks get involved with the children), it becomes a somewhat chaotic situation. Certainly, if a child becomes ill and is rushed to the hospital, and you’re on the hotline with both Israel and Iran as nuclear tempers are flaring, where’s your attention going to be? Where should your attention be? Well, once you put your hand on the Bible and make that oath, your attention has to be with the government of the United States of America.

Losin' It

This Piece by Joe Klein is good, here are some clips but read it all if you have time:

The story of the day out here in Minneapolis is the McCain campaign's war against the press. This has been building for some time. Those of us who have criticized the candidate--and especially those of us who enjoyed good relations with McCain in the past--have been subject to off-the-record browbeating and attempted bullying all year. But things have gotten much worse in recent days: there was McCain's rude, bizarre interview with Time Magazine last week. Yesterday, McCain refused to an interview with Larry King, for God's sake, because Campbell Brown had been caught in the commission of journalism on CNN the night before, asking McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds what decisions Sarah Palin had made as commander-in-chief of the Alaska national guard. (There was an answer that the unprepared Bounds didn't have: she had deployed them to fight fires.)

...So what's going on here? Two things. McCain is just plain angry at us.....

....The second thing is more insidious: Steve Schmidt has decided, for tactical reasons, to slime the press. He wants the public to believe that there is an unfair--sexist (you gotta love it)--personal assault going on against Palin and her family. This is a smokescreen,.....

.....There is a tendency in the media to kick ourselves, cringe and withdraw, when we are criticized. But I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is "a task from God." The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme.....

Irony Your Name is Sarah

Here we have a woman who believes no woman should be allowed an abortion for an unwanted pregnancy, doesn't believe in birth control yet does this:

Palin Slashed Funds for Teen Moms

Gov. Sarah Palin doesn't just oppose "explicit sex-ed programs." The Washington Post has also found that as governor, Palin used a line-item veto to cut funding from a transitional housing program for teenage mothers.

So here we have girls who are trying to do the right thing in their minds and dear Sarah takes away some hope for them. Please, this is what we call compassionate conservatism!

My Two Dads

Hilarious:

Barack's two Dads

This is Called Enthusiasm

Around 8:00 last night at the Wingnut Convention:

Kinda Like My Question

Byron York (conservative from NRO):

Perhaps I'm focusing on an irrelevant issue, but the presence, or non-presence, of Johnston on the stage tonight strikes me as important. It's one thing for delegates to be understanding and compassionate about the fix these two teenagers have gotten themselves into. It's another to actually celebrate it. And, given what we've learned in the last few days, if Johnston is up on stage with his girlfriend and the Palin family, and Republicans are wildly cheering, it will certainly look like they are celebrating this situation.

I don't usually engage in these scenarios, but I'll do it here. If the Obamas had a 17 year-old daughter who was unmarried and pregnant by a tough-talking black kid, my guess is if that they all appeared onstage at a Democratic convention and the delegates were cheering wildly, a number of conservatives might be discussing the issue of dysfunctional black families.

Wingnut Quote of the Day II

Quote of the day II,


"This election is not about issues."

.....Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager

KO

I wondered last night why Keith Olberman was pulled from convention coverage this week. Now with the CNN revelation, I bet I know why. The wingnuts told MSNBC there would be no interviews with him running the show. I just betcha, cause Keith is their show stopper at least for their audience on the left like me.

HaHaHaHa

How hilarious CNN's Wolf Blitzer just said that after the interview Campbell Brown did with Tucker Bounds that McCain dropped an interview he was supposed to have with Larry King. They thought she had been unfair to him. Boo Hoo, makes you wonder how it would go with him taking on Putin!

Fahrenheit 451

From Time:


Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor.

Theater of the Absurd

I had to turn off the TV, the Republican talking points right now are so amazingly absurd that I couldn't take it any longer.

She has been in charge of the National Guard for 2 years.

She's right next to Russia so has has plenty of foreign policy experience.

She has more executive experience than Biden and Obama put together.

She would make an amazing President.

I think I might puke if I listen to this crap any longer.

Wingnut Quote of the Day

This is the kind of stuff that divides us:

"the only person that’s a real American family person that’s come out in this election."
...Denny Hastert describing Sarah Palin

This comment on quote from Tapped:

I suppose if you don't see black people as Americans, and you blame Joe Biden for the car accident that killed his first wife and child, and you assume that John McCain's divorce from his first wife makes his family not a "real American family" then that statement makes complete sense.

--A. Serwer

Look Long and Hard at this Photograph Folks!

This is a good piece from the Moderate Voice


by Shaun Mullen

Look long and hard at this photograph, America. I mean really long and hard. Because when all is said and done, this is what selecting a vice presidential running mate is all about.

Look long and hard at this photograph, America. I mean really long and hard. Now, squint a little and picture Joe Biden raising his right hand to take the oath of office as a stunned Michelle Obama stands at his left side and Jill Biden at his right. A disturbing thought, but at the same time comforting. Because Biden would be ready to lead.

Look long and hard at this photograph, America. I mean really long and hard. Now, squint a little and picture Sarah Palin raising her right hand to take the oath of office as a stunned Cindy McCain stands at her left side and Todd Palin at her right. Not just a disturbing thought, but a nightmarish one because the Republican nominee-to-be rang up an obscure wingnut with a walk-in closet full of skeletons in a fit of pique.

Long long and hard at this photograph, America. I mean really long and hard. Because this is what selecting a vice presidential running mate is all about. This is not what John McCain is all about. What John McCain is all about is being a worn-out pol who is addled at best, pickled at worst and nothing if impetuous beyond his many years. Unfit to select, let alone lead.

MSM Actually Does its Job

Go Campbell:

GOP Parties while Gulf Coast Drowns