David Corn

DC,

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks.

I think ugly will fail - at least I hope so!

Thanks

Capt, we can only hope so. It scares me that there are so many people who really believe the hate that the campaign is spewing about Obama right now.

The Palin crowds are the worst. She is not someone who should be a heart beat away from the presidency. I am more afraid of what her influence woud be on the administration that if McCain had picked just about anyone else. That was a bad move on his part - a very bad move.

We can't leave it up to hope though. We have to get out the vote. We have to have enough people voting that they can't fix it - meaning the Rebuplicans who were responsible for Florida and Ohio in the 2000 and 2004 elections.

Flan!

Totally - we can't take anything for granted.

Question for Sarah Palin:

Since when does following Jesus's teachings include fear-mongering, character assassination, spreading smears, rumors, gossip, distortions and denigrations or being downright snide? Aren't you violating the 9th of God's 10 Commandments by bearing false witness in your rants against Sen. Obama and insinuations that he's a terrorist?

You are also inciting people to call out for acts of violence against another human being. Aren't you ashamed? Is this what Jesus would do?

Palin pre-empts state report, clears self

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27105917/

*****

So, there you have it. It can't be just me that thinks these are insane people?

McCain is talking Ayers while Barack is talking sense!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEJBPQOt6eY

Barack Obama was in Portsmouth Ohio today and he slams John McCain on neglecting the economy in his campaign in and focusing only on negative attacks... While demonstrating to Republican voters why the should give him a chance.

http://www.debatetherace08.com/news.php?item.171.9

Obama: "I can take 4 more weeks of McCain's Attacks But America Can't Take 4 More Years Of Failed McCain\Bush Look Alike Policies"

Betty White calls Sarah Palin a "Crazy Bitch" on Craig Ferguson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxL7MKsGoPo

*****

I think Betty White can get away with saying that.

Too funny!

Palin/McCain rally's are getting much too close to the hate mongering found in Germany in 1932. First it's a fascist, oligarchy and economic plan, then it's genning up nationalism, xenophobia and Christianity.

Now it's encouraging gun-toting, Joe-SixPacks to scream "terrorist" and "kill him" when referring to their opponent. I do not want any more demonizers in charge.

If you feel the same way, here's a way to help:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/actioncenter

Do more...make it happen!

The Dems and Repubs have always had their differences, which creates our 2 party system, but they also have been civil. Today, with McCain and Palin at the helm, we are seeing a new GOP party emerge and that is a party filled with hate and surrounding themselves with mobs of people who are beginning to terrify me. I hope they never come to my neighborhood because I would be afraid to be anywhere near them. I think someone needs to step in from the GOP party and say enough is enough with inciting hatred and refuse to give him any money unless he stops.

It is the "Win at any and ALL costs" that is causing the destruction of the Rupugnicon party from within.

Could you imagine a Mike Huckabay or Mitt Romney causing such scenes of violent hatred and dangerous vitriol?

McGrampa sold the soul of the party (such as it was) for a cheap bump in post-convention polling.

The back-fire resonates through daytime and night-time chat shows, and gets smothered by the so-called "News" organizations.

This race is not only not over yet, it is still frighteningly close. If you do not live in a "swing state", please vote early and travel to Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia or Florida. (For you left-coasters, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado could use some help too!)

Even New Hampshire is still tight!

The weekend before the election will be crucial in "Getting Out the Vote". I know from personal experience that knocking on doors, offering rides to the polls, reminding folks of how quick and easy it is to MAKE THE DIFFERENCE by voting.

There are plenty of folks, in those battleground states offering food, a place to stay and great comeraderie to encourage out-of-state volunteers to join them.

barackobama.com will make it easy for you to hook up with a volunteer group in any state you choose!

If travel is out of the question, you can also volunteer to work the "virtual phone bank" making calls to voters in those states too close to call to remind them of their rights, their voting locations and their obligations to MAKE A DIFFERENCE in this most critical, historic election.

-T

Demagogues always preach fear and hatred. Palin has nothing else to offer. She clearly demostrated that she knows just about nothing of value about this nation and its inetractions with the rest of the world.

A journalism major who can't name any newspapers, not even her home town or state newspapers, is akin to a physician who has never heard of aspirin, penicillin or the study of pharmacology.

This makes me ashamed that supposedly rational American picked her to backstop an old man with cancer who wishes to lead this nation back to prosperity and moral leadership.

McSLEAZE!

a handy guide:

http://tinyurl.com/4l2dvu

I believe it was accurate for Palin to use the plural "terrorists"; Bill Ayers' wife and he were comrades, working together in an effort to destroy America. BO has been lying about his connections with Mr. and Mrs. Ayers and has been lying about what he would do as president. He can't be trusted.

Former Republican Governor William Milliken is having second thoughts about that McCain endorsement:

"He is not the McCain I endorsed," said Milliken, reached at his Traverse City home Thursday. "He keeps saying, 'Who is Barack Obama?' I would ask the question, 'Who is John McCain?' because his campaign has become rather disappointing to me.

"I'm disappointed in the tenor and the personal attacks on the part of the McCain campaign, when he ought to be talking about the issues."

Milliken, a lifelong Republican, is among some past leaders from the party's moderate wing voicing reservations and, in some cases, opposition to McCain's candidacy.

Meet Sarah Palin’s radical right-wing pals

Though Chryson belongs to a fringe political party, one that advocates the secession of Alaska from the Union, and that organizes with other like-minded secessionist movements from Canada to the Deep South, he is not without peculiar influence in state politics, especially the rise of Sarah Palin. An obscure figure outside of Alaska, Chryson has been a political fixture in the hometown of the Republican vice-presidential nominee for over a decade. During the 1990s, when Chryson directed the AIP, he and another radical right-winger, Steve Stoll, played a quiet but pivotal role in electing Palin as mayor of Wasilla and shaping her political agenda afterward. Both Stoll and Chryson not only contributed to Palin’s campaign financially, they played major behind-the-scenes roles in the Palin camp before, during and after her victory.

Palin backed Chryson as he successfully advanced a host of anti-tax, pro-gun initiatives, including one that altered the state Constitution’s language to better facilitate the formation of anti-government militias. She joined in their vendetta against several local officials they disliked, and listened to their advice about hiring. She attempted to name Stoll, a John Birch Society activist known in the Mat-Su Valley as “Black Helicopter Steve,” to an empty Wasilla City Council seat. “Every time I showed up her door was open,” said Chryson. “And that policy continued when she became governor.”

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/10/10/palin_chryson/

Keating Connection: The Sequel

Cindy McCain Makes a Deal

PHOENIX—Sen. John McCain’s wife and father-in-law continued a lucrative business partnership with disgraced financier Charles H. Keating Jr. for 11 years after the GOP presidential nominee said he ended his close friendship with Keating in March 1987.

Cindy McCain’s business partnership with Keating in a real-estate development between 1986 and 1998 netted her a tidy profit, in addition to years of significant tax benefits. Her father, who died in 2000, earned similar returns.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMgamP2DFDY

http://washingtonindependent.com/11806/cindy

Most GOP Insiders Think Obama Will Win

The National Journal's Political Insiders Poll finds that 80% of Republicans believe there's a high likelihood that Sen. Barack Obama will win the presidential election.

In addition, 67% of Republicans said Obama did more to help himself in the second presidential debate than did Sen. John McCain.

http://tinyurl.com/3zzxzc

*****

It's called reality. Maybe something in the Ayers ain't working?

lololo

TPMtv: Into Thin Ayers

It's Sean Hannity's big moment: the William Ayers story has finally hit the big time! Hannity and friend Greta Van Susteren got to spend their respective shows with John McCain and Sarah Palin. The topic du jour? William Ayers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dASJ9po-C3A

Fox News: Obama Leads By Seven Nationally

Sen. Barack Obama leads Sen. John McCain by 46% to 39%, according to a Fox News poll of registered voters.

Key findings: "Obama's advantage comes mainly from doing better among women, blacks, young voters, those with a college degree, and unmarried voters. He has increased his edge over McCain among women to 16 percentage points, up from a 4-point edge last month."

http://tinyurl.com/4k528u

*****

I think grampy will have to do something else to change the trendlines. Maybe if he would address the current issues facing Americans?

Ayers is helping Obama because it reminds everybody that McCain is living in the past. Vietnam, the weathermen - whatever. I hope he keeps it up!

in beer there is truth

More from "Meet Sarah Palin’s radical right-wing pals"

Indeed, Chryson boasted that he and his allies urged Palin to focus her campaign on slashing character-based attacks. For instance, Chryson advised Palin to paint Stein as a sexist who had told her “to just sit there and look pretty” while she served on Wasilla’s City Council. Though Palin never made this accusation, her 1996 campaign for mayor was the most negative Wasilla residents had ever witnessed.

While Palin played up her total opposition to the sales tax and gun control — the two hobgoblins of the AIP — mailers spread throughout the town portraying her as “the Christian candidate,” a subtle suggestion that Stein, who is Lutheran, might be Jewish. “I watched that campaign unfold, bringing a level of slime our community hadn’t seen until then,” recalled Phil Munger, a local music teacher who counts himself as a close friend of Stein.

“This same group [Stoll and Chryson] also [publicly] challenged me on whether my wife and I were married because she had kept her maiden name,” Stein bitterly recalled. “So we literally had to produce a marriage certificate. And as I recall, they said, ‘Well, you could have forged that.’”

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/10/10/palin_chryson/index1.html

You know, I thought that all of this slime the McCain campaign is spewing is because of the Bush/Cheney influence, but it seems like they have it covered from both sides. Palin has been groomed for this moment for years. It's sickening.

John McCain's racist remark very troubling

On his campaign bus recently, Sen. John McCain told reporters, "I hated the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live." Although McCain said he was referring only to his prison guards, there are many reasons why his use of the word "gook" is offensive and alarming.

It is offensive because by using a racial epithet that has historically been used to demean all Asians to describe his captors, McCain failed to make a distinction between his torturers and an entire racial group.

It is alarming because a major candidate for president publicly used a racial epithet, refused to apologize for doing so and remains a legitimate contender.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/hongop.shtml

*****

Hate is always ugly.

The LEFT is setting itself up for "McCain Derangement Syndrome."

Palin:

"all foam and no beer"

(comment on huffpo)

McCain/Palin is losing some GOPhers too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQRBZGVagcQ

Rep. Ray LaHood is the latest to call out the ticket for permitting this kind of behavior.

LaHood supports the McCain ticket, but doesn't like what he sees at some of the McCain-Palin rallies: When Barack Obama's name has been mentioned by Sarah Palin, there are shouts of "terrorist," and LaHood says Palin should put a stop to it.

"Look it," LaHood said. "This doesn't befit the office that she's running for. And frankly, people don't like it."

LaHood says it could backfire on the Republican ticket.

He says the names that Obama is being called, "Certainly don't reflect the character of the man."

(kos)

Obama Ahead Of McCain by 52 to 41!

The global financial meltdown has caused a dramatic shift in the 2008 presidential race, according to the latest NEWSWEEK poll. With four weeks left in the presidential campaign, Barack Obama now leads John McCain by double digits, 52 percent to 41 percent among likely voters—a marked shift from the last Newsweek poll, conducted one month ago, when the two candidates were tied at 46 percent.

Underlying Obama's surge in support: An historic boiling over of dissatisfaction with the status quo. An astounding 86 percent of voters now say they are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States, while a mere 10 percent say they are satisfied. That's the highest wrong track/right track ratio ever recorded in the NEWSWEEK poll.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/163339

McCain losing ground with working-class whites

With economy worsening, working-class voters slowly warm to Obama

http://www.newsweek.com/id/163241

*****

Maybe the stunts don't play well in the heartland?

McCain missing the mark with Hispanics

McCain's missing the mark with Hispanics in swing states

http://www.newsweek.com/id/163262

McCain and Palin are whipping up a level of intensifying fear and hatred of Obama as the clock ticks down and they grow more desperate. Coupled with the escalating fear many are feeling with the financial meltdown, it wouldn't surprise me at all if this led to violence.

I watched TV clips yesterday of McCain speaking at a rally while a supporter yelled that Obama was a terrorist, and a Palin rally somebody was shouting "Kill him!" Neither speaker stopped to repudiate those comments or discourage them. It's not in their interest to do so.

Put a gun in the hand of a right-wing nut who just lost his home and let him hear McCain/Palin strongly imply that Obama is a Manchurian candidate who hates the US. Mix well.

Should something happen to Obama, you can be sure McCain and Palin will act surprised and shocked.

Chris Buckley:

John McCain has changed. He said, famously, apropos the Republican debacle post-1994, “We came to Washington to change it, and Washington changed us.” This campaign has changed John McCain. It has made him inauthentic. A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises, such as balancing the federal budget “by the end of my first term.” Who, really, believes that? Then there was the self-dramatizing and feckless suspension of his campaign over the financial crisis. His ninth-inning attack ads are mean-spirited and pointless. And finally, not to belabor it, there was the Palin nomination. What on earth can he have been thinking?

Palinex - the morning after pill:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCZcrK6J9Xk

McCain Campaign Now Attacks Michelle Obama Over Ayers

The McCain campaign is now broadening their attack on Obama's past association with William Ayers to include Michelle Obama -- even though McCain has repeatedly said spouses should be off limits during the campaign.

The attack? Bernardine Dohrn, Ayers' wife and fellow former Weatherman, went to work in 1984 for the major Chicago-based national law firm of Sidley & Austin, and three years later, Michelle joined the mega-firm as well.

That's the entire attack. We wish we were joking. But we aren't.

http://tinyurl.com/4xr8ak

Obama knew it was coming:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH2iufUU1f4

Shame on the Palin-McBush campaign! By encouraging hate-mongering and racist baiting, these bigots have taken the Republican party down a dangerous path. Why don't more people of good faith condemn this incitement to violence? Should good people, white and otherwise, remain silent while Palin and McCain repeat outlandish falsehoods that make their supporters tell "Kill him!" and "Sit down, boy!" What kind of country do we live in?

It is very sad indeed that we are seeing such signs of racism and hatred play out in political rallies. Unlike '04, when things were down to the wire with nobody knowing who would win, the McCain camp is now unquestionably behind and is becoming desperate. This ugliness is partly stemming from those right-wing partisans who are sensing this potential loss and are acting out. The true ugliness is coming from people who would never vote for a Democrat even if it meant voting against their own economic interests. These people are the ones who Sarah Palin was selected from obscurity to attract and energize. Well - she can do that - but at a cost to the moderate voters who may or may not like her, but do question the real issue about her competency for being a heart-beat away from the Presidency. As I mentioned previously, Sarah's selection has taken the McCain campaign's biggest argument about Obama's short-term experience away from them and they are now left with little else to grab onto.

OMG MURAD is here?!
MURAD previously claimed to be a 'pentagon insider' who is supposedly devoted to "protecting america from evil-doers".
hey MURAD, are you familiar with the laws of physics?

Why Don't Some Conservative Pundits Write What They Really Think About Sarah Palin?

[...]

Liberals shouldn't be the most upset with the way Bush/Rove-style Republicans have run this country into a ditch. That's a job for true conservatives.

We have the largest expansion of government in history. The largest budget deficits in history. The most costly war in history. And a GOP presidential candidate who still wants to hand out tax cuts in the middle of all this red ink.

As Allison wrote: "This kind of conservatism, which is not conservative at all, has produced financial mismanagement, the waste of human lives, the loss of moral authority, and the wreckage of our economy that McCain now threatens to make worse."

Now that's intellectual honesty. And I think I'd say that, even if Allison wasn't supporting a candidate I also see best equipped to handle the growing chaos.

Wonder why Brooks and Noonan couldn't manage something like that?

http://tinyurl.com/3qbv5p

Donna Brazile Is Not Going To The Back Of The Bus

We've been waiting three days for this moment. This morning, the New Yorker finally posted video from "If I Were Running This Campaign," the Saturday morning panel featuring NY'er staff writer/moderator Jeffrey Toobin (swoon), and a bevy of his CNN colleagues, including Ed Rollins, Alex Castellanos, and Donna Brazile. Topics discussed: The GOP leadership, Bill Clinton, and Sarah Palin. As the 80-minute discussion wound down, Toobin raised the specter of race in the campaign, and Brazile, 48, let loose with an impassioned, ad-libbed exhortation that could be seen as a prescient, preemptive strike to the race-and-religion baiting tactics ("strategies"?) employed by the increasingly-ugly McCain-Palin campaign. Donna's remarks above; you can watch the entire video here.

http://tinyurl.com/3ox2nh

(great video)

Bigger is better. Right, capt?

Laws of Physics? Yes I'm familiar, but have broken no such law.

Have you heard Obama say that raising taxes while the economy is in decline would not be good? Why then is it good at any time?

Palin Abused Her Power

A report from Alaska's legislature finds that Gov. Sarah Palin "unlawfully abused her authority" in firing Alaska's public safety commissioner Walt Monegan. The 263 page report concludes that a "family grudge" was a contributing reason for the dismissal.

"Monegan says he was dismissed as retribution for resisting pressure to fire a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce with the governor's sister. Palin says Monegan was fired as part of a legitimate budget dispute," the AP explains.

In an attempt to preempt the news, the McCain campaign issued their own report clearing Palin.

http://tinyurl.com/4j36qb

Does McCain Have Cooties?

This is pretty interesting:

[Norm] Coleman told reporters that he would not be appearing at a planned rally with McCain this afternoon. Could it be McCain's sliding polling numbers in Minnesota? His attacks on Obama? Coleman said he needs the time to wo
rk on suspending his own negative ads.

"Today," he said, "people need hope and a more positive campaign is a start."

http://tinyurl.com/4al68k

Today's Polls, 10/10

With 25 days to go until the election, Barack Obama is presently at his all-time highs in four of the six national tracking polls (Research 2000, Battleground, Hotline and Zogby) and is just one point off his high in Gallup. He has emerged with clear leads in both Florida and Ohio, where there are several polls out today. He is blowing McCain out in most polls of Pennsylvania and Michigan, and is making states like West Virgina and Georgia competitive.

There's just nothing in there for McCain to hang his hat on. Even a pollster like Strategic Vision, which has generally had a Republican lean this cycle, now has Florida and Ohio going against them (Florida in a big way). Well, OK, maybe they'll hold on to Indiana, although both campaigns' internals likely have the state closer than Rasmussen does.

McCain is getting some criticism for campaigning in Iowa, and for sending Sarah Palin out to West Virginia, but the truth is that their electoral hand is so poor right now that it doesn't much matter in which states they're deciding to bide their time. Remember, any world in which McCain has a chance to win on Election Day is a world that looks very different from this one -- some significant event will have to have occurred to fundamentally change the momentum of the race. We don't know which states might be affected disproportionately by such an event, and so a lot of states are conceivably worth attacking or defending, any of which could potentially become more important in the face of unknown unknowns.

fivethirtyeight.com

Obama 348.3 McCain 189.7

From Newsweek:

Obama appears to have broadened his coalition of support and made inroads with groups that have not reliably embraced him over the course of the long presidential campaign. He now leads McCain among both men (54 percent to 40 percent) and women (50 percent to 41 percent). He now wins every age group of voters—including those over 65 years of age, who back him over McCain 49 to 43 percent. Supporters of Hillary Clinton, as many as a fifth of whom had at one point told pollsters they'd support McCain over Obama, now back the Democratic nominee 88 percent to 7 percent.

Even From Fox:

Obama has also improved his standing with his party faithful. A month ago, 79 percent of Democrats were backing Obama. Today it is 86 percent. McCain has consistently received the backing of over 80 percent of Republicans and is backed by 83 percent today.

Independents split their vote 34 percent Obama and 32 percent McCain, with 24 percent unsure. That's little changed from two weeks ago when Obama was up by 36 percent to 31 percent and 29 percent undecided.

A 61 percent majority of voters believes Obama is going to win the election - more than three times as many as believe McCain will (18 percent). A month ago it was evenly divided: 41 percent Obama and 40 percent McCain (Sept. 8-9). This summer, voters were more likely to say Obama would win: 51 percent Obama and 27 percent McCain (July 22-23).

BAM! Obama TV Ad hits back hard on Ayers smear

The Obama campaign is launching a new 30-second TV ad today to respond to the McCain attack ad hitting Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., for his relationship with William Ayers and former Commerce Secretary William Daley.

The Obama campaign says the ad -- "Lose" -- will air in "key states" starting today.

http://tinyurl.com/5yt7l6

Transcript:

NARRATOR: John McCain admits if the election is about the economy, he’s going to lose.

(Photo of Obama....Graphic quoting the McCain campaign as quoted in the Daily News on October 5: "If we keep talking about the economy we’re going to lose.")

NARRATOR: Now as Americans lose their jobs and savings...

(Still photo of stockbrokers)

NARRATOR: ...McCain’s resorting to smears and false attacks.

(Graphics: "Smear" -- Associated Press 10-5-08; "Verdict: False" -- CNN 10-5-08)

NARRATOR: Barack Obama launched his first campaign here, not in anyone’s living room.

(Graphic: "Obama launched his first campaign here in this hotel." Still photo of "Ramada Inn – Chicago, IL")

NARRATOR: And Bill Daley? He was confirmed as Commerce Secretary and praised for his great work...

(Screen-grab of "McCain attack ad" featuring "Political Boss William Daley")

NARRATOR...by none other than John McCain.

(Signed photo by McCain of McCain and Daley; Graphics: "Commerce Secretary praised for his 'great work' 9-25-08 CNN)

NARRATOR: It’s clear...with no plan to fix our economy...smears are all John McCain has left.

(Graphics: "With no plan to fix our economy...Smears are all McCain has left)

Labor warns McCain about crowds

The head of the nation's biggest labor federation is joining the chorus of voices warning about the increasingly angry crowds coming to John McCain's campaign events.

At rallies this week, McCain's criticisms of Democrat Barack Obama have been met with shouts of "terrorist," "liar," and other harsh words.

"Sen. John McCain, Gov. Sarah Palin and the leadership of the Republican party have a fundamental moral responsibility to denounce the violent rhetoric that has pervaded recent McCain and Palin political rallies," said John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, which has endorsed Obama. "When rally attendees shout out such attacks as 'terrorist' or 'kill him' about Sen. Barack Obama, when they are cheered on by crowds incited by McCain-Palin rhetoric -- it is chilling that McCain and Palin do nothing to object.

"In a world where unspeakable violence is too often promulgated by extremists, it is no small or trivial matter to call someone a terrorist -- or to incite potentially dangerous individuals toward violence," Sweeney said in a statement. "John McCain, Sarah Palin and Republican leaders are walking a very thin line in pretending not to hear the hateful invectives spewed at their rallies. McCain should end this line of attack in the strongest possible terms. Anything less puts McCain in the same camp as the racists and extremists who are bringing their angry rhetoric to his campaign events."

(Boston.com)

McCain booed for calling Obama 'decent'

Republican candidate's supporters showing anger at rallies

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27130171/

*****

I wonder if deep down inside McCain feels ashamed. The sting of dishonorable acts has to hurt on some level.

David Corn --- Exactly 2379 points? Exactly?

:-)

It’s Just a Flesh Wound

The new NEWSWEEK poll shows that 86 percent of adult Americans are "dissatisfied with the way things are going" in this country. That is a shocking number, but what's even more incredible is that 10 percent of American citizens continue to be "satisfied." Consider the implication: more than 22 million men and women think the country is on the right track.

Who are these people? One in 10 Americans can't be repo men or Bush relatives. Satisfied? Now? Nobody's that Republican. Do these 10 percenters live in caves without TV, magazines, newspapers and the Internet—yet somehow still have a phone so that pollsters can reach them? And if you lived in a cave without HBO, would you really be "satisfied"?

http://www.newsweek.com/id/163626/page/1

******

None as blind as those who will not see. The hardcore Reich-wingnuts can't bring themselves to crow about the many successes of the Bucheney WH so they scream Ayers, Wright and racial hate.

All very predictable and sad.

As governor, Palin at times bonds church and state

An Associated Press review of the Republican vice presidential candidate's record as mayor and governor reveals her use of elected office to promote religious causes, sometimes at taxpayer expense and in ways that blur the line between church and state.

Since she took state office in late 2006, the governor and her family have spent more than $13,000 in taxpayer funds to attend at least 10 religious events and meetings with Christian pastors, including Franklin Graham, the son of evangelical preacher Billy Graham, records show.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081011/ap_on_el_pr/palin_church_and_state

And how very "Christian" of Palin to be inciting such hatred and vigilantism at her rallies. Just what Jesus would have done!

Get out the vote people! This country cannot afford to have her a heartbeat away from the presidency.

What the Troopergate Report Really Says

Did Governor Sarah Palin abuse the power of her office in trying to get her former brother-in-law, State Trooper Mike Wooten, fired? Yes.

Was the refusal to fire Mike Wooten the reason Palin fired Commissioner of Public Safety Walt Monegan? Not exclusively, and it was within her rights as the states' chief executive to fire him for just about any reason, even without cause.

Those answers were expected, given that most of the best pieces of evidence have been part of the public record for months. The result is not a mortal wound to Palin, nor does it put her at much risk of being forced to leave the ticket her presence succeeded in energizing.

But the Branchflower report still makes for good reading, if only because it convincingly answers a question nobody had even thought to ask: Is the Palin administration shockingly amateurish? Yes, it is. Disturbingly so.

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1849399,00.html

Shockingly Amateurish! That is what we need in Washington and as our VP - a shockingly amateurish right-wing, christian fundamentalist! Yeah!

RE: above post - some would say we have plenty of them (shockingly amateurish, right-wing, christian fundamentalists) in Washington already!

More from " What Troopergate Report Really Says...

The 263 pages of the report show a co-ordinated application of pressure on Monegan so transparent and ham-handed that it was almost certain to end in public embarrassment for the governor. The only surprise is that Troopergate is national news, not just a sorry piece of political gristle to be chewed on by Alaska politicos over steaks at Anchorage's Club Paris.

A harsh verdict? Consider the report's findings. Not only did people at almost every level of the Palin administration engage in repeated inappropriate contact with Walt Monegan and other high-ranking officials at the Department of Public Safety, but Monegan and his peers constantly warned these Palin disciples that the contact was inappropriate and probably unlawful. Still, the emails and calls continued — in at least one instance on recorded state trooper phone lines.

The state's head of personnel, Annette Kreitzer, called Monegan and had to be warned that personnel issues were confidential. The state's attorney general, Talis Colberg, called Monegan and had to be reminded that the call was putting both men in legal jeopardy, should Wooten decide to sue. The governor's chief of staff met with Monegan and had to be reminded by Monegan that, "This conversation is discoverable ... You don't want Wooten to own your house, do you?"

Monegan consistently emerges as the adult in these conversations, while the Palin camp displays a childish impetuousness and sense of entitlement.

More from " What Troopergate Report Really Says...

Another amateurish sign: Todd Palin's outsize role in the mess. Branchflower said it was out of his jurisdiction to pass judgment on the First Gentleman, but his report paints an extralegal role for Todd Palin that would have made the Hillary Clinton of 1992 blush. In the report, the head of Gov. Palin's security detail says that Todd spent about half of his time in the governor's office — not at a desk (he didn't have one), but at a long conference table on one side of the office, with his own phone to make and receive calls. It became a shadow office, the informal Department of Getting Mike Wooten Fired.

It was at that long table that Todd Palin first scheduled a meeting with Walt Monegan, days after his wife's administration began. He showed Monegan three huge binders of evidence against Wooten, including a picture of a dead moose that had been shot illegally. After Monegan came back saying that there was no new actionable information, Todd began a very visible campaign of stewing and fuming, trying to get access to personnel files, calling up and down the Public Safety org chart.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Just "days after his wife's administration began" - no telling what he'd get his fingers into as the VP's spouse.

Sarah Palin: The view from Alaska

“The typical Alaskan? She couldn’t be farther from it,” says Alaska House Minority Leader Beth Kertulla.

Still, Palin is a genuine Alaskan — of a kind. The kind that flowed north in the wake of the ’70s oil boom, Bible Belt politics and attitudes under arm, and transformed this state from a free-thinking, independent bastion of genuine libertarianism and individuality into a reactionary fundamentalist enclave with dollar signs in its eyes and an all-for-me mentality.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/10/11/sarah_palin_alaska/

ENOUGH!

Another good tidbit from "Sarah Palin: The view from Alaska"

Like many Alaskans, I resent Palin’s claims that she speaks for all of us, and cringe when she tosses off her stump speech line, “Well, up in Alaska, we….” Not only did I not vote for her, she represents the antithesis of the Alaska I love. As mayor, she helped shape Wasilla into the chaotic, poorly planned strip mall that it is; as governor, she’s promoted that same headlong drive toward development and despoilment on a grand scale, while paying lip service to her love of the place.

As for that frontierswoman shtick, take another look at that hairpiece-augmented beehive and those stiletto heels. Coming from a college-educated family, living in a half-million-dollar view home, basking in a net worth of $1.25 million, and having owned 40-some registered motorized vehicles in the past two decades (including 17 snowmobiles and a plane) hardly qualifies Palin and her clan as the quintessential Joe Six-Pack family unit — though the adulation from that quarter shows the Palins must be fulfilling some sort of role-model fantasy.

Oh, and the REAL reason Palin fired Monogen? The "Budget" reason? Because she he planned an "unapproved" trip to Washington DC to lobby for federal funds to combat sexual assault in Alaska. Palin hates rape victims! They might want to take the emergency contraceptive pill!

Of Lipstick, Law and Order

http://thejournal.epluribusmedia.net/index.php/op-ed/47-political-issues/185-of-lipstick-law-and-order

And then, in the ongoing "Troopergate" investigation, Ms. Palin’s own lawyer recently claimed that the real reason Palin fired the state police chief was because he had planned an "unapproved" trip to Washington D.C. to lobby for federal funds to combat the problem of sexual assaults in Alaska. Sadly that state that leads the nation in violent rape (ABC News recently came up with a signed travel approval for the trip). And to make it all even more disturbing, the man Palin chose to replace the dismissed chief had to resign after two weeks in office when his history of sexual harassment charges came to light.

Troopergate is meaningless in that Palin has done more damage to her ticket without the Alaskan Bi-Partisan commission saying that she abused her power. It does mean she has no chance of bringing any life to the McCain campaign.

I explained Alaska to my wife the other day. Take all of the women in our county and then imagine that is all the people that live in the midwest. (Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kentucky and Tennessee.) Now move the climate to North of Canada.

Sarah Palin's dalliances with Wasilla's wackiest extremists

http://tinyurl.com/3kgsjf

*****

I can't see how picking her did anything good for the ticket. It was an expression of poor judgment.

McCain tussles with Palin over whipping up a mob mentality

[...]

John Weaver, a former senior McCain adviser who left the campaign when it almost imploded in the summer of last year, questioned the purpose of the attacks.

“People need to understand, for moral reasons and the protection of our civil society, that the differences with Senator Obama are ideological, based on clear differences on policy and a lack of experience compared with Senator McCain,” he said.

“And from a purely practical political vantage point, please find me a swing voter, an undecided independent, or a torn female voter that finds an angry mob mentality attractive.”

A McCain official confirmed that there was dissension in the campaign. “There is always going to be a debate about the costs and benefits of any strategy,” he said.

http://tinyurl.com/4b5hze

*****

Serves 'em right. We are talking about the president of the United States of America. Palin is not at that level in any way shape or form. Picking her didn't cost McCain the election but it will go down in history as one of the most cynical stunts ever pulled by a failing candidate.

Capt,

"...I can't see how picking her did anything good for the ticket...."

I'm telling you man, it is SCARY how she still gets positives from soooo many people here!

...and notice that while their antics have moved SOME independents, and SOME others...the overall metrics are still very similar...

You should've heard the defening silence here, today, when a bunch of docs were getting giddy, talking about the REAL Palin showing up on SNL...and how BUSH should do SNL, when he's out of office...

"Will they let a TV crew into Federal Prisons?", I asked...

...crickets chirping...

-T

Time is getting short, I can't imagine what McCarzy will try next to make a media splash?

How can he turn around the trendlines little over three weeks?

What he is doing now isn't working . . .

Obama 349.4 McCain 188.6

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/

Obama 343 McCain 184 Ties 11

Dem pickups (vs. 2004): CO FL IA NV NM OH VA WV
GOP pickups (vs. 2004): (None)

http://www.electoral-vote.com/

Think back. Think of the excitement of a Kerry win. Or better, think of the excitement of a Dean win. It was a sure thing, but bottom line, voters did not want a Liberal president. And they won't want one now.

The Odd Lies Of Sarah Palin XIX: Abuse Of Power

The legislative report is very clear. Shall we review its findings in its own language? Finding Number One, released Friday afternoon:

For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) provides The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.

Here is what vice-presdential nominee Sarah Palin said yesterday:

“There was no abuse of authority at all in trying to get Officer Wooten fired.

In fact, remember, Officer Wooten is still an Alaska state trooper, which is up to the commissioner and the personnel top brass in the Department of Public Safety that decides who is worthy of a badge and carryin’ a gun in the state of Alaska. If they think that Trooper Wooten is worthy of that, that’s their decision. I don’t micromanage my commissioners and ask them to hire or fire anyone. And thankfully the truth was revealed there in that report that showed there was no unlawful or unethical activity on my part.”

At some point, the McCain campaign will realize that their veep candidate is a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic.

Again: this is the clear pattern with Palin: she publicly denies reality, insists on repeating that denial and is unable to deal with real world the way psychologically healthy people do. That's why I called her lies "odd lies." They are not the lies of a devious politician. They are much more troubling than that. They reflect a psyche unable to process fact when it conflicts with a delusional self-image. She is even worse in this psychotic denialism than Bush. She is a politician who can only survive in a propaganda state.

http://tinyurl.com/3pmdhl

Human Dignity In Very Cool Font Animation

A gorgeous visual play on the words in th Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTlrSYbCbHE

Which Crash is Steeper? Global Finance or John McCain?

From the Times ...

The difficulties of the McCain campaign have led some Republican leaders to express concern that he could end up dragging other of the party's candidates down to defeat. "If Obama is able to run up big numbers around the country," said Mr. Anuzis, the Michigan party chairman, "the potential for hurting down-ballot Republicans is very big."

One sign of that has emerged in Nebraska, where Representative Lee Terry, a Republican, ran a newspaper advertisement featuring words of support for him from a woman identified as an "Obama-Terry voter."

Nebraska.

--Josh Marshall

TPM Track Composite: Obama Ahead By Over Seven Points

Here's our daily composite of the five major national tracking polls. Barack Obama's lead may have contracted slightly since yesterday -- but the overall difference is very small, and he remains well ahead:

• Gallup: Obama 50%, McCain 43%, with a ±2% margin of error, compared to a 51%-42% Obama lead yesterday.

• Rasmussen: Obama 51%, McCain 45%, with a ±2% margin of error, compared to a 52%-45% Obama lead from yesterday.

• Hotline/Diageo: Obama 49%, McCain 41%, with a ±3.4% margin of error, compared to a 50%-40% Obama lead yesterday.

• Research 2000: Obama 53%, McCain 40%, with a ±3% margin of error, compared to a 52%-40% Obama lead from yesterday.

• Zogby: Obama 49%, McCain 43%, with a ±2.9% margin of error, compared to a 48%-44% Obama lead yesterday.

Adding these polls together and weighting them by the square roots of their sample sizes, Obama is ahead 50.4%-42.8%, a lead of 7.6 points, compared to a 50.8%-42.5% Obama lead yesterday.

*****

It is all just pollstrology but assuming the numbers are close to reality - McCain has to pray for a miracle.

Here's an idea for McCain supporters:

They can bet all of their $$$$ on McCain - if he wins it pays 3-4 to 1 so they can make back any losses from the Bush depression?

It's a sure thing so . . .

lolololo

http://marccooper.com/

Pictures - giggles - interesting stuff!

Attack Blowback

The McCain campaign’s more aggressive tone is prompting pushback from the public: Registered voters by a broad margin now believe John McCain is more focused on attacking his opponent than on addressing the issues in the 2008 presidential election.

Barack Obama, by contrast, is perceived even more widely as sticking to the issues, this new ABC News/Washington Post poll finds – a striking point of differentiation between the two. More differences will be reported in the full release of this ABC/Post poll on ABCNews.com at 12:01 a.m. and Good Morning America on Monday morning.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenumbers/2008/10/attack-blowback.html

Palin Makes Troopergate Assertions that Are Flatly False
October 12, 2008 6:56 PM

On Saturday, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin twice spoke to reporters about the so-called "Troopergate" scandal and the investigative report on whether she had abused her power in trying to get her sister's ex-husband Mike Wooten fired as a state trooper, and for firing Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan one year after she, her staffers, and her husband Todd began unsuccessfully pressuring Monegan to let Wooten go.

Palin spoke on the phone with Alaska reporters about the report. The McCain-Palin campaign only allowed one question per reporter. The journalists came from the Anchorage Daily News, KTVA-Channel 11 and KTUU-Channel 2. No follow-ups were allowed.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/10/palin-makes-tro.html

*****

Why would the truth matter now?

Biden guilty of abuse of power -- steps down

http://tinyurl.com/4cmeuj

McCain could pay big price for anti-ethanol statements

Republican continues to bash farmers by vowing to eliminate subsidies linked to the fuel

http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=219089