Racism Exists

These videos from McCain/Palin rallies are real eye-openers for us Whiteys. I've sorta always thought that racism still exists, but that it couldn't be that wide spread even here in the south. But seeing this exact performance parroted again and again, in city after city, makes me considerably more open to the "racism affects our lives" argument that some minorities make.

"Go back to Africa" indeed.

McCain: Tax Cuts for Middle Class = Welfare

McCain is finally going where the WSJ went a few months ago. John McCain is saying that tax cuts directed towards the middle and lower classes are in fact a welfare program, since the poor "pay no taxes."  Oy.

Remember, the top 1% wealthiest Americans, who pay 34% of total income tax revenue, got 52% of Bush's tax cuts.  These tax cuts were financed with deficit spending, increasing the debt burden of every American citizen.  Bush's tax cuts were therefore a redistribution of wealth, just in the other direction.  This is just another data point proving that if there is a class war, the wealthy are winning decisively.

DOJ Partisanship Continues

Two senior officials in the Bush Justice Department have just leaked the fact that the FBI is conducting a nationwide investigation into Acorn.  Why did they leak it, you might ask, instead of issuing a press release?  Because they are breaking the law by doing so, that's why.

Luckily a Democrat has finally decided to fight this when there was still a chance to do something about it.  Obama's campaign is pursuing legal options as we speak, not after they've already lost.

Fortunately for us there's a special prosecutor looking into the U.S. Attorney/Bogus Vote Fraud thing already, and this dovetails perfectly. The Obama campaign is fighting back preemptively, not when its too late to do anything.  About time!

In fact, David Iglesias, the most troubling of the nine political firings, said the following:

Iglesias, the most important of the 9 dismissed attorneys, says he's seen this all before, and is astounded that the current US attorneys are falling for this. It looks like a real strong possibility that the politicisation has succeeded.

People who would know are saying so, like the DOJ's ex voting right's chief:

Gerry Hebert described the investigation, word of which was leaked off the record to the Associated Press less than three weeks before the election, as "a continuation of injecting DOJ into what has clearly become a political issue."

He continued: "That's really not the proper role for the DOJ, and why their policies counsel otherwise."

...

Hebert, noting that he had been at DOJ during the administrations of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, added: "During the twenty-one years I was there, even though there were political appointees who I worked with, never did we inject partisan considerations into our law-enforcement responsibilities. That has clearly not been the case in recent years under this administration. And it's going to take a long time to cleanse the Department of Justice."

Politicisation succeeded!  Rove can put a check in that box!  If only that Permanent Republican Majority he hoped to use a politicized DOJ to enforce had materialized, huh?  Instead, he's helped create a new precedent - one of the many that a President Obama could use to make himself the most powerful President  in American history.  Obama the Monarch.  Reap what you have sown, Republicans, and weep bitter tears.

FL Governor Discounts ACORN Effect

Gov. Crist of Florida, a man who got married to have a shot at being McCain's VP, is no longer towing the party line.

Florida's governor says his fellow Republicans may be exaggerating claims of voter fraud in the state.

Gov. Charlie Crist said Wednesday that he has confidence in Secretary of State Kurt Browning, who says there's only been a scattering of isolated incidents.

Crist said in the closing days of any campaign "there are some who sort of enjoy chaos." There may be more of that going on than fraud, he said.

Of course Mickey Mouse is not going to vote in November, no matter how many of them register.

California Women's Group and Racism

I know I'm saying this a lot, but all I can come up with is "Wow.  Just wow."

Wow.

Virginia GOP

The Virginia GOP's latest mailer.  America must look evil in its (big black) eyes:

Yup.  No racists here.  Move along.

Roflcopter!

Ha haha haa Ha!

HA!

"Health" of the Mother, with Scare-Quotes!

I have a friend that insists that the "life of the mother" exemption for abortion has always been part of the Republican Party Platform. Here's John McCain calling exactly that position an "extreme pro-abortion position."



Yup. It's extreme to believe that an abortion should be legal when not having one might result in the mother's death.  ...And John McCain thinks he's going to take part of the Hillary vote? What a joke.

Debate the Final!

I've never been a huge fan of Obama the Debater, preferring long uninterrupted crescendos of rhetorical beatdown.  But in this final debate I think Obama did great.  Some have said that he was on the defensive all night, but if you haven't noticed, that's just Obama.  Attacking is not something he does well.  But as long as you play defense well, in a way that plays into your narrative, defense is just fine.  He sounded reasonable and mainstream as he shot down Ayers, Baby Killers, and various distortions of his tax record.  In fact, here's McCain looking absolutely blown away by one of Obama's defenses:

You know someone at the McCain Debate Camp is catching hell for that one.

Also, after Obama brought up the calls of "terrorist and 'kill him,'" McCain went on the Ayers/Acorn attack.  Once again, it seems a little like he didn't have the bawls to bring it up without being taunted.

At the end of that clip McCain segues from Ayers/Acorn to taxes in perhaps the most jarring non sequitur I've ever seen.  I guess he's been watching the polling and knows that no one seems to care about this Ayers crap, so he doesn't have the confidence to make the attack without simultaneously minimizing its importance.  To use the word of the month, it was an erratic segue.  

Heck, even McCain thinks Obama did a "God job.  Good jobgoodjob... Good Job."

Score another for Obama.

McCain Supporters Still Want Obama Dead

Charming.

Chris Hackett addressed the increasingly feisty crowd as they await the arrival of Gov. Palin.  Each time the Republican candidate for the seat in the 10th Congressional District mentioned Barack Obama the crowd booed loudly.

One man screamed "kill him!"

Can we stop the big Obama rallies now?  I'd prefer to see him speaking in small, windowless rooms with metal detectors at all the entrances, thank you very much.

DOJ Partisanship and Voting Fraud

Because Josh Marshall brought the US Attorney's Scandal to light, leading to Alberto Gonzales' humiliation and resignation, I'll just leave this all to him.  

It's time again to remember the backstory of the US Attorney Firing scandal. The firings were one thing. But the story behind the firings, what led to them, is key to understanding the current 'vote fraud' scam being played by the Republicans and the media outlets that are going along with the scam.

Remember, the US Attorneys in question were all either Republicans or Republican-leaning independents. In every case, they were appointed by George W. Bush. In most of the cases their firing was tied to 'vote fraud' claims stemming from the 2004 election.

The pattern was very consistent. During the final weeks of the 2004 campaign Republican partisans started pressing claims of widespread voter fraud. In many, though not all cases, the examples they pointed to were not even allegations of voter fraud, but allegations of voter registration fraud: examples of people being registered more than once, non-existent people being registered, etc.

The Republicans making these claims argued that these problems with registration cards were opening the coming election up to widespread vote fraud. Logically, this makes no sense. And, more importantly, all evidence shows this has never happened, certainly not in any widespread sense. Every person who claims otherwise is either ignorant or speaking in bad faith.

Nonetheless, CNN and other national news outlets and especially local media outlets, either out of ignorance or bad faith, ran hard with these stories -- just as CNN is doing now.

After the election, there was a lot of pressure from Republicans in states like Nevada, Washington, New Mexico, etc. (not surprisingly, all key swing states) to have local US Attorneys prosecute these cases. The word came down from Washington, DC, particularly the political office at the White House that this was a top priority. And the local US Attorneys launched into it.

But there was a problem. Most of these were ethical prosecutors. And when they looked into it there just wasn't anything there. Most of the stories weren't even true. And those that were, were obviously isolated and in most cases not done with malice. The number of people who could actually be prosecuted could be counted on one hand. Local Republicans got angry; Karl Rove got angry. And the US Attorneys got fired.

That's the real story of the US Attorney firing scandal. And what we're seeing today is textbook -- exactly the same as what we saw in 2004 and 2006. It's a scam. And the very recent history should be enough for news networks like CNN and others not to let themselves become complicit in this disgrace.

Well done, Josh.

Wall Street Journal on ACORN

The Wall Street Journal examines ACORN:

Officials in Ohio are investigating voter fraud connected with Acorn, and Florida's Seminole County is withholding Acorn registrations that appear fraudulent. New Mexico, North Carolina and Missouri are looking into hundreds of dubious Acorn registrations. Wisconsin is investigating Acorn employees for, according to an election official, "making people up or registering people that were still in prison."

Then there's Lake County, Indiana, which has already found more than 2,100 bogus applications among the 5,000 Acorn dumped right before the deadline. "All the signatures looked exactly the same," said Ruthann Hoagland, of the county election board. Bridgeport, Connecticut estimates about 20% of Acorn's registrations were faulty. As of July, the city of Houston had rejected or put on hold about 40% of the 27,000 registration cards submitted by Acorn.

That's just this year. In 2004, four Acorn employees were indicted in Ohio for submitting false voter registrations. In 2005, two Colorado Acorn workers were found to have submitted false registrations. Four Acorn Missouri employees were indicted in 2006; five were found guilty in Washington state in 2007 for filling out registration forms with names from a phone book.

It looks to me like this went exactly as it should. ACORN is required by law to turn in every voter registration they receive, even if it is a registration for Mickey Mouse.   And, although the WSJ doesn't mention it, all of those indicted ACORN employees were actually turned in by ACORN.  ACORN marks those registrations it feels are suspect before "dumping them" on the registration office.

The WSJ provides a nice list of voter registration fraud, but rejecting bad registrations is exactly what the people at the voter registration office do.  And when the registration forms arrive pre-marked for fraudulent activity it can only make that job easier.

Now, if the people gathering registrations for ACORN had been paid by the registration rather than by the hour, ACORN would have built in an incentive to commit registration fraud and would be guilty of something. But they don't. ACORN appears to act within the rules as best as it can, and gladly turns over its gatherers to the authorities when fraud is suspected.  After all, the gatherers of fraudulent registration forms are stealing from ACORN.  Registrations for Mickey Mouse certainly don't translate into fraudulent votes.

I suppose ACORN could make Republicans happy by stopping existing.  Or by holding voter registration drives at country clubs.

Obama Taking on his Party

For those who say Obama has never taken on his party, Hilzoy has the documentation.

bin Laden's GOTV Effort

Isn't it about time for a Osama bin Laden to release a video?  He's the Republican's best Get Out The Vote organization.

I wonder, do you think bin Laden knows the saying "The friend of my enemy is my enemy?"

Incidentally, McCain's campaign manager has said an attack or bin Laden video would be good for the campaign, and McCain himself, after the video released right before the 2004 election, said "Bin Laden may have just given us a little boost. Amazing, huh?"

Mr Puddles, I have Snausages!

The Daily Show's Debate Reaction:

About 6:30 in begins one of the funniest segments I've ever seen. I'm rolling.

Lol. LOLS. Lolster. Lollercoaster. ROFLCOPTER! LOLLERSKATES!

Petraeus thinks McCain is Wrong on Foreign Policy

General Petraeus, hippie liberal that he is, thinks John McCain is wrong on the Foreign Policy of not talking with our enemies.



Remember, this is the man who wont use the word "victory" to describe our goal in Iraq. It seems like he doesn't see America the way you and I see America. I bet he's about to start palling around with Terrorists! [/Palin]

Boortz Call Notes - Fail x2!

Here are my notes for a call to Neal Boortz call I've been trying and failing to get on the air.  I restructure it each time, but I only ever get a few of sentences into it before being muted and kicked off the air.  Last time he disputed the value of examining my associations by saying the business I owned was probably a ghetto crabshack.  So this time, I tried to provide a couple of sentences of resume first.  He called me boring and threw me off the air.  Oy.  I'll get it out there eventually.

Subject for Screener: the Ayers attack is unfair

Howdy Neal! I can't WAIT to get your thoughts on this.

Now last time I tried to make this point, you called me a crabshack owner and kicked me off the air. So allow me just two sentences of preface: I am the owner of a IT security corporation that does work with small and medium businesses. I'm not a millionaire, but I DO meet a payroll. I have hundreds and hundreds of associations, and one in particular is instructive in the Ayers case.

One of my first big clients, a guy named John, was the owner of a civil engineering firm, and a retired army ranger. They were VERY successful, and I made a LOT of money from John. We've had dinner! He's given me gifts!

Now should I have vetted this guy John before I started doing business with him, becoming friendly in the process? Cuz guess what? It turns out this successful former army ranger had been a cocaine trafficker! Who knows, maybe he's KILLED people! He's in his fifties, and got popped back when he was like 35.

Now, he's reformed now, but he's not apologetic for it. You know? He doesn't believe drug laws are valid, since its a personal choice, and that's that.

Does this association mean I am unfit for elected office? because of bad judgement?

...

So the fact that I didn't vet my associations is ok? I'm in my 20s, Neal. I'm a grown man! I didn't make this association when I was 8, I made it when I was a grown man. Does that disqualify my judgement from office?

...

Ayers has as much chance of influencing Obama as Shaqueille Oneal does of influencing McCain. Now *Phil Graham* on the other hand, is probably going to be McCain's Treasury Secretary! The guy that called us a nation of whiners for being worried about the economy! The guy that created Credit Default Swaps, the shadow banking system that created this disaster!

McCain Forgets the Last Week Happened

McCain you crazy old coot! Don't you remember last week?

"Even after [Obama] refused to lift a finger to prevent this crisis, when the crisis hit, he was missing in action. He didn't start making calls to round up votes until after the rescue bill failed in the House and the markets crashed. We continue to see the price of delay today as the markets continue to fall. Today the Dow has fallen below 10,000. And yet, members of his own party said they felt no pressure to vote for the bill."

It's like the last week never happened. Has he forgotten that the "leadership" he showed in suspending his campaign led to the Republican Congressmen voting 2-1 against the bailout bill he emphatically endorsed? McCain and Palin said there might well be a Great Depression last Monday if that bill didn't pass, and the Republicans still told them where to shove it.

Keating Economics

Very interesting entrant into the question of where our current financial crisis came from.

US Oil Reserves

By request.

The U.S. has less than 3% of world oil reserves.  What Obama has been saying about the US Energy situation is the truth, and those calling him liars for it don't know how to use the google.