Monday, October 13, 2008

Headlines - Monday

McCain and Palin Are Playing With Fire
By Khaled Hosseini
 
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Funny stuff: "The Job"
 
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Americans' B.S. detectors off charts with Palin - Garrison Keillor
 
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Chris Wallace brings up the hateful rhetoric at McCain events, and Rick Davis screams, "POW!"
 
Seriously.

Davis also hilariously demanded an Obama apology for John Lewis' comments.

So to recap: the POW is not responsible for things his running mate says or his supporters say - or anyone who introduces him - at his campaign events. But Obama's responsible for everyone everywhere who says mean things about McSame. And did we mention that McSame was a POW?

As their campaign swirls down the electoral toilet, the McPalin people have moved well beyond chutzpah and into delusional self-parody. 

It's a beautiful thing to watch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC7v_lkYAoM&eurl=http://firedoglake.com/

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From the Dept. of Irony we find Indonesia unwilling to send the US samples of bird flu viruses because we might use them to make bioweapons.  

Defense Secretary Robert Gates laughed and called it "the nuttiest thing" he'd ever heard.

Yet deep inside an 86-page supplement to United States export regulations is a single sentence that bars U.S. exports of vaccines for avian bird flu and dozens of other viruses to five countries designated "state sponsors of terrorism."

The reason: Fear that they will be used for biological warfare.

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We all know how George Bush "won" the presidency in 2000. His press secretary, however, doesn't seem to. Dana Perino says McCain can win just like W did.

If McCain "wins" like Bush did in 2000, he will be presiding over the next civil war

"The president is convinced that John McCain has still time to close up this race," Perino told reporters on Air Force One. "He remembers when he was running in 2000 and how far he was down before the election, and he came back to win."

No Dana. He came back to be awarded the presidency by the Supreme Court, despite that fact that he lost the popular vote. The numbers were 48.38 percent for Gore, 47.87 percent for Bush, and 2.74 percent for Nader.

If McCain thinks he can "win" like Bush did and then lead the country with Palin at his side and not preside over the next civil war, he needs to up his meds.

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Barack Obama is planning to use some of his huge wads of cash to buy 30 minute chunks of primetime television on October 29th to address the American people directly. Here's a great idea from Pinko magazine on how can use the time:

Who is the real Barack Obama? A reality show where 10 undecided voters are put in a house. Their every move and racist remark videotaped. Every episode, Sen. Obama presents them with challenges. Tune in to see a cross-section of America try to find the facts in a Palin speech, look up McCain's Legislative history, READ the news, follow world events, and many many more. Who will hook up with Joe Six Pack? Who will be the last voter left undecided? Who gives two shits about Ayers? Someone will get pregnant, then go to Alaska and be denied her right to choose.

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Majority now believes business wing of GOP more likely to cause Armageddon than evangelicals

"According to the latest data from the new poll, even atheists are more likely to believe in the resurrection of Christ than the S&P 500."

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The time has come to ask: what might happen to our country if we elect a black Muslim terrorist president?

http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2008/10/time-has-come-to-ask-what-might-happen.html

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Ethics to Nowhere: http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2008/10/ethics-to-nowhere.html

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Faux News: what will you do if the election is stolen? http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/10/11/rmiller_1010/

Scroll down to the comments for some amusement. 

A few examples:

What if the associations of Obama had access to a nuclear weapon. The whole world would be held hostage. Wasn't Nosdradomis the one who predicted a person from the middle east will do just that?

Its our constitutional OBLIGATION to fight and stop this infiltration into our freedom. Its not about race….its about intelligence. The masses are asses, and the Clinton's and Kennedy's go after the masses. The stupid people who cant get a car, need to be bussed in, with their hands out for gov assistance. What a bunch of morons. If you are white, and you side for the stupid party, please go back to school and take a brush up course in history, before you vote our country away. Anyone who would put Nancy Palooser in charge of their party is proof that white people can inbreed also. Nancy bounces checks all over Calif. She wants cons in prison to vote (80% Dem's) People losing their homes (80%) Dem's….get the picture. Why align yourselves with that type. You grow up being like those you hang out with……Look at B H Obama's friends! I think civil war is the only answer! A modern day revolution. And for those of you who would say "bombs never stopped anything"….well, they stopped WWII. (By the way it was a Dem Pres who did that) San Francisco is a great start.
You are a traitor if you don't take action!!!!! I urge everyone to contact your local FBI and Demand a stop to the obvious attempted overthrow of our country. I'll bring the tea!

u don't think there's gonna be an increase in Black officers ? they probably won't even respond to white peoples 911 calls….not sure where u live but its obvious in my neck of the woods…

It's all over for whites if he gets elected folks !!!!!!!!!!!! Start locking your doors extra tight at night !!!!!!!!!!

Looks like a liberal troll got in:

I find it deeply ironic that on a Fox news web page, there is an advertisement for IQ testing, and the question is "Are you smart enough to be VP? It then states that Senator Biden's IQ is a whopping 146! I would give a half day's pay (to the Obama for America campaign) just to find out what Sarah Palin's IQ is.

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Looks like racism works for Gallup pollsters: Oama is down 2 points to 50 and McCain is up 2 points to 43.

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A huge and well-deserved honor for an esteemed liberal, Paul Krugman:

The American economist Paul R. Krugman won the Nobel economics prize on Monday for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity.

Mr. Krugman, 55, a professor at Princeton University in New Jersey and a columnist for The New York Times, formulated a new theory to answer questions about free trade, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

"What are the effects of free trade and globalization? What are the driving forces behind worldwide urbanization? Paul Krugman has formulated a new theory to answer these questions," the academy said in its citation.

Krugman, of course, was one of the earliest, and most informed, critics of Bush and the madness of the eight years. I'm sure I'm not the only one who felt that their sanity was often buttresed by the reality check Krugman's political columns provided.

Congratulations, Dr. Krugman, and thank you for all the intelligence and commonsense you provide to all of us in the reality-based community!

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Voting Has Consequences 

Bob Herbert in the NYT:

For the nitwits who vote for the man or woman they'd most like to have over for dinner, or hang out at a barbecue with, I suggest you take a look at how well your 401(k) is doing, or how easy it will be to meet the mortgage this month, or whether the college fund you've been trying to build for your kids is as robust as you'd like it to be.

Voters in the George W. Bush era gave the Republican Party nearly complete control of the federal government. Now the financial markets are in turmoil, top government and corporate leaders are on the verge of panic and scholars are dusting off treatises that analyzed the causes of the Great Depression.

img521/1272/tooni2zdsc3.jpg

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Palin 4

Even after the last eight years, this stands out as brazen:

Despite the finding of a legislative report that she had broken the state's ethics law in the scandal dubbed Troopergate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said Saturday that the report actually cleared her of any "legal wrongdoing or unethical activity."

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The investigation said she violated Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act, which states, "… 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."

Palin said she's happy the report affirmed her right to fire Monegan. But she said she still doesn't think she abused her power like the report says she did. In fact, she said she considered herself vindicated.

In a brief conference call with press reported by the Anchorage Daily News, Palin said, "I'm very, very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing … any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that."

Maverick!

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Uh, Senator? Don't you think using the word "whip" in the context of a black man, given the racial hatred and threats of violence your campaign is, shall we say, "whipping up" in your supporters, is just a wee tad unfortunate?

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Biden goes nuclear

Damn, I wish Joe Biden was getting more air time. The man's a caution:
 

JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri (CNN) Joe Biden Thursday night told Sarah Palin not to lecture him on patriotism, after weeks of attacks mocking him for his statement the wealthy should be patriotic and pay higher taxes because not enough has been asked of them.

"Sarah Palin had great fun saying Joe Biden thinks paying taxes is patriotic. Well, let me tell you what Joe Biden thinks," the Delaware senator said at an outdoor rally. "Joe Biden thinks that anybody who takes millions of dollars offshore to avoid paying their fair share is unpatriotic."

The Obama-Biden campaign has accused John McCain of saying publicly he would close offshore banking loopholes, but saying otherwise in private.

"That is not patriotic and it will stop, it will stop in an Obama-Biden administration! Enough! I've had it up to here! Don't lecture me on patriotism," shouted Biden, getting drowned out by the applause of his supporters. "I'm dead tired of being taken advantage of. I'm getting tired of it."

Obama made an outstanding choice when he tapped this man on the shoulder and asked him to run. He's saying exactly what needs to be said. Republicons have no standing to lecture Dems on patriotism.

None.
 
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Michael Froomkin reports from Florida that this is what is arriving in mailboxes in Annette Tadeo's District
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is accompanied by a smiling photo of Governor Charlie Crist, along with a message warning that terrorists want to kill us, and that we should vote for Republicans to "help keep America safe." (You can download a .pdf of the entire mailer, if you want.)

Got that? The State GOP, which paid for this thing, and the formerly post-partisan Governor, are saying that Democrats want to surrender to terrorists. Talk about low-class smear jobs…

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From SecTreas Paulsen's statement on Friday evening when no one was watching:

As we develop plans to purchase equity, as in the approach we are taking to broad mortgage asset purchases, we are working to develop a standardized program that is open to a broad array of financial institutions. Such a program would be designed to encourage the raising of new private capital to complement public capital. Consistent with the legislation, any equity the government purchases through a broadly available equity program would be on a non-voting basis, except with respect to the market standard terms to protect our rights as investors.

Huh? They are going to pump billions of dollars into banks, get stock in return and that stock is non-voting stock?

What sort of dumb-ass chuckleheads do we have running the government? No large investor with any brains would buy non-voting stock; if you are going to put that much money into a business, if you are buying that large of a piece of the action, you for damn sure want a say in how the place is run. Can you imagine Warren Buffet, Kirk Kerkorian, or T. Boone Pickens buying non-voting stock? I don't think so.

For that kind of cash, we ought to have a say.

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Compassionate Conservatism

Whatsoever you do to the least of My brothers, that you do unto Me.

Thanks, BushCo!

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12, 2008 (Reuters) — World finance and development ministers warned on Sunday that developing countries risked serious and lasting setbacks from the global financial crisis and urged major economies to deliver on aid pledges.

[...] World finance leaders on Sunday endorsed an action plan by major economies to chart a course out of the crisis, which began in the U.S. housing market and soon spread to Europe, triggering the most severe downturn in years.

In a communique, the development committee called on the World Bank and its sister organization, the International Monetary Fund, to draw on the full range of their resources to help countries that may encounter problems, not only from the credit crisis, but also from high food and fuel prices.

"The poorest and most vulnerable groups risk the most serious — and in some cases permanent — damage," the development committee communique said

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Tom Matzzie has an excellent post over at Huffington Post debunking the the GOP's fraudulent assault on "vote fraud" and ACORN.

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Off message

The other day, the Bushies announced that the US was removing North Korea from the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism.

John McCain issued a preemptive statement on Friday expressing his displeasure with the agreement.

Sarah Palin (trying desperately to demonstrate her own foreign policy competence) offered a contradictory response.

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Speaking to the Wall Street Journal on Friday, Karl Rove trashed Oliver Stone's upcoming Bush biopic "W," saying that it is "clearly based in a reality that only exists within Oliver Stone's left cortex." As an example, Rove mentioned that the movie highlights Bush's use of the f-word, and says that he can't remember ever hearing that word from Bush in 35 years."

I guess he was gone the day Commander Codpiece said this: 

"F___ Saddam. we're taking him out." Those were the words of President George W. Bush, who had poked his head into the office of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

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National Debt When Jimmy Carter arrived at the White House:

$660 billion.

Added during Carter's four years: $337 billion.

Added during Ronald Reagan's eight years: $1.6 trillion.

Added during George H. W. Bush's four years: $1.6 trillion.

Added during Bill Clinton's eight years: $1.5 trillion.

Added during George W. Bush's seven years, nine months: $4.5 trillion.

Portion of the $9.5 trillion added to the national debt during the past 31 years and seven months that came during Republican presidencies: $7.7 trillion.

Percentage of that $7.7 trillion added during George W. Bush's two terms: 58%.

Could somebody explain again what "fiscal conservative" means?

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