Monday, October 20, 2008

Headlines - Monday

First they came for the talk radio hosts, and I did nothing, because I was not a talk radio host....
 
An email from Orrin Hatch for the National Republican Senatorial Committee warns darkly of the Democratic agenda "to force its radical agenda on American families" should they win 60 seats in the Senate:
  • Crippling new taxes
  • Staggering new government spending
  • Outrageous paybacks to labor bosses
  • Liberal censorship of talk radio
 
 
You can buy Orrin's music here.
 
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The FBI is struggling to find enough agents and resources to investigate criminal wrongdoing tied to the country's economic crisis
 
Perhaps it would help if they'd stop investigating the phony charges against ACORN. 
 
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Palin answering Sean Insanity's question about her decision to accept the vice-presidency:

"It was a time of asking the girls to vote on it, anyway.  And they voted unanimously, yes.  Didn't bother asking my son because, you know, he's going to be off doing his thing anyway, so he wouldn't be so impacted by, at least, the campaign period here.  So ask the girls what they thought and they're like, absolutely.  Let's do this, mom."

Oops. Here's the official tick-tock of the announcement from McCain communications director Jill Hazelbaker on August 29.

Trivial? Maybe, but the point is that there is a very powerful pattern here of Sarah Palin's difficulty with telling the truth. And why would she disregard Track's views because he would be in Iraq "doing his thing." In fact, an active duty soldier would have plenty of reason to be consulted about the possibility of his mother becoming vice-president. It could compromise his ability to blend in, require possible extra security protection, and perhaps jeopardize his chance to be in combat. Think Prince Harry.

Remember she also told Charlie Gibson that she instantly and unblinkingly said yes, when asked, to John McCain's offer for the veep slot. Either Palin lied to Gibson or she lied to Hannity. Take your pick.

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Unreal. Fear - Diane Fanning has it.


In Fayetteville, NC, today, at Cape Fear BBQ and Chicken, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was greeted by a 54-year-old woman shouting "Socialist! Socialist! Socialist! Get out of here!"
The woman, Diane Fanning, who works at a Sam's Club, was one of the many in the older and largely white crowd eating lunch after church services.

Sitting next to Fanning, Lenox Bramble, 76, gave her an angry look.

"Be civil, be courteous," he said. He later told a reporter he's voting for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and doesn't think Obama has enough experience.

Another diner, Cecilia Hayslip, 61, yelled back at Fanning, "At least he's not a war-monger!"

Obama came to the long table where Fanning was eating with fellow congregants from the local First Presbyterian church.

Obama held out his hand to her.

"How are you, ma'am?" he asked.

She refused to shake his hand.


Maybe someone should have checked with Fanning for her definition of 'Socialist.' Might have been interesting.  

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I'm no fan of Colin Powell but his analysis on MTP of the political situation that led him to decide to vote for Obama was spot on. He gave an impromptu press conference afterwards and he went even deeper into his thoughts on how the Republican Party has degenerated and how that degeneration is undermining the essence of our country (again). 

Here's a great montage of his endorsement, along with video clips from the campaign trail supporting his key points: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_DoohQEICw&eurl=http://www.jedreport.com/

It didn't take long for the wingnuts to throw Powell under the bus after the endorsement - in favor of (I kid you not) Joe the Alleged Plumber: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14725.html

Fun fact: in the wake of Michele Bachmann's disgusting display on Hardball on Friday, Bachmann's Democratic challenger Elwyn Tinklenberg has raised $620,000, which is more than he raised in the entire third quarter and certainly more than enough to make Michele Bachmann regret she ever went on Hardball.

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On MTP the press Mr. Powell also said this:

I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine.  It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.  And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave.  And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone.  And it gave his awards–Purple Heart, Bronze Star–showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death.  He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn't have a Christian cross, it didn't have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith.  And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey.  He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life.  Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourself in this way.  And John McCain is as nondiscriminatory as anyone I know.  But I'm troubled about the fact that, within the party, we have these kinds of expressions.

This is the photo:

 

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Terry Tate has a message for Sarah Palin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07kO9TtHYzQ

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Three Putnam County voters say electronic voting machines changed their votes from Democrats to Republicans when they cast early ballots last week. http://wvgazette.com/News/200810180251

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Government Sachs - what could possibly go wrong? http://casadelogo.typepad.com/factesque/2008/10/government-sach.html

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Here's John McCain's response to Barack Obama's fundraising totals for September 

"I'm saying that history shows us where unlimited amounts of money are in political campaigns, it leads to scandal.

I'm not comparing it with — I'm saying this is the first since the Watergate scandal that any candidate for president of the United States, a major party candidate, has broken the pledge to take public financing.

We enacted those reforms because of that scandal. We know that we let unlimited amounts of money — in this case $200 million unreported — and there's already been stories of people who have made small contributions multiple times and all that.

I'm saying it's laying a predicate for the future that can be very dangerous. History has shown that."

It seems pretty clear to me that McCain is saying this because he wants to plant the idea that there's something scandalous or unsavory about Obama's fundraising in people's minds.

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DOJ trying to break ACORN's nuts

A former top DOJ voting rights official - who once worked with John McCain in defense of the senator's campaign-finance reform bill - has added his name to the growing chorus that is denouncing the department's investigation of ACORN as a shameful and inappropriate politicization of justice along the lines of the US Attorney firings: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/ex_doj_voting_rights_chief_its.phpIt

David Iglesias is not surprised.

Chuck Schumer and Diane Feinstein should call on their buddy Mukasey to resign in disgrace. He's failing at his job. He's failing the country.

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US cities cutting back due to recession:
 
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If only we hadn't invaded Iraq...

From the NYT: Taliban beheads 30 people riding on a passenger bus in Afghanistan.
 
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The violence will not be anything that the National Guard can suppress. It will be big Republican guys beating middle aged volunteers, vandalism, potshots in the night. Like they did in the 90's super-patriots will wall themselves off in little clans. If they feel the need to act, they will follow McVeigh and Rudolph's example and bomb something.

You cannot 'put down' festering bitterness like this. It will become a part of life like bad weather and dog crap on the sidewalk. It's pretty easy to avoid, but we're past that point now. John McCain decided to lose ugly. The party, always captive to the whims of the top of the ticket in the best of times, eagerly followed suit. Clever people at the top of the party are saying things that can only lead to violence if simpler folks in the 'base' take it seriously.
 
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Republican voter registration fraud in California
 
The head of the Republican voter registration group, Young Political Majors that was coercing people into registering as Republicans in order to sign a petition, has himself been arrested for voter registration fraud.

From the California Secretary of State's press release (posted at Bradblog):
 
Mark Anthony Jacoby, who owns the firm known as Young Political Majors (YPM), was arrested after allegedly registering himself to vote, once in 2006 and again in 2007, at an address where did not live. An investigation by the Secretary of State's Election Fraud Investigation Unit revealed that Jacoby twice registered to vote at the address of a childhood home in Los Angeles although he no longer lived there.

The Secretary of State's fraud unit and the Ontario Police Department arrested Jacoby near an Ontario hotel just before midnight Saturday. An arraignment date has not been scheduled yet.
 
It's time to face the fact that Republicans do not want Democrats to vote. Period.
 
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For nearly two weeks, ACORN offices across the nation have been subjected to an onslaught of racist and threatening voicemails and emails. We have secured copies of some of the most disturbing and offensive messages and have reproduced them below in order to show the very real consequences of the Right Wing's overheated and misplaced "voter fraud" rhetoric.

"Hi, I was just calling to let you all know that Barack Obama needs to get hung. He's a fu**ing ni**er, and he's a piece of shi*. You guys are fraudulent, and you need to go to hell. All the ni**ers on oak trees. They're gonna get all hung honeys, they're gonna get assassinated, they're gonna get killed."

"You liberal idiots. Dumb shits. Welfare bums. You guys just f***ing come to our country, consume every natural resource there is, and make a lot of babies. That's all you guys do. And then suck up the welfare and expect everyone else to pay for your hospital bills for your kids. I just say let your kids die. That's the best move. Just let your children die. Forget about paying for hospital bills for them. I'm not gonna do it. You guys are lowlifes. And I hope you all die."

This email was received by the Cleveland office. The subject line was the name of a senior staffer who had recently appeared on TV to defend the group.

According to McClatchy, the email was traced back to a Facebook account featuring a McCain-Palin sign.

Email #2:

From Hate You Can Believe In: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/hate-you-can-believe-acorn-deluged-threatening-and-racist-voicemails-and-emails

Actual violent actions are coming. 

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South Dakota group proves choice = pro family
 
 
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Priorities

Don't worry your pretty little head about feeding the children who are already here. The rights of theoretical children should rank much higher on your moral scale:

Bishop Robert J. Herman, the administrator of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, has written a column reminding Catholics that their vote will be a decision weighed on the Day of Judgment. He urged Catholics not to treat the unborn as the neglectful rich man treated Lazarus in the biblical parable.

"Judgment Day is on its way," the bishop wrote in the St. Louis Review. "We cannot stop it. We don't know when it will come, but just as surely as the sun rises daily, the Son of Man will come when we least expect." …

"The decision I make in the voting booth will reflect my value system. If I value the good of the economy and my current lifestyle more than I do the right to life itself, then I am in trouble," the bishop wrote.

"The right of our children to be protected from destruction is greater than my right to a thriving economy," Bishop Herman continued.

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First Glenn Beck, and now this:
 
Faux News has hired Judith Miller because "she has a very impressive résumé, " according to Senior VP John Moody. "We've all had stories that didn't come out exactly as we had hoped. It's certainly something she's going to be associated with for all time, and there's not much anyone can do about that, but we want to make use of the tremendous expertise she brings on a lot of other issues. … She has explained herself and she has nothing to apologize for."

Judith Miller, of course, had more problems than her stories not turning out "exactly" as she had "hoped, " and she has much to apologize for. She was a willing participant in the Bush administration's quest to peddle lies to the American public. She was a key player in pushing false intelligence that led the public into the Iraq war, and was central to the Valerie Plame leak scandal.

On Sept. 7, 2002, she and fellow New York Times reporter Michael Gordon reported that Iraq had "stepped up its quest for nuclear weapons and has embarked on a worldwide hunt for materials to make an atomic bomb." As proof, she cited unnamed "American intelligence experts" and unnamed "Bush administration officials." Subsequently, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, and Donald Rumsfeld all pointed to Miller's story as justification for war. On April 22, 2003, she told PBS's Newshour that WMD had already been found in Iraq: "Well, I think they found something more than a 'smoking gun.'"

In 2005, Miller went to jail for refusing to testify in the Valerie Plame scandal and reveal her conversations with Scooter Libby. Miller was often criticized for becoming too close with her Bush administration sources. While she was in jail, for example, Libby wrote to her about how much he admired her and urged her to "Come back to work — and life."

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Appearing on WCCO, Michelle Bachmann denied she ever called Barack Obama's views "anti-American":

HOST: You do feel his Obama's views are anti-American?

BACHMANN: I feel his views are concerning. I'm calling on the media to investigate them. I'm not saying that his views are anti-American. That was a misreading of what I said. And so I don't believe that's my position. I'm calling on the media to take a look at what his views are.

Flashback:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: So you believe that Barack Obama may have anti-American views?

BACHMANN: Absolutely. I'm very concerned he may have anti-American views.

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Cindypills McCain's lawyer to the New York Times: "You have not tried to find Barack Obama's drug dealer."

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