Thursday, October 9, 2008

Headlines - Thursday

h/t Dick
 
Where were the cops? Garrison Keillor: http://sonnyphotos.typepad.com/sonny/
 
###
 
Applications for absentee ballots in Utah must be received no later than the Friday before the election. The ballot itself must be postmarked before (not on) election day. 
 
###
 
In an effort to help the United States counter al-Qaida after the 9/11 attack, Iran rounded up hundreds of Arabs who had crossed the border from Afghanistan, expelled many of them and made copies of nearly 300 of their passports, a former Bush administration official said Tuesday.
 
And then they got branded the Axis of Evil.
 
###
 
 
 
China cancelled a visit to Washington by a senior general, slapped an indefinite ban on port calls by US naval vessels, and cancelled low-level diplomatic exchanges with the US yesterday, in retaliation for a US plan to sell $6.5bn (£3.7bn) of advanced weaponry to Taiwan.

China's foreign ministry in Beijing said the move broke international law and would cast a shadow over bilateral relations.
 
###
 
 
###
 
A U.S. military officer warned Pentagon officials that an American detainee was being driven nearly insane by months of punishing isolation and sensory deprivation in a U.S. military brig, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
 
###
 
 
Shocking fact: 86 percent of Fox News viewers believed McCain won the last debate.
 
###
 
The McCain strategy
 
Sensible conservative John Cole is on fire about the McCain campaign and its despicable campaign of lie, sleaze, and deceive: http://blog.badtux.net/2008/10/mccain-strategy.html

###

Who is better for the economy, Democrats or Republicans?

Well, you know the answer to that question. Democrats, of course. Duh.

Money paragraph (see above link for the data):

Now, after 70 years of data, after observing what we've observed over all sorts of conditions, it is hard to conclude anything but this: one party advocates policies that produce rapid economic growth, and one part dismisses those policies with epithets like "socialism" and advocates instead policies that produce dismal economic growth. And dismal economic growth has consequences. Poor economic growth makes people worse off, and hits them in their pocketbook. And when people are hurting financially, their health suffers, the rate of divorce goes up, suicides increase, and the abortion rate increases. So those who advocate the policies that bring us lower incomes, poorer health, break up families, increase suicides, and increase the rate of abortions are doing us all a lot of harm. More, in fact, than Osama or Saddam could possibly have done. And yet, the folks who advocate those policies that harm America question the patriotism of the rest of us. Its very, very strange.
Very strange indeed. Until you realize that the folks who advocate these policies that harm America don't care about America. They care only about their own pocketbook. As far as they're concerned, the rest of Americans can just go bleep themselves.

### 

Birth records

Yes, I've brought this up before, but don't you find it a bit odd?

Sarah tells us that on April 18 at 6:30 am, Trig Palin was born at Mat-Su Medical Center. Here are the birth records from the hospital's website. His name is still not there. 

###

 

###

"I hope you lose these elections because that would be a victory for the world.  You are a disgrace to women and you alone represent a terrible threat, a true environmental catastrophe." Brigitte Bardot, in an open letter to The She-BushLink 

###

Ultimate Justice for Swift Boating Slime

Jerome Corsi, swift boater of John Kerry and now Barack Obama, was slithering around Kenya looking for someone to testify that Obama is a Muslim terrorist seething with black rage. Corsi wrote "The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality" and was promoting his evil book there. But oh no! Corsi didn't do his homework and did not have a work permit in Kenya and he is being held by immigration officials who don't know what to do with him. Hopefully they will keep him there until after the election.

Here's the story at TPM
 
###
 
 
Be sure to watch the video at the end where he calls us fellow "prisoners."
 
Maybe he just means that he as a candidate shares the same relationship the rest of us have to Karl Rove and/or the right-wing GOP base — as in, it's their world, and we're all just prisoners in it.

P.S.  My favorite part of the video is the girl in the black T-shirt over McCain's left shoulder… watch her smile suddenly vanish as soon as the gaffe occurs.

### 

Planet Obama
 

Morford: What would happen if the whole world could vote in our election? http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/10/08/notes100808.DTL 
 
###

Fast work from Xerotopia.

 
####
 
 
### 

Andrew Sullivan, writing on the Atlantic's Daily Dish Blog, headlines the following post "Grow Some, Media," and we know exactly what he's talking about, don't we?

Until governor Sarah Palin gives a full press conference, it seems to me that the cable news outlets should stop running her stump speeches in full on television. The deal is: candidates get to broadcast their message if the press get to question them thoroughly. That's how real democracy works - give and take. What the Palin-McCain campaign wants is all give and no take: an indirect propaganda filter and the outrageous precedent of no press conferences in presidential campaigns. This is an assault on democracy. It is closer to Russian or Georgian democracy than American. If cable news continues to enable this chilling process, they will become complicit.

Enough.

####

Are Republicans knowingly lying when they claim that convicted felons have no right to vote, or are they just completely ignorant? Most states either allow convicted felons to retain their right to vote or return it to them once they have been released, or once they have finished serving out all related time (parole, probation, etc.); two states actually allow convicted felons to vote while in prison. There's no reason not to - after all, unconvicted felons are still allowed to vote - these are only the people who've been caught and punished. Even George Walker Bush and Richard Bruce Cheney are allowed to vote. Only two states permanently remove all voting rights from convicted felons. Check your state's laws if you're a felon. 

###

Throw a party, get a government bailout!

Remember AIG - the ones that spent $440,000 at a retreat one week after we bailed them out to the tune of $85 billion?  

Well, according to the AP, we're giving them another $37.8 billion!  

And get this: they're planning another retreat with the money: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aVXfypExIZ9M

###

Yet another band is complaining about John McCain's use of their song to promote his campaign. This time, it's the Foo Fighters and their song "My Hero."

"The saddest thing about this is that `My Hero' was written as a celebration of the common man and his extraordinary potential," the band said in a statement. "To have it appropriated without our knowledge and used in a manner that perverts the original sentiment of the lyric just tarnishes the song."

###

"The day that Sen. Obama cast a vote to not to fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill through my body let me tell you," Pillionaire Cindy McCain said in introducing the GOP ticket. "I would suggest Sen. Obama change shoes with me for just one day. I suggest he take a day and go watch our men and women deploying."

Ummm, Cindy? Your husband also voted against it because it had a timetable. You might want to check his record on supporting the troops: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brandon-friedman/mccains-non-support-for-t_b_131046.html

And another thing? Barack Obama couldn't afford your shoes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

###

Dow has declined 35% from this time last year - is this what we should expect from what is supposed to be the strongest economy in the world?

We're not the only ones. Think how Japan must feel - h/t Gary:

The knock on from the US sub prime market in Japan shows no signs
of letting up.

In the last 7 days Origami Bank has folded, Sumo Bank has gone belly up and Bonsai Bank plans to cutback some of its branches. Yesterday it was announced that Karaoke Bank is up for sale and more than likely will go for a song. Today shares in Kamikaze Bank were suspended after they nose-dived and 500 back-office staff at Karate Bank also got the chop.
Analysts report that there is something fishy going on at Sushi Bank and staff fear they may get a raw deal.

###

Want a lower mortgage? Just default: http://www.americablog.com/2008/10/want-lower-mortgage-rate-just-default.html

###



After a week of McCain supporters being incited to shout "kill him!" and "terrorist!" and "treason!", a man in Louisiana was arrested for threatening to kill election officials. The Smoking Gun has his arrest report and mug shots. It seems his voter registration card was delayed, and he was insistent that he would bring his shotgun to their office and kill them if they didn't hurry up because he needed to "keep the n*gger out of office."

###

Meet your fellow voters: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjxzmaXAg9E&eurl=http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/ 

These people have been told for years that their lives are threatened by scary brown Islamofascists. They've been told that their problems are caused by the minorities taking over America. Then, when a man with a Kenyan father and a white mother runs for office, they're told he's a closet Muslim with a militant black pastor who befriends terrorists - and the easy conclusion is jumped to. They're terrified and primed to strike out. All they need is permission.

It seems McCain and Palin are more than willing to give them that permission for the sake of winning an election.

Of all the evil McCain's responsible for, this is the worst.
 

###

Pro life my ass

Further proof that conservatives aren't about "babies", they're about punishing women who have sex  

Nicholas Kristof:
The Bush administration this month is quietly cutting off birth control supplies to some of the world's poorest women in Africa.

Thus the paradox of a "pro-life" administration adopting a policy whose result will be tens of thousands of additional abortions each year — along with more women dying in childbirth.

How does denying contraception to millions of women do anything to end a practice of forced abortion that isn't even funded by the organization being denied funding?

###

If there was any shred of credibility left to the McCain campaign, it's all gone with this shameful performancehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIVBRVn1kQM&eurl=http://www.crooksandliars.com/

Update: Obama throws down with an:

 

Obama also said he was surprised some of those attacks weren't brought up by his opponent at the debate Tuesday night at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn.

"I am surprised that, you know, we've been seeing some pretty over-the-top attacks coming out of the McCain campaign over the last several days, that he wasn't willing to say it to my face. But I guess we've got one last debate. So presumably, if he ends up feeling that he needs to, he will raise it during the debate."

I have a feeling the erratic, mean coot isn't going to like that much.

###

4,180 soldiers killed in Iraq; 610 in Afghanistan.

A draft version of the new National Intelligence Estimate concludes that Afghanistan is in a 'downward spiral' and casts serious doubt on the ability of the Afghan government to stem the rise in the Taliban's influence there. The CIA has documented the worsening violence for nearly 2 years and "some in the agency say they believe that it has taken the White House too long to respond to the warnings."

They didn't respond to the warnings about 9/11 either.

And here's an update on the glorious surge: 

A new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) reportedly "warns that unresolved ethnic and sectarian tensions in Iraq could unleash a new wave of violence, potentially reversing the major security and political gains achieved over the last year." McClatchy notes that the NIE's findings "cast doubts on McCain's frequent assertions that the United States is 'on a path to victory" and instead echo Gen. David Petraeus, who has objected to using the word "victory" for war in Iraq.

Did he forget about this?

###

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve Doocey on Fox & Friends says that because the media is biased, McCain needs to spend money on attack ads. He then proceeds to play a 1:40 McCain YouTube attack ad that will never be run as an ad. 

### 

Dana Peroxide surfaces to tell us that the Bushies will oppose any effort to extend jobless benefits that the House passed. The reason? People should just get back to workhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGmxWrqsqbU&eurl=http://thinkprogress.org/

Sad facts:

The country lost 159,000 jobs in September, and the unemployment rate has increased to its highest level in five years.

unemployment claims are at a seven-year high, and factory orders are sharply down. … Small businesses can't get financing."

States are being forced to slash spending and cut jobs "in order to close a projected $40 billion shortfall in the current fiscal year," more than triple the size of the previous year's.

State jobless funds are drying out. At least 11 states are facing financial challenges paying their jobless benefits.

The Bush administration's refusal to extend a helping hand to those punished by the economy it created is nothing new: Last month, the White House threatened to veto a second stimulus package over opposition to an expansion of food stamps benefits.

###

In an interview with the right-wing magazine Newsmax yesterday, Sen. Joe Loserman called Sen. Barack Obama's worldview "naive." Asked if Obama had "the right stuff to bomb Iran if it came to that level," Lieberman replied, "I worry about that"

 

 

No comments: