Failing The Health Requirement?

I can't say I've ever heard of anything like this in the industrialized world.

A German doctor hoping to gain permanent residency in Australia said Friday he will fight an immigration department decision denying his application because his son has Down syndrome. Bernhard Moeller came to Australia with his family two years ago to help fill a doctor shortage in a rural area of Victoria state.

His temporary work visa is valid until 2010, but his application for permanent residency was rejected this week. The immigration department said Moeller's 13-year-old son, Lukas, "did not meet the health requirement."

"A medical officer of the Commonwealth assessed that his son's existing medical condition was likely to result in a significant and ongoing cost to the Australian community," a departmental spokesman said in a statement issued Thursday by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

"This is not discrimination. A disability in itself is not grounds for failing the health requirement — it is a question of the cost implications to the community," the statement said.

Let me try to figure this one out. He went to this country to fulfill a need for doctors. Now he can't stay because his son is "sick?"

What's She Doing?

Is Peggy Noonan endorsing Obama?

The case for Barack Obama, in broad strokes:

He has within him the possibility to change the direction and tone of American foreign policy, which need changing; his rise will serve as a practical rebuke to the past five years, which need rebuking; his victory would provide a fresh start in a nation in which a fresh start would come as a national relief. He climbed steep stairs, born off the continent with no father to guide, a dreamy, abandoning mother, mixed race, no connections. He rose with guts and gifts. He is steady, calm, and, in terms of the execution of his political ascent, still the primary and almost only area in which his executive abilities can be discerned, he shows good judgment in terms of whom to hire and consult, what steps to take and moves to make. We witnessed from him this year something unique in American politics: He took down a political machine without raising his voice.

A great moment: When the press was hitting hard on the pregnancy of Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter, he did not respond with a politically shrewd "I have no comment," or "We shouldn't judge." Instead he said, "My mother had me when she was 18," which shamed the press and others into silence. He showed grace when he didn't have to ...

Interesting ... you may want to read the whole article ...

Bush Trying To Screw The People One Last Time

Even with the crisis that is bringing many to their knees, Bush is trying to screw us all on his way out of the door.

The White House is working to enact a wide array of federal regulations, many of which would weaken government rules aimed at protecting consumers and the environment, before President Bush leaves office in January.

The new rules would be among the most controversial deregulatory steps of the Bush era and could be difficult for his successor to undo. Some would ease or lift constraints on private industry, including power plants, mines and farms.

Those and other regulations would help clear obstacles to some commercial ocean-fishing activities, ease controls on emissions of pollutants that contribute to global warming, relax drinking-water standards and lift a key restriction on mountaintop coal mining.

Once such rules take effect, they typically can be undone only through a laborious new regulatory proceeding, including lengthy periods of public comment, drafting and mandated reanalysis.

"They want these rules to continue to have an impact long after they leave office," said Matthew Madia, a regulatory expert at OMB Watch, a nonprofit group critical of what it calls the Bush administration's penchant for deregulating in areas where industry wants more freedom. He called the coming deluge "a last-minute assault on the public . . . happening on multiple fronts."

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said: "This administration has taken extraordinary measures to avoid rushing regulations at the end of the term. And yes, we'd prefer our regulations stand for a very long time — they're well reasoned and are being considered with the best interests of the nation in mind."

Taking That Black Card Back

Looks like folks aren't paying off their AmEx bills each month.

In a stark acknowledgment of the tough times ahead in the credit card industry, American Express Co. said Thursday that it plans to cut 7,000 jobs, or about 10 percent of its worldwide work force, in an effort to slash costs by $1.8 billion in 2009.

The New York-based credit card issuer _ which has reported four straight quarters of profit declines as an increasing number of consumers struggle to pay off debt _ said it is also suspending management-level salary increases next year and instituting a hiring freeze.

The job cuts will be across various business units, but will primarily focus on management positions, the company said.

The Economist Endorses Obama As Well

Time is running out and I'm sure only an "elite" few read The Economist but they've given him the nod ...

There is no getting around the fact that Mr Obama’s résumé is thin for the world’s biggest job. But the exceptionally assured way in which he has run his campaign is a considerable comfort. It is not just that he has more than held his own against Mr McCain in the debates. A man who started with no money and few supporters has out-thought, out-organised and outfought the two mightiest machines in American politics—the Clintons and the conservative right.

Political fire, far from rattling Mr Obama, seems to bring out the best in him: the furore about his (admittedly ghastly) preacher prompted one of the most thoughtful speeches of the campaign. On the financial crisis his performance has been as assured as Mr McCain’s has been febrile. He seems a quick learner and has built up an impressive team of advisers, drawing in seasoned hands like Paul Volcker, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers. Of course, Mr Obama will make mistakes; but this is a man who listens, learns and manages well.

It is hard too nowadays to depict him as soft when it comes to dealing with America’s enemies. Part of Mr Obama’s original appeal to the Democratic left was his keenness to get American troops out of Iraq; but since the primaries he has moved to the centre, pragmatically saying the troops will leave only when the conditions are right. His determination to focus American power on Afghanistan, Pakistan and proliferation was prescient. He is keener to talk to Iran than Mr McCain is— but that makes sense, providing certain conditions are met.

Our main doubts about Mr Obama have to do with the damage a muddle-headed Democratic Congress might try to do to the economy. Despite the protectionist rhetoric that still sometimes seeps into his speeches, Mr Obama would not sponsor a China-bashing bill. But what happens if one appears out of Congress? Worryingly, he has a poor record of defying his party’s baronies, especially the unions. His advisers insist that Mr Obama is too clever to usher in a new age of over-regulation, that he will stop such nonsense getting out of Congress, that he is a political chameleon who would move to the centre in Washington. But the risk remains that on economic matters the centre that Mr Obama moves to would be that of his party, not that of the country as a whole.
He has earned it

So Mr Obama in that respect is a gamble. But the same goes for Mr McCain on at least as many counts, not least the possibility of President Palin. And this cannot be another election where the choice is based merely on fear. In terms of painting a brighter future for America and the world, Mr Obama has produced the more compelling and detailed portrait. He has campaigned with more style, intelligence and discipline than his opponent. Whether he can fulfil his immense potential remains to be seen. But Mr Obama deserves the presidency.

Dayum Shame

There is still a chance that McPalin will still win. Then what?

Interviewed on MSNBC today, former Reagan chief of staff Ken Duberstein criticized Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) for choosing Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate:

I think it has very much undermined the whole question of John McCain’s judgment. You know what most Americans I think realized is that you don’t offer a job, let alone the vice presidency, to a person after one job interview. Even at McDonald’s, you’re interviewed three times before you get a job.

Watch it!

Who Will Riot?

What will happen if the desired candidate does not win?

"Would black people riot if Sen. Barack Obama didn't win the election?" That was the question a white man in Memphis recently asked a racial reconciliation group with which I am involved.

After five years of being a columnist for the daily paper in Memphis, I wasn't surprised by the absurdity of his query. Many whites still labor under the illusion that black folk act en masse and that if you ask the right one, you can get the official position of some 40 million people. If a few of us get angry, that logic allows, it must surely result in a riot.

Riot because we didn't get our way? Please. Black people have more than their share of experience with disappointment and dashed dreams. (See: King, Martin Luther; Evers, Medgar; Chaney, James.) Matter of fact, I'd go so far as to say we're experts in making the best out of a losing hand.

The reply to the curious white gentleman: "No! There is no reason to believe black people will riot if Obama does not win."

But soon after getting this man's e-mail, I started to wonder if he was on to something, if he had noticed what I had: a seething, barely constrained, ugly anger and frustration that makes good riot fuel. The kind of anger that prompts people to shout "Kill him!" and "Off with his head!" at rallies. The kind of hatefulness that would prompt a man to bring a stuffed monkey with an "Obama" sticker on the toy's head to a campaign event.

That kind of group-fueled nastiness must surely beg the question: Will white people riot if Obama wins?

Not all white people are McCain supporters. (See caucuses, Iowa.) Not all black people are backing Obama. (See Negroes, self-loathing. Just joking.)

But there is a small but vocal segment of white Republicans who just might have an aneurysm if the next occupant of the White House is a black man.

If the polls are accurate—and Obama wins—will these few angry white people make good on their oral declarations? And will those who stood by them silent, join them? With dreams deferred, can angry whites do what Langston Hughes taught us—to let it fester like a sore, even to let sag like a heavy load? Or will the dream of a perfect streak of white men in the White House, if deferred, cause white people to explode?

Might they torch stores and overturn cars? Or worse, will angry whites take out their disgust on black people by, say, denying loans, or jobs or housing? Burned-out stores and cars, that's unsettling. But the damage angry whites could inflict if they really go off—that's scary.

Will angry white people riot if Barack Obama wins the election?

There may be some people who think this is an absurd question. I honestly don't know. But it is no more absurd than asking it about blacks.

Coming Home To Vote

Like me, Americans who live abroad, wouldn't miss being here to vote for Obama for the world ...

Barack Obama might call us, as he has himself, "citizens of the world." But for Americans living abroad, it's our chance at changing the world as American citizens that is calling many of us back to our hometowns next week.

"I feel an incredible drive to get home for the election," says Tioka Tokedira, who has lived in Paris for the last five years and is traveling to Philadelphia to vote and volunteer. "Obama gives me a feeling of hope and pride, especially after dealing with negative French attitudes toward Americans."

For Vivian Juul Cintron, who grew up in the Bronx and has lived in Copenhagen for 18 years, the prospect of Obama winning is a precious lesson in history worth taking her 13-year-old son out of school for a week. "I have this unexplainable need for both of us to be there when the first biracial African American is voted into presidency. I see my son in Obama—the hope and possibility. My son may not fully understand the entire implications of this, but I see the pride in his eyes."

Having lived in Berlin since the Bush era began, I have been the sounding board for regular German rants about everything wrong in America; Michael Moore's books sold faster here than in the United States. Yet as I touched shoulders with 200,000 Germans cheering and applauding Obama's presence here, I knew I was witnessing history, and I knew that I had to return to my American home to vote for Obama ...

Olbermann Tells Joe The Plumber To Get Off The Stage

I agree! Where's the hook?

Good Lord! Make It Stop!

I simply cannot take anymore ...

Move over, Sanjaya, and tell William Hung the news: Joe the Plumber is being pursued for a major record deal and could come out with a country album as early as Inauguration Day.

“Joe” — aka Samuel Wurzelbacher, a Holland, Ohio, pipe-and-toilet man — just signed with a Nashville public relations and management firm to handle interview requests and media appearances, as well as create new career opportunities, including a shift out of the plumbing trade into stage and studio performances.

On Tuesday, Wurzelbacher joined country music artist and producer Aaron Tippin to form a new partnership that includes booking-management firm Bobby Roberts and publicity-management concern The Press Office to field the multiple media offers he’s received over the past few weeks.

Among the requests: a possible record deal with a major label, personal appearances and corporate sponsorships. A longtime country music fan, Wurzelbacher can sing and “knocks around on guitar” but is not an accomplished musician or songwriter, according to The Press Office’s Jim Della Croce.

“He’s a complicated guy with a very dynamic personality,” Della Croce told Politico. “He can sing and obviously has a strong political point of view.”

Sarah Full Of It And Herself

Sarah is definitely smelling herself.

Americans seem to agree that confidence is a good thing, a healthy part of that pop-psych cure-all, self-esteem. "It is confidence in our bodies, minds, and spirits that allows us to keep looking for new adventures, new directions to grow in, and new lessons to learn,” writes Oprah Winfrey on O magazine's Web site. In the Huffington Post, Deepak Chopra recently declared that confidence is the No. 1 factor in maintaining the world’s economic health. But can too much confidence be harmful? Definitely.

The reigning queen of overreaching these days is Sarah Palin. As we all know by now, her inability to name newspapers, her refusal to answer tough questions during the vice-presidential debate and her substitution of smug attitude for a grasp of the facts have never been issues for her core supporters, in light of her charismatic bluster, snippy wit and stunning stage presence. Politicians have distorted the facts and lied for centuries, but Palin may represent a new high (or low, depending on your perspective). Her bravado in the face of contrary evidence -- say, when a Troopergate investigation found that she abused her power as governor and yet she boldly proclaimed herself "cleared of any wrongdoing" -- is something we might expect from rappers, motivational speakers and reality TV stars. As Palin's rise suggests, the key to American success isn't happiness -- it's confidence. "Fake it till you make it" may not be the U.S. motto, but it could be a runner-up.

Polls Don't Matter. Votes Do

So breathe everybody. We still have to vote.

arack Obama is firmly ahead of John McCain in both Colorado and Pennsylvania, a new Politico/InsiderAdvantage poll shows.

In the swing state of Colorado, Obama posts an 8-point lead over McCain, besting him 53 percent to 45 percent. He holds a similar advantage in Pennsylvania, where he tops McCain by 9 percentage points, 51 percent to 42 percent.

McCain, however, is fighting Obama to a draw in two of those states' key battleground counties: Jefferson County, a suburb of Denver, and Bucks County, in suburban Philadelphia.

In Jefferson, a onetime Republican stronghold that has become more competitive in recent years, McCain and Obama are statistically tied, with the Republican leading 47 percent to 45 percent.

That two-point margin matches the result of an Oct. 12 Politico/InsiderAdvantage survey, which showed McCain edging Obama in Jefferson, 45 percent to 43 percent, though in this week's poll there are half as many undecided.

Bucks County voters gave Obama a similarly thin, 3-point lead. The Illinois Democrat led McCain, 46 percent to 43 percent.

You Know She's Crazy

We can pass on this story.

It had drawn wide local and national--even political attention, with some of the candidates for president/vice president weighing in or even calling -- but now the story has fallen apart. Police in Pittsburgh have declared it all a hoax and are charging the McCain worker at the center of the episode.

A Side Effect I Never Considered

My apartment complex tried to go condo. I'm not sure how many they sold but once the crisis hit, the for sale signs went down and everything is for rent again.

As the housing crisis continues, foreclosures have disrupted condominium communities in Florida and other states. Many condo associations are now facing insolvency.

I wonder how condo associations are faring here ...

A Diva?

This chick needs to get over herself!

“She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone,” said this McCain adviser, “she does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else. Also she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: divas trust only unto themselves as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom.”

More Powell On McCain's Tactics

This whole socialism charge is just wrong and it is playing on the willful idiots who are always looking for an enemy. I really cannot believe the McCain campaign is stooping this low. I don't think Colin Powell can either.

We can't judge our people and hold our elections on that kind of basis. Yes, that kind of negativity troubled me. And the constant shifting of the argument, I was troubled a couple of weeks ago when in the middle of the crisis the campaign said 'we're going to go negative,' and they announced it. 'We're going to go negative and attack his character through Bill Ayers.' Now I guess the message this week is we're going to call him a socialist. Mr. Obama is now a socialist, because he dares to suggest that maybe we ought to look at the tax structure that we have. Taxes are always a redistribution of money. Most of the taxes that are redistributed go back to those who pay them, in roads and airports and hospitals and schools. And taxes are necessary for the common good. And there's nothing wrong with examining what our tax structure is or who should be paying more or who should be paying less, and for us to say that makes you a socialist is an unfortunate characterization that I don't think is accurate.

When They Jump Ship, They Really Jump Ship

I know that McCain and his VP pick are embarrassing at this point. They embarrass me because I used to like John McCain. There is nothing about Sarah Palin that I find impressive ... nothing. I think that Peggy Noonan is embarrassed too.

But we have seen Mrs. Palin on the national stage for seven weeks now, and there is little sign that she has the tools, the equipment, the knowledge or the philosophical grounding one hopes for, and expects, in a holder of high office. She is a person of great ambition, but the question remains: What is the purpose of the ambition? She wants to rise, but what for? For seven weeks I've listened to her, trying to understand if she is Bushian or Reaganite—a spender, to speak briefly, whose political decisions seem untethered to a political philosophy, and whose foreign policy is shaped by a certain emotionalism, or a conservative whose principles are rooted in philosophy, and whose foreign policy leans more toward what might be called romantic realism, and that is speak truth, know America, be America, move diplomatically, respect public opinion, and move within an awareness and appreciation of reality.

But it's unclear whether she is Bushian or Reaganite. She doesn't think aloud. She just . . . says things.

Her supporters accuse her critics of snobbery: Maybe she's not a big "egghead" but she has brilliant instincts and inner toughness. But what instincts? "I'm Joe Six-Pack"? She does not speak seriously but attempts to excite sensation—"palling around with terrorists." If the Ayers case is a serious issue, treat it seriously. She is not as thoughtful or persuasive as Joe the Plumber, who in an extended cable interview Thursday made a better case for the Republican ticket than the Republican ticket has made. In the past two weeks she has spent her time throwing out tinny lines to crowds she doesn't, really, understand. This is not a leader, this is a follower, and she follows what she imagines is the base, which is in fact a vast and broken-hearted thing whose pain she cannot, actually, imagine. She could reinspire and reinspirit; she chooses merely to excite. She doesn't seem to understand the implications of her own thoughts.

No news conferences? Interviews now only with friendly journalists? You can't be president or vice president and govern in that style, as a sequestered figure. This has been Mr. Bush's style the past few years, and see where it got us. You must address America in its entirety, not as a sliver or a series of slivers but as a full and whole entity, a great nation trying to hold together. When you don't, when you play only to your little piece, you contribute to its fracturing.

In the end the Palin candidacy is a symptom and expression of a new vulgarization in American politics. It's no good, not for conservatism and not for the country. And yes, it is a mark against John McCain, against his judgment and idealism.

I Guess We Won't Be Hearing About ACORN Anymore

This is what happens when you take it there ...

Mark Jacoby, the president of a GOP signature-gathering firm accused of tricking California voters into registering as Republicans under the guise of signing a petition to keep pedophiles in jail, has been arrested in Ontario, CA on suspicion of voter fraud.

Jacoby's paid signature-gatherers are accused of actively deceiving Californians while YPM was under contract to the Republican Party.

An astonishing eighty percent of a random sample of voters registered by YPM in California told the LA Times that they had been tricked into registering as Republicans. YPM has registered 70,000 voters as Republicans in California in this election cycle alone.

It is not clear why YPM canvassers appear to have systematically misled would-be voters with a standardized questionnaire.

Perhaps the firm simply hoped to collect the $7-$12 bounty the GOP was offering for registrations.

There's also a more sinister and logically compatible possibility: Miscategorizing flesh and blood voting Democrats as Republicans could disrupt Democratic GOTV efforts, which are based in part on voter registration lists. These Democrats might miss out on literature, visits from canvassers, and other attention from the Obama campaign.

YPM has been also been accused of underhanded voter registration techniques in other states, including Florida and Arizona.

John McCain claimed last week that the liberal-leaning ACORN was attempting to perpetrate one of the greatest voter frauds in the history of America, a crime so vast it could destroy the very fabric of our democracy. McCain was alluding to a few thousand questionable voter registrations turned in by ACORN's paid signature-gatherers.

I'd say this is far more scandalous.

Colin Powell Was Simply Awesome!

The GOP, John McCain and his campaign must have finally plucked Colin Powell's last nerve. It wasn't so much that he endorsed Barack Obama but it was the way he presented his rationale for doing so. His words on Meet The Press and the subsequent chat with the press truly impressed me.

"I come to the conclusion that because of his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America, because of who he is and his rhetorical abilities -- and we have to take that into account -- as well as his substance -- he has both style and substance -- he has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president," said Powell in his sweeping endorsement.

"I think he is a transformational figure. He is a new generation coming into the world -- onto the world stage, onto the American stage -- and for that reason I'll be voting for Senator Barack Obama."

[...]


"I've also been disappointed, frankly, by some of the approaches that Sen. McCain has taken recently, on his campaign ads, on issues that are not really central to the problems that the American people are worried about," Powell said.

"This Bill Ayers situation that's been going on for weeks became something of a central point of the campaign. But Mr. McCain says that he's a washed-out terrorist. Well, then, why do we keep talking about him?

"And why do we have these robocalls going on around the country trying to suggest that, because of this very, very limited relationship that Senator Obama has had with Mr. Ayers, somehow, Mr. Obama is tainted. What they're trying to connect him to is some kind of terrorist feelings. And I think that's inappropriate."

The GOP "Big Tent" has not been welcoming of late to moderates like Powell, and he said McCain and Palin were taking the party "further to the right."

Throughout the campaign in this post-9/11, Iraq and Afghanistan war era, Barack Hussein Obama has been denying that he is a Muslim and affirming his Christian faith. Not that McCain is saying it, said Powell, but other Republicans are calling Obama a Muslim no matter the facts. But Powell said he found the implicit religious bigotry troubling.

Said Powell powerfully, "He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, 'What if he is [a Muslim]?' Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country?"

To frost the cake, Powell said he questioned McCain's judgment regarding Sarah Palin.

"I don't believe she's ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the vice president," Powell said.

That Damned Watermelon Again

Which is it folks? Is Obama an "exotic", an Arab or is he just plain ole nigga? As with Tiger Woods, who didn't grow up with a "typical" African-American experience and some white folks are all to happy to embrace them as "not like those others." Yet, no matter what, it always comes back to this ...

A San Bernardino County Republican group has distributed a newsletter picturing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on a $10 bill adorned with a watermelon, ribs and a bucket of fried chicken.

Linking Obama to demeaning racist stereotypes drew denunciations from various GOP officials after the illustration appeared in the October newsletter of the Chaffey Community Republican Women, Federated, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported Thursday.

Diane Fedele, president of the group, said she had no racist intent.

"I never connected," she told the newspaper. "It was just food to me. It didn't mean anything else."

The Obama campaign declined to comment, saying it does not address such attacks.

The newsletter was sent to about 200 club members and associates last week by mail and e-mail. The club is a volunteer group that is not directly responsible to the state party, said California Republican Party press secretary Hector Barajas, who denounced the newsletter.

Fedele said she had received the illustration in e-mails and decided to reprint it to poke fun at a remark by Obama that he doesn't look like other presidents.

"It was strictly an attempt to point out the outrageousness of his statement. I really don't want to go into it any further," Fedele told the newspaper. "I absolutely apologize to anyone who was offended. That clearly wasn't my attempt."

Sheila Raines of San Bernardino, a black member of the club, complained about the image to Fedele.

"This is what keeps African-Americans from joining the Republican Party," she said. "I'm really hurt. I cried for 45 minutes."

McCain On Womens' Health

I was en route from work last night so listened to the debate on NPR in my car. Let me tell you, I cringed when I heard this ...

Here's what John McCain said last night in his debate with Barack Obama about how he feels about providing an exception on late-term abortions considering the health or life of the mother:

He's health for the mother. You know, that's been stretched by the pro-abortion movement in America to mean almost anything. That's the extreme pro-abortion position, quote, "health."

I'm just a doofy guy, but it sure doesn't seem like smart politics to be dismissing so blithely the very real concerns women have about their health when it comes to reproductive decisions. That's not "extreme pro-abortion," last I checked -- it's "normal human being."

[...]

More insightful, as always, was Rachel Maddow:

I think the line that someone is going to regret, one that will resonate and will hurt McCain the most is when McCain ridiculed the idea that the life of the mother should be a concern in the abortion debate.

Women everywhere will reflect on that – that they’ll be forced by the government to carry to term and give birth. This will be seared on women’s minds: the government is not going to excuse you, short of death, from giving birth. It’s the extreme [anti]-abortion position.

Why exactly did he select Sarah Palin as his running mate? It sure as hell wasn't for the Hillary voters ...

I thought John McCain was supposed to be trying to lure in undecideds and independents. All I saw in the debate was him showing his natural behind. I guess his performance was better than in the other two but he was nasty, condescending and dishonest. I don't think he gained a thing. He just further proved that he's a mean old man.

The Company He Keeps

Last night during the debate, John McCain was whining and crying about how John Lewis hurt his feelings and wanted Obama to denounce him. Yet, this is the kind of company he keeps:

Earlier this week, Time magazine’s Karen Tumulty reported on how Jeffrey Frederick, the chairman of the Virginia Republican party, gave GOP volunteers talking points on “the connection between Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden.” “Both have friends that bombed the Pentagon,” Frederick told 30 volunteers. “That is scary.”

Though McCain campaign spokesperson Gail Gitchoo told the Washington Post that “the McCain campaign disagrees with the comparison that Jeff Frederick made,” McCain himself refused to denounce Frederick’s comments. Asked by Virginia television station WSLS if Frederick’s comparison was “appropriate,” McCain said, “I have to look at the context of his remarks.

Didn't This Asshat Die?

I thought Rick Santorum had crawled back into his skunk hole and died. Who gives a crap what he thinks?

SANTORUM: Well, I’m from western Pennsylvania. I grew up in western Pennsylvania. I grew up in a steel town — Butler, PA — and those people are not racist. What they are are people that look at someone who is as liberal as Barack Obama, who has been condescending to them — in calling them clinging their guns and their religion — won’t wear the American flag pin, and he is not in concert with their values. It has nothing to do with the color of his skin.

The Problem When You Run Your Mouth Too Much

Folks start digging. Is he a plumber? Were the concerns he posed to Obama even valid given his real situation?

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, a.k.a. "Joe the Plumber," is the topic of the day on the campaign trail, in part because he held an impromptu press conference Thursday morning in front of his house to discuss tax policy, his disdain for Social Security, and his critiques of Barack Obama.

Already, however, there is some dispute as to whether or not Wurzelbacher was being accurate with his critique of Obama. His business, as ABC reports, would almost certainly get a tax cut under Obama's plan, given that he does not expect to make anywhere close to $250,000 in profits.

Moreover, for someone worried about his taxes, Wurzelbacher doesn't -- it appears - always pay them. A filing with the Lucas County Court of Common Pleas shows that he has had state tax liens filed against him, meaning he was either delinquent or didn't fully cover taxes that he owed.

A representative at the court explained that Wurzelbacher had not paid $1,182.98 of personal income tax. The state filed a lien on January 26, 2007, and the payment remains outstanding. But the court rep also cautioned that this all may have occurred without Wurzelbacher's knowledge.

Does He Even Have A Job?

Yes, the "Joe the plumber" references last night wore my nerves a little thin. Then, this morning, the media was camped out at his house. Is Joe the plumber even a plumber?

A check of state and local licensing agencies in Ohio and Michigan shows no plumbing licenses under Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher’s name, or even misspellings of his name.

Mr. Wurzelbacher told reporters Thursday morning that he worked for Newell Plumbing & Heating Co., a small local firm whose business addresses flow back to several residential homes, including one on Talmadge Road in Ottawa Hills.

According to Lucas County Building Inspection records, A. W. Newell Corp. does maintain a state plumbing license, and one with the City of Toledo, but would not be allowed to work in Lucas County outside of Toledo without a county license.

Mr. Wurzelbacher said he works under Al Newell’s license, but according to Ohio building regulations, he must maintain his own license to do plumbing work.

He is also not registered to operate as a plumber in Ohio, which means he's not a plumber.

Obama Is Neither-nor

Le sigh! I think I'm hearing crickets again. These people really exist?

“He’s neither-nor,” said Ricky Thompson, a pipe fitter who works at a factory north of Mobile, while standing in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart store just north of here. “He’s other. It’s in the Bible. Come as one. Don’t create other breeds.”

Whether Mr. Obama is black, half-black or half-white often seemed to overshadow the question of his exact stand on particular issues, and rough-edged comments on the subject flowed easily even from voters who said race should not be an issue in the campaign. Many voters seemed to have no difficulty criticizing the mixing of the races — and thus the product of such mixtures — even as they indignantly said a candidate’s color held no importance for them.

“I would think of him as I would of another of mixed race,” said Glenn Reynolds, 74, a retired textile worker in Martinsdale, Va., and a former supervisor at a Goodyear plant. “God taught the children of Israel not to intermarry. You should be proud of what you are, and not intermarry.”

Mr. Reynolds, standing outside a Kroger grocery store, described Mr. Obama as a “real charismatic person, in that he’s the type of person you can’t really hate, but you don’t really trust.”

Other voters swept past such ambiguities into old-fashioned racist gibes.

“He’s going to tear up the rose bushes and plant a watermelon patch,” said James Halsey, chuckling, while standing in the Wal-Mart parking lot with fellow workers in the environmental cleanup business. “I just don’t think we’ll ever have a black president.”

It always comes back to the Watermelon, doesn't it? I wonder if his Kenyan father ever had it before he came to the states? With Barack being from Hawaii, I think I'd be more concerned that he'd be stock piling Spam than planting watermelon.

A Buckley For Obama?

I don't think he needs to worry. I think dear old dad would be mortified to see what his party has morphed into in the last days of McCain's campaign.

"It's a good thing my dear old mum and pup are no longer alive. They'd cut off my allowance," Christopher Buckley writes.

What dastardly act would prompt such a response from William F. and Patricia Buckley?

Their son endorsed Barack Obama today.

The New York author knows he's not a big political player. As he writes on Tina Brown's new Web site, the Daily Beast: "The only reason my vote would be of any interest to anyone is that my last name happens to be Buckley -- a name I inherited. So in the event anyone notices or cares, the headline will be: 'William F. Buckley's Son Says He Is Pro-Obama.' I know, I know: It lacks the throw-weight of 'Ron Reagan Jr. to Address Democratic Convention,' but it'll have to do."

Buckley says he has known John McCain for 25 years and once wrote a speech for him. But he says the senator from Arizona has changed: "A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises ... His ninth-inning attack ads are mean-spirited and pointless."

Hitchens Is Sober Again

Christoper Hitchens is a vile, insipid man but every now and then, he makes sense.

The most insulting thing that a politician can do is to compel you to ask yourself: "What does he take me for?" Precisely this question is provoked by the selection of Gov. Sarah Palin. I wrote not long ago that it was not right to condescend to her just because of her provincial roots or her piety, let alone her slight flirtatiousness, but really her conduct since then has been a national disgrace. It turns out that none of her early claims to political courage was founded in fact, and it further turns out that some of the untested rumors about her—her vindictiveness in local quarrels, her bizarre religious and political affiliations—were very well-founded, indeed. Moreover, given the nasty and lowly task of stirring up the whack-job fringe of the party's right wing and of recycling patent falsehoods about Obama's position on Afghanistan, she has drawn upon the only talent that she apparently possesses.

It therefore seems to me that the Republican Party has invited not just defeat but discredit this year, and that both its nominees for the highest offices in the land should be decisively repudiated, along with any senators, congressmen, and governors who endorse them.

I used to call myself a single-issue voter on the essential question of defending civilization against its terrorist enemies and their totalitarian protectors, and on that "issue" I hope I can continue to expose and oppose any ambiguity. Obama is greatly overrated in my opinion, but the Obama-Biden ticket is not a capitulationist one, even if it does accept the support of the surrender faction, and it does show some signs of being able and willing to profit from experience. With McCain, the "experience" is subject to sharply diminishing returns, as is the rest of him, and with Palin the very word itself is a sick joke. One only wishes that the election could be over now and a proper and dignified verdict rendered, so as to spare democracy and civility the degradation to which they look like being subjected in the remaining days of a low, dishonest campaign.

Sorry Bill, It's Too Late

While I agree with the sentiment, it's much too late for McCain to start all over ...

It’s time for John McCain to fire his campaign.

He has nothing to lose. His campaign is totally overmatched by Obama’s. The Obama team is well organized, flush with resources, and the candidate and the campaign are in sync. The McCain campaign, once merely problematic, is now close to being out-and-out dysfunctional. Its combination of strategic incoherence and operational incompetence has become toxic. If the race continues over the next three weeks to be a conventional one, McCain is doomed.

He may be anyway. Bush is unpopular. The media is hostile. The financial meltdown has made things tougher. Maybe the situation is hopeless — and if it is, then nothing McCain or his campaign does matters.

But I’m not convinced by such claims of inevitability. McCain isn’t Bush. The media isn’t all-powerful. And the economic crisis still presents an opportunity to show leadership.

The 2008 campaign is now about something very big — both our future prosperity and our national security. Yet the McCain campaign has become smaller.

What McCain needs to do is junk the whole thing and start over.

There is less than a month left before the election. Anyone who wants McCain to win better pray for the Bradley effect to take hold.

Pissing In The Wind

Though Palin hasn't stopped her folksy talk to "the folks," John McCain is trying to sheild himself from some of the piss that is blowing back at him and hitting him in the face.

Fearing the raw and at times angry emotions of his supporters may damage his campaign, John McCain on Friday urged them to tone down their increasingly personal denunciations of Barack Obama, including one woman who said she had heard that the Democrat was "an Arab."

Each time he tried to cool the crowd, he was rewarded with a round of boos.

"I have to tell you. Sen. Obama is a decent person and a person you don’t have to be scared of as president of the United States," McCain told a supporter at a town hall meeting in Minnesota who said he was “scared” of the prospect of an Obama presidency and of who the Democrat would appoint to the Supreme Court.

“Come on, John!” one audience member yelled out as the Republican crowd expressed dismay at their nominee. Others yelled "liar," and "terrorist," referring to Obama.

McCain passed his wireless microphone to one woman who said, "I can't trust Obama. I have read about him and he's not, he's not uh — he's an Arab. He's not — " before McCain retook the microphone and replied:

"No, ma'am. He's a decent family man [and] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign's all about. He's not [an Arab]."

The public display of fear and unease over Obama comes at the end of a week in which other Republicans at McCain and Sarah Palin events expressed similar frustrations, a product of exasperation at the prospect of the Illinois senator becoming president and their own nominee not doing enough to prevent it.

I really couldn't tell if he was sincere or not. I don't know who this man is and how badly he wants to win.

David Brooks Washes His Hands Too

David Brooks bugs the heck out of me more often than not but even he is bailing!

In an interview with The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg at New York's Le Cirque restaurant to unveil that magazine's redesign, Brooks decried Palin's anti-intellectualism and compared her to President Bush in that regard:

[Sarah Palin] represents a fatal cancer to the Republican party. When I first started in journalism, I worked at the National Review for Bill Buckley. And Buckley famously said he'd rather be ruled by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than by the Harvard faculty. But he didn't think those were the only two options. He thought it was important to have people on the conservative side who celebrated ideas, who celebrated learning. And his whole life was based on that, and that was also true for a lot of the other conservatives in the Reagan era. Reagan had an immense faith in the power of ideas. But there has been a counter, more populist tradition, which is not only to scorn liberal ideas but to scorn ideas entirely. And I'm afraid that Sarah Palin has those prejudices. I think President Bush has those prejudices.

Brooks praised Palin's natural political talent, but said she is "absolutely not" ready to be president or vice president. He explained, "The more I follow politicians, the more I think experience matters, the ability to have a template of things in your mind that you can refer to on the spot, because believe me, once in office there's no time to think or make decisions."

The New York Times columnist also said that the "great virtue" of Palin's counterpart, Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden, is that he is anything but a "yes man."

"[Biden] can't not say what he thinks," Brooks remarked. "There's no internal monitor, and for Barack Obama, that's tremendously important to have a vice president who will be that way. Our current president doesn't have anybody like that."

As Good As It Gets ...

Once McCain loses, I'll be interested to see what happens to the GOP. Clearly it is a fractured fairy tale now. Even George Will has had it!

Time was, the Baltimore Orioles manager was Earl Weaver, a short, irascible, Napoleonic figure who, when cranky, as he frequently was, would shout at an umpire, "Are you going to get any better, or is this it?" With, mercifully, only one debate to go, that is the question about John McCain's campaign.

In the closing days of his 10-year quest for the presidency, McCain finds it galling that Barack Obama is winning the first serious campaign he has ever run against a Republican. Before Tuesday night's uneventful event, gall was fueling what might be the McCain-Palin campaign's closing argument. It is less that Obama has bad ideas than that Obama is a bad person.

This, McCain and his female Sancho Panza say, is demonstrated by bad associations Obama had in Chicago, such as with William Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist. But the McCain-Palin charges have come just as the Obama campaign is benefiting from a mass mailing it is not paying for. Many millions of American households are gingerly opening envelopes containing reports of the third-quarter losses in their 401(k) and other retirement accounts -- telling each household its portion of the nearly $2 trillion that Americans' accounts have recently shed. In this context, the McCain-Palin campaign's attempt to get Americans to focus on Obama's Chicago associations seem surreal -- or, as a British politician once said about criticism he was receiving, "like being savaged by a dead sheep."

It's sad isn't it? John McCain, a Republican Senator I used to like, has devolved into someone who has basically rounded up a lynch mob. He can't be proud and he will never be my "friend."

If It Feels This Good Getting Used ...

I believe it was CNN I was watching last night, probably Larry King, where one of the panelists was saying that the McCain folks were treating Sarah Palin like a "secretary." She is clueless and totally being used like a dirty dish rag to do McCain's bidding.

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said more than one person has whispered in her ear in Ohio that John McCain needs "to take the gloves off" in his campaign against Democrat Barack Obama. Before a friendly crowd of Republican fundraisers Friday, the Alaska governor did that herself.

Palin said Obama was exploiting the economic crisis for political gain, "instead of trying to find solutions and work together to deal with it."

She also accused Obama of proposing a trillion dollars in new government spending without explaining where that money will come from.

"Media, don't know why they're not asking him: 'Where is that money gonna come from?'" she said. "He's got to raise taxes."

Obama has said his new spending will be paid for by ending President Bush's tax cuts for the 5 percent of Americans who make more than $250,000 a year, savings from withdrawing U.S. combat forces from Iraq and greater government efficiency. He pledges tax cuts for those making less than $200,000 a year.

Sarah Palin's Folksy Folks

These people are just showing every inch of their asses. I want to be sad but this is scary. I'm scared for a minute, then I get mad.

File this one under the "give 'em enough rope" column. A pro-Obama blogger in Ohio caught McCain-Palin supporters as they streamed into a rally and asked some of the most salient questions of the day. Like, "is Obama a terrorist?"

Black Don't Crack, White Do

I'm being driven to distraction! These people are crazy! Why is Newsweek responsible for publishing glamor shots of Sarah Palin on their cover? How do they know Obama was retouched? Barack's skin may look worn after 8 years of trying to clean up George Bush's mess but, right now, it quite possibly is flawless because most black folks have it like that. I thought they knew ...

Newsweek found itself at the center of a controversy on Wednesday, after choosing to run a photo of vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin on its latest cover, that appears not to have been retouched.

After the cover went public, Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, host of “America’s Newsroom,” was one of the first to draw light to the photograph, which shows the 44-year-old Alaskan governor up close, allowing readers to see a reportedly unedited version of Palin.

“This cover is a clear slap in the face at Sarah Palin,” Andrea Tantaros, a Republican political and media commentator said on the show. “Why? Because it’s unretouched. It highlights every imperfection that every human being has. We’re talking unwanted facial hair, pores, wrinkles.”

Tantaros said the cover image of Palin was in stark contrast to previous covers that featured Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

“This is a gross slap in the face to Sarah Palin after Newsweek has done so many favorable covers of Barack Obama that make him look presidential, that are clearly retouched,” she said. “He looks flawless. This is a slap in the face and the biggest reason is because the cover [headline] says ‘She’s one of the folks,’ and in parenthesis says ‘and that’s the problem.’”

Sarah Palin is a 44 year old white woman. My white roommates in college were getting crows feet before age 20. If Sarah has large pores and facial hair, she needs to handle that, not Newsweek. I wouldn't have even noticed anything like that because, despite certain GOP men jacking off over Sarah Palin, she is middle aged and, yes, has some wear and tear living in the cold of Alaska. So what? This election is not about being "hot." That's so Paris Hilton. This is about being qualified! Sarah is not!

(Oh yeah, I'm quoting Joy Behar with the black don't crack, "white do." )

Somebody Snatch Her Bald Headed

This is getting stupid!

The gloves were off, and that was well before Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin even walked on stage.

"The day that Senator Obama decided to cast a vote to not fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill through my body," Cindy McCain told a crowd of several thousand here, speaking in advance of Palin and her husband."I would suggest Senator Obama change shoes with me for just one day and see what it means to have a loved one serving in the armed services."

At the first joint rally held by Palin and Sen. John McCain in several days, it was Cindy McCain and others who introduced them who delivered the sharpest attacks. The remarks of the Arizona senator's wife lasted less than five minutes, and she used them to focus on her two sons -- as well as Palin's one -- serving in the military, saying Obama should take time to "watch our young men and women deploy."

It was the most pointed attack of the campaign cycle by Mrs. McCain.

Obama voted against a war-funding bill in 2007 that didn't include a timeline for troops. McCain has advocated members of Congress voting against similar bills that do include timelines, which he opposes.

Filty McNasty

There is a possibility that I could have voted for the man who was John McCain in 2000. The Bush campaign decimated McCain that year using filthy, low down tactics. McCain letting by gones be by gones confused me and altered my previously semi-favorable opinion of him. Now I guess I understand ...

Some of John McCain’s friends, from the good old days when he talked straight, feared that his Greek tragedy would be that he would be defeated by George Bush twice: once in 2000, because of W.’s no-conscience campaigning, and again in 2008, because of W.’s no-brains governing.

But if McCain loses, he will have contributed to his own downfall by failing to live up to his personal standard of honor.

John McCain has long been torn between wanting to succeed and serving a higher cause. Right now, the drive to succeed is trumping any loftier aspirations. He cynically picked a running mate with less care than theater directors give to picking a leading actor’s understudy. And he has been running a seamy campaign originally designed by the bad seed of conservative politics, Lee Atwater.

It was adapted in 2000 in Atwater’s home state of South Carolina by Atwater acolytes in W.’s camp to harpoon McCain with rumors that he had fathered out of wedlock a black baby (as opposed to adopting a Bangladeshi infant girl in wedlock). Sulfurous Atwater-style rumor-mongering by Bush supporters — that McCain had come home from a Hanoi tiger cage with snakes in his head — aimed to stop him during that primary after he had zoomed in New Hampshire.

Atwater relished teaching rich, white Republicans to feign a connection to the common man so they could get in office and economically undermine the common man. In the 1988 campaign, the Machiavellian ran to help George Bush Sr. defeat Michael Dukakis with this unholy quintet of charges:

The Democrat was a ’60s-style liberal who would raise taxes and take away guns. He was weak and would not protect the country militarily. He was a member of the elite “Harvard Yard’s boutique.” He had a foreign-sounding name and was not on “the American side.” He was on the side of the Scary Black Man.

Sound familiar?

Yes, it sounds familiar - too familiar.

Spending More Of My Money

The homeowner "bail out" plan that McCain announced during Tuesday's debate seemed to come out of left field. I didn't know what the heck he was talking about then and he's already back pedaling and shifting gears!

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) made an overnight change in the homeowner bailout he proposed at Tuesday’s presidential debate, making it more generous to financial institutions and more costly for taxpayers.

McCain's staff says it was always meant that way.

When McCain sprung his surprise idea at the start of the debate in Nashville, his campaign posted details online of his American Homeownership Resurgence Plan, which would direct the government to buy up bad home mortgages, allowing strapped people to keep their property.

The document posted and e-mailed by the McCain campaign on Tuesday night says at the end of its first full paragraph: “Lenders in these cases must recognize the loss that they’ve already suffered.”

So the government would buy the mortgages at a discounted rate, reflecting the declining value of the mortgage paper.

But when McCain reissued the document on Wednesday, that sentence was missing, to the dismay of many conservatives.

That would mean the U.S. would pay face value for the troubled documents, which was the main reason Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) gave for opposing the plan.

Where are we going to get this money?

Nationalizing Our Banks

The "surge" isn't working so they are going to take over our banks?

Having tried without success to unlock frozen credit markets, the Treasury Department is considering taking ownership stakes in many United States banks to try to restore confidence in the financial system, according to government officials.

Treasury officials say the just-passed $700 billion bailout bill gives them the authority to inject cash directly into banks that request it. Such a move would quickly strengthen banks’ balance sheets and, officials hope, persuade them to resume lending. In return, the law gives the Treasury the right to take ownership positions in banks, including healthy ones.

The Treasury plan was still preliminary and it was unclear how the process would work, but it appeared that it would be voluntary for banks.

The proposal resembles one announced on Wednesday in Britain. Under that plan, the British government would offer banks like the Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and HSBC Holdings up to $87 billion to shore up their capital in exchange for preference shares. It also would provide a guarantee of about $430 billion to help banks refinance debt.

The American recapitalization plan, officials say, has emerged as one of the most favored new options being discussed in Washington and on Wall Street. The appeal is that it would directly address the worries that banks have about lending to one another and to other customers.

This new interest in direct investment in banks comes after yet another tumultuous day in which the Federal Reserve and five other central banks marshaled their combined firepower to cut interest rates but failed to stanch the global financial panic.

In a coordinated action, the central banks reduced their benchmark interest rates by one-half percentage point. On top of that, the Bank of England announced its plan to nationalize part of the British banking system and devote almost $500 billion to guarantee financial transactions between banks.

McCain Campaign Funded By Terrorist Sympathizers?

Herein lies the problem with using guilt by association. You can end up being just as "guilty", if not moreso, than the person you are accusing.

Meanwhile, Michael Scherer at Time revealed today that McCain himself is a terrorist-symp by his own admission:

This morning John McCain put out a list of 100 former ambassadors who are supporting his campaign. Number two is Leonore Annenberg, the wife of Ambassador William Annenberg, the founder of the Annenberg Institute of Reform, which funded the Annenberg Challenge, which once had two famous board members: former "domestic terrorist" William Ayers and Sen. Barack Obama.

So either we should all be outraged that John McCain is supported by a family who funded a foundation that hired a domestic terrorist, or this whole William Ayers thing is just plain silly. I choose the latter.

The Annenbergs, if you don't know, are a famous American publishing family, very Republican going back generations.

Mo' Money! Mo' Money! Mo' Money

What kind of crap is this? Why do they need more BILLIONS?

The Federal Reserve Board said Wednesday that it would provide up to $37.8 billion to the embattled insurer the American International Group to help it deal with a rapidly dwindling supply of cash.

The additional assistance is on top of $85 billion in a bridge loan that the Federal Reserve extended to A.I.G. in September, but it will take a different form. A spokesman for A.I.G., Nicholas Ashooh, said the new assistance was intended to keep the company from having to draw down the Fed loan so quickly.

The Fed threw A.I.G. the $85 billion lifeline shortly after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, when the financial markets were reeling and there were doubts the system could weather the demise of another big financial services company. At the time, the Fed’s loan was the most radical intervention ever by the central bank in a company’s affairs.

Ignuncy!

Losing It ...

My fellow prisoners? Did he have some sort of lapse?

That One?

Did he say "that one" and point in Obama's direction? That one? That what? That Senator? That man? That boy? That ninja? That Nigger? That one?

Cindy's Been Popping The Percocet Again!

Sarah Palin has been squawking around the country accusing Obama of pal'ing around with terrorists and McCain's confused wife thinks Obama is playing dirty.

Cindy McCain said today that she expects her husband to clear the record at tonight's debate and let America know where he truly stands.

McCain, who stopped to visit a half-dozen children at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt today, said the presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama has "waged the dirtiest campaign in American history," and her husband Sen. John McCain will use tonight's debate to correct the distortions.

Can McCain just make his dumb bitches shut up?!

More Greedy MFs!

This is making me mad! I could spit on these people and not blink!

Less than a week after the federal government committed $85 billion to bail out AIG, executives of the giant AIG insurance company headed for a week-long retreat at a luxury resort and spa, the St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, California, Congressional investigators revealed today.

"Rooms at this resort can cost over $1,000 a night," Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) said this morning as his committee continued its investigation of Wall Street and its CEOs.

AIG documents obtained by Waxman's investigators show the company paid more than $440,000 for the retreat, including nearly $200,000 for rooms, $150,000 for meals and $23,000 in spa charges.

"They're getting their pedicures and their manicures and the American people are paying for that," said Cong. Elijah Cummings (D-MD).

"This unbridled greed," said Cong. Mark Souder (R-IN), "it's an insensitivity to how people are spending our dollars."

Appearing before the committee, Martin Sullivan, the AIG CEO until June, said the company was overwhelmed by a "financial global tsunami," and that "no simple or single cause" was to blame.

"I am heartbroken at what has happened," Sullivan said.

Donna Brazile Is Not Going To The Back Of The Bus

Donna is cooking with grease ...

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.

Thanks For Going There For Me!

I'm not one to take it there so you didn't hear this from me ...

Look. I am going to say what everyone at CNN, CBS, ABC and NBC is thinking but is afraid to say. Governor Palin is a stupid, conniving bitch. And it’s not because she is a strong woman - I like strong women… worship them… It’s actually the opposite. She is a weak, pathetic woman who thinks big hair, winking, baby talk and self deprecation is somehow becoming of a woman who wants to lead the free world. My god, where is Margaret Thatcher when you need her!

But what really makes me mad is the hypocrisy. She claims to be a Washington outsider and yet is the worst kind of politician. She will say anything and avoid answering any question instead choosing to spout whatever line or soundbite some adviser put into her mouth a few hours earlier. And exactly when did sounding like a hick make someone “more like us”. Last time I checked we were a country striving to educate our children to be intelligent and honest. I think I would die if my daughter came home from school and said something like “I gotta tell ya. Change is a comin’.” At the very least I would remove the Beverly Hillbillies from her approved TV viewing list.

And then there is Alaska. Have any of you been to Alaska recently? Although the largest State geographically, it has less than a million people - about 700,000. (The city I live in now is bigger). Fewer population issues exist for lawmakers to address. And because they make so much money from the oil companies, the Alaskan government actually gives it citizens an annual dividend check (this year $3,200). Exactly what Governor wouldn’t be popular under those circumstances? No wonder they can afford to elect a governor who ony has an undergraduate degree in journalism and a few beauty pageant awards. By the way, when you got that journalism degree did they teach you that some journalists actually ask hard questions like what newpapers do you read?

Fact: Sarah Palin is stupid. Maybe not stupid by Alabama standards but stupid enough that she managed to get herself elected Governor while never bothering to educate herself on little things like the Constitution, foriegn affairs or appropriate debating practices. She is stupid enough to have accepted a VP nomination for which she is completely unqualified and stupid enough not to admit it - even though the future of our great nation could be irreversibly damaged by the decision.

When exactly do we all get to call “bullshit”?

She loves to talk about being a mother but the last time I checked, having your newborn on national TV at 11PM instead of in bed wasn’t considered “good muthering“. Neither was making your child’s unexpected teen pregnancy the talk of the nation because you desperately wanted to be a politician in Washington DC - or isn’t that exactly what you said you didn’t want. From where I sit, it appears you would sell your soul for the position. Kind of the way that Elizabeth girl on The View sold her soul for fame. Please god get her off the airwaves - she became famous because she ate a rat… but I digress…

Oh and my favorite - my husband Todd (the first dude) and I sit around the kitchen table wondering about the cost of college like many of you…  oh really. Your oldest son went from high school into the military.  Your next oldest is pregnant with plans to be married to some hockey jock at age 17.  Seems to me you’ve got lots of time before you have to worry about college tuition especially being college doesn’t seem to be a priority in your family.

[keep reading]

Greedy MFs!

Even with the bail out, best believe none of these execs will feel the pain.

The now-bankrupt investment bank Lehman Brothers arranged millions in bonuses for fired executives as it pleaded for a federal lifeline, lawmakers learned Monday, as Congress began investigating what went so wrong on Wall Street to prompt a $700 billion government bailout.

The first in a series of congressional hearings on the roots of the financial meltdown yielded few major revelations about Lehman's collapse, and none about why government officials, as they scrambled to avert economic catastrophe, declined to rescue the flagging company while injecting tens of billions of dollars into others.

But it allowed lawmakers still smarting from a politically painful vote Friday for the largest federal market rescue in history to put a face on their outrage at corporate chieftains who took home hundreds of millions of dollars while betting on risky mortgage-backed investments that ultimately brought the financial system to its knees.

That face was Richard S. Fuld Jr., the Lehman chief executive who sat for a two-hour-plus grilling before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee as the panel combed through his pay history, management practices and financial strategies.

"You made all this money by taking risks with other people's money," Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the panel's chairman, said. "The system worked for you, but it didn't seem to work for the rest of the country and the taxpayers, who now have to pay $700 billion to bail out our economy."

A subdued Fuld opened his testimony declaring, "I take full responsibility for the decisions that I made and for the actions that I took," but he conceded no errors or misjudgments in the chaotic period that led to the firm's bankruptcy.

And he said a compensation system that he estimated paid him about $350 million between 2000 and 2007 even as the company headed for disaster was appropriate.

When Times Get Hard

Some people get desperate.

An unemployed man with an advanced finance degree who was despondent over his own financial problems shot and killed his wife, three children, mother-in-law and then himself in an upscale home in a gated community, police said Monday.

Officers found the bodies Monday morning after the wife failed to show up at a neighbor's home to go to work, Deputy Chief Michel Moore said. The deaths occurred sometime after Saturday evening.

A handgun that had been bought Sept. 16 was found near the father's body, Moore said. The father left two suicide notes — one for police and one for friends and relatives — and a will.

The notes attest to the man's financial difficulties, and he takes responsibility for killing his family members, Moore said.

The family members' names were not immediately released because police wanted to make sure the children's schools had time to make grief counselors available. The children were sons ages 19, 12 and 7.

The man had a master's of business administration in finance, formerly worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers and Sony Pictures, but had been unemployed for several months, Moore said.

Moore did not specify what financial trouble the man had been in. He noted that the family did not own the home.

Unfortunately, a lot of people are facing similar dilemmas. I hope, as our economy tries to straighten itself out, that this solution doesn't become a trend.

Get Low

Playing to the "Joe Six Pack" crowd, Ms. Sarah decides to go gutter and try character assassination against Obama.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Saturday slammed Sen. Barack Obama's political relationship with a former anti-war radical, accusing him of associating "with terrorists who targeted their own country."

Palin's attack delivered on the McCain campaign's announcement that it would step up attacks on the Democratic presidential candidate with just a month left before the November general election.

"We see America as the greatest force for good in this world," Palin said at a fund-raising event in Colorado, adding, "Our opponent though, is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country."

Palin made similar comments later at a rally in Carson, California.

Obama's Chicago, Illinois, home is in the same neighborhood as Bill Ayers, a founder of the radical Weather Underground, which was involved in several bombings in the early 1970s, including the Pentagon and the Capitol, and the two have met several times since Obama's 1995 campaign for a state Senate seat.

Palin cited an article in Saturday's New York Times about Obama's relationship with Ayers, now 63. But that article concluded that "the two men do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers, whom he has called 'somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.' "

Several other publications, including the Washington Post, Time magazine, the Chicago Sun-Times, The New Yorker and The National Review, have debunked the idea that Obama and Ayers had a close relationship.

Riot and bomb conspiracy charges against Ayers

Unfortunately, for the slow among us - and I'm finding a good number of folks are slower than baby Trig will ever be - this will stick. Last chance, desperation politics ... it's sad!

California In Line At The Soup Kitchen

Arnold is out there begging for a loan.

California, the nation’s most populous state and the world’s sixth-biggest economy, has warned the Treasury Department that it may need a $7 billion emergency loan from the federal government because it is running out of cash and has not been able to borrow more.

State officials said they hoped that the $700 billion federal bailout of the financial system approved by the House of Representatives on Friday would help open credit markets that have balked at providing the kind of short-term financing California and other states and local governments routinely rely on to keep operating.

But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, said at a news conference on Friday that the state “is not out of the woods yet” and in a few weeks could run out of cash to pay for basic services.

Mr. Schwarzenegger had sent a letter on Thursday night to Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., warning that the state might be forced to seek the emergency loan.

This Better Work!

... and somebody else better see the benefits other than those fat pigs on Wall Street!

President Bush signed into law Friday a historic $700 billion bailout of the financial services industry, promising to move swiftly to use his sweeping new authority to unlock frozen credit markets to get the economy moving again.

“It’s complicated, and we’re going to make sure whatever we do is done in a deliberative fashion,” Bush told reporters after he signed the bill as soon as he got it from the House, which passed the measure after a topsy-turvy week of legislative victories, defeats and power plays.

But he promised to get the ball rolling quickly, because the authority is “essential to helping America’s economy weather the financial crisis.”

Wells Fargo Trumps Citigroup

Interesting ...

In an abrupt change of course, Wachovia Corp. said Friday it agreed to be acquired by Wells Fargo & Co. in a $15.1 billion all-stock deal, wiping out Wachovia's previous plan to sell its banking operations to rival suitor Citigroup Inc.

A key difference is that the Wachovia deal will be done without government assistance, while the Citigroup deal would have been done with the help of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

I think this lends to the argument, albeit a moot point now, that Wall Street could very well have bailed out Wall Street.

Makes Me Wanna Holla

... and throw up both my hands. This heifer (literally) is crazy!

Police in Middletown made a rather bizarre arrest Monday night, taking into custody a woman dressed in a cow suit who was seen acting erratically. Michelle Allen of Middletown was arrested on one count of disorderly conduct for allegedly getting in the way of traffic on Wilbraham Road and chasing children in her cow suit. She also urinated on a neighbor’s front porch, police say. According to police, Allen talked back and threatened to cause problems in the jail if she was arrested. Allen appeared in court Tuesday morning dressed in the suit. It is not clear why she was wearing the costume.

The cousins! Help 'em!