Before Bush and now

Are you better off today than you were 8 years ago? Is America? The Bush administration has shown unprecedented incompetence in both foreign and domestic policy.

• Before Bush -- Dow: January 19, 2001: 10,587.59


• Now ---------- Dow: September 29, 2008: 10,365.45

• Before Bush - NASDAQ: Jan 19, 2001 = 2770.38


• Now --------- NASDAQ: September 29, 2008 = 1983.73

• Before Bush - Dollar exchange with Euro, January 19, 2001: 1.068


• Now --------- Dollar exchange with Euro, September 29, 2008: .695

• Before Bush -- National Debt: $5.727 trillion.


• Now ---------- National Debt: $9.849 trillion

Bush has made the largest contribution to the national debt than any previous president in American history: more than $4 trillion

US budget deficit: deficit is annual additions to national debt.



Can you imagine being John McSame (McBush) and having to debate Obama on the economy next week... with people like Phil "deregulator" Gramm, Carly "golden parachute" Fiorina, and Marc "Freddie mac" Davis on his staff?

How about Sarah "I can see Russia" Palin debating Joe Biden with 35 yrs foreign policy experience?

Obama's lead grows again today after polls show most thought he won the debate.

Palin's New Yorker cover and latest gaffe

The New Yorker Magazine cover mocks Palin's foreign policy experience.

The New Yorker is published weekly, has a circulation of over 1 million, and an 88 year history.

Palin's latest gaffe as reported Politico, involves yet to be released parts of the Couric interview: when asked to discuss a Supreme Court Case other than Roe v. Wade ... she could not name a single one.



Washington Post's Howard Kurts reports:

And the worst may be yet to come for Palin; sources say CBS has two more responses on tape that will likely prove embarrassing.

While some journalists say privately they are censoring their comments about Palin to avoid looking like they're piling on, pundits on the right are jumping ship. MSNBC's Joe Scarborough says Palin "just seems out of her league." National Review Editor Rich Lowry called her performance "dreadful." Dallas Morning News columnist Rod Dreher described the interview as a "train wreck." Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker urged Palin to quit the race, saying: "If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself."

The End of Democracy? GOP plan to steal another election?

There has been a blog buzz about Republican IT specialists plotting to steal this election. Sources say there is a story about to break regarding Republican internet security expert Stephen Spoonamore, a McCain supporter who has come forward to tell in very specific detail how the GOP led by "the Christianist far right" plan to electronically rig the election. Spoonamore says there is no system in the world that can't be hacked and paper ballots are the ONLY way to a secure election. There is NO transparency in the present process, NO way to verify the data. He mentions the involvement of Republican IT guy Michael L. Connell.

Guess what? Lending credence to this accusation, in a voter fraud case regarding tampering of the Ohio election of 2004, there has been enough evidence to warrant a subpeona for Michael L. Connell. He was served Sept 22. Connell is a long-time GOP operative, whose New Media Communications provided web services for the Bush-Cheney ’04 campaign, the US Chamber of Commerce, the Republican National Committee and many Republican candidates. He was deeply involved in creating Ohio’s official state election website.

It would stand to reason that the Christian dominionist right would be involved with this. They are dualists, they have no regard for American Democracy, it is "god's law" that supercedes everything and they see any and all opposition as inherently evil and a force to be destroyed in any way possible. Democracy is meaningless for such people.

Now we know who the enemies of democracy are - the real terrorists in America.

The "Fair and Balanced Network" scrubs AP Palin story from their website

This AP story appeared on the FoxNews website... for a very short time before it was scrubbed.

Thanks to Google cache, we see that Fox scrubbed this story from it's original location on their website - which now brings up an error page. Too late Fox News you dumbasses... once on the internet - always on the internet. You wonder why conservatives are so ignorant .... they're off in "NRO - Drudge land." Denial is their hallmark, propaganda is their tool.

Here's the beginning of the story:

Conservatives Begin Questioning Palin’s Heft
by Associated Press
Sunday, September 28, 2008


A growing number of Republicans are expressing concern about Sarah Palin’s uneven - and sometimes downright awkward - performances in her limited media appearances.

Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, a former Palin supporter, says the vice presidential nominee should step aside. Kathryn Jean Lopez, writing for the conservative National Review, says “that’s not a crazy suggestion” and that “something’s gotta change.”

Tony Fabrizio, a GOP strategist, says Palin’s recent CBS appearance isn’t disqualifying but is certainly alarming. “You can’t continue to have interviews like that and not take on water.” [read the rest of the article]

And you want more of the McSame?

• When Clinton took office the Dow was 3271
  

• When Clinton left office the Dow was 10,587


• A gain of about 325% and a record budget surplus

• When Bush took office the Dow was 10,587


• After nearly 8 yrs of Bush, the Dow closed today at 10,365


• Bush - 0% stock market gain, a record National Debt, and a financial crisis

Clinton - 325% stock market gain and a record budget surplus

vs

Bush - 0% stock market gain and a record National Debt, and a financial crisis

And you want to vote Republican for more of the (Mc)Same?

Where's our savior ... the great McCain? I thought he was going to suspend his campaign to broker a deal? Conservative Glen Beck says "we're standing on the precipice of a great depression. ...Americans need to know that their lives will change. ... This is not about Wall Street, this is about your street."

Just imagine what the wingnuts would be saying if this happened under the Clinton administration.

CNN covers Palin/Tina Fey SLN skit: art imitates life

Jonah Goldberg and NRO fail to score hit on Obama over soldiers death

Jonah Goldberg delivers... Wingnutosphere swallows.



You would think right-wing bloggers would care enough about our military to not demagogue them, their families and their service. Such assholes... and I rarely use this word... still think they "own" the troops and their memories. They believe that those ultimate sacrifices are only "theirs" to be wielded for propaganda purposes when necessary. We can can see how much respect Jonah Goldberg has for the family, he never asked them. And you notice - it was McCain who brought it up - trying to score points on the death of a soldier. Obama just responded.

This is why the conservatives are losing. They don't want to know the truth, except when they can exploit a lie to hurt Obama.

AP: Soldier's mother 'ecstatic' about Obama's bracelet

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- The mother of a Wisconsin soldier who died in Iraq says she was "ecstatic" when Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama mentioned during Friday's debate the bracelet she gave him in honor of her son.

Tracy Jopek of Merrill told The Associated Press on Sunday she was honored that Obama remembered Sgt. Ryan David Jopek, who was killed in 2006 by a roadside bomb.

Jopek criticized Internet reports suggesting Obama, D-Ill., exploited her son for political purposes.

"I don't understand how people can take that and turn it into some garbage on the Internet," she said.

Jopek acknowledged e-mailing the Obama campaign in February asking that the presidential candidate not mention her son in speeches or debates. But she said Obama's mention on Friday was appropriate because he was responding after Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee, said a soldier's mother gave him a bracelet.

McCain's stunt fails - Obama +8 in Gallup Poll

How's that stunt working for ya McCain?

Fox News Sunday - John Kerry tells us what happened with McCain's stunt:

"Barack Obama was in constant touch with Secretary Paulson almost every single day, sometimes several times a day for the last two weeks. Barack Obama was the first person to speak and lay out at that meeting at the White House for about seven or eight minutes the entire parameters of what we had resolved. John McCain, when offered the opportunity to speak, passed, didn’t speak until the very end, and when he spoke, did not offer a solution and did not say what he would support. The fact is that on a Monday of about a week ago, John McCain said the fundamentals of our economy are strong. Within a few days, John McCain was suspending his campaign because of the greatest crisis since World War II. He suspended his campaign and it took him 22 hours to get from New York to Washington, a one-hour flight, had time to go do Katie Couric in an interview, had time to give a speech to the Clinton millennium, and when he got here, he wound up — I mean, he said he was going to interrupt his campaign to come down and save the negotiations. Most people believe what he did was interrupt the negotiations to come down and save his campaign."

Obama is up by 8 in the new Gallup poll.

What you need to know about Sarah Palin's dominionist agenda

Sarah Palin's church, "Assemblies of God of Alaska" is clearly a dominionist church that claims her as a member as recently as this year in their summer '08 newsletter. If you are unfamiliar with the concept of dominionism, this is what it is:

The tendency among some conservative politically-active Christians, especially in the United States of America, to seek influence or control over secular civil government through political action — aiming either at a nation governed by Christians, or a nation governed by a conservative Christian understanding of biblical law.

In short... a theocracy.

It gets stranger...

Palin's church is involved with a movement specifically targeting teens that has been termed "the Third Wave Movement" that encourages unusual manifestations, such as "falling, shaking, 'drunkenness' in the Spirit, weeping and laughter." Mike Rose, pastor of Juneau Christian Center (Palin's church) has been noted to promote this psychologically and sometimes physical coercive insanity.

More importantly... this "Third Wave Movement"is linked with a militant dominionist movement called "Joel's Army." The Joel's Army movement began with the 1940s preaching of William Branham, whose group was banned as heretical by the Assemblies of God. However, Joel's Army is alive and well. Check out the report from the Southern Poverty Law Center on Joel's Army:

Joel's Army is prophesied to become an Armageddon-ready military force of young people with a divine mandate to physically impose Christian "dominion" on non-believers.

"An end-time army has one common purpose — to aggressively take ground for the kingdom of God under the authority of Jesus Christ, the Dread Champion," Bentley declares on the website for his ministry school in British Columbia, Canada. "The trumpet is sounding, calling on-fire, revolutionary believers to enlist in Joel's Army. … Many are now ready to be mobilized to establish and advance God's kingdom on earth."

Watch Joel's Army leader, Todd Bently bring Christ to a cancer victim.

Palin credited Pastor Muthee with her political success. Much has been made of her preacher rebuking witchcraft while praying over Palin. This is less significant than the clear dominionist message of Muthee. When watching the video of Palin being prayed over by Pastor Muthee, listen to the clear dominionist agenda where the pastor prays to Jesus "to make a way for Sarah in the political arena" and to "bring finances her way." Even more significant is that Murthee prays to God "invade seven areas of society" including politics, government and education.

Pushing religion into schools - yes, Palin is a confirmed creationist that is pushing to have "creation science" in the public schools.

Palin is also a member of the misnamed "Feminists" For Life, a deceptive anti-abortion group.

FFL in fact engages in "cultural appropriation" of women's suffrage icons to promote a very woman-unfriendly agenda that--despite attempts to sound "not like those crazies in Operation Rescue"--would not only criminalise abortion but the IUD and hormonal birth control methods, and potentially everything outside the rhythm method (the term "abortifacient birth control" is a codephrase in the dominionist "pro-life" community for hormonal birth control--partly due to a unique urban legend claiming "the pill" and other hormonal birth control causes abortion and partly because of a unique definition of pregnancy beginning at conception rather than at implantation and thus making anything preventing implantation potentially "abortifacient").

FFL promotes fear of abortion by touting and exaggerating concepts like "post-abortion syndrome" (the idea that having an abortion will inevitably lead to PTSD and insanity), and promotes mandatory waiting periods designed to give time for misinformation. In fact, one of their biggest causes isn't feminist at all--they actively promote the idea that the best choice for women is to stay home as fulltime mothers... the biblical role.

One of the big things FFL promotes is deceptive "pregnancy counseling centers"--where pregnant teens are forced to essentially listen to an altar call on how "abortionists want to murder their children" whilst a pee-stick test clears--and if she tests "yes", she gets a hard-sell to keep the child or to check herself into a dominionist-run "halfway house for teenage moms" where she will ultimately be forced to sign her kid over. (Yes, there is an entire private adoption industry in the dominionist community [see Ned Williams] --mostly focusing on adopting out the infants of poor teenage mothers who have been forced to give their kids up and who have been either scared into it or checked into such facilities by their parents.) H/T: Kos

This is Palin's religious dominionist agenda.

Deepak Chopra: analysis of Palin and conservatism - NAILS IT !

Deepak Chopra is a highly respected Indian medical doctor and best-selling author. He's written extensively on spirituality.

He provides a stunningly accurate analysis of the type of conservatism that Sarah Palin and her religious right wing conservatives follow:

------------------------

Chopra:

Look at what she stands for:

• Small town values — a nostaligic return to simpler times disguises a denial of America’s global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism.


• Ignorance of world affairs — a repudiation of the need to repair America’s image abroad.


• Family values — a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don’t need to be needed.


• Rigid stands on guns and abortion — a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.


• Patriotism — the usual fallback in a failed war.


• ”Reform” — an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn’t fit your ideology.

Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from “us” pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of “I’m all right, Jack,” and “Why change? Everything’s OK as it is.” The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness.

------------------------

This provides an amazingly well thought out analysis of why conservative people (like Glen Dean) react with disdain when they hear that Obama is favored by the world as next American president. Look at their comments on this post. An excellent look into the conservative mindset. A mindset with no useful purpose in a peaceful and cooperative world.

When Sarah has no answer, she lies

Another desperate Palin lie revealed

Trying to legitimized her foreign policy experience, Palin said in her last interview:

COURIC: Have you ever been involved with any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?

PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. We -- we do ...

Salon:

When asked for examples of trade missions with Russia that have taken place under Palin's watch, gubernatorial spokeswoman Kate Morgan refused to answer the question.One of Palin's trade specialists is also quoted saying that no trade missions with Russia are currently on the agenda: "I am not aware of any plans but that doesn't mean she wouldn't [arrange any]."

There is no evidence of her conducting any trade missions with Russia: There's a press release about Gov. Palin's meeting with a trade mission from the Yukon, but nothing about Russia anywhere in the archives.

Gotcha, the church lady lies again.

McCain camp: Palin is "disastrous" ... "clueless" ..."what are we going to do?"

I can't wait til Thursday. Personally, I think Biden could have kicked McCain's ass in the debate on Friday, far more effectively than Obama.... just imagine him against the 'church lady' on Thursday. She better be prayin' ... maybe get Pastor Muthee in to lay some hands on her, something, anything.

It has been reported that Palin is undergoing debate prep by doing mock debates and mock press conferences. Here's what's going on:

Ed Schultz via Mudflats:

Capitol Hill sources are telling me that senior McCain people are more than concerned about Palin. The campaign has held a mock debate and a mock press conference; both are being described as “disastrous.” One senior McCain aide was quoted as saying, “What are we going to do?” The McCain people want to move this first debate to some later, undetermined date, possibly never. People on the inside are saying the Alaska Governor is “clueless.” ... Palin’s performance in the mock debate was SO bad, they stopped it right in the middle and didn’t even bother to go on.

Biden has done nearly 100 interviews since being picked as Obama's VP on August 23. Palin has done 3. Ed Rollins, a CNN contributor and Republican strategist, said Palin has lost her confidence in recent weeks. Dumb, inexperienced, and ready to be slaughtered.

Mudflats:

One has to wonder how Palin herself is handling this, as the house of cards comes tumbling down around her. The last two weeks have surely gone to show her that there’s way more to being the Vice President than she originally thought when she asked, “What exactly is it that the VP does every day?” just a few short weeks before she was thrust into this situation. When your world is Wasilla, and you’re only just starting to get your feet wet running a state with less than a million people, it’s got to be a bit of a shock when you realize how very much bigger the whole country is, than what you imagined when you “didn’t blink.”

The McCain camp is trying to manipulate the debate format to protect Palin:

CNN: The vice presidential debate will resemble the traditional presidential event. However, the New York Times reported last Sunday that the McCain campaign sought to limit the time for freewheeling discussion in the vice presidential debate. Advisers to Palin were reportedly worried that format could put the Alaska governor -- a relatively inexperienced debater -- on the defensive most of the evening. The agreed-upon format for that debate now includes an abbreviated two-minute discussion period during which the candidates can engage each other.

This is going to be fun!!

Democratic 60 seat filibuster-proof majority now possible

It could happen... not only an Obama presidency, but a Democratic 60 seat filibuster-proof majority. An Obama presidency now appears likely, especially since Obama is now polling +5 in VA - a must win state for McCain. Obama can win without VA, McCain probably can't.

Electoral-vote.com:

Democrats are poised to pick up Republican seats in Alaska, Colorado, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, and Virginia.

With the current state of play, they need only two more. The candidate states are Minnesota, where Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) is in a close battle with Al Franken (D) and Mississippi, where appointed senator Roger Wicker (R) is fighting former governor Ronnie Musgrove (D).

Here's where they stand in recent polls:

Survey USA (9/15) - MN Senate:

41% - Coleman [R]
40% - Franken [D]

Research 2000 (9/10) - MS Senate:

48% - Wicker [R]
43% - Musgrove [D]

RCP: When Wicker's conservative House district flipped to the Democrats in a May special election, it sparked the view of this race as one to watch. That election marked the third vacant GOP seat that Democrats won this year.

It could happen!!!

Thanks to Dubya...

Polls say Obama wins!

Poll

Poll

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Poll

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Sarah Palin embarasses herself again - Russia's proximity "certainly" enhances her foreign policy experience

Imagine this person as American president


Couric: Well, explain to me why that enhances your foreign-policy credentials.

Palin: Well, it certainly does, because our, our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of. And there…

Couric: Have you ever been involved in any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?

Palin: We have trade missions back and forth, we do.

“I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, 'I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia.' That kind of thing is insulting to the American people. ... She doesn’t have any foreign policy credentials. You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don’t know what you can say. You can’t say anything.”

-- Republican Senator Chuck Hagel

Lies we've come to expect: McCain claims victory in debate before deciding to go

Why bother watching the debate? McCain claims he already won - even before he even made the decision to go. This is the type of lie we come to expect from the McCain campaign. (click on image to enlarge)

WaPost:

"McCain Wins Debate!" declares the ad which features a headshot of a smiling McCain with an American flag background. Another ad spotted by our eagle-eyed observer featured a quote from McCain campaign manager Rick Davis declaring: "McCain won the debate-- hands down."

Here's the screenshot.

Republican = failure: Republican candidates don't want the word 'Republican' by their name on ballot

In Washington state, the Republican candidate for Governor Dino Rossi lists his party affiliation as "GOP Party." He avoids the word "Republican" on his website and doesn't want it on the ballot. He is ashamed of the affiliation. Other Republicans have downplayed the Republican label.

Seattle Times:

OLYMPIA — The state Democratic Party filed suit Tuesday in an attempt to force Dino Rossi to list his party preference as "Republican" on the November ballot instead of "GOP Party." Polls by Stuart Elway have suggested many people don't know that GOP and Republican mean the same thing. One recent Elway poll indicated Rossi did better among voters if he used the "GOP" label instead of "Republican."

No wonder, on both foreign and domestic policy, the Republican administration of the last 8 years has shown mismanagement and incompetence on an epic and unprecedented scale. Republicans are poison.

McCain makes a bet on the stupidity of American voters

• Last week: McCain said "the fundamentals of the economy are strong."

• Tuesday: McCain said he had not read Paulson's bailout plan which had been available since Friday.

• Wednesday: McCain "suspends his campaign" to 'work' on the bailout.

Why does McCain do what he does? To make the American voter think he's doing something - to make Americans focus on him, not the political party he represents. Why? Because John McCain represents the Republican party that has brought one of the largest foreign policy blunders in American history - Iraq ... AND a massive financial crisis, one of the largest domestic policy failures in American history.

So... on both foreign and domestic policy, the Republican administration McCain represents has shown mismanagement and incompetence on an epic and unprecedented scale. McCain doesn't really disagree with the policies that have caused these massive foreign and domestic policy disasters. In fact, the WSJ suggests of McCain that you'd find the cause of what when wrong on Wall Street "by cross-examining the people riding on his campaign bus."

So... since you can't run on your party's accomplishments, you have to gamble, you have to showboat, steal headlines, pull rabbits out of hats ... something.... anything.... try to distract the public from reality, try to shield your incompetent running mate from the press, try to avoid debating, try to make the public think you're a hero. (He was tortured, you know). He also invented the Blackberry.

Reactionary and desperate, McCain thinks America is stupid enough to buy his razzle-dazzle bullshit. This should give you an idea of McCain's management style.

Bailout agreement reached, McCain contributes nothing

UPDATE: McCain/GOP spoilers - Bailout agreement falls apart

Like we thought, just a stunt.

MS's Republican Gov. Barbour said today he fully expects the debate to go as planned. Sorry McCain, you lose.

Dodd, Banking Committee Chair: "a lot of us have been working for 5 straight days around the clock and I haven't heard a word from John McCain."

John McCain - Stunt Man

Obama did the right thing -- showed leadership. At 8:30 AM, Obama reached out to his rival to propose they come up with a bipartisan statement. By making this effort, Obama gave up the opportunity to show just how much better he and his team are responding to this issue, how much more the public blames the GOP for this mess, and instead prioritized finding a solution that would work.

McCain received that offer. And he sat on it. For six hours. What happened in those 6 hours? A call to the White House perhaps? Finally, at 2:30 PM, McCain accepted the offer. It seems that, during those six long hours when McCain was mulling Obama's proposal, McCain was inventing a way to turn this into yet another political gimmick. Twenty minutes after accepting Obama's proposal, McCain pulled this stunt of calling for a suspension of the campaign and postponement of the debate.

Who is gullible enough to actually believe John McCain will be going to DC to "work across the aisle to strike a deal that will save the economy?" You know, McCain - the guy who said 10 days ago - "the fundamentals of the economy are strong." Maybe the same people who thank Bush for a wonderful presidency? Maybe the same people who think "drill baby drill" will help our gas prices?

Chris Dodd is the chair of the Senate Banking Committee. He OWNS this issue. Dodd says:

"I'm beginning to think this is more about a rescue plan for John McCain than a rescue plan for the economy...Candidly, a lot of us have been working for 5 straight days around the clock and I haven't heard a word from John McCain."

Maybe you smart people can tell me what exactly McCain is going to do in Washington besides a photo op with Bush? He doesn't sit on any of the relevant committees, the committees are already deep in negotiations for days, pretty much finished with their work. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

What are others saying?

Survey USA:

Immediately after John McCain’s announcement 3 pm ET today, Wednesday 09/24/08, that he was suspending his campaign and seeking to postpone Friday’s schedule presidential debate, SurveyUSA interviewed 1,000 adults nationwide. Key findings:

A majority of Americans say the debate should be held. Just 10% say the debate should be postponed.

WashPost: A Transparent Ploy

Salon: Stunt Man

The only way to understand it is politically: In a presidential campaign, the surest sign that a candidate is playing politics on an issue is when he claims not to be playing politics on an issue... It's hard to believe that McCain's actions would pass his own laugh test.

Boston Globe: McCain's Debate Stunt

altering the debate schedule would hardly serve voters. If anything, debates are most valuable at times of national crisis, because voters need to hear candidates highlight their policy differences.

That's what Obama said.

Bush plays the fear card, sets up political stunt for McCain

Well you heard it... Bush using words like "crisis" ... "collapse" ... "recession" ... "economy in danger," be afraid of an imminent collapse, we must take urgent measures. Call off the debate! This meeting with McCain and Obama can't wait til Saturday.

Something is rotten in DC

I'd bet my bottom dollar that this scenario was a complete set up staged by McCain and Bush. Look at what McCain has done. He has pulled political stunts for effect during his whole campaign, not for America's well-being, but calculated risky maneuvers that may help him get elected... like getting an inexperienced good looking female governor as running mate, like calling for a gas tax holiday, like canceling the first night of the RNC because of a hurricane, like calling for the firing of Cox, and now McCain to the rescue of America's economic crisis ... postpone the debate!!!??? Even suggesting the postponement of the VP debate!!! Smoke and mirrors.

McCain is about as far away as any Senator from doing his job. He hasn't voted since April 8. He doesn't even know what his own Senate Commerce Committee does.

I am sorry, this is not about America's economic rescue, this is about saving McCain's ass from sinking poll numbers. McCain is a fake - a liar and a manipulator. It doesn't take a genius to see through this bullshit.

Look at what is happening - HuffPost gives us the McCain scenario:

• Sunday: McCain endorses $700B Wall Street bailout.
• Tuesday: McCain says he hasn't even read the bailout proposal and is undecided on whether to support it.
• Tuesday night: Washington Post poll shows big Obama lead.
• Wednesday morning: Obama calls McCain about issuing joint statement on Wall St. crisis, McCain isn't available. McCain finds time for meeting with ex-Clinton supporter Lady Lynn de Rothschild.
• Wednesday afternoon: McCain "suspends" campaign, demands debate be postponed. Decides to appear for interview with CBS's Katie Couric.
• Wednesday Night: Dems say they've already reached deal on bailout
• Wednesday Night: Bush plays fear card in speech, McCain-Bush summon Obama to DC
  

McCain, off to DC - the big hero to the rescue. Political theater at it's most absurd and disingenuous.

What the Republican Party has become - Sarah Palin receives protection from witchcraft: the VIDEO

Sarah Palin is shown accepting a special supernatural protection from witchcraft from Thomas Muthee, who also promoted Palin's campaign for Governor. Muthee, the Kenyan preacher is famous as a witch hunter. He calls for a religious takeover of government and education.

Watch the following video where a possible future American president stands in front of a congregation, where preacher Muthee and congregation members "lay hands upon her" and she receives protection from "every form of witchcraft." Sarah Palin, enters the video around 3:30.

This is what Sarah Palin credits her political success to.




WATCH IT

This is what the American Republican Party has become.

What are you going to do if you're elected and things get tough? Suspend being president?

David Letterman on McCain's antics:

"You don't suspend your campaign. This doesn't smell right. This isn't the way a tested hero behaves. I think someone's putting something in his Metamucil. He can't run the campaign because the economy is cratering? Fine, put in your second-string quarterback, Sarah Palin. Where is she? What are you going to do if you're elected and things get tough? Suspend being president? We've got a guy like that now!"

- David Letterman

Watch it tonight! (Wednesday Sept 24, 2008) Keith Olbermann stands in.

Wait a second, I thought he said "the fundamentals of the economy were strong?"

McCain now says the financial crisis is historic and he wants to postpone the debate to vote on the bailout bill. The guy who has missed 80% of Senate votes in the last year? (McCain hasn't voted since early April).

9 days ago, McCain said what he's been saying all year - "the fundamentals of the economy are strong." (Sept.15, 2008)

There's a reason McCain shouldn't have to debate. He was tortured, you know.

The Hail-Mary pass has been thrown...

Look at what McCain adviser Donald Luskin said 10 days ago:

"Things today just aren't that bad. ... When it comes to the economy, we have surely become a nation of exaggerators."

-- McCain Adviser, Donald Luskin, Sept 14, 2008

McCain knows what to do when disaster strikes ... here he is just after Katrina hit:

Bush/Cheney War Crimes and Corruption Update

Vets protest Bush/Cheney War Crimes today at the National Archives

Bush/Cheney War Crimes and Corruption Update:

• Cheney is told he can not destroy his records in violation of the Presidential Records Act (... which means he is destroying them now).

LA TIMES: Judge rules Cheney must preserve records - In her ruling, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly cast doubt on the vice president's argument, given that the Presidential Records Act was specifically amended to prevent former President Richard Nixon from destroying any of the tapes or documents that led to his resignation. And here's the kicker: Any violation by the preliminary injunction is punishable by immediate contempt -- including the power to jail the offender.

• Bush loses effort to keep torture photos secret.

AP: Court: US govt can't block detainee photos release. The United States cannot conceal pictures of abusive treatment of detainees by its soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan by saying their release might cause enemies to hurt someone, a federal appeals court said Monday in ordering the release of 21 photographs.

• Worsening situation in Afghanistan hidden by Bush until after the election

ABC: 'Grim' Afghanistan Report To Be Kept Secret by US "No Plans to Declassify" New National Intelligence Estimate for White House - US intelligence analysts are putting the final touches on a secret National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Afghanistan that reportedly describes the situation as "grim", but there are "no plans to declassify" any of it before the election, according to one US official familiar with the process.

• Maliki says Bush wants to prolong the war for political purposes to help McSame. This is exactly what they accused Obama of and now, Maliki has confirmed that Bush is doing exactly that.

TP: White House communications staff were concerned that Maliki’s endorsement of the 2010 time line would damage Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) presidential campaign. Indeed, during an interview with Iraqi television last week (according to an Open Source Center translation), Maliki suggested that the U.S. presidential elections played a role:

Actually, the final date was really the end of 2010 and the period between the end of 2010 and the end of 2011 was for withdrawing the remaining troops from all of Iraq, but they asked for a change [in date] due to political circumstances related to the [U.S] domestic situation so it will not be said to the end of 2010 followed by one year for withdrawal but the end of 2011 as a final date. -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki

Thus the legacy of GW Bush

Palin meets her first world leaders today, stiffs the press - again

In a pathetic attempt to 'pad her resume,' hockey mom and VP hopeful met her first world leaders today but stiffed the press by refusing to allow the media to ask any questions, normally a routine event when such meetings take place. Palin barred all print reporters and a TV news producer from the photo shoot of the start of her meeting with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, until TV news shows threatened to not shoot the event. After that, they were allowed in to get a glimpse before being ushered back outside.

Look at how major media recated:

AP: Palin, in a bubble, meets her first world leaders - It was a tightly controlled crash course on foreign policy for the Republican vice presidential candidate, the mayor-turned-governor who has been outside North America just once.

CNN: McCain camp tries to keep reporters out of Palin meetings - Although Palin held photo-ops with the leaders, she refused to take questions from any reporters.

Fox: Palin Media Blackout Continues - It has been widely reported that Sarah Palin has yet to give a news conference or even answer a few questions from the traveling press that follow her from city to city on her plane. But, today the Palin camp went to new lengths to control the media, which is covering the GOP Vice-Presidential nominee.

ABC: McCain-Palin Camp Tried to Block Media Access to Palin in NY

LATimes: What's up with Sarah Palin's cone of silence? - McCain's camp has put a force field around the Alaska governor in recent weeks, and some in the media speculate that this is to keep her from dealing with unscripted questions from voters and reporters.
And it was even worse during these diplomacy sessions. Reporters were actually banned from the start of the meetings to stop them from asking questions of Palin.

Newsday: Sarah Palin meets world leaders, ducks press

Palin has not held a news conference since being selected as McCain's running mate, nor taken questions from her traveling press corps, frustrating journalists assigned to cover Palin for the election.

Good strategy Mr. McSame! The more she talks, the dumber she sounds. Look what has happened to McSame in the polls since her first interview.

Palin also met with Henry Kissinger.

In an official press release, the Palin camp misspelled Henry Kissinger's name as "Kissenger." What a bunch of dolts!

Republicans lose the blame game

Men and seniors now favor Obama

Game over:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- By a 2-to-1 ratio, Americans blame Republicans over Democrats for the financial crisis that has swept across the country the past few weeks, a new national poll suggests.

And Obama has a 10-point lead over McCain when it comes to who respondents think would better handle the economy overall.

These numbers seem to be affecting the battle for the presidency. Fifty-one percent of registered voters now say they will back Obama, five points ahead of McCain, at 46 percent.

"In two core McCain constituencies: men, who now narrowly favor Obama, and seniors, who have also flipped from McCain to Obama," said Bill Schneider, a CNN senior political analyst.

Conservative media: "McCain loses his head"..."behaving like a flustered rookie"..."unpresidential"

McCain flails

Conservative media highlight the temperament and ineptitude of John McCain.

Wall Street Journal: "John McCain has made it clear this week he doesn't understand what's happening on Wall Street...In a crisis, voters want steady, calm leadership, not easy, misleading answers that will do nothing to help. Mr. McCain is sounding like a candidate searching for a political foil rather than a genuine solution."

George Will (Washington Post): "...McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. ...McCain's smear -- that Cox "betrayed the public's trust" -- is a harbinger of a McCain presidency. For McCain, politics is always operatic, pitting people who agree with him against those who are "corrupt" or "betray the public's trust," two categories that seem to be exhaustive -- there are no other people."

McCain is dumb, reactionary and simple. As George Will pointed out, inexperience can be corrected, "a dismaying temperament" can not.

Report: Bush's Iraq surge had no observable effect on lessening Iraq violence

Why? Ethnic cleansing had already done the job. I guess you can say Bush is responsible for lessening the violence by losing control of a country and allowing genocide to take place. Fair enough...

Reuters:

Satellite images taken at night [from a US Department of Defence weather satellite] show heavily Sunni Arab neighborhoods of Baghdad began emptying before a U.S. troop surge in 2007, graphic evidence of ethnic cleansing that preceded a drop in violence, according to a report published on Friday.

The images support the view of international refugee organizations and Iraq experts that a major population shift was a key factor in the decline in sectarian violence, particularly in the Iraqi capital, the epicenter of the bloodletting in which hundreds of thousands were killed.

"Our findings suggest that the surge has had no observable effect, except insofar as it has helped to provide a seal of approval for a process of ethno-sectarian neighborhood homogenization that is now largely achieved." -- Journal of Environment and Planning A

"US military officials may have taken credit where none is due for decreasing violence in Baghdad with their troop surge of February 2007, data from satellite imaging suggests." - New Scientist

Some 2 million Iraqis are displaced within Iraq, while 2 million more have sought refuge in neighboring Syria and Jordan. Previously religiously mixed neighborhoods of Baghdad became homogenized Sunni or Shi'ite Muslim enclaves.

But this won't stop John McCain from congratulating himself and running his campaign on the success of "the surge." Predictably, smear groups are trying to swiftboat Obama on this issue.

McCain: “We need to return to the Reagan years… we need less regulation.”

The above quote from McCain was not from his days just after the Keating 5, no... it was in a PBS interview from this year. [PBS “Washington Week,” 1/25/08]

Despite his claim to hate the debt, Reagan instituted unprecedented peacetime deficit spending. This is not partisan politics, this is straight off the White House web site. As the graph shows, Bush II repeated Reagan's performance and turned the debt upward again. (Bush II's own Office of Management and Budget provides all this data).

The Bush II curve on this graph is much less steep than it should be. This data was plotted before the new bailout crisis which will raise the statutory limit on the national debt from $10.6 trillion to $11.3 trillion to make room for the massive rescue ... not to mention the over 600,000 jobs lost this year through August.

Look hard at this graph. Notice which presidents managed America better. Any questions?



And McCain wants to return to the Reagan years.

I think we need a change.

McCain's health care plan: deregulate insurance industry because it worked so well for the banking industry

McCain the deregulator wrote:

"Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation. "

Wow. And you think health insurance is expensive now? Wait til President McCain gets in. If you aren't under the state or federal umbrella for your health insurance, forget it... you'll never be able to afford it and if you ever need hospital care or have an accident, you'll spend the rest of your life paying for it.

Fair and balanced

The candidates change but the tactics stay the same... can you imagine this coming from any other network? What other counties have networks that function as blatant government propaganda outlets? Iran? China?

Same old shit


... I guess they need all the help they can get.

Newsweek: Raines was never an Obama adviser, top Fannie and Freddie lobbyist is McCain campaign manager

People in glass houses....

McCain's campaign is SWIMMING in Fannie and Freddie lobbyists.

Newsweek:

The McCain campaign launched a broadside at Obama for taking advice from Franklin Raines, a disgraced former chief of Fannie Mae. But Raines was never an Obama adviser and had much less contact with the Obama campaign than a top lobbyist for Fannie and Freddie had with the McCain campaign. That lobbyist's name is Rick Davis and he's McCain's campaign manager. "People with seven glass houses shouldn't throw stones," gibed the Obama campaign.

Well, guess what? Politico reports that at least 20 McCain fundraisers have lobbied for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, pocketing at least $12.3 million over the last nine years. For example -

• Aquiles Suarez, listed as an economic adviser to the McCain campaign in a July 2007 McCain press release, was formerly the director of government and industry relations for Fannie Mae. The Senate Lobbying Database says Suarez oversaw the lending giant's $47,510,000 lobbying campaign from 2003 to 2006.
  

• The lobbying firm of Charlie Black, one of McCain's top aides, made at least $820,000 working for Freddie Mac from 1999 to 2004.

• The McCain campaign's vice-chair Wayne Berman and its congressional liaison John Green made $1.14 million working on behalf of Fannie Mae for lobbying firm Ogilvy Government Relations. Green made an additional $180,000 from Freddie Mac.

• Arther B. Culvahouse Jr., the VP vetter who helped John McCain select Sarah Palin, earned $80,000 from Fannie Mae in 2003 and 2004, while working for lobbying and law firm O'Melveny & Myers LLP.

Still want to talk about Raines?

McCain plays the race card with attack ad debunked by the source

TIME: McCain plays the race card:

"This is hardly subtle. Sinister images of two black men, followed by one of a vulnerable-looking elderly white woman."

The McCain source for this attack ad linking Frank Raines to Obama is the Washington Post. The Post debunks the ad as wild exaggeration. (LIE)

Washington Post fact check on McCain Attack Ad:

The McCain campaign is clearly exaggerating wildly in attempting to depict Franklin Raines as a close adviser to Obama on "housing and mortgage policy." If we are to believe Raines, he did have a couple of telephone conversations with someone in the Obama campaign. But that hardly makes him an adviser to the candidate himself--and certainly not in the way depicted in the McCain video release.

McCain is a fallen hero who has lost all integrity.

Some honest straight talk from Joe Biden

Can you just imagine Joe Biden and Sarah Palin in a debate? I can't wait.

From CBS News via C&L:

Katie: “Your vice presidential rival, Governor Palin, said “To the rest of America, that’s not patriotism. Raising taxes is about killing jobs and hurting small businesses and making things worse.”

Biden: “How many small businessmen are making one million, four hundred thousand–average in the top 1 percent. Give me a break. I remind my friend, John McCain, what he said – when Bush called for war and tax cuts – he said, it was immoral, immoral, to take a nation to war and not have anybody pay for it. I am so sick and tired of this phoniness. The truth of the matter is that we are in trouble. And the people who do not need a new tax cut should be willing, as patriotic Americans, to understand the way to get this economy back up on their feet is to give middle class taxpayers a break. We take the tax cut they’re getting and we give it to the middle class.”

I remind everyone that it was the Republican Party that wrecked America.

Documentary: "Third Term" - McCain's culpability in American economic failure

I love documentaries and here's one you'll all love: "Third Term" - available Sept. 25.

This film is completely pertinent to the news of a trillion dollar government bailout we are reading about this morning. The film focuses on how we got where we are.

Check out this clip.

It’s the same thing that’s happening now, as banks fail, and as our housing market collapses. And the people responsible for this new crisis are the ones McCain has surrounded himself with, men like Phil Gramm and his banking lobbyists. He will offer the same kind of deregulatory policies that led to the banking collapse of the early ‘90s.

John McCain was implicated in the biggest S&L scandal of its time back in ’80s –The Keating 5:

Charles Keating's Lincoln Savings and Loan, was making a lot of risky investments, and the government was investigating. So Keating called some of his old pals in the Senate to put a little pressure on the government regulators and get them off his back. McCain accepted. Keating raised $1.3 million for them. They challenged regulators who were investigating his operations. Lincoln collapsed, leading to a bailout of $2.8 billion in taxpayer money. Keating went to prison for four years. McCain should have joined him. McCain was the closest of any of the Keating Five to Charles Keating.

John McCain has built his political career on deregulation and now we see where it has gotten us. Look at John McCain's record and statements from the 2008 campaign:

• McCain Said The Difference Between Obama & Himself Would Be “More Regulation Or Less Regulation.” [McCain Media Availability via CQ Transcriptions, 3/3/08]


• "I don’t think anyone who wants to increase the burden of government regulation..." - John McCain [Town Hall in Inez, Kentucky, 4/23/08]


• “I understand why the AFL-CIO and maybe other unions may oppose my free market less regulation" - John McCain [Fox News,” Special Report with Brit Hume,” 3/12/08]


• "Let’s reduce regulation.” - John McCain [CNN, “Ballot Bowl, 3/15/08]

• "We need less government. We need less regulation..." - John McCain [PBS, “Washington Week,” 1/25/08]

THIRD TERM - WATCH THE TRAILER

GOP Senator: Palin's explanations of her foreign policy credentials are "insulting to the American people"

Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, who has been to Iraq six times, commented on Palin's readiness to assume the VP spot in an interview with the Omaha World Herald:

“I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, 'I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia.' That kind of thing is insulting to the American people. ... She doesn’t have any foreign policy credentials. You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don’t know what you can say. You can’t say anything.”

That about sums it up, and to hear it from a Republican Senator, a distinguished Vietnam vet. We knew McCain's pick of Palin was all about politics and not about qualifications. Even Karl Rove has said she is not the most qualified candidate.

Listen to Palin sum up her credentials and specific skills on national security … unscripted at her first Town Hall meeting . She doesn’t really answer the question because she doesn’t have any skills or experience, other to say “I’ll be ready”. She tries to belittle the person asking the question by suggesting the question is some sort of a “stump the candidate” game. She says this right at the end of the meeting so there can be no further discussion. Pathetic! This is no game.

The Palin effect is all downhill from here for McSame.

Article: Sarah Quaylin: Actually, Dan Quayle is looking pretty good right now

The 'Palin Effect' - HUGE surge in support of Obama from women and independents

NYT Poll

VOTE FOR PRESIDENT: DEMOGRAPHICS

9/8

Independents:
29% - Obama
55% - McCain
Women:
42% - Obama
49% - McCain

----------------------

Now (9/12-16)

Independents:
46% - Obama
41% - McCain
Women:
54% - Obama
38% - McCain

As reported previously, NYT called the 'Palin Effect:'

“the Palin effect” was, at least so far, a limited burst of interest."

Bill O'Reilly on the legacy of GW Bush: "poor leadership...and now Americans are getting hurt."

We knew this presidency would be a disaster and we were right, and now the reality is even too obvious for Bush supports to ignore.

Bill O'Reilly:

He’s done. He’s through. … He will now go down in history…as an ineffectual leader. And I’ll tell you the reason why, it’s poor leadership on his part. The people that he picked to run certain things have been disastrous. And no leadership and now Americans are getting hurt.

LISTEN HERE

And these 30%ers.... you know who they are, they support Bush and then say McCain is their candidate for "Real hope and change". Sounds like a contradiction. What does this say about the judgement of such people? (mostly authoritarian religious gun owning white guys with kids)

CHANGE? McCain = no change from Bush, Palin: "a limited burst of interest"

NYT: WASHINGTON — Despite an intense effort to distance himself from the way his party has done business in Washington, Senator John McCain is seen by voters as far less likely to bring change to Washington than Senator Barack Obama. He is widely viewed as a “typical Republican” who would continue or expand President Bush’s policies, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. ... the latest poll indicates “the Palin effect” was, at least so far, a limited burst of interest. The contest appeared to be roughly where it was before the two conventions....

McCain interview with Spanish Radio: McCain doesn't know who the Prime Minister of Spain is

John McCain either doesn't know who the Prime Minister of Spain is, thinks Spain is a country in Latin America, or possibly both. I knew yesterday was a bad day for the old man, but I guess it was even worse that I thought. Yesterday John McCain was interviewed on the Florida affiliate of Spanish radio network Union Radio and in the interview, McCain appeared not to know who the Prime Minister of Spain was and assumed he was some anti-American leftist leader from South America.

TPM:

After the interviewer presses him a couple times on the point and tries to focus him on the fact that Prime Minister Zapatero isn't from Mexico and isn't a drug lord, McCain comes back at her saying, "All I can tell you is that I have a clear record of working with leaders in the Hemisphere that are friends with us and standing up to those who are not. And that's judged on the basis of the importance of our relationship with Latin America and the entire region."

Then there's a moment of awkward pause before she says. "But what about Europe? I'm talking about the President of Spain."

McCain: "What about me, what?

Interviewer: "Are you willing to meet with him if you're elected president?"

McCain: "I am wiling to meet with any leader who is dedicated to the same principles and philosophy that we are for humans rights, democracy and freedom. And I will stand up to those who do not."

At this point, the interviewer gets tongue-tied presumably because she can't get over McCain not knowing what Spain is.

Well, so much for our NATO allies!!

Palin crony, Alaska Attorney General says subpoenas will be ignored, she is above the law

Sound familiar?

It is virtually unprecedented that a state attorney general say he will break the law and not honor lawful subpoenas. This is something right out of the corrupt Bush Administration's politicized Justice Dept.

Even the much maligned and indicted Alaska senator Ted Stevens wants to get his trial over before the election so he can be found innocent and clear his name. Contrast this with Palin's tactic to make sure that special counsel Steve Branchflower won't be able to issue his report before the election. Obviously, she fears the investigation and the findings that could come from it.

It is fairly clear from a damning audio tape already released that the allegation has merit. This audio tape is of a recorded phone call from Palin senior staffer Frank Bailey to an Alaska Public Safety Department staffer, (trashing of Wooten starts at 7:30 on the tape). First Palin claimed she knew nothing about any pressure from her office to fire her ex-brother-in-law, and her subsequent firing of the Public Safety Director Walt Monegan when he would not do so.

Palin now admits DOZENS of contacts to state police, both from her staff and from her husband, Todd, but admitted only after this TrooperGate recording surfaced. Caught.

This is how Republicans do business. They don't call it the "Culture of Corruption" for nothin'.

Cindy McCain and Laura Bush oppose Republican platform of overturning Roe v. Wade

What do you expect? They are women. John McCain thinks Roe v. Wade was " a bad decision." John McCain was booed on the women's program "The View" after making that statement. This information came directly from the McCain campaign as Katie Couric reports at the end of this video segment:

Palin/McCain lies debunked by mainstream media - Obama takes the lead in new polls

CNN obliterates McCain Campaign lies

WATCH IT

FIVE RECENT MCCAIN/PALIN LIES

Obama wants to teach sex to kindergarteners - LIE

Palin opposed the Bridge to Nowhere - LIE

Palin hasn’t taken earmarks as Governor - LIE

Alaska produces 20% of America’s energy - LIE

Palin visited Iraq and Ireland - LIE

NBC's Nightly News also exposes McCain/Palin lies
Story/video


The backlash is already being felt. 10 days ago, McCain was leading in the polls. Now his lead has vanished and the race has tightened again. The recent polls show McCain support is softening.

GALLUP: Obama pulls ahead of McCain for first time since convention. Palin favorability drops 10 points in three days.

NYT/CBS Poll: Obama +5

[pdf]

Hotline/FD tracking: increases to Obama +3

The momentum of the campaign has shifted to Obama.

"Energy expert" Sarah Palin says Alaska supplies 20% of US energy

Palin claims Alaska "produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy." That's not true.

This lie was repeated by McCain and House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO)

Palin claims her National security qualifications are that she is an energy expert:

"I want you to not lose sight of the fact that energy is a foundation of national security."

Factcheck:

Alaska's share of domestic energy production was 3.5 percent, according to the official figures kept by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. And if by "supply" Palin meant all the energy consumed in the U.S., and not just produced here, then Alaska's production accounted for only 2.4 percent.

McCain spent his career pushing for deregulation - what is now causing America's financial institutions to collapse

John McCain is confused about the economy. As the NYT reported yesterday, John McCain "...is scrambling to adjust" his prior staunch pro-deregulation stance.

He has spent his career as a deregulator:

– “I am a deregulator. I believe in deregulation.” [CNN, 7/13/03]

– “I have a long voting record in support of deregulation.” [St. Petersburg Times, 6/5/03]

Until his comments today calling for more regulation, it seems that John McCain's solution to an era in which financial deregulation set the stage for federal bailouts, rampant speculation, and reckless lending is ... less regulation.

"Our financial market approach should include encouraging increased capital in financial institutions by removing regulatory, accounting and tax impediments to raising capital."

-- John McCain, March 25, 2008

Headline of Phoenix Business Journal, Feb. 6, 2008:

McCain points to support of low taxes, less regulation in wake of Super Tuesday wins

Salon:

Reading McCain's economic agenda and listening to his speech, it appears that the problem with the last eight years is that we haven't seen enough tax breaks for the wealthy, that economic royalism hasn't been pursued with sufficient vigor, and that the middle and working classes haven't been stiffed sufficiently.

McCain wants to extend the Bush tax cuts, which he once opposed as a needless sop to the rich in a time of war.

More on McCain's confused and wavering economic policies: here, here, here

Women's groups endorse Obama

The National Organization for Women (NOW) said Tuesday it had been pushed by the Republicans pick of Sarah Palin as vice presidential nominee to back Democrat Barack Obama for the White House.

The 500,000-strong women's movement, which "very, very rarely endorses in a general election", broke with its tradition of neutrality after "the addition of Sarah Palin gave us a new sense of urgency," said Kim Gandy, NOW head on NPR.

The NOW is the nation's oldest and largest women's rights organization.

Obama was also endorsed by leaders from Business and Professional Women/USA, the National Association of Social Workers, the National Congress of Black Women and the Women's Information Network.

American economics: Republicans are the party that wrecked America

C&L:

John McCain’s long history with bank failures and financial scandals makes him uniquely ‘qualified’ to speak to the current crisis.

McCain blasts Wall Street's failure but neglects to mention his advisor Phil Gramm helped cause it. While chairing the Senate Banking Committee, Republican Sen. Gramm slipped a 262-page bill into a gargantuan, must-pass spending measure. Gramm's legislation, written with the help of financial industry lobbyists, essentially removed newfangled financial products called swaps from any regulation. Credit default swaps have been at the heart of the subprime meltdown because they have enabled large financial institutions to turn risky loans into risky securities that could be packaged and sold to other institutions.

John McSame has the former lobbyists of AIG, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, and Bank of America on his campaign staff. Individuals associated with Merrill Lynch, which sold itself to Bank of America in the market upheaval of the past weekend, have given the McCain campaign nearly $300,000, making them collectively McCain’s largest contributor.

Republican Mike Oxley, the former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee noted that the House passed a bi-partisan bill in 2005 that could well have prevented the current crisis by issuing stronger regulations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but the Bush Administration failed to support the bill:

“All the handwringing and bedwetting is going on without remembering how the House stepped up on this,” he says. “What did we get from the White House? We got a one-finger salute.” […]

What does McCain say about the economy since Bush took office... the American economy that spends nearly a $ trillion in Iraq and has seen it's worst crash since 9/11, possibly since the Great Depression?

"There’s been great progress economically over that period of time... the fundamentals of America's economy are strong"

-- John McCain

Alaskan Baptist minister on Palin's radical theology

"At this point, people in this country don't grasp what this person is all about. The key to understanding Sarah Palin is understanding her radical theology... this person's election would be a disaster for the country and the world."

-- Howard Bess, Baptist Minister in Palmer, Alaska (Wasilla's nearby sister city)

Salon's David Talbot went to the Mat-su valley in Alaska to get the story on Sarah Palin's influence on small town government, and what he found was terrifying. Talbot interviewed a number of community members including Baptist minister Howard Bess, author of one of the books Palin was trying to get banned: "Pastor, I am Gay."

Palin is on a mission from God. She apparently deems those with differing opinions and values as the enemy, as evil.

Salon

"It's truly frightening that someone like Sarah has risen to the national level," Bess said. "Like all religious fundamentalists -- Christian, Jewish, Muslim -- she is a dualist. They view life as an ongoing struggle to the finish between good and evil. Their mind-set is that you do not do business with evil -- you destroy it. Talking with the enemy is not part of their plan. That puts someone like Obama on the side of evil. ... The evangelicals were trying to take over the valley. They took over the school board, the community hospital board, even the local electric utility. And Sarah Palin was in the direct center of all these culture battles, along with the churches she belonged to."

Palin is a confirmed creationist.

Valley resident Philip Munger, says that Palin also helped push the evangelical drive to take over the Mat-Su Borough school board. "She wanted to get people who believed in creationism on the board," said Munger, a music composer and teacher. "I bumped into her once after my band played at a graduation ceremony at the Assembly of God. I said, 'Sarah, how can you believe in creationism -- your father's a science teacher.' And she said, 'We don't have to agree on everything." "I pushed her on the earth's creation, whether it was really less than 7,000 years old and whether dinosaurs and humans walked the earth at the same time. And she said yes, she'd 'seen images somewhere of dinosaur fossils with human footprints in them.'"

Munger also asked Palin if she truly believed in the End of Days, the doomsday scenario when the Messiah will return. "She looked in my eyes and said, 'Yes, I think I will see Jesus come back to earth in my lifetime.'"

Sarah Palin is perhaps the most dangerous politician America has ever seen. No matter how much lipstick you put on this pig, she is a true to life THEOCRAT that will downplay her radical religious convictions in order to appear less threatening to mainstream America. Don't buy it! Sarah Palin represents the American christian version of the Taliban - a woman whose mind is possessed with absolute dogmatic certitude

Neo-con "reporter" with long track record of phony reporting says Obama tried to delay Iraq withdrawl

Unbelievable what these idiots will swallow.

The NY Post is a tabloid on par with the National Enquirer, but not quite as reputable. This report from Amir Taheri will be soon exposed as rubbish since he is a known fabricator with a long history of lies and discredited reporting.

Obama did not in any way try to stall troop withdrawl. Obama instead had warned that any agreement to EXTEND long term troop deployments would have to be approved by the Congress and next President, in order to prevent Bush from committing US troops to Iraq forever. Obama and Iraqi advisers who were there made a full record of the conversation, which was the opposite of what was described in the bogus report.

This bullshit story is making the rounds among wingnut bloggers and has been parroted on TN Free by both Glen Dean and Ned Williams. (credit Glen with a grain of salt!)

Conservatives and the McCain campaign are losing credibility but the minute.

The Straight Talk Express has run into the shitter.

The swiftboats have run amok.

Palin pulls a Cheney: refuses to cooperate with investigation

Following the pattern of Dick Cheney and the Bush Administration, Sarah Palin - the candidate who says she'll help reform Washington, is refusing to cooperate in a legislative investigation into the firing of her public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan. Despite the fact that the five-member legislative committee is composed of three Republicans and two Democrats, Palin is calling the investigation "tainted" and blames Obama - ironic since the McCain campaign has been cited for trying to derail the investigation.

Sarah Palin's husband Todd has been subpeonaed by the committee along with 13 others. Sarah Palin was not subpeonaed because she said she would cooperate. Now she has reneged. The committee may now opt to subpeona Sarah Palin.

Palin has been accused of lying by the fired public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan:

"She's not telling the truth when she told ABC neither she nor her husband pressured me to fire Trooper Wooten," said Walt Monegan, the Alaskan official whose dismissal by Sarah Palin is the focus of a state investigation known as "Troopergate". "And she's not telling the truth to the media about her reasons for firing me."

In an exclusive interview with ABC News.com, former Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan said he resisted pressure by the First Couple to re-open an old case against a state trooper, who was in a hotly contested divorce and custody battle with the Governor's sister Molly.

With the Bush Administration's tradition of secrecy, cronyism, and failure to cooperate with government oversight investigations, we can see the McCain/Palin ticket is getting an early start in carrying on that tradition... the Republican Culture of Corruption.

And Palin has tha balls to say she's a candidate for reform? Ha!

CNN

RS