Crooks and Liars honors the late, great, progressive Senator Paul Wellstone,
(July 21, 1944 – October 25, 2002). This video was made by Senate Democrats last year at this time (h/t Hold Fast).
Open Thread below...
"Never again is what you swore the time before."
From Larry King Live Oct. 24, 2008 the panel of Scott McClellan, Terry Holt, Lars Larson and Christopher Hitchens discussing the Presidential election ,McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate, Iraq, the surge and Palin's fruit fly comment.
Ever since John McCain discovered "Joe the Plumber," he has exalted "small business" owners -- inviting them to announce their professions on signs at rallies -- as the country's only virtuous economic movers.
But now McCain has begun to define the term upward, leaving no mogul or tycoon behind.
On Thursday in Sarasota, Governor Charlie Crist introduced J. Robert Long, the CEO of Marine Concepts as a "small businessman." The man McCain dubbed "Bob the Boat Builder" spent, as Crist noted, most of his career at Wellcraft Marine, which reported revenues of $67 million last year, according to Yahoo! Finance.
At another campaign stop, McCain proxy Lindsay Graham described Cindy McCain as a "small businesswoman," even though Hensley & Co. -- the third largest beer distributorship in the country, is worth some $200 million.
What's next? Bill Gates, the tech guy? Donald Trump, the real estate agent? Jack Welch, the electrician? Rupert Murdoch, the newsboy?
Superb Congressperson Carol Shea-Porter
Texas-10- Early voting, increased Democratic voter registration, a lack of enthusiasm for McCain and for Republicans in general looks like it is turning one of Tom Delay's gerrymandered districts-- a big swatch of eastern and central Texas from Austin to the Houston suburbs-- blue. Larry Joe Doherty is doing an incredible job and Bush rubber stamp Michael McCaul is suddenly waking up to realize he may soon be working for his father-in-law directly. Today's Austin Statesman seems to have detected a bit of the old gloom and doom setting in at McCaul campaign headquarters.
After looking at the early voting turnout-- two to one, Democrat over Repug-- McCaul campaign manager Jack Ladd sent out an e-mail alert to right-wing activists: “This is very bad news. If you think your friends are volunteering, they are not. I know I’m not going to sit down and die, and I know you will not either. There are only 12 days left, and this is not a lifelong commitment, we are asking you just give part of a day or days and help keep CD10 Republican.”
Between the Rick Noriega, Barack Obama and SEIU ground campaigns-- not to mention Larry Joe's own-- McCaul would probably be better off spending the next 12 days in one of the snake-handling churches that support him begging for some of that sky-god intervention Palin is counting on.
New Hampshire-01- None of the freshmen elected in 2006 has been more forthright in battling the special interests and always keeping the interests of working families front and center than Carol Shea-Porter. Unfortunately, Jeb Bradley, the rubber stamp reactionary the voters in eastern New Hampshire decided to replace in 2006, is trying to get his old job back. And there's nothing he won't stoop to to get back to Washington. Right now he's using a poor distraught Gold Star mother to distort Carol's support for the troops and principled opposition to the war. Carol has received the endorsement of the VFW's PAC, and an A+ rating from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. What Bradley is trying to do to her is despicable.
Carol is a military spouse and has been one of the best friends our fighting men and women have in Congress but Bradley is callously manipulating this woman-- apparently driven insane and filled with partisan rage and hatred-- as an attack dog against Carol.
Bradley's corporately funded campaign includes the most vicious and deceitful ads being run by anyone from either party in New England. His ads are entirely based on distortion and outright lies-- like this ugliness. Fortunately New Hampshire is not Alabama and most of the voters there seem to see right through Bradley's slimefest. The two most recent polls-- both in October-- show Carol ahead of him by an average of 7 points. The problem is that Bradley was a 100% corporate shill before Carol banished him from Congress and K Street wants him back-- and right-wing front groups and hate organizations like Freedom's Watch are flooding the district with ads. Carol can really use our help-- and she's earned it.
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From The Colbert Report Oct. 22, 2008
I for one appreciate the McCain campaign treating us like children. McCain will bring us back to a simpler time. A time when you could identify your neighbors' jobs by the hats they wore. Like Sam the Fireman, Bill the Cowboy and Jose the stereotype. These are the people in your neighborhood. The people that you meet when you're walking down the street. They're the people that you meet each day. And what the people in your neighborhood, the Joe the Plumber, the Wendy the Waitress need are tax cuts for the wealthy and off shore drilling. They don't need universal health care or last names.
Jon Stewart looks at who the 24 hour cable channels use to fill up their time slots and asks exactly what their qualifications are for their punditocracy.
With a little creativity or a whole lot of batsh@t insanity, that f@#%ing guy could be you!
There are more Comedy Central videos available at Indecision 08.
Legendary SNLer Will Ferrell returns as George W. Bush to officially endorse John McCain and Sarah Palin.
FERRELL AS BUSH: "Good to see you, John. Hey let's get a photo of this; it'll really help your campaign out. Now let me do this: I, George W. Bush, endorse John McCain and Sarah Palin with all my heart..."
(MCCAIN tries to drift out of frame but is pulled back by BUSH)
FERRELL AS BUSH (cont'd): "John was there for me ninety percent of the time over the last eight years. When you think of John McCain, think of me, George W. Bush. Think of this face. When you're in the voting booth, before you vote – picture this face right here. A vote for John McCain is a vote for George W. Bush.(to MCCAIN) You're welcome. So, I want to be there you, John for the next eight years."FEY AS PALIN –The next sixteen years!
Full transcript below the fold:
I'm sure Michelle Bachmann was hoping that her apology for seeming a little overly McCarthylike the other day would put all the controversy surrounding her remarks to rest so that she could maybe get that party funding back.
Ah, but once the spotlight comes on ...
The Uptake at Huffpo has the video and transcript of her remarks at a primary debate in Minneapolis earlier this year in which she lets the ol' xenophobia out of the bag:
There is a movement afoot that's occurring and part of that is whole philosophical idea of multi-cultural diversity, which on the face sounds wonderful. Let's appreciate and value everyone's cultures. But guess what? Not all cultures are equal. Not all values are equal.
And one thing that we're seeing is that in the midst of this violence that's being encouraged by al Jazeera and by the jihadists that's occurring, is that we are seeing that those who are coming into France -- which had a beautiful culture -- the French culture is actually diminished. It's going away. And just with the population of France they are losing Western Europeans and it's being taken over by muh...by a Muslim ethic. Not that Muslims are bad. But they are not assimilating.
Hmmm. My guess is that she was staying up late reading Mark Steyn.
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But he's just one of the folks, right?
Bill O'Reilly has re-upped with Fox News Channel in a multiyear deal that pays him about $10 million a year to host his top-rated news program, "The O'Reilly Factor."
O'Reilly took a shot at his detractors, saying that if he retired, "I know my friends in the elite media would miss me greatly." Meanwhile, Fox News Channel has been locking up many of its key stars, including O'Reilly, Sean Hannity (who re-signed recently) and anchor Shepard Smith, as well as luring CNN Headline News host Glenn Beck to anchor a 5 p.m. program.
No wonder he hates Obama's economic plan. And no wonder he settled very quickly with Andrea Mackris.
O'Reilly: I have something very important to tell you. All litigation has ceased that has made me the object of media scorn from coast to coast. On a personal note, this matter has caused enormous pain, but I had to protect my family and I did....This brutal ordeal is now over and I will never speak of it again.
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If you're a wingnut attacking Obama for his past ties with other people that's just fine, but when confronted with controversial association on their side and they just say NO. We won't talk about it because it's irrelevant to us. The same Michael Steele that I ran into the airport in Denver moments after McCain picked Palin as his running mate and who said he loved the choice was on Hannity and Colmes and really looked like a fool when confronted with the many screwy and dangerous associations McCain and Palin have made over the years. The segment strayed away from the basis of the segment and became a usual FOX hit job on Obama.
Colmes:...but doesn't it concern you about the links to Saddam Hussein to the McCain campaign? The lobbyists on the McCain campaign, the secessionists Party that Sarah Palin's buddy-buddy with? The fact that they hate America? Doesn't that concern you?
Steele: Who you asking?
Colmes: Michael.
Steele: No.
Colmes: Why Not?
Steele: Because it doesn't. Because you asked the question.
You're concerned about Barack Obama associations but not these.
Steele: You get to the point Alan where you do the tit for tat and the bottom line is whether Sarah Palin did this that or the other thing is irrelevant. Barack Obama has not come out and fully explained or dealt into these issues. That's why we're still talking about them.
Colmes: Neither has the other side but the same standards have to apply.
Steele: The reality of it is, if you're going to raise it then we'll talk about it.
Sarah Palin's ties to the AIP are irrelevant because what, Michael? And he wouldn't answer the question at first. Anyway, I found this little snippet interesting for what it reveals about the Steeles of the Republican Party.
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Oh, the gaffe-a-minute, never-vet-any-campaign-speech joy of the McCain campaign. Sarah Palin debuted both a new set of glasses and a new talking point about the way that the McCain/Palin administration will be smarter about the way government funds important programs:
Where does a lot of that earmark money end up anyway? [snip] You've heard about some of these pet projects they really don't make a whole lot of sense and sometimes these dollars go to projects that have little or nothing to do with the public good. Things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not.
Apparently, Palin isn't aware of the kind of research done with fruit flies. Pharyngula:
This idiot woman, this blind, shortsighted ignoramus, this pretentious clod, mocks basic research and the international research community. You damn well better believe that there is research going on in animal models — what does she expect, that scientists should mutagenize human mothers and chop up baby brains for this work? — and countries like France and Germany and England and Canada and China and India and others are all respected participants in these efforts.
Yes, scientists work on fruit flies. Some of the most powerful tools in genetics and molecular biology are available in fruit flies, and these are animals that are particularly amenable to experimentation. Molecular genetics has revealed that humans share key molecules, the basic developmental toolkit, with all other animals, thanks to our shared evolutionary heritage (something else the wackaloon from Wasilla denies), and that we can use these other organisms to probe the fundamental mechanisms that underlie core processes in the formation of the nervous system — precisely the phenomena Palin claims are so important.
In fact, irony of all ironies, fruit fly research has actually aided in understanding a genetic component or predisposition towards autism.
Watchdog Blog: As U.S. Senator, John McCain helped hide evidence and close the books on Vietnam MIAs, but the mainstream press has refused to touch the story.
Pharyngula: We knew she was dumb as a rock, but this is appalling...
Jon Swift: Great Moments In Election Year Blogging
Southern Beale: Guess who was the highest paid member of the McCain campaign for the first half of October? BTW, is $900 too much for a spray-on tan? (h/t Barney C.)
pandagon: Attention Hollywood Conservatives: Stop with the 'victim' routine. Real victims, like those who were blacklisted during the Red Scare period, had brains, guts, and talent. Besides, one of the key players in the HUAC was notorious red-baiter and Republican, Richard Nixon. Unfortunately, the cooperating president of SAG back in those dark days was a spineless snitch who was more interested in covering his own ass than in standing up to demagogues.
Bob Geiger: The Saturday Cartoons
In LasVegas, videographer Matt Toplikar captured footage of McCain/Palin supporters as they came out from a rally featuring an appearance by Sarah Palin.
One camouflage-capped fellow captures the spirit of the event:
Obama wins, I'm gonna move to Alaska.
... Haven't you ever heard that the United States is gonna be taken down from within? What better way to get taken down from within than haveing the President of the United States be the one that's going to do it?
It seems they became especially aggravated when they encountered anti-McCain protesters outside. The same Alaska-bound supporter started leading a chant in front of them:
Vote McCain, Not Hussein!
Then there's the Pam Atlas wannabee:
This country needs to wake up! Obama is dangerous! This man is a tyrant to this country. I mean, he has connections to Arabs! His education was paid for by Arabs! He's an abomination.
And of course, the obligatory racist:
Don't be afraid of me! Be afraid of Obama! Obama bin Laden, that's what you should be afraid of!
... Yes, I am a racist. If you consider me a racist, well [unintelligible]. Those Arabs are dirtbags. They're dirty people, they hate Americans, they hate my kids, they hate my grandkids. And people like him [points to another supporter], more power to them.
McCain and Palin have somewhat ratcheted back their rhetoric, but the fuse has been lit.
Faced with overwhelming condemnation and the NRCC basically dumping her campaign after her appearance on Hardball where she suggested that Barack Obama was anti-American and that the press should do an expose to see whether Democrats hold pro- or anti-America attitude, Bachmann taped what was billed as an "apology" ad.
The resulting ad? Not so much of an apology.
I don't always get my words right, but I know my heart is right...
Meh. That's not an apology as far as I'm concerned. Further, it doesn't square with her own reaction to the blowback from her appearance. First, she claimed she never said it. But she then did a 180 and re-asserted Obama’s views were anti-American. Then, after her Democratic rival Elwyn Tinklenberg raised $1.4 million from Americans disgusted by her neo-McCarthyism, she tried to fundraise off her outrage at Matthews and liberal blogs for twisting her words.
And then this...it doesn't come close to actually apologizing. Clearly, she didn't want to repeat what she said, but polls are showing a significant slippage in her approval:
Nearly four of 10 likely voters in the Sixth Congressional District say they are less likely to support Rep. Michele Bachmann because of her comments about Barack Obama and Congress.[..]
Overall, the poll found that voters favored Tinklenberg over Bachmann 45 percent to 43 percent, with 5 percent supporting Independence Party candidate Bob Anderson. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.7 percentage points.
Does she honestly think this will help? *snort* Of course, it won't stop the NRCC from raising money off Bachmann, even as they've cast her out.
