Briefs

"Rod Blagojevich was the first Democrat to be elected governor of Illinois in 30 years, a distinction he proceeded to totally crap all over by continually failing to pass legislation and budgets, making many political enemies (even in his own party), committing federal and state crimes, wearing a ridiculous side-part in some seriously bouffant hair, and, in October 2008, earning the title “America’s Least Popular Governor.” All that before he got arrested."

-Dickipedia

CHICAGO, Ill. - Arguably the biggest blue dick in politics has defied virtually everyone by naming a replacement for Barack Obama in the United States Senate. Illinois governor Rod "Rod" Blagojevich, who was arrested earlier this month for conspiring to sell President-Elect Obama's recently vacated Senate seat to the highest bidder, has named some guy that gave him a lot of money Roland Burris to the job.

After being released on bond, the governor returned to business as usual, refusing to resign his position as governor despite pressure from the entire U.S. Senate, virtually every politician at every level in the state of Illinois, President-Elect Obama himself, and roughly 12,500,000 people who happen to live in Illinois proper, 1.8 million of whom, for some unfathomable reason, voted for this incredible douchebag. Senate majority leader Harry Reid has stated that the Democratic Caucus will not seat anyone who is appointed by Mr. Blagojevich. He reiterated this sentiment in a statement released today shortly after the governor's announcement.

President-Elect Obama who is vacationing in his native Hawaii this week has not commented personally on the appointment as of this writing.

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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories - Israel and the Hamas led government of the Palestinian National Authority are engaged in a bloody conflict near the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip. In other news, water is wet.

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PALMER, Alaska - MSNBC is reporting that Bristol Palin, daughter of failed vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, and her baby-daddy have been offered $300,000 for first dibs on pictures of their newborn son, Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston.

That this is possible has led this editorialist to consider travel to the aforementioned Gaza Strip, stepping into the lobby of a Hamas government building and placing a colorful yarmulka on my head. My guess is that I'll last around 14 seconds before being reunited with my dead relatives - a comforting alternative to a world where Mr. & Mrs. Levi Johnston can earn more than 10 times the annual income of the average American family solely for a set of pictures of their erroneous love-spawn, an oven-bun no one gave a shit about until Bristol's fuckwit mother was named "Number Two" on John McCain's presidential ticket.

Who says underage pre-marital intercourse sans wood-hood isn't a rewarding experience?


Flesh Fedora sez:
"For 300G, leave the package-protector at home!"

Briefs

WASHINGTON D.C. - The people of Michigan would like to send a collective thanks (read: go fuck yourself) to Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) who effectively killed the automaker bailout bill this week. It looks like Chapter 11 is looming large over eastern Michigan.

G.M. confirmed that it had legal advisors -- including Harvey R. Miller of the firm Weil Gotshal & Manges -- to consider a possible bankruptcy, which the company until now has said would be cataclysmic not just for G.M. but for Chrysler and Ford as well. The rescue plan approved by the House on Wednesday by a vote of 237 to 170 would have extended $14 billion in loans to the troubled automakers and required them to submit to broad government oversight directed by a car czar to be named by [President] Bush.

It's not that I think that these bailouts are a good thing. I really don't. A bailout with oversight, however, is certainly a better thing than watching a major American industry get buried six feet under. One has to consider that the feds were chomping at the bit to pass a $700 Billion bailout for the corrupt financial institutions of Wall Street in New York not two months ago. Now, as Detroit looks forward to cataclysmic failure, there appears to be nothing our friends in Washington can do for us.

So it goes.

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MOSCOW, Russian Federation - A Russian entrepreneur, Oleg Teterin, has trademarked the "wink" emoticon with the federal patent agency in Russia.

"I want to highlight that this is only directed at corporations, companies that are trying to make a profit without the permission of the trademark holder," he said in comments to NTV.

Companies will be sent legal warnings if they use the symbol without his permission, he said.

"Legal use will be possible after buying an annual license from us," he was quoted by Kommersant as saying. "It won't cost that much - tens of thousands of dollars."

He also said since other similar emoticons - :-) or ;) or :) - resemble the one he has trademarked, use of those symbols could also fall under his ownership.

Other Russian Internet entrepreneurs reacted to the effort predictably - >:(

"Imagine the next wise-guy who trademarks the 33 letters of the Russian alphabet and then says anyone who uses the Russian alphabet has to send him money. It's absurd," Alexander Manis, the director of a broadband internet and mobile company, told NTV.

Oleg Teterin, proving to the world that Russian businessmen can be just as nauseatingly prickish as any other businessmen.

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ANDERSON, Calif. - Finger lickin' gross.

Three female KFC employees have been axed by the Colonel for bathing in the sink of the restaurant in Anderson. Predictably, news outlets around the world have had some fun with this. Here are a few of the headlines:

KFC Workers Bathing in Bathtub Get Pink Slip from the Colonel
-The Cleveland Ledger

Finger Lickin' Frolics
-The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia)



Myspace, Panties and Bras = Fired
-The Post Chronicle

Three KFC Employees in Hot Water After Dip in Restaurant's Sink
-Redding Record-Searchlight (Calif.)

Yuk.

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Finally, there has been more "controversy" surrounding Jennifer Aniston's most recent foray into quasi-nakedness on the cover of this month's GQ magazine.



Several years ago, the same Jennifer Aniston appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine sans vêtements.



(That one actually is pretty hot)

The only people who are concerned about this are media outlets trying to stir up controversy, and people who voted for John McCain. Neither group really matters much in the scheme of things.

Be thankful, though. Readers of a certain age group will recall the following and be relieved that the former doesn't, in any way, resemble John Lennon.



Srsly.

Trophy Vice Goes Home

Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska has reached out to President-elect Obama's transition team to indicate her interest in being named "ambassador to the nation of Africa," the governor confirmed today.

Gov. Palin said that although she had planned to continue in her position in Anchorage, she was willing to leave the governorship "because Africa is just such a darned important country."

Andy Borowitz, The Borowitz Report

Nine weeks ago, Caribou Barbie flew down to the lower 48 to effectively destroy any hopes John McCain may have once had of being President of the United States.

Someone in McCain's campaign, perhaps even Johnnie Mac himself, thought it would be an excellent idea, now that Hillary was out of the picture, to produce a woman for the important position of vice-president. This is, of course, an honorable thing to do. Women, after all, make up more than 50% of the nation's population and, to date, haven't been represented by one of their own even once as one of the top two ranking individuals of the executive branch.

0-91 is a pretty crappy record for women in the White House.

Anyhoo, the Johnnie Mac Shack decided that a woman would be a good idea. There are lots and lots of excellent & highly qualified female Republicans who would be a top-notch asset to a McCain candidacy and a McCain administration.

All but five of the nation's vice-presidents have served in congress or as a senator or governor, so going with that, there are dozens of great choices. Snowe (ME), Hutchinson (TX), Musgrave (CO), Moore-Capito (WV), Lingle (HI), Rell (CT). All are smart and experienced women who would, if necessary, be satisfactory presidents.

But then there's the little known governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. Elected in November 2006, Palin was, prior to being governor, the mayor of Wasilla, AK (pop. 6600), and served on an energy board. She had been out of the United States (not including the neighboring Yukon Territory of Canada) once. She attended four different colleges as an undergraduate, finally graduating in 1987 with a communications major from the University of Idaho.

So, after spending a dozen or more months slamming Barack Obama, the man who would become the Democratic candidate for president, on his experience in relation to qualifying for the top job, the McCain campaign rolls out Sarah Palin to the collective, slack-jawed American electorate.

They tried to paint her as the everyday "hockey-mom" from a small state who would ostensibly represent the average joe. She was way over on the far right of issues involving religion and women's rights, and gun ownership and all that. The problem, as it turned out, was that she...well...isn't very bright when it comes to complex domestic and international issues regarding the safety and security of this nation.

During the few times she was allowed to talk to the media, she said jaw-droppingly stupid things. She didn't understand civics, she didn't understand geography or international diplomacy, she made startlingly inane statements regarding Russia, the job of the vice-president, and on and on. She was punk'd by a couple of morning radio jocks in Montréal who called her up and convinced her that she was talking to Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of France. From a $150,000 wardrobe (more than the average family spends on clothing in 80 years), to revelations that the Alaskan governor was, perhaps, just as ignorant as she led on, the McCain campaign became overwhelmed with damage-control.

In the end, of course, McCain lost, and he lost big. Today, three full days after the election, the campaign is boisterously blaming Palin for killing the campaign.

So who's fault is that? Palin's?

I think not.

Sarah Palin is Sarah Palin, for better or for worse. It was the job of John McCain and his campaign to properly vet and pre-qualify a potential vice-presidential candidate prior to that candidate being rolled out. The campaign should know, inside and out, without any doubt, what that candidate is all about. It should know exactly what the candidate knows, her background, what she's said, whether he or she has been unfaithful to their spouse, whether they've done drugs, if there are any "sex-tapes" floating around. All of these things have to be uncovered BEFORE the candidate is chosen and unveiled to the electorate.

So to all of the McCain/Palin staffers who are out there flinging mud at Sarah Palin: It's not her fault that she is who she is. It's your fault for not knowing it.

Obama.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Election Night Liveblog

11:00pm: Obama. Has. Won.

10:10pm: It's now mathematically impossible for John McCain to win this election. The west coast will push Obama over the top at 11:00pm when their polls close.

9:35pm: CNN has called Ohio for Obama. This thing's over. Barack Obama is going to be the next President of the United States.

9:20pm: Several red states have been called: Georgia (15), Arkansas (6), Kansas, (6), Oklahoma (7) and West Virginia (5).

9:00pm: It's the 9pm blitz! Obama: Rhode Island (4), Michigan (17), Wisconsin (10), Minnesota (10), New York (31). McCain: Wyoming (3), North Dakota (3).

174/49

8:55pm: Alabama (9) goes to McCain.

8:50pm: Kay Hagen has defeated Elizabeth Dole for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina. Another huge pickup for the Dems in the Senate race.

8:40pm: CNN has called Pennsylvania (21) for Obama. This is a huge win for the Blues. This win makes McCains road to 270 considerably more difficult.

8:30pm: New Hampshire (4) for Obama. CNN is navigating the most complicated voter categorization setup I've ever seen.



8:20pm: Several Senate seats have been called, but no pickups beyond Virginia. The Senate numbers are up to 45/29.

8:05pm: MSNBC has called Pennsylvania (21) for Obama. CNN just announced that they don't have enough information to call PA yet.

8:00pm: The big 8pm projection blitz! Obama: Massachusetts (12), Illinois (21), Connecticut (7), New Jersey (15), Maine (4), Delaware (3), Maryland (10), DC (3). McCain: Oklahoma (7), Tennessee (11).

Running tally: Obama: 77 McCain 34

7:55pm: 15 states and the District close in five minutes. Every time Campbell Brown speaks, she warns us not to pay any attention to what she's saying cuz it's too early. 2000 and 2004 scared the &#%$ out of the news networks.

7:50pm: FOX and CBS have called West Virginia (5) for McCain, MSNBC is calling South Carolina (8) for McCain. The national popular vote favors Obama 54% to 46% with just under 4 Million votes reported.

7:45pm: Pictures from Grant Park in Chicago are amazing. Obama is holding a rally there tonight where he will either accept the concession of John McCain, or concede himself in the event of an upset. The numbers are expected to top 1,000,000 people there tonight. There are tens of thousands of there already.

7:30pm: North Carolina, West Virginia and Ohio are now closed. None have been projected. Indiana's numbers are coming in, and the county-by-county map is fascinating. In 2004, John Kerry carried just four counties in the state - Monroe, Marion, Lake and LaPorte. The map tonight has Obama leading in 11 counties already and the numbers are very tight - shifting back and forth between the candidates as the numbers roll in. It should be noted that Lake County, IN, which is suburban Chicago, has not yet reported. Lake County is expected to go strong for Obama.

Governor Mitch Daniels (R) of Indiana has been called as the winner in the governor's race there. Mark Warner (D) has also been called as the winner in the Virginia senate race which marks the first pickup for the Dems in the Senate.

7:15pm: CNN just "beamed" Jessica Yellin in from Chicago and stood her image there in New York like something out of Star Trek. Wolf Blitzer will hereon be referred to as "Captain Wolf".

7:00pm: CNN has called Vermont (3) for Obama and Kentucky (8) for McCain. Polls have also closed in Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, New Hampshire, the portion of Florida in the eastern time zone, and the rest of Indiana.

6:30pm: Good evening from Times headquarters in Grand Rapids, Michigan! We've been following the developments throughout the day and the big story everywhere is turnout. All across the country the lines have been long, but the voters appear generally good-spirited while they wait upwards of four or five hours in some places to cast their ballots.

The polls have closed in parts of Indiana and Kentucky. The areas of both states that are in the central time zone of those two states close at 7:00pm. Some numbers have rolled in from both Indiana and Kentucky at the time of this writing. With approximately 1% of precincts reporting, Obama holds a tight lead in Indiana and trails McCain in Kentucky. These numbers mean essentially nothing, however, especially in Indiana where suburban Chicago counties fall in the Central Time zone.

We've been watching CNN's high-definition coverage. Thankfully there's no EKG reading on the bottom of the screen telling me what 30 lunkheads in the Midwest think about the election results. They do, however, have about 65 pundits all crammed together with laptops at several different round tables.

James Carville is one of the most comical men I've ever seen.

The night rolls onward.

The final projections from FiveThirtyEight.com are showing Obama with a landslide victory on the electoral college at 348.6 to McCain's 189.4. They are also projecting Obama's likelihood of an overall win at 98.9%. This is all good news for those of us that suffered the results of the last two general elections.

So far it seems as though the major networks are being very cautious in their use of the "exit poll" data. This is good.

Wolf Blitzer is talking to a holographic lady in the "Election Center." Most of the nation can't seem to figure out how to run voting precincts with any efficiency, and Blitzer's talking to a freakin' hologram.

T-Minus...

I...know that from years of Corporatists and fundamentalists turning the word "liberal" into a code word for gays and hippies and commies you think that blue staters all want to corrupt our country and have people marrying dogs and smoking crack and burning Christmas trees. Here's the real truth we're pretty much just like you. We really, truly are.

-Adam McKay

With the exception of Sarah Palin. Oh...and that cat who dressed up like Lincoln at the RNCC. We're nothing like those crackheads. Seriously.

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It's almost over.

The 2008 presidential election that started in 2006 comes to a conclusion tomorrow when, over the course of 19 hours, Americans from Maine to Hawaii will be casting their votes for United States President as well as scores of other federal, state and local leaders. We'll also be voting on a variety of propositions ranging from gay marriage to stem cell research to the fair treatment of farm animals.

It's a pretty important day.



Brack Obama will be in Chicago, Illinois, John McCain will be in Phoenix, Arizona, Joe Biden will be in Wilmington, Delaware and Sarah Palin will be in Wasilla, Alaska. All will be voting in their home districts. Obama has a rally scheduled at Grant Park in Chicago Tuesday night and John McCain has a scheduled event at the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix. McCain has announced, however, that he will not be addressing the crowd in person, but will be making a statement to the press at an undisclosed location outside the Biltmore at some point Tuesday night. Obama has announced that he will speak directly to his supporters in Grant Park.

All national polls show Obama with a sizable lead, all with the exception of one are beyond the margin of error. John McCain will have to turn several states that are leaning hard blue to his side in order to win the general election.

FiveThirtyEight.com has everything you need to know about the national poll numbers.

I'll be liveblogging throughout the night, starting at 7:00pm when the polls close in Virginia, Georgia, parts of New Hampshire and the portion of Florida that is in the eastern time zone. The portions of Indiana and Kentucky that are in the eastern time zone close at 6:00pm, but I don't expect too much information to come out of those states until the polls close statewide at 7:00pm.

Get some sleep tonight, friends. It's going to be a long day tomorrow.

Mellencamp Calls for Change

"I've seen a lot of small towns, and now I'm seeing small towns across America dying, folks losing their jobs and their homes. Eight years of George Bush has really hurt, and John McCain is just more of the same...I'm proud to support Barack Obama, because whether you live in a small town or a big city, it's time for a change."

-John Mellencamp

I grew up in a house just up the road from John Mellencamp in Bloomington, Indiana, and graduated high-school with his daughter, Michelle. John was probably our most famous local citizen at the time (Bobby Knight notwithstanding). He was (and is) a lot of things, but he cannot be described accurately as stupid under any circumstances. He's always been someone who speaks openly for the average joe in Indiana and across America. I'm pleased to see that he has predictably made the right decision by endorsing Barack Obama for president.

Mr. Mellencamp makes a lot of money - he's a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter who has released 20 albums in 32 years. 10 of those albums have been certified platinum and an additional three have been certified gold. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.

John will pay more taxes under Obama than under McCain, but as an ardent populist, he clearly understands that it's not unreasonable to expect those who make more money to pay more in taxes rather than the other way around. He also realizes that even under Obama's tax plan he will pay less tax as a percentage of his income than the average middle-class family.

It's wonderful to see a "heartland" singer-songwriter who understands the plight of his neighbors and many of his fans who have felt the pain of decades of failed trickle-down policy. Mellencamp hasn't let fame and fortune change who he is as his core, and that's an Indiana-born, small-town guy.

John Mellencamp is true American through and through.

Rethinking the American Electorate after an Obama Victory

Columnist Lincoln Mitchell:

The American left...will have to do the most intriguing and challenging rethinking of basic assumptions when Obama wins. For years now a central piece of the progressive worldview is that progressives are enlightened Americans in a sea of their ignorant, bigoted and narrow-minded compatriots. If you don't believe my assertion, see how many times in the comments section of a progressive blog, Americans voters are referred to as ignorant or uninformed, or eavesdrop at any progressive coffee shop or other hangout. Opposition to progressive causes is often explained away by saying that Americans are bigots, or somehow stupid. This demonstrates an ugly contempt for voters, and in fact for democracy, that should have no place in progressive politics.

Nonetheless, this feeling of specialness is a central part of progressive identity for many. For example, the tone often used to express disbelief that Obama could win, particularly early in this campaign, was often a mixture of anger with racism and a sense of self-righteousness from the speaker for being above that racism.

November 4th will almost certainly show these beliefs to be the nonsense that they are. After November 4th, whenever somebody belittles the intelligence or tolerance of the American voter the proper response will be "What about when we elected Barack Obama?" I hope for many this will be understood to be a sign that American voters can be more progressive, enlightened and thoughtful than had previously been believed. Obama will win because willingness to vote for somebody who looks different, and whose name sounds unusual, simply because he is the best candidate, is no longer the province of elites or an educated minority. This may cause progressives to rethink much of what they thought they knew about America, but it seems a small price to pay for an Obama presidency.

I'm not on board with Mitchell's assertion that we, as progressives, blindly view ourselves as better than the conservative right.


I am one of the "coffee shop" progressives that Mr. Mitchell references. I think that the notion that we are all believers in the assumption of right-wing stupidity and/or racism is overly simplistic. I don't think them "stupid" or racist in general terms. Some may be, but that's not the majority by any means. What I see is a Republican party that has proven it is not interested in "Joe the Plumber" or "John the Lutheran" or any other common low or middle-class American for any purpose other than a vote.

With this in mind, I see so-called "right-wingers" voting for candidates belonging to a party that says one thing and does something completely different. A party that promises to promote conservative policy or social agendas, but in actuality does little or nothing in regard to those promises. It has been the policy of today's Republican party to enrich themselves and their corporate "sponsors" at the expense of the very people they lied to in order to gain their vote.

An Obama victory doesn't change any of that. It just means that a small percentage of the electorate in the middle moved to the left for this particular election cycle and voted for Obama.

This coffee-shop progressive doesn't think the right-wing is stupid as a whole. I just think that a great many Americans on the right are generally uninformed as to who and what they're REALLY voting for.
About Barack Obama

Stick a fork in him...

Last night Johnny Mac proclaimed that Governor Sarah "knows more about autism than any other American I know."

John has flung plenty of fecal matter at my person over the course of the campaign, and for the most part I've grown numb to it. It's a law of nature - Dogs don't like cats, cats like mice...a lot, the sky is blue, John McCain's campaign lies like a pedophile in front of a parole board.

When he floated the autism thing, though, I was forced to tighten my jaw, wipe the drool off of my chin and actually listen to what the old white guy was saying.

My backside tightened when I heard the Mac Daddy use the words "knows", "more", "about" and "autism" in the same sentence as "Sarah" and "Palin".

If you were to believe McCain, Palin is the finest and most admirable woman on Earth and she knows everything about anything.

If you were to do a little research on Palin, however, you'd come full-circle to that whole pedophile-parole board analogy I mentioned earlier. So when he threw autism into the ring, I immediately dropped a few choice expletives.



You see, my 5-year old daughter is high-functioning autistic & was diagnosed as such earlier this year. You may think you know a lot about autism, but unless you are actually the parent of an autistic child or have spent thousands of hours studying and spending time with autistic children, I dare say you shan't profess an expertise of the same.

Making autism a political "hot issue" is one thing, but making autism a bullshit political issue is quite another. So when the distinguished Senator from Arizona proclaims that his hapless running mate knows more about autism than any American he knows, this suggests that he's viciously lying and playing this horrible disorder for political gain, or that he hasn't met too many Americans.

I suspect the former.

Janet Grillo:

McCain claims his regime will support research for a cure. Yet he also wants to freeze government spending. He claims he will advocate for families. Yet his health care policy offers a $5000 tax deduction, which Americans can put towards purchasing coverage. Any parent with a child on the spectrum knows just how little $5000 buys you. Services to support my [autistic] son's development (outside of, and in addition to, tuition at publicly funded Special Ed day programs) easily runs past $90,000 per year. Thank God that California state-funded regional center services have absorbed the lion's share of those costs. But, as everyone knows, California is now bankrupt. Those services have been frozen. Children and parents are floundering. McCain proclaims to be a "Federalist." As often as possible, he would have individual states determine the welfare of their denizens versus Washington D.C.. If ever there were a time for the federal government to rise to the occasion of serving the needs of our people, it is this national epidemic. Twelve years ago, the rate was one in 10,000. Today (according to the NEH), it is 1 in 150. States cannot, and should not, be expected to sustain the demands this crisis presents.

Tonight, Senator Obama told us that every autism advocate he has met, stresses the urgent need to increase funding for medical research. He was right to tell the American people that this essential work will cost money. As a former board member of Cure Autism Now foundation, one of the first parent driven organizations to fund and grow bonafide, university based research, I attest to that. Piece meal tax rebates will not cover health costs for our families, as they contend with this lifelong neurological disability. Tonight, John McCain told us that Governor Palin "knows more about autism than any other American I know." Perhaps he should get out more.

I've spent the last four days straight at DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan with my daughter who landed here as a result of her condition. Mr. McCain's pathetic attempt to shine a light on the disgraceful Sarah Palin by using autism as a lever makes me physically ill, and if I had any doubt that he's shed all semblance of dignity that he may have once had, that doubt was wiped clean during last night's debate.

Keith Olbermann Special Comment - 13 Oct 08

1:25 PM Eastern Time, today, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. During the warm-up act by a Red Meat Congressional Candidate aptly named Chris Hackett, Hackett mentions Obama and a Palin audience member shouts "Kill Him."

And Gov. Palin, as usual, does nothing about it says nothing to these thugs and psychos. She may not have heard this one. It is impossible to believe that by now she has not heard about the other ones. Her silence is deafening. Just as, Sen. McCain, you have done nothing when violence has been asserted. Correction. You have done one thing.

Asked why in real time you do not repudiate this hatefulness you act as if you are the victim. Speaking today to our NBC Station in Washington.

McCain: "Sure and I repudiated it as I have on several occasions. Unfortunately, Congressman John Lewis is an American hero who I admire who made the worst, most unacceptable statement a couple days ago that I have ever heard. He accused me and Sarah Palin of being involved in segregation, George Wallace and even made reference to a church bombing where children were killed. Senator Obama has not repudiated that statement. Senator Obama should do so immediately. Its the most outrageous thing that I have heard since in politics...it is disgraceful."

Disgraceful?

Obviously, Senator, you haven't heard your own speeches, and Gov. Palin's, and what people shout during them. And you haven't heard your state GOP Chair in Virginia, Jeffrey Frederick, giving talking points to 30 of your field-operatives heading out to canvass voters in Gainesville, Virginia. With a reporter present, telling them to try to forge a connection between Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden to emphasize bombings and terrorism. And you haven't heard those volunteers, your volunteers Sen. McCain, shout back "and he won't salute the flag" and "we don't even know where Sen. Obama was really born."

Sen. McCain, these people are speaking for you! And how dare you try to claim Congressman Lewis was linking you to Gov. George Wallace's segregation. He was linking you, aptly, to Gov. George Wallace's lynch-mob mentality.

"As public figures with the power to influence and persuade," said Congressman Lewis, "Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all."

Sen. McCain, your supporters, at your events, are calling Obama a terrorist and traitor and are calling for him to be killed. And yet you keep bringing back these same rabid Right Wing nuts to deliberately stir these crowds into frenzies. And then you take offense when somebody who remembers the violence in our political past, calls you on it. You, sir, are responsible for a phalanx of individuals who are shouting fire in a crowded theatre. There are some things to respect and honor about you, Sen. McCain.

But on this, you're not only a fraud, Senator but you are tacitly inciting lunatics to violence. If you want to again grand-stand and suspend your campaign here's your big chance. Suspend your campaign now, until you, or somebody else, gets some control over it and it ceases to be a clear and present danger to the peace of this nation.

California's Proposition 8

ELIMINATES RIGHT OF SAME-SEX COUPLES TO MARRY. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. Changes the California Constitution to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry in California. Provides that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. Fiscal Impact: Over next few years, potential revenue loss, mainly sales taxes, totaling in the several tens of millions of dollars, to state and local governments. In the long run, likely little fiscal impact on state and local governments.

I grew up with a particular fella back in Indiana who is gay. David (the aforementioned) and I were fortunate to live in a pretty progressive environment. Bloomington, our home town, is home to Indiana University and an accepting culture for people who aren't necessarily straight, Christian & white. Dave was well liked and accepted by the vast majority of kids at our high school and few people thought much, or opined, about the fact that he was gay (I'm not sure if Dave was "out of the closet" or not in high school, but it was reasonably apparent that he was, in fact, into dudes).

Dave lives in California now & is married - to another man. When I heard this I wasn't surprised, nor was I concerned. I was actually happy that he had found happiness with someone.

Oh, and they have a son.

OK? OK.

Well, there are still quite a few people out there who are ~uncomfortable~ with this arrangement. Their usual claim revolves around either Jesus or "our children".

A few of these uncomfortable sorts came up with the above initiative, known as Proposition 8 in California. Some of the "uncomfortables" who support it include 20 politicians (all Republican, of course), the Catholics, the Orthodox Jews, the Mormons, a variety of groups with "family" in their title" and, of course, John McCain.

Opponents include Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a plethora of politicians both Democratic and Republican, all of the major newspapers in California, the League of Women Voters, the Episcopal Church, Google (!), a variety of Jewish groups, and our own Barack Obama.

Allow me to opine on behalf of the Spooner Street Times.

Bigots are generally not wont to openly admit that their beliefs are, in fact, bigoted and hate-filled. Exceptions are made for organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan that, although not with fit with the stones to show their faces, seem to not have a problem admitting that they hate people who aren't like them. Bigots generally hide behind religion and/or my children in order to purvey their hate to the world. The lead line on protectmarriage.com, the primary collection of endorsers of the proposition, is "Restoring Marriage & Protecting California Children".

Really?

Protecting California's children from what exactly? Catching "the gay"? From seeing for themselves that there are people in the world who see things differently from them or, more specifically, from their parents? From seeing that people can love one another regardless of their genitalia? From the "unholy" things that occur in the "gay" bedroom?

Well, guess what Junior...I've got ten bucks that says daddy wants anal from mommy, or more likely wants anal from mommy's friend Jenny. There's even a reasonable probability that the daddy who's big into anti-gay propositions like this one wants anal from daddy's friend Jimmy, too.

People are flawed regardless of what they like to do in the bedroom. Singling out a group of people as unworthy of certain rights because of their preferences in the bedroom is senseless and amounts to nothing more than hate thinly veiled as "protecting our kids" from the evil gays. Homosexual people are just as likely (or more so) to be good parents as heterosexual people. Homosexual parents know the pain of bigotry and hate and are more likely to raise children who are tolerant and understanding of all people regardless of their personal beliefs or classification in specific demographics.

Oh, and Jesus? Jesus wasn't a hater. The people who wrote his words some 400 years after his death may have been haters, but I'm pretty confident that Jesus of Nazareth didn't take exception to certain people because of their ~preferences~ regarding who specifically they liked to cuddle with. Hiding one's own hate behind Jesus, or anyone else for that matter, is pretty lame.

Srsly.

No on 8.

7 Questions for Interviewers of McCain and Obama

I think many excellent concepts and ideas have become "bad things" because when they have been on the platform of progressives over the years, they've been demonized by the opposing party. As we've all seen, when the conservatives don't have anything to run on, they demonize the platform of their opponents, and as long as they keep saying it over and over and over again (liberal=bad, liberal=bad, liberal=bad & on and on...liberals must be bad?) people will start buying into it (liberalism is bad! Socialism is un-American!).



Scores of excellent ideas have become politicized into being bad ideas as a result of a political party that isn't interested in the well being of their constituents, but are very interested in being elected/re-elected at all costs. These types of political games, coupled with a "fourth estate" that doesn't properly question them, result in a dangerous cultural downward spiral that hurts all of us.
About Wall Street Crisis
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

John McCain (D-AZ), Sarah Palin, (D-AK)

McCain pulled out of Michigan last week as you all know. Since then there's been some ~*question*~ as to whether that claim is actually true. Sen. Obama holds a 53-44 lead here in Michigan as of this writing and the momentum is in his favor.

Sen. McCain, however, hasn't given up on us yet. His new strategy here is apparently to be a Democrat according to a mailer that my mom (who passed away last winter) received this afternoon.






There are a few interesting things to note about this mailer.

• It's almost complete B.S.


• Who's running for president here, McCain or Palin? The mailer focuses largely on Palin and the photographs feature her more prominently than McCain. Who thinks it's a good idea to put the mutton headed newcomer up front in this campaign. Is John McCain really that unappealing to voters?


• No one who is against abortion even in cases of rape and incest is going to be on board for expanding stem-cell research. That claim is just complete bunk.


• It'll be a lot easier to fight wasteful spending now that the Republicans have effectively wiped out the economy...although they're also excellent at deficit spending, so forget I said anything.


• Palin "voted from the center?" Well, if that's true, kudos to USA Today for finding something that Palin isn't hard-right extremist on. Jeers to the same if they didn't point out her massively anti-populist views on virtually everything else.


• The people of Michigan may be down on our luck, but we're not abjectly stupid. We know who the Democrat is in this election and we know who the Republican is. Painting the Palin/McCain ticket as anything but Bush Round III with the addition of a veep even more scary and dangerous than Dick Cheney is pure dirge.


• Speaking of dirge, "Change is coming." is the Republican's swan song. When Barack Obama is sworn in on January 20th, change will come, and not a moment too soon.

I wonder if Palin's campaign is going to keep sinking cash into states like Michigan that are 9+ points ahead in the polls with 24 days to go. Heck, if they're into wasting money, they should start sending this drivel to California and D.C. - even people in the district, where Obama is 60 points ahead, need crap like this to keep their landfills growing.

595 hours until the polls open on the east coast.

Wake up, Pinkie, the ship's going down...

OK, so after a short vacation and a brief period with no internet (!), I've returned from the 1980s & being forced to get my news from the ~*shudder*~ television for five days.


A family of bigots opine in Tennessee on debate night.
The girl in the middle appears to be doing everything she can
to hide her face. Methinks she's not really into the hatespeech thing
and when she finally gets to move out of the house she'll never call
and her parents won't be able to figure out why.

In the United States, you're free to be a complete imbecile. I know it's not politically correct to call reds stupid, but when it came to the Bush presidency & McCain's disastrous campaign, their supporters almost have to be either greedy, intellectually lazy, completely uninformed, or just plain stupid. It's all I can come up with.

Thankfully, many people are coming around, however, and are beginning to see how badly we've been had by the reds. Things in the United States are as bad for the average joe as they've been since the end of the Great Depression, and the vast majority of this is because of crappy leadership on the part of Republicans. Their disastrous trickle-down economics and support of sickening policies like the Bush Doctrine have landed us on the downward spiral we're now on.

We finally have a candidate for president that is intelligent, poised, and has seen life from the perspective of the downtrodden. He's had endless opportunities to take advantage of his positions of power to reap millions of dollars from the system, but instead he's fought for the people he represents while remaining reasonably humble in his lifestyle.

Thank jeebus for our guy. We may be able to get out of this mess yet.

Out with the old news, in with the really expensive

[Joe Biden] looked so overwhelmingly competent that it changed my mind about his strategy. He single-handedly accomplished the Obama-Biden campaign goal of setting the American voters' minds at ease. These guys are going to take us in the right direction. The country is safe in their hands.

-Cenk Uygur, The Young Turks

The Sarah Show is over, and its time to get back to our regularly scheduled presidential election already in progress.

The vice presidential debate last night went spectacularly for Joe Biden. He stayed on point, he answered the questions in a pointed and intelligent manner, he didn't get suckered into bickering with a combative Sarah Palin - he simply showed the country why he will make an exceptional vice president. Joe Biden came across as a decent, knowledgeable and empathetic figure who effectively neutralized Palin's attempted charm the audience by charming the audience himself (let it be known, also, that as Palin's famous Alask-clan flooded the stage at the end of the debate for the all important "image shot", Biden completely negated the Republican photo-op with the influx of his own crew who immediately mixed themselves into the Palin camp like garbanzo beans in a tossed salad - beautiful).

As expected, the right-wing pundits loved Palin, who did better than expected insomuch as she didn't say anything tremendously stupid, she spat out an endless stream of memorized talking points and there were no uncomfortable "moose-in-the-headlights" moments. Her performance will continue to play well with them and with the hard-core right, but let's be honest here - McCain's campaign could have gone up there and leaned a 5'7" cardboard cutout of Palin up against the lectern and the right-wing would have been in ecstasy. They don't care what she said (or didn't say).

In the real world, the numbers went to Biden.

CBS:

Forty-six percent of [473] uncommitted viewers said Biden won the debate Thursday night, while 21 percent said Palin won. Thirty-three percent thought it was a tie.

Sam Stein reports:

During the course of the debate, CNN was running a viewer response line for uncommitted voters in Ohio. Overall the numbers reflected a very strong performance for Biden. And while Palin scored well, at times, among this crowd, the dial lines indicated that she remains a controversial figure among females in that state.

Biden repeatedly won high accolades on a wide range of topics. His remarks about the personal trials of having a wife and daughter die in a car accident sent responses from both male and females through the roof. His dig at Dick Cheney -- "the most dangerous Vice President in history" -- and his pledge to end the war in Iraq were similarly popular. When he defended Obama from Palin's attacks, he was held in equally high regard.

And from the New York Times:

In the end, the debate did not change the essential truth of Ms. Palin’s candidacy: Mr. McCain made a wildly irresponsible choice that shattered the image he created for himself as the honest, seasoned, experienced man of principle and judgment. It was either an act of incredible cynicism or appallingly bad judgment.

And so, with all that theater behind us, today the news cycle moves on to the $700 Billion Wall Street bailout package - a topic that resonates much more with most Americans than the veep debate, especially now that the debate is over. The Senate passed the bill laced with pork and earmarks, which rightfully has enraged millions, and will now go back to the House where it will most certainly be sanitized somewhat before being put to a vote. I don't think any of them are going to want to go back and explain to their constituents why there was well over $100 Billion (with a B) in pork barrel spending tacked to a high-profile, massively unpopular emergency spending bill.

It should be noted that every single member of the House of Representatives is up for re-election in exactly 31 days.

Vern Ehlers, the Representative from my district in Michigan is a very popular politician here. He's a long-serving Republican who resonates well with the fiscal and social conservatives that seem to congregate in this part of the state. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the voters here put him on the chopping block for passing a bill that disgusting, however. It should be noted that Mr. Ehlers voted for the passing of the original bill on Tuesday, but that bill, of course, wasn't...er...supersized.

We shall see.

Today's poll numbers - 10/2

A couple of interesting factors playing in today. McCain has moved out of Michigan, ending his campaign here and reallocating his resources elsewhere. Most believe he's going to send his people and his money to Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, all big number states that are slowly but steadily moving toward Obama. Also, The New York Times and CNN both moved New Mexico out of the toss-up column and into Obama's. Another 5 electoral votes that are likely going to go to the Dems.

FiveThirtyEight.com: 331.2/206.8(-4.8/+4.8) electoral vote projection.

The New York Times: 260/200/78 (D+5/R+0/P-5) electoral vote projections, excl. tossups.

CNN: 49%/43% (No change)

Daily Kos: 51%/40% (D+0/R-1)

Washington Post/ABC: 52%/43% (No change)

McCain pulls out of Michigan

From Politico:

John McCain is pulling out of Michigan, according to two Republicans, a stunning move a month away from Election Day that indicates the difficulty Republicans are having in finding blue states to put in play.

McCain will go off TV in Michigan, stop dropping mail there and send most of his staff to more competitive states, including Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida. Wisconsin went for Kerry in 2004, Ohio and Florida for Bush.

McCain's campaign didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Republicans had been bullish on Michigan, hopeful that McCain's past success in the state in the 2000 primary combined with voter dissatisfaction with Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm and skepticism among blue-collar voters about Barack Obama could make it competitive.

McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin spent the night after the GOP convention at a large rally in Macomb County, just outside Detroit. The two returned later last month for another sizable event in Grand Rapids.

But recent polls there have shown Obama extending what had been a small lead, with the economic crisis damaging an already sagging GOP brand in a state whose economy is in tatters.

A McCain event planned for next week in Plymouth, Michigan, has been canceled.

Round 2 - The Veeps

Today's the big debate day - the only vice-presidential debate in history that anyone has actually given a shit about.

Joe Biden: "Governor Palin, I served with Dick Nixon. I knew Dick Nixon. Dick Nixon was a friend of mine. Governor, you're no Dick Nixon."*

Letterman got in on the fun last night with his Top Ten list:

Top Ten "Things Overheard at Sarah Palin's Debate Camp".

10. "Let's practice your bewildered silence."

9. "Can you try saying 'yes' instead of 'you betcha'?"

8. "Hey, I can see Mexico from here!"

7. "Maybe we'll get lucky and there won't be any questions about Iraq, taxes or healthcare."

6. "We're screwed!"

5. "Can I just use that lipstick-pit bull thing again?"

4. "We have to wrap it up for the day -- McCain eats dinner at 4:30."

3. "Can we get Congress to bail us out of this debate?"

2. "John Edwards wants to know if you'd like some private tutoring in his van."

1. "Any way we can just get Tina Fey to do it?"

But seriously, I touched on this yesterday. This debate is going to be about the non-answer. It's going to be about Sarah Palin doing everything in her power to mask the very real fact that she knows nothing about the issues that matter for one to be a successful candidate for vice-president of the United States. Her job is to convince the reds that she's not what she actually is: a pathetic ruse put in place by John McCain - a disgusting & underhanded attempt to woo female voters and the extremist, abortion-obsessed religious right wing.

Bob Cesca puts it this way,

Sarah Palin, in her ungainly scramble to justify her total lack of quality, is inadvertently revealing a startling lack of patriotism. The vice presidency is chiefly about being ready and able to take over the office of the presidency. Subsequently, the presidency is a position of enormous historical and national importance, requiring the very best America has to offer -- especially now. Idealistically, it's a position of merit and a title of great honor. Not necessarily the grandiose, kingly role envisioned by founders like John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, but heretofore an office of significant prestige. So by suggesting that just any "normal Joe Six-pack American" can do it not only insults and diminishes the office, but it also insults and diminishes Sarah Palin.

He adds,

For the last eight dark years we've had a president who continues to be framed as a Joe Six-pack type. And it's been a disaster. No-one, at this point, is disputing the toxicity of the Bush presidency.

Here's the difference, though, between President Bush's Joe Six-pack persona and Sarah Palin's. For better or worse, George Bush -- and I can't believe I'm writing this -- had attained a respectable level of schooling while also coming from a family deeply rooted in American politics. In other words, be it the fake Crawford "ranch" and his cowboy drag, George W. Bush is mostly pretending. He's "Joe Six-pack" insofar as he's running away from his silver-spooned, cheerleading, Skull & Bones background. That doesn't mean he's any less ignorant. He's still a disconnected, incompetent nothing. But at least he possesses something resembling the heft required of the office. And it's worth noting for the sake of context that he initially ran for president as the "guy you want to have a beer with" in 1999 and 2000 -- a time of relative peace and prosperity. Bored Americans figured, Whatever. Might as well.

Sarah Palin, on the other hand, is, by all indications, a bonafide hooplehead -- so dangerously out of her depth and so delusional -- perhaps blinded by ambition -- that she is in total denial about the real-world ramifications of her ineptitude. Instead, she's excusing her embarrassing television interviews and farcical candidacy as an historical breakthrough for "normal Joe Six-pack Americans."

Since sometime in early to mid 2001, I've thought that we couldn't do any worse than George W. in the office of the president. I figured he'd be voted out in 2004 and we'd quietly get past having another Warren G. Harding in the White House. Then Bin Ladin directed his suicidal nutcase followers to fly a couple of airplanes into some rather important populated landmarks within the United States and everything changed. I didn't like the Republicans but I never would have imagined them to use tragedy as a means of political gain (boy was I wrong). To further use that tragedy, they went to war with a country that had nothing to do with the aforementioned tragedy while some 80% of Americans blindly went along with it, waving their little paper flags and calling people like me anti-American for asking questions. George W. Bush convinced a couple hundred million average Americans that "Islamic extremists" were the root of all evil and should be exterminated. It all had eerie similarities to the rise of Adolph Hitler in 1930s Germany - a time when a few million average Germans were convinced that Jews were the root of all evil and should be exterminated.

All this reflects our dull, "Joe Sixpack" president hard at work. George W. Bush didn't have the intellectual strength to deal with the problem of terrorist groups the way they should have been dealt with (directly and with great force), so he delt with them the only way he knew how (by coming up with a nearby country of brown people that had previously insulted his father, deceptively linking it to the attacks on our country, and effectively annihilating it along with 4,500 Americans and counting). Mr. Bush's response to 9/11 is much like a target shooter at a firing range. Instead of lining up and shooting at the target, he turns to the random guy next to him and shoots him squarely in the head.

This is what incompetent leadership has earned us. Needless war, a $700 Billion payout to the millionaires on Wall Street who, as a result of the aforementioned leadership's deregulation, ran themselves & our country directly into the ground. A $10 Trillion defecit, a sharp cultural divide within our own country, and so much more that to list it all here would require the rest of the day for me to bulletpoint.

All this from a man who is smarter and more centrist than Sarah Palin.

Think about that.

*Sorry.

Today's poll numbers - 10/1

The New York Times has moved Florida into the tossup column, removing 27 electoral votes from McCain's favorable projection and placing them in the middle. As we learned in 2000, Florida is a key state, and with such a large percentage of older voters there, a win in Florida would speak volumes about Obama's gains with older Americans, a demographic that has hereto forth leaned toward McCain.

FiveThirtyEight.com: 336/202 (+6.7/-6.7) electoral vote projection.

The New York Times: 255/200/83 (D+0/R-27/P+27) electoral vote projections, excl. tossups.

CNN: 49%/43% (D+2/R+0)

Daily Kos: 51%/41% (No change)

Washington Post/ABC: 52%/43% (No change)

The day the past will become the future - 01/20/09

As I watch this election campaign transpire, it becomes more and more clear to me that what we're watching is the transition from the twentieth century into the twenty-first.  

McCain, of course, represents the past - a candidate who can't embrace the future (or the present, as it turns out) and who runs a campaign identical to the evasive, hateful, B.S.-laced campaigns that became vogue years ago when someone figured out that it was easier (and more profitable) to be a slime and lie about it than to do the right thing.  He's a multi-millionaire, lives lavishly & well beyond the means of his constituents, yet wants to come across as "Joe Everyman" who's going to stand up to the status quo for you and I in Washington.  A questionable claim coming from someone who's been in Washington since 1983 and employs the very same lobbyists who fight against the best interest of the people day in and day out to run his campaign.

Barack Obama, on the other hand, came up (and lives in) a wholly different world.  He worked his way up by doing the right thing.  He was admitted to one of the best schools in the world, not by way of a wealthy and influential family (read: George W.), but by busting his ass.  He graduated and went to work for peanuts in the ghettos of south Chicago because his goal was to do the right thing for his community, not get filthy rich from it.  He continued to gain influence by working his way up in the community, first as an Illinois state senator, and because of his success there the people of Illinois selected him to represent them on the national level.  Now, he's asking the other 49 states for their support.

Obama's campaign is disciplined - very few missteps have taken place - and his policies are clearly mapped out and available for anyone to review.  He is incredibly bright and looks at the world from a broad, international perspective & not from an arrogant, xenophobic standpoint as has been the norm for the past eight years.  He loves America and seeks the presidency arguably for the sake of his country and the world, not as a means of wealth and power.  Obama could have made more money than the president makes in his first year or two out of Harvard.  He chose public service instead.

Senator Obama reaches the people by 2008 standards.  He uses the Internet & communicates directly with his supporters using text messages directly to their cell phones.  He allows people to get directly involved with his campaign through his website which airs all of his speeches from all over the country in real time.  You can create an account and literally "join" the crusade by campaigning directly from your desk at home or at work or at a coffee shop in Ocean City, Maryland or on the banks of the Tochi River in Waziristan.  As long as you can access the Internet, you can campaign for Obama.

Senator McCain doesn't use e-mail.

His vice-presidential candidate does use e-mail, though.  She uses whatever e-mail accounts she can that can't be traced or reviewed as official Alaskan state e-mail can. According to the Washington Post,

Gov. Sarah Palin maintained a private e-mail account that she used to communicate with a small circle of staff members outside the state government's secure official e-mail system, according to the Wasilla company that established the site.

The account was separate from the Yahoo e-mail address that was abruptly abandoned by the McCain campaign on Sept. 17, the day hackers penetrated the account and posted pages from it on the Internet. Palin had routinely used her Yahoo address for state business.

Quentin Algood, the owner of ITS Alaska, said a discreet e-mail system was created from an old campaign account, with access confined to "a group of people, her closest confidants and co-workers and advisers and the person she sleeps with."

Kagro X notes at Daily Kos,

Like Karl Rove and the rest of the Bush/Cheney gang before her, Sarah Palin has been evading public oversight and record keeping laws with what it turns out is an ever-expanding network of secret e-mail accounts designed to keep her cordoned off and unaccountable to Alaskans while she conducts official business...Sarah Palin is every bit the sneak and the snake in the grass as the rest of the rotted-out Republican gang.

Governor Palin has given few interviews to the press in the six weeks she's been on the McCain ticket.  Those she has given, however, have proven her to be intellectually unprepared for the vice-presidency.  Her answers to basic questions are filled with gibberish and mixed-up talking points - even some hard-core Republicans feel she's unprepared and should vacate the ticket.  This transparently shallow and unprepared selection for the number 2 position speaks volumes about McCain's "Country First" mantra.  If he really believed in "Country First" and wanted to put a woman on the ticket he would have chosen from a whole host of qualified female candidates, including Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas, Olympia Snowe of Maine, or even Linda Lingle, the governor of Hawaii, who doesn't have a tremendous amount of experience but has at least participated in national politics and appears to be intellectually competent.

In order to prepare us for the vice-presidential debate tomorrow in St. Louis, Missouri, the media types who have reviewed her prior debates are warning us of her penchant for the generality and non-statement.  The only way she's going to pull off a debate with Joe Biden, it seems, is going to be to completely pull the wool over the eyes of the electorate.  She can't match the expertise of Biden - she's not even in the same league, so she'll have to be deceptive and evasive.

All-in-all this deception and misinformation is sooo 1968.  You'd think Nixon was here orchestrating the whole thing.  The type of campaign that thrust Nixon into the White House, and fooled the entire country into allowing George W. Bush into the White house for eight agonizingly long years is the type of campaign that McCain is running.  Truth be known, it's working in states like Texas and Mississippi and Utah, but the nation is catching on.  We're just a few disastrous more days on Wall Street shy of not getting our paychecks largely because of the failed policies of the aforementioned George W. Bush and his Republican party.

It's McCain's past versus Obama's future.

On November 4th, America will vote for either the past, or the future.  Much of the rest of the world, it should be noted, has already moved into the future & is leaving us (and our economy) back here in their dust.  China, one of the world's fastest growing economies, owns a substantial percentage of ours (roughly 20% or of our debt), and in the wake of the current financial meltdown, if that doesn't scare you, it should.

If you haven't already, register to vote, join the Obama campaign and spend this last month before the election fighting for our future.  We're up against a monster, and it's going to take all we've got to beat this thing.  YOU are the future of the United States of America.

Today's poll numbers - 9/30

Today's noteworthy states are Colorado and Indiana.  Colorado has improved to D+5.6, and Indiana is dead even. Those of you familiar with Indiana politics can understand the significance of an even race - a Democratic candidate for president hasn't won Indiana since LBJ's landslide victory coming off of the Kennedy assassination in 1964.  Before that it was Roosevelt in 1936. As far as the rest of the goings on today, all the details you need (and more) on every state in the Union are over at FiveThirtyEight.com.

FiveThirtyEight.com: 329.3/208.7 (+3.8/-3.8) electoral vote projection.

The New York Times: 255/227/56 (No change)  electoral vote projections, excl. tossups.

CNN: 47%/43% (D-1/R+0)

Daily Kos: 51%/41% (D+0/R-1)

Washington Post/ABC: 52%/43% (No change)

Today's poll numbers - 9/29

FiveThirtyEight.com: 325.5/212.5 (+15.5/-15.5)

The most apparent gains which have given Obama so much of a bump today are in Florida, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Florida is looking better for Obama than it has throughout the entire race thus far. Also notable is North Carolina which has fallen into swing status - it's still leaning McCain, but considerable strides have been made toward the 50/50 tipping point in recent weeks. All the details you need (and more) on every state in the Union are over at FiveThirtyEight.com.

CNN: 48/43 (No change - CNN is still showing Friday's numbers as of 11:00am EDT Monday)

Daily Kos: 51/42 (D+2/R-1)

The New York Times: 255/227/56 (No change)

Washington Post/ABC: 52/43

It should be noted that the post-debate numbers have not hit yet. These numbers are still from people polled prior to Friday night's debate. I'll post here as soon as the post-debate numbers start flowing in.

Today's poll numbers - 9/27

FiveThirtyEight.com: 310/228.  (No Change)

CNN weekly roundup, national composite: 48/43.

broken down by state - Great Lakes data (electoral votes in parenthesis):

51/38  Michigan (17)
47/45  Minnesota (10)
49/43  Wisconsin (10)
56/36  Illinois (21)
44/47  Indiana (11)
46/45  Ohio (20)
53/44  Pennsylvania (21)
55/38  New York (31)

Daily Kos: 49/43  (D+1/R+0)

The New York Times: 255/227/56  (D+17/R+0/P-17)

These polls, for the most part, aren't going to reflect any sort of significant influence from last night's debate. Expect those numbers to start coming in reasonably solid on Monday after the weekend polling has been compiled. So far, however, it would seem that the purples were slightly more impressed with Obama than with McMean.

Responses from the respective candidate's camps

From Obama's David Plouffe:

This was a clear victory for Barack Obama on John McCain's home turf. Senator McCain offered nothing but more of the same failed Bush policies, and Barack Obama made a forceful case for change in our economy and our foreign policy. While Senator McCain wants to keep giving huge tax cuts to corporations and said nothing about the challenges Americans are facing in their daily lives, Barack Obama will be a fierce advocate for tax cuts for the middle class, affordable health care, and a new energy economy that creates millions of jobs. While foreign policy was supposed to be John McCain's top issue, Barack Obama commanded that part of the debate with a clear call to responsibly end a misguided war in Iraq so that we can finish the fight against al Qaeda in Afghanistan. John McCain needed a game-changer tonight, and by any measure he didn't get it.

From McCain's Jill Hazelbaker:

There was one man who was presidential tonight, that man was John McCain. There was another who was political, that was Barack Obama. John McCain won this debate and controlled the dialogue throughout, whether it was the economy, taxes, spending, Iraq or Iran. There was a leadership gap, a judgment gap, and a boldness gap on display tonight, a fact Barack Obama acknowledged when he said John McCain was right at least five times. Tonight's debate showed John McCain in command of the issues and presenting a clear agenda for America's future.

The First Debate

OK.  It's over.  One down two to go, plus the veep debate in St. Louis on Thursday.

(I had been running odds of about 1 in 3 that Palin would drop out of the race before the debate, but McCain gave her "maverick" props during tonight's debate, so that drops the odds to about 1 in 5)

The pundits on the collective cable channels are tearing it apart bit by bit, which is their job, but in the end I think it all sorta falls on the purples - the undecided (Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight: "Really, I think a lot of pundits go about watching the debate in the wrong way. Namely, they're paying too much attention to it. That's not how most people watch the debate.").  There aren't too many people, red or blue, that are going to change their vote based on this debate.  I thought Obama did a stand-up job & displayed the poise, intelligence and diplomacy necessary to be commander-in-chief.  McCain was a typical Republican, brash and offensive with little interest in recognizing any positive characteristics of Senator Obama.  That sort of thing will likely play just fine with his demographic.  So be it.

What about the purples, though?  What did they think about the debate?  Will it make a difference?  

Probably not.

From MyDD:

My first thought: Think 1980, Ronald Reagan getting a major bump just from standing next to Jimmy Carter. Think 2004, John Kerry getting a major bump during the fist debate standing next to George W. Bush. The question is whether the candidate newer to the scene can stand toe-to-toe with the candidate longer on the national scene, and clearly on this front Barack Obama was able to speak as forcefully as John McCain. In this regard, Obama passed the most important test of the night. And to reiterate a point I made earlier, John McCain sounded like a Senator while Obama looked like a President.

And to take a step back, remember this: It is McCain who is losing this race right now, trailing in the national polling and in the statewide polling, and thus is was McCain who needed a huge night. He didn't get it, even on his home territory, and thus it was a missed opportunity.

The Atlantic’s James Fallows:

Unless it happened when I glanced away, up until this moment, 77 minutes into the 90-minute debate, John McCain has not once looked at Obama — while listening to him, while addressing him, while disagreeing with him, while finding moments of accord. This is distinctly strange — if anyone else notices. Obama is acting as if this is a conversation; McCain, as if he cannot acknowledge the other party in the discussion.

David Gergen on CNN:

John McCain needed a clear victory tonight. I think a tie was not in his interest. He is behind. And this is his best subject night ... I think he needed a clear victory tonight and that eluded him

Robert Shrum on Huffington Post:

Barack Obama was crisp, reassuring and strong -- in short, presidential, as he has been throughout the financial storm of the past two weeks. McCain was not as bad as he has been recently; but much of this debate was fought on what was supposed to be his high ground. As the encounter ended, Obama not only controlled the commanding heights of the economic issue -- and he not only held his own on national security -- but clearly passed the threshold as a credible commander-in-chief. McCain kept repeating that Obama doesn't "understand." But he clearly did. McCain made up no ground. That's similar to what happened in 1960 when Nixon ran on the slogan "Experience Counts" but found it didn't count that much when voters decided JFK was up to the job after the side by side comparison they saw in the first debate.

FOX News' Neil Cavuto blames "minorities" for economic disaster

Neil Cavuto of Fox News suggested in a recent interview with a Democratic congressman that the current economic disaster was caused by banks lending money to "minorities and other risky folks".

Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks breaks it down here:



Mr. Cavuto should be immediately fired for saying such a thing on national television. A blatantly racist remark by the host of a program on a major national news network cannot be overlooked. He should be relegated to the sad pack of other bigots and racists (Bill Bennett, Trent Lott, Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder, et al) who, accidentally or otherwise, professed their true beliefs to the world on a grand stage.

It was just nine years ago when Washington D.C. ombudsman David Howard was fired for using the word "niggardly" (miserly) in context solely because it ~sounded~ like a racial slur. Granted, that went too far, but has the mainstreaming of extremist right-wing media (Limbaugh, Hannity, Fox News) really allowed us to regress so far in less than a decade as to accept the use of blatant racial bigotry without question or recourse?

Archie Bunker would be proud.